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 mostly older FlightGear versions.
A lot has improved and changed over the years. To get the latest greatest Flightgear, as of writing this iv vv2020.3.6 and enjoy the improvements one can easily get that version by add in a PPA
For Ubuntu the latest edition of FlightGear is available from Launchpad PPA (contributed by Saikrishna Arcot), to add the PPA an install the latest Flightgear, this in your terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:saiarcot895/flightgear sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install flightgear
This will install v2020.3.1 or newer
Tip:
Not a Paparazzi issue but if you get a message box saying "zone.tab" missing copy an paste this in you terminal to fix it:
sudo apt-get install --reinstall flightgear-data-base
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 UAV 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 2018.2.2 or higher is best.
NOTE: Only if you still wish to use version v2.4 or lower for some reason, 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.