Angela St.Amant and the IKS Marvel featured in video and press release

Our wonderful Angela St.Amant and her simulator, the IKS Marvel, were featured today in a great video and press release.  Here are some excerpts:

Dansville STEAM Educator Featured in Latest #proudMIeducator Video

LANSING – An innovate educator who uses technology and student teamwork to build confidence in problem solving in every facet of a student’s life is featured in the latest #proudMIeducator video released today by the Michigan Department of Education (MDE).

Angela St. Amant, a Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STEAM) educator at Dansville Schools, has transformed her classroom into a themed, interactive simulator that is a learning environment that teaches students teamwork, critical thinking, problem solving, and effective communication, as well as increases interest and enthusiasm in STEAM topics. All these elements combine to create an immersive learning environment that challenges students to use all their right- and left-brain skills, plus teamwork, to solve complex problems.

“The only limits we have in creating ‘missions’ are the limits of our imagination,” states Ms. St. Amant. “In the simulator, we travel to space, explore under the sea, go into a volcano, explore rivers, enter the human body, or go back in time. Students take on roles of the crew and work together to accomplish their mission as it unfolds around them.”

A huge congrats to Angela for running such an impressive and successful DFA simulator program in her school!

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Debbie Reynolds Featured in PA Teachers Union Magazine

Today we’re delighted to share that Debbie Reynolds, Flight Director of the IKS Highlander, was spotlighted in the September issue of Voice, Pennsylvania teachers union’s magazine.  It’s a pretty big deal to be highlighted like this, and we couldn’t be happier for Debbie.

Check out the full story starting on page 20.

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Dream Flight Adventures version 2.1 is released

A new and entirely unprecedented school year has begun, and to usher it in we are excited to release an update to our simulator software—version 2.1.  Here are a few keylights:

Ready-Made Environments

The Ready-Made Environments script speeds up custom mission development by giving Flight Directors some pre-populated scenes, including:

  • An asteroid field in a nebula
  • A river populated with fish and insects
  • An ocean with animals and a deep-sea trench
  • A volcano
  • Martian colonies

Feel free to use these as starting points in creating your own adventures

New Content:  Buildings and more!

Flight Directors now have a variety of buildings that they can use in missions.  These buildings come in four broad themes:

  • Futuristic City
  • Neon City
  • Planetary Colony
  • Planetary City

When created over a terrain, these buildings will automatically snap down onto the ground.

Flight Directors also can fine-tune their position and rotation, as needed.

This version also includes many colored crystals and a variety of new spaceships:

  • Luminaris
  • Trident
  • Mothership
  • Nautika Cruiser

Check out the full release notes for all the juicy details.

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Community Spotlight: Some Epic Custom Missions from Admiral Sai

The global pandemic has pulled many of our simulators into dry dock for a while, but Admiral Sai (a.k.a. Todd Lichtenwalter at Colegio Internacional de Carabobo in Valencia, Venezuela) has put his work-from-home time to great use by creating a series of highly-detailed and epic custom missions!  Let’s take a look.

Solar System Defense is a massive multi-part mission that takes crews from one end of the solar system to the other in a series of challenging encounters against an invading alien swarm.

The full mission consists of 18 unique maps and can be played either in full or in parts. Scorecards for each map allow crews to challenge themselves through replay and trying to beat their score. Scores are based on time of completion and objectives met.

Here’s a quick promo video Admiral Sai made showing some of the mission’s key action scenes:

 

Ryker Station is a shorter action-packed mission that hinges around a crucial ethical dilemma as the crew is faced with a no-win scenario.

Fast thinking and crucial decision making will be the calling card of those crews who score the highest in this routine service call turned into a life-and-death heart-pounding race against time.

 

Admiral Sai has also made a variety of support materials to accompany these epic adventures, including Mission Exams, support scripts, Flight Director Guides, ship ledgers, and mission scorecards.

Check out his webpage or join us on Discord to discuss how to use these great missions with your crews.

Massive kudos to Admiral Sai for his hard work and creative thinking in making these fantastic custom missions!

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DFA Integration with Thorium

Dream Flight Adventures traces its earliest roots to an experience I had several decades ago as a 5th grader attending an out-of-this-world field trip at the Christa McAuliffe Space Center.  Since that time the space center has grown and inspired several other locations to create similar immersive educational simulators.  Many of these locations are located in Utah and use a set of simulator controls called Thorium, and today we’re delighted to announce that DFA now supports integration with those controls!

Simulators running Thorium can now take advantage of DFA’s fully realized 3D virtual worlds, responsive character AI, streamlined Flight Director controls, and varied environments—including volcanos, oceans, rivers, asteroid fields, moonscapes, and more.

Connecting Thorium to DFA is easy, and we’ve set up a page with instructions to walk you through the process.

We hope our friends at these Utah-based simulators enjoy leveraging DFA’s unique offerings, and we look forward to working more closely with them down the road.

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Dream Flight Adventures 2.0 is Released!

Today we’re excited to unveil the single-most significant upgrade to the Dream Flight Adventures simulator software since we launched back in 2013.  Dream Flight Adventures 2.0 is here!

After over 3.5 years in development and 49,435 lines of custom code, this massive update brings a wealth of new features to our simulators around the world.  Here are some of the highlights:

Expanded Crew Roster of up to 32 Stations

We’ve essentially doubled the number of crew stations, so entire classes and camps can now go on simulator adventures together.

The stations themselves have all been revamped, with an expanded command crew (consisting of Captain, XO, and three Squad Leaders), as well as a host of new STEM-focused stations, including Computer Scientist, Chemical Engineer, Surgeon, Electrical Engineer, Technology, Mainframe Technician, Roboticist, Nano Technician, and more!

Improved Mission Library

Our library of built-in missions has continued to grow, and making your own custom mission is now easier than ever.  Missions can be edited, customized, saved, and even shared with other simulators.

Streamlined Flight Director Controls

We’ve completely reworked the Flight Director controls, with a major emphasis on efficiency, easy of use, and automating complex tasks.  It’s easy for newcomers to hit the ground running, and advanced users can use the powerful scripting engine to weave fantastic custom scenarios of their own.  Check out our new training videos to see what’s new.

Multi-platform Support

Dream Flight Adventures is more accessible than ever.  The simulator software now runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux computers, as well as on iOS and Android devices.

The DFA 2.0 software is published in parallel with the original DFA 1.x software. This allows you to have copies of both version on the same device, allowing you to make the transition to the new system at your own pace.

Getting Started

There are way too many features to discuss them all here.  Check out the full release notes for all the juicy details.

To get started with DFA 2.0, you’ll need to register a user account.  Once it’s approved you’ll be given access to download the update.

We’ve prepared a DFA 2.0 Upgrade Guide to help you make the transition to the new system, and once it’s installed please refer to our Setup and Startup Guide to get it up and running smoothly.

Please join us on Discord to ask questions, share ideas, and discuss the shiny new system.  We look forward to hearing about your adventures!

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Three New Missions

It’s been a while since we posted on our blog—and the world is hunkered down to slow the spread of COVID-19—so we figure it’s high time we share some cheery news.  Today we’re delighted to showcase three brand new missions, which have been added to our library.

Malignant

MalignantThe first mission, Malignant, was actually added to our library about a month or so ago as part of our ongoing beta test for DFA 2.0.  Its inaugural flight was used to showcase the IKS Marvel to a group of educators in Michigan, who loved it.

It’s a fairly short-duration mission (about 30 minutes) that showcases a wide variety of different locations that are available in a Dream Flight Adventures mission.  These include outer space, the ocean, and the bloodstream.

Quarantine

QuarantineIf this isn’t timely enough for you, I don’t know what is.  Quarantine is a brand new mission based on current events, and it features a contagious virus that is spreading like wildfire.  The world has gone into lockdown, but with travel restricted and medical researchers in quarantine, finding a cure for the virus has become extremely difficult.

Enter the Infinity Knights—the renowned protectors of peace and justice throughout the universe.  Maybe, just maybe, their quick wits and advanced technology can produce a solution.

Your mission is to investigate the disease, gather materials for a cure from the four corners of the Earth, and save the world!

Escape Velocity

Escape VelocityAnd last but not least, Escape Velocity is an exciting race against time to capture a devious Orion Pirate.

This mission is modeled after the classic Carmen Sandiego games. The crew moves throughout the solar system, and at each planet they receive clues pointing them toward the next location.  They must work quickly to stop a space pirate from stealing top secret technology.

 

We’re excited to have this lineup of three exciting new mission additions, and we look forward to the (hopefully not too distant) future when our bright-minded students return to their schools and can take them out for a spin.

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Test Flights Aboard the IKS Marvel

It’s been a while since we broadcast a general communique on this channel, and that’s because we’ve been deeply involved in some top-secret testing of the latest Infinity Knights technology aboard our ships.

Our Chameleon-class vessels have been safeguarding the universe from threats across time and space since 2013, but now we’re excited to share that those ships are being upgraded to our new Komodo-class design—which boasts a variety of enhancements to take our crews on better missions than ever before!

The IKS Marvel, which launched earlier this year, is the newest ship in the Infinity Knights’ fleet and is the first ship to undergo this upgrade.  You might think that this is due to the ship’s newness and size (supporting crews of up to 32 students at a time), but the real reason is that the IKS Marvel is home to some of the bravest and best test pilots the galaxy has ever known.

These stalwart adventurers throw caution to the wind as they dive in with bleeding-edge inventions.  Their sharp eyes and clever minds are honed to use technology, assess its capabilities, and leverage it in high-stakes situations.

Thanks to their efforts, the Infinity Knights technology upgrade is nearing completion, and soon all the ships in the fleet will benefit.  We owe these diligent test pilots a debt of gratitude!

And don’t forget—after a day of hard work saving the world, the crew of the IKS Marvel knows how to unwind.

All these great dance moves and more, coming soon to a simulator near you.

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Debbie Reynolds selected for Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship Program

Today we’re delighted to give a big shout-out to Debbie Reynolds, Flight Director of the IKS Highlander, for being selected for the very prestigious Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship (AEF) Program!

As if this wasn’t impressive enough, as part of this program Debbie was selected as the very first Einstein Fellow to be placed at a Department of Defense location.  She will be going to Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division, in Maryland for 11 months starting in September.

Here’s a nice article with a lot more of the juicy details.

Congratulations Debbie!

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The Launch of the IKS Marvel

You knew it was coming, but now it’s official.  The IKS Marvel has launched from Dansville, Michigan on an epic mission into the great unknown.

A local news crew was there for the lift-off, and they put together a nice story about it with some great footage too.

Here are some highlights straight from the inaugural crew:

“Knowing that I’m a gigantic role in the spaceship simulator really helps me calm down,” said Jillian Fishback, a sixth grade student. “I’m a huge control freak so knowing that I’m a huge role just kind of helps me say, ‘Okay, I’m really important to this. Everybody’s important. Everybody has their own important job.”

“It’s good because no one could run that by themselves. Everybody else has to do their job,” said Carter Tkaczyk, a sixth grade student.

“A lot of it is talking to that other person, finding out what they did and then adjusting. Adaptability is a big part of that,” said Fishback.

Major congratulations to Angela St.Amant and the team at Dansville Elementary School for putting together such a great simulator!

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