FlightGear Newsletter March 2015

This Newsletter is a draft. Please feel free to add content you think will be of interest to the community.

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March 2015

Development news Variant-of tag added

In the hanger

Scenery Corner Community News

Contributing Translators required FlightGear logos Screenshots Desktop backgrounds

Development news

Splitting fgdata

I am going to commence reducing FGDATA this weekend. The reasons for that action have been discussed here and on the forum in epic detail, so I won't repeat them. The result will be a new and much smaller git repository and it will only have the c172p and the ufo remaining. To avoid any unnecessary extra work, I will temporarily remove all contributors with write access except 2 or three admins on Friday afternoon (Central European Time Zone). — Torsten Dreyer (2015-03-05). [Flightgear-devel] FGData size reduction. (powered by Instant-Cquotes)

Next, I'll do a initial commit of the base package aircraft to fgaddon/svn. Following that, I create a new git repo for a smaller git fgdata and push it to sourceforge. Finally, we re-add contributors with push permission. If anything goes wrong, the original fgdata will remain intact and can serve as a fallback. — Torsten Dreyer (2015-03-05). [Flightgear-devel] FGData size reduction. (powered by Instant-Cquotes)

Variant-of tag added

Aircraft developers can make use of a new tag in the Aircraft-set.xml file. Added to the <sim>, the <variant-of> tag states to the launcher the aircraft type that your aircraft is a variant of. For example, the BAe Sea Harrier FA2 is a variant of the BAe Sea Harrier, and the Cessna 172P - Canvas Demo is a variant of the C172P.

Note  At the moment, only the Mac Qt launcher (which comes with FlightGear for Mac v3.4+) will read this tag.

Syntax:

<sim>
    ...
    <variant-of>[aircraft]</variant-of>
    ...
</sim>

Example from Gitorious website (see commit):

<variant-of>777-200</variant-of>

Astronauts

FGSP Cosmonaut Badge "The Owl"

Now is your time to become official cosmonaut of The FlightGear Space Program. Just downloading the famous Space Shuttle that has been largely reworked, and select any of the available missions. Report your succesfull orbit flight tracker screenie and you'll receive a custom badge of The FlightGear Space Program.

The Space Shuttle can be downloaded from the GitHub repository in either a ZIP file or by cloning.

As an add-on also you can fly our Special Cargo Transport Missions with the heavily updated An-12 , An-22, and An-225 (mission transport variants).

Find out more about space flight in FlightGear at FlightGear space program …

Contributing

Translators required

	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.
	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.
	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.
	La FlightGear wiki 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 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 for the website, which show features that were added since the last release. These shots 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.