2020 LTS Keflavik news post draft: Difference between revisions

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(Split content focusing on LTS, BIKF, Iceland improvements, and FG settings for Iceland to tour article - replace with brief summary. add current release philosophy)
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The points are the most important things, someone can go through and reword the language later. Just click edit and type using plain text. Wikimarkup knowledge isn't needed :).
The points are the most important things, someone can go through and reword the language later. Just click edit and type using plain text. Wikimarkup knowledge isn't needed :).
'''Update 1''': The part focusing on the LTS, default airport, and Iceland improvements has been split off into a tour post [http://wiki.flightgear.org/2020_LTS_airport_announcement_and_Iceland_intro_draft here].


==A preview of new features in the 2020.3 LTS "Keflavik"==
==A preview of new features in the 2020.3 LTS "Keflavik"==


[http://www.science-and-fiction.org/FG/pics/iceland04.jpg This screenshot by Thorsten is probably a good headline image]  
[http://www.science-and-fiction.org/FG/pics/iceland04.jpg This screenshot by Thorsten is probably a good headline image]  
===Current release philosophy===
As of 2018.3 LTS Flightgear has transitioned two release types:
# Long Term Stable (LTS) releases suitable for most users with a new featured airport
# Development preview releases
There will be ''point releases'' containing bugfixes and minor updates for both release types. For example, 2018.3.6 is the 6th bugfix point release for the 2018.3 LTS - it was released on 10/08/2020.
LTS releases will have bugfixes ported and the build maintained for longer. Development preview builds will be less stable, receive less testing, and are more of a construction site where large structural changes are made. Some aircraft may not work on development releases. Power users can run multiple installs of Flightgear [http://wiki.flightgear.org/$FG_HOME#Power_Users in parallel].
There are minor improvements planned to the launcher UI in 2020.3 point releases. There are a lot of big changes planned and already underway for development preview releases after 2020.3 LTS, so they may be less stable than usual.


Intro?
Intro?
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- lots updates over the last 2 years?  
- lots updates over the last 2 years?  
maybe add project info:  
maybe add project info:  
- the new release format?
- <s?the new release format? Done</s>
- mention the person who normally does the updates got busy and a lot of progress missed receiving updates?
- mention the person who normally does the updates got busy and a lot of progress missed receiving updates?
- project status with areas of ongoing core work?]
- project status with areas of ongoing core work?]
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===Welcome to Keflavik and Iceland===
===Welcome to Keflavik and Iceland===


FG's 2020 LTS will move to the world's newest country, geologically speaking, Iceland. Keflavík International Airport (BIKF) is the featured airport for the LTS. Keflavík airport is the largest airport in Iceland with 10 million people passing through in 2018. It serves as the international gateway to Iceland, and its 3 km runways are a Space Shuttle emergency landing site.
FG's 2020 LTS will move to the world's newest country, geologically speaking, Iceland. Keflavík International Airport (BIKF) is the featured airport for the LTS. Buildings, roads, and objects such as pylons are available as a [http://wiki.flightgear.org/Areas_populated_with_osm2city_scenery separate download] [and will/may be added to Terrasync later?].


[Screenshot of shuttle landing here, preferably with current keep]
A land of fire, smoke, and ice Flightgear models several volcanoes with multiple levels of activity: Eyjafjallajökull which disrupted aviation in 2010, Surtsey, and the brooding, powerful, Katla. There are new regional definitions for Iceland - try turning overlays on to see very high resolution ground detail.


Keflavik Airport is modeled in detail, including the art installations at the airport [names?]. For Iceland there are also buildings, roads, and objects like pylons for the whole country generated by the OSM2City project. These are available as a [http://wiki.flightgear.org/Areas_populated_with_osm2city_scenery separate download] [which will be added to TerraSync a later date?]. OSM2City buildings compatible with 2020 LTS have improved visuals and render faster.  
There is a lot to discover. You can try the C172p, J3Cub (with G1000), or Twin Otter which include float variants to explore the fjords of the north west, ski variants to land on one of the many ice caps in the south west, or bush tire variants in your adventures.


Possible screenshots (also needed for the article focusing on LTS, default airport announcement, Iceland improvements):
[Screenshot of shuttle landing here, preferably with current keep]
[Kelfavik art installation screenshot, Iceland OSM2City pictures]
[Kelfavik art installation screenshot, Iceland OSM2City pictures]
A land of fire, as well as ice, Iceland is still growing, and new parts are still being formed under the dancing Northern lights (remember to turn Auroras on and watch!). An example is the island of Surtsey formed in 1963 - and Surtsey's volcanic vents are now modeled in the LTS.
[Screenshot of Surtsey, screenshot of Aurora in Iceland]
[Screenshot of Surtsey, screenshot of Aurora in Iceland]
Iceland's volcanoes are often strato-volcanoes with their steeper cone shaped sides, as the viscous lava here flows less easily and becoming hard before spreading far. Eruptions can be explosive, as gasses remain trapped. There are some shield volcanoes too, with their the shallower domes shapes similar to the volcanoes of Hawaii.
[Screenshot of a volcano with no eruption?]
[Screenshot of a volcano with no eruption?]
Flightgear models several Icelandic volcanoes at multiple activity levels; Eyjafjallajökull, Surtsey, and Katla. Eyjafjallajökull and it's cloud of volcanic ash caused severe disruption to aviation in 2010. Katla is a far bigger volcano located nearby. Past eruptions at Katla have ranged from a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 4 like Eyjafjallajökull, to a VEI of 6 like Mount Pinturbo (1991) or Krakatoa (1883). Scarily Katla is somewhat overdue for an eruption. Screenshots don't do justice to the boiling turbulence of a volcanic plume like Katla. We won't spoil it, so you can discover and appreciate the scale of the forces involved [unless someone has a particularly nice screenshot?]. FG's Advanced Weather engine now models the increased turbulence in wind-fields associated with volcanic activity, so beware!.
Iceland has rugged volcanic terrain with glaciers, deserts, ice caps, marshes, fjords and a cool wet climate. There is plenty to discover. The island has only been colonised recently by both nature and people. There are almost no trees, as the young forests were cleared by early settlers. To re-create the stark subpolar setting, remember to turn on overlays which add high resolution 3d detail, and set [http://wiki.flightgear.org/Anti-aliasing#Transparency_anti-aliasing Transparency Anti-Aliasing] to MSAA in the GPU control panel (or supersampling on powerful cards). As Iceland has few trees, people with older GPUs may find they have spare performance and can use overlays in Iceland.
[Screenshots: [http://www.science-and-fiction.org/FG/pics/iceland03.jpg this] one of Iceland terrain, maybe screenshot of overlays with transparency AA turned up high like [http://wiki.flightgear.org/File:Bell_412_in_Iceland_(Flightgear_2019.x).jpg this] ]
[Screenshots: [http://www.science-and-fiction.org/FG/pics/iceland03.jpg this] one of Iceland terrain, maybe screenshot of overlays with transparency AA turned up high like [http://wiki.flightgear.org/File:Bell_412_in_Iceland_(Flightgear_2019.x).jpg this] ]
 
[Screenshots of varying environment sliders in Iceland]
A place needs 4 dimensions to describe it, 3 in space and 1 in time. Any default setting can only be a moment in time, and in FG the ever-changing cycles of nature is simulated from the Environment > Environment Settings menu. In FG's environment sliders, Iceland is often suited being towards the autumn season with wet ground and moss.
 
[Screenshots of varying environment sliders]
 
Flightgear's Advanced Weather (AW) engine simulates terrain-driven, continually evolving, weather - look under Environment > Detailed Weather > Advanced Weather settings for controls. To recreate the turbulent windfields associated with the rugged mountainous terrain make sure terrain effects and presampling is enabled. The controls for detailed gust controls, cloud shadows, ground haze and structure are also there. For shorter trips you may want to decrease the sizes of distinct air masses and scales of weather patterns, to see more change. There are far more weather variables under the hood than are [can be?] exposed in the GUI, and these are randomised each time the AW simulation is restarted - press 'Apply' to restart. Remember that to recreate Iceland's cool temperatures, the temperature offset needs be lowered to adjust the weather scenarios used AW simulation. As temperatures decrease, rain will turn to snow or hail as appropriate, and with lower temperatures you'll be rewarded with stunning halos and scattering by ice crystals in clouds.
 
[at least one screenshot of weather in Iceland: red ice crystal halo at sunset like [http://wiki.flightgear.org/File:Aurora_Borealis_and_Sun_halo_in_Northern_Norway_in_Autumn_(Flightgear_2019.x).jpg this]]
[at least one screenshot of weather in Iceland: red ice crystal halo at sunset like [http://wiki.flightgear.org/File:Aurora_Borealis_and_Sun_halo_in_Northern_Norway_in_Autumn_(Flightgear_2019.x).jpg this]]


[Mention some nice airports? BIIS? BIAR?]
[Mention C172p float, ski, bush tire variants? J3Cub improvements? Twin Otter is also suitable]
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Revision as of 13:38, 28 October 2020

This is the draft for a (potential!) news post announcing Keflavik as the default airport with screenshots. Similar to the 2018.3 LTS Honolulu announcement post. A more detailed overview of features with associated screenshots could be done as a later post.

Since Thorsten is busy this one can be crowdsourced a bit :).

The points are the most important things, someone can go through and reword the language later. Just click edit and type using plain text. Wikimarkup knowledge isn't needed :).

Update 1: The part focusing on the LTS, default airport, and Iceland improvements has been split off into a tour post here.

A preview of new features in the 2020.3 LTS "Keflavik"

This screenshot by Thorsten is probably a good headline image

Current release philosophy

As of 2018.3 LTS Flightgear has transitioned two release types:

  1. Long Term Stable (LTS) releases suitable for most users with a new featured airport
  2. Development preview releases

There will be point releases containing bugfixes and minor updates for both release types. For example, 2018.3.6 is the 6th bugfix point release for the 2018.3 LTS - it was released on 10/08/2020.

LTS releases will have bugfixes ported and the build maintained for longer. Development preview builds will be less stable, receive less testing, and are more of a construction site where large structural changes are made. Some aircraft may not work on development releases. Power users can run multiple installs of Flightgear in parallel.

There are minor improvements planned to the launcher UI in 2020.3 point releases. There are a lot of big changes planned and already underway for development preview releases after 2020.3 LTS, so they may be less stable than usual.


Intro?

[Add intro mentioning: - lots updates over the last 2 years? maybe add project info: - <s?the new release format? Done - mention the person who normally does the updates got busy and a lot of progress missed receiving updates? - project status with areas of ongoing core work?]

[This turned into a intro for announcing LTS/Keflavik/Iceland, and also a piece on settings to enjoy Iceland which is also something that should be written. It's possible to focus just on these two things, and leave the features for a followup article after release.]

Welcome to Keflavik and Iceland

FG's 2020 LTS will move to the world's newest country, geologically speaking, Iceland. Keflavík International Airport (BIKF) is the featured airport for the LTS. Buildings, roads, and objects such as pylons are available as a separate download [and will/may be added to Terrasync later?].

A land of fire, smoke, and ice Flightgear models several volcanoes with multiple levels of activity: Eyjafjallajökull which disrupted aviation in 2010, Surtsey, and the brooding, powerful, Katla. There are new regional definitions for Iceland - try turning overlays on to see very high resolution ground detail.

There is a lot to discover. You can try the C172p, J3Cub (with G1000), or Twin Otter which include float variants to explore the fjords of the north west, ski variants to land on one of the many ice caps in the south west, or bush tire variants in your adventures.

Possible screenshots (also needed for the article focusing on LTS, default airport announcement, Iceland improvements): [Screenshot of shuttle landing here, preferably with current keep] [Kelfavik art installation screenshot, Iceland OSM2City pictures] [Screenshot of Surtsey, screenshot of Aurora in Iceland] [Screenshot of a volcano with no eruption?] [Screenshots: this one of Iceland terrain, maybe screenshot of overlays with transparency AA turned up high like this ] [Screenshots of varying environment sliders in Iceland] [at least one screenshot of weather in Iceland: red ice crystal halo at sunset like this]

Add more things here..possibly: - mention a few major improvements and the space shuttle (backed by high settings screenshots), or leave it for later? - Add a mention that a more detailed article about features mentioned in the changelog is underway

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