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Howto:Make an aircraft: Difference between revisions
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change refs to aircraft in fgdata (git) to fgaddon hangar
(→Related content: + Forum topics "Aircraft development - insights" and "How to make an Aircraft....") |
m (change refs to aircraft in fgdata (git) to fgaddon hangar) |
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Things like placards, stream gauges or switches should be where you start. Adding placards is by far the simplest thing you can do for a cockpit and almost any aircraft you pick in | Things like placards, stream gauges or switches should be where you start. Adding placards is by far the simplest thing you can do for a cockpit and almost any aircraft you pick in the [[FGAddon]] aircraft hangar, even some very advanced models, will need at least one or more placards. Placards also add a lot of cockpit detail for very little effort although for a rank beginner it will still take a significant amount of effort to get a placard modeled and textured and into a cockpit. These do not need animation or any interface to the property tree or any nasal code and only minimal XML. This helps reduce the steepness of the initial learning curve. After doing a few placards you can step up to steam gauges. These will require more extensive XML and also animation and interfaces to the property tree and perhaps even some nasal code and the 3D models will be more complex than that needed for placards. But the 3D models will not be very complex relatively speaking and you will be able to use existing models as a starting place since gauges are build to a set of standard sizes and external configurations at least in modern (IE. WWII and later) aircraft. | ||
Almost any aircraft maintainer should be willing to mentor someone new to add things like placards and gauges to an exiting model. Some will insist on very high standards for anything you do so please try to do quality work. But keep in mind that as a new contributor that the aircraft maintainer will likely spend more time helping you get up the learning curve than the amount of effort it would have taken them to do the same work themselves. So please do enough work on that aircraft to reach at least the break even point for the mentoring effort. Also keep in mind that an aircraft maintainer would prefer that new contributors coordinate with them to prevent duplication of effort and to make integrating the contribution into the aircraft easier. | Almost any aircraft maintainer should be willing to mentor someone new to add things like placards and gauges to an exiting model. Some will insist on very high standards for anything you do so please try to do quality work. But keep in mind that as a new contributor that the aircraft maintainer will likely spend more time helping you get up the learning curve than the amount of effort it would have taken them to do the same work themselves. So please do enough work on that aircraft to reach at least the break even point for the mentoring effort. Also keep in mind that an aircraft maintainer would prefer that new contributors coordinate with them to prevent duplication of effort and to make integrating the contribution into the aircraft easier. | ||
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This is also a very good place to start working on things in FlightGear. So how do you go about doing this? | This is also a very good place to start working on things in FlightGear. So how do you go about doing this? | ||
* Find an aircraft that is part of | * Find an aircraft that is part of the [[FGAddon]] aircraft hangar that needs cockpit work that interests you. This is important the aircraft should be one that you have a fondness for. This work is a labor of love and that will not be the case if you just pick some random aircraft. | ||
* Ask on the forum and perhaps also on the developers list who the current dev for that aircraft is. | * Ask on the forum and perhaps also on the developers list who the current dev for that aircraft is. | ||
* Contact that person and ask them if it is OK to work on that aircraft. They will probably say OK but they will also probably say that you have to work in a certain way and they may go as far as saying OK but I want you to work on <some particular instrument or control>. Don't take this as a snub. The aircraft dev has put a lot of effort into this aircraft and in the end they have to live with whatever you do to it so you have an obligation to do things their way. | * Contact that person and ask them if it is OK to work on that aircraft. They will probably say OK but they will also probably say that you have to work in a certain way and they may go as far as saying OK but I want you to work on <some particular instrument or control>. Don't take this as a snub. The aircraft dev has put a lot of effort into this aircraft and in the end they have to live with whatever you do to it so you have an obligation to do things their way. | ||