Dual control: Difference between revisions

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* [[Zeppelin NT]], pilot and copilot (<tt>ZLT-NT</tt>, <tt>ZLT-NT-copilot</tt>). Available in FlightGear 1.9.0 and later.
* [[Zeppelin NT]], pilot and copilot (<tt>ZLT-NT</tt>, <tt>ZLT-NT-copilot</tt>). Available in FlightGear 1.9.0 and later.
* [[Blackburn Buccaneer]], pilot and systems officer (<tt>buccaneer</tt>, <tt>buccaneer-obs</tt>). Available in FlightGear 1.9.0 or later.
* [[Blackburn Buccaneer]], pilot and systems officer (<tt>buccaneer</tt>, <tt>buccaneer-obs</tt>). Available in FlightGear 1.9.0 or later.
* [[Grumman_F-14_Tomcat]], pilot and RIO (<tt>f-14b</tt>, <tt>f-14b-bs</tt>). Available in FLightGear/CVS.
* [[Grumman_F-14_Tomcat]], pilot and RIO (<tt>f-14b</tt>, <tt>f-14b-bs</tt>). Available in FlightGear/CVS.
* [[Submarine_Scout]], pilot and observer (<tt>Submarine_Scout</tt>, <tt>Submarine_Scout-observer</tt>). Available in FlightGear/CVS.
* c172p Skyhawk, pilot and copilot (<tt>c172p-pilot</tt> and <tt>c172p-copilot</tt>). Based on David Megginson's [[Cessna C172|c172p]] single control aircraft. Available from [http://www.gidenstam.org/FlightGear/DualControl/Aircraft the dual-control aircraft hangar]. The tar.gz archive for the aircraft should be extracted in $FG_ROOT/Aircraft/.
* c172p Skyhawk, pilot and copilot (<tt>c172p-pilot</tt> and <tt>c172p-copilot</tt>). Based on David Megginson's [[Cessna C172|c172p]] single control aircraft. Available from [http://www.gidenstam.org/FlightGear/DualControl/Aircraft the dual-control aircraft hangar]. The tar.gz archive for the aircraft should be extracted in $FG_ROOT/Aircraft/.



Revision as of 09:53, 4 August 2009

Dual Control is a system for FlightGear that adds basic support for shared control of an aircraft over the FlightGear multiplayer network.

Note: The Dec 2008 FlightGear release, version 1.9 or later, is needed to use Dual Control.

Aircraft

Currently there are currently a small number of aircraft with dual control support:

  • Zeppelin NT, pilot and copilot (ZLT-NT, ZLT-NT-copilot). Available in FlightGear 1.9.0 and later.
  • Blackburn Buccaneer, pilot and systems officer (buccaneer, buccaneer-obs). Available in FlightGear 1.9.0 or later.
  • Grumman_F-14_Tomcat, pilot and RIO (f-14b, f-14b-bs). Available in FlightGear/CVS.
  • Submarine_Scout, pilot and observer (Submarine_Scout, Submarine_Scout-observer). Available in FlightGear/CVS.
  • c172p Skyhawk, pilot and copilot (c172p-pilot and c172p-copilot). Based on David Megginson's c172p single control aircraft. Available from the dual-control aircraft hangar. The tar.gz archive for the aircraft should be extracted in $FG_ROOT/Aircraft/.

To connect the pilot and copilot selects each other in the Copilot dialog (FlightGear/CVS) or set properties as explained in the usage instructions below.

Dual control enables a pilot and copilot to jointly fly the aircraft over the FlightGear multiplayer network. Depending on the aircraft the pilot and copilot have shared control over primary flight controls, throttle, mixture and so on. Exactly which controls are shared varies between the aircraft but usually include elevator trim, flaps, brakes, cockpit switches, the radio stack and some instrument settings. The copilot usually has a subset of the full instrumentation (also depending on the aircraft), usually including airspeed, altimeter, VSI, HSI, turn coordinator, engine RPM and the radio stack. Typically Nav/Comm 1 and the first VOR indicator is best controlled by the pilot, while Nav/Comm 2 and the corresponding VOR indicator is faster for the copilot.

ZLT-NT-dual.jpg Side-by-side presentation of the Zeppelin NT pilot's (left) and copilot's (right) views.

Usage instruction

The system consists of two "aircraft":

The pilot uses a special variant of the c172p, c172p-pilot. The pilot need to specify the callsign of the copilot (other copilots will be ignored). For the Zeppelin NT the aircraft names are ZLT-NT and ZLT-NT-copilot, respectively.

In the current version the pilot and copilot select can each other in their Co/Pilot selection dialogs available from the "Zeppelin NT/c172p-dual-control"->"MP-(Co)Pilot" menus.

Alternatively the relevant properties can be set from the command line or via the property browser.

Pilot usage example:

fgfs --aircraft=c172p-pilot --prop:/sim/remote/pilot-callsign="someone" 

The copilot uses a special "aircraft", c172p-copilot, which piggybacks on the designated pilot and captures the local control inputs. A current limitation is that only the cockpit views are jitter free. There is also a noticeable delay between control inputs and effect, since they are passed via the the multiplayer protocol. The severity of this delay depend on round trip time and some other factors - the delay seems significantly longer than the round trip time itself which is due to buffering in the MP protocol receiver. That said, I have flown successfully as copilot in a setup with 100-120ms round trip time between both pilot and server and copilot and server (total delay >500ms). Landing is a bit exciting in that case, however.

Copilot usage example:

fgfs --aircraft=c172p-copilot --prop:/sim/remote/pilot-callsign="anybody"

Note: External views are jitter prone for the copilot.

Developer information

The main part of the Dual Control system is a set of generic Nasal modules and modified instrument files that form the core of the networked shared control functionality. See the link below for some more information.

External links