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FlightGear Newsletter November 2009: Difference between revisions
FlightGear Newsletter November 2009 (view source)
Revision as of 16:41, 28 November 2009
, 28 November 2009→Trains, Boats and Planes
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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. Tim has also integrated the 3D clouds code as an "Effect". This makes editing the cloud shaders significantly easier. | 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. Tim has also integrated the 3D clouds code as an "Effect". This makes editing the cloud shaders significantly easier. | ||
===Trains, Boats and Planes=== | ===Trains, Boats and Planes (Vivian Meazza)=== | ||
As the song goes “but not for me”. But now they are for you in FlightGear. In a moment of madness on the IRC Channel I agreed to develop Ground Vehicles as an AI Class. It turned out that a few modifications to the AI Ship class would be a good jumping off point for the new class. I started with trains, because I thought they would be big enough to see easily from an aircraft. A very simple train with just 1 carriage. These are relatively common on commuter routes in the UK. Jon Stockill knew just such a train, and was familiar with a suitable route in Wakefield. (Where’s Wakefield you might well ask – I had to – it’s near Leeds in Yorshire.) | As the song goes “but not for me”. But now they are for you in FlightGear. In a moment of madness on the IRC Channel I agreed to develop Ground Vehicles as an AI Class. It turned out that a few modifications to the AI Ship class would be a good jumping off point for the new class. I started with trains, because I thought they would be big enough to see easily from an aircraft. A very simple train with just 1 carriage. These are relatively common on commuter routes in the UK. Jon Stockill knew just such a train, and was familiar with a suitable route in Wakefield. (Where’s Wakefield you might well ask – I had to – it’s near Leeds in Yorshire.) | ||
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All this is nice eye-candy, but what is the downside? There is a frame rate cost. Provided there are no more than 10 ground vehicles in the scenario this is usually small. | All this is nice eye-candy, but what is the downside? There is a frame rate cost. Provided there are no more than 10 ground vehicles in the scenario this is usually small. | ||
====Boats==== | |||
So what about boats? It seemed like a good idea at the time to extend some of the ideas we developed for trains into the MP Carrier scenario. We had some models converted from Savage models lying around, so how about some escorts for USS Vinson. In any case Alexis Bory had a dormant plan for some low-poly aircraft models for the deck park, so it was a good time to revisit the Vinson scenario. First, we added some aircraft to the deck park. Then Alexis took and completely reworked the Oliver Hazard Perry (FFG 7) into something very nice indeed. I worked up a new class: AI Escort. This enables stationing of an escort by range and relative or true bearing. The escort can have patrol range for the station, and can carry out a random patrol of the assigned station. | So what about boats? It seemed like a good idea at the time to extend some of the ideas we developed for trains into the MP Carrier scenario. We had some models converted from Savage models lying around, so how about some escorts for USS Vinson. In any case Alexis Bory had a dormant plan for some low-poly aircraft models for the deck park, so it was a good time to revisit the Vinson scenario. First, we added some aircraft to the deck park. Then Alexis took and completely reworked the Oliver Hazard Perry (FFG 7) into something very nice indeed. I worked up a new class: AI Escort. This enables stationing of an escort by range and relative or true bearing. The escort can have patrol range for the station, and can carry out a random patrol of the assigned station. | ||
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Hmm, the Mk41 Launchers are fully featured with cells and hatches. I have a simple model of a TLAM. I wonder if a modification to the AI Ground Vehicle stuff … | Hmm, the Mk41 Launchers are fully featured with cells and hatches. I have a simple model of a TLAM. I wonder if a modification to the AI Ground Vehicle stuff … | ||
====What next?==== | |||
What else, where next? | What else, where next? | ||
We have a few more goodies in the pipeline. Some US railroad models. We await Jon to extract a suitable rail line for that one. | |||
We have some wagons waiting in the wings. | We have some wagons waiting in the wings. | ||
And, if I can persuade Jon to use it, a whole container port. Which comes with its own container tractor, which uses the train code to pull trailers around the dockside. Container ports work around the clock, so there’s some floodlighting just to add a little more realism. | |||
====Using the new scenarios==== | |||
All this stuff is in cvs right now. | All this stuff is in cvs right now. | ||
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* Vinson Battlegroup: Just use --ai-scenario=vinson_demo, the various ships are all around. If you use MPCarrier, then the Battlegroup is visible on the radar. | * Vinson Battlegroup: Just use --ai-scenario=vinson_demo, the various ships are all around. If you use MPCarrier, then the Battlegroup is visible on the radar. | ||
And finally finally | ====And finally finally==== | ||
Thanks are due to Jon Stockill, Heiko Shultz and Alexis Bory for their contribution, and for their testing of the code. | Thanks are due to Jon Stockill, Heiko Shultz and Alexis Bory for their contribution, and for their testing of the code. | ||