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Howto:Make an aircraft: Difference between revisions
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This approach has a number of things going for it that benefit the FlightGear community as well as someone new trying to become an active member of the community. There are currently way too many aircraft in a very incomplete state that need tons of work. By working on these less complete aircraft you help move the ball forward on that aircraft. For someone new to one of the best places to start is doing cockpit work. Since the learning curve is fairly steep (you need to learn a 3D modeling tool plus a lot of other stuff that has been mentioned in this thread) it is best to start with something very simple. | This approach has a number of things going for it that benefit the FlightGear community as well as someone new trying to become an active member of the community. There are currently way too many aircraft in a very incomplete state that need tons of work. By working on these less complete aircraft you help move the ball forward on that aircraft. For someone new to one of the best places to start is doing cockpit work. Since the learning curve is fairly steep (you need to learn a 3D modeling tool plus a lot of other stuff that has been mentioned in this thread) it is best to start with something very simple. | ||
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|One of the better approaches for a noob is to start out working on improving something that is already there but needs work. It limits the steepness of learning curve and allows you to actually get something done in the short term. This allows you to keep the frustration level down while learning how things work. Only a small % of aircraft development noobs who start a new aircraft without having done some previous work on another aircraft actually manage produce something worth while. It does happen but it is rare - the recent Bonanza work by a noob is an example of one of these rare cases. A much larger % of those who start off doing smaller tasks on existing aircraft end up making a significant contribution either by doing smaller things to a lot of aircraft or by transforming an existing aircraft into something much better (the P-51D is an example of one of these) or after building a decent skill set doing their own aircraft from scratch. <br/> | |||
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Doing some cockpit work on the X-02 sounds like the next logical step for you. This will allow you to do some 3D modeling (pick something that is fairly simple for your first 3D model) and more XML work and will move you another step up the learning curve while still allowing you to get something working in a relatively short time frame.<br/> | |||
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We come in all different ages here. Some of us are very old and some are very young and many are somewhere in between. It does not matter. We can all learn new things and if we try we can all contribute something. What matters is your attitude and aptitude and you appear to be on the right track with both.. | |||
|{{cite web |url=http://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?p=213634#p213634 | |||
|title=<nowiki>Re: Idea: Ace Combat Fictional Aircraft Set</nowiki> | |||
|author=<nowiki>hvengel</nowiki> | |||
|date=<nowiki>Fri Jun 27</nowiki> | |||
}} | |||
}} | |||
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 FG git, 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. | 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 FG git, 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. | ||