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FlightGear Newsletter September 2010: Difference between revisions
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FlightGear Newsletter September 2010 (view source)
Revision as of 08:59, 11 September 2010
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===Water shader improvements=== | ===Water shader improvements=== | ||
Our all-time favourite shader-artist, Gral, picked up yet another project. This time it is something that covers over 70% of the entire scenery: water. | Our all-time favourite shader-artist, Gral, picked up yet another project. This time it is something that covers over 70% of the entire scenery: water. | ||
===Local Weather v0.85=== | |||
The [http://www.phy.duke.edu/~trenk/files/local_weather_fgfs2.0.0_v0.85.tgz version 0.85] (also on GIT) of the Local Weather package is out - with new cloud types and textures and most importantly a significant performance gain over previous versions. There is a new menu to allow the user at runtime to specify cloud visual ranges, so that the impact on framerate can be adjusted to the situation. | |||
The increased performance means that 3d clouds on fast systems can be rendered out to 45 km, and high altitude 2d cloud sheets sometimes up to 80 km - vastly improving the visual impression of the sky from airliner altitudes. | |||
In addition, some bugs in the wind modelling and long-range weather patterns have been ironed out - with Flightgear 2.0.0, the package performs in tests. | |||
In the works: | |||
* better hard-coded support for e.g. terrain sampling | |||
* a METAR interface to use real-time weather and wind data | |||
* full dynamics of the life cycle of convective clouds as they drift over the terrain | |||
* and as always - improvements to cloud placement algorithms and cloud textures | |||
Stay tuned! | |||
A small feature gallery: | |||
[[File:local_weather_0.85_01.jpg|150px|[ Cumulus and Cirrocumulus clouds (Local Weather v0.85)]] | |||
[[File:local_weather_0.85_02.jpg|150px|[ Cirrus and Cirrostratus clouds heralding a warmfront (Local Weather v0.85)]] | |||
[[File:local_weather_0.85_03.jpg|150px|[ 45 km cloud visibility range (Local Weather v0.85)]] | |||
[[File:local_weather_0.85_04.jpg|150px|[ Realistic cloud bottoms (Local Weather v0.85)]] | |||
[[File:local_weather_0.85_05.jpg|150px|[ Cumulus and Altocumulus clouds (Local Weather v0.85)]] | |||
== Nasal for newbies == | == Nasal for newbies == | ||