After applying the attached patches (based on latest CVS) you should
have a new option available within your version that should also
show up using fgfs --help, the syntax is:
fgfs --min-status={level} --show-aircraft
whereas "level" can be anything between
"alpha","beta","early-production" and "production"
Of course running something like
fgfs --min-status=alpha --show-aircraft
should not return any aircraft right now, as none of the
current aircraft definition files in your base-package is using the
required
<status></status>
tag - but you can easily give it a try by adding something like
<status>alpha</status>
The tag should be placed as a sub-tag within <sim> - so directly behind
the <description> tag would be just fine and straight-forward.
As a result of recent requests, I've implemented the ability to switch off
aerodynamic stabilisation:
This has to be added to the submodel.xml files:
<aero-stabilised>false</aero-stabilised>
When false the submodel retains the pitch given at instantiation.
It defaults to true.
I've made an encoder and a transponder. The transponder gets C-Mode altitude
information from the encoder. These two might not be very usefull right now,
but I think they might come in handy when the ATC network gets going.
input.cxx allocates memory for js->getNumAxes() axes and for jsCaps.wNumButtons
or MAX_JOYSTICK_BUTTONS buttons per joystick. But it doesn't check if some
xml config defines bindings for more axes/buttons, in which case it writes
to unallocated memory and causes crashes. This is a real world example:
sidewinder-force-feed-pro.xml defines 7 axes, but only newer versions of
this js do actually have that many. Older ones (-> gameport) don't. The patch
drops unused and unusable bindings.
I've added two new debug log types for the instrumentation and systems. They
used to use the autopilot debug log, because I couldn't figure out how to
make new log types. Well, now I have figured it out. ;-)
This will modify menubar.cxx/hxx so that it exports the
entire menubar (from menubar.xml) to the property tree, so that it can
now be changed dynamically using Nasal's setprop() instruction and
afterwards running a newly added fgcommand to update the menubar
based on those changes using the appropriate menubar path within
the property tree.
By default the menubar from menubar.xml will be stored within:
/sim/menubar/default
Erik:
I have moved the loading of menubar.xml into preferences.xml and
made sure that the menubar is destroyed every time a new menubar
is created.
I think I found the problem in props.hxx. I have an exception when copying properties. An alias to a property that has no value trigger this exception. The code that generate that is in AIManager.cxx :
void FGAIAircraft::bind() {
FGAIBase::bind();
props->tie("controls/gear/gear-down",
SGRawValueMethods<FGAIAircraft,bool>(*this,
&FGAIAircraft::_getGearDown));
props->getNode("controls/lighting/landing-lights", true)
->alias("controls/gear/gear-down");
}
controls/gear/gear-down has no value ( _type == NONE ) and controls/lighting/landing-lights is copied somewhere.
Erik:
Frederic's fix was to change props.hxx but he has expressed his doubts.
For now I've commented out the line that causes the problem so we have more
time to look deeper into the problem.
cvs -z4 -q diff -u props.hxx (in directory I:\FlightGear\cvs\SimGear\simgear\props\)
Index: props.hxx
===================================================================
RCS file: /var/cvs/SimGear-0.3/SimGear/simgear/props/props.hxx,v
retrieving revision 1.4
diff -u -r1.4 props.hxx
--- props.hxx 19 Sep 2004 09:08:12 -0000 1.4
+++ props.hxx 21 Oct 2004 07:10:54 -0000
@@ -622,7 +622,7 @@
/**
* Test whether this node contains a primitive leaf value.
*/
- bool hasValue () const { return (_type != NONE); }
+ bool hasValue () const { return (_type != ALIAS && _type != NONE) || (_type == ALIAS && _value.alias->_type != NONE); }
/**
Don't overwrite user settings from config files.
fgfs had in any case set bump-mapping to false, no matter if this
node did already exist (because it was defined in a config file).
compilation without ENABLE_SP_FMDS defined gave me a lot of link errors. It appeared that symbol used by ADA was still in use in the HUD.
There is also a typo from Curt in instrument_mgr.cxx where he #include "kr_87.cxx" instead of "kr_87.hxx"
This is a patch to make display list usage optional. They are on by default.
Use --prop:/sim/rendering/use-display-list=false to use immediate mode.
There is also a change in exception handling in main.cxx and bootstrap.cxx
This is a patch to make display list usage optional. They are on by default.
Use --prop:/sim/rendering/use-display-list=false to use immediate mode.
There is also a change in exception handling in main.cxx and bootstrap.cxx
Instrumentation and systems are now configureable from xml files. The two
generic configurations generic-systems.xml and generic-instrumentation.xml
configures the systems and instrumentation as it was hardcoded. You can
override the generic configurations in a similar way as you override the
autopilot configuration.
I've added some digital filters to the autopilot. They are all low-pass
filters that filter away high frequency signals/noise. There are 4 different
filters:
1. Exponential - The algorithm is essentially the same as the one used in the
fgGetLowPass() function.
2. Double exponential - Two exponential filters in series. This filter has a
"steeper" frequency response curve. It filters "better" than the single
exponential.
3. Moving average - Averages a number of inputs.
4. Noise spike - limits the amount that the output value can change from one
sample to the next.
Filters 1 and 2 are characterised by it's filter-time in seconds. For filter 3
you have to set the number of input samples to average over. For filter 4 you
set the maximum allowed rate of change as [1/s]. Since the sampling interval
(dt) isn't constant we have to calculate the maximum allowed change for every
update.
Example of a double exponential filter with filter time 0.1 seconds, that is
1/0.1 = 10 Hz.
<filter>
<name>pressure-rate-filter</name>
<debug>true</debug>
<type>double-exponential</type>
<input>/autopilot/internal/pressure-rate</input>
<output>/autopilot/internal/filtered-pressure-rate</output>
<filter-time>0.1</filter-time>
</filter>
This would go in the autopilot configuration file.
I've also removed the filtering of the "pressure-rate" helper value, use the
new filters if you want to filter it! ;-)
As I had reported on 2004/8/4 00:02:56 ("yasim + bo105 + vrp + @#%$#@ == argh!")
there must be a bug somewhere in YASim, which is responsible for the Bo105
turning around the FDM origin (nose tip) rather than the CG. Some people assumed
that I was just another victim of the "view offset" illusion, but this wasn't
and isn't the case.
Maik Justus (the rotor man) has now supposedly found the bug in YASim[1].
Look at this code in FDM/YASim/Integrator.cpp:35--66:
erly known as trRenderFrame) is now declared as a NULL function pointer and ass
ignment of the proper function is now done in FlightGear (jpgRenderFrame=FGRend
erer::update).
a working state. I still see an anomoly when taking a screen shot from inside
a 3d cockpit, but external (chase/tower) views seem to work well. I also
added a property to control how many screen-res tiles are generated in the
output. Theoretically, you can now generate unlimited resolution screen shots,
or limited only by your disk space and patience.
Today I successfully generated a 20*1024 x 20*768 (20480x15360) resolution
screen shot. If you rendered that at 100 dpi it would cover a poster of
about 17 feet by 12.8 feet.
Good luck trying to display something that big or convert it to anything
useful on a typical PC. :-)
automatically generate config.h-msvc6 with the right version number.
This way Curt will pack the right file because it will be
generated every time he will do 'configure'.
split). If SimGear is configured --with-jpeg-factory, then FlightGear
will fail to build unless this function is present.
FIXME: this is very messy architecturally -- find a better solution,
like passing this explicitly as a callback to the libJPEG class
(SimGear should not have a dependency on FlightGear).
I've made appropriate changes to Readme.submodels to reflect the
variation of Cd with Mach number.
Spitfire.submodel has been changed to use the variation of Cd with Mach
number
Submodel.cxx has been changed so that the default value of Cd is the
subsonic Cd of a non-boat tailed bullet.
I've finished the variation of Cd with Mach number.
The calculations are only applicable to ballistic
objects, and then strictly one shape: non boat-tailed bullets/shells, so
I've put them in AIBallistic rather than AIBAase. For all inputs, Cd
should be the sub-sonic value, so bullets will need changing.
I've just posted a graphical analysis here:
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/vmeazza/FlightGear/cd_mach.pdf
I'm attaching a small change to Andy's dialog.cxx that I needed
to make so that it enables XML/Nasal-dialogs to also contain
puLargeInput boxes.
The text will be retrieved/buffered from/within a specified
property tree, like:
<textbox>
<x>100</x>
<y>100</y>
<width>200</width>
<height>100</height>
<property>/gui/path-to-text-node/contents</property>
<slider>15</slider>
<editable>true</editable>
</textbox>
The calculation of submodel mass from weight has been moved from AIBallistic
to Submodel so that it is calculated only once, rather than on every
iteration as a present. The parameter <contents> has been added, primarily
so that droptanks will have the proper mass. It is the path to an
appropriate property containing a weight in lbs.
Care has to be taken with the use of <contents> because after a reset there
appears to be a delay in submodel instantiation (dt not properly reset???)
and the weight property is not always picked up before it is set to zero in
the key bindings. Slightly hard to explain. It works fine if FGFS has not
been reset though. There is a partial solution which involves the rejigging
of the fuel and gui nasal scripts, but there is still the visible delay in
instantiation to be resolved. I've nearly done the nasal fixes, which will
form part of an update to the Hunter only. I'll probably complete those
later today.
The value of rho (air density) varies with height. (Including the upper
stratosphere, ust in case someone wants to model ICBMs.) The standard
atmosphere is used (based on a sea-level temperature of 15 deg C.).
Erik Hofman:
I moved this code over the AIBase::update() so all AIModels can make
use of rho, temperature, pressure, etc.
I have added <Cd> and <weight> to the input parameters in the submodels.xml
script. Raw data may be used, thus avoiding the need to guestimate <eda>.
Eda remains, but should now be used to enter the proper cross-sectional
area.
Split up main.cxx into a program manegement part (which remains in
main.cxx) and a render part (the new renderer.?xx files). Also turn
the renderer into a small class of it's own. At this time not really
exctining because most of the stuff is still global, but it allows us
to slowly migrate some of the global definitions into the new class.
The FGRenderer class is now managed by globals, so to get the renderer
just call gloabals->get_renderer()
At some pijt it might be a good idea to also turn the remaining code in
main into a class of it's own. With a bit of luck we end up with a more
robust, and better maintainable code.
I had to reverse a number of signs to get it right. I took the opportunity
to add roll to the submodel so that droptanks will come off with the right
orientation. I have neither added the rotational speed to the submodel, nor
yaw, so if you release droptanks with significant roll rate or yaw angle on
the aircraft the submodel will not be quite right. Straight and level, or
nearly so, is fine.
paging system much more robust when position change is very rapid and sporadic.
Recall that we must load 3d models in the main render thread because model
loading can trigger opengl calls (i.e. with texture loading) and all opengl
calls *must* happen in the main render thread.
To accomplish this we load the base tile in the pager thread and build a work
queue of external models that need to be loaded. We never allow a tile to be
paged out of the tile cache until all it's pending model loads are complete.
However, when changing position very rapidly, we can quickly create a huge
backlog of pending model loads because we are changing positions faster than we
can load the associated models for the existing tiles. The end result is
that tiles that are long out of range can't be removed because there is still
a huge backlog of pending model load requests and memory blows up.
This change being committed allows the tile paging system to remove tiles
if they are out of range, even when there are pending models to load. The
model loading code in the render thread can now check to see if the tile
exists and discard any model load request for tiles that no longer exist.
This situation should never occur in normal operation, but could occur in
"contrived" situations where an external script was rapidly changing
the simulator position to then be able to query FG terrain height, and doing
this for a large number of points that are distributed across a large area.
The maths, so far, is now correct. Roll and pitch are now both in the
correct sense. The aircraft velocity is added correctly to the
submodel velocity, and the submodel is now visible when instantiated.
However, the velocity is measured at the aircraft centre. To be totally
correct we ought to take into account the aircraft's rotational
velocity. We have pitch rate and roll rate available, but not yaw rate
(small anyway).
Here are some things I've added to the submodel code.
First, I added a first_time value that is true when the trigger is pressed and
false when the trigger is released. The true value is also made false after
the first pass through release(). Release() then uses this to force the
first dt (per salvo) to be zero. I was hoping this would make the submodel
appear closer to the airplane, but I don't notice a difference with the
tracers. In a prior test I found that the first dt is about 2.5 times larger
than subsequent ones. Maybe this will be effective with slower submodels,
like smoke, contrails, etc.
Secondly, I updated the IC.elevation and IC.azimuth calcs to correctly add in
the yaw and pitch offsets, corrected for bank angle. Actually this is still
an estimation. A proper calculation will sum the submodels vector with the
airplane's vector. Until that's done only models which are fired forward
will have proper IC.
Testing revealed that the code was not reading y-offset - a
typo in the original code, and roll was in the wrong sense. All readily
fixable, and it now works.
I've added another parameter to the submodel - wind.
It's activated by the entry <wind>true</wind> in the ../submodel.xml file.
If true, the submodel is affected by the local wind, otherwise not. The
parameter defaults to false. This is useful for exhausts and smoke, and
possibly all objects.
Attached are the modified files to add buoyancy as a parameter for a
ballistic object. It may be set by adding
<buoyancy>x</buoyancy> to the submodel .xml file, where x is the appropriate
value (ft per sec2):
32 neutral buoyancy - contrails
>32 positive buoyancy - exhaust plumes
(0 non-op - default value)
If <buoyancy>x</buoyancy> is not used, then there is no effect on the
current ballistic model
