Howto:Place 3D objects with the UFO: Difference between revisions

no edit summary
(Import from Roberto)
 
No edit summary
Line 9: Line 9:




Starting with Flightgear 0.9.10 you get a very usefull tool provided by Melchior Franz. He added to the UFO aircraft a nice addon, he made it capable of letting the user place objects inside Flightgear scenery with a few interactive tools. That means that, once you got your new 3d object modeled with Blender, you can place it on the ground with simple mouse point and click.
A very useful tool for placing objects within the scenery, created by Melchior Franz, is available with Flightgear 0.9.10 and later. It is an addon to the UFO aircraft which allows a user to place a new (or old) 3D object at any arbitrary location in the scenery with just a few clicks of the mouse.


I will expose here the basic technique to use this UFO addon.
The first thing you need is a 3d model file to place in the scenery; let's say we'll use a catii-iii.xml object. You must save it in a path where this UFO feature can find it. The UFO searches the objects in the Flightgear/data/Models/ directory. In this example, we create a subdirectory called Tabu and save our catii-iii.xml there.
 
First thing you need is a 3d model file to place in the scenery, let's say we got a catii-iii.xml object, we have to save it in a place where the UFO can find it. The UFO searches the objects into Flightgear/data/Models/ directory , we create a subdirectory called Tabu and save our catii-iii.xml in there.


[[Image:Placing_objects_with_UFO_html_m49fbed81.jpg]]
[[Image:Placing_objects_with_UFO_html_m49fbed81.jpg]]
Line 20: Line 18:
Now start Flightgear, and choose UFO as your aircraft.
Now start Flightgear, and choose UFO as your aircraft.


Once Flightgear has been started, fly with the UFO upon the place you want the model to be positioned.
Once Flightgear has been started, fly with the UFO to the place you want the model to be positioned.


[[Image:Placing_objects_with_UFO_html_5fa8d7b1.jpg]]
[[Image:Placing_objects_with_UFO_html_5fa8d7b1.jpg]]




Let's say we want to position the catii-iii.xml object at the beginning of a taxiway taking to a runway. We stop the UFO just above this intersection and press the M key, a Select Model window will open up, here you see the Flightgear/data/Models/ directory content. You can browse the dir until you find find your model, LMB (LMB = Left Mouse Button) click on it and close the window. A green text appears on the bottom left of Flightgear screen, showing the selected model.
Let's say we want to position the catii-iii.xml object at the end of a taxiway. We stop the UFO just above this intersection and press the M key, a Select Model window will open up where the contents of the Flightgear/data/Models/ directory will be shown. Browse this list until you find find your model, then LMB (Left Mouse Button) click on it to select it, then close the window. The selected model path/name will be display in green text at the bottom left of the FlightGear screen.


[[Image:Placing_objects_with_UFO_html_m184fb381.jpg]]
[[Image:Placing_objects_with_UFO_html_m184fb381.jpg]]




Now you can point the mouse on the scenery ground and LMB again, the CAT II/III ground marking model will be positioned there. Of course, it has not the correct orientation, it's partly covered by the surrounding terrain, we have to adjust that.
Now you may point the mouse on the scenery ground and LMB again, the CAT II/III ground marking model will be positioned there. Of course, it does not have the correct orientation and it's partly covered by the surrounding terrain, but we can adjust that.


[[Image:Placing_objects_with_UFO_html_12ee70a1.jpg]]
[[Image:Placing_objects_with_UFO_html_12ee70a1.jpg]]
Line 36: Line 34:
Fly closer to the ground with the UFO, so that you can see it better.
Fly closer to the ground with the UFO, so that you can see it better.


Now press TAB (or Ctrl-I), and use the sliders to adjust latitude/longitude/elevation/heading.
Now press TAB (or Ctrl-I), and use the resulting sliders to adjust the latitude/longitude/elevation/heading of the model.


[[Image:Placing_objects_with_UFO_html_439816e9.jpg]]
[[Image:Placing_objects_with_UFO_html_439816e9.jpg]]




Now that the model is correctly positioned, press d key to dump data model to terminal. That will print a few lines on the console giving you the coordinates of current object. You will save those coordinates into a scenery objects file in the next step. If you don't do that, next time you run Flightgear it will know nothing about the new object.
Now that the model is correctly positioned, press the 'd' key to dump the model position data to the terminal. A few lines will be printed on the console, providing the necessary orientation data. You will save those coordinates into a scenery objects file in the next step. If you don't do that, next time you run Flightgear it will know nothing about the new object.


[[Image:Placing_objects_with_UFO_html_m4cf0cbf7.jpg]]
[[Image:Placing_objects_with_UFO_html_m4cf0cbf7.jpg]]


In the terminal window, you get three sections printed out by the UFO with very detailed informations about what's going on, we need the line at the end.
In the terminal window, you get three sections printed out by the UFO with very detailed information about what's going on, we need the line at the end.


e000n50/e008n50/3089154.stg is the secenery object file where this object's coordinates have to be saved. Default place where to find e000n50 directory is inside Flightgear/data/Scenery/Objects/ dir. You have to open the 3089154.stg file with any text editor, add the following line and save it again:
e000n50/e008n50/3089154.stg is the secenery object file where this object's coordinates have to be saved. The default place where to find e000n50 directory is inside Flightgear/data/Scenery/Objects/ dir. You just open the 3089154.stg file with any text editor, add the following line and save it the file:


OBJECT_SHARED Models/Tabu/catii-iii.xml 8.57928135 50.03667992 105.9972 111.1
OBJECT_SHARED Models/Tabu/catii-iii.xml 8.57928135 50.03667992 105.9972 111.1


Now you have your object's position saved, and it will appear inside the scenery every time you start Flightgear again.
Now you have your object's position saved, and it will appear inside the scenery every time you start Flightgear.
 
 
That's it :-)
186

edits