"I've managed to fix this by differentiating rebuilding the 3D layers
(e.g. due to METAR updates) from rebuilding the entire environment (due to a
change in scenario)."
/me: property-browser.xml: drop a redundant line
Attached is yet another 3D clouds patch, to fix the following:
1) The 3D clouds were not modified by the cloud coverage, due to some problems with osg::Switch
2) METAR changes to cloud coverage were not obeyed.
3) Making changes via the Cloud dialog had no effect unless 3D clouds were toggled.
4) Cloud cover was too sparse.
5) 3D Stratus clouds caused performance issues on some hardware (fixed by removing 3D stratus from cloudlayers.xml - it will now be a 2D layer).
Reacting to a feature request, attached patch adds support for
parkpos selection in the "location on ground" dialog, and clears any
parkpos preset in the "airports" dialog.
- Removes the cloud type re-use code - I think they aren't worth the graphical artefacts that they cause in light of Tim's improvements
- Changes the transparency of the clouds. Previously, the clouds were transparent at 0m distance, opaque at 200m, then gradually more transparent to the fog limits. This meant they were generally quite transparent. Now, they are opaque from 200m to 15km, then become transparent at 20km. A side effect of this is that the current textures could probably benefit from being made slightly transparent to improve the blending of the sprites against each other.
This provides the following enhancements & bug fixes
- Fix the chequer-board bug.
- Add proper cloud coverage function - so scattered clouds are now truly scattered.
- Add real-time control for visibility range.
- Use a limited set of clouds rather than generating a completely new Geode for each cloud. This saves sorting and display time.
- Add controls to Rendering dialog to allow fine-tuning of the number of sprites, cloud visibility and the number of different types of cloud.
- Add some variance to the sort back-off to avoid all clouds being sorted at the same time.
- Pack attributes into vectors for performance
- Re-order the cloud type determination code so that if a cloud layer could either be stratus or cumulus, cumulus is used.
- Lowered the cloud level in the standard cloud configuration slightly so a cumulus layer is generated rather than stratus.
These last two mean that you should see some 3D cumuli if disabling real weather fetch.
My thanks to Yon Uriarte for his help with performance work.
(/sim/rendering/precipitation-gui-enabled) *and* if the aircraft wants it
(/sim/rendering/precipitation-aircraft-enabled). Some aircraft model rain
on the windshield and want to turn rain off for interior views.
- Multiplayer is too long for a menu entry that is greyed out most of
the time for many people
- I don't like having the word "player" in front of me all the time
(FlightGear Is Not A Game[TM] :-)
Should we shorten it further to just "Net"?
- Update redout level every frame
- Replace reading of properties every iteration with listeners
- move -onset and -complete properties into a parameters subtree
1) The chat menu will now select the runway closest to the aircraft
when the aircraft is on the ground, or very low (< 100ft). This
handles the case where the user has selected a runway explicitly,
e.g. 01R for KSFO take-offs for noise abatement. My thanks for
AnMaster for pointing this out on IRC. Note that above 100 ft, the
wind-appropriate runway will still be used.
2) Change to keyboard description for the - key, as pointed out by
Melchior.
- rename prop-key-handler.nas to prop_key_handler.nas (the hyphens were
intentional, exactly to *make* using it as namespace less inviting,
but times change ...)
- add property browser binding to the '/'-key for when the property key handler
is turned off (/sim/input/property-key-handler=0). If it's on, use /: or
/<property>: to open the browser.
- run keyboard event listener only when property key handler is active
I hope that the '/' key can keep this binding even after a keyboard review.
The '/' is just the most natural key for dealing with properties, and it's
far less prominent on non-US-keyboards (e.g. Shift-7 on German keyboards),
so it's not really very well suited for important aircraft functions, anyway.
But I don't insist. :-)
These are then skipped with view.stepView(n), unless the second, optional
argument is set to 1: view.stepView(n, 1);
Whether a view is enabled or not, is saved in $FG_ROOT/.fgfs/autosave.xml
(system views) or $FG_ROOT/.fgfs/aircraft-data/<aircraft>.xml
- allow turning on/off extra widgets for developers (HUD dialog: colors,
rendering dialog: visualization of shadow edges), and to turn on/off new
- property key handler ('/'-key)
Both features are off by default, and their state is saved to autosave.xml.
/sim/current-view/dynamic-view. There are additionally <dynamic-view>
settings per view, but those only enable it for that view if it's
globally turned on.
algorithm (needed for the file selector and useful for other purposes, like
assembling lists of livery or screenshot files etc.)
- io.nas: move fixpath to string.nas (it's not only useful for file paths
but can also be used for property paths)
- screen.nas: move trim to string.nas (used by screen.nas and nasal-console.xml)
- gui.nas: add pattern matching to FileSelctor
- ufo.nas: use patterm matching (only *.ac and *.xml files shall be listed)
/sim/gui/dialogs/file-select/directory, the selected file's full path
is returned in /sim/gui/dialogs/file-select/directory. There will be
a gui.file_selector class that allows to have more than one of these
dialogs open, where each of them reports the result to a callback function.
The dialog toggles dotfile display with ctrl-click on the "." entry,
and switches to FG_ROOT and FG_HOME with ctrl-click and shift-click on
the ".." entry.
This dialog is ATM not used anywhere in fgfs, but might be needed by
add-ons, much like the xml.nas code. Note that backslashes are converted
to slashes, which should ensure that no characters can be sneaked in
on UNIX systems. This breaks files containing escaped characters on
MS Windows. Fix for that on request. :-) Special characters (like German
umlauts) aren't displayed correctly, but properly returned. (Depending
on the plib font.)
gui/menubar.xml: Tim Moore:
These patches implement a command to dump the entire OSG scene graph as
a .osg text file. While large, this allows debuggers to really see
what's happening in the scene graph.
all code shares a common namespace, so variables defined in one tab can
be used in another during the whole fgfs session
- make code persistent (saved in autosave.xml)
- better error messages (code borrowed from nasal/lib/interactive.nas)
- clear button (replaces close button, which is now on the title bar)
- help button (explains how to add more tab buttons, etc.)
$FG_ROOT/gui/dialogs/tutorial.xml. It combines the former selection
and description dialogs, which makes browsing much more pleasant.
No more switching back and forth between the two old dialogs. Also,
the <list> box can handle a bigger number of tutorials than the
<combo> box could.
- remove comments from the top of tutorial.nas. The documentation is
now $FG_ROOT/Docs/README.tutorials
preferences.xml gui/menubar.xml gui/dialogs/rendering.xml
Added Files:
Nasal/multiplayer.nas gui/dialogs/chat.xml
gui/dialogs/chat_full.xml:
the data part of Stuarts multiplayer/chat patch
but as this is an integral part of FlightGear, I don't want to push for it.
Try out and comment. It's available under "Debug/Property Browser". Note,
that this isn't the slow pure-Nasal implementation, but a regular dialog
using a c++ based widget. Only the handling is done in Nasal, so there should
really be not performance degradation compared with the old dialog.
Easter Eggs: some entries work differently when the Control-key is pressed:
"." -> toggle output of SGPropertyNode flags
".." -> go to root (not just one dir level)
bool entry -> toggle bool entry value
has to be given before a --wp or --flight-plan option to work.)
- let the "Remove" button remove the first entry by default, not the last.
(Note that you can remove any entry if you selected it in the list first.
Likewise you can insert a new waypoint at any position by selecting the
respective entry.)
<close> block, remove autopilot helper file autopilot.nas and (re)implement
its functionality in autopilot.xml
- make AP dialog "bidirectional" and "live": all input fields are <live>
(i.e. they are updated as the autopilot settings are changed, for example
by panel actions or property browser changes)
- dialog input is only forwarded to the AP; no direct checkbox/radiobutton
handling through widget operation, instead:
- changes to the AP properties operate checkboxes/radiobuttons
This makes the AP dialog always reflect the AP state. If the AP refuses
one setting and sets it back to something else, then the dialog will
immediately react and show the actual setting.
not only more consistent, but also makes the autopilot dialog act more like
the real device). Add a few rules. Move the checkboxes to the left, as it's
usually done in GUIs for switches that enable/disable a group of widgets.
leave edit field!, press <Return> to execute; as an example try
screen.log.write("hello world"), or f16.canopy.open() in the F16,
or bo105.doors[3].move(0.3) in the Bo105 etc.
- gui.nas: use 4-space indents like the rest of the file; waste slightly less
cycles: checking for the property shouldn't be done in a loop at
all, it only serves as a temporary solution
overwritten by C++ code before displaying. These are written in
upper case letters, but this is only a hint for editors of this
file and doesn't impress ATCDialog.cxx.
Changes
=======
- shadowvolume.cxx, renderer.cxx :
- reduced the polygon offset a bit to eliminate some artifact ;
- changed again the cleanup code for objects inside a tile because it could crash on rare occasion ;
- the culling of shadow casters has been rewritten to traverse the scene graph, it should be
a bit faster when there is a lot of objects ;
- the range selector was not correctly handled, sometimes the wrong LOD was casting shadows.
- added the option to display aircraft's transparent objects after the shadows, this will
reduce the problem of shadows being hidden by the transparent object (propeller disk,
rotor, etc). A side effect is that aircraft's transparent objects won't receive shadows
anymore. This is usually a good thing except when the aircraft use a 'transparent'
texture where it should not. A transparent texture in the plib context is a texture
with an alpha channel or a material with alpha <= 0.99.
- model.cxx, animation.cxx, shadowvolume.cxx :
- added an optional <condition> under the <noshadow> animation
- tower.cxx
- correct a rare bug where all occurences of the aircraft are not deleted from the
departure list causing a crash in FGTower::CheckDepartureList function.
Changes
=======
New volumetric shadows for FlightGear.
There is now two new checkboxes in the rendering dialog to enable/disable shadows
for the user aircraft and for static scenery objects (ie those defined in the .stg files).
AI and random objects are not handled for the moment.
known bugs
==========
- ghost objects
This is another update for the cloud code, a lot of lines but this time I have started to add the doxygen doc.
Misc
====
- corrected a bug when RTT is not available, the current rendering context was
altered
- if RTT is not available then 3d clouds are not drawn at all
- impostors lighting is now recomputed when the sun changes position
- distant objects are no more seen in front of clouds
- blending of distant clouds is a bit better now
- litle optimization of code (uses a less cpu time)
- use layer wind speed and direction (no more hardcoded wind)
- fov is no more hardcoded
Changes
=======
- clouds (cu only) are dissipating/reforming (experimental)
- compute a turbulence factor that depends on surrounding clouds and type of
clouds (experimental)
- clouds shapes are defined in cloudlayers.xml
- type of clouds present in a layer is also defined in cloudlayers.xml
- cloud layers are generated from metar and other misc. data (in progress)
- added a rain effect around the viewer (enabled in the rendering dialog and
when the metar property says so)
- added a lightning effect (enabled in the rendering dialog) : cb clouds spawn
new lightnings
- added a dialog to select from different weather source : metar/property,
a 'fair weather' environment and a 'thunderstorm' environment.
they want the feature or not, based on what they see. Having to click on
"Apply" every time is cumbersome.
- show the slider values
- remove the now obsolete buttons (KISS)
- added "my" title bar, albeit without close button (I was *very* tempted :-)
- new and updated sources for the new volumetric clouds
- 2 new textures for the clouds
- an update to the render dialog to enable/disable and change a few parameters
for the new clouds
Implement simple help system with global and aircraft specific dialogs:
The gui.nas changes have been discussed with Andy. All ac have a help dialog,
but some are empty. (This wouldn't have been necessary, as the system falls
back to the "Common Aircraft Keys" if an aircraft has no help defined, but an
empty dialog is less confusing and encourages to be filled with interesting
information. :-) I scanned all aircraft files for interesting performance
data and added some to the dialogs (stall speed, etc.) The Concorde and the
p51d have (over?)complete dialogs and can serve as examples. The format is
documented in $FG_ROOT/Nasa/gui.nas.
There is also a couple of other, minor fixes.
The following files have ugly MSDOS line endings:
$FG_ROOT/Aircraft/Hunter/hunter{-2tanks,}-set.xml
$FG_ROOT/Aircraft/A380/A380-set.xml
The Concorde-jsbsim.nas file is a useless copy of the real */nas file, which is
in Nasal/. I'was debugging the Concorde and wondered why changes to this file
had no effect ...
(Fixed Concorde in the help-ac.diff patch: don't use "interpol" keyword as
variable.)
I have made the
'Select Airport from List' option in FlightGear work
(I think) properly. I have some concerns about the
solution, which could be broken by changes to plib (if
they re-use the value I have assigned to
PUCLASS_LIST), but for the moment it seems to work OK.
Erik Hofman:
A request has been sent to John Fay to include the puList
code in the puAux subdirectory of plib so expect some
changes for future version of FlightGear.
Although this doesn't work anywhere but on my machine ... OK/Cancel
is completely out of place for this dialog. This has to be Apply/Close
or something.
I've finished the emigration of the radiostack, and I've also removed it
completely. It turned out that the comm radio is completely implemented in
the ATC subsystem. I've changed the affected ATC files to point
to /instrumentation/com, but I guess that the maintainer of the ATC code
should decide wether to make it configureable, and how.
I also had to change some files in Network and Main. The changes in network
should be obvious, but the changes in Main were a bit suspect. The files
included radiostack.hxx, but they weren't directly depending on
radiostack-hxx. They were depending on other files that were included by
radiostack.hxx. I got it to compile, but I'm not sure if I included the
correct directly depending file.
For the data directory I changed every occurrence of /radios/
with /instrumentation/ with this simple one-liner that I found on the net:
find -name '*.xml' -type f | xargs perl -pi -e
's/\/radios\//\/instrumentation\//g'
Instead of me sending all the files that got changed by this I suggest that
you execute the one-liner yourself. Of course I can not guarantee that this
will work perfectly, but I considered hand editing to be not an option (I'm
lazy). I don't want to test every aircraft to see if everything still works,
I think it's better to wait and see if anyone complaints about broken nav
radios/instruments.
the root problem was a C++ bug. Remove the no-op hbox around the mute
button, and make it "live" when clicked. Tried to make the slider
live, but discovered that bindings don't work on them; gotta fix
that. Change some of the wording to be more in line with standard
conventions; hopefully Curt's OK with that. :)
Make a new set location (on ground) dialog box which knows how to set up
the /sim/presets/ properties correctly for a new ground position.
For now leave the previous all-in-one dialog box for in-air resets. However
this really needs some more work to make sure the /sim/presets properties get
set correctly.
Square the normalized direction acceleration for the y and z axes, so
that turbulence predominantly affects pitch.
Bind to the /environment/turbulence/magnitude-norm and
/environment/turbulence/rate-hz properties in FlightGear.
