VirtualSim-Heli

Name: VirtualSim-Heli
Author: MoonBunny

A SimCopter (1996) remake, rebuilt in Unity.

I've been rebuilding SimCopter from the ground up, and I'm finally ready to show it off. VirtualSim-Heli loads your original game files and puts the cities, the helicopters, the missions and the whole career back together in a modern engine.

You'll hear it called a remake, a remaster or a mod, and any of those is fine by me. Technically it's a reimplementation: a new engine that reads the original data.

It isn't a perfect 1:1 copy, and it doesn't try to be. The goal is for it to feel the way you remember it.

What's in it right now

Your original cities

It reads the real SimCity 2000 city files and the game's own assets, then builds the terrain, buildings, water, bridges, tunnels and street lamps as it loads.

A world with no edge

The map wraps around, so you can keep flying in one direction and never hit a wall. Past the city limits there are mountains, and a few camera tricks hide the seams.

A real sky

The sun, the moon (in its actual phase) and the stars sit where they really would. At night the city glows, windows flicker and the street lamps come on. Days run on a fast clock, so you can watch a sunset without waiting around.

Light that follows the city

The ambient light is volumetric, and how thick it gets depends on how dense the city is around you. Even the stars react to it. Fly over a packed downtown and only the brightest few show up, but out over empty land the sky fills in.

Air pollution you can see

Pollution is simulated visually, so a dirty city actually looks dirty from the cockpit.

Ray traced and screen space reflections

Glass, water and wet surfaces reflect what's around them, using both ray traced and screen space reflections. You can turn the fancy stuff down if your machine needs it.

The whole helicopter fleet

All nine helicopters are here, tuned from the original data. Flight, fuel, damage, turbulence and crashes follow the original game's behaviour, and you can buy and sell aircraft in the catalog.

The tools of the job

Water bucket, cannon, tear gas, megaphone, spotlight, winch and harness. Scoop water, put out fires, pick people up and haul them out on a rope.

A city that feels alive

Traffic follows lanes, takes turns at junctions and sometimes jams up. Pedestrians run the original behaviour scripts. Emergency crews really drive to the scene, and the bad guys really try to get away.

Fire that spreads

Flames grow, jump from building to building and burn things down if you take too long.

The full career

30 cities, the original mission types and scoring, the mission log and map, and the graduation ceremony with fireworks. If you'd rather just fly around, there's a free play mode too.

Pick who you play

You don't have to be the original pilot. Choose from a bunch of the game's NPCs and play as them instead.

The original look and feel

The old menus, hangar, catalog, HUD and cockpit gauges are all there, with the original chase and cockpit cameras. You can also hop out and walk around on foot. The HUD can be scaled up if the original size is too small on your monitor.

Sound

Radio stations, dispatch voices, sirens and rotors you can hear coming from the right direction. There's an optional speed of sound delay if you want to be a little more realistic.

Original save files

Career and free play saves use the original byte layouts. Saving and loading careers is all there, but it hasn't been thoroughly tested yet.

A few secrets

Some of the original game's easter eggs made it in too, and a few of them depend on the real calendar date. I also hid a few of my own. I won't say what or where.

Where it stands

It's very playable, and as far as I know it's fully featured. Saving and loading careers, and loading your own custom cities, are both in there, but I haven't tested them thoroughly yet. They may work fine, but I can't promise it. I'm sure there are still bugs hiding in there somewhere, so if you find one, please tell me.