Jonathan,

I think you have it correct.  The MagicCarpet FDM as well as the UFO
FDM let the reference point of the airframe go to 0 elevation.  If the
view point is at the reference point, then it will also be at zero
elevation AGL which will produce missing portions of the scene close
up.

The solution would be to have the concept of 'gear' and not let the
reference point get too close to the earth *or* let the reference
point be the bottom of the vehicle and specify a pilot view offset in
the vertical direction.

Then, make sure the 0,0,0 point of your 3d model (for external
visuals) corresponds to the FDM reference point (or is offset to
correspond) and you should be all set.

Curt.


Jonathan Polley writes:
> Is it safe to summarize the responses as follows?  The reason that the 
> MagicCarpet FDM does not properly position the aircraft on the runway is 
> because it has no concept of "airframe."  This means that it does not take 
> into account the relative position of the pilot's view with respect to the 
> landing gear.
> 
> 
> Jonathan Polley
> 
> p.s.  I am ignoring CG here because, to me, it is only one of the 
> components of understanding the airframe.  To me, airframe means body size 
> and shape.
> 
> p.p.s.  Is there some generic abstraction of airframe in FlightGear so 
> that any FDM can properly compute the view offset?
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Flightgear-devel mailing list
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel

-- 
Curtis Olson   IVLab / HumanFIRST Program       FlightGear Project
Twin Cities    [EMAIL PROTECTED]                  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Minnesota      http://www.menet.umn.edu/~curt   http://www.flightgear.org

_______________________________________________
Flightgear-devel mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel

Reply via email to