FlightGear Newsletter February 2011: Difference between revisions
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== FlightGear events == | == FlightGear events == | ||
== Development news == | == Development news == | ||
===Sound files for 3D Audio=== | |||
Recently there seems to be some confusion about what types of sound files are supported for 3D audio rendering. More and more stereo files showed up resulting in reports of soundmanager problems. Let's explain a bit more about how 3D audio works, especially for OpenAL. | |||
A 3D audio, or spatialized audio, implementation consists of one listener (like the OpenGL viewer) and multiple audio sources. A listener is placed at a specific location and has an orientation (view direction). Sources are placed in the scene at their own location and an emission direction which is used to calculate the sound cone for non omni-directional sounds (sound sources that sound louder in one direction and softer or even quiet in the opposite direction). Sound sources can best be seen as a single dot emitting sound waves. | |||
The relative positions of the sources and the listener are used to calculate where the sources should be positioned in the listeners sound sphere. Now if a sound source would be anything but mono it is almost impossible to guess how to handle all the channels in 3D space; | |||
* do they get mixed together which makes stereo files rather useless anyhow. | |||
* do the the separate tracks get positioned with a slight offset to each other, which basically means mixing them together at any distance but very near. | |||
* or do they get positioned at the same location but with a sound direction offset of 180⁰, which again means mixing them together for omni-directional sources. | |||
There is something to say for any of the choices but you can bet that if one of the three was chosen someone else comes by and wants it to be different. | |||
For this reason it is specified that only mono files will be used for 3D audio processing and stereo files will mixed using the stereo mixer instead. Trying to set a position or direction for a stereo file will result in an error like: | |||
''Failed to load WAV file: Unsupported mode within an otherwise usable file type'' | |||
== Nasal for newbies == | == Nasal for newbies == | ||
== New software tools and projects == | == New software tools and projects == | ||
Revision as of 09:47, 5 February 2011
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We would like to emphasize that the monthly newsletter can not live without the contributions of FlightGear users and developers. Everyone with a wiki account (free to register) can edit the newsletter and every contribution is welcome. So if you know about any FlightGear related projects such as for example updated scenery or aircraft, please do feel invited to add such news to the newsletter.
FlightGear events
Development news
Sound files for 3D Audio
Recently there seems to be some confusion about what types of sound files are supported for 3D audio rendering. More and more stereo files showed up resulting in reports of soundmanager problems. Let's explain a bit more about how 3D audio works, especially for OpenAL.
A 3D audio, or spatialized audio, implementation consists of one listener (like the OpenGL viewer) and multiple audio sources. A listener is placed at a specific location and has an orientation (view direction). Sources are placed in the scene at their own location and an emission direction which is used to calculate the sound cone for non omni-directional sounds (sound sources that sound louder in one direction and softer or even quiet in the opposite direction). Sound sources can best be seen as a single dot emitting sound waves.
The relative positions of the sources and the listener are used to calculate where the sources should be positioned in the listeners sound sphere. Now if a sound source would be anything but mono it is almost impossible to guess how to handle all the channels in 3D space;
- do they get mixed together which makes stereo files rather useless anyhow.
- do the the separate tracks get positioned with a slight offset to each other, which basically means mixing them together at any distance but very near.
- or do they get positioned at the same location but with a sound direction offset of 180⁰, which again means mixing them together for omni-directional sources.
There is something to say for any of the choices but you can bet that if one of the three was chosen someone else comes by and wants it to be different.
For this reason it is specified that only mono files will be used for 3D audio processing and stereo files will mixed using the stereo mixer instead. Trying to set a position or direction for a stereo file will result in an error like:
Failed to load WAV file: Unsupported mode within an otherwise usable file type
Nasal for newbies
New software tools and projects
FlightGear addons and mods
In the hangar
New aircraft
Updated aircraft
Liveries
Scenery corner
Airports
Aircraft of the month
Airport of the month
Screenshot of the month
Suggested flights
Aircraft reviews
Wiki updates
New articles
<DynamicArticleList>
type=new count=10
</DynamicArticleList>
New aircraft articles
<DynamicArticleList>
type=new count=10 categoryRoot=Aircraft
</DynamicArticleList>
Most popular newsletters
<DynamicArticleList>
type=hot count=5 categoryRoot=FlightGear Newsletter
</DynamicArticleList>
Community news
FlightGear on youtube
New tutorials and screencasts
Forum news
Multiplayer
Virtual airlines
Useful links
And finally ...
Contributing
One of the regular thoughts expressed on the FlightGear forums is "I'd like to contribute but I don't know how to program, and I don't have the time". Unfortunately, there is a common misconception that contributing requires programming and lots of free time. In fact, there are a huge range of ways to contribute to the project without needing to write code or spending days working on something.
For ideas on starting to contribute to FlightGear, you may want to check out: Volunteer.
Call for volunteers
The OpenRadar project is looking for a new maintainer.
The TerraGear GUI project is looking for programmers to help create a GUI frontend for TerraGear [1].
The FGFSPM (FlightGear Package Manager) is looking for a new maintainer.
Reminder: Google's Summer of Code 2011
FlightGear project is planning to participate in GSoC 2011. However, doing that really requires a fair amount of work, planning and organizing. This is not something that can be done by a single person. It really needs a coordinated team effort, or otherwise FlightGear won't be able to apply/participate at all, and has not participated in past years.
So all users are invited to help us progress further with our preparations for GSoC 2011. If you have any questions or other feedback, please use the forum to get in touch.
Thanks for reading FlightGear Newsletter February 2011