FlightGear Newsletter May 2015: Difference between revisions

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The latest addition to the Atmospheric Light Scattering framework is a procedural shader effect to render thruster and afterburner exhaust flames. This effect integrates over a 3d-distribution of glowing emitters in a bounding box, which means that it doesn't generate sharp edges in the visuals.

Flame color, density, distribution of shock diamonds and widening in thin atmosphere are all runtime configurable, allowing to account realistically for changed thrust or ambient pressure.

Here's an example application for the [[SpaceShuttle - Project Overview|Space Shuttle]] main engine - note how the exhaust plume is narrow early on and shows pronounced shock diamonds while it widens in the thin upper atmosphere:

It is now possible to adjust various offsets, including heading and pitch, during runtime. Furthermore, the x, y, and z offsets can be defined in metric units. Finally, the randomness of the azimuth (heading), elevation (pitch), Cd, and life can be defined. See http://wiki.flightgear.org/Howto:Add_submodels#Step_2_of_6:_Define_the_position_and_orientation

[[File:Submodel-offset.png|800px|A Phalanx CIWS shooting at an extraterrestrial weather balloon. The orange tracer bullets are submodels. The red line is a scaled model representing the aiming orientation of the Phalanx. ]]

 

The sound subsystem has been given some fixes so that the distance between the position of the current view and the sound's position is correctly computed.

Using the [[Canvas GUI]], you can make a simple tiled map using images downloaded on the fly  You can view the code behind the map at [[Canvas Snippets#A simple tile map]].

[[File:Canvas - Tile map demo.png|A simple, canvas based tile map which is centered around the aircraft.]]

=== New (4th!) ATC-pie release ===

[[ATC-pie]] now provides a '''solo training mode''' for ATCs. Using the same interface as the multi-player game mode and an additional instruction pane, you can choose to play offline and control virtual aircraft as Tower, Approach, Departure, or any combination of those positions. As MP traffic still can be scarce in many occasions on our network, this new game mode can be a solution for you not to give up on a planned session and give yourself some challenge. Also, you may learn from it enough to make your own MP sessions more popular over the network!

 

The c172p-detailed aircraft has been given a variant with pontoons (optionally with wheels) so that it can land on water. The aircraft will replace the old c172p in FlightGear 3.6.

The Scenery Project Elba has been started, aiming to improve the scenery of Elba, an island west of Italy. More information can be found on the wiki page: [[Scenery Project Elba]]. Contributions welcome! Development thread: http://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=26138<br/>

[[File:Elba.jpg|900px|center]]