FlightGear Newsletter July 2016
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Development news |
Scenery Corner |
Contributing |
Development news
ATC-pie upgrade
Since our last post about it in the January newsletter, the air traffic control tower and radar simulator ATC-pie has been enhanced with two major features. One was announced in May, and allows for student-teacher connections, i.e. tutorial sessions where the teacher can manipulate traffic, change the weather, recall situation snapshots, etc. for the student to be tested or trained on.
The second (newest) feature, added this month, is the implementation of ground control tools such as a click&drag taxi instruction generator, which should make controllers more comfortable when servicing GND at airports. The corresponding solo role was also added, playable alone or in conjunction with other roles at any airport where a decent ground network exists (or created, or downloaded from the X-plane gateway). Below is a still picture of the taxi instruction tool used on Dubai ground.
In the hangar
Cessna 182S Skylane
The Cessna 182S Skylane has now been officially released, and is available both from FGAddon and from our development repository. Some of its features are:
- improved FDM based on original flight manual with correct speeds, climb rates, weight & balance, fuel consume and TO/Landing distance according flight manual
- accurate and detailed exterior 3D model, configurable wheel fairings and selectable chromed spinner, all using the uber-shader
- five detailed liveries (paintkits included)
- accurate and detailed 3d-interior, with detailed panel and controls
- interior shadows (ALS only)
- exterior volume-shadow (ALS only)
- realistic glareshield lighting and pedestal lighting, illuminating the interior cabin (ALS only)
- 4 interior views (pilot and passengers) tail and under wing view
- human walker included
- dynamically placed static elements like fuel tank trailer, ladders and safety cones, usable by the human walker
- aircraft can be tied up on ground
- wheel chocks which keeps the aircraft hold without any workaround like using parking brake
- good framerates compared with Cessna 172P (45% better performance in fps on our test)
Enjoy it!
ErAZ-762
The ErAZ-762 has been released. It can be found in GitHub. See also the official website.
MQ-9
"The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (formerly named Predator B) is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of remote controlled or autonomous flight operations,developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) primarily for the United States Air Force (USAF)." (Quote from Wikipedia 
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Just released in GitHub: github.com/meirm/MQ-9
Beta testers are welcome. Please send feedback through github or through forum ("Announcing New UAV MQ-9 Predator B") to users falafel and/or pjedvaj
Rewloola
Rewloola is a futuristic aircraft first featured in the anime film Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack and later in the Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn OVA series. It can be found in GitHub. See also the official website.
ErAZ-762
first render of MQ-9 version 1.2
Rewloola test flight
Scenery corner
Night lights for EarthView
FG's orbital rendering engine Earthview has received an update of night lights. Many may have seen the stunning photographs by ISS astronauts, showing the city lights at night. Earthview can do the same now.
Using the alpha-channel of earth's textures, the shader now shows the night lights of earth.
Currently, in FGData are textures of 2k resolution to reduce disk-space. However, 4k and 8k resolutions are also available!
You can download hires textures here
| Note Keep in mind, that too high a resolution might bring your graphics card to its knees. Also, loading such huge textures takes some time, so expect some stutter. If, after loading, the framerates are inacceptably low - or FlightGear even crashes, then you should use lower resolutions. |
Nightview from the Shuttle
Nightview from the Shuttle
Earth from 6000km with night-side lit up by city lights.
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 steed 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 July 2016 is Sunrise soaring in Corsica by Jonathan S. (Dg-505)
If you want to participate in the screenshot contest of August 2016, you can submit your candidate to this forum topic. Be sure to see the first post for participation rules. For purposes of convenience and organization, after all the entries have been submitted, a new forum topic will be started containing all shots in an easy-to-view layout. The voting will then take place there. Once the voting has finished, the best screenshot will be presented in the Newsletter edition of August 2016.