FlightGear Newsletter November 2009: Difference between revisions

From FlightGear wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
(Small edits on 733 + Multiplayer Servers)
Line 32: Line 32:
===Cessna C172p news===
===Cessna C172p news===
{{main article|Cessna C172}}
{{main article|Cessna C172}}
The C172p is the Default aircraft in FGFS. Though the aircraft has been updated last year for 1.9.1 there was still a lot of things left.
The C172p is the Default aircraft in FGFS. Though the aircraft was updated last year for the 1.9.1 release, there was still a lot of things left to do.
Thanks to Dave Perry, the aircraft has now the right position in the air and on ground, also all the instruments are now lit.
Thanks to Dave Perry, the aircraft has now the right position in the air and on ground, and the instruments are are now lit. Stuart has added some new tutorials, and improved some of the control models in the cockpit.
Stuart has added some tutorials and will improve the 3d-panel further.
 
That's teamwork, that's FlightGear!
That's teamwork, that's FlightGear!



Revision as of 22:10, 26 November 2009

Magagazine.png
Welcome to the FlightGear Newsletter!
Please help us write the next edition!
Enjoy reading the latest edition!


This is the draft of the next edition of the FlightGear Newsletter. Please feel free to edit and add your contribution.

What's new in CVS

shader support for Objects

Tim Moore added now support for shaders on objects. This means we can have stunning effects like chrome effect, fresnel shaders etc on aircrafts in a near future.

In the hangar

Airbus A340-600

A340-600
A340-600

1rightarrow.png See Airbus A340-600 for the main article about this subject.

The Airbus A340-600 is the longest civil airliner in the world, built by Airbus Industries of France. It has just started early development by Liam. Currently it has been modelled, Mapped, given a basic YASim FDM, has an autostart feature and livery selection dialog, and lots of other features. Yet it is to be Animated suitably before a BETA release is confirmed, which will be before Christmas, to help provide feedback for improvements. For more information on this recent but rapidly improving project, click here to access the A340-600 page, where you can access more information on this promising looking airliner.

Boeing 767-300

767-300

1rightarrow.png See Boeing 767-300 for the main article about this subject.

The boeing 767-300 is still under development by Liam and Prestes, and is currently undergoing animation by asdf. The airliner is starting to look brilliant thanks to the original model by veteran modeler from the 3DWarehouse, WilliamT, and with its new default livery by Liam (Thomsonfly.com), it certainly is starting to look beautiful. Since this snapshot was taken, there have been many significant improvements still. Preste also wants to create the whole 767 family from this model (767-200/ER 767-300/ER 767-400/ER 767F) These will be mostly based around the original 767-300 model, by editing the specifications and detail of the planes to give them the correct FDM and accuracy, shape and length. The freight version will be modelled by removing the cut windows and modifying other specifications for the plane. Animation should be fairly replicate for all of the models and creating the whole group should be a fairly rewarding project. As always, help is welcome from all who are interested- but it is certainly well gaining progress.

Boeing 737-300 news

1rightarrow.png See Boeing 737-300 for the main article about this subject.

The development of the 3d-cockpit has started and the first half of the mainpanel was added to CVS already. The progress is quite visible, as can be seen on this screenshot. The mainpanel will be finished in the next days, so the Overheadpanel and the Centerstand can follow. Also the FDM was changed a bit, so it matches much more to the real perfomance datas like Vr, B2 Vref etc. It needs still work, as the pointmasses will be corrected soon to match the real locations based on free available real balance and weight sheets. Also the behavior of the speedbrakes and flightspoiler will be changed in the next days, so it comes more and more to the real behavior. Help on programmming is always welcome, especially on the flightdirector, as this has be written completly new!

Cessna C172p news

1rightarrow.png See Cessna C172 for the main article about this subject.

The C172p is the Default aircraft in FGFS. Though the aircraft was updated last year for the 1.9.1 release, there was still a lot of things left to do. Thanks to Dave Perry, the aircraft has now the right position in the air and on ground, and the instruments are are now lit. Stuart has added some new tutorials, and improved some of the control models in the cockpit.

That's teamwork, that's FlightGear!

Scenery Corner

Airport Layouts in the Scenery Database

As many readers will know, Martin Spott and Ralf Gerlich maintain the World Custom Scenery Project, which generates the FlightGear scenery. However, the airport layout information (in apt.dat) was shared with X-Plane and maintained separately by Robin Peel. X-Plane has now moved to a new format that FG cannot currently use, and Robin is no-longer accepting layout updates in the old format (as supported by TaxiDraw). This makes including updated runway layouts in our scenery difficult.

To resolve this, Martin is now including airport layouts as part of the custom scenery. This is great news, as many of the smaller airports around the world do not have accurate taxiways, and updating the layout using TaxiDraw is straightforward.

If you have an updated layout to submit, please contact Martin Spott via the Forums or email. Note that the same restrictions on only using GPL-compatible data to generate the layouts applies - so tracing the layout on Google Earth/Maps isn't allowed.

Dutch airports

Updated taxiways at Schiphol.

Gijs de Rooy has redrawn the airport layouts for some of the Netherlands' most prominent airports, including Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (EHAM), Lelystad Airport (EHLE) and Volkel Air Base (EHVK). Taxiways and tarmacs are now correctly placed and up to date. A significant improvement over the previous airport layout is the use of shoulders (concrete borders around taxiways), just as you would encounter at the real airports. The groundnetworks for these airports have been updated or created as well.

Spending a couple of hours placing the taxiways and AI routes in TaxiDraw, Gijs was able to turn some gaunted airports into a living world!

Community News

FSWeekend

We will write a (short) report about the event and add some pictures.

Multiplayer servers

1rightarrow.png See Howto: Multiplayer for the main article about this subject.

Lately the number of multiplayer servers has seen a large increase. This is a good thing, as these new servers could share the workload with the "old" ones, resulting in faster multiplay. To make optimal use of this, it is neccesary however that everyone connects to the (geographically) closest located server and/or the one with the lowest latency (ping time) or the one that is the least busy. We will all benefit from doing this.

A complete list of the available servers and their location can be found in the multiplayer howto.

Virtual Airline News

Addons

Useful links

And finally....

UK Flight Experience Bursaries

The Royal Aero Club Trust is a UK charity that, amongst other things, provides annual bursaries for flight simulator enthusiasts to gain their first experience of real flying. The bursaries are open to UK residents aged 16 to 21. This is a really great opportunity to try flying for real (and for free). Details can be found here, and the closing date is 31st March 2010.