Normally for smoothest frame rates you would configure to sync
to your monitor's vertical refresh signal. This is card/platform
dependent ... for instance with Linux/Nvidia there is
an environment variable you can set to enable this feature.
However, if your monitor is refreshing at 60hz and you can't quite sustain
that with flightgear, you can get smoother frame rates by artificially
throttling yourself to 30hz. Note that once you are about about 24fps, it
is *change* or inconsistancy in frame rate that leads to percieved jerkiness.
You want to do whole divisors of your monitor refresh rate, so if your
display is syncing at 75 hz, you might want to try throttling to 25 hz.
slave to a specific frame rate (i.e. 30hz). This is potentially desireable
if you are running on the ragged edge between 30/60 hz ...
It would be nice at some point to make the code a bit more flexible and
configurable so it could be activated from the command line or preferences
file.
I split the FGModelPlacement code out into it's own set of source files.
I created two versions of the fgLoad3DModel() routine. One that is
unecumbered by a panelnode dependency and one that is. acmodel.cxx is
the only place that needs to load an aircraft with instrument panels.
model.[ch]xx are now pretty much free to move over into simgear.
loader.[ch]xx should be able to follow closely behind.
This will be a big step towards being able to move the material management
code over into simgear.
scene management code and organizing it within simgear. My strategy is
to identify the code I want to move, and break it's direct flightgear
dependencies. Then it will be free to move over into the simgear package.
- Moved some property specific code into simgear/props/
- Split out the condition code from fgfs/src/Main/fg_props and put it
in it's own source file in simgear/props/
- Created a scene subdirectory for scenery, model, and material property
related code.
- Moved location.[ch]xx into simgear/scene/model/
- The location and condition code had dependencies on flightgear's global
state (all the globals-> stuff, the flightgear property tree, etc.) SimGear
code can't depend on it so that data has to be passed as parameters to the
functions/methods/constructors.
- This need to pass data as function parameters had a dramatic cascading
effect throughout the FlightGear code.
hemisphere the distance is positive, if you are in the departure hemisphere
the distance is negature. (Possible use for graphing approach distance
vs. glide slope or cdi.)
Some more cmall changes to the SimGear header files and removed the
SG_HAVE_NATIVE_SGI_COMPILERS dependancies from FlightGear.
I've added a seperate JSBSim patch for the JSBSim source tree.
Use getDisplayName instead of duplicated code: gives a better
decision on whether to display the index.
Replace unnecessary node lookups by name with direct access: tidier
and more efficient. E.g. "getValueTypeString
(node->getNode(name.c_str()))" -> "getValueTypeString (child)".
- Removed some old cruft.
- Removed some support for older versions of automake which technically was
correct, but caused the newer automakes to squawk warnings during an
initial sanity check (which isn't done very intelligently.)
NOTE: this fix is technically not correct for older version of automake.
These older version use the variable "INCLUDES" internally and could have
them already set to an important value. That is why we were appending
our values to them. However, newer versions of automake don't set this
value themselves so it is an error to append to a non-existant variable.
We seem to "get away" with overwriting the value on older versions of
automake, but if you have problems, consider upgrading to at least
automake-1.5.
I've merged FGProps and FGTelnet so there is just a single property server.
I've left in the --telnet=port# command line option but it could be removed
if we wanted to. The command line accepts two forms of the --props option.
The original (--props=medium,dir,hz,host,port#,style) and the shorter
--props=port#. If you accept this change then src/Network/telnet.[ch]xx
can be removed from the cvs repository.
- More progress with proper radio freq tuning and proper interpreting of the
hardware values.
- Filter ignition and flap switch values since the hardware implimentation has
a dead zone where the value can go to zero in the middle of a change in
switch position.
Fetch all pending remote fdm network packets so there is not chance of
getting behind.
Add support for driving control panel lights.
Working on better modeling KX 155 tuning behavior.
Here is the new super improved telnet property interface. CVS changelog
is at the end of this message. Once this new telnet code is in and
compiles every where we can remove Network/props.[ch]xx. I've added a
--telnet=<port> command line option to invoke the new server. Later on
we could remove the --props option, or least change it to invoke the new
server. I'll let you decide.
I've added some new commands to the telnet interface:
view next Select the next view.
view prev Select the previous view.
view set <n> Select view 'n'
view get Return index of current view
I'm not sure if these same effects could be achieved through property
operations. The commands provide a convenient shortcut in any case.
I'm also planning on adding a panel command to manipulate panels and
objects contained therein (eg simulated mouse clicks). There is going
to be some commonality with the command objects so we may need to
rationalize this in the near future.
Finally, I've also included my python stuff. This is still very much a
work in progress, basically I've been using it to test the new telnet
server. I have tested it with python 2.2. Feel free to add it to the
repository if you want. I would suggest a scripts/python directory
CVS Changelog
Network/telnet.cxx: New property telnet protocol interface. It supports
the same user interface provided by the --props server. Additionally it
handles multiple simultaneous connections. Added "view" command to
manipulate viewmgr.
Network/protocol.hxx: Added protocol configuration exception.
Main/fg_io.cxx: Added new "telnet" protocol. Added protocol
configuration parse exceptions. Simplified protocol configuration
parsing.
Main/options.cxx: Added --telnet=<port> command line option and help
message.
- don't send "set" confirmation when in data mode. If an external
program really cares if the settings were accepted, which is
rather unlikely, it simply has to "get" the property again.
The returned line would have been a pain to parse, anyway
(something like "from-model = 'true' (bool)").
- do not only "set" the first token, but concatenate all given
tokens with a space in between. This won't be used much, but
makes sense for setting strings, while it does no harm when setting
numbers. Silently ignoring all but the first token is impolite. ;-)
- remove old, commented out debug message that doesn't make much
sense any more.
- Throttle control position
- Mixture control position
- Magneto/starter control position
Added support for receiving:
- Engine state (off, cranking, running)
- RPM
- Fuel Flow
- EGT
- Oil Temp
- Oil Pressure
- Fuel tank quantity
- Weight on wheels
interface instead of string. This will result in a lot more
efficiency later, once I add in a simple hash table for caching
lookups, since it will avoid creating a lot of temporary string
objects. The major considerations for users will be that they cannot
use
node->getName() == "foo";
any more, and will have to use c_str() when setting a string value
from a C++ string.
inclueded in some of the files. Irix doesn't have cout in the std class,
so I changed it to "cout" and included SG_USING_NAMESPACE(std) at the
beginning of the files.
And some minor warning cleanups.
separate header file. This change will help integrate properties into
JSBSim.
Also, I (David Megginson) removed most of the SimGear include
statements from globals.hxx, reducing the amount of recompilation
every time SimGear changes. This required making minor changes to a
lot of files that were depending on the side-effects of the inclusions
in globals.hxx.
as well as visibility.
This means that if you are using this protocal to exchange data with a
visual channel, you should be able to change time and visibility on the master
and all the slaved visual channels will match it.
- remove buffer with class scope
- remove variable 'length' (isn't used anywhere)
- make process_command private (it isn't used anywhere outside, and it
shouldn't be)
- define buffers where they are needed (two places)
- comment out stale debug message (it doesn't buy anything, because the
contents are output two lines below, anyway)
- let every error message begin with "ERR ". This makes error messages
less beautiful, but easier to recognize for scripts. Every internet
protocol that outputs text, has such a tag for distinguishing regular
output from error messages. (pop3 uses "-ERR ", smtp uses error codes,
etc.)
- fix html bug (<form> was closed by another <form>, instead of </form>)
- remove useless <br>
- fix a bug, that would have truncated an argument containing a '&'
- extend the comment for urlEncode: cite the concerned RFC
1. Enable auto-configure on more versions of auto tools. (configure.in)
2. Warnings from auto-configure tools. (src/Time/Makefile.am)
3. Typo: "the it's" -> "its". (docs-mini/README.Joystick)
4. Remove definition of FGViewer::update() that now is (or can be) pure
virtual\
. (src/Main/viewer.cxx)
5. Preferred form of function name according to comments in plib:
"not_working"\
-> "notWorking". (src/Sound/soundmgr.hxx)
format before reading/writing data from/to remote machine. This allows
different endian machines to talk to each other. Also added support for
passing time and time offset (warp) in the data packet.
FDM people. FlightGear now supports an unlimited number of fuel
tanks. Also added correct fuel-flow reporting for piston engines, and
tracked new features in SimGear property support.
- automake-1.4 sets default values for INCLUDES which we can't
overwrite.
- automake-1.5 renames this to DEFAULT_INCLUDES and leaves INCLUDES
open for the developer to use.
Thus for automake-1.4 we are forced to 'append' to INCLUDES and in
automake-1.5 we can just set the value to whatever we like.
Unfortunately, the behaviors of the two versions are mutually
incompatible.
The solution I am committing now works for both versions but
automake-1.5 generates a lot of spurious warning messages that are
annoying, but not fatal.
FGInterface::_updateGeocentricPosition() for clarity. Also added an
FGInterface::_updateGeodeticPosition() since it is useful.
A few clean ups to native_fdm.cxx and raw_fdm.hxx.
Here's an unusual patch for FlightGear -- I've created .cvsignore
files for every source directory, to make CVS output more informative.
This is especially nice when using cvs-examine from (X)Emacs to look
for changes.
fix startup sequence problems where we initialize the FDM before we know
the desired starting altitude.
These changes delay fdm initialization until the local tile has been loaded
and we can do a real intersection and find the true ground elevation.
In order to do this, I depend more on the property manager as glue, rather
than the FGInterface.
There are some glitches still when switching to a new airport or reseting
the sim. I will work on addressing these, but I need to commit the changes
so far to keep in sync with other developers.
LaRCsim c172 on-ground and in-air starts, reset: all work
UIUC Cessna172 on-ground and in-air starts work as expected, reset
results in an aircraft that is upside down but does not crash FG. I
don't know what it was like before, so it may well be no change.
JSBSim c172 and X15 in-air starts work fine, resets now work (and are
trimmed), on-ground starts do not -- the c172 ends up on its back. I
suspect this is no worse than before.
I did not test:
Balloon (the weather code returns nan's for the atmosphere data --this
is in the weather module and apparently is a linux only bug)
ADA (don't know how)
MagicCarpet (needs work yet)
External (don't know how)
known to be broken:
LaRCsim c172 on-ground starts with a negative terrain altitude (this
happens at KPAO when the scenery is not present). The FDM inits to
about 50 feet AGL and the model falls to the ground. It does stay
upright, however, and seems to be fine once it settles out, FWIW.
To do:
--implement set_Model on the bus
--bring Christian's weather data into JSBSim
-- add default method to bus for updating things like the sin and cos of
latitude (for Balloon, MagicCarpet)
-- lots of cleanup
The files:
src/FDM/flight.cxx
src/FDM/flight.hxx
-- all data members now declared protected instead of private.
-- eliminated all but a small set of 'setters', no change to getters.
-- that small set is declared virtual, the default implementation
provided preserves the old behavior
-- all of the vector data members are now initialized.
-- added busdump() method -- FG_LOG's all the bus data when called,
useful for diagnostics.
src/FDM/ADA.cxx
-- bus data members now directly assigned to
src/FDM/Balloon.cxx
-- bus data members now directly assigned to
-- changed V_equiv_kts to V_calibrated_kts
src/FDM/JSBSim.cxx
src/FDM/JSBSim.hxx
-- bus data members now directly assigned to
-- implemented the FGInterface virtual setters with JSBSim specific
logic
-- changed the static FDMExec to a dynamic fdmex (needed so that the
JSBSim object can be deleted when a model change is called for)
-- implemented constructor and destructor, moved some of the logic
formerly in init() to constructor
-- added logic to bring up FGEngInterface objects and set the RPM and
throttle values.
src/FDM/LaRCsim.cxx
src/FDM/LaRCsim.hxx
-- bus data members now directly assigned to
-- implemented the FGInterface virtual setters with LaRCsim specific
logic, uses LaRCsimIC
-- implemented constructor and destructor, moved some of the logic
formerly in init() to constructor
-- moved default inertias to here from fg_init.cxx
-- eliminated the climb rate calculation. The equivalent, climb_rate =
-1*vdown, is now in copy_from_LaRCsim().
src/FDM/LaRCsimIC.cxx
src/FDM/LaRCsimIC.hxx
-- similar to FGInitialCondition, this class has all the logic needed to
turn data like Vc and Mach into the more fundamental quantities LaRCsim
needs to initialize.
-- put it in src/FDM since it is a class
src/FDM/MagicCarpet.cxx
-- bus data members now directly assigned to
src/FDM/Makefile.am
-- adds LaRCsimIC.hxx and cxx
src/FDM/JSBSim/FGAtmosphere.h
src/FDM/JSBSim/FGDefs.h
src/FDM/JSBSim/FGInitialCondition.cpp
src/FDM/JSBSim/FGInitialCondition.h
src/FDM/JSBSim/JSBSim.cpp
-- changes to accomodate the new bus
src/FDM/LaRCsim/atmos_62.h
src/FDM/LaRCsim/ls_geodesy.h
-- surrounded prototypes with #ifdef __cplusplus ... #endif , functions
here are needed in LaRCsimIC
src/FDM/LaRCsim/c172_main.c
src/FDM/LaRCsim/cherokee_aero.c
src/FDM/LaRCsim/ls_aux.c
src/FDM/LaRCsim/ls_constants.h
src/FDM/LaRCsim/ls_geodesy.c
src/FDM/LaRCsim/ls_geodesy.h
src/FDM/LaRCsim/ls_step.c
src/FDM/UIUCModel/uiuc_betaprobe.cpp
-- changed PI to LS_PI, eliminates preprocessor naming conflict with
weather module
src/FDM/LaRCsim/ls_interface.c
src/FDM/LaRCsim/ls_interface.h
-- added function ls_set_model_dt()
src/Main/bfi.cxx
-- eliminated calls that set the NED speeds to body components. They
are no longer needed and confuse the new bus.
src/Main/fg_init.cxx
-- eliminated calls that just brought the bus data up-to-date (e.g.
set_sin_cos_latitude). or set default values. The bus now handles the
defaults and updates itself when the setters are called (for LaRCsim and
JSBSim). A default method for doing this needs to be added to the bus.
-- added fgVelocityInit() to set the speed the user asked for. Both
JSBSim and LaRCsim can now be initialized using any of:
vc,mach, NED components, UVW components.
src/Main/main.cxx
--eliminated call to fgFDMSetGroundElevation, this data is now 'pulled'
onto the bus every update()
src/Main/options.cxx
src/Main/options.hxx
-- added enum to keep track of the speed requested by the user
-- eliminated calls to set NED velocity properties to body speeds, they
are no longer needed.
-- added options for the NED components.
src/Network/garmin.cxx
src/Network/nmea.cxx
--eliminated calls that just brought the bus data up-to-date (e.g.
set_sin_cos_latitude). The bus now updates itself when the setters are
called (for LaRCsim and JSBSim). A default method for doing this needs
to be added to the bus.
-- changed set_V_equiv_kts to set_V_calibrated_kts. set_V_equiv_kts no
longer exists ( get_V_equiv_kts still does, though)
src/WeatherCM/FGLocalWeatherDatabase.cpp
-- commented out the code to put the weather data on the bus, a
different scheme for this is needed.
