Re: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-26 Thread Jon Stockill

On Fri, 22 Feb 2002, Michael Basler wrote:

> This is the released Windows binary 0.7.9 (which shouldn't matter, though)
> and the default Cessna 172.

Also on the windows binary I noticed that there's an offset error when
trying to select from the menu system - you have to aim 1 option *above*
the one you actually want to select.

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Re: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-25 Thread Tony Peden


--- Martin Dressler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Sat 23. February 2002 01:06, you wrote:
> > The flightgear side really only knows the current
> ground elevation for
> > a specific lon/lat.  FlightGear has no way to know
> the dimensions of a
> > specific aircraft or the relative placement of the
> gear.  It would
> > seem like the best thing FlightGear can do is
> provide the elevation of
> > the ground for the starting lon/lat, and then it
> should be up to the
> > FDM to do the rest.
> 
> BTW How you can get altitude of specific lat,lon
> position, please?
> 
> What about scheme, when FDM or other SubSystem store
> lat,lon position 
> structures on some heap and after frame render get
> it back with filled 
> altitude.

The scheme used to pass the data back and forth is not
the problem.  It's farther upstream than that.

> 
> > The FDM passes back the location of the aircraft's
> CG, and this
> > combined with knowledge of the aircraft
> orientation and pilot view
> > offset relative to the CG allows FlightGear to
> properly render the
> > scene.
> >
> > I don't know the details of how it works know, but
> it seems like the
> > FDM would need to find a suitable starting point
> for the CG given the
> > information FlightGear can provide (which is the
> ground elevation.)
> >
> > This is a tricky area though so if there's
> something I'm missing feel
> > free to point it out. :-)
> >
> > Curt.
> 
> Madr
> 
> -- 
>   Martin Dressler
> 
> e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> http://www.musicabona.com/
> 
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> 


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Re: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-25 Thread Martin Dressler

On Sat 23. February 2002 01:06, you wrote:
> The flightgear side really only knows the current ground elevation for
> a specific lon/lat.  FlightGear has no way to know the dimensions of a
> specific aircraft or the relative placement of the gear.  It would
> seem like the best thing FlightGear can do is provide the elevation of
> the ground for the starting lon/lat, and then it should be up to the
> FDM to do the rest.

BTW How you can get altitude of specific lat,lon position, please?

What about scheme, when FDM or other SubSystem store lat,lon position 
structures on some heap and after frame render get it back with filled 
altitude.

> The FDM passes back the location of the aircraft's CG, and this
> combined with knowledge of the aircraft orientation and pilot view
> offset relative to the CG allows FlightGear to properly render the
> scene.
>
> I don't know the details of how it works know, but it seems like the
> FDM would need to find a suitable starting point for the CG given the
> information FlightGear can provide (which is the ground elevation.)
>
> This is a tricky area though so if there's something I'm missing feel
> free to point it out. :-)
>
> Curt.

Madr

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Re: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-23 Thread Arnt Karlsen

On 22 Feb 2002 16:56:58 -0800, 
Tony Peden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message 
<1014425818.3606.46.camel@raptor>:

> On Fri, 2002-02-22 at 16:23, Andy Ross wrote:
> > Tony Peden writes:


> > What YASim does is just lift the plane up until the (fully extended)
> > gear are off the ground, and drop it.  The plane bounces nicely to a
> > stable resting orientation.
> 
> JSBSim starts out doing a similar thing, but then goes on to adjust
> height, pitch angle,and roll angle until the aircraft is in
> equilibrium. At the moment, I think it's just not doing it with the
> right number at CL77.  I don't yet know why that is.


..does the sim planes free-fall onto the runway, or can they 
"be lowered onto the runway/parkingplace/platform/etc" from a
"code steel rope sling" of some sort, slowly enough? 

..high enough free-falls triggers mishap code, right?

..just prelim fix ideas, the "correct" way I guess is get 
altitudes etc right...  Still learning...

-- 
..med vennlig hilsen = with Kind Regards from Arnt... ;-)

  Scenarios always come in sets of three: 
  best case, worst case, and just in case.


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Re: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-23 Thread Tony Peden

On Fri, 2002-02-22 at 11:25, Curtis L. Olson wrote:
> I believe I have found/fixed the initialization order problem.
> Flightgear has a concept of an 'absolute' view position in cartesian
> coordinates where (0,0,0) is the center of the Earth; and a 'relative'
> view position where (0,0,0) is the center of the current tile.  (This
> is to work around limitations in 'float' precision in OpenGL.)
> 
> To get back a valid terrain intersection, you need both the absolute
> and relative view positions to be set correctly.  But, you can't set
> the relative view position until after you know the center point of
> the current tile.
> 
> So, in some starting locations by pure chance, we were getting a
> scenery intersection for a wrong location because the relative view
> position hadn't been set correctly yet.
> 
> The next time through the loop the relative view position was correct
> and the scenery intersection point was the also correct.
> 
> The problem was that the FDM initialization was handed a wrong
> starting altitude which could understandably confuse the FDM.
> 
> I have commited fixes to CVS for this problem.
> 
> > Tony <-
> 
> Even after these fixes though, JSBSim flips upside down and flags a
> 'mishap'[1] at CL77.
> 
> There is something about this airport that still confuses the JSBSim
> initialization code.  Perhaps it is the steep slope of the runway?
> 
> [1] note the careful use of wording to avoid confusing with an
> application or computer crash. :-)

OK, this is what I found at CL77.
>From the console log, the terrain altitude JSBSim gets at init time
is 1924.47 ft: 

Starting and initializing JSBsim
Start common FDM init
...initializing position...
FGJSBsim::set_Longitude: -2.13148
FGJSBsim::set_Latitude: 0.646962
 cur alt (ft) =  0
FGJSBsim::set_Altitude: 1924.47
  lat (deg) = 37.0682
Terrain altitude: 1924.47
^^^
...initializing ground elevation to 1924.47ft...
...initializing sea-level radius...
 lat = 37.0682 alt = 1924.47
...initializing velocities...
FGJSBsim::set_V_calibrated_kts: 0
...initializing Euler angles...
FGJSBsim::set_Euler_Angles: 0, 0.0074002, 5.51524
End common FDM init

However, putting an output statement just before the ground trim ( in
the first call to FGInterface::update() ) is run shows that it has
changed:

Loading tile /home/tony/FlightGear/Scenery/w130n30/w123n37/942018
token = OBJECT_BASE name = 942018.btg
Ready to trim, terrain altitude is: 1928.41
^^
  Ground Trim
Initial Theta: 0.9126

  Trim successful

  JSBSim State
  Trim complete

I put in code to update JSBSim's terrain altitude right before
the trim and it does improve matters, but not 100% as the final
terrain altitude doesn't always seem to be available at that time.

As noted yesterday, setting --altitude works around the problem. What
seems to be more interesting about that is that JSBSim gets initialized
with the final terrain altitude very reliably.  Might be a clue to
what's really wrong.

I didn't look at LOWI, though I suspect the problem there is similar.









> 
> Regards,
> 
> Curt.
> -- 
> Curtis Olson   IVLab / HumanFIRST Program   FlightGear Project
> Twin Cities[EMAIL PROTECTED]  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Minnesota  http://www.menet.umn.edu/~curt   http://www.flightgear.org
> 
> 
> Cameron Moore writes:
> > * [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Curt Olson) [2002.02.22 12:26]:
> > > Jim Wilson writes:
> > > > Hope they disconnected the usb Flamethrower first :-)  I'm getting the same 
> > > > thing with CL77.  Some screwy looking airstrip.  There still seems to be some
> > > > problems with altitude between fg and jsbsim.  A workaround is to add a
> > > > --alititude=(runway elevation) to the command line.
> > > > 
> > > > This perhaps is a naive question,  but why aren't we kicking in the FDM after
> > > > the plane is on the runway during initialization?
> > > 
> > > We are actually doing this.  We don't initialize the FDM until the
> > > scenery subsystem is reporting a valid ground elevation.  However, for
> > > some starting locations it appears that the initial reported elevation
> > > is incorrect the first frame and then updated to the correct elevation
> > > the second frame.
> > 
> > This may be totally unrelated, but ...  The FPE issue I posted about the
> > other day is triggered when the tile manager is initialized.  Could
> > it be that tile manager is getting a bogus starting point due to this
> > FPE bug, and that bogus value is making it's way to the FDM's?
> > -- 
> > Cameron Moore
> > / If a person with multiple personalities threatens \
> > \  suicide, is that considered a hostage situation? /
> > 
> > ___
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Re: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-23 Thread James Turner

On Fri, 2002-02-22 at 20:52, Curtis L. Olson wrote:

> 
> > This may or may not be related but when I start up at an airport for
> > which i have no scenery, the elevation is below 0.  At EHAM it is
> > -17 ft as shown in /position/altitude-ft.
> 
> Actually, when an ocean tile is automatically generated, we use really
> big triangles (i.e. two triangle to cover the whole tile.)  If the
> elevation is 0 at the corners, the surface of the tile forms a sort of
> 3d square 'secant' so the elevation within the ocean tile will be <
> 0.  -17 sounds reasonable for an interior position.

I don't suppose this is relevant (since it was already pointed out that
true airport elevation is not used), but EHAM (Amsterdam schipol) really
is below sea level; there have been some notable problems with this in
FS200X. And seventeen feet sounds plausible (I have seen 11ft to 15ft in
different places)

It's a feature, not a bug :-)

Having said that, I just took off from their (with scenery) no trouble.

H&H
James



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Description: PGP signature


AW: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-23 Thread Michael Basler

Hi,

For what it's worth: I made an extended test of several German/Austrian
airports after installing the most recent CVS version including Curt's
patch. These are the results:

Working (no "mishap"):

EDDM
LSZR
EDDS
EDDN
LOWI
LIBP
LSZS
LSPM

These require scenery packages e000n40 + e010n40. All these work fine. They
even include some quite spectacular airports like LSZS, LSPM with
considerably tilted runways.

On the other hand, the couple

CL77
LOWI

still does not work by producing a "mishap". There must be something special
about them.  At least I know LOWI situated in a valley does not have a
strongly tilted runway. This is even more a pity as LOWI is quite a famous
and spectacular approach (I once had a chance to do it in a "real" simulator
:-).

Finally: Dave, your textured C172 is highly welcome. While I fortunately did
not have to see it from the inside most of the time, I hated that glider.

Sincerely, Michael

--
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[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Re: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-22 Thread Tony Peden

On Fri, 2002-02-22 at 16:23, Andy Ross wrote:
> Tony Peden writes:
>  > Just for the record, what's most likely happening here is that since
>  > JSBSim senses that the gear are underground on the first update(), the
>  > gear code calculate a reaction force based on how far underground they
>  > are.
> 
> One thing you might try is clamping the gear force to that produced by
> fully compressed gear.  That way, you avoid the absurd forces produced
> by springs compressed by 100x their real-world size.  It doesn't fix
> the underground problem, but it might help keep the results from
> exploding.

True, it would help.  But what do we do then?  I'm not ready to do
anything approaching real structural modeling.

> 
> Curtis L. Olson wrote:
>  > I don't know the details of how it works know, but it seems like the
>  > FDM would need to find a suitable starting point for the CG given the
>  > information FlightGear can provide (which is the ground elevation.)
> 
> What YASim does is just lift the plane up until the (fully extended)
> gear are off the ground, and drop it.  The plane bounces nicely to a
> stable resting orientation.

JSBSim starts out doing a similar thing, but then goes on to adjust
height, pitch angle,and roll angle until the aircraft is in equilibrium.
At the moment, I think it's just not doing it with the right number at
CL77.  I don't yet know why that is.

> 
> One thing to consider would be exporting the tile geometry to the FDMs
> in some way.  Assuming a flat ground plane is fine for runway
> environments, of course, but curved surfaces won't work that way.  One
> way to do it would be for the FDM to provide a line description
> (direction of gear compression), which the scenery would convert into
> an intersection point and a normal vector for the ground at that
> point.
> 
> In particular, ski jumps have curvature of the order of the inter-gear
> distance, and can't be approximated with any plane at all.  Of course,
> these are very special purpose, and might best be handled with a
> special case inside the gear code...
> 
> Andy
> 
> -- 
> Andrew J. RossNextBus Information Systems
> Senior Software Engineer  Emeryville, CA
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]  http://www.nextbus.com
> "Men go crazy in conflagrations.  They only get better one by one."
>   - Sting (misquoted)
> 
> 
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Re: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-22 Thread Andy Ross

Tony Peden writes:
 > Just for the record, what's most likely happening here is that since
 > JSBSim senses that the gear are underground on the first update(), the
 > gear code calculate a reaction force based on how far underground they
 > are.

One thing you might try is clamping the gear force to that produced by
fully compressed gear.  That way, you avoid the absurd forces produced
by springs compressed by 100x their real-world size.  It doesn't fix
the underground problem, but it might help keep the results from
exploding.

Curtis L. Olson wrote:
 > I don't know the details of how it works know, but it seems like the
 > FDM would need to find a suitable starting point for the CG given the
 > information FlightGear can provide (which is the ground elevation.)

What YASim does is just lift the plane up until the (fully extended)
gear are off the ground, and drop it.  The plane bounces nicely to a
stable resting orientation.

One thing to consider would be exporting the tile geometry to the FDMs
in some way.  Assuming a flat ground plane is fine for runway
environments, of course, but curved surfaces won't work that way.  One
way to do it would be for the FDM to provide a line description
(direction of gear compression), which the scenery would convert into
an intersection point and a normal vector for the ground at that
point.

In particular, ski jumps have curvature of the order of the inter-gear
distance, and can't be approximated with any plane at all.  Of course,
these are very special purpose, and might best be handled with a
special case inside the gear code...

Andy

-- 
Andrew J. RossNextBus Information Systems
Senior Software Engineer  Emeryville, CA
[EMAIL PROTECTED]  http://www.nextbus.com
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Re: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-22 Thread Curtis L. Olson

Tony Peden writes:
> Just for the record, what's most likely happening here is that since
> JSBSim senses that the gear are underground on the first update(), the
> gear code calculate a reaction force based on how far underground they 
> are.  That reaction force pushes the aircraft up, often times gaining
> enough momentum in the process to leave the ground.  Then the result is
> pretty predictable, the aircraft experiences an accident.  (it will
> almost certainly involve a complete hull loss, therefore it's an
> accident)
> 
> AFAIK, There are currently no limits on how far the gear can be
> compressed, so the reaction forces can get very large.

The flightgear side really only knows the current ground elevation for
a specific lon/lat.  FlightGear has no way to know the dimensions of a
specific aircraft or the relative placement of the gear.  It would
seem like the best thing FlightGear can do is provide the elevation of
the ground for the starting lon/lat, and then it should be up to the
FDM to do the rest.

The FDM passes back the location of the aircraft's CG, and this
combined with knowledge of the aircraft orientation and pilot view
offset relative to the CG allows FlightGear to properly render the
scene.

I don't know the details of how it works know, but it seems like the
FDM would need to find a suitable starting point for the CG given the
information FlightGear can provide (which is the ground elevation.)

This is a tricky area though so if there's something I'm missing feel
free to point it out. :-)

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

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Re: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-22 Thread Tony Peden

On Fri, 2002-02-22 at 11:25, Curtis L. Olson wrote:
> 
> > Tony <-
> 
> Even after these fixes though, JSBSim flips upside down and flags a
> 'mishap'[1] at CL77.

OK, I'll take a look.
> 
> There is something about this airport that still confuses the JSBSim
> initialization code.  Perhaps it is the steep slope of the runway?

AFAIK, JSBSim doesn't have any concept of runway slope at this point
but as you say, anything is possible.

> 
> [1] note the careful use of wording to avoid confusing with an
> application or computer crash. :-)

Duly noted

Just for the record, what's most likely happening here is that since
JSBSim senses that the gear are underground on the first update(), the
gear code calculate a reaction force based on how far underground they 
are.  That reaction force pushes the aircraft up, often times gaining
enough momentum in the process to leave the ground.  Then the result is
pretty predictable, the aircraft experiences an accident.  (it will
almost certainly involve a complete hull loss, therefore it's an
accident)

AFAIK, There are currently no limits on how far the gear can be
compressed, so the reaction forces can get very large.


> 
> Regards,
> 
> Curt.
> -- 
> Curtis Olson   IVLab / HumanFIRST Program   FlightGear Project
> Twin Cities[EMAIL PROTECTED]  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Minnesota  http://www.menet.umn.edu/~curt   http://www.flightgear.org
> 
> 
> Cameron Moore writes:
> > * [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Curt Olson) [2002.02.22 12:26]:
> > > Jim Wilson writes:
> > > > Hope they disconnected the usb Flamethrower first :-)  I'm getting the same 
> > > > thing with CL77.  Some screwy looking airstrip.  There still seems to be some
> > > > problems with altitude between fg and jsbsim.  A workaround is to add a
> > > > --alititude=(runway elevation) to the command line.
> > > > 
> > > > This perhaps is a naive question,  but why aren't we kicking in the FDM after
> > > > the plane is on the runway during initialization?
> > > 
> > > We are actually doing this.  We don't initialize the FDM until the
> > > scenery subsystem is reporting a valid ground elevation.  However, for
> > > some starting locations it appears that the initial reported elevation
> > > is incorrect the first frame and then updated to the correct elevation
> > > the second frame.
> > 
> > This may be totally unrelated, but ...  The FPE issue I posted about the
> > other day is triggered when the tile manager is initialized.  Could
> > it be that tile manager is getting a bogus starting point due to this
> > FPE bug, and that bogus value is making it's way to the FDM's?
> > -- 
> > Cameron Moore
> > / If a person with multiple personalities threatens \
> > \  suicide, is that considered a hostage situation? /
> > 
> > ___
> > Flightgear-devel mailing list
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
> 
> 
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Re: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-22 Thread Jim Wilson

"Curtis L. Olson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:

> Jim Wilson writes:
> 
> > If you set --altitude=1933 when starting at CL77 the mishap does not
> > occur.
> 
> JSBSim is getting fed a consistant starting ground elevation now with
> the latest CVS changes.

Yes I updated before replying, this works with the latest changes.  Try
setting --altitude=1933 (probably doesn't prove anything).  I noticed that
we're passing it 1924 (or at least thats what JSBsim is initializing at first
pass).

> > And I guess I'm wondering still if it is possible to set the plane
> > on that tile before reporting position to FDM's so that it still
> > works even if there is a data problem.
> 
> This is what we do.  The tile is loaded and a valid ground elevation
> is determined before the FDM init() routine is called.
> 

Ok sorry for the stupid q's :-)

> > This may or may not be related but when I start up at an airport for
> > which i have no scenery, the elevation is below 0.  At EHAM it is
> > -17 ft as shown in /position/altitude-ft.
> 
> Actually, when an ocean tile is automatically generated, we use really
> big triangles (i.e. two triangle to cover the whole tile.)  If the
> elevation is 0 at the corners, the surface of the tile forms a sort of
> 3d square 'secant' so the elevation within the ocean tile will be <
> 0.  -17 sounds reasonable for an interior position.
> 

Ah, ok ...makes sense.  Thanks for the explanation.

Best,

Jim


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Re: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-22 Thread Curtis L. Olson

Jim Wilson writes:
> Yes actually all I've seen on this particular issue is a "mishap"
> the software doesn't bail out or crash which is what it did in some
> cases before Tony's fix.
> 
> The airport database shows 2020ft as the elevation (which matches
> this: http://www.airnav.com/airport/CL77 ).  The tile for the runway
> that is actually at 1933ft.

The elevation of the FlightGear airports are set by the DEM data for
that area.  It would be nice to feed in actual airport elevations, but
that is a more complicated process and would require some adaptive
adjusting of surrounding elevation points to smoothly blend the
airport into the surrounding terrain.  I haven't sat down and thought
about how that might be implimented.

> If you set --altitude=1933 when starting at CL77 the mishap does not
> occur.

JSBSim is getting fed a consistant starting ground elevation now with
the latest CVS changes.

> Could this just be a problem with scenery data?

I'm going to say 'nope' not possible with the disclaimer that probably
anything is possible.  However, all the evidence I've seen so far
points to a problem with how JSBSim intializes itself on the ground.
My guess at the moment is that perhaps there is a large enough slope
that the ground trim is failing?

Note that YASim now initializes itself just fine at all these airports
for which JSBSim is failing.  That doesn't necessarily prove anything
I know, but I think the ball is now in Tony/Jon's court to either fix
the problem or show some evidence why the problem lies elsewhere.

> And I guess I'm wondering still if it is possible to set the plane
> on that tile before reporting position to FDM's so that it still
> works even if there is a data problem.

This is what we do.  The tile is loaded and a valid ground elevation
is determined before the FDM init() routine is called.

> This may or may not be related but when I start up at an airport for
> which i have no scenery, the elevation is below 0.  At EHAM it is
> -17 ft as shown in /position/altitude-ft.

Actually, when an ocean tile is automatically generated, we use really
big triangles (i.e. two triangle to cover the whole tile.)  If the
elevation is 0 at the corners, the surface of the tile forms a sort of
3d square 'secant' so the elevation within the ocean tile will be <
0.  -17 sounds reasonable for an interior position.

By secant I mean something analogous to line CD in this diagram:

http://www.ischoolzone.com/review/Courses%5CMasterMath%5CMK19612.gif

Regards,

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

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Re: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-22 Thread Jim Wilson

"Curtis L. Olson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:

> Even after these fixes though, JSBSim flips upside down and flags a
> 'mishap'[1] at CL77.
> 
> There is something about this airport that still confuses the JSBSim
> initialization code.  Perhaps it is the steep slope of the runway?
> 
> [1] note the careful use of wording to avoid confusing with an
> application or computer crash. :-)
> 

Yes actually all I've seen on this particular issue is a "mishap" the software
doesn't bail out or crash which is what it did in some cases before Tony's fix.

The airport database shows 2020ft as the elevation (which matches this: 
http://www.airnav.com/airport/CL77 ).  The tile for the runway that is
actually at 1933ft.  If you set --altitude=1933 when starting at CL77 the
mishap does not occur.  Could this just be a problem with scenery data?  And I
guess I'm wondering still if it is possible to set the plane on that tile
before reporting position to FDM's so that it still works even if there is a
data problem.

This may or may not be related but when I start up at an airport for which i
have no scenery, the elevation is below 0.  At EHAM it is -17 ft as shown in
/position/altitude-ft.

Best,

Jim

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RE: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-22 Thread Jim Wilson

Tony Peden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:

> 
> Did my 'fix' to fgFDMForceAltitude() get in to the
> 0.7.9 release?
> 

Not sure but I think it did.  I'm testing with cvs (as of yesterday or so). 
Anything I can do to help?  

Best,

Jim

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Re: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-22 Thread Curtis L. Olson

I believe I have found/fixed the initialization order problem.
Flightgear has a concept of an 'absolute' view position in cartesian
coordinates where (0,0,0) is the center of the Earth; and a 'relative'
view position where (0,0,0) is the center of the current tile.  (This
is to work around limitations in 'float' precision in OpenGL.)

To get back a valid terrain intersection, you need both the absolute
and relative view positions to be set correctly.  But, you can't set
the relative view position until after you know the center point of
the current tile.

So, in some starting locations by pure chance, we were getting a
scenery intersection for a wrong location because the relative view
position hadn't been set correctly yet.

The next time through the loop the relative view position was correct
and the scenery intersection point was the also correct.

The problem was that the FDM initialization was handed a wrong
starting altitude which could understandably confuse the FDM.

I have commited fixes to CVS for this problem.

> Tony <-

Even after these fixes though, JSBSim flips upside down and flags a
'mishap'[1] at CL77.

There is something about this airport that still confuses the JSBSim
initialization code.  Perhaps it is the steep slope of the runway?

[1] note the careful use of wording to avoid confusing with an
application or computer crash. :-)

Regards,

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


Cameron Moore writes:
> * [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Curt Olson) [2002.02.22 12:26]:
> > Jim Wilson writes:
> > > Hope they disconnected the usb Flamethrower first :-)  I'm getting the same 
> > > thing with CL77.  Some screwy looking airstrip.  There still seems to be some
> > > problems with altitude between fg and jsbsim.  A workaround is to add a
> > > --alititude=(runway elevation) to the command line.
> > > 
> > > This perhaps is a naive question,  but why aren't we kicking in the FDM after
> > > the plane is on the runway during initialization?
> > 
> > We are actually doing this.  We don't initialize the FDM until the
> > scenery subsystem is reporting a valid ground elevation.  However, for
> > some starting locations it appears that the initial reported elevation
> > is incorrect the first frame and then updated to the correct elevation
> > the second frame.
> 
> This may be totally unrelated, but ...  The FPE issue I posted about the
> other day is triggered when the tile manager is initialized.  Could
> it be that tile manager is getting a bogus starting point due to this
> FPE bug, and that bogus value is making it's way to the FDM's?
> -- 
> Cameron Moore
> / If a person with multiple personalities threatens \
> \  suicide, is that considered a hostage situation? /
> 
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Re: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-22 Thread Cameron Moore

* [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Curt Olson) [2002.02.22 12:26]:
> Jim Wilson writes:
> > Hope they disconnected the usb Flamethrower first :-)  I'm getting the same 
> > thing with CL77.  Some screwy looking airstrip.  There still seems to be some
> > problems with altitude between fg and jsbsim.  A workaround is to add a
> > --alititude=(runway elevation) to the command line.
> > 
> > This perhaps is a naive question,  but why aren't we kicking in the FDM after
> > the plane is on the runway during initialization?
> 
> We are actually doing this.  We don't initialize the FDM until the
> scenery subsystem is reporting a valid ground elevation.  However, for
> some starting locations it appears that the initial reported elevation
> is incorrect the first frame and then updated to the correct elevation
> the second frame.

This may be totally unrelated, but ...  The FPE issue I posted about the
other day is triggered when the tile manager is initialized.  Could
it be that tile manager is getting a bogus starting point due to this
FPE bug, and that bogus value is making it's way to the FDM's?
-- 
Cameron Moore
/ If a person with multiple personalities threatens \
\  suicide, is that considered a hostage situation? /

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RE: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-22 Thread Curtis L. Olson

Tony Peden writes:
> 
> --- "Curtis L. Olson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Jim Wilson writes:
> > > Hope they disconnected the usb Flamethrower first
> > :-)  I'm getting the same 
> > > thing with CL77.  Some screwy looking airstrip. 
> > There still seems to be some
> > > problems with altitude between fg and jsbsim.  A
> > workaround is to add a
> > > --alititude=(runway elevation) to the command
> > line.
> > > 
> > > This perhaps is a naive question,  but why aren't
> > we kicking in the FDM after
> > > the plane is on the runway during initialization?
> > 
> > We are actually doing this.  We don't initialize the
> > FDM until the
> > scenery subsystem is reporting a valid ground
> > elevation.  However, for
> > some starting locations it appears that the initial
> > reported elevation
> > is incorrect the first frame and then updated to the
> > correct elevation
> > the second frame.
> 
> Did my 'fix' to fgFDMForceAltitude() get in to the
> 0.7.9 release?

I'm working from CVS and I am still seeing this at CL77.

However, I appear to have identified a flightgear bug which is
initialization order dependent ... i.e. the first scenery elevation
returned can some times be for the wrong location, giving the wrong
altitude.  Subsequent scenery elevations are correct because the
various position values are all synced up by then.

> > > It seems like there's a 
> > > lot of trouble trying to get an FDM synced up with
> > scenery/airport data during
> > > startup.  Why is it that flightgear doesn't just
> > put the plane where it goes
> > > and dictate the coordinates at startup (or reset)
> > and let the flight model
> > > (re-)initialize with those values?  It's pretty
> > obvious that when there's a
> > > gross discrepency in elevation data (as with CL77)
> > the FDM has kicked in and
> > > the plane is stalling and drifting down to the
> > ground...hence the
> > > "crash".
> > 
> > Right, but we are already doing what you describe,
> > the problem is that
> > something isn't working quite right in all
> > situations.
> > 
> > Regards,
> > 
> > Curt.
> > -- 
> > Curtis Olson   IVLab / HumanFIRST Program  
> > FlightGear Project
> > Twin Cities[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Minnesota  http://www.menet.umn.edu/~curt  
> > http://www.flightgear.org
> > 
> > ___
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> >
> http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
> __
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> 
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Twin Cities[EMAIL PROTECTED]  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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RE: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-22 Thread Tony Peden


--- "Curtis L. Olson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Jim Wilson writes:
> > Hope they disconnected the usb Flamethrower first
> :-)  I'm getting the same 
> > thing with CL77.  Some screwy looking airstrip. 
> There still seems to be some
> > problems with altitude between fg and jsbsim.  A
> workaround is to add a
> > --alititude=(runway elevation) to the command
> line.
> > 
> > This perhaps is a naive question,  but why aren't
> we kicking in the FDM after
> > the plane is on the runway during initialization?
> 
> We are actually doing this.  We don't initialize the
> FDM until the
> scenery subsystem is reporting a valid ground
> elevation.  However, for
> some starting locations it appears that the initial
> reported elevation
> is incorrect the first frame and then updated to the
> correct elevation
> the second frame.

Did my 'fix' to fgFDMForceAltitude() get in to the
0.7.9 release?


> 
> > It seems like there's a 
> > lot of trouble trying to get an FDM synced up with
> scenery/airport data during
> > startup.  Why is it that flightgear doesn't just
> put the plane where it goes
> > and dictate the coordinates at startup (or reset)
> and let the flight model
> > (re-)initialize with those values?  It's pretty
> obvious that when there's a
> > gross discrepency in elevation data (as with CL77)
> the FDM has kicked in and
> > the plane is stalling and drifting down to the
> ground...hence the
> > "crash".
> 
> Right, but we are already doing what you describe,
> the problem is that
> something isn't working quite right in all
> situations.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Curt.
> -- 
> Curtis Olson   IVLab / HumanFIRST Program  
> FlightGear Project
> Twin Cities[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Minnesota  http://www.menet.umn.edu/~curt  
> http://www.flightgear.org
> 
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> 


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RE: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-22 Thread Curtis L. Olson

Jim Wilson writes:
> Hope they disconnected the usb Flamethrower first :-)  I'm getting the same 
> thing with CL77.  Some screwy looking airstrip.  There still seems to be some
> problems with altitude between fg and jsbsim.  A workaround is to add a
> --alititude=(runway elevation) to the command line.
> 
> This perhaps is a naive question,  but why aren't we kicking in the FDM after
> the plane is on the runway during initialization?

We are actually doing this.  We don't initialize the FDM until the
scenery subsystem is reporting a valid ground elevation.  However, for
some starting locations it appears that the initial reported elevation
is incorrect the first frame and then updated to the correct elevation
the second frame.

> It seems like there's a 
> lot of trouble trying to get an FDM synced up with scenery/airport data during
> startup.  Why is it that flightgear doesn't just put the plane where it goes
> and dictate the coordinates at startup (or reset) and let the flight model
> (re-)initialize with those values?  It's pretty obvious that when there's a
> gross discrepency in elevation data (as with CL77) the FDM has kicked in and
> the plane is stalling and drifting down to the ground...hence the
> "crash".

Right, but we are already doing what you describe, the problem is that
something isn't working quite right in all situations.

Regards,

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

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RE: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-22 Thread Jim Wilson

"BERNDT, JON S. (JON) (JSC-EX) (LM)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:

> > From: Michael Basler [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> > 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I just received a problem report from a German user on the 
> > released version
> > 0.7.9 which I - unfortunately - was able to confirm in part.
> > 
> > 1. Start at CL77 Santa Cruz leads to an immediate crash.
> > 
> > 2. He reported a crash at Munich EDDM at start (e010n40 
> > installed) which I could not confirm.
> > 
> > 3. However, Start at Innsbruck LOWI gave me an immediate crash, too.
> 
> OK. Has the NTSB been called to the scene[s], yet?
> 
> :-P
> 
> Jon
> 

Hope they disconnected the usb Flamethrower first :-)  I'm getting the same 
thing with CL77.  Some screwy looking airstrip.  There still seems to be some
problems with altitude between fg and jsbsim.  A workaround is to add a
--alititude=(runway elevation) to the command line.

This perhaps is a naive question,  but why aren't we kicking in the FDM after
the plane is on the runway during initialization?  It seems like there's a 
lot of trouble trying to get an FDM synced up with scenery/airport data during
startup.  Why is it that flightgear doesn't just put the plane where it goes
and dictate the coordinates at startup (or reset) and let the flight model
(re-)initialize with those values?  It's pretty obvious that when there's a
gross discrepency in elevation data (as with CL77) the FDM has kicked in and
the plane is stalling and drifting down to the ground...hence the "crash".

I guess a side question is to this is why don't the FDM's freeze the
lat+long+alt when the parking brake is on and the ground speed is < 1?  And
keep it frozen until the brake is released.  Seems like that'd be an easy way
to stop the creeping that some people have complained about.

Best,

Jim

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RE: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-22 Thread BERNDT, JON S. (JON) (JSC-EX) (LM)

> > OK. Has the NTSB been called to the scene[s], yet?
> 
> They are not responsible for accidents on European territory  ;-)

I don't think they are *responsible* for _crashes_ anywhere! :-P

Jon

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Re: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-22 Thread Martin Spott

>> 3. However, Start at Innsbruck LOWI gave me an immediate crash, too.

> OK. Has the NTSB been called to the scene[s], yet?

They are not responsible for accidents on European territory  ;-)

Martin.
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AW: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-22 Thread Michael Basler

John,
...
> > 3. However, Start at Innsbruck LOWI gave me an immediate crash, too.
>
> OK. Has the NTSB been called to the scene[s], yet?

At least in Germany they do not handle software-related crashes, though...

To make it clear: The program starts with a crash already. Reset results in
the same situation.

So, can anyone confirm these or is it just me or Martin or that other guy
who asked...? BTW, according to him there are more of these dangerous
places. In case we'll be proven right I foresee more to follow in
complaining.

Regards, Michael

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RE: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-22 Thread BERNDT, JON S. (JON) (JSC-EX) (LM)

> From: Michael Basler [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I just received a problem report from a German user on the 
> released version
> 0.7.9 which I - unfortunately - was able to confirm in part.
> 
> 1. Start at CL77 Santa Cruz leads to an immediate crash.
> 
> 2. He reported a crash at Munich EDDM at start (e010n40 
> installed) which I could not confirm.
> 
> 3. However, Start at Innsbruck LOWI gave me an immediate crash, too.

OK. Has the NTSB been called to the scene[s], yet?

:-P

Jon

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[Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-22 Thread Michael Basler

Hi,

I just received a problem report from a German user on the released version
0.7.9 which I - unfortunately - was able to confirm in part.

1. Start at CL77 Santa Cruz leads to an immediate crash.

2. He reported a crash at Munich EDDM at start (e010n40 installed) which I
could not confirm.

3. However, Start at Innsbruck LOWI gave me an immediate crash, too.

BTW, starting from Munich I was not unable to see the alps. I did not fly
for long, but I know they can be seen in MSFS shortly after the start (given
proper visibility settings).

This is the released Windows binary 0.7.9 (which shouldn't matter, though)
and the default Cessna 172.

So, something seems to go wrong here. I recall a discussion on crash issues
on airports other than KSFO on the list, but thought that would have been
solved. I talked to Martion Spott, and he at least confirmed the problem
with the Cessna in LOWI.

Regards,
Michael

--
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Re: [Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-22 Thread Martin Spott

> So, something seems to go wrong here. I recall a discussion on crash issues
> on airports other than KSFO on the list, but thought that would have been
> solved. I talked to Martion Spott, and he at least confirmed the problem
> with the Cessna in LOWI.

With c172 to be precise. c310 doesn'n crash, a4-yasim doesn't crash either.
The other airports I prefer to use don't show this phenomenon but there
still may be some 

Martin.
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[Flightgear-devel] Problem report on release 0.7.9

2002-02-22 Thread Michael Basler

Hi,

I just received a problem report from a German user on the released version
0.7.9 which I - unfortunately - was able to confirm in part.

1. Start at CL77 Santa Cruz leads to an immediate crash.

2. He reported a crash at Munich EDDM at start (e010n40 installed) which I
could not confirm.

3. However, Start at Innsbruck LOWI gave me an immediate crash, too.

BTW, starting from Munich I was not unable to see the alps. I did not fly
for long, but I know they can be seen in MSFS shortly after the start (given
proper visibility settings).

This is the released Windows binary 0.7.9 (which shouldn't matter, though)
and the default Cessna 172.

So, something seems to go wrong here. I recall a discussion on crash issues
on airports other than KSFO on the list, but thought that would have been
solved. I talked to Martion Spott, and he at least confirmed the problem
with the Cessna in LOWI.

Regards,
Michael

--
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[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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