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FlightGear Newsletter January 2021: Difference between revisions
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FlightGear Newsletter January 2021 (view source)
Revision as of 12:10, 10 February 2021
, 10 February 2021News catchup, after Dec and Jan newsletters missed developments. Add some info on: development, aircraft (FGUK releases not in FGAddon), scenery.
(Add a note pointing out the new Visual Editor as the template change doesn't seem to cover existing newletters) |
(News catchup, after Dec and Jan newsletters missed developments. Add some info on: development, aircraft (FGUK releases not in FGAddon), scenery.) |
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== Development news == | == Development news == | ||
<!-- News about FlightGear itself. The FlightGear mailing list and/or core developers are a good source. --> | <!-- News about FlightGear itself. The FlightGear mailing list and/or core developers are a good source. -->There has been a huge amount of changes on next in recent months, as well as changes in supporting infrastructure like TerraSync. These are in preparation for transitions to: next gen scenery (WS 3.0), Compositor, OSM2City world build rollout, and so on. There are various otther changes like in-sim GUI replacement that are being wroked on, but not on next. | ||
=== FlightGear 2020.3.6 released === | |||
2020.3.'''6''' was released on Jan 24th 2021. The [[Changelog 2020.3#2020.3.6|changelog]] includes launcher UI improvements such as 'getting started' hints that will gradually popup as people explore the UI. | |||
Point releases for the 2020.3 LTS will contain some features and UI improvements, as well as bug fixes. | |||
=== The road ahead === | |||
'''''See [[FlightGear Newsletter January 2021#Help wanted|Help Wanted]].''''' | |||
==== '''World Scenery 3.0''' ==== | |||
The next branch contains a prototype of [[World Scenery 3.0 roadmap|WS 3.0]], FlightGear's next generation scenery. | |||
OSG 3.6 is needed. The prototype is not currently available on windows nightlies as they use OSG 3.4 because the OSG text issue has not being fixed yet. Windows users that compile from source can view the prototype. | |||
'''Status''' | |||
* Scenery for the UK has been built ( download ). Some example WS 3.0 scenery will be added to TerraSync at a future date. | |||
* Scenery generation using [[Virtual Planet Builder]] (VPB) tool chain is advanced. The landclasses are all present. | |||
* The rendering effects are currently very basic. There are just some textures assigned to a few landclasses. Full ALS terrain effects are yet to be ported to the shaders. | |||
* Airports use the current WS 2.0 format, and fully work with WS 3.0 scenery. The [[World Scenery 3.0 roadmap#Objective|plan]] is to move to runtime generated airports eventually, but this can happen after the first WS 3.0 release as StuartB has found a way to use WS 2.0 airports. | |||
* Currently WS 3.0 rendering uses a lower version of OpenGL. Scott is working on [[OpenGL#Status|moving to OpenGL 4]] and porting the shaders. | |||
'''To see WS 3.0:''' | |||
# Download VPB terrain: UK. Extract and add to you custom scenery folders list (the folder to be added is the folder containg the 'vpb' folder). TScenery will be downloaded automatically when VPB terrain is added to TerraSync and you start an airport that is covered by the scenery. If scenery is absent there will be blue sky surrounding the airport. | |||
# Turn on VPB terrain. Use: --prop:/scenery/use-vpb=true . You can type this into command-line settings box in the launcher: Launcher -> settings -> Additional settings -> enter --prop:/scenery/use-vpb=true . | |||
# Start at a Airport for which there is VPB terrain. In the UK, EGPH an airport devs have used for testing but any airport will do. | |||
# Two GUI controls for WS 3.0 will be enabled in Menu->View->Rendering. '''Elevation mesh sample ratio''<nowiki/>' controls how small the terrain grid will be (may be useful for older systems that are limited by number of vertices ). ''Elevation delta below airports'' is how far the WS 3.0 terrain is lowered under WS 2.0 airports. | |||
==== Compositor ==== | |||
The next branch and automated nightly builds have fully switched to the Compositor rendering framework. The next FlightGear LTS or Preview build will follow suite. | |||
The (current) plan is to have the Compositor ready for a (possible) release as a Preview or LTS once the current features of both ALS and Rembrandt have been implemented/tested. These features are not all that is possible with the Compositor, just the first start - the Compositor is a rendering framework with expanded capability that makes a lot more things possible. | |||
===== Lighting ===== | |||
Fernando has added [[Compositor#Lights|clustered lights]] to the Compositor on next. This lighting solution retains the speed of the ALS way of doing lights while taking care of light management. Clustered lighting is in fact a sort of a formalisation/generalisation of the ALS approach, without resorting to deferred rendering and its drawbacks (including making anti-aliasing more difficult which is why Rembrandt did not have AA implemented). The solution takes advantage of the fact that lights in the scene fade out quickly. It sorts which lights can illuminate objects in the current view, and even what lights can illuminate different parts of the view. This sorting is done every frame. This allows a large amount of lights to be in one region without lowering FPS - for example there can be a lot of lights at an airport, but only a limited amount of lights affect objects in any one view. | |||
Aircraft and scenery developers can add lights quickly in a format similar to Rembrandt. For backwards compatibility, the old Rembrandt lights will be converted to the new format but aircraft developers should start transitioning in their Compositor branches. | |||
There are several aircraft available through the launcher on the next branch which have new compositor lights: Aircrane, J3-Cub, Ercoupe, | |||
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf_PWtf0_cs Early clustered lighting test with the Aircrane (the red bug has been fixed) | |||
==== Shadows ==== | |||
On the next branch, there is an option to enable shadows in the GUI inside the simulator. Menu->View->Rendering->Enable Shadows | |||
Shadow quality is still set from the command-line. | |||
=== OSM2City world build === | |||
Merspsieler has finished the first build of OSM2City for the entire world using his build server. The first world-build covers buildings, roads, and objects present in OSM data - automatic generation for areas missing OSM data is not enabled for the first release. | |||
==== Experimental rollout on TerraSync ==== | |||
Investigations are underway into making the OSM2City available through TerraSync. | |||
An experimental rollout has been implemented. This is only available if you have the next branch of FlightGear, either by downloading the nighties or building from source. OSM2City data is stored compressed in XZ format. The next branch will download and decompress these files. | |||
There is a new OSM2City scenery layer called Details that can be enabled from the rendering menu. Only the scenery layers that are enabled will be downloaded - try turning off some scenery layers to reduce bandwidth, diskspace, or if FPS is slow on old systems. | |||
Currently there are only 3 servers that will bear the load of serving OSM2City data. | |||
===== Rollout plan for 2020.3 LTS ===== | |||
There is a plan to enable the first ''experimental'' rollout of on a 2020.3 LTS nightly. | |||
''Notes:'' | |||
Almost every aspect is subject to change. Expect to re-download. If server bandwidth becomes an issue then the rollout may need to be paused until the next iteration of OSM2City. | |||
''Disk Space requirements'': Currently the uncompressed OSM2City data takes up a lot of space - more than 750 GB. Space can be drastically improved in future iterations of OSM2City. Pylons take up a lot of space uncompressed, so you may want to have them disabled for high altitude flights. | |||
''Rendering performance:'' large buildings use an older format so city centers with lots of buildings can be slow. The bottleneck is the CPU here, so don't worry if FPS is low with a fast GPU. Performance can be drastically improved in future iterations. Small buildings and houses are fast, take up less RAM, and use less disk-space. Roads, pylons, and objects use the old format and they take a lot of space compared to buildings, as well as being slow. Try turning these off if you are stuck for space, or if FPS is low. Try lowering [[Scenery LoD|Lod:rough]] if you are having RAM or performance issues on older systems. | |||
''Appearance:'' Textures and the appearance of OSM2City is placeholder. Automatic generation for areas without OSM coverage is disabled. There is very limited local variety right now. | |||
To contribute to any aspect of OSM2City get in touch via the threads for [https://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=22809 OSM2City] or the [https://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=35581 Worldbuild] and the [[Mailing list|fg-devel]] mailinglist. | |||
==== OSM2City Tree support ==== | |||
Support for OSM2City to define trees has been added. | |||
=== Composite Viewer === | |||
Jules has done a lot more work on Composite View support in recent months: see [[CompositeViewer Support#Status updates|status]] . OSG 3.6 is needed, so windows nightly builds do not have composite viewer yet. Use : --composite-viewer=1 as a command-line option to enable the viewer. New views can be created through the view menu. | |||
=== Photo-texture support === | |||
Nathaniel Warner (nathaniel515) has submitted a patch to allow user-supplied orthophoto textures to optionally be used and this is available in nightlies - see the [https://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=37866 forum thread]. This works with current WS 2.0 scenery. | |||
Note: Photo-textures created this way can ''only'' be distributed when the source of the textures has a license that allows people to re-distribute their work and derived works (a lot of photo scenery sources only intend their material to just be viewed, or used only for personal projects). If the sceneries are to be redistributed in a FG specific format as custom sceneries intended for use with FG, or otherwise distributed as a work created by mixing FG with the scenery (like in a package with FG), then the license for the photo textures must also be compatible with FG's license, GPL, and the rights GPL guarantees to people using the mixed work. | |||
Some examples of photoscenery from youtube: | |||
FGUK: | |||
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11_CF3LRfNY Westland Sea King HAR3. 4k Test Photo Scenery. Scotland | |||
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4GSH3cPTC0 Scotland Photo scenery overflight preview. | |||
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWdBkb2Yl4Y Starting a Glasgow city Heliport on the Clyde, Following the Clyde West then the Coast South to Prestwick. WIP CH47D/HC2 | |||
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2H_3G37yLg BK117 over the Cairngorms. AP testing | |||
Wlbragg: | |||
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1melr1aBGU Aircrane over the grand Canyon | |||
=== To contribute === | |||
There are a lot of things being worked on - see [[FlightGear Newsletter November 2020#The road ahead|past newsletters]]. You can get in touch via the [[Mailing list|fg-devel]] mailing list to contribute. | |||
Bugs and issues can be reported through the sourceforge [https://sourceforge.net/p/flightgear/codetickets/ tickets system]. | |||
== Related Software tools and projects == | == Related Software tools and projects == | ||
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More details, especially on getting the current mumble snapshot is on [[FGCom-mumble]]. | More details, especially on getting the current mumble snapshot is on [[FGCom-mumble]]. | ||
=== Red-Griffin ATC 2.10 released === | |||
Antonello Biancalana has released a new version of his speaking [[Red Griffin ATC|ATC addon]]. It can be downloaded from [https://sourceforge.net/projects/red-griffin-atc/files/latest/download sourceforge]. See the [https://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=36755 forum thread] for feedback. | |||
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEuz9hTpvuI Red Griffin ATC 2 1 0: Demo Flight with Squawking and Assisted Approach, from Foligno to Perugia | |||
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IhPebn2TgI Red Griffin ATC Preview - Experimenting with Festival Speech Synthesis System and FlightGear | |||
== In the hangar == | == In the hangar == | ||
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<!-- === New aircraft === --> | <!-- === New aircraft === --> | ||
<!-- === Updated aircraft === --> | <!-- === Updated aircraft === -->=== Bristol Brabazon === | ||
Bristol Brabazon | Starboard brake now working. No update in the official hangar yet, but you can find it at Sourceforge. | ||
=== <!-- === Liveries === --> <!-- === Instruments === --><!-- === Aircraft reviews === --> === | |||
=== Bell AH-1W SuperCobra Project === | |||
Bell-pilot on the forum, an AH-1W SuperCobra pilot with an aerospace engineering background, has started a project working towards an accurate JSBSim helicopter - a lot of the exsiting helicopters use YaSim. See the [https://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=38731 forum thread] for details. | |||
=== Releases & Updates === | |||
==== [[Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane]] ==== | |||
[[User:Wlbragg|Wlbragg]] (Wayne Bragg) has released the [[Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane]] (Erickson Aircrane) into FGAddon/trunk. This version of the aircrane is an overahul which is designed for the Compositor. It's a good refernce to see how Compositor features like shadows and clustered lighting can be integrated into an aircraft. To be downloadable from the launcher the Aircrane needs a [http://download.flightgear.org/builds/nightly/ nightly build] of FlightGear, or a self-build of the next branch. See the [https://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2970 forum thread] for details and link to the repository. | |||
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf_PWtf0_cs Compositor clustered lighting support in the aircrane - several different types of lights are featured. | |||
==== BK117-B2 ==== | |||
FGUK have released an update to the MBB BK117-B2. See the [https://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=31759 forum thread] for details and download. | |||
==== Hughes MD-500E v2.1 ==== | |||
FGUK have released an update to the MD-500E. Updates: Slight FDM Changes. Long Line payload option, for use with the [[Cargo Towing Addon]]. New Autopilot. Fixes.Multiplayer SAR recovery script. See the [https://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=25353 forum thread] for details and download. | |||
==== Bell 412 " Griffin" v1.1 ==== | |||
Updates: FDM - Fixed the Inverse torque during initial take off. Added a Long Line payload option for use with the Cargo Towing addon. New Autopilot with Bell 412 specific Dialogue. New camera view - Hook View. Fixed a case issue in the GNS430. See the [https://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=35603 forum thread] for details and download. | |||
==== Eurocopter EC120 Colibri v1.0 ==== | |||
FGUK have relesed the first public version of the Eurocopter EC120 Colibri: | |||
* 14 liveries. 3 configuration options. Optional emergency floatation system. Cold dark start possible. ALS Glass and fuselage effects. Long line cargo option for use with the [[Cargo Towing Addon|Cargo Towing Addon .]] FDM meets stated performance values. Multiplayer passenger function. SAR Recovery script to allow other SAR equipped helicopters to recover your crashed chopper. | |||
See [https://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=38492 forum thread] for details and download. | |||
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2bKx-SoUTM EC130 manual startup tutorial by FGUK. | |||
== Scenery corner == | == Scenery corner == | ||
<!-- Scenery development news --> | <!-- Scenery development news --> | ||
=== <!-- === Scenery Models === --> Integration of sceneries into Terrasync === | |||
Scott (xDraconian) is in the process of integrating WS 2.0 islands and complete landmasses into Terrasync. | |||
This includes the [[Australia Custom Scenery|Australia scenery project]] and the New Zealand scenery rebuild by ProfessorS, as well as smaller islands.<!-- === Airports === --> | |||
<!-- === Airports === --> | |||
<!-- === Land cover === --> | <!-- === Land cover === --> | ||