Realism: Difference between revisions

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The values should be the same. When you press Z/z on the keyboard, you should see the second value change, showing this value controls the rendered visibility.
The values should be the same. When you press Z/z on the keyboard, you should see the second value change, showing this value controls the rendered visibility.


You can do the same for cloud layers. For example METAR code SCT 10 translates to coverage: scattered, elevation: 10039 and FG automatically sets thickness and transition for the layer.


=== Accurate and Detailed Sky Model ===
=== Accurate and Detailed Sky Model ===


FlightGear implements extremely accurate time of day modeling with correctly placed sun, moon, stars, and planets for the specified time and date. FlightGear can track the current computer clock time in order to correctly place the sun, moon, stars, etc. in their current and proper place relative to the earth. If it's dawn in Sydney right now, it's dawn in the sim right now when you locate yourself in virtual Sydney. The sun, moon, stars, and planets all follow their correct courses through the sky. This modeling also correctly takes into account seasonal effects so you have 24 hour days north of the arctic circle in the summer, etc. We also illuminate the correctly placed moon with the correctly placed sun to get the correct phase of the moon for the current time/date, just like in real life.
FlightGear implements extremely accurate time of day modeling with correctly placed sun, moon, stars, and planets for the specified time and date. FlightGear can track the current computer clock time in order to correctly place the sun, moon, stars, etc. in their current and proper place relative to the earth. If it's dawn in Sydney right now, it's dawn in the sim right now when you locate yourself in virtual Sydney. The sun, moon, stars, and planets all follow their correct courses through the sky. This modeling also correctly takes into account seasonal effects so you have 24 hour days north of the arctic circle in the summer, etc. We also illuminate the correctly placed moon with the correctly placed sun to get the correct phase of the moon for the current time/date, just like in real life.

Revision as of 01:39, 5 June 2006

How realistic is FlightGear aircraft and environment? How can I get the most realism out of the FlightGear environment?

Aircraft

Todo: instruments

Flight

Todo: qualities of flight models

Environment

Extensive and Accurate World Scenery Data Base

   *   Over 20,000 real world airports included in the full scenery set.
   * Correct runway markings and placement, correct runway and approach lighting.
   * Taxiways available for many larger airports (even including the green center line lights when appropriate.)
   * Sloping runways (runways change elevation like they usually do in real life.)
   * Directional airport lighting that smoothly changes intensity as your relative view direction changes.
   * World scenery fits on 3 DVD's. (I'm not sure that's a feature or a problem!) But it means we have pretty detailed coverage of the entire world.
   * Accurate terrain worldwide, based on the most recently released SRTM terrain data.) 3 arc second resolution (about 90m post spacing) for North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia.
   * Scenery includes all vmap0 lakes, rivers, roads, railroads, cities, towns, land cover, etc.
   * Nice scenery night lighting with ground lighting concentrated in urban areas (based on real maps) and headlights visible on major highways. This allows for realistic night VFR flying with the ability to spot towns and cities and follow roads.
   * Scenery tiles are paged (loaded/unloaded) in a separate thread to minimize the frame rate hit when you need to load new areas. 


Weather

Todo: weather

FlightGear can periodically download weather (METAR) data. This information is used to influence the environment.

As of FG 0.9.10, for the current METAR station, FG models:

  • Visibility for the rendered visual environment is set equal to the current METAR visiblity. If the current METAR reports 10 statute mile visiblity, the rendered visibility is 10 statute miles.
  • If the METAR reports rain, FlightGear renders rain (precipitation).
  • If METAR reports a thunderstorm, lightning is rendered and thunder produced through the audio system.

Notes

  • Precipitation is modeled, but the graphics require improvement. Suffcient only to indicate rain.
  • Lightning is present when a thunderstorm is near, the graphics are a fair representation, but also require improvement.

References

If you want to prove the relationship between FG and METAR, you can open the property browser. Monitor

/environment/metar/max-visibility-m == 9656m

and

/environment/visibility-m == 9656m

The values should be the same. When you press Z/z on the keyboard, you should see the second value change, showing this value controls the rendered visibility.

You can do the same for cloud layers. For example METAR code SCT 10 translates to coverage: scattered, elevation: 10039 and FG automatically sets thickness and transition for the layer.

Accurate and Detailed Sky Model

FlightGear implements extremely accurate time of day modeling with correctly placed sun, moon, stars, and planets for the specified time and date. FlightGear can track the current computer clock time in order to correctly place the sun, moon, stars, etc. in their current and proper place relative to the earth. If it's dawn in Sydney right now, it's dawn in the sim right now when you locate yourself in virtual Sydney. The sun, moon, stars, and planets all follow their correct courses through the sky. This modeling also correctly takes into account seasonal effects so you have 24 hour days north of the arctic circle in the summer, etc. We also illuminate the correctly placed moon with the correctly placed sun to get the correct phase of the moon for the current time/date, just like in real life.