On Tuesday 14 January 2003 23:14, ace project wrote:
<snip>
> A squakbox add-on would be a great, Matthew.
There's a problem there, I've ended up considering either:
1) Reverse engineering the Simclients protocol (used by SB and Procontroller).
Simclients won't give me information on the protocol without signing a NDA.
2) Developing a open protocol. This can be a better option, but at some times,
a bit of a gamble. It would have to be LGPL'ed, but on the plus side, anyone
wanting to create a ATC client for any sim can do so.
Developing a ATC client for FGFS is a good solution both Short and Long term
(saying that no one with a copy of FS2002 uses it these days because of it's
interactive ATC)
<snip>
> Mike
>
> -------------
> I'm working on a network module. It uses UDP packets
> for communication and a client-server type model. The
> system is in early stages of building, the
> data-protocols themselves are 'finished' and working,
> I'm currently trying to make it work in FG. The
> current 'bug' is that new FGModelPlacements don't get
> updated when I want them to but I'm sure it will get
> fixed soon when my new graphics card arives end of the
> week (my old card was kind of slow (matrox G450 DH))
>
> If anyone wants to help, I'm searching for good
> prediction algoritmes to extrapolate the position of
> the plane for a max 1 sec interval.
>
> Leon Otte
I wonder, If I can constantly feed positions of aircraft using either
Simclients (or [insert open protocol here]) to the (in development) network
module, it will allow FS95/FS98/FS2000/FS2002/Fly!/Fly! II and FGFS clients
to be able to multiplay with each other (with FlightGear having the unfair
advantage of being able to actually see aircraft on other sims, but I'm
suspicions a add-one for FS allows a data-brige between SB and FS. ).
I would also have to feed at least once:
* The aircraft type. Can someone suggest a default aircraft type if FlightGear
doesn't have a suitable matching aircraft (aircraft info is sent as a ICAO
4-character code. I don't want to redefine every FGFS FDM so aircraft can
identify their ICAO code on request, keeping in mind FS suffers from the same
problem).
* What aircraft is the airport departing from. I don't need to feed this, but
it will speed FGFS up when a new aircraft joins in so if someone incorrectly
defines the positition of a runway/terminal/taxiway etc. (unlikely in most
cases), it won't look like it's taking off grass.
* (could be useless) Aircraft vectors. FS2002 clients mainly use GPS, so this
may not be needed. But, if FlightGear ever gets interactive ATC, if the ATC
knows in advance where the particular aircraft is (supposedly) going, that
would help to avoid crashes.
Some other things:
The network module must either not tolerate multiple connections from the same
client (and if my (proposed) add-on is on the same machine as FGFS, which it
will likley be, it would have to open multiple) or be able to listen on
multiple ports (these would have to be user space ones). Unless it would have
no problem with me using one connection, and just putting the callsign as the
first parameter of every message between the client and FGFS. (which I don't
think is a good gamble)
My client has to be able to somehow plot a direct line as a flight path if
another user's connection says nothing for more than a acceptable amount of
time (didn't Leon say he was seaching for a way to do this, after all, we
coukd just act like the plane is on Heading hold), Simclients (I think) kills
the connection when a message is send to the client, but times out.
If it (the user) drops out, we could do something more than making it
disappear ,e.g, making it descend as if it's landing, but without the landing
gear activated, or making some fun over the radio ("XXX001 Heavy at 35,000
ft, declaring emergency, decending fast", "XXX001 Heavy, rgr, descend to
10,000 feet", "[some tower] rgr [explosion]")
>
> =====
> My Flight Gear Multiplayer Stuff (work-in-progress):
> http://www.kbs.twi.tudelft.nl/People/Students/L.Otte/
--
Mathew McBride
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://mcbridematt.dhs.org
Jabber: mcbridematt on the jabber.org server
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