FlightGear
FlightGear Flight Simulator which can be used to visualize an aircraft and scenery. For the actual simulation, see Simulation.
See http://www.flightgear.org/
Installation
Debian/Ubuntu
The standard Debian/Ubuntu repositories contain FlightGear 2.4 or 2.6.
For Ubuntu the latest edition of FlightGear is available from Launchpad PPA (contributed by Saikrishna Arcot), to install it:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:saiarcot895/flightgear sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install flightgear
From source
A great page to read in case you want to install Flightgear from source can be found here
Adding Paparazzi 3D models
There are a few 3D models that come with paparazzi:
- mikrokopter.xml quadrotor frame
- hexa.xml hexacopter
- easystar.xml Multiplex EasyStar fixedwing
- simple_bipe.xml biplane/quadrotor hybrid (transitioning vehicle)
To make them available in flightgear, make a link from /usr/share/games/flightgear/Models/Aircraft/paparazzi to <paparazzi_dir>/conf/simulator/flightgear/
sudo ln -s $PAPARAZZI_SRC/conf/simulator/flightgear/ /usr/share/games/flightgear/Models/Aircraft/paparazzi
Using FlightGear for Visualization
For Flight Gear visualization of the simulation, version 2.6 or greater is best. If you wish to use version 2.4 or lower, you must add the following to the firmware section of your airframe file:
| File: conf/airframes/myplane.xml |
<firmware name="fixedwing or rotorcraft">
...
<define name="FG_2_4" value="1"/>
...
</firmware>
|
- Launch Flight Gear with the following command:
fgfs --fdm=null --native-gui=socket,in,30,,5501,udp
or to e.g. use the mikrokopter quadrotor model:
fgfs --fdm=null --native-gui=socket,in,30,,5501,udp --prop:/sim/model/path=Models/Aircraft/paparazzi/mikrokopter.xml
Loading scenery data
Using TerraSync you can let FlightGear automatically download scenery for where you are flying in the background. Add the --enable-terrasync option, e.g
fgfs --fdm=null --native-gui=socket,in,30,,5501,udp --prop:/sim/model/path=Models/Aircraft/paparazzi/mikrokopter.xml --enable-terrasync
It seems to be a good idea, to start fgfs with terrasync first, let it initialize and start the sim then, otherwise fgfs sometimes won't start.