Board index FlightGear Support Flying

Tutorial: How to get Aircraft Center to work

Controlling your aircraft, using the autopilot etc.

Re: Tutorial: How to get Aircraft Center to work

Postby Necolatis » Sat May 07, 2016 3:41 pm

Yes, you have to get the build in launcher to setup the catalog. The canvas Aircraft center works fine, it just depend on the catalog being setup first, which is done by the build-in launcher.

Or, you can install the catalog manually, by downloading it and placing it in the respective folder.
"Airplane travel is nature's way of making you look like your passport photo."
— Al Gore
User avatar
Necolatis
 
Posts: 2233
Joined: Mon Oct 29, 2012 1:40 am
Location: EKOD
Callsign: Leto
IRC name: Neco
Version: 2020.3.19
OS: Windows 10

Re: Tutorial: How to get Aircraft Center to work

Postby Hooray » Sat May 07, 2016 3:52 pm

Thanks for clarifying that, I would suggest that this is filed as a proper bug/issue at the tracker, so that this can be revisited - because it's going against everything that's been previously said about Qt5 remaining 100% optional, and it's in line with numerous concerns voiced by various contributors about the Qt5 related developments possibly affecting other, unrelated, but desirable functionality (such as the Aircraft Center):

Subject: Aircraft Center
Hooray wrote:Otherwise, it's almost certainly related to the package manager not being able to download the data it needs - which may be as simple as a version confllict, i.e. it getting outdated data.

It is for a reason that I suggested to file a bug report and provide additional data - and the background info I provided was also for a reason



Subject: New Canvas GUI
Hooray wrote:Qt5 is not intended to be required for building FG, even though useful functionality is going to be increasingly tied to it (think launcher, in-sim UI, package manager, AircraftCenter UI).


Subject: OSGearth as default scenery?
Hooray wrote:the new Qt5 functionality is seeing improvements in areas for which there is no mapping outside Qt5, namely no PUI/Canvas or Phi bindings to bring features like the package manager up to par with the Qt5 code.



Subject: FG 2016,1.1
Hooray wrote:if there are any actual bugs related to the Qt5 launcher, please report them - otherwise, Zakalawe keeps encouraging feature requests for the Qt5 launcher - so if you think anything is missing/broken etc, please also get in touch via the devel list, and/or, the issue tracker - some recently posted feedback was very much appreciated IIRC, and got implemented within a few days.

It seems increasingly likely that the Qt5 launcher will continue to developed, and it may even make built-in features obsolete, so it is a good idea to be proactive whenever you notice anything missing/broken or incomplete, because all the ongoing Qt5 work is likely to be the foundation for what FG is going to look like a few years from now - to see that that's the case, you only need to look at new developments that are solely integrated with the Qt5 front-end - thus, sooner or later, certain desirable functionality will be tied to Qt5, and you should not expect fgrun to support all features that the Qt5 launcher does/will support.
Last edited by Johan G on Mon May 09, 2016 6:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: No need to quote the entire preceding post.
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,
Hooray
Help write next month's newsletter !
pui2canvas | MapStructure | Canvas Development | Programming resources
Hooray
 
Posts: 12707
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:40 am
Pronouns: THOU

Re: Tutorial: How to get Aircraft Center to work

Postby wkitty42 » Sat May 07, 2016 5:35 pm

that the aircraft center is now way out of date says a lot, too... it hasn't been updated to use the new code stuffs for pulling the catalog or the craft...
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
User avatar
wkitty42
 
Posts: 9146
Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2015 4:46 pm
Location: central NC, USA
Callsign: wk42
Version: git next
OS: Kubuntu 20.04

Re: Tutorial: How to get Aircraft Center to work

Postby Hooray » Sat May 07, 2016 5:53 pm

Sorry, that's just misleading and plain wrong:
Nothing about the aircraft center should have to do /anything/ with the underlying backend, it's really just making a few calls to the PM (package manager) - it was the first, and only, front-end to the PM back-end - TheTom specifically prototyped it in response to James asking for it, at the time, James even contemplated to come up with a hard-coded PUI dialog, and the corresponding widgets, to provide a front-end.

Instead, TheTom came up with a Nasal/Canvas-based front-end, that does not contain any hard-coded assumptions at all, it is just making a few back-end calls (mainly fgcommands), and that is perfectly in line with Torsten's comments about having an encapsulated, and front-end agnostic, service-layer.

In other words, if the back-end APIs had been updated properly to take the non Qt use-case into account, the Aircraft Center should continue to work "as is", and in the worst case, it would only require a handful of changes to reflect new/updated APIs (which really are mainly fgcommands in this case)
Last edited by Johan G on Mon May 09, 2016 6:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: No need to quote the entire preceding post.
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,
Hooray
Help write next month's newsletter !
pui2canvas | MapStructure | Canvas Development | Programming resources
Hooray
 
Posts: 12707
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:40 am
Pronouns: THOU

Re: Tutorial: How to get Aircraft Center to work

Postby Necolatis » Sat May 07, 2016 6:06 pm

Yes, Hooray is right.

The AC center works just fine, just tested it 3 mins ago again, just to be sure (with the latest 2016.2.0).

It can install, remove and run AC from the catalog just fine.

The problems are with installing the catalog, which is done in the new launcher. (and it works much more reliable in 2016.2.0, so look forward to 2016.2.1) :)
"Airplane travel is nature's way of making you look like your passport photo."
— Al Gore
User avatar
Necolatis
 
Posts: 2233
Joined: Mon Oct 29, 2012 1:40 am
Location: EKOD
Callsign: Leto
IRC name: Neco
Version: 2020.3.19
OS: Windows 10

Re: Tutorial: How to get Aircraft Center to work

Postby Hooray » Sat May 07, 2016 8:15 pm

Again, Thank you very much for confirming - in other words, the problem really is unrelated to the Aircraft Center - it's mainly due to the Qt5 code, and mode, having received more TLC than the non-Qt5 code paths, which means that more testing has taken place with Qt5 support integrated, and enabled, than without it - so that the catalog, and package manager, code is primarily initialized in Qt5 related code, and otherwise not set up correctly.

There really isn't much that should, or can, be done at the Nasal/Canvas or Aircraft Center level, because it's simply outside the scope of that - it's an oversight in C++ code, the Aircraft Center however is primarily Nasal and Canvas ... please file a proper bug report if you care about running FlightGear without Qt5 support.
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,
Hooray
Help write next month's newsletter !
pui2canvas | MapStructure | Canvas Development | Programming resources
Hooray
 
Posts: 12707
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:40 am
Pronouns: THOU

Re: Tutorial: How to get Aircraft Center to work

Postby wkitty42 » Sat May 07, 2016 8:43 pm

Hooray wrote in Sat May 07, 2016 5:53 pm:
wkitty42 wrote in Sat May 07, 2016 5:35 pm:that the aircraft center is now way out of date says a lot, too... it hasn't been updated to use the new code stuffs for pulling the catalog or the craft...


Sorry, that's just misleading and plain wrong:

you misread/misunderstood what i said... can the AC even access the catalog on the existing fgfs server? how do you point it at other hangers?

on my system the AC has worked sometimes and other times not... this with nothing changing in the configuration other than applying new repo code and building a new set of binaries... accessing the catalog is one thing... unpacking the archives is another...

i'm waiting to see how the --launcher and/or the AC handle UNinstalling craft and cleaning up behind themselves... when the archive is extracted to some directory for fgfs to be able to see it, is the archive deleted? when uninstalling fgfs, are these other directories also removed? ;)
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
User avatar
wkitty42
 
Posts: 9146
Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2015 4:46 pm
Location: central NC, USA
Callsign: wk42
Version: git next
OS: Kubuntu 20.04

Re: Tutorial: How to get Aircraft Center to work

Postby Necolatis » Sat May 07, 2016 11:54 pm

No, uninstalling wont delete what you have downloaded through AC center or the new launcher.
The archive is deleted after unpacking it seems.
You point it at other hangars by installing a new Hangar location in the new launcher, just give it the URL of the catalog. You can have multiple installed.
"Airplane travel is nature's way of making you look like your passport photo."
— Al Gore
User avatar
Necolatis
 
Posts: 2233
Joined: Mon Oct 29, 2012 1:40 am
Location: EKOD
Callsign: Leto
IRC name: Neco
Version: 2020.3.19
OS: Windows 10

Re: Tutorial: How to get Aircraft Center to work

Postby wkitty42 » Sun May 08, 2016 1:48 am

right... that's part of the stuff that hooray was fussing about... that's why i said what i did and then asked those questions ;)
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
User avatar
wkitty42
 
Posts: 9146
Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2015 4:46 pm
Location: central NC, USA
Callsign: wk42
Version: git next
OS: Kubuntu 20.04

Previous

Return to Flying

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests