Hi guys
Intro
======================================================
I've been watching the FlightGear project for the last 2-3 years and am
interested in contributing to the project once I get a new video card. (TNT2
is just not cutting it)
Flight Unlimited III is effectively dead and MSFS is continually dissapointing
me because of the inability to get features added like proper support for
vertical wind generation/modeling (themals, ridge, wave lift)
Then there is the fact that I prefer using Linux and have done some C++ and
OpenGL coding (terrain rendering with satellite image overlays) which was
fun.
I have several questions, suggestions and ideas so if you're in a hurry or the
kids are screaming just hit delete.
I've tried to be as brief and concise as I can be so please forgive me if I
take up some of your development time. ;)
Preface
======================================================
I would like to see the sim become more friendly to casual users especially on
the eye candy side of things.
This does not need to detract from the scientific/academic nature of
FlightGear - you guys can carry on with the great work.
My reason for this is that a lot of people who play with sims can also develop
addons but there needs to be an incentive to get them involved and
screenshots say more than a thousand words can.
For instance there are several very talented guys on the Avsim Flight
Unlimited III forum and some of them are looking at moving onto another sim.
They have mentioned FlightGear as a candidate simply for the reason that it
can be modified and changed to do whatever we want it to do. No restrictions
on functionality.
If we can at least get them interested using some showcase material then
FlightGear development can get a major boost.
There are plenty such developers around in other places.
Suggestions
======================================================
Suggestion 1
--------------------
The menu systems could do with some major enhancments.
A nice menu system for picking airports and aircraft, joystick configuration
and key mappings would go down well.
Getting everything menu driven will help a lot. Most people hate playing in
shells passing huge lists of arguments to get what they want.
Suggestion 2
-------------------
We need at least one properly/accurately modeled aircraft that we can show
off.
I'm talking nice visually (high poly count) and with an accurate flight model.
Most people using recent commercial flightsims are running > 1.5 GHz PCs with
at least 64MB GeForce 4's so poly counts can be fairly high.
BTW : I took the Cessna 172 for a flip and was dissapointed. The visual model
is really rough - looks like it taxied into a brick wall to get into those
funny shapes.
At full throttle and a 1500 fpm decent it wouldn't go over 140 knots. In real
life it would hit VNE very quickly.
Suggestion 3
-------------------
Some nice showcase scenery would also go down very well.
A nice area with lots of trees and buildings and good ground textures.
Suggestion 4
-------------------
We need some nice development tools.
In particular a full blown scenery editor that one can use to lay down 3D
objects (trees/buildings), taxiways, aprons, roads, rivers, etc.
If it's done in OpenGL then you can make it WYSIWYG.
One way to do this is to incorporate a "scenery edit" mode into FlightGear
like the one in FLY2. You pause the game and go into edit mode and can lay
down trees and objects. Then hit unpause and fly around your creation.
I personally think a seperate editor would be the answer since it won't
interfere FlightGear development and one can add as many features as one
likes.
Questions
======================================================
Question 1
----------------
Has there been any thought or development on auto generated scenery like that
used in MSFS 2002/2004?
i.e. Automatically generate trees and buildings based on land use data.
The other alternative is to generate the 3D object positions when building the
scenery packages.
Flying over forests makes a world of difference when it comes to realism.
Question 2
----------------
The site is a bit sparse with info about who is doing what.
Has anyone writen a scenery editor yet?
Question 3
----------------
What 3D formats and apps are used?
I find Blender very powerful and of course it's open source and free which is
great.
Question 3
----------------
If I manage to get some nice high res DEM data available for a certain area
how do I go about getting it built into the next release of FlightGear?
Conclusion
======================================================
By now you probably think that I'm an ungrateful idiot with a huge wish list.
Fortunately that is not the case.
Here is a list of things that I would like to do to furthur the development
and awareness of the FlightGear project.
(In decending priority.)
1. Some nice scenery development. (short term)
Suggestions for areas are welcome but I'll probably go with the area I live in
(South Africa) since I know the topology and fauna/fauna etc.
2. If there are no nice scenery editors then I'll write one based on OpenGL
since I would need one to make any decent scenery. (short term)
Features :
- Terrain mesh rendering and editing
- 3D object placing and orientation (auto snap to terrain height)
- Ability to select an area and auto generate objects like trees or buildings
(May add auto generate if land use data available.)
- Texture/poly laying
- Airport editing
- Navaid placement/editing
3. I would love to have a nicely modeled aircraft like a high performance
single (Cessna Turbo Stationair, Malibu, Mooney Bravo, ) or a twin jet
(Citation, Falcon)
However I don't know too much about aerodynamics so that will take back seat
for a while.
4. Nice 3D clouds like Fly! had. (long term)
(Not sure what the existing ones look like cause I switch them off so that the
sim can run on my TNT2)
5. Code to caculate ridge and wave lift off terrain as well as thermal
generation. (long term)
End
======================================================
Your suggestions, comments and criticism would be much appreciated.
Regards
Paul Surgeon
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