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GNU/GPL MiG-21 development

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Re: GNU/GPL MiG-21 development

Postby PINTO » Sun Apr 12, 2020 12:33 am

I have a couple outstanding issues to wrap up and some 3D modelling to complete first, then I will mail the list again with my username.

As a general update, the MiG-21bis is almost complete, as far as cockpit switches and their implementation goes. The radar canvas just received a rewrite. I’m working on updating the exterior 3D, as well as adding more realism to the radar itself. I’m also working on making the engines more realistic. I’ve improved the FDM some - yaw is much tighter, and after watching an interview, the MiG-21 can now climb and stay at ~70k feet (although it takes almost all of your fuel to get there.) Also, a bug in the fuel code which resulted in ghost fuel being added has been fixed.
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Re: GNU/GPL MiG-21 development

Postby KP164 » Thu Apr 30, 2020 11:17 am

Hi and thank you for your work!
I would like to ask, if there is any way to rise the planes seat or change the point of view (ctrl+right mouse button+mouse move in my case does not work on this plane)? Default position is optimal for flight, but during landing it is hard to align with runway. Thank you in advance.
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Re: GNU/GPL MiG-21 development

Postby PINTO » Thu Apr 30, 2020 7:47 pm

This is due to the headshake code. I'll take a look soon.
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Re: GNU/GPL MiG-21 development

Postby PINTO » Fri May 01, 2020 11:33 pm

Alright! The seat height switch now works, so you can raise and lower your view.
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Re: GNU/GPL MiG-21 development

Postby KP164 » Sat May 02, 2020 9:53 am

Thank you very much!
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Re: GNU/GPL MiG-21 development

Postby PINTO » Tue Nov 03, 2020 8:12 am

Update:

There was a lull over the summer, so not much was done.
- FDM improvements, including better turn rates and runaway yaw with the center pylon loaded.
- The radar now shows sidelobe clutter at low altitudes, making it much harder to use.
- Several new liveries
- Anticheat, including forcing internal views only and disabling many menu items when damage is on.
- GSh-23 impacts now are more realistic (read: much larger) and respond to the terrain type.
- Weights added to store selection dialogue
- ILS autopilot was greatly improved
- Dead reckoner was very bugged/inaccurate, it has been fixed
- A "joke" chemtrail dispenser, the Human Mind Control System, was added to the center pylon. It requires an option center console as well. It has retracted, armed, and deploying states, and is visible over mp.
- Various other bugfixes

Image

Two very big changes

- Tacview integration.
Using the recorder switch in the cockpit outputs a Tacview file in the $FG_HOME/Export folder, allowing you to review your flights using tacview. This is great for self-review. Tacview is non-open source, but there is a free version available at https://www.tacview.net/.

- Switching damage from MPChat to Emesary
Using weapons will no longer spam the in-game chat with weapon notifications. These are now silent, instead we are using emesary to communicate this behind the scenes. Due to this, 2020.3.1 is the new required minimum version.
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Re: GNU/GPL MiG-21 development

Postby DiTRay » Mon Apr 05, 2021 11:50 am

Greetings, everyone! I’ve got a few problems while trying to understand how this model actually works. I have read the FGWiki article alongside with the original documentation for this aircraft, so all the standard procedures are no problem.

However, I could not get the radar to work properly. After 5 minutes of heating when I turn it on it doesn’t show any contacts, even if I got a clear visual within 10 km range. The position of switches on the radar panel is “|up|down|down|“ to be clear. I tried both, the built-in MiG-21 tutorial scenarios and bombable AI aircrafts. The radar still does not display any targets.

Another problem is that I could not get an exterior view for this aircraft. Sure, the developer wanted to make the experience more realistic, however a big list of liveries with no ability to actually see them seems to me a bit weird. Well, that’s the matter of taste, I guess... =) Anyway, if anyone knows how to enable external views that will be nice. I tried to change in-game view options and looked into the view XML but couldn’t figure out how to change it.

Lastly, due to the internal view lock I could not enable 6 axis headtracking as only rotation works. So, I often can’t get to certain switches which is especially important in close range fight.

I use macOS version of FlightGear, version 2020.3.8 on macOS High Sierra 10.13.

I believe there is a simple solution to each of the problems that I just didn’t come across yet. I will be very thankful to everyone who could help.
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Re: GNU/GPL MiG-21 development

Postby PINTO » Thu Apr 08, 2021 5:35 pm

Hello, sorry, I do not check the forums very often.

> However, I could not get the radar to work properly.

This is working here, can you tell me what the lights above the switches are looking like?

> Another problem is that I could not get an exterior view for this aircraft.

Disable damage to enable external views.

> Lastly, due to the internal view lock I could not enable 6 axis headtracking as only rotation works.

This is a known issue, I'm still trying to come up with a solution. However, all switches should be viewable from the default spot. You can cycle through panel views with the 'v' button.

*EDIT: I've just pushed up a menu toggle for the headshake, you can disable headshake to allow for a full 6DOF head movement. It's under the MiG-21 menu -> Toggle Headshake
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Re: GNU/GPL MiG-21 development

Postby DiTRay » Fri Apr 09, 2021 8:53 am

Disabling damage indeed enabled external views and the Headshake fix works great. Thank you!

After a few more tries the radar still doesn’t work.

> This is working here, can you tell me what the lights above the switches are looking like?

The lights on the radar panel are all off. The main (left) light turns on for about a second when I switch the radar to active mode. After that all the lights are off again.

In addition, I should mention that I see ground on the radar on low altitudes, so it does display something at least.

Another thing that I noticed is that when I enable AI traffic there are microfreezes in FlightGear every 3 seconds. I had the same issue when I enabled GPS screen in certain planes. The screen would update every 3 seconds which led to those freezes. I guess, there is the same thing with the radar. So, it does really scan for aircrafts but for some reason does not display them. Well, that’s just my assumption.
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Re: GNU/GPL MiG-21 development

Postby PINTO » Sun Apr 11, 2021 9:07 am

After some testing, it looks like there was a bug in the RCS lookup code, I'll be pushing up a fix shortly. Thanks!

EDIT: RCS = radar cross section, this bug would be the culprit behind the radar not working.
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Re: GNU/GPL MiG-21 development

Postby Thorsten » Sun Apr 11, 2021 5:45 pm

RCS = radar cross section,


Knowing the acronym as 'reaction control system' - I admit to a few seconds confusion here... :mrgreen:
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Re: GNU/GPL MiG-21 development

Postby PINTO » Sun Apr 11, 2021 6:57 pm

Knowing it also stood for reaction control system is why I put my edit in haha
Actively developing the MiG-21bis (github repo) (forum thread) (dev discord) (fg wiki)

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Re: GNU/GPL MiG-21 development

Postby DiTRay » Tue Apr 13, 2021 11:32 pm

I'll be looking forward to the update. Thank you!

Same thoughts about RCS as reaction control system :D

Another thing that I've noticed in the cockpit is that the attitude indicator moves in the opposite direction than it should be. In most Russian military aircrafts of the era the attitude indicator is more like a pitch indicator. It rotates with the aircraft rather than showing the horizon attitude relative to the aircraft. I was able to fix this by setting factor from '1' to '-1' in 'AIaircraftMarker' section (line 93) of AI.xml file located in MiG-21bis -> Models -> Instruments -> AI.
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Re: GNU/GPL MiG-21 development

Postby PINTO » Wed Apr 14, 2021 12:19 am

Normally yes, I would agree with you, but the attitude indicator on the MiG-21bis does not work this way, and is indeed already modelled correctly.

The image below is from a video of a flight while the MiG-21 is climbing, you can see that the one I have modelled behaves the same.

Image
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Re: GNU/GPL MiG-21 development

Postby jeffb » Tue Aug 03, 2021 9:35 am

Many moons ago, there was a paintkit available for this as I did the Somali Mig 21. Is the paintkit still available, I'd like to do more African Migs.

Cheers.

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