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FlightGear Newsletter January 2021: Difference between revisions
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FlightGear Newsletter January 2021 (view source)
Revision as of 11:22, 11 February 2021
, 11 February 2021More info on a few new features on next: automated environment slider, bathymetry update, Europe regional definitions changes. Cleanup
(Cleanup. Add info on Australia scenery project terrain release) |
(More info on a few new features on next: automated environment slider, bathymetry update, Europe regional definitions changes. Cleanup) |
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== Development news == | == Development news == | ||
<!-- 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 | <!-- 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 other changes like in-sim GUI replacement that are being worked on, but not on next. | ||
As usual, nightly builds are available at: [https://download.flightgear.org/builds/nightly/ download.flightgear.org] . These now include [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppImage Appimages] for Linux. | As usual, nightly builds are available at: [https://download.flightgear.org/builds/nightly/ download.flightgear.org] . These now include [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppImage Appimages] for Linux. | ||
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The next branch contains a prototype of [[World Scenery 3.0 roadmap|WS 3.0]], FlightGear's next generation scenery. | 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 | OSG 3.6 is needed. The prototype is not currently available on windows nightlies as they use OSG 3.4 because the [[OSGText Issues|OSG text issue]] has not been fixed yet. Windows users that compile from source can build with OSG 2.6 and view the prototype. | ||
'''Status''' | '''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 for the UK has been built ( download ). Some example WS 3.0 scenery will be added to TerraSync at a future date, including the UK scenery. | ||
* Scenery generation using [[Virtual Planet Builder]] (VPB) tool chain is advanced. The landclasses are all present. | * 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. | * 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. Transitions and other effects have not been implemented. | ||
* Airports use the current WS 2 | * Airports use the current WS 2 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 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. | * 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 a higher glsl version. After that, WS 3.0 rendering can leverage more techniques. | ||
* Marc has added the first implementation of trees on top of WS 3.0 terrain - this currently uses one tree type and is slow. Performance will be fixed in due course. | |||
'''To see WS 3.0:''' | '''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 | # Download VPB terrain: [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tqDMKiVfaCsdDRjOaKCQLBiWjrOGuzxP/view?usp=sharing UK scenery] by StuartB - 450 MB . Extract and add to you custom scenery folders list (the folder to be added is the folder congaing the 'vpb' folder). Scenery 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. ''This scenery will become available through TerraSync in future.'' | ||
# 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 . | # 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. | # 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 | # 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 airports. | ||
==== Compositor ==== | ==== 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 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. | 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, they're just the first start - the Compositor is a rendering framework with expanded capability that makes a lot more things possible. | ||
===== Lighting ===== | ===== 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. | 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. | Aircraft and scenery developers can add lights quickly in a format similar to Rembrandt. For backwards compatibility, the plan is that old Rembrandt lights will be converted to the new format so unmaintained craft will continue to benefit - but aircraft developers should start transitioning to the new light definitions in their Compositor branches. Compositor branches can be uploaded to [[FGAddon#FGAddon directory layout|FGAddon/trunk]] where in-development aircraft are kept - aircraft in trunk are visible only to the FG next branch which has switched to the Compositor. | ||
There are several aircraft available through the launcher on the next branch which have new compositor lights: Aircrane, J3-Cub, Ercoupe, | There are several aircraft available through the launcher on the next branch which have new compositor lights: Aircrane, J3-Cub, Ercoupe, | ||
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Shadow quality is still set from the command-line. | Shadow quality is still set from the command-line. | ||
=== OSM2City world build === | ==== 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. | 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 ==== | ===== Experimental rollout on TerraSync ===== | ||
Investigations are underway into making the OSM2City available through TerraSync. | Investigations are underway into making the OSM2City available through TerraSync. | ||
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Currently there are only 3 servers that will bear the load of serving OSM2City data. | Currently there are only 3 servers that will bear the load of serving OSM2City data. | ||
===== Rollout plan for 2020.3 LTS ===== | ====== Rollout plan for 2020.3 LTS ====== | ||
There is a plan to enable the first ''experimental'' rollout of on a 2020.3 LTS nightly. | There is a plan to enable the first ''experimental'' rollout of on a 2020.3 LTS nightly. | ||
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''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. | ''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. | ''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 and running just buildings 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. Random buildings now use the fast technique - on older systems that are too slow for current OSM2City people can try random buildings with increased building density. | ||
''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. | ''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. | ||
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=== Composite Viewer === | === 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. | 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. | ||
=== Automated environment slider configuration === | |||
Erik has added a sophisticated algorithm automatically configure the sliders in the <code>Environment -> Environment settings</code> dialog with plausible guesses based on a rough climate classification of the surrounding region, time of year, altitude, etc. as well as a guess at weather history for things like snow or rain accumulation given the current weather. The environment sliders will change ss you travel to different parts of the world, or change the time of year - try changing the month and watching sliders. These are still guesses so you should feel free to tweak settings - determining the environment state is a hard problem to solve, there is always extreme, exceptional and unseasonal weather - for example it has [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_in_Florida snowed in Florida] and there are rains even in deserts causing blooms or [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superbloom superblooms], and the history of weather can't really be determined by current weather. | |||
To activate this option, tick the appropriate box in the Environment settings menu on the next branch / windows nightly build. | |||
=== Photo-texture support === | === 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 | 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 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 | 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 photo-textures 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 as default scenery), then the license for the photo textures must also be compatible with FG's license: GPL. That is, the license for the photo-textures must be compatible with the rights and freedoms GPL guarantees to people when using the mixed work. | ||
Some examples of photoscenery from youtube: | Some examples of photoscenery from youtube: | ||
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FGUK: | FGUK: | ||
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11_CF3LRfNY Westland Sea King HAR3. 4k | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11_CF3LRfNY Westland Sea King HAR3. 4k Photo Scenery test. Scotland | ||
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4GSH3cPTC0 Scotland Photo scenery overflight preview. | 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, | 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. Helicopter: work-in-progress CH47D/HC2 | ||
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2H_3G37yLg BK117 over the Cairngorms. AP testing | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2H_3G37yLg BK117 over the Cairngorms with photo textures. AP testing | ||
Wlbragg: | Wlbragg: | ||
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1melr1aBGU Aircrane over the grand Canyon | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1melr1aBGU Aircrane over the grand Canyon | ||
=== | === Contributing === | ||
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. | 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. | ||
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==== [[Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane]] ==== | ==== [[Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane]] ==== | ||
[[User:Wlbragg|Wlbragg]] (Wayne Bragg) | [[User:Wlbragg|Wlbragg]] (Wayne Bragg) is continuing his re-build/overhaul of the [[Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane]] (Erickson Aircrane). Helijah, the maintainer, has merged some of the recent work into FGAddon/trunk. Wlbragg's version of the Aircrane is an overhaul which is designed for the Compositor. It's a good reference 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 for the latest work. | ||
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf_PWtf0_cs Compositor clustered lighting support in the | 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 ==== | ==== BK117-B2 ==== | ||
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<!-- Scenery development news --> | <!-- Scenery development news --> | ||
=== <!-- === Scenery Models === --> Integration of sceneries into Terrasync === | === <!-- === Scenery Models === --> Integration of sceneries into Terrasync === | ||
Scott (xDraconian) is in the process of integrating WS 2 | Scott (xDraconian) is in the process of integrating WS 2 islands and complete landmasses into Terrasync. | ||
This includes the [[Australia Custom Scenery|Australia scenery project]], as well as the New Zealand scenery rebuild by ProfessorS, as well as smaller islands. | This includes the [[Australia Custom Scenery|Australia scenery project]], as well as the New Zealand scenery rebuild by ProfessorS, as well as smaller islands. | ||
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Terrain release: The 1st build of the Australian continent in WS2 format is complete - see the [https://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=36145&p=378016#p378016 forum thread] for details. This is only the terrain release, the regional definitions are still WiP. The rebuilt terrain can use the new cliff shader present in the 2020.3 LTS onwards (when regional definitions map the landclasses to the new effect). | Terrain release: The 1st build of the Australian continent in WS2 format is complete - see the [https://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=36145&p=378016#p378016 forum thread] for details. This is only the terrain release, the regional definitions are still WiP. The rebuilt terrain can use the new cliff shader present in the 2020.3 LTS onwards (when regional definitions map the landclasses to the new effect). | ||
=== Water depth update === | |||
Erik has updated the water depth map (bathymetry). Inland water bodies will have better water depth. | |||
=== Europe regional definitions improvements === | |||
Erik has integrated the agriculture textures found in the old DDS global definitions scheme into the regional texturing scheme for Europe. These textures have been matched to be in-line with his recent texture matching of FG textures. Results: [http://adalin.com/ehtw.info/europe.jpg image] | |||
<!-- === Airports === --> | The existence of new textures was brought to attention by Thilo who noticed the region around his town looked closer to reality under the old DDS scheme. More high quality agriculture regional textures (and more GPL landclass textures in general) are one of the ways which can have a very high impact on scenery - see [[FlightGear Newsletter January 2021#Aerial .28drone.29 photos for Terrain textures|Help Wanted]] and [[Howto:Create textures from photos|Howto:creating textures]] .<!-- === Airports === --> | ||
<!-- === Land cover === --> | <!-- === Land cover === --> | ||