As of this morning, FlightGear has a new infrastructure for
incorporating moving, animated 3D models besides the aircraft model.
This is not intended to be a general solution for adding thousands of
bridges, buildings, etc. to the scenery -- for that, we need some kind
of tiled solution.  With my new code, you could add, say, another
aircraft, a moving ship or truck, etc.  For now, you can also cheat
and add some buildings and static aircraft at your home airport, as I
have:

 <models>
  <model>
   <name>Hangar</name>
   <path>Models/Airport/hangar.ac</path>
   <longitude-deg>-75.688</longitude-deg>
   <latitude-deg>45.3343</latitude-deg>
   <elevation-ft>300</elevation-ft>
   <heading-deg>240</heading-deg>
  </model>
 </models>

Here's the result:

  http://www.megginson.com/flightsim/hangar.png

The new code is fully documented in section 2 of
docs/Model/fgfs-model-howto.html.  In addition to static placement and
orientation (lon/lat/elev/roll/pitch/heading), the code also supports
dynamic placement and orientation using properties.  For example, if
the hangar rotated, I could use

 <models>
  <model>
   <name>Hangar</name>
   <path>Models/Airport/hangar.ac</path>
   <longitude-deg>-75.688</longitude-deg>
   <latitude-deg>45.3343</latitude-deg>
   <elevation-ft>300</elevation-ft>
   <heading-deg-prop>/tmp/rotating-hangar/heading-deg</heading-deg-prop>
  </model>
 </models>

and the hangar would always take its heading from the
/tmp/rotating-hangar/heading-deg property.  It's OK to mix dynamic and
static values, as in the above example.

Note that you can point to XML wrappers as well as actually 3D models,
so the models can be fully animated just like the aircraft model (I'm
planning to add an animated windsock as soon as I have a chance).

I've started a new base-package directory, Models/Airport/, to hold
generic airport-related 3D models.  So far, it contains only
hangar.ac, but I'll add a windsock and other stuff soon.


All the best,


David

-- 
David Megginson
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


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