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[Application] Why should FlightGear participate in GSoC?

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[Application] Why should FlightGear participate in GSoC?

Postby Hooray » Tue Jul 13, 2010 5:11 pm

FlightGear needs to apply with google to be considered for becoming a mentoring organization for GSoC 2011, this application process includes answering a bunch of questions, in fact it's a whole questionnaire.
And answering all these questions can be a lot of work, especially if done just by a single person.

At the moment, all questions and answered are collected in the wiki: http://wiki.flightgear.org/index.php/GSoC:_2011

To get help from fellow community members, I am going to start a new thread for each important question - so that we collect good answers that may then be added (copied/pasted) to the wiki.

So the question in this thread is:

Why should FlightGear participate in Google's Summer of Code ?

Please discuss, and add your own ideas and thoughts here.
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
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Re: [Application] Why should FlightGear participate in GSoC?

Postby Toanphuc » Thu Jul 15, 2010 5:04 pm

Well i think it very clearly that it is a good chance for both the students and FG project to participate in GSoc.The student got the life time experience and FG got some people who can finish some crazy ambitious project which make the push development become faster and in some aspect can help represent FG to more people.The result is good for both side.If the is some project for GSoC i think it should be some thing new and unique like separate aircraft in flight or create a new dynamic water surface or add some damage to the aircraft.
A good flight sim is not to make people feel fly easier but to make them feel fly is as real as it get.
Other Free Flight Sims viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8847
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Re: [Application] Why should FlightGear participate in GSoC?

Postby ethan3391 » Tue Jul 20, 2010 1:08 am

It has the potential to be the greatest flight simulator of any type, and is probably the best in the open source/free ware world, but it needs stabilizing to make it more user friendly. It is such a complex project that it is hard to pinpoint one main cause of instability. By having FlightGear in the Google Summer of Code the standards could be brought up to a higher level, and the experience of those new to the open source world would be greater.

It can show, to a larger crowd than most, what the open source community can do when motivated. Perhaps more so than picture editors and other obscure projects like that. Thanks to Microsoft Flight Simulator, the flight simulation world has a rather large following while most of the mentoring organizations in GSoC fall into niche markets. Not many people go searching for tank battle games, for instance, or C++ compiling software, but flight simulators are quite popular, and the likelihood of someone looking for a free one is high.

[EDIT] On second thought, that part about stability, might be better left out.

[EDIT2] The second paragraph could replace the first, and a replacement for the second could go something like this;

FlightGear has an unprecedented potential for attractiveness to new users due to its versatility and usability on multiple platforms. It is made to be used on as wide a variety of operating systems as possible. Microsoft Flight Simulator and many others have the drawback of not including operating systems like Linux and OpenBSD, whereas FG is made to be compatible with these, the usual Mac and Windows OS's, as well as even lesser known operating systems. Therefore, it has the ability to be used by a much larger audience.
What one fool can do, another can. (simian proverb published in the book, Calculus Made Easy by, Silvanus P. Thompson)
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Re: [Application] Why should FlightGear participate in GSoC?

Postby Toanphuc » Sat Jul 24, 2010 2:25 pm

I have new idea that we should integrate a data update manager for FG.It should be in GUI as a part of FGrun and it function is to directly update(pull) data from Gitoriuous without having a first cloning(which i think cost a lot of and make sure all update is offical.Also the update channel on Git should be different from the main data channel,may be lighter in size and divide into section like scenario,aircraft in order to make it faster and more convenient for update.
The number 2 idea is use some other OSG plugins or outer plugins in FG to make some fearture become possible.I will recommend Bullet + it OSG plugin at http://bulletphysics.org/.
A good flight sim is not to make people feel fly easier but to make them feel fly is as real as it get.
Other Free Flight Sims viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8847
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Re: [Application] Why should FlightGear participate in GSoC?

Postby Hooray » Thu Jul 29, 2010 2:30 pm

I have new idea that we should integrate a data update manager for FG.It should be in GUI as a part of FGrun and it function is to directly update(pull) data from Gitoriuous without having a first cloning(which i think cost a lot of and make sure all update is offical.


I really think you should post new project proposals in a new thread. But I also think your idea is also more complex than you might think.
Don't get me wrong, having a built-in way for updating resources like scenery and aircraft, is indeed a popular request.

But personally I am not convinced that the suggested strategy is really feasible. I think there are better ideas and approaches already in place (such as fgfspm), and it would seem to me to be better to improve on what's there already.

The number 2 idea is use some other OSG plugins or outer plugins in FG to make some fearture become possible.I will recommend Bullet + it OSG plugin at http://bulletphysics.org/.


It would be better to start different threads, or maybe directly edit the GSoC wiki page and maybe even start a new wiki page for your ideas.
Even if not each idea is directly popular, there is a chance that some students may want to look into it.
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
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