FlightGear Newsletter April 2016
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Development news |
Scenery Corner |
Contributing |
Development news
IR vision
The ALS rendering framework has been upgraded to allow filtering of the final output. This includes in-sim adjustments of brightness and gamma as well as perhaps more exciting features like night vision and especially the IR vision mode.
This mode is not just a black-and-white rendered mockup of an IR camera, but it shows genuine temperature differences based on solar input, thermal inertia of different materials and more. Also, modelers can assign emissive temperatures to objects which are then consistently rendered.
Read more at ALS infrared vision…
Scenery LOD rationalization
Previously, the LOD ranges of random objects, trees, buildings and STG objects were set variously by materials.xml and fixed values. This was very inconsistent and wasn't controlled by the user. They have now been made consistent to use the /sim/rendering/static-lod/rough property which can be set from the LOD GUI dialog. The impact of this is twofold:
- Scenery developers, and particularly those doing regional materials should not set the
<tree-range-m>property for random vegetation or the<range-m>property for random objects. - Scenery models should not use the range animation to control when the entire model becomes visible. This is now set appropriately by the simulation itself. However, it may still be a good idea to use the range animation to hide small details.
In the hangar
Melbourne Motor Design Alpha One
The (fictional) Melbourne Motor Design Alpha One has been released. Download link and information are available here.
Bombardier Q400
The Bombardier Q400 (formerly the dhc8-400 by Alex Park) has received a major update including fully remodeled and new systems by Florian K and D-ECHO. You can follow the development on the GitHub repository
Parachutist
The parachutist has been added to FGAddon. Originally developed by Creare, it has been improved by Erik Hofman, and now supports both free-fall and parachuting.
Skydiver model with ram-air Parachute
The updated Bombardier Q400
The Melbourne Motor Design Alpha One
Scenery corner
Barcelona
The scenery around the Barcelona–El Prat Airport has been improved ahead of the FlightGear v2016.2 release. Changes include:
- 3D objects optimization
- More static buildings in the area
- More shared objects
Community news
FGPromo: A FlightGear Promotional Video
After more than 5 months of hard work, FGPromo, a video showing off FlightGear at its finest, has been released!
Contributing
Translators required
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The FlightGear Wiki still needs help for translating it into various languages. If you are interested in making the FlightGear Wiki multilingual, you can start by looking at Help:Translate. |
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Le wiki de FlightGear a toujours besoin d'aide pour être traduit en différentes langues. Si vous êtes intéressé par le rendre multilingue, commencez par lire Help:Traduire. |
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Das FlightGear Wiki braucht noch Hilfe für sie in verschiedene Sprachen zu übersetzen. Wenn Sie bei der Herstellung der FlightGear Wiki mehrsprachiger interessiert sind, können Sie, indem Sie auf Help:Übersetzen beginnen. |
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De FlightGear Wiki kan nog steeds hulp gebruiken bij het vertalen van artikelen. Als je interesse hebt om de wiki meertalig te maken, raden we je aan om een kijkje te nemen bij Help:Vertalen. |
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La wiki de FlightGear todavía necesita ayuda para traducirla a varios lenguajes. Si estás interesado en hacer la FlightGear wiki multilingüe, entonces comienza en Help:Traducir. |
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La wiki de FlightGear encara necessita ajuda per traduir-la a diverses llengües. Si esteu interessat en fer la wiki de FlightGear multilingüe, llavors comenceu a Help:Traduir. |
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A wiki de FlightGear ainda necessita de ajuda para traduzi-la em vários idiomas. Se estás interessado em tornar a wiki de FlightGear multi-lingual, por favor começa em Help:Traduzir. |
FlightGear logos
If you want some graphic elements for your FlightGear-related site (such as a hangar or YouTube channel), please feel free to visit FlightGear logos for a repository of logos. And if you have some art skills, please don't hesitate to contribute with your own design creations.
Screenshots
The FlightGear project always needs screenshots, which show features that were added since the last release. These should be of good quality, especially in content and technical image properties. It is therefore recommended to use the best viable filter settings (anti-aliasing, texture sharpening, etc.). More info at Howto:Make nice screenshots.
Screenshot of the Month
FlightGear's Screenshot of the Month April 2016 is Gliding in Catalonia by Dg-505
