FlightGear Newsletter April 2015

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This newsletter is a draft.

Please feel free to add content you think will be of interest to the FlightGear community. Read the latest newsletter at FlightGear Newsletter March 2015.



Magagazine.png
Enjoy reading the latest edition!
Please help us write the coming edition!
April 2015

Development news
FlightGear now lives at SourceForge
Spaceflight
Understanding Rembrandt and VSync
SVG transparency

In the hanger
Boeing 707 liveries
Scenery Corner
Community News
FlightGear a featured project at SourceForge
FG Flights blog
New FGCom server maintainer

Contributing
Better accessibility for FlightGear
Translators required
FlightGear logos
Screenshots

Development news

Cquote1.png Hi all, I have deleted the gitorious OpenRTI repository in favor of the sourceforge repository that I already maintained since the original

berlios repository was closed.

To move your local clone over to the sourceforge repository you can just set the url of your remote repository to the new url. For the usual clone where the default remote repository is called 'origin', the command reads git remote set-url origin git://git.code.sf.net/p/openrti/OpenRTI

I hope that this one lasts a little longer ... Greetings Mathias


— Mathias Fröhlich (2015-04-16). [Flightgear-devel] OpenRTI gitorious git repository deleted.
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FlightGear now lives at SourceForge

The move from Gitorious to SourceForge is now completed. A historical read-only record will remain at gitorious.org as well as other public locations.[1] Hooks have been added so that every commit to either of the FlightGear, SimGear or FGData repositories will (hopefully) trigger sending a message to the flightgear-commitlogs mailing list.[2]

Spaceflight

Development and test of spaceflight in FG continues. Based on information in the official crew manual, the Space Shuttle has received various digital autopilot (DAP) modes for maneuvering in orbit and an improved control logic for thrust vectoring during ascent. A guidance computer for re-entry has been added to aid trajectory management during this rather challenging part of the mission. The spacecraft has now been tested for a successful de-orbit maneuver aimed at a pre-selected landing site.

Work on simulating the aerodynamical, thermal and structural limits of the orbiter as well as damage is currently in progress.

Cockpit of the Space Shuttle as of April 2015 Groundtrack map for spaceflight

The addition of a 3d cockpit has also begun - currently most instruments are simply static textures, but several displays should be functional soon. Other developments are more generally useful beyond the Shuttle - such as a groundtrack map and improvements to the Earthview rendering engine using procedural overlay texturing, making textures appear at higher resolution than they actually are.

Test flights using a Nasal-controlled object on an analytically computed Kepler orbit suggest that docking to an AI space station or interactions with satellites should in fact be quite possible to implement.

Modelers interested in realistic spaceflight are very welcome to come aboard and help taking Flightgear to the limits.

Understanding Rembrandt and VSync

Cquote1.png For the last few weeks I've been getting to grips with the way that deferred rendering works in an attempt to figure out why we don't get the framerate that we should.

I've written up my findings here http://chateau-logic.com/content/deferred-rendering-rembrandt-performance

It appears that vsync is causing problems; and I get a marked improvement in deferred rendering performance (Rembrandt) using the following flags: —prop:/sim/rendering/vsync-enable=false —prop:/sim/frame-rate-throttle-hz=60

Without these flags I get 30fps with nothing visible (/sim/rendering/draw-mask all false). With these flags I get 60fps when drawing nothing which is what I'd expect. What I'd like to know know is whether this makes a difference to anyone else - so I'd appreciate any test result FPS figures (with and without the flag) with graphics card and CPU posted here.

I didn't figure out if vsync can be turned off per camera; but I'm 99.9% certain that this is what vsync is causing to happen on my configuration.


— Richard Harrison (2015-03-29). [Flightgear-devel] Deferred rendering (Rembrandt) performance.
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Also see: what is VSync ?

SVG transparency

A small patch enable flightGear to display transparency in SVG file.

Current support is only for fill-opacity or stroke-opacity and a small bug if the value is 0.0.

without SVG transparencyWith SVG transparency

In the hangar

Boeing 707 liveries

Seven new liveries are now available for Boeing 707.

  • British Airways
  • British Airways cargo
  • British Caledonian
  • China Airlines
  • Pakistan International Airlines
  • Trans European Airways
  • Belize Airways Ltd. (Nick Reimer, others by sanhozay).

See this forum post for more information. Download the liveries here.

Scenery corner

Community news

FlightGear a featured project at SourceForge

Cquote1.png I just wanted to post a quick message letting everyone know that next week

FlightGear will be a featured project of the week on SourceForge's front
page. There are a variety of inputs into the selection process and it
should be some nice exposure for our little project.

Congratulations and thanks everyone! :-)

We should expect some increased traffic and a few new visitors taking a
look at FlightGear for the first time. Please keep this in mind if we see
more new questions on this list or on the forum than usual.

Fly on!

Curt.


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FG Flights blog

A new blog by gsagostinho focused on sharing screenshots of short flights, particularly with GA aircraft. The link is http://fgflights.blogspot.cz/?view=sidebar.

New FGCom server maintainer

Note
Cquote1.png Our FGCom server (fgcom.flightgear.org) has disappeared from the radars. Any volunteer to host a new one or any plan to provide the voice service?
— Guy Brand (2015-04-05). [Flightgear-devel] New fgcom server needed.
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Cquote1.png The fgcom server was provided through a generous donation of a contributor who quietly purchased a VPS specifically for fgcom out of his own personal resources. That contributor has quietly left the project and I suspect that the disappearance of fgcom is a consequence of his departure. It sounds like we need to find a new volunteer to host the fgcom server and set up and maintain the software.
— Curtis Olson (2015-04-06). Re: [Flightgear-devel] New fgcom server needed.
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Contributing

Better accessibility for FlightGear

Cquote1.png I’d like to set up a dedicated web site for those of us with any disability to have ways to get around Flight Gear. I was also thinking even maybe we could find some developers who are disabled who would be interested in helping us set up Flight Gear for all disabilities? I think we can do some of this on Source Forge. If we have some developers here on the Flightgear list who would like to help if I could get names that would be helpful so then I have a list. I would be happy to help develop some as well. I am unfortunately not a Java programmer but can do html type stuff and the Nasel stuff doesn’t look to terribly bad to learn. I’d also like to see if we can make packs for speech like in our turns so we know what direction one is going as they turn. There are many more things. I have to be honest Flight Gear is a platform for me to become familiar with what I will also need for actual flight. I plan to attack flight lessons myself and FG gives me a good foundation to handle some of these concerns for a bigger project I may have later. I’d like to personally thank everyone who answers and would be willing to help.
— Scott Berry (2015-04-06). Re: [Flightgear-devel] New fgcom server needed.
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Translators required

En.gif The FlightGear Wiki still needs help for translating it into various languages. If you are interested in making the FlightGear Wiki multi-language then start at Help:Translate.
De.gif Das FlightGear Wiki benötigt immer noch Hilfe bei der Übersetzung in verschiedene Sprachen. Wenn Du Interesse daran hast, das FlightGear Wiki Mehrsprachig zu machen, dann fang doch mit Help:Übersetzen an.
Nl.gif De FlightGear Wiki kan nog steed hulp gebruiken bij het vertalen van artikelen. Als je interesse hebt om de wiki meertalig te maken, raden we je aan om een kijkje te nemen bij Help:Vertalen.
Es.gif La wiki de FlightGear todavía necesita ayuda para traducirla a varios lenguajes. Si estás interesado en hacer la FlightGear wiki multilingüe, entonces comienza en Help:Traducir.

FlightGear logos

If you want some graphic elements for your FlightGear-related site (for example a hangar or YouTube channel), please feel free to visit FlightGear logos for a repository of logos. And if you have some art skills, please don't hesitate to contribute with your own design creations.

Screenshots

The FlightGear project always needs screenshots, which show features that were added since the last release. These should be of good quality, especially in content and technical image properties. It is therefore recommended to use the best viable filter settings (antialiasing, texture sharpening, etc.). More info at Howto:Make nice screenshots.