Changelog 3.2: Difference between revisions

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{{draft|changelog|This changelog is currently being written for the FlightGear 3.2 release. To see what is being worked on, check out [[Changelog 3.2.0]].
{{changelogs|prev=3.0|next=3.4}}
Feel free to help! If you are aware of any FlightGear related changes, please add them to the changelog.<br/>It's a good idea to check [[:Category:Changes_after_3.00|the newsletters since the last release]], and the git commit history.
To view the changelog for the most recent release, please see [[Changelog 3.00]].
We also encourage people to help by translating the changelog and appreciate all contributions, however please keep in mind that this changelog is not yet final!


}}
The FlightGear development team is delighted to announce the v3.2 release of FlightGear, the free, open-source flight simulator.  This new version contains many exciting new features, enhancements and bugfixes.  Highlights in this release include an experimental aircraft manager allowing users to download and load aircraft in-sim, a very capable built-in HTTP server, built-in voice synthesizer for ATIS messages, and many improvements to the Canvas rendering framework.
 
==Upcoming FlightGear Changelog==
 
<!--
The FlightGear development team is delighted to announce the v3.2 release of FlightGear, the free, open-source flight simulator.  This new version contains many exciting new features, enhancements and bugfixes.  Highlights in this release include integration of the FGCom voice communications client within the simulator, improved terrain rendering, faster scenery loading, and improved usability.  This release also coincides with the release of FlightGear World Scenery 2.0 - massively improved scenery data covering the entirety of the planet and incorporating OpenStreetMap roads and detailed terrain information from a variety of sources.


Founded in 1997, FlightGear is developed by a worldwide group of volunteers, brought together by a shared ambition to create  
Founded in 1997, FlightGear is developed by a worldwide group of volunteers, brought together by a shared ambition to create  
Line 17: Line 9:
FlightGear features more than 400 aircraft, a worldwide scenery database, a multi-player environment, detailed sky modelling, a flexible and open aircraft modelling system, varied networking options, multiple display support, a powerful scripting language and an open architecture. Best of all, being open-source, the simulator is owned by the community and everyone is encouraged to contribute.  
FlightGear features more than 400 aircraft, a worldwide scenery database, a multi-player environment, detailed sky modelling, a flexible and open aircraft modelling system, varied networking options, multiple display support, a powerful scripting language and an open architecture. Best of all, being open-source, the simulator is owned by the community and everyone is encouraged to contribute.  


Download FlightGear v3.2 for free from [http://www.flightgear.org FlightGear.org]
Download FlightGear v3.2 for free from [http://www.flightgear.org FlightGear.org].


FlightGear - Fly Free!
FlightGear - Fly Free!
-->


=== Major enhancements in this release ===
=== Major enhancements in this release ===
'''Surface Light Effects & OpenSceneGraph 3.2'''
Stuart committed a change that brings surface lights, including VASI/PAPI/taxi/runway etc. into the xml-defined Effects  framework.  Kudos to Tim Moore for his original Effects work - it made it very straightforward to enhance with support for point sprites and a custom texture generator required.
The relevant effect is data/Effects/surface-lights.eff.  It should allow development of ALS and Rembrandt variants.
Stuart also replaced some OSG color/normal binding calls that were removed  in OSG3.2.0, apparently because they were slow.  So, if your
build fails, please check you've got a recent OSG build installed.
'''Core'''
* [[Reset & re-init]] is merged and now enabled


'''Aircraft Modeling'''
'''Aircraft Modeling'''
* extra 500
* [[A Failure Management Framework for FlightGear]] has been added
* Tu-154B2 version 3.1
* The JSBSim flight dynamics model now has support for ground effects like bumpiness, solid-ground detection and adjusting of friction factors. Additionally, bogey type contact points sink in non-solid surfaces, making it no longer possible to ride on water.
* additional aircraft have started adopting Gijs' [[NavDisplay]]
* YASim now has versioning support. The YASim FDM now checks a version tag in it's configuration file to allow improvements to the YASim FDM without risking breaking older aircraft.
 
* Additional aircraft have started adopting the [[NavDisplay|Canvas navigation display]] that was introduced with FlightGear 3.0.
'''JSBSim'''
* ground effects (see newsletter 02/2014)
 
'''Environment Rendering'''
 
'''Performance'''
* F-JJTH and Stuart have started working on using osg::Simplifier [https://gitorious.org/fg/simgear/commit/3429e0072103a8c90d8e456f1f6b711099851225]: http://sourceforge.net/p/flightgear/mailman/flightgear-devel/thread/CAP3ntysifK34TxANKUj1s4Of_dJRg7dvJ74Gbko4zXVFHdV-YQ%40mail.gmail.com/#msg32016452


'''Misc/Uncategorized'''
'''Graphics'''
* AIModels use PagedLOD
* Improved rendering of VASI, PAPI, runway and taxiway lights.
* Optimise NavCache airport query
* Orbital rendering using textures from the NASA Visible Earth project
* osg::Switch for masking scenery rendering
* Additions to the Atmospheric Light Scattering (ALS) rendering include:
* Torsten's metar work
** an experimental framework to render cloud shadows on the ground (requires Advanced Weather)
* HTTP: improve handling of connection errors
** a substantial extension of cloud layer visibility using impostor techniques to 150 km
** a new agriculture effect allowing to render fields without tiling artifacts
** a new forest effect to simulate managed forest, varying tree size by patch
** sparkle and fog effect on runway lights
** much improved visual appearance of rock faces


''' Usability '''
''' Usability '''
 
* An experimental aircraft package manager allows the download of new aircraft, and changing the current aircraft in-sim.
 
* A new internal web server (aka httpd) based on mongoose httpd has been added. It supports various AJAX requests, a screenshot server, a property tree browser, and a web-based moving map and much more.
''' Internationalization '''
* The integrated [[Map]] dialog now uses an azimuthal equidistant projection, for better representation in polar regions and across the International Date Line.
 
* Windows users are now able to use the scroll wheel in dialog lists
 
''' Scenery '''
 


'''Canvas System'''
'''Canvas System'''


FlightGear's fully scriptable 2D rendering system now includes improved APIs for creating maps and navigation displays amongst many other improvements.
Improvements to Canvas, FlightGear's scriptable 2D rendering system include
People no longer need to have programming experience to add a working ND to their aircraft, it can  now  be all done by copying and pasting 30 lines of text and customizing a few properties. The so called MapStructure back-end handles efficient updating of all ND layers transparently.
* Better performance
 
* Hooray is working on adding shader support to Canvas {{Progressbar|30}}
* Gijs is currently working on additional projections as part of {{Issue|550}}
* The [[MapStructure]] back-end used by the [[NavDisplay]] now supports symbol instancing, so that performance is improved
* MapStructure-based layers can now be customized and styled
* MapStructure-based layers can now be customized and styled
* Tom added support for button/modifiers (mouse handling) [http://wiki.flightgear.org/index.php?title=Canvas_Event_Handling&curid=10777&diff=68569&oldid=68422]
* Support for mouse button and modifiers
* CanvasImage now supports the ''http://'' protocol for dynamically retrieving raster images.
* An experimental Map dialog using Canvas is available under the Equipment menu.
* Canvas Layout Engine


'''Nasal Scripting'''
'''Nasal Scripting'''
 
* A new fully-interactive Nasal GUI console based on [[Canvas]] has been added: [[Interactive Nasal Console]]
* getprop()/setprop() arguments (those that form a path) can now be numeric to specify a index, so:
* the hard-coded '''flight path history''' subsystem which samples aircraft position is now exposed via Nasal.
<syntaxhighlight lang="nasal">
getprop("canvas/by-index", "texture", 1, "name");
</syntaxhighlight>
: is now the same as:
<syntaxhighlight lang="nasal">
getprop("canvas/by-index/texture[1]/name");
</syntaxhighlight>
: (see [https://gitorious.org/fg/flightgear/commit/5eee5e42ae4f5cf56283b3bf5a3be46efc2b51c4 merge request 54] and [https://gitorious.org/fg/flightgear/commit/34ed79e5f88ffdfc5e651a1fe3e639cb8f4d3353 actual commit])
'''Documentation'''
'''Documentation'''
* Nasal documentation is now included,


'''Highlighted new and improved aircraft'''
'''Highlighted new and improved aircraft'''
* [[Boeing 757-200]]: Improved autopilot and additional systems, like hydraulics and pneumatic. The aircraft comes with two engine options.
* [[Cessna 337G Skymaster]]: Tuned autopilot and improved instrument stack.
* [[Mainair Flash 2 Alpha]]: Simulated weightshift-control and new wing model.
* [[North American P-51 Mustang|North American P-51D]]: All new highly accurate external model based on factory blueprints.
* [[Tupolev Tu-154B|Tupolev Tu-154B2]]: version 3.1


'''Other'''
'''Other'''
* A text-to-speech system based on flite+hts_engine has been implemented, which is used for ATIS and other messages.
* Improved loading behaviour for AI/MP aircraft


'''Bug fixes'''
'''Bug fixes'''
 
* A serious bug was found late in the release causing large numbers of crashes.  Fixing this delayed he release, but had a nice side-effect of improving performance on some systems that were previously CPU-limited.
* See [http://code.google.com/p/flightgear-bugs/issues/list?can=1&q=Milestone%3D3.0 our bugtracker] for an extensive, yet incomplete, list of the bugs fixed in this release.
* See [http://code.google.com/p/flightgear-bugs/issues/list?can=1&q=Milestone%3D3.2 our bugtracker] for an extensive, yet incomplete, list of the bugs fixed in this release.


[[Category:FlightGear changelogs]]
[[Category:FlightGear changelogs]]

Latest revision as of 10:28, 27 November 2016

Previous changelog Next changelog

The FlightGear development team is delighted to announce the v3.2 release of FlightGear, the free, open-source flight simulator. This new version contains many exciting new features, enhancements and bugfixes. Highlights in this release include an experimental aircraft manager allowing users to download and load aircraft in-sim, a very capable built-in HTTP server, built-in voice synthesizer for ATIS messages, and many improvements to the Canvas rendering framework.

Founded in 1997, FlightGear is developed by a worldwide group of volunteers, brought together by a shared ambition to create the most realistic flight simulator possible that is free to use, modify and distribute. FlightGear is used all over the world by desktop flight simulator enthusiasts, for research in universities and for interactive exhibits in museums.

FlightGear features more than 400 aircraft, a worldwide scenery database, a multi-player environment, detailed sky modelling, a flexible and open aircraft modelling system, varied networking options, multiple display support, a powerful scripting language and an open architecture. Best of all, being open-source, the simulator is owned by the community and everyone is encouraged to contribute.

Download FlightGear v3.2 for free from FlightGear.org.

FlightGear - Fly Free!

Major enhancements in this release

Aircraft Modeling

  • A Failure Management Framework for FlightGear has been added
  • The JSBSim flight dynamics model now has support for ground effects like bumpiness, solid-ground detection and adjusting of friction factors. Additionally, bogey type contact points sink in non-solid surfaces, making it no longer possible to ride on water.
  • YASim now has versioning support. The YASim FDM now checks a version tag in it's configuration file to allow improvements to the YASim FDM without risking breaking older aircraft.
  • Additional aircraft have started adopting the Canvas navigation display that was introduced with FlightGear 3.0.

Graphics

  • Improved rendering of VASI, PAPI, runway and taxiway lights.
  • Orbital rendering using textures from the NASA Visible Earth project
  • Additions to the Atmospheric Light Scattering (ALS) rendering include:
    • an experimental framework to render cloud shadows on the ground (requires Advanced Weather)
    • a substantial extension of cloud layer visibility using impostor techniques to 150 km
    • a new agriculture effect allowing to render fields without tiling artifacts
    • a new forest effect to simulate managed forest, varying tree size by patch
    • sparkle and fog effect on runway lights
    • much improved visual appearance of rock faces

Usability

  • An experimental aircraft package manager allows the download of new aircraft, and changing the current aircraft in-sim.
  • A new internal web server (aka httpd) based on mongoose httpd has been added. It supports various AJAX requests, a screenshot server, a property tree browser, and a web-based moving map and much more.
  • The integrated Map dialog now uses an azimuthal equidistant projection, for better representation in polar regions and across the International Date Line.
  • Windows users are now able to use the scroll wheel in dialog lists

Canvas System

Improvements to Canvas, FlightGear's scriptable 2D rendering system include

  • Better performance
  • MapStructure-based layers can now be customized and styled
  • Support for mouse button and modifiers
  • CanvasImage now supports the http:// protocol for dynamically retrieving raster images.
  • An experimental Map dialog using Canvas is available under the Equipment menu.
  • Canvas Layout Engine

Nasal Scripting

  • A new fully-interactive Nasal GUI console based on Canvas has been added: Interactive Nasal Console
  • the hard-coded flight path history subsystem which samples aircraft position is now exposed via Nasal.

Documentation

  • Nasal documentation is now included,

Highlighted new and improved aircraft

Other

  • A text-to-speech system based on flite+hts_engine has been implemented, which is used for ATIS and other messages.
  • Improved loading behaviour for AI/MP aircraft

Bug fixes

  • A serious bug was found late in the release causing large numbers of crashes. Fixing this delayed he release, but had a nice side-effect of improving performance on some systems that were previously CPU-limited.
  • See our bugtracker for an extensive, yet incomplete, list of the bugs fixed in this release.