FlightGear Newsletter February 2012: Difference between revisions

Omega95 has created an entirely new instrument type for FlightGear, a so called Vertical Situation Display (VSD). This was done entirely in scripting space using Nasal and XML animations. He's basically proven everbody wrong who ever claimed that complex instruments couldn't yet be created in scripting space. Apparently, he managed to create this instrument in less than 24 hrs. His first question related to this was about accessing trigonometric functions from Nasal, shortly thereafter he posted screen shots depicting his VSD.  

[[Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR1]] is a private project by pjedvaj, it was not intended to replace or update the existing [[British Aerospace Harrier]]. It has a detailed 3D model, animations and RAF livery. Instruments and HUD are fairly authentic. The aircraft has working ADEN guns and basic fuel and weight control. FDM is adapted from the original BAe Harrier, internal and external fuel tank capacities are modified to match the GR.1 version.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner has already been there in FlightGear for a very long time but then it didn't have many of the 787's features like a realistic glass cockpit and many of the instruments. The new/updated Boeing 787-8 is a community project that features new JSBSim flight dynamics, Vertical Navigation, realistic 787 glass cockpit, new CDU, Electronic Flight Bag, TCAS, advanced Nav Displays, [http://wiki.flightgear.org/Howto:_Implement_a_Vertical_Situation_Display_in_Nasal|Vertical Situation Display], [http://wiki.flightgear.org/Howto:_Implement_a_Fly-By-Wire_System_for_Airliners|Fly-by-wire] and a lot of other neat features. It has not exactly been completed and the project is still running. You can find out more about the Boeing 787-8 Project HERE or wait for a while till a wiki page is created for it. One of the really good points of this project is how most of our findings and resources have been converted into Wiki HowTos for other aircraft developers to use for their projects.

The [[Cessna 337G Skymaster]] from the Spain-Latinamerica "Vive FlightGear" factory have received a major update. The new cockpit is now totally modelled, almost buttons and knobs are functional, animated, and properly labeled for easy identification. New custom sounds, lights, controls, a Bendix/King avionics pack capable of full IFR and night navigation, 2 new HQ liveries and the first FlightGear's working [[ELT]] (Emergency Locator Transmitter) are part of this great improvement on a FlightGear aircraft.

=== Shanghai ===

[[File:SH fgfs-screen-001.png|250px|thumb|Shanghai skyline]]

Shanghai is one of the biggest city in China and is among the cities with the most number of skyscrapers. Some work were done over the last few months to model the city's skylines, with 21 custom models.