RE: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-18 Thread Vivian Meazza


Lee Elliott wrote
> 
> On Wednesday 17 March 2004 21:50, Vivian Meazza wrote: [snip...] ...
> > > I'd be inclined to hold off including the Sea Hawk, TSR-2 
> and B-52, 
> > > for the time being at least.  The Sea Hawk is currently getting a
> > > proper panel,
> > > speed-brakes and some missing gear doors, courtesy of Vivian
> > > M.  The TSR-2
> ...
> 
> > I'm only hours away from completing the Seahawk with a 3d 
> panel - it 
> > would be finished right now, but I've just broken it!!!
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Vivian M.
> 
> LOL :)
> 
> LeeE
> 

Yeah - like seeing a grown man cry, eh :-) 

All fixed now. If only I could spell filenames ...

Be on it's way once I have finished testing

Regards

Vivian M.



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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Innis Cunningham
Hi Guys

Al West writes
On Wednesday 17 March 2004 17:15, Norman Vine wrote:
> Curtis L. Olson writes:
> > 2. We have a *lot* of aircraft in the base package.
>
> I suggest we limit the base package to 2 or 3 aircraft at most
> IMHO better if this is only 1 aircraft though and have a supplemental
> aircraft package(s) for the rest
>
> Note I am concerned about the size of the 'minimal' distribution
> as there still are many in the world using dial up
>
I would also like to suggest that the base package is made as minimal as
possible perhaps one real aircraft and a 'technology' demonstrator that 
shows
off the newest capabilities of the base package (i.e. weather radar, TF 
etc).

My thoughts are that items that change independantly of the base package do
not really have to be there.  It's a shame that anyone would have to
download, say 10, aircraft that have not changed since the update of the 
base
package.
My preference would be for just 1 A/C.That being the best most complete 
light
A/C we have
I would even suggest no A/C if it was possible during the download to 
include the
A/C the person downloading actually wanted.
I guess a newbie(which I was not long ago)just wants an A/C they can get in 
and
fly pretty easily.After that as they become more knowledgeable of flightgaer 
they
can build up there library of A/C and FDM's.

Cheers
Innis
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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Al West
On Wednesday 17 March 2004 17:15, Norman Vine wrote:
> Curtis L. Olson writes:
> > 2. We have a *lot* of aircraft in the base package.
>
> I suggest we limit the base package to 2 or 3 aircraft at most
> IMHO better if this is only 1 aircraft though and have a supplemental
> aircraft package(s) for the rest
>
> Note I am concerned about the size of the 'minimal' distribution
> as there still are many in the world using dial up
>

I would also like to suggest that the base package is made as minimal as 
possible perhaps one real aircraft and a 'technology' demonstrator that shows 
off the newest capabilities of the base package (i.e. weather radar, TF etc).

My thoughts are that items that change independantly of the base package do 
not really have to be there.  It's a shame that anyone would have to 
download, say 10, aircraft that have not changed since the update of the base 
package. 

Cheers,
Al

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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Lee Elliott
On Wednesday 17 March 2004 21:50, Vivian Meazza wrote:
[snip...]
...
> > I'd be inclined to hold off including the Sea Hawk, TSR-2 and
> > B-52, for the
> > time being at least.  The Sea Hawk is currently getting a
> > proper panel,
> > speed-brakes and some missing gear doors, courtesy of Vivian
> > M.  The TSR-2
...

> I'm only hours away from completing the Seahawk with a 3d panel - it would
> be finished right now, but I've just broken it!!!
>
> Regards
>
> Vivian M.

LOL :)

LeeE

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RE: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Vivian Meazza


 Lee Elliott wrote
> On Wednesday 17 March 2004 16:37, Curtis L. Olson wrote:
> > Curtis L. Olson wrote:
> > > 1. I'm growing less enthused with our aircraft alias 
> naming system.  
> > > I don't mind that we have the capability, but it becomes 
> annoying to 
> > > have 8 names for the same aircraft, even 2 names for the same 
> > > aircraft.
> >
> > As I understand it, aliases are primarily a convenience for the 
> > command line typer folks, but they severerly clutter the aircraft 
> > browser in the fgrun launcher.  I propose that the fgrun launcher 
> > simply ignores all the alias entries and only presents the primary 
> > entries.  Then we can discuss changing the alias system 
> later (if we 
> > decide to.)  I don't think we should eliminate the ability 
> to set up 
> > aircraft aliases, but down the road we may want to do some 
> > reorganization.  The J3 cub has at least five entries for 
> one single 
> > aircraft.  Aliases make more sense if have multiple 
> versions of a 747 
> > for instance and we want to select which version you get when you 
> > request a 747.  Flipping that around and giving 5 different 
> names to a 
> > single aircraft when we only have one of them seems a little out of 
> > control.
> >
> > > 2. We have a *lot* of aircraft in the base package.  Some 
> of these 
> > > are really nice, some of these are not even close to basic 
> > > functionality. Most are probalby best considered "works in 
> > > progress."  (Now this is perfectly fine, and is what CVS 
> is for.)  
> > > However, for the next release I would like to just 
> include a subset 
> > > of the available aircraft, picking and choosing the best or most 
> > > interesting ones.
> >
> > Based on the discussion of this thread, here is the current list I 
> > have assembled for inclusion, notice that I err on the side of 
> > inclusion rather than exclusion which I think is fine, 
> especially if 
> > we unclutter the fgrun aircraft browser.
> >
> > Large Commercial Transports
> > ===
> > Boeing 737
> > Boeing 747
> > Airbus A320
> > AN-225
> >
> > Small Civilian Aircraft
> > ===
> > Piper J3 Cub
> > Cessna 172
> > Cessna 182
> > Cessna 310
> > Piper pa28-161
> >
> > Military Fighters/Trainers
> > ==
> > P-51
> > Hawker Hunter
> > A4 Skyhawk
> > J22
> > F-16
> > Seahawk
> > TSR-2
> > YF-23
> > T-38
> > Sopwith Camel
> > T-6A Texan II
> > North American OV-10A Bronco
> >
> > Large Military
> > ==
> > B-52
> >
> > Experimental/Research
> > =
> > Ornithopter
> > UFO
> > X-15
> >
> > Helicopters
> > 
> > Eurocopter Bo105
> >
> > Historic Aircraft
> > =
> > 1903 Wright Flyer
> > Comper Swift
> > DC-3
> >
> > Sail Planes
> > ===
> > Schweizer 2-33
> >
> > Can anyone justify including additional aircraft in this list?
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Curt.
> 
> I'd be inclined to hold off including the Sea Hawk, TSR-2 and 
> B-52, for the 
> time being at least.  The Sea Hawk is currently getting a 
> proper panel, 
> speed-brakes and some missing gear doors, courtesy of Vivian 
> M.  The TSR-2 
> isn't really mainstream and I doubt it would have much 
> relevance to anyone 
> who wasn't already interested in it.  It really needs a look-ahead TF 
> function to be flown properly too.  Finally, the B-52 3D 
> model is pretty 
> crude and badly needs re-building - I'm not sure it'd be a 
> good advert for FG 
> in it's current state.
> 
> The lack of anything like a proper panel for the AN225 isn't 
> very good either 
> and unless it was clearly marked as a development/wip a/c it 
> could result in 
> more criticism of FG than compliments.
> 
> The same applies to the YF-23 although here I could probably 
> get away with 
> just making something up as it was a prototype.  However, I 
> think both the 
> prototypes are now in museums in the U.S, so if anyone can 
> get some cockpit 
> shots...
> 
> I've also got fairly effective auto take-off and landing 
> functions for the 
> YF-23 now, controlled by some awful Nasal hackery - I'll send 
> you an update a 
> little later this evening.
> 

I'm only hours away from completing the Seahawk with a 3d panel - it would
be finished right now, but I've just broken it!!!

Regards

Vivian M.



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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Lee Elliott
On Wednesday 17 March 2004 16:37, Curtis L. Olson wrote:
> Curtis L. Olson wrote:
> > 1. I'm growing less enthused with our aircraft alias naming system.  I
> > don't mind that we have the capability, but it becomes annoying to
> > have 8 names for the same aircraft, even 2 names for the same aircraft.
>
> As I understand it, aliases are primarily a convenience for the command
> line typer folks, but they severerly clutter the aircraft browser in the
> fgrun launcher.  I propose that the fgrun launcher simply ignores all
> the alias entries and only presents the primary entries.  Then we can
> discuss changing the alias system later (if we decide to.)  I don't
> think we should eliminate the ability to set up aircraft aliases, but
> down the road we may want to do some reorganization.  The J3 cub has at
> least five entries for one single aircraft.  Aliases make more sense if
> have multiple versions of a 747 for instance and we want to select which
> version you get when you request a 747.  Flipping that around and giving
> 5 different names to a single aircraft when we only have one of them
> seems a little out of control.
>
> > 2. We have a *lot* of aircraft in the base package.  Some of these are
> > really nice, some of these are not even close to basic functionality.
> > Most are probalby best considered "works in progress."  (Now this is
> > perfectly fine, and is what CVS is for.)  However, for the next
> > release I would like to just include a subset of the available
> > aircraft, picking and choosing the best or most interesting ones.
>
> Based on the discussion of this thread, here is the current list I have
> assembled for inclusion, notice that I err on the side of inclusion
> rather than exclusion which I think is fine, especially if we unclutter
> the fgrun aircraft browser.
>
> Large Commercial Transports
> ===
> Boeing 737
> Boeing 747
> Airbus A320
> AN-225
>
> Small Civilian Aircraft
> ===
> Piper J3 Cub
> Cessna 172
> Cessna 182
> Cessna 310
> Piper pa28-161
>
> Military Fighters/Trainers
> ==
> P-51
> Hawker Hunter
> A4 Skyhawk
> J22
> F-16
> Seahawk
> TSR-2
> YF-23
> T-38
> Sopwith Camel
> T-6A Texan II
> North American OV-10A Bronco
>
> Large Military
> ==
> B-52
>
> Experimental/Research
> =
> Ornithopter
> UFO
> X-15
>
> Helicopters
> 
> Eurocopter Bo105
>
> Historic Aircraft
> =
> 1903 Wright Flyer
> Comper Swift
> DC-3
>
> Sail Planes
> ===
> Schweizer 2-33
>
> Can anyone justify including additional aircraft in this list?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Curt.

I'd be inclined to hold off including the Sea Hawk, TSR-2 and B-52, for the 
time being at least.  The Sea Hawk is currently getting a proper panel, 
speed-brakes and some missing gear doors, courtesy of Vivian M.  The TSR-2 
isn't really mainstream and I doubt it would have much relevance to anyone 
who wasn't already interested in it.  It really needs a look-ahead TF 
function to be flown properly too.  Finally, the B-52 3D model is pretty 
crude and badly needs re-building - I'm not sure it'd be a good advert for FG 
in it's current state.

The lack of anything like a proper panel for the AN225 isn't very good either 
and unless it was clearly marked as a development/wip a/c it could result in 
more criticism of FG than compliments.

The same applies to the YF-23 although here I could probably get away with 
just making something up as it was a prototype.  However, I think both the 
prototypes are now in museums in the U.S, so if anyone can get some cockpit 
shots...

I've also got fairly effective auto take-off and landing functions for the 
YF-23 now, controlled by some awful Nasal hackery - I'll send you an update a 
little later this evening.

LeeE

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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Lee Elliott
Actually, the base cvs package on dial-up isn't too bad once you've done the 
initial checkout, and even then it can be done over several sessions.

LeeE

On Wednesday 17 March 2004 07:15, Durk Talsma wrote:
> I agree that trimming down the base package (for the release)  is probably
> a good idea. I'm beginning to wonder if the "base" package isn't starting
> to overshoot it's target these days. What I mean to say with this is that a
> few years ago we had a pretty big discussion about whether or not to
> separate the one big monolitithic download that fgfs was at the time into
> more manageble chunks, and eventually came up with separating the code from
> the essential data. This is the situation we have right now, but but
> slowly, more and more aircraft have slipped into the base package, which is
> growing again in size pretty quickly, and what's in the base package these
> days is more than just "essential"
>
> So wouldn't it be logical to only include a few aircraft types into the
> base package and offer the others for separate download, just like we do
> for the world-wide scenery? This separation wouldn't create an additional
> dependency, as much as offer a lot of additional functionality.
>
> Anyways, let me finish by saying that I'm perfectly happy this the
> situation as we have it right now, having cable internet and access to cvs.
> I'm just speculating about future developments.
>
> Cheers,
> Durk
>
> On Wednesday 17 March 2004 04:50, Curtis L. Olson wrote:
> > In the next couple weeks I'd like to start moving seriously towards our
> > next release.  There are probably many things that could stand to be
> > tweaked and polished but two related items jump out at me tonight.
> >
> > 1. I'm growing less enthused with our aircraft alias naming system.  I
> > don't mind that we have the capability, but it becomes annoying to have
> > 8 names for the same aircraft, even 2 names for the same aircraft.  What
> > would people say to nuking all the alias entries for the upcoming
> > release?  Now that we have the "fgrun" launcher, name length or
> > complexity is not really an issue.  Even for us hard core unix folks who
> > refuse to give up the command line, we can learn to copy/paste to avoid
> > unnecessary typing.  I think getting rid of the aliases would make
> > aircraft browsing and selection a lot less mystifying to new comers.
> > We've got 20 (!) varients of the C172.  Maybe for this release it would
> > be nice to just have one or two???
> >
> > 2. We have a *lot* of aircraft in the base package.  Some of these are
> > really nice, some of these are not even close to basic functionality.
> > Most are probalby best considered "works in progress."  (Now this is
> > perfectly fine, and is what CVS is for.)  However, for the next release
> > I would like to just include a subset of the available aircraft, picking
> > and choosing the best or most interesting ones.
> >
> > I think it's worth including the heavies (737, A320, 747) even though
> > their cockpits aren't finished.
> >
> > We definitely want the light civilian aircraft just as the Cub (which is
> > one of the few aircraft that are legitimately finished) :-) as well as a
> > C172 (C182?) and maybe include the C310 here, even though ours has navy
> > markings?  And definitely the pa28-161.  It would be nice to get a 3d
> > mixture control on the default C172 some day.
> >
> > There are some vintage aircraft we should include such as the Wright
> > Flyer and ComperSwift and maybe the dc3 although I have no idea what's
> > going on with the cockpit there.
> >
> > The P51 and the Hunter should definitely be included, those are ones
> > that also could be considered "finished".
> >
> > Lee has built a nice fleet of various aircraft which are worth including
> > such as the AN-225 (huge russian transport), a b-52, a seahawk, a tsr2
> > and a yf23.  All of these fly well, have beautiful external 3d models,
> > are very well animated including the gear and suspention, but all lack
> > 3d cockpits and instead have a functional, but non-realistic 2d cockpit.
> >
> > The a4 is nice, although I don't know how complete the cockpit is???
> > The J22 and F16 both show promise.  We should also include the X15, but
> > that takes some startup parameters to get flying.
> >
> > And the Ornithopter should definitely be included.  And we should toss
> > the ufo in as well.  I'll list the remaining aircraft below.  These I've
> > had less experience with or non-optimal results when I have tried them.
> >
> > What is the status of the helicopters?  They've seemed very crude when
> > I've looked at them.  I don't mean to be anti-helicopter, but if we are
> > trying to cull some of the less nice stuff out of the official release,
> > I'm not sure in their current form they would make the cut.
> >
> >OV10-jsbsim  North American OV-10A Bronco
> >T37-jsbsim   Cessna T-37
> >T38-jsbsim   Northrop T-38

Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Lee Elliott
On Wednesday 17 March 2004 03:50, Curtis L. Olson wrote:
> In the next couple weeks I'd like to start moving seriously towards our
> next release.  There are probably many things that could stand to be
> tweaked and polished but two related items jump out at me tonight.
>
> 1. I'm growing less enthused with our aircraft alias naming system.  I
> don't mind that we have the capability, but it becomes annoying to have
> 8 names for the same aircraft, even 2 names for the same aircraft.  What
> would people say to nuking all the alias entries for the upcoming
> release?  Now that we have the "fgrun" launcher, name length or
> complexity is not really an issue.  Even for us hard core unix folks who
> refuse to give up the command line, we can learn to copy/paste to avoid
> unnecessary typing.  I think getting rid of the aliases would make
> aircraft browsing and selection a lot less mystifying to new comers.
> We've got 20 (!) varients of the C172.  Maybe for this release it would
> be nice to just have one or two???

No problem with removing the aliases here - I've only just started adding 
them, to try to conform with the 'standards'  :)

> 2. We have a *lot* of aircraft in the base package.  Some of these are
> really nice, some of these are not even close to basic functionality.
> Most are probalby best considered "works in progress."  (Now this is
> perfectly fine, and is what CVS is for.)  However, for the next release
> I would like to just include a subset of the available aircraft, picking
> and choosing the best or most interesting ones.

Personally, I consider all of the a/c I've done to be wips and none of them 
could really be regarded as 'production' quality.

> I think it's worth including the heavies (737, A320, 747) even though
> their cockpits aren't finished.
>
> We definitely want the light civilian aircraft just as the Cub (which is
> one of the few aircraft that are legitimately finished) :-) as well as a
> C172 (C182?) and maybe include the C310 here, even though ours has navy
> markings?  And definitely the pa28-161.  It would be nice to get a 3d
> mixture control on the default C172 some day.
>
> There are some vintage aircraft we should include such as the Wright
> Flyer and ComperSwift and maybe the dc3 although I have no idea what's
> going on with the cockpit there.

I plan on doing a proper cockpit/panel for the Swift - a nice easy one to 
start with - once I've figured out the instrument layout.  Any help from 
anyone would be greatly appreciated on that score.  I've got a small photo in 
a magazine that shows most of the instruments but it's too small to see 
exactly what they are.  There are a few problems with the fdm too - there are 
definitely still some engine funnies and I'm simply not sure on the lift 
figures for the control surfaces i.e. ailerons & rudder - they're currently 
set to values that work reasonably in the air but I find it pretty difficult 
to get off the ground.  Help would be welcomed for this too.

> The P51 and the Hunter should definitely be included, those are ones
> that also could be considered "finished".
>
> Lee has built a nice fleet of various aircraft which are worth including
> such as the AN-225 (huge russian transport), a b-52, a seahawk, a tsr2
> and a yf23.  All of these fly well, have beautiful external 3d models,
> are very well animated including the gear and suspention, but all lack
> 3d cockpits and instead have a functional, but non-realistic 2d cockpit.

Thanks, but as I said, they are very much wips and to varying degrees lack 
hard data.  While I'm quite pleased with the overall characteristics, they 
can't really be regarded as accurate representations.  Not to mention the 
lack of proper panels.

> The a4 is nice, although I don't know how complete the cockpit is???
> The J22 and F16 both show promise.  We should also include the X15, but
> that takes some startup parameters to get flying.

I think that including the X-15 would be a good idea, because from what I 
gather, it's a pretty accurate representation.  Would it be possible to 
include the start-up stuff in the 'set' file?

> And the Ornithopter should definitely be included.  And we should toss
> the ufo in as well.  I'll list the remaining aircraft below.  These I've
> had less experience with or non-optimal results when I have tried them.
>
> What is the status of the helicopters?  They've seemed very crude when
> I've looked at them.  I don't mean to be anti-helicopter, but if we are
> trying to cull some of the less nice stuff out of the official release,
> I'm not sure in their current form they would make the cut.
>
>OV10-jsbsim  North American OV-10A Bronco
>T37-jsbsim   Cessna T-37
>T38-jsbsim   Northrop T-38
>airwaveXtreme150-v1-nl-uiuc  Airwave Xtreme 150 hang glider (UIUC)
>as350-yasim  Ecureuil AS 350 Helicopter
>asw20-v1-nl-uiuc ASW-20 sailplane (UIUC)
>be

Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Lee Elliott
On Wednesday 17 March 2004 13:17, Jon Berndt wrote:
> > I completly agree with that, please keep the aliases
> > and remove extenion names like jsbsim, 2d/3d etc. in the
> > --show-aircraft list.
>
> How will the situation be handled where several FDMs model the same
> aircraft - that day is coming if it is not here already.
>
> Jon

I think someone already suggested using the 'simple' name i.e. 'C-172' for the 
default fdm and adding an appropriate suffix for the different fdms or 
specialised variants i.e. C-172-yasm - that should work ok.  If someone knows 
enough to know that they want to use the non-default fdm they'll know that 
they'll need to specify it explicitly, I would have thought.

It's a very good point though, that we should assume alternative fdms exist 
for an a/c type/model.  Having different/alternative fdms would be a good 
thing imo.

LeeE

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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Martin Spott
"Curtis L. Olson" wrote:

> Based on the discussion of this thread, here is the current list I have 
> assembled for inclusion, [...]

I think this is a choice that makes easy,

Martin.
-- 
 Unix _IS_ user friendly - it's just selective about who its friends are !
--

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RE: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Norman Vine
Curtis L. Olson writes:
> 
> 2. We have a *lot* of aircraft in the base package.

I suggest we limit the base package to 2 or 3 aircraft at most
IMHO better if this is only 1 aircraft though and have a supplemental 
aircraft package(s) for the rest

Note I am concerned about the size of the 'minimal' distribution
as there still are many in the world using dial up

Cheers

Norman

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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Curtis L. Olson
> That's a pretty impressive list.  For presentation purposes, though, 
you might want to
>  refer to the PA-28-161 as the "Piper Warrior II" or the "Piper 
Cherokee Warrior II" (the
>  official name varies by year).

I'll leave that to the aircraft designer. :-)  They can put whatever 
label they want into the -set.xml file. :-)

Regards,

Curt.

--
Curtis Olson   Intelligent Vehicles Lab FlightGear Project
Twin Cities[EMAIL PROTECTED]  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Minnesota  http://www.menet.umn.edu/~curt   http://www.flightgear.org


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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread David Megginson
Curtis L. Olson wrote:

Based on the discussion of this thread, here is the current list I have 
assembled for inclusion, notice that I err on the side of inclusion 
rather than exclusion which I think is fine, especially if we unclutter 
the fgrun aircraft browser.
That's a pretty impressive list.  For presentation purposes, though, you 
might want to refer to the PA-28-161 as the "Piper Warrior II" or the "Piper 
Cherokee Warrior II" (the official name varies by year).

All the best,

David

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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Curtis L. Olson
Curtis L. Olson wrote:

1. I'm growing less enthused with our aircraft alias naming system.  I 
don't mind that we have the capability, but it becomes annoying to 
have 8 names for the same aircraft, even 2 names for the same aircraft.


As I understand it, aliases are primarily a convenience for the command 
line typer folks, but they severerly clutter the aircraft browser in the 
fgrun launcher.  I propose that the fgrun launcher simply ignores all 
the alias entries and only presents the primary entries.  Then we can 
discuss changing the alias system later (if we decide to.)  I don't 
think we should eliminate the ability to set up aircraft aliases, but 
down the road we may want to do some reorganization.  The J3 cub has at 
least five entries for one single aircraft.  Aliases make more sense if 
have multiple versions of a 747 for instance and we want to select which 
version you get when you request a 747.  Flipping that around and giving 
5 different names to a single aircraft when we only have one of them 
seems a little out of control.

2. We have a *lot* of aircraft in the base package.  Some of these are 
really nice, some of these are not even close to basic functionality.  
Most are probalby best considered "works in progress."  (Now this is 
perfectly fine, and is what CVS is for.)  However, for the next 
release I would like to just include a subset of the available 
aircraft, picking and choosing the best or most interesting ones.


Based on the discussion of this thread, here is the current list I have 
assembled for inclusion, notice that I err on the side of inclusion 
rather than exclusion which I think is fine, especially if we unclutter 
the fgrun aircraft browser.

Large Commercial Transports
===
Boeing 737
Boeing 747
Airbus A320
AN-225
Small Civilian Aircraft
===
Piper J3 Cub
Cessna 172
Cessna 182
Cessna 310
Piper pa28-161
Military Fighters/Trainers
==
P-51
Hawker Hunter
A4 Skyhawk
J22
F-16
Seahawk
TSR-2
YF-23
T-38
Sopwith Camel
T-6A Texan II
North American OV-10A Bronco
Large Military
==
B-52
Experimental/Research
=
Ornithopter
UFO
X-15
Helicopters

Eurocopter Bo105
Historic Aircraft
=
1903 Wright Flyer
Comper Swift
DC-3
Sail Planes
===
Schweizer 2-33
Can anyone justify including additional aircraft in this list?

Thanks,

Curt.

--
Curtis Olson   Intelligent Vehicles Lab FlightGear Project
Twin Cities[EMAIL PROTECTED]  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Minnesota  http://www.menet.umn.edu/~curt   http://www.flightgear.org


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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Josh Babcock
Josh Babcock wrote:

Are we going to keep the old functionality laying around so all the 
power hungry cui jockeys can do this:
Sorry, that's cli.

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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Josh Babcock
David Luff wrote:
On 3/16/04 at 9:50 PM Curtis L. Olson wrote:


In the next couple weeks I'd like to start moving seriously towards our 
next release.  There are probably many things that could stand to be 
tweaked and polished but two related items jump out at me tonight.

1. I'm growing less enthused with our aircraft alias naming system.  I 
don't mind that we have the capability, but it becomes annoying to have 
8 names for the same aircraft, even 2 names for the same aircraft.  What 
would people say to nuking all the alias entries for the upcoming 
release?  Now that we have the "fgrun" launcher, name length or 
complexity is not really an issue.  Even for us hard core unix folks who 
refuse to give up the command line, we can learn to copy/paste to avoid 
unnecessary typing.  I think getting rid of the aliases would make 
aircraft browsing and selection a lot less mystifying to new comers.  
We've got 20 (!) varients of the C172.  Maybe for this release it would 
be nice to just have one or two???



I agree with the fact that there is a problem with the multiple names, but
not with your proposed solution.  Please don't ditch the aliases.  Or to be
more specific, please don't ditch the short names.  Typing --aircraft=737
is so much better than --aircraft=737-jsbsim, and ditto for most of the
planes.
IMHO, the solution lies in the presentation of the available aircraft in
--show-aircraft.  At the moment, for instance, for the cub we have 4 lines
for one aircraft:
   j3cubAlias for j3cub-3d-yasim.
   j3cub-3d Alias for j3cub-3d-yasim.
   j3cub-3d-yasim   Piper Cub J3 Trainer (YASim)
   j3cub-yasim  Alias for j3cub-3d-yasim.
This should simply be:

j3cubPiper Cub J3 Trainer (YASim)

No-one (outside of the developers) need know if 'j3cub' is an alias or not.

As far as I can see, there are two general solutions.  Either have one
alias for each unique model (in this case ditch the -3d and -yasim aliases)
and show the alias, but not the full name, in --show-aircraft, together
with the proper description, as in the line above.  That's probably the
best short term, and possibly long-term, option, IMHO.  Or, ditch the long
names, ie. in this instance the full name would be j3cub, and then pull
details of available 3d/2d cockpit options, and fdm options, from the xml
if required.  This would work for the accepted 'best' version of models
with more than one implementation, so for instance 'C172' would be the name
of the default C172, wheras C172-yasim would be the non-default, which
might not make it into the release anyway judging by your next comments.
Then, one could type --aircraft=C172 --2d to try and get a 2d cockpit if
available (would fall back to default if not), and likewise --aircraft=C172
--3d (ditto for fallback), and a lot of names would become superfluous.
Anyway, the above would roughly cut the size of --show-aircraft by half,
since most planes have
name   Alias to description
name-fdm  description
and we'd be left with

name description

The C172 and C310 would still give probs though, since there *are* multiple
implementations of these.
   c172 Alias for c172p.
   c172-3d  Alias for c172p-3d.
   c172-3d-yasimAlias for c172r-3d-yasim
   c172-610xAlias for jsbsim version.
   c172-610x-jsbsim Cessna 172 with a full screen, hi-res panel
   c172-610x-null   Cessna 172 with a full screen, hi-res panel
   c172-ifr Cessna 172 in IFR configuration
   c172-larcsim Cessna 172 (LaRCsim, 2D panel).
   c172-yasim   Alias for c172r-yasim
   c172pAlias for c172p-jsbsim.
   c172p-3d Alias for c172p-3d-jsbsim.
   c172p-3d-jsbsim  Cessna 172P (JSBSim, 3D cockpit)
   c172p-jsbsim Cessna 172P (JSBSim, 2D panel).
   c172rAlias for c172r-jsbsim.
   c172r-3d Alias for c172r-3d-jsbsim.
   c172r-3d-jsbsim  Cessna 172R (JSBSim, 3D cockpit)
   c172r-3d-yasim   Cessna 172R (YASim, 3D cockpit)
   c172r-jsbsim Cessna 172R (JSBSim, 2D panel).
   c172r-yasim  Cessna 172R (YASim, 2D panel)
   c172xCessna 172 flight dynamics testbed
Some of these could get ditched from a release.  The rest could lose the
long names, to give
c172c172p (jsbsim)
c172-610x   c172p with a full-screen, hi-res panel (jsbsim)
c172-ifrc172p in IFR configuration
c172-yasim  c172r (yasim)
c172-larcsimc172 (larcsim)
That's much more manageable, still gives 3 separate jsbsim (default) c172
configurations, and 3 different fdms.
On an (almost) totally unrelated note, I think it would be a good idea to
test unknown options against aircraft names, so that, for instance,
bin/fgfs --T38 would w

Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread David Megginson
David Megginson wrote:

Aside from the inclinometer, the panel needs only the primer and carb 
heat knobs, which aren't major.  After that, we need the throttle and 
fuel cutoff on the right side, and that's about it.
"right side" wasn't a typo -- I was thinking of the perspective of the pilot 
while hand-propping the engine from outside.  Yeah, that's it.

All the best,

David

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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread David Megginson
Jim Wilson wrote:

I wouldn't go that far.  I'd call the Cub "beta", since it's missing some 
basic panel instruments.
AFAIK it has all the original instrumentation,  just no "modern" updates.
It's missing the inclinometer at the bottom of the panel -- I had thought 
that it was also missing the oil indicators, but I see they're there.

Aside from the inclinometer, the panel needs only the primer and carb heat 
knobs, which aren't major.  After that, we need the throttle and fuel cutoff 
on the right side, and that's about it.

All the best,

David



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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Jon S Berndt
On Wed, 17 Mar 2004 09:05:03 -0500
 David Megginson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
As a matter of fact, I'd suggest getting rid of the "yasim", 
"jsbsim", etc. in aircraft names altogether.  We have only a tiny 
handful of aircraft (172, 310, etc.) supported by more than one FDM; 
in those cases, let's just call them something like "172-alternate", 
etc., and mention the FDM in the comments (if at all).
FYI, There will be more and more duplicate aircraft coming in the 
not-too-distant future. 

Let's just put a status property in the config properties for each 
aircraft, and filter on that.  For example, if the statuses available 
were

  alpha
  beta
  production
options like --list-aircraft could, by default, show only aircraft 
with a status of "beta" or "production", but with the --show-all 
option, it could show aircraft with any status.
JSBSim already has an attribute in the FDM definition for a RELEASE. I 
think this is a good idea. There's more to an aircraft model than just 
the FDM, of course, so maybe there should be more than one release 
specifier. This is one reason I think there ought to be release NOTES 
included along with each model, and I'm thinking that JSBSim might 
benefit from a hangar approach that Dave Culp has mentioned. I foresee 
this is not only a collection of all the files needed for an aircraft, 
but a resource for the aircraft as well, with useful information 
embedded in the hosted "portal".

Jon

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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Jim Wilson
David Megginson said:

> I wouldn't go that far.  I'd call the Cub "beta", since it's missing some 
> basic panel instruments.

AFAIK it has all the original instrumentation,  just no "modern" updates.

Best,

Jim


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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Jim Wilson
kreuzritter2000 said:

> On Wednesday 17 March 2004 14:36, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> 
> > So when starting flightgear with a different FDM model for the c172 it
> > would look like this:
> >
> > ./fgfs --aircraft=c172 --fdm=yasim
> > or
> > ./fgfs --aircraft=c172 --fdm=jsbsim
> > or
> > ./fgfs --aircraft=c172 --fdm=LaRCsim
> 
> I want to add like D. Luff said.
> 
> When we don't start flightgear with the --fdm= option,
> flightgear should choose the best FDM model for this aircraft by default.
> 

My apologies for not reading this far before posting the same idea :-) 
Configuring the default cockpit mode (virtual or not) as well as default fdm
is all I would add.

Best,

Jim


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RE: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Jim Wilson
Jon Berndt said:

> > I completly agree with that, please keep the aliases
> > and remove extenion names like jsbsim, 2d/3d etc. in the
> > --show-aircraft list.
> 
> How will the situation be handled where several FDMs model the same
> aircraft - that day is coming if it is not here already.

For command line support, my choice would be to have a parameter system that
works something like this:

 --aircraft=c310 --fdm=yasim --virtual-cockpit=true

Then match it up {$aircraft}-{fdm}-set.xml and if you want a default fdm
create a wrapper {$aircraft}-set.xml.  If there isn't a match then issue a
message (e.g. "aircraft not supported in yasim") and exit.

I would completely ditch the current multifunction aircraft parameter that
necessitates all these wrappers.

Best,

Jim


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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread David Megginson
David Luff wrote:

I agree with the fact that there is a problem with the multiple names, but
not with your proposed solution.  Please don't ditch the aliases.  Or to be
more specific, please don't ditch the short names.  Typing --aircraft=737
is so much better than --aircraft=737-jsbsim, and ditto for most of the
planes.
As I mentioned in my last posting, nobody but the designers care about YASim 
vs. JSBSim vs LaRCsim, so if we have different versions of an aircraft, we 
should distinguish them by some other characteristic:

  737-air-canada
  737-southwest
  172p
  172p-gps
  172p-180hp
  kingair
  kingair-medevac
and so on.

All the best,

David

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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Erik Hofman
Martin Dressler wrote:
And what about this: remove description tag from alias set files which 
shouldn't be displayed in --show-aircrafts and show only those with non empty 
description. Fill description only in c172-set.xml,j3cub-set.xml etc. 
It is simplistic solution and all syntax can stay same.
Thats is not a bad idea at all.

Erik

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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread David Megginson
Curtis L. Olson wrote:

1. I'm growing less enthused with our aircraft alias naming system.  I 
don't mind that we have the capability, but it becomes annoying to have 
8 names for the same aircraft, even 2 names for the same aircraft.  What 
would people say to nuking all the alias entries for the upcoming 
release?  Now that we have the "fgrun" launcher, name length or 
complexity is not really an issue.  Even for us hard core unix folks who 
refuse to give up the command line, we can learn to copy/paste to avoid 
unnecessary typing.  I think getting rid of the aliases would make 
aircraft browsing and selection a lot less mystifying to new comers.  
We've got 20 (!) varients of the C172.  Maybe for this release it would 
be nice to just have one or two???
My first reaction was to argue against this, since I invented the system, 
but upon reflection I think you're right -- we should give transparency 
priority in all parts of FlightGear.  Anything that unnecessarily obfuscates 
either the code or support files, even in the name of efficiency or ease of 
use, will make FlightGear harder to maintain and thus, eventually, less 
efficient and harder to use as well.

So, nuke 'em.

As a matter of fact, I'd suggest getting rid of the "yasim", "jsbsim", etc. 
in aircraft names altogether.  We have only a tiny handful of aircraft (172, 
310, etc.) supported by more than one FDM; in those cases, let's just call 
them something like "172-alternate", etc., and mention the FDM in the 
comments (if at all).

2. We have a *lot* of aircraft in the base package.  Some of these are 
really nice, some of these are not even close to basic functionality.  
Most are probalby best considered "works in progress."  (Now this is 
perfectly fine, and is what CVS is for.)  However, for the next release 
I would like to just include a subset of the available aircraft, picking 
and choosing the best or most interesting ones.
Let's just put a status property in the config properties for each aircraft, 
and filter on that.  For example, if the statuses available were

  alpha
  beta
  production
options like --list-aircraft could, by default, show only aircraft with a 
status of "beta" or "production", but with the --show-all option, it could 
show aircraft with any status.

I think it's worth including the heavies (737, A320, 747) even though 
their cockpits aren't finished.
See my above comment.

We definitely want the light civilian aircraft just as the Cub (which is 
one of the few aircraft that are legitimately finished) :-)
I wouldn't go that far.  I'd call the Cub "beta", since it's missing some 
basic panel instruments.  I'd probably call the 172p "production", since all 
the basic stuff is there and it works well.

as well as a 
C172 (C182?) and maybe include the C310 here, even though ours has navy 
markings? 
The 182 is an excellent idea, since it provides an easy step up from the 
172: it adds higher performance and a constant-speed prop, but still has 
fixed gear and a single engine.  Our 3D and flight models for the 182 are 
both extremely rough, however -- they need a lot of TLC to be in a release.

And definitely the pa28-161.
Thanks.  It's another beta, but I think it's usable.

It would be nice to get a 3d 
mixture control on the default C172 some day.
Can we set up a separate CVS repository for 3D model sources?  It would be 
nice if we could allow everyone working on a 3D model committer access to it 
(they'd still have to go through a maintainer to get it into the base package).

There are some vintage aircraft we should include such as the Wright 
Flyer and ComperSwift and maybe the dc3 although I have no idea what's 
going on with the cockpit there.
Me neither.

What is the status of the helicopters?  They've seemed very crude when 
I've looked at them.  I don't mean to be anti-helicopter, but if we are 
trying to cull some of the less nice stuff out of the official release, 
I'm not sure in their current form they would make the cut.
I'd include at least one of them -- crude or not, they provide something 
that is otherwise missing.

All the best,

David

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RE: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Giles Robertson
Does anybody have a problem with a --fdm switch, defaulting to
whatever's available if that aircraft isn't modelled with the fdm.
That's the obvious extension of having a --2d and --3d switch.

Giles

-Original Message-
From: Jon Berndt [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: 17 March 2004 13:18
To: FlightGear developers discussions
Subject: RE: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

> I completly agree with that, please keep the aliases
> and remove extenion names like jsbsim, 2d/3d etc. in the
> --show-aircraft list.

How will the situation be handled where several FDMs model the same
aircraft - that day is coming if it is not here already.

Jon




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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Martin Dressler
And what about this: remove description tag from alias set files which 
shouldn't be displayed in --show-aircrafts and show only those with non empty 
description. Fill description only in c172-set.xml,j3cub-set.xml etc. 
It is simplistic solution and all syntax can stay same.

Regards,
MaDr
-- 
  Martin Dressler

e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.musicabona.com/

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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread kreuzritter2000
On Wednesday 17 March 2004 14:36, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

> So when starting flightgear with a different FDM model for the c172 it
> would look like this:
>
> ./fgfs --aircraft=c172 --fdm=yasim
> or
> ./fgfs --aircraft=c172 --fdm=jsbsim
> or
> ./fgfs --aircraft=c172 --fdm=LaRCsim

I want to add like D. Luff said.

When we don't start flightgear with the --fdm= option,
flightgear should choose the best FDM model for this aircraft by default.

 

Best Regards,
  Oliver C.



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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread kreuzritter2000
On Wednesday 17 March 2004 13:17, Jon Berndt wrote:
> > I completly agree with that, please keep the aliases
> > and remove extenion names like jsbsim, 2d/3d etc. in the
> > --show-aircraft list.
>
> How will the situation be handled where several FDMs model the same
> aircraft - that day is coming if it is not here already.

I think this should be solved via an additional option like:
--fdm= which stands for flight model.

So when starting flightgear with a different FDM model for the c172 it would 
look like this:

./fgfs --aircraft=c172 --fdm=yasim
or
./fgfs --aircraft=c172 --fdm=jsbsim
or
./fgfs --aircraft=c172 --fdm=LaRCsim


When we want to know if a particular FDM model is available for an aircraft
we could mention that in the --show-aircraft list.
So this could look like this:

c172 Cessna 172 (yasim, jsbsim, LaRCsim)

Where the names in the brackes show what kinds of fdm models are available for 
this aircraft type.

The X-15 would have in this case only such an entry:
X15   North American X-15 (jsbsim)

Which means that only jsbsim is available but not yasim or others.



In the end we should have a aircraft selector menu in flightgear anyway
where we can also choose the FDM model.



Best Regards,
 Oliver C.


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RE: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread D Luff
On 17 Mar 2004 at 7:17, Jon Berndt wrote:

> > I completly agree with that, please keep the aliases
> > and remove extenion names like jsbsim, 2d/3d etc. in the
> > --show-aircraft list.
> 
> How will the situation be handled where several FDMs model the same
> aircraft - that day is coming if it is not here already.
> 

Use the short form name for the accepted 'best' aircraft (currently jsbsim for the 
c172, 
yasim for the 747 if an alpha jsbsim 747 were to show up) and add an extension for the 
other.  Given that Curt is for trimming the size of the official release, there 
shouldn't be 
too many duplicates showing up (although I think having one plane such as the c172 
with all fdms represented is good for comparision).

See my suggested C172 example:

c172c172p (jsbsim)
c172-610x   c172p with a full-screen, hi-res panel (jsbsim)
c172-ifrc172p in IFR configuration (jsbsim)
c172-yasim  c172r (yasim)
c172-larcsimc172 (larcsim)

Cheers - Dave

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RE: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Jon Berndt
> I completly agree with that, please keep the aliases
> and remove extenion names like jsbsim, 2d/3d etc. in the
> --show-aircraft list.

How will the situation be handled where several FDMs model the same
aircraft - that day is coming if it is not here already.

Jon


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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread kreuzritter2000
On Wednesday 17 March 2004 03:50, Curtis L. Olson wrote:
> 1. I'm growing less enthused with our aircraft alias naming system.  I
> don't mind that we have the capability, but it becomes annoying to have
> 8 names for the same aircraft, even 2 names for the same aircraft.  What
> would people say to nuking all the alias entries for the upcoming
> release?  Now that we have the "fgrun" launcher, name length or
> complexity is not really an issue. 

It would be nice to have some kind of aircraft selector in the flightgear menu 
when running flightgear.



>
> 2. We have a *lot* of aircraft in the base package.  Some of these are
> really nice, some of these are not even close to basic functionality.
> Most are probalby best considered "works in progress."  (Now this is
> perfectly fine, and is what CVS is for.)  However, for the next release
> I would like to just include a subset of the available aircraft, picking
> and choosing the best or most interesting ones.

I am planning to upgrade the aircraft-todo list i posted in december 2003 in 
the couple of the next days and add that aircraft-todo list to the wiki page, 
maybe this helps to get some kind of overview
of the status of all current available airplanes in flightgear.


Best Regards,
 Oliver C.



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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Jim Wilson
Martin Spott said:

> Hello Curt,
> 
> "Curtis L. Olson" wrote:
> > In the next couple weeks I'd like to start moving seriously towards our 
> > next release.
> 
> I think it would be tremendously helpful to coordinate the with the
> next PLib release. There have been sooo many changes to PLib that
> FlightGear should _not_ base on the outdated 1.6.0 official release.
> 
> I'd love to see some well placed pre-release CVS tags that make it
> easier to compare FG on different platforms,
> 
> Martin.

We need to change that crease threshold in the vertex splitter.  Otherwise
things are going to get uglier with most of the 3D Models.   Can someone with
plib cvs access make the change?  It is currently 46 and we were discussing 61
as a good alternative (this change goes near the top of ssgVertexSplitter.cxx).

Best,

Jim


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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Jim Wilson
"Curtis L. Olson" said:

> What is the status of the helicopters?  They've seemed very crude when 
> I've looked at them.  I don't mean to be anti-helicopter, but if we are 
> trying to cull some of the less nice stuff out of the official release, 
> I'm not sure in their current form they would make the cut.
> 
>OV10-jsbsim  North American OV-10A Bronco
>T37-jsbsim   Cessna T-37
>T38-jsbsim   Northrop T-38
>airwaveXtreme150-v1-nl-uiuc  Airwave Xtreme 150 hang glider (UIUC)
>as350-yasim  Ecureuil AS 350 Helicopter
>asw20-v1-nl-uiuc ASW-20 sailplane (UIUC)
>beech99-v1-uiuc  Beech 99 (UIUC)
>bell206-yasimBell 206 JetRanger Helicopter
>bo105-yasim  Eurocopter Bo105
>ch47-yasim   CH-47 Chinook Helicopter
>f104-jsbsim  Lockheed F-104 Starfighter
>f15-jsbsim   McDonell Douglas F-15 Eagle
>fkdr1-v1-nl-uiuc
>fokker100-jsbsim Fokker 100
>fokker50-jsbsim  Fokker 50
>harrier-yasimBritish Aerospace Harrier (YASim)
>marchetti-v1-uiucSiai Marchetti S.211 (UIUC)
>paraglider-jsbsimparaglider
>sgs233-jsbsimSchweizer 2-33
>shuttle-jsbsim   Space Shuttle
>sopwithCamel-v1-nl-uiuc 
>t6texan2-jsbsim  T-6A Texan II
>x24b-jsbsim  USAF/NACA X-24B reentry testbed
> 
> Am I being too generous here?  Should we draw the line a little 
> tighter?  Am I being too strict?  Am I way off on my evaluation of what 
> should go in or out?
> 
> As time permits I plan to start doing some preliminary release work, 
> going through my check lists, making sure version numbers and 
> refererences are up to date, gleaning through the commit logs to come up 
> with a list of changes, etc. etc.

Hi Curt,

I haven't read through the thread yet.  At first look your choices sound fine.
Maybe we should include just the bo105 as a good start on helicopter support
and there is a modle for it.

You asked about the A4 specifically.  It is pretty much functional as is. 
It'd be nice to put a full 3D cockpit in there,  but it is my intent to finish
the 747 first, do some cleaning up and put 3D instruments in the c310, add a
couple more things to the p51, and do the ornithopter cockpit as promised a
while back.  In other words, the A4 is pretty low on my list right now.

Here are some suggestions before release:  
We should get the autopilot functioning at least to the extent it used to be.
 There are a few known lingering bugs like the tile manager issue that would
be nice to clean up.

Also I'm close to completing some major changes to the 747 model that would be
nice to get included,  but that's not a real big deal.  For the other items,
especially the autopilots it'd be nice to have a couple weeks before release.
 If not, then a cutoff date would be nice so we can prioritize.

Best,

Jim


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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread kreuzritter2000
On Wednesday 17 March 2004 11:22, David Luff wrote:
>
> I agree with the fact that there is a problem with the multiple names, but
> not with your proposed solution.  Please don't ditch the aliases.  Or to be
> more specific, please don't ditch the short names.  Typing --aircraft=737
> is so much better than --aircraft=737-jsbsim, and ditto for most of the
> planes.
> .
 
>.
> On an (almost) totally unrelated note, I think it would be a good idea to
> test unknown options against aircraft names, so that, for instance,
> bin/fgfs --T38 would work to bring up the T38.  Would patches to add this
> be accepted?
>

I completly agree with that, please keep the aliases
and remove extenion names like jsbsim, 2d/3d etc. in the --show-aircraft list.


Best Regards,
 Oliver C.


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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread kreuzritter2000
On Wednesday 17 March 2004 07:16, Martin Spott wrote:
> Hello Curt,
>
> "Curtis L. Olson" wrote:
> > In the next couple weeks I'd like to start moving seriously towards our
> > next release.
>
> I think it would be tremendously helpful to coordinate the with the
> next PLib release. There have been sooo many changes to PLib that
> FlightGear should _not_ base on the outdated 1.6.0 official release.
>
I agree with that.
We should wait with the next flightgear realease until a new stable Plib 
Version is released.

Is there any release date set for the next Plib version?


Best Regards, 
 Oliver C.



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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread David Culp
> In the next couple weeks I'd like to start moving seriously towards our
> next release.  There are probably many things that could stand to be
> tweaked and polished but two related items jump out at me tonight.

I think now is a good time to bother everyone with the "hangar" idea again.  
If we have an online hangar where one can download airplane packages, then 
nobody really gets left behind.  Right now we are *almost* able to "drop in" 
a new airplane and start flying (JSBSim still requires the engine file(s) be 
moved into the $FGROOT/data/Engine directory).


As far as which ones stay or go, I'll add that the T-38 is also the radar 
demonstrator, the OV-10 is the weather radar demonstrator, and the Schweizer 
2-33 is the thermal demonstrator.  I've made these airplanes demonstrate the 
new capabilities by default, otherwise most users would never know the 
capabilities exist, or how to activate them.


Dave
-- 

David Culp
davidculp2[at]comcast.net


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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Erik Hofman
David Luff wrote:
On 3/17/04 at 10:29 AM Erik Hofman wrote:

The following aircraft didn't make it due to the following reason:

737 :  There are already too many US aircraft. The A320 fills that gap.
I strongly disagree.  I think that both the 737 and A320 should go in.  The
737 is a good showcase for how far some of the 3d cockpits need to go to
catch up with what can be done with 2d panels, and the A320 is a good
showcase for the potential of 3d cockpits.  I might be remembering wrongly,
but I believe David Culp has said that the 737 flies pretty well compared
to the real thing, so I think it's a definate 'yes'.


At least it shows my consideration. I wouldn't be opposed to including 
the 737, but then again, I like most (if not all) of our current 
aircraft :-D

This was just because we have to draw the line somewhere.

Erik

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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread David Luff


On 3/17/04 at 10:29 AM Erik Hofman wrote:

>
>The following aircraft didn't make it due to the following reason:
>
>737 :  There are already too many US aircraft. The A320 fills that gap.

I strongly disagree.  I think that both the 737 and A320 should go in.  The
737 is a good showcase for how far some of the 3d cockpits need to go to
catch up with what can be done with 2d panels, and the A320 is a good
showcase for the potential of 3d cockpits.  I might be remembering wrongly,
but I believe David Culp has said that the 737 flies pretty well compared
to the real thing, so I think it's a definate 'yes'.

Cheers - Dave




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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread David Luff


On 3/17/04 at 11:22 AM David Luff wrote:

>Then, one could type --aircraft=C172 --2d to try and get a 2d cockpit if
>available (would fall back to default if not), and likewise
--aircraft=C172
>--3d (ditto for fallback), and a lot of names would become superfluous.

Just to be clear, I'm proposing adding extra --2d and --3d options, which
would be ignored if not available, *not* adding it to the aircraft name.

Cheers - Dave


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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread David Luff


On 3/16/04 at 9:50 PM Curtis L. Olson wrote:

>In the next couple weeks I'd like to start moving seriously towards our 
>next release.  There are probably many things that could stand to be 
>tweaked and polished but two related items jump out at me tonight.
>
>1. I'm growing less enthused with our aircraft alias naming system.  I 
>don't mind that we have the capability, but it becomes annoying to have 
>8 names for the same aircraft, even 2 names for the same aircraft.  What 
>would people say to nuking all the alias entries for the upcoming 
>release?  Now that we have the "fgrun" launcher, name length or 
>complexity is not really an issue.  Even for us hard core unix folks who 
>refuse to give up the command line, we can learn to copy/paste to avoid 
>unnecessary typing.  I think getting rid of the aliases would make 
>aircraft browsing and selection a lot less mystifying to new comers.  
>We've got 20 (!) varients of the C172.  Maybe for this release it would 
>be nice to just have one or two???
>

I agree with the fact that there is a problem with the multiple names, but
not with your proposed solution.  Please don't ditch the aliases.  Or to be
more specific, please don't ditch the short names.  Typing --aircraft=737
is so much better than --aircraft=737-jsbsim, and ditto for most of the
planes.

IMHO, the solution lies in the presentation of the available aircraft in
--show-aircraft.  At the moment, for instance, for the cub we have 4 lines
for one aircraft:

   j3cubAlias for j3cub-3d-yasim.
   j3cub-3d Alias for j3cub-3d-yasim.
   j3cub-3d-yasim   Piper Cub J3 Trainer (YASim)
   j3cub-yasim  Alias for j3cub-3d-yasim.

This should simply be:

j3cubPiper Cub J3 Trainer (YASim)

No-one (outside of the developers) need know if 'j3cub' is an alias or not.

As far as I can see, there are two general solutions.  Either have one
alias for each unique model (in this case ditch the -3d and -yasim aliases)
and show the alias, but not the full name, in --show-aircraft, together
with the proper description, as in the line above.  That's probably the
best short term, and possibly long-term, option, IMHO.  Or, ditch the long
names, ie. in this instance the full name would be j3cub, and then pull
details of available 3d/2d cockpit options, and fdm options, from the xml
if required.  This would work for the accepted 'best' version of models
with more than one implementation, so for instance 'C172' would be the name
of the default C172, wheras C172-yasim would be the non-default, which
might not make it into the release anyway judging by your next comments.
Then, one could type --aircraft=C172 --2d to try and get a 2d cockpit if
available (would fall back to default if not), and likewise --aircraft=C172
--3d (ditto for fallback), and a lot of names would become superfluous.

Anyway, the above would roughly cut the size of --show-aircraft by half,
since most planes have

name   Alias to description
name-fdm  description

and we'd be left with

name description

The C172 and C310 would still give probs though, since there *are* multiple
implementations of these.

   c172 Alias for c172p.
   c172-3d  Alias for c172p-3d.
   c172-3d-yasimAlias for c172r-3d-yasim
   c172-610xAlias for jsbsim version.
   c172-610x-jsbsim Cessna 172 with a full screen, hi-res panel
   c172-610x-null   Cessna 172 with a full screen, hi-res panel
   c172-ifr Cessna 172 in IFR configuration
   c172-larcsim Cessna 172 (LaRCsim, 2D panel).
   c172-yasim   Alias for c172r-yasim
   c172pAlias for c172p-jsbsim.
   c172p-3d Alias for c172p-3d-jsbsim.
   c172p-3d-jsbsim  Cessna 172P (JSBSim, 3D cockpit)
   c172p-jsbsim Cessna 172P (JSBSim, 2D panel).
   c172rAlias for c172r-jsbsim.
   c172r-3d Alias for c172r-3d-jsbsim.
   c172r-3d-jsbsim  Cessna 172R (JSBSim, 3D cockpit)
   c172r-3d-yasim   Cessna 172R (YASim, 3D cockpit)
   c172r-jsbsim Cessna 172R (JSBSim, 2D panel).
   c172r-yasim  Cessna 172R (YASim, 2D panel)
   c172xCessna 172 flight dynamics testbed

Some of these could get ditched from a release.  The rest could lose the
long names, to give

c172c172p (jsbsim)
c172-610x   c172p with a full-screen, hi-res panel (jsbsim)
c172-ifrc172p in IFR configuration
c172-yasim  c172r (yasim)
c172-larcsimc172 (larcsim)

That's much more manageable, still gives 3 separate jsbsim (default) c172
configurations, and 3 different fdms.

On an (almost) totally unrelated note, I think it would be a good idea to
test unknown options against aircraft names, so that, for instance,
bin/fgfs --T3

Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-17 Thread Erik Hofman
Curtis L. Olson wrote:
In the next couple weeks I'd like to start moving seriously towards our 
next release.  There are probably many things that could stand to be 
tweaked and polished but two related items jump out at me tonight.

1. I'm growing less enthused with our aircraft alias naming system.  I 
don't mind that we have the capability, but it becomes annoying to have 
8 names for the same aircraft, even 2 names for the same aircraft.  What 
would people say to nuking all the alias entries for the upcoming 
release?  Now that we have the "fgrun" launcher, name length or 
complexity is not really an issue.  Even for us hard core unix folks who 
refuse to give up the command line, we can learn to copy/paste to avoid 
unnecessary typing.  I think getting rid of the aliases would make 
aircraft browsing and selection a lot less mystifying to new comers.  
We've got 20 (!) varients of the C172.  Maybe for this release it would 
be nice to just have one or two???
What I think would be a good idea is to reverse the alias configuration. 
We now set the alias in the -set.xml file. What would be 
better is to make the --set.xml file the alias 
(switch both files) and then we could include only the basic -set.xml 
file for a new release (using the EXTRA_DIST option).

2. We have a *lot* of aircraft in the base package.  Some of these are 
really nice, some of these are not even close to basic functionality.  
Most are probalby best considered "works in progress."  (Now this is 
perfectly fine, and is what CVS is for.)  However, for the next release 
I would like to just include a subset of the available aircraft, picking 
and choosing the best or most interesting ones.

  OV10-jsbsim  North American OV-10A Bronco
  T37-jsbsim   Cessna T-37
  T38-jsbsim   Northrop T-38
  airwaveXtreme150-v1-nl-uiuc  Airwave Xtreme 150 hang glider (UIUC)
  as350-yasim  Ecureuil AS 350 Helicopter
  asw20-v1-nl-uiuc ASW-20 sailplane (UIUC)
  beech99-v1-uiuc  Beech 99 (UIUC)
  bell206-yasimBell 206 JetRanger Helicopter
  bo105-yasim  Eurocopter Bo105
  ch47-yasim   CH-47 Chinook Helicopter
  f104-jsbsim  Lockheed F-104 Starfighter
  f15-jsbsim   McDonell Douglas F-15 Eagle
  fkdr1-v1-nl-uiuc  fokker100-jsbsim Fokker 100
  fokker50-jsbsim  Fokker 50
  harrier-yasimBritish Aerospace Harrier (YASim)
  marchetti-v1-uiucSiai Marchetti S.211 (UIUC)
  paraglider-jsbsimparaglider
  sgs233-jsbsimSchweizer 2-33
  shuttle-jsbsim   Space Shuttle
  sopwithCamel-v1-nl-uiuc   t6texan2-jsbsim  T-6A Texan II
  x24b-jsbsim  USAF/NACA X-24B reentry testbed
Are these the ones that wouldn't make it into the base package then?

Am I being too generous here?  Should we draw the line a little 
tighter?  Am I being too strict?  Am I way off on my evaluation of what 
should go in or out?
In my personal opinion the following could be in the official release:

747
T38
dc3
f16
j22
A320
c172
c310
p51d
yf23
an225
bo105
sopwithCamel
Hunter
t6texan2
sgs233
pa28-161
ornithopter
j3cub
wrightFlyer1903
The following aircraft didn't make it due to the following reason:

c182:  We already have the c172
737 :  There are already too many US aircraft. The A320 fills that gap.
asw20: There should be a glider model and the sgs233 comes default with
   a thermal model. Besides there are plenty of UIUC aircraft.
b52:   I prefer the civilian an225 over a military (US) bomber.
harrier: No 3d model, no cockpit.
seahawk: We have a hunter that's probably quite alike in handling.
The remaining list is quite diverse, covers UIUC/Yasim and JSBSim, and 
contains at least the best model of most (all?) 3d/aircraft modelers.

Erik

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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-16 Thread Martin Spott
Hello Curt,

"Curtis L. Olson" wrote:
> In the next couple weeks I'd like to start moving seriously towards our 
> next release.

I think it would be tremendously helpful to coordinate the with the
next PLib release. There have been sooo many changes to PLib that
FlightGear should _not_ base on the outdated 1.6.0 official release.

I'd love to see some well placed pre-release CVS tags that make it
easier to compare FG on different platforms,

Martin.
-- 
 Unix _IS_ user friendly - it's just selective about who its friends are !
--

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Re: [Flightgear-devel] RFD: base package aircraft and aliases

2004-03-16 Thread Durk Talsma
I agree that trimming down the base package (for the release)  is probably a 
good idea. I'm beginning to wonder if the "base" package isn't starting to 
overshoot it's target these days. What I mean to say with this is that a few 
years ago we had a pretty big discussion about whether or not to separate the 
one big monolitithic download that fgfs was at the time into more manageble 
chunks, and eventually came up with separating the code from the essential 
data. This is the situation we have right now, but but slowly, more and more 
aircraft have slipped into the base package, which is growing again in size 
pretty quickly, and what's in the base package these days is more than just 
"essential"

So wouldn't it be logical to only include a few aircraft types into the base 
package and offer the others for separate download, just like we do for the 
world-wide scenery? This separation wouldn't create an additional dependency, 
as much as offer a lot of additional functionality. 

Anyways, let me finish by saying that I'm perfectly happy this the situation 
as we have it right now, having cable internet and access to cvs. I'm just 
speculating about future developments.

Cheers,
Durk

On Wednesday 17 March 2004 04:50, Curtis L. Olson wrote:
> In the next couple weeks I'd like to start moving seriously towards our
> next release.  There are probably many things that could stand to be
> tweaked and polished but two related items jump out at me tonight.
>
> 1. I'm growing less enthused with our aircraft alias naming system.  I
> don't mind that we have the capability, but it becomes annoying to have
> 8 names for the same aircraft, even 2 names for the same aircraft.  What
> would people say to nuking all the alias entries for the upcoming
> release?  Now that we have the "fgrun" launcher, name length or
> complexity is not really an issue.  Even for us hard core unix folks who
> refuse to give up the command line, we can learn to copy/paste to avoid
> unnecessary typing.  I think getting rid of the aliases would make
> aircraft browsing and selection a lot less mystifying to new comers.
> We've got 20 (!) varients of the C172.  Maybe for this release it would
> be nice to just have one or two???
>
> 2. We have a *lot* of aircraft in the base package.  Some of these are
> really nice, some of these are not even close to basic functionality.
> Most are probalby best considered "works in progress."  (Now this is
> perfectly fine, and is what CVS is for.)  However, for the next release
> I would like to just include a subset of the available aircraft, picking
> and choosing the best or most interesting ones.
>
> I think it's worth including the heavies (737, A320, 747) even though
> their cockpits aren't finished.
>
> We definitely want the light civilian aircraft just as the Cub (which is
> one of the few aircraft that are legitimately finished) :-) as well as a
> C172 (C182?) and maybe include the C310 here, even though ours has navy
> markings?  And definitely the pa28-161.  It would be nice to get a 3d
> mixture control on the default C172 some day.
>
> There are some vintage aircraft we should include such as the Wright
> Flyer and ComperSwift and maybe the dc3 although I have no idea what's
> going on with the cockpit there.
>
> The P51 and the Hunter should definitely be included, those are ones
> that also could be considered "finished".
>
> Lee has built a nice fleet of various aircraft which are worth including
> such as the AN-225 (huge russian transport), a b-52, a seahawk, a tsr2
> and a yf23.  All of these fly well, have beautiful external 3d models,
> are very well animated including the gear and suspention, but all lack
> 3d cockpits and instead have a functional, but non-realistic 2d cockpit.
>
> The a4 is nice, although I don't know how complete the cockpit is???
> The J22 and F16 both show promise.  We should also include the X15, but
> that takes some startup parameters to get flying.
>
> And the Ornithopter should definitely be included.  And we should toss
> the ufo in as well.  I'll list the remaining aircraft below.  These I've
> had less experience with or non-optimal results when I have tried them.
>
> What is the status of the helicopters?  They've seemed very crude when
> I've looked at them.  I don't mean to be anti-helicopter, but if we are
> trying to cull some of the less nice stuff out of the official release,
> I'm not sure in their current form they would make the cut.
>
>OV10-jsbsim  North American OV-10A Bronco
>T37-jsbsim   Cessna T-37
>T38-jsbsim   Northrop T-38
>airwaveXtreme150-v1-nl-uiuc  Airwave Xtreme 150 hang glider (UIUC)
>as350-yasim  Ecureuil AS 350 Helicopter
>asw20-v1-nl-uiuc ASW-20 sailplane (UIUC)
>beech99-v1-uiuc  Beech 99 (UIUC)
>bell206-yasimBell 206 JetRanger Helicopter
>bo105-yasim  Eurocopter Bo105
>