FlightGear Newsletter June 2014: Difference between revisions

{{Newsletter-cover-item|Preview: Aircraft Center - get it on the fly}}<br/>

{{Newsletter-cover-item|Canvas/MapStructure Updates}}<br/>

{{Newsletter-cover-header|Addons and mods}}<br/>

{{Newsletter-cover-item|Damage and disintegration}}<br/>

{{Newsletter-cover-header|In the hangar}}<br/>

{{Newsletter-cover-item|Beechcraft Bonanza}}<br/>

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On June 17, we entered our scheduled feature freeze state for the next release. Please use the remaining weeks to improve the existing features, harden and cleanup the code, edit the [[Next Changelog|ChangeLog]], improve the Manual, document the undocumented etc. etc. The release branches will be created on July 17th to have the release ready by Aug. 17th.

=== Widgets and Layouting ===

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[[File:Aircraft-center-prototype.png|270px|thumb|Canvas dialog showing the prototype for an [[Aircraft Center]] for directly installing/managing aircraft from within FlightGear, an upcoming feature scheduled for FlightGear 3.2, currently being developed by TheTom and Zakalawe]]

As long as you use the MapStructure framework, all layers can be easily used in dialogs AND instruments<br><br>Coding-wise, there isn't too much involved these days, all the details are covered in the MapStructure article.

Now that Hyde has committed Philosopher's latest changes, I'd be interested in getting some more feedback on performance.

We're also in the process of turning our map-canvas.xml dialog into a generic, and reusable, widget for $FG_ROOT/Nasal/canvas/gui/widgets - the widget is using the new Layout engine to align other widgets (checkboxes &amp; buttons for now). And one of our goals is to also modernize airports.xml (the airport selection dialog) such that it can use MapStructure. The simplest way would be to simply turn the PUI CanvasWidget into a Canvas.Window() so that layouting etc works as expected, and so that we can simply show the new scripted MapWidget there.

Native Canvas MapWidget Dialog.png|Native Canvas MapWidget dialog using just Canvas Widgets, the Map has been turned into a Canvas Widget itself, so that it can be easily embedded in other dialogs (obviously the whole thing still needs to be cleaned up, layouting isn't currently used yet). See [http://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=23391&p=213435#p213435]

Native Canvas MapWidget Dialog Prototyping.png|More Canvas/MapWidget prototyping. See [http://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=23391&p=213435#p213435]

MapStructure dialog with clipping and event handling applied.png|Screen shot showing TheTom's modified demo dialog with a [[MapStructure]] based map that has clipping and event handling applied, i.e. can respond to common mouse events in order to either display tooltips or support drag&drop-style GUI dialogs for editing map-like displays, e.g. for creating an [[Advanced weather]] GUI[http://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=17642]. Particular care must be taken to formalize z-index handling (rendering priority) for each MapStructure layer, which is something we still need to work out, especially for possibly overlapping symbols...

MapStructure-based Weather Editor Widget for Canvas using interactive and editable lcontroller files.png|This screen shot shows an experimental MapStructure-based Weather Editor Widget for [[Canvas]] using interactive and editable lcontroller files that respond to GUI events so that map symbols can be interactively placed on a map.

The legacy PUI-airport selection dialog using the new Canvas MapWidget.png|This is a screen shot showing Stuart's PUI/XML based airport selection dialog with an embedded Canvas MapWidget that is driven by Philosopher's [[MapStructure]] framework using TheTom's latest GUI/Layouting changes (e.g. checkbox widgets).

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{{Newsletter-article-start|Boeing 777 EFB prototype|By [[User:I-NEMO|I-NEMO]]}}

I have not finished it, yet (I'd say that it's almost 50% done).

As long as the underlying design for a "page"-based MFD framework is sufficiently generic, we can easily replace/augment raster images and procedurally created charts - we could even use the built-in support for fetching via HTTP to download images on-line. In fact, we could then even extend Canvas to directly support rendering PDFs (OSG supports this out-of-the-box), this would make many steps unnecessary, because we could directly access [http://airnav.com http://airnav.com] without having to download/convert/ship any imagery. The code required to pull this off would be very compact in comparison.

* support skinning/theming

The Nasal/Canvas data structures will be transparently created and compiled for each MFD. Each MFD consists of an arbitrary number of buttons, modes and pages. Each MFD can be instantiated multiple times, and each MFD is designed to be aircraft/instrument agnostic, i.e. also works just in a conventional Canvas dialog. Buttons can trigger and switch between modes, and modes may have pages (conventionally implemented through a single SVG file). Each page consists of an arbitrary number of page elements, which can in turn be animated/updated via listeners and timers.  Should look at existing displays, especially the [[NavDisplay]] and the update() method in navdisplay.mfd, but the most complete test-case would probably be the [[Avidyne Entegra R9]] }}

Canvas-mfd-framework-prototyping-with-mapstructure.png|This demonstrates how a purely XML-based MFD framework can instantiate dynamic [[MapStructure]] layers - none of this involves any [[Nasal]] coding now, it's just an XML file - to learn more, see [[Canvas Glass Cockpit Efforts]].

Canvas-mfd-framework-prototyping-with-mapstructure-with-kln89-skin.png|This screen shot shows the texture of the hard-coded KLN89 instrument used as a skin/theme for the MFD instrument, with a MapStructure-powered map shown.

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[[File:Fglogowiki.png]]

[[File:Fglogoforum.png]]

{{Newsletter-article-start|Damage and disintegration|By [[User:Algernon|Algernon]]|FlightGear addons and mods}}

The development team at FGUK have been experimenting with modelling aircraft damage in a number of different ways. First of all, Tomaskom has used the particle system carefully to produce visually impressive fireballs and smoke columns with very little FPS impact. First seen in his V-1, we hope to adapt this to simulate realistic fireballs for ground impacts (where appropriate). For the moment, it explodes with the full force of a V-1's explosive payload. On the right is a video excerpt from the #FlightNight which Tom organised to debut the V-1, where we all had '''way''' too much fun bombing London. As you can see, the smoke is visible from quite a long way away from the impact, and despite two fires burning with huge smoke columns, and over ten multiplayer aircraft within model range, the frame rates are still more than acceptable. StuartC has already integrated the explosion and fireball into several development aircraft, and we expect eventually to combine it with the disintegration code and make the size of the explosion dependent on fuel load etc.

Finally, and most spectacularly, Tomaskom has demonstrated the disintegration capabilities of his L-159, which is under development. Hopefully, he will explain all here before publication date.

{{Newsletter-article-start|Scenesetter|By [[User:Algernon|Algernon]]}}

{{Newsletter-article-start|Beechcraft Bonanza|By [[User:Flyingfisch|Flyingfisch]]|In the hangar}}

{{Newsletter-article-start|Call for volunteers||And finally...}}

* The [[TerraGear]] maintainers are looking for volunteers to help with development on the next world scenery project.  If you've ever wondered how a full 3D model of earth can be generated from raw data, now is your chance.  See the plan at [[TerraGear roadmap]].

[[Category:FlightGear Newsletter|2014 06]]

[[Category:Changes after 3.00]]