FlightGear Newsletter June 2015
|
Development news |
In the hangar |
Community News |
Development News
Feature Freeze
|
Hi all,
— Torsten Dreyer (2015-06-17). [Flightgear-devel] Release 3.6 - entering feature freeze.
(powered by Instant-Cquotes) |
|
|
|
The whole idea behind the feature freeze is to spend some time on hardening the code instead of hunting for more and more new features. And to give — Torsten Dreyer (2015-06-17). [Flightgear-devel] Release 3.6 - entering feature freeze.
(powered by Instant-Cquotes) |
|
|
|
I'll create the release/3.6.0 branches on July, 17th and bump the version number a few days before that date. — Torsten Dreyer (2015-06-17). [Flightgear-devel] Release 3.6 - entering feature freeze.
(powered by Instant-Cquotes) |
|
Updated Project Roadmap
|
|
Following on from the recent discussions about git/svn and attribution on the -devellist, and discussions about the structure and the future of the project on the forum, the group of developers who get together on a weekly Google Hangout organized by Curt realized that we would benefit from a more detailed policy document and roadmap than the high level statement available at http://www.flightgear.org/about/.
|
|
Random splash screens
It is now possible to add multiple splash screens for an aircraft. When starting FlightGear, one of the splash screens is randomly chosen and shown on the screen. To add multiple splash screen, simply add multiple <splash-texture> tags. For example:
<startup>
<splash-texture>Aircraft/c172p/splash1.png</splash-texture>
<splash-texture>Aircraft/c172p/splash2.png</splash-texture>
<splash-texture>Aircraft/c172p/splash3.png</splash-texture>
<splash-texture>Aircraft/c172p/splash4.png</splash-texture>
</startup>
You can add as many splash screens as you want.
ALS flashlight
Thanks to Thorsten a new flashlight effect is now available via the ALS framework.
When you just entered your dark aircraft, a flashlight is useful to orient yourself in the cockpit. It works in Red and White.
Find out more at ALS flashlight
MP Patch
After a long pause, the MP Patch was included in FG, It's not the perfect solution, but works better than the prévious code.
Wanting to do a mp refueling, a towing with a glider or some close formation flight? give it a try :)
In the Hangar
Space Shuttle
User:Japreja is now modelling the landing gear for the Shuttle.
Lots of work is currently going into orbital maneuvering. The reaction control system has been overhauled to a realistic configuration, giving the Shuttle a grand total of 51 distinct engines to be controlled by the guidance logic in different modes, many of them pointing away from orthogonal direction which gives a realistic simulation of cross coupling between the various rotational and translational modes when the RCS is used.
In addition, the visuals of the OMS and RCS engines have been re-done to agree with NASA imagery and the Shuttle is now rendered with a dedicated space effect which creates hard light and shadows outside the atmosphere - here is an example of the OMS firing at full thrust with the new visuals:
Systems modeling is also proceeding well. The highlight is a complete simulation of the orbiter's heat balance, including incident radiation from Sun and Earth, internal sources and heat sinks and heat transfer between different parts of the Shuttle. This allows now fairly complex maneuvers. For instance, by bringing the Shuttle into a tail-towards-sun attitude, the radiative heating of the cabin is minimized. This allows the freon coolant to remain a long time in the radiator as it only needs to deal with waste heat from avionics and not from solar heating, leading to a low temperature inside the freon loop. This can later be utilized as a heat sink during atmospheric entry when the radiator can not be deployed - with the freon soaked cold to about 240 K, almost 15 minutes worth of heat can be dealt with without using any other heat sink equipment:
New Furs for the Piper J-3 Cub
The Piper J-3 Cub now has a working livery system, and three new ones have been added: a yellow and blue livery, a cream livery and a red livery. Repository link: https://github.com/FGMEMBERS/Cub/ and development thread: http://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=26587&p=247630#p247630
EchoAir2015 Traveller
The EchoAir2015 Traveller is an aircraft that doesn't exist in the real life. It has been designed by D-ECHO and is now available over the forum (Wiki page will follow soon).
Scenery Corner
Großenhain Airfield
Custom FGscenery_Saxony package has new content. For Grossenhain Airfield (EDAK) the package contains a custom airport layout (scenery tile), static buildings and airport data. You can download this custom scenery file from the Grossenhain Airfield wiki page.
We wish you happy flying!
New Regional Textures
This project aims to create new regional textures, particularly for the Southern Hemisphere. Currently, the whole Africa (desert, savanna, rainforest and Mediterranean regions) as well as parts of South America (rainforest) and Southeast Asia (rainforest) have new textures and materials (including new urban textures). Repository link: https://github.com/gilbertohasnofb/new-regional-textures and development thread: http://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=26031
Re-release of statto's Rio de Janeiro custom scenery
In 2011, the user statto had released an amazing custom scenery for Rio de Janeiro on his website, with much better landclasses than the default one. Over the years though the default scenery of Rio de Janeiro (from TerraMaster) received several nice objects, such as the statue of Christ the Redeemer, very detailed airport biuldings to SBRJ, some cones for air races somewhere close to Flamengo, among others etc. Today I incorporated those objects into his scenery and also tried my best to move the statue of christ to a decent position (which is quite tricky because of how pointy is the mountain in this scenery). This scenery works very well with the New Regional Textures. Repository link: https://github.com/gilbertohasnofb/rio-de-janeiro-custom and development thread: http://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=26508
Community News
CaracasWorld - FlyVenezuela
Legoboyvdlp has created an event which will be the initial event of FlyVenezuela- a Venezuelan Flying Club. The first event will be on the 20th, route will be SVMI-SVVP-SVJM. Details later this month!
Normandy Landings Commemorative FlightNight
To remember all who were involved on both sides.
Contributing
Translators required
|
The FlightGear Wiki still needs help for translating it into various languages. If you are interested in making the FlightGear Wiki multi-language then start at Help:Translate. |
|
Das FlightGear Wiki benötigt immer noch Hilfe bei der Übersetzung in verschiedene Sprachen. Wenn Du Interesse daran hast, das FlightGear Wiki Mehrsprachig zu machen, dann fang doch mit Help:Übersetzen an. |
|
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. |
|
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. |
|
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. |
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
After seeing "Screenshot of the month" in earlier newsletter, I thought it was high time to revive the tradition. Please post your entries, along with URL's and descriptions, here: http://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=26581. A grand total of fifteen entries is allowed, and there's room for one more, so get it in before tomorrow! This month's winner will be announced on the forum and displayed here; and the winner is:
