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How to make an Aircraft....

Questions and discussion about creating aircraft. Flight dynamics, 3d models, cockpits, systems, animation, textures.

Re: How to make an Aircraft....

Postby hvengel » Fri Jan 17, 2014 9:37 pm

markoj wrote in Sat Jan 04, 2014 10:37 pm:Hello everyone! I'm quite new to the FG community, not so much in flying and using the sim, but in creating aircraft. I have started working on a MiG-21UM, the two seater trainer version of the MiG-21, and I based the model off of Petar Jedvaj's MiG-21bis. I have finished the actual 3D modelling in Google Sketchup, however my lack of experience, this being my first aircraft, has stopped me at the stage of coding and generally continuing after the modelling stage. What is the next step, or what am I to do next in order to make a fully functional aircraft, based off the existing MiG-21bis?

Thank you in advance :) :) :)


You would probably be better off creating a separate thread for this. This is make it easier for others to give detailed specific advice.
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intense help

Postby sufian » Tue Feb 04, 2014 4:45 am

I need to have FC-1 aircraft also known as JF-17 in flight gear, I have its .igs file , please help me out that how to incorporate it in flightGear
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Re: How to make an Aircraft....

Postby Sanocon » Sun May 18, 2014 10:40 pm

How many triangles are recommended for an aircraft model? My high-poly aircraft for right now has about 2k polygons it may go as high as 3k or 4k, but i am able to limit to a 1.5k model for low end computers.
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Re: How to make an Aircraft....

Postby hvengel » Mon May 19, 2014 7:51 am

Modern GPUs can handle scenes with 10s to 100s of millions of polygons and the scenery in FG even with the eye candy turned way down can be millions of polygons. The difference between a 3K or 4K aircraft and a 1.5K aircraft will not be noticeable even on very low end hardware. Almost all aircraft in FG have models with well over 10K polygons and many are over 100K.
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Re: How to make an Aircraft....

Postby marcelwierda » Thu Jun 26, 2014 11:47 am

It took me 2 days browsing / reading to get an idea about flight simulation programs / FDM's and was afraid I would need 3 more days.
Heiko's overview how to make a virtual plane saves me loads of garbage reading! Many thanks for that.
Could you please elaborate on this:
"you can't convert the fdm- it has to be written completly new like animations etc!"
My question is: what parts CAN be converted. And from what source/links?

Thanks a lot for answering and hinting,
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Re: How to make an Aircraft....

Postby Hooray » Thu Jun 26, 2014 11:53 am

textures, 3D models, sounds can be typically converted/ported/reused - the flight dynamics (FDM) and animations (scripting) will normally need to be redone with FG specific solutions.
However, you need to keep licensing in mind - if you'd like to contribute your work back to the project so that can be shipped as part of the GPL'ed package
Please don't send support requests by PM, instead post your questions on the forum so that all users can contribute and benefit
Thanks & all the best,
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Re: How to make an Aircraft....

Postby Gijs » Thu Jun 26, 2014 12:45 pm

Welcome Marcel,

it really depends on what you'd like to achieve. The section from Heiko's post that you referred to is targeted at those wishing to convert an aircraft from another simulator (X-Plane, MSFS) to FlightGear. Alternatively you could build an aircraft from scratch, improve an existing FlightGear model (there are already hundreds of them; so chances are big your preferred model is already available), models from a different application (ship simulator, racing game) or a combination of that. There are many different approaches to this, so there's no definitive answer to your questions. If you could elaborate on what you'd like to do we can probably give you some tailored advice.

Cheers,
Gijs

PS: Feel free to contact me if you need any Dutch help ;-)
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Re: How to make an Aircraft....

Postby AA_1881 » Tue Aug 11, 2015 8:36 am

Hi guys, I'm thinking of makeing a 757-300. Where can I get permission to use some parts from the 200 series? Because the cockpit and almost everything is same except fuel, scale and the body length.
My favorite Aircraft:
Boeing 767 https://db.tt/OhYzdLRK (you must have the 757-200 installed too)
Boeing 707 https://github.com/FGMEMBERS/707
Boeing 787 https://github.com/omega95-aircraft/fg-boeing-787-8
A320neo https://github.com/artix75/A320neo
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Re: How to make an Aircraft....

Postby legoboyvdlp » Tue Aug 11, 2015 2:41 pm

Ask tikibar but you know you could just go ahead and do it since this is GNU GPL work anyway!
If you do use his work whether with permission or not as far as I know
READ THIS READ THIS READ THIS READ THIS
YOU MUST RELEASE UNDER GNU GPL LISCENCE!
Or a compatible liscence such as public domain.
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Re: How to make an Aircraft....

Postby Gijs » Tue Aug 11, 2015 2:48 pm

Note that the public domain is less restrictive than the GPL. So while you can include public domain stuff in a GPL licensed package, you cannot do vice versa.
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Re: How to make an Aircraft....

Postby tikibar » Tue Aug 11, 2015 7:56 pm

Hi AA_1881,
Go right ahead and use the 757-200 as a starting point. I'm happy to help with the -300.
Cheers,
John
Boeing 747-8 (rename folder to 747-8i)
Boeing 757-200/300 (rename folder to 757-200)
Boeing 767-300/ER (rename folder to 767-300)
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Re: How to make an Aircraft....

Postby chs90 » Fri Sep 04, 2015 3:31 am

I have programming skills but do not have skills in modelling using any 3D-Modelling software.
How can I contribute to the development of Aircrafts?
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Re: How to make an Aircraft....

Postby Johan G » Fri Sep 04, 2015 10:06 am

A good starting point is usually to look around in the aircraft directories. You find them in the "$FG_ROOT/Aircraft" directory. The aircraft are built around xml configuration files starting from the "<Aircraft>-set.xml" file. The aircraft will be a bit confusing in the beginning, believe me. ;)
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Re: How to make an Aircraft....

Postby Jabberwocky » Tue Sep 08, 2015 1:29 am

CHS90,

now, that sounds a little bit "untechnical", but pick a plane you basically like but it has still some little glitches. Get together with whoever built it, if he is still around, if not, there are some of the more experienced plane developers here on the forum or on Mumble to give you a hint where to look. And then you start with repairs. The thing is, the 3D is already done, so you can start with where your expertise lies, the programming/XML descriptions. And yes, before I got jumped on a formal level, describing planes in XML has still something of programmer's thinking to it.
That is at least how I came into this kind of plane tinkering. But it starts with a plane you like. Nobody is really good ad making planes he doesn't like (you all keep that in mind before you get me in the next Airbus ;-))

J.

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Re: How to make an Aircraft....

Postby IAHM-COL » Wed Sep 09, 2015 1:16 am

chs90 wrote in Fri Sep 04, 2015 3:31 am:I have programming skills but do not have skills in modelling using any 3D-Modelling software.
How can I contribute to the development of Aircrafts?


If you are looking forward to help with aircraft development (great!) and you are into programming skills

1. you can contribute to the development of any of the FGMEMBERS repository, and help us progress the development of any of these aircraft. These are all git repositories hosted in github. If you provide me with a github account I will send you a join invitation that will give you the push access.
-- even without push access, you can fork any of the project, modify it, and send pull request. Any member can merge your improvements

2. Keep in mind that aircraft in FG are basically artwork (3d work, and 2dwork), a few other binaries (like sounds), and systems.

3. Most of the systems consists of XML configuration files. The primary ones modify the FDM execution (typically one of either JSBSim or Yasim), and animations for the model

4. On the Programming skill levelset, you want to familiarize yourself with two additional parts of the FG aircrafts

* Nasal: This is an interpreted object-oriented programming language that exists within flightgear to code aircraft behaviors. Good reading to begin with is: http://wiki.flightgear.org/Nasal_scripting_language

* Canvas: This is an interpreted object-oriented programming language that manages visual representations (usually from SVG files) and allow the coding of instruments, and or messages windows, or things alike. Good reading to begin with is: http://wiki.flightgear.org/Canvas

I hope I point you in the right direction here

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