Re: [Flightgear-devel] lights flaring on runways in FG
Interesting, I re-installed Windoze, ATI drivers and motherboard chipset drivers. I set the frame rate at 85 fps and don't get the problems. It looks like it may be one of the options, but havn't found a combination yet. Peter - Original Message - From: Jon Stockill [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: FlightGear developers discussions [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, July 30, 2004 12:54 AM Subject: Re: [Flightgear-devel] lights flaring on runways in FG Chris Metzler wrote: On Thu, 29 Jul 2004 14:04:57 +0100 Jon Stockill [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The problem at EGNM I mentioned is on several NVidia based systems. As I said though - it's nowhere near as severe as in those screenshots. I'll try and grab an example tonight. I'm on an Nvidia card (finally), and what I see at EGNM is this: at the beginning of 14, along the right side of the displaced threshhold, I see a seam where the terrain suddenly jumps up about a meter in elevation, leaving a sky-colored gap between (vertical, thus only visible from one side). Is this what you see? If so, I see that sort of thing too, near most large airports. I suspect it's not a FlightGear thing so much as a TerraGear thing -- I suspect it's an artifact of the smoothing done in making things flat for the runways etc. But I dunno. Yes - that's it. I can't remember the exact relative positioning in the sim, but in real life that's about the point where the road disappears under the end of the runway. Could that be the cause? ISTR a similar problem at RAF Finningley (EGXI) where a railway crosses the end of the runway (it should be just on the boundary of the airfield, but the VMAP and/or airfield accuracy cause an overlap. -- Jon Stockill [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel 2f585eeea02e2c79d7b1d8c4963bae2d ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel 2f585eeea02e2c79d7b1d8c4963bae2d
[Flightgear-devel] FMC
We are talking of an FMC but of course I wanted to redo at least the ehsi display (for the eye candy). Erik mentioned some time ago that it isn't yet really possible to do simple animations using Nasal in FlightGear, at least that's what Andy indicated when he was asked about that, I think. I remember but I had the impression that they were afraid for the performance. This would have delayed the ehsi too much. is there really that much lag involved when doing such things using Nasal - i.e. NO smooth animations ? I was not clear. I was saying that to do the ehsi I would have to wait for the implementation of some new graphic code. Concerning smooth animations, I think it can be the same as current instruments. Now let me open a little parenthesis about a reflexion I had some times ago. We have a caneva to build 2d and 3d instruments and its doing the job fine for a wide variety of gauges. But even if can extend those fonctionalities there will always be some cases that can't be handled. Lets call them owner draw gauges. How to draw them ? With pure opengl code in C. This is the first bottleneck. It seems stupid the have to build Flightgear to use a new gauge when someone release a new panel or new plane. The other thing that disturb me is that this OD gauge should of course work on a 2d and on a 3d panel. Let me remind you : a 2D gauge is a stack of layers (textures), a 3d gauge is a 3D gemoetry object (textured). If we use only one texture for both the 2d and 3d gauge we have a texture that can be used for both instruments. So this is my suggestion to have compatible 2d/3d specials gauges, ie they both refer to the same texture, this texture is generated by some special code (drawing to texture/pbuffer is something standard for 3d cards). Now how do we draw in this texture ? In Nasal of course, with the appropriate graphic library. Not a pseudo opengl library because there is no more than perhaps 10 api to implement : draw a line, draw text, draw a texture, etc. I am prety sure we can pair this api to the existing draw code. What about the performance ? Imagine a simple gauge with a background and a needle. This could be drawn with 3 lines of Nasal code: DrawTexture(background, x,y), Rotate(angle), Drawtexture(nnedle, x,y) ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel 2f585eeea02e2c79d7b1d8c4963bae2d
[Flightgear-devel] FMC
Last mail was cut... What about the performance ? Imagine a simple gauge with a background and a needle. This could be drawn with 3 lines of Nasal code: DrawTexture(background, x,y), Rotate(angle), Drawtexture(nnedle, x,y) So it can't be slower than xml gauges. And more complex gauges ? This is were draw to texture is handy. There is no need to generate the texture every frame. Some instruments need to be refreshed every 1/10 of second, perhaps a radar could use a refresh of half a second, and a moving map a refresh every second (or less). Now the xml gauges wont refer to a texture loaded from a file but to this generated texture. Harald. ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel 2f585eeea02e2c79d7b1d8c4963bae2d
[Flightgear-devel] StarAlliance flights
Hi, I found a very cool (windows) screensaver: http://www.staralliance.com/star_alliance/star/content/screensaver.html It features all StarAlliance flights that are currently in the air and shows them on a world map. One it it's features is to use a programm that automatically updates the flight plan. A bit more information is at: http://st.flightlookup.com/StarDownload/conduit.html Probably we can also use this data source for our AI flightplan... CU, Christian ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel 2f585eeea02e2c79d7b1d8c4963bae2d
Re: [Flightgear-devel] openGL bindings for Nasal (was: FMC)
just adapted the subject to have the right people look into this thread ;-) Harald Johnsen wrote: We are talking of an FMC but of course I wanted to redo at least the ehsi display (for the eye candy). Erik mentioned some time ago that it isn't yet really possible to do simple animations using Nasal in FlightGear, at least that's what Andy indicated when he was asked about that, I think. I remember but I had the impression that they were afraid for the performance. Don't know about that, actually I thought it would be too complicated to get Nasal doing dynamic animations. Will have to check the threads, though ... But even if can extend those fonctionalities there will always be some cases that can't be handled. Lets call them owner draw gauges. How to draw them ? Boris says: PLUGINS *or* scriptable dynamic extensions :-) With pure opengl code in C. This is the first bottleneck. It seems stupid the have to build Flightgear to use a new gauge when someone release a new panel or new plane. I wholeheartedly agree ! [...] Now how do we draw in this texture ? In Nasal of course, with the appropriate graphic library. Not a pseudo opengl library because there is no more than perhaps 10 api to implement : draw a line, draw text, draw a texture, etc. I am prety sure we can pair this api to the existing draw code. I like the approach, actually the scripting language that Manual mentioned in this thread (lua) does also have openGL bindings, if I remember correctly it was called luaGL or something like that, so one might look into it, to see what could be useful for a NasalGL implementation as well. Having some basic scriptable openGL mechanism one could really start to create EASILY more advanced instruments - without the need to add a lot of stuff to FlightGear itself. And it would certainly benefit other FlightGear based ideas as well, Erik mentioned that he wanted to implement a weather radar, which would certainly also be a lot easier if it could be done using scriptable openGL dialect. But on the other hand, don't know how well such an approach would fit to the current way Nasal is being used/called in FlightGear. - Boris ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel 2f585eeea02e2c79d7b1d8c4963bae2d
Re: [Flightgear-devel] Re: bo105 - patch
Melchior FRANZ said: * Jeff Sinsay -- Saturday 07 August 2004 16:28: Yes indeed, when looking from the top down American Helicopters rotate-counter clockwise, while European/Russian Helis rotate clockwise. Yes, that's widely known. But nobody would seriously assume that anywhere the collective lever is pushed down to raise, and pulled up to sink. And that's what we were talking about. And implying that Austria would do it that braindead way isn't exactly friendly. (And that's even ignoring the fact that the bo was mostly built in Germany.) But anyway. ;-) And I've yet to see a joystick that has a lever that pulls up! This should probably just default to what folks expect rather than pretending we've got a realistic solution. Maybe single property value that would cause the mapping to reverse (e.g. --invert-throttle-control-mapping) would make sense? Best, Jim ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel 2f585eeea02e2c79d7b1d8c4963bae2d
Re: [Flightgear-devel] Newbee
On Sun, 08 Aug 2004 21:18:41 +0200, David wrote in message [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Greetings, I'm new at the mail-list and at Flight Gear. I introduce myself: I got the degree on Electronic Engineering a month ago. My Thesis was focused in the design and building of a VTOL robot. It had to be controlled by microcontroller, and remotelly by a PC. The robot, is a lightweight 4-rotored aircraft. The microcontroller controls the 4 ..hummm. Thesis url? motors, and handles the communications with the PC through macroinstructions and a protocol I designed (for what I'm proud). The PC runs a Visual Basic program that monitors and logs the motors and microcontroller status, and sends orders from keyboard, mouse or joystick. The presentation took place one month ago. I got a nice mark (10 out of 10 :-D ). Although the thesis is written and ended, I don't have the feeling I'm to forget it and go to another thing. It never was job, it's a hobby. I'd like to continue with it, but I'd like to go beyond my former Thesis. The communications were wired and slow, the robot badly flies, and I didn't implement sensors. I'd like to use a helicopter, sensors, wireless communications, a visual interface, a autopilot microcontroller-based program, and a speedy PC program to log and compute and control. Summarizing: I'd like to learn C++ and OpenGL, and I need a simulator to run all the tests. And gosh! Flight Gear is an Open Source Flight Simulator written in C++ and OpenGL! ahem; FlightGear, no space. ;-) I'd like to learn how to use Flight Gear, to adapt Flight Gear to my needs, and be a part of the community. Till now, I used WinXP and Visual Basic, but I'd like to start the project using only free software. I've downloaded Dev C++, Flight Gear, Mandrake and Gentoo... ..nonono, you want Debian Linux. Mandrake is good for newbies who works in an office where the other droids use WintendoXP, and Gentoo is a wannabe something I don't remember and both has a few IDE's and Debian has them all, it has 11 different hardware platforms for linux plus Hurd and FreeBSD for i386. ..and you will wanna listen to David M (Magginson) on setting up Emacs; if it can cook coffee, it can fly your chopper robots. ;-) http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Coffee.html http://tldp.org/LDP/intro-linux/html/ http://tldp.org/LDP/Bash-Beginners-Guide/html/ http://tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/programming.html http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Emacs-Beginner-HOWTO.html ..debian installer: http://oss-us.sns.ro/Hilux.html http://www.debian.org/ http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Debian/installers.html I use ClusterKnoppix, Quantian and DamnSmallLinux myself but you will wanna stick closer to stock Debian, Hilux gives you an updated Woody. ..and Debian is a nobrainer on maintenance, it just works, Woody is for people who runs merciless 24/7/365.25etc services. If you wanna try bleading edge Sid, simply prepend un to stable in the lines starting deb in /etc/apt/sources.list and run apt-get update ;apt-get dist-upgrade , that'll hop you up from 8,700 with Woody to 13,000 different software packages. What IDE do you suggest me? What O.S.? Where do I start with OpenGL and C++ and FlightGear? ..start with the above links, and as you hear and learn more, you will form your own opinion on the where do I start with OpenGL and C++ and FlightGear?. What manual would you suggest? -- ..med vennlig hilsen = with Kind Regards from Arnt... ;-) ...with a number of polar bear hunters in his ancestry... Scenarios always come in sets of three: best case, worst case, and just in case. ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel 2f585eeea02e2c79d7b1d8c4963bae2d
[Flightgear-devel] RE: Taildragger takeoffs and landings
David Megginson wrote: Thanks for the feedback. I have a book deadline looming, so I don't have any big chunks of time free until after the 9th, but if you feel like tweaking the J3 Cub and DC-3 files until you like the handling better, I'll be happy to commit the changes. Ideally, we want them to behave well for both three-point and wheel landings. As far as I know, you're the one with the most tailwheel experience among the FlightGear users (mine is exactly 0, unless you count pausing my preflight to watch the taildraggers land and takeoff). David, I have been out of town and just flew back from Des Moines this morning in the pa24-250. I have done some testing with both the j3 and the dc3 and will do some more this week. I really found the j3 just fine as it was before; very realistic. I wish we could spend an evening flying the j3 together as the technique I have always been instructed to use for wheel landings is to get to the ground with the mains at zero vertical velocity. When you feel the mains touch, apply just a little forward pressure on the stick. If you have more than a little vertical velocity when mains touch, the nose pitches up and you are back in the air. Then you have to apply a little power and feel for the ground again, much like a baloon with tri gear. And of course you need to be quick but gentle with the rudder. when I used to teach a new student in a tail dragger, I would encourage them to keep the rudder moving back and forth and just change the percentage of time the rudder spends left or right, some what like the old pulse propotional RC rudders. Believe it or not, several touch-n-goes with this technique, and they were staying in the middle of the runway and nearly going straight on take-off and landing. The amplitude of the oscillations quickly dimminishes. This helps keep you from getting behind the ac and making ever increasing swings left and right ending in a ground loop. Hope this helps! Dave P. ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel 2f585eeea02e2c79d7b1d8c4963bae2d
Re: [Flightgear-devel] Newbee
Arnt Karlsen said: ..and you will wanna listen to David M (Magginson) on setting up Emacs; if it can cook coffee, it can fly your chopper robots. ;-) http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Coffee.html Hey that's handy! Now if *nix only had a gui environment that supported simple cut and paste of plain ascii text between apps as consistently as on the winblows and mac systems, we might even have a useful (to the average person) desktop OS. :-) Best, Jim ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel 2f585eeea02e2c79d7b1d8c4963bae2d
Re: [Flightgear-devel] Newbee
David said: What IDE do you suggest me? No ide is necessary for this type of app. A good editor like emacs is fine. Half the time I just run the first gui editor I think of to do quick edits, just because they'll usually support the common shortcut keys. What O.S.? For this use any OS you want. A lot of folks using Linux, most any distro will do. Mandrake is actually fine, gentoo might require a bit more experience (or at least patience) to get started. Where do I start with OpenGL and C++ and FlightGear? What manual would you suggest? Stroustrup is the standard reference for C++. Not sure of any learning books. OpenGL Programming Guide (The red book) is a standard. There is a new OpenGL version and the books aren't going to be out yet. You can actually develope using plib (the game library used by FlightGear) without knowing much about OpenGL, but you may find the red book useful just for basic understanding anyway. Starting with FlightGear will probably involve finding something you'd like to change (start small) and dive in. Welcome and good luck! Best, Jim ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel 2f585eeea02e2c79d7b1d8c4963bae2d
Re: [Flightgear-devel] Newbee
On Monday 09 August 2004 02:35, Jim Wilson wrote: David said: What IDE do you suggest me? No ide is necessary for this type of app. A good editor like emacs is fine. Half the time I just run the first gui editor I think of to do quick edits, just because they'll usually support the common shortcut keys. What O.S.? For this use any OS you want. A lot of folks using Linux, most any distro will do. Mandrake is actually fine, gentoo might require a bit more experience (or at least patience) to get started. It's a steep learning curve with gentoo but I think it's worth it. I've not had a great amount of experience of other distros having used RH for years as a server then only over the past couple of years building my own LFS and then the logical progression seemed to be Gentoo when I wanted to migrate my workstations to linux. There are plenty of friendly folks hanging out on IRC always ready to help, plus with a heathly forum (albeit web based), couple of NNTP groups, excellent document and a stable quickly updated build tree, it makes for a very well rounded distribution that can be quite minimalist. Of course I guess debian and any other mainstream distro has all this. Cheers, Al ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel 2f585eeea02e2c79d7b1d8c4963bae2d
Re: [Flightgear-devel] Newbee
On Mon, 9 Aug 2004 01:36:33 -, Jim wrote in message [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Arnt Karlsen said: ..and you will wanna listen to David M (Magginson) on setting up Emacs; if it can cook coffee, it can fly your chopper robots. ;-) http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Coffee.html Hey that's handy! Now if *nix only had a gui environment that supported simple cut and paste of plain ascii text between apps as consistently as on the winblows and mac systems, we might even have a useful (to the average person) desktop OS. :-) ..huh? Left mouse button chooses, middle button drop's it off. ;-) -- ..med vennlig hilsen = with Kind Regards from Arnt... ;-) ...with a number of polar bear hunters in his ancestry... Scenarios always come in sets of three: best case, worst case, and just in case. ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel 2f585eeea02e2c79d7b1d8c4963bae2d
