Post FlightGear 2020.2 LTS changes

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Revision as of 16:37, 18 June 2020 by Hooray (talk | contribs) (→‎Possible additional items: separate canvas pre-render camera, as per devel list comments from Tim & Mathias)
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Code clean-ups and changes

Collecting what's going to change : this will also be used to work out what manual or automatic migrations are required to keep aircraft working. It's expected that for the first few months of 'next', there will be higher than usual breakage, i.e regular might not be possible.

As a general guideline, the minimum system to develop / build the code on will be Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic) : the versions below correspond to what is available in a stock Bionic install.

  1. Make C++14 the minimum required version (will make it easier to continue replacing Boost items with std:: ones) [1] [2]
  2. Make CMake 3.6 the minimum required version : this will allow simplifying a bunch of compatibility logic in the build files [3]
  3.  Use CMake OBJECT_LIBRARY to improve how we collect sources together when building each sub-dir
  4. Make Qt 5.9 the minimum for the launcher
  5. Drop 32-bit windows support [4]
  6. Drop the pre-2017.x MultiPlayer message format - this will fix warnings from some aircraft about MP packet overflows
  7. Drop the KLN-89 code, since it's unused and not maintained for a long time: Canvas and the regular GPS code can easily implement a working KLN-89 or similar equipment now [5]
  8. Switch to Compositor mode as the only rendering option MR #213 (flightgear), MR #78 (simgear) MR #200 (fgdata) 70}% completed [6][7][8]
  9. Drop Rembrandt support from C++ (really part of the above) [9]
  10. Drop the C++ NavDisplay : the Canvas version replaces it [10]

Carriers and AI

Richard has been working on carriers since April 2020; originally the intention was to release as part of the 2020.2 LTS however the changes have grown into a set of new features rather than bugfixes and are therefore more suited to a longer development and review process.[11]

  • Done Done Improved view support - so that the nearest tower will include carriers
  • Done Done Changes to core code to support moving towers.
  • 50}% completed Multiple (tower) views - permit selection of LSO, PLAT and Tower as part of the "Tower view"; selection mechanism TDB. Consider revisions to the existing view system to better support this.
  • Done Done Extend XML to include definitions for FLOLS touchdown position, LSO view position, Tower View position, deck angle.
  • 50}% completed Improve 3d models for IFLOLS to ensure that a ball call can be made.
  • 80}% completed Improve logic for IFLOLS lights; not quite an LSO simulation more of an approximation of the definitive cases (e.g. waveoff)
  • Pending Pending Animate the lineup lights on the stern (of Nimitz class).
  • 90}% completed Improved support for Precision Approach Landing System (PALS) (AN/SPN-46); to support lineup deviation as well as glideslope (ball) deviation.
  • 70}% completed Change approach deviations to use new aircraft reference point rather than eyepoint; it is probably more correct to use the eyepoint when in the cockpit view - but for external views this can be slightly inaccurate when outside the aircraft to completely wrong when in tower/LSO view. The reference point is taken as the aircraft position with an optional model defined x,y,z offset. This allows ball tuning on a per aircraft basis.
  • Pending Pending Improved support for AI logic to permit XML definition of e.g. LSO logic. Possibly a version of the autopilot / state machine that can be included as "logic blocks"
  • Pending Pending Review 3d model usage for all Nimitz class and either add LOD selection (low, medium, high)
  • Pending Pending Possible extra visual aids for Case 1 and Case 2 recovery training (e.g. a set of markers to fly through)
  • Pending Pending Better integration of carriers with JSBSim to permit catapult hookup
  • Pending Pending Simulate carrier operations Flight Deck Personnel, e.g. yellow shirts.
  • Pending Pending Animation of arrestor wires
  • Pending Pending Add some sort of trap grading (approach/touchdown plot)

see https://www.cnatra.navy.mil/local/docs/pat-pubs/P-816.pdf for T-45 carrier operations

Possible additional items

fgdata clean-ups

/Nasal

2do: list outdated / deprecated functions for removal (I remember one comment saying: remove after FG 3.0 or something)

  • Clean up the GPS code with respect to FG_210_COMPAT :

property tree clean-up

remove /yasim/* "new" path is /fdm/yasim (since version 201x.?)

References

References