Physics [RELEASED] Silantro Flight Simulator

Hello, I use Silantro Helicopter Simulator Toolkit 3.5.10 in unity2020 and unity2021 always build fails



Using unity2019.4.36 to import Silantro Helicopter Simulator Toolkit will report an error


How do I need to solve these problems?

 

Oof I forgot to enclose the Superfoil editor, I'll release a patch to fix that today or tomorrow.

 

Patch released.



Do a clean install of p11 and then go to Edit/Preferences/External Tools and regenerate project files.



Please send me an email if anything goes wrong.

 

Hello. Your creation is damn cool and realistic. But there was a problem that I don't work with Unity, only with Unreal Engine. And such a question appeared, if I buy an asset, will I be able to transfer it to my project? Or can it be done for a fee?

 

Hi,
No, you can't use it in Unreal. The code is written in C# while Unreal uses C++.

 

Everyone,

It seems I've broken the legacy input manager in the last update, I'll fix it during the weekend,

I've attached a CustomInput manager. Just unzip, copy into your project and attach it to an empty gameobject. Then drag the aircraft or helicopter object into the vehicle space.
It will collect and process legacy input while the internal one is being fixed.

CustomInput: https://github.com/Oyedoyin/Silantro/raw/main/CustomInput.zip

 

Yes, I know that unreal engine uses c++ and I have been working with both languages for a long time. How long do you think it might take and is there so much code written in c#? Also, if I manage to completely rewrite it, would you then like to put this plugin on the unreal marketplace? I could continue to rewrite it based on your updates, even I'm ready to do it all for free. But if I need your additional help, then I am ready to pay for all the work and time spent. Thanks for attention.

 

Please send me an email

 

Superb Work, Really i enjoyed a lot by playing this flight simulator. I just wanna implement multiplayer flight simulator using this one. Can u please help me out to change the script into multiplayer as i am new to this. In which script i have change and what to do.
Thanks in Advance!

 

Hi,

You'll have to work on the implementation section by section. I'll advise you to use Photon and create a custom aircraft/helicopter view component.
With that, you bundle data from various aircraft/helicopter components and send them back and forth using the Photon Serialize function.


e.g Here's a guess for implementing Multiplayer fuel usage
1. The actual engine consumption only happens on the local player with the aircraft/helicopter
2. Check if the vehicle is Local player and "write" the current fuel value into the stream
3. Receive the fuel value on other non-LP vehicles and set their fuel values to the value collected from the stream

You can use the base Rigidbody or Transform view to sync the vehicle position and rotation or implement a custom sync using the example above (won't recommend by default but it gives you finer control over things once you grasp the concept)

Here's a really good tutorial on working with Photon in Unity: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkx8oFug638oMagBH2qj1fXOkvBr6nhzt

If you're still new to Multiplayer development in Unity, I'll advise you follow this tutorial first: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPV2KyIb3jR5PhGqsO7G4PsbEC_Al-kPZ
It's really old and it uses the Old UNET system (you'll need unity 5.x for that: https://unity3d.com/get-unity/download/archive) but it's totally worth it. The videos go over the basics and explains a lot of the concepts you run into/need later on.

 

This issue has been resolved in version 3.5.12

 

Hi, I have to write the photon serialize code separately for every script? or i have to write one custom script to call every script for controlling aircraft for multiplayer. i am not getting how to write for multiplayer. if possible can u please give me code for multiplayer, if u give that code that would be grearful for me. Thanks in advance

 

Hi,
I have tried to convert player to multiplayer system, by adding each section into photon serializableview. when i build it and play, 2 players are separate player to play the game, but thrust throttle value was automatically changing values and in not controbble smoothly. if one player is destroyed, then others also getiing destroyed. can u tell me, how to solve the issue.

 

No, I was just giving you an idea on one of the ways you can go about it. The eventual solution will depend on the design language of your project.

For the inputs, only do the collection and actual controls on the local player. Then use the Rigidbody view or Transform view to sync the aircraft position and rotation.

Everything else should be like that;
1. Actual logic like movement, control, force application e.t.c should only happen on the local player object
2. Sync the results like position, rotation, amount, count e.t.c using RPC or the CustomView.

The aircraft flight models are just normal Unity rigidbodies with forces and moments applied to them, the steps that get other Unity rigidbody systems like Cars into Multiplayer will work for them too.

 

Can u help me out, in which code, i have to write up the code. i am not getting that. in playmode, the player is getting automatically crashed. can u give me some code to built up multiplayer for ur code. that would be big help for me as i was in starting level. then i will understood and write for my next level things, please help me out in this.

 

Created a new Turbo Jet engine component from the Oyedoyin menu, I am seeing this error spamming on the console. Any idea what I a might be doing wrong?

Unity version 2021.3.6f1
Silantro Version - 3.5.12

 

update: In case anyone else is having issues with the Turbo Jet scripts. I reported this as a bug and emailed Oyedoyin directly. There was a reference issue in the script that he said should be fixed on the next update. If anyone else needs it, I can post the fix on here if you need it. Thanks.

 

Hi
how can I grab the lever with my hands in VR?
I can press on the buttons but I can't grab the Cyclic and Collective

 

Hi,

The grab mechanic is bound to the Trigger + Palm button combo i.e you need to press the two together once within the collider range of the levers.
For the buttons, you only need to press the palm button to point.

 

Hi,

I don't have a multiplayer code hiding somewhere...I honestly don't All I can give you is directions and ideas on how to go about implementing it.

I knew you were just starting out that's why I linked all those Photon Multiplayer tutorials. If you're new to Unity multiplayer or new to Unity as a whole, I will strongly advise watching the tutorials and following along to learn the basics and build something much simpler first.

When you're done, you can start using the chunks of info you've gotten to implement multiplayer in the aircraft. Here are the system steps I'll advise;

1. Movement: Implement the aircraft movement sync first, start with 2 sample aircraft and check if each is moving on the other build.
You can use ParallelSync from Github to duplicate and test multiplayer projects without building

2. Control: Write your custom control code (I'll advise custom as opposed to reworking the included one as it gives you better flexibility) and make sure it's only implemented on the LocalPlayer (isMine).
The result of the aircraft control will be transmitted by one to the other player as a change in movement and rotation variables.
I've attached a sample custom control code.

3. Components: When you're done with the most important parts, you can then start working on things like animations and component movements like surfaces and doors, fuel e.t.c

Again, take things slow and start small with the tutorials.

 

I bought it but the passenger plane is not included in the package. Can you please send me the passenger plane with this mobile demo scene

 

Hello
I imported new version and the prefabs enter-exit is missing

can use a Simplified version with the new input and enter-exit system?

Thanks
Claudio

 

Hi,

What Unity version are you using? Prefabs are the most affected objects in backwards compatibility cases.

Here's what the player prefab looks like, it's just a simple character controller

1. Location


2. Contents


3. Components


Yes, you can change the input collection mode for the simplified model. Everything is done in the controller script so it should be easy to change.
You can also use the normal model as a template to replicate the enter-exit system.

 

Thanks, but I am very lost. I want to use the simplified version scene with the new input and enter-exit player. what i need to do? can you help me

 

All the scripts controlling the simplified model are in the LowFi folder


The control inputs are collected and processed in the Controller script, find the "UpdateControls" function



To change to the new inputs, you just have to change the "Input.Function" lines and the variables that track to them.

For the Exter-Exit system, the basic idea is to disable the aircraft on start and enable it when you have your "Player Entered" bool set as true.

Here is the core loop of the simplified model


You have to introduce a bool into the two loops and have the function only compute when that bool is set to true. This bool can then be controlled (or set) depending on where your player object is i.e
1. Has the player entered the helicopter?
a: if yes, enable the bool and compute the functions
b: If no, set the bool to false and the helicopter is no longer controllable

 

In one of your more recent updates you removed a fair number of assets that basically break what was a near perfect product, the enter/exit sample scene is broken, and many of the plane models that were in it are now gone. I bought both the rotary and fixed wing assets, and they're now near useless. very disappointing. will be updating my reviews to reflect.

 

Hi,

The components weren't removed, they were merged because of duplication

A bit of backstory, I didn't set out to have the Rotary wing asset from the start so when it was in development I made a decision to have separate scripts and components to keep it separate from the Fixed wing version. That's why helicopter scripts are "Phantom_Functionality"

while aircraft scripts are "Silantro_Functionality"


This made it possible to have 3 distinct workloads in different projects
1. Rotary Wing Only = For people who only need helicopters in their projects
2. Fixed Wing Only = For those who only need normal aircraft
3. Combined = For those who need both without clashes or errors

This worked nicely but had a major downside...duplication of functionality and it was a pain to maintain and update!! E.g SilantroCore handles flight data collection and processing for fixed-wing aircraft

While PhantomControlModule did exactly the same thing but for helicopters


This means every time I have to make a change or upgrade to the data processing logic, it has to be done in two separate components and treated as individual upgrades. This change now has to be tested in the multiple scenes with the components to make sure that there aren't errors with each...even tho they do the same thing

Now multiply this duplication problem across the mechanical, aerodynamic, control, power and utility systems (which all have multiple components like this) and you can see how things start to stack up and get out of hand.

Around v2.3, I had my OOP Inheritance overhaul ready to go but I decided to wait for another update cycle to implement it properly and now it's in. Things are now more streamlined and easier to work with and upgrade.

I've basically harmonized the scripts and components common to the \rotary-wing and \fixed-wing systems into the ".Common" namespace. These are components that function exactly the same whether they're on helicopters or aircraft.

Each one follows this pattern


Components specific to helicopters are now in the ".RotaryWing" namespace

and follow this pattern


Components specific to Aircraft are in the ".FixedWing" namespace

and follow this pattern


Now changes or connections that have to be made to any of these components can be done in one script and then copied over to other projects irrespective of whether the user has Helicopter Only, Aircraft Only or Both.

Say you want to change how the tank functions...instead of having to change "PhantomFuelTank.cs" and "SilantroFuelTank.cs" individually, you just make the changes to "SilantroTank" and it'll be reflected on any vehicle that uses it.

By far the most important one is the Controller. Basically, each helicopter, drone, aircraft etc. is now a vehicle that derives from the Controller class and uses the exact same core scripts and components as other vehicles. This makes working with multiple vehicles so much easier since the base setup follows the same pattern whether you're configuring a fixed or rotary aircraft.

It also makes working with multiple aircraft of different types in the same scene easy. E.g Let's say I want to access the roll inputs to my helicopter and aircraft at the same time or independently, before I have to access the

Code (CSharp):

1. SilantroController.SilantroInput.rollInput

for fixed wing and

Code (CSharp):

1. PhantomController.PhantomInput.rollInput

for helicopters
In the new logic, all I have to do is

Code (CSharp):

1. Controller.SilantroInput.rollInput

and that works whether the vehicle you're connected to in the inspector is a helicopter, drone or aircraft

The best example to showcase this for you is the new Enter-Exit sample scene:

1. At 0.10s I enter the fixed-wing Cessna and start up the engines
2. At 0.40s I stop the engines and get out of the aircraft
3. At 0.56 I walk towards the helicopter and trigger the Enter-Exit process with the same player!
The same player component you have configured for your helicopter or aircraft independently will work seamlessly on other aircraft types.

One of the new things that this new inheritance-based logic has brought is improved performance tracking and measurement. Each component connected to a helicopter or aircraft is initialized and called from the base controller, this means you can see exactly how much performance overhead each component costs

This helps to quickly spot a problem and better optimize the performance-to-realism ratio e.g You can increase or decrease the subdivision of your wings or rotors depending on how much performance you have left.

Another benefit of this is that until you get to the specifics of each system (rotors for helicopter and wings for aircraft) the setup and operation of each model is basically the same...since they use the same base and child components. Say for example you're setting up a UH-60 heli and a Cessna, the core, controller, wheel, fuel and flight control setups are 95% the same. You can even rotate the Uh-60 tricycle wheel colliders to save time on the Cessna setup

This part is most noticeable in the VR setup section;
1. Fixed:

2. Rotary:

It's exactly the same process even though you're setting up a function on two different systems!! At the core of it, the VR scripts and components are communicating with the "Controller" and "Input" scripts which are the same for both systems.

Regards the upgrade path for this new logic, I've designed it in a way that the new logic slot into your project irrespective of the previous version you're running and you should get no errors from the merge. The folders are different and the scripts are arranged into namespaces which avoids them from clashing with old ones.

You will have to manually upgrade old aircraft and helicopters to use the new system, here are tutorials showing how to set up new models
a: Fixed:

b: Rotary:

A large chunk of the 3.0 setup tutorials is still applicable too.

For the models, it was all about making working updates easier. It isn't as sinister as you make it sound

I genuinely underestimated how much maintenance will be required for each demo aircraft and I learnt the hard way. In fact, I had paid flight models people can purchase on the store at some point


It quickly became apparent that each model and demo is basically its own asset to which I need to assign development time and just like the script duplication issue, it stacked up and became overwhelming rapidly.

Each demo aircraft model has multiple scenes that can't be a prefab because of flight model specifics e.g the flight model of the Tucano isn't the same as the A-10 and each change made to the base flight logic will have to be replicated on each version of each aircraft model!! and this significantly slowed down development and maintenance time.

Now I've had my own custom 3d models built from scratch with detailed interiors that can serve as a demonstrator for different system functionality while using the same base flight model e.g the FM on the Cessna using piston engine is exactly the same as the Cessna using a Turboprop engine (I know it doesn't exist but is just for demo purposes).
The aircraft serves as a demonstrator for manual control, augmented control, AI control, VR control, Enter-exit and whatever new function I decide to add in the future.

I can confidently make changes without having to check other scenes for broken or disconnected components since all the base models are the same. This has massively shortened update and bug fix times, reported bugs can be fixed and updated assets released in as short as 1-2 days now.

The old models are all free...if you want any, just send me an email requesting for them.

General Note for everyone: I know I've written this multiple times, but if you're an old or new user and you're having any problems with anything in the asset, require clarification, or need help with any script/component please send me an email (silantrosimulator@gmail.com)...don't struggle with my code in silence

 

Hey there! I rigged up a helicopter copying most of the stuff from the Robinson, but when I try the autonomy demo, my helicopter takes off and is super jittery. The Robinson moves nice and smooth, but my rigged heli is just acting like it had 10 cups of coffee... Is there anything you can think of that this might be related to for me to check? I've gone over it, re-rigged it, and am comparing every single object to the Robinson, but I can't seem to find what the root cause of this is. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

 

"Cups of coffee" made me chuckle

Collider-based resolution problems are my first guess. Do you have multiple colliders on the 3d model? And if yes, are they set to different non-colliding layers?

If your colliders are within each other's bounds, Unity will have problems resolving the collision and the rigidbody will act out.

 

Hi, I am trying to train ml agents using your controller, I need inputs which I will use as continuous actions inside the agent script. I tried setting the controls to AI so that there are no inputs from the user and i tried adding yaw, roll and throttle as I need the plane to do only these three while in training and go towards a target but there is no movement as of now. Can you please guide me how can I effectively start the engines and get the correct input for this scenario. I have attached the script I have made so far.

 

First off, please keep me updated about this via email. I'm really interested in seeing how ML integration works out.

I've made some changes in the newer updates that will make your work easier. Here are the adjustments I made to your code

1. On Awake. I'll advise using the Controller component, this way you can train aircraft and helicopters with the same agent code. You can also get the aircraft data from the data processing unit in the "Core" component


2. On Episode Begin; Here you can set the speed and height you want the aircraft to start at. You can follow the StartHotAircraft Function to get access and customize the position settings if you want to set the start position vector directly.


3. Collect Observation: You can collect information and variables about the performance of the vehicle from the ADC component


Here are all the variables you can get from the ADC


4. OnActionReceived: You can use the new SendCustomAircraftInput or SendCustomHelicopterInput functions to send you ML inputs to the vehicle

 

I will try this and let you know.

 

Hey can you tell me which component you are using here in place SilantroAirfoil component? Also share your Email please

 

FYI - Part of the issue was the COG, but ti didn't completely fix it.

 

I have a dumb question. Which factors effect the speed of helicopter. I'm using arcade mode and need to increase the speed when moving forward.

 

If the helicopter isn't too responsive, you might have to change the inertia settings on the core component. The inertia values determine the rotational resistance on each specified axis

 

Hello, can we buy the demo models that you used to have? I tried to reach out to you via email but i did not get a response, my name is Vamshi. Can you please reach out.

 

Hi-- I'm trying to model a Cessna 172N, a plane I know quite well. A few questions:

1) How can I change the atmospheric variables -- temperature, pressure, air density?

2) Right now the ground effect cushion seems way too weak, or possibly even nonexistent. How can I check its lifting effect? Is it possible that there's a bug in the estimation of distance from the ground (if, for example, the ground plane isn't at Y=0)?

3) When trying to get out of the plane on a ground plane above Y=10, the script prints an error, "Cant exit aircraft above 10m." I think this is a bug-- it should be 10m AGL (wherever the ground happens to be), not 10 units above the origin.

4) It seems as if the aerofoil/drag physics don't activate until after you start the engine. For example, if you set up a headwind on the ground, the airplane won't start drifting backwards until after the engine starts. The physics should be running at all times, I think -- or else should be activated separately from engine start.

5) Can you provide more documentation for configuring piston engines? The video tutorial seems out of date based on what's available now.

Thanks!

 

Sorry for the old post reply, the 1st screenshot with sample airfoil, how did you set that up? or could you share it?

 

Honestly cant remember

But with the current version, you can use the cell controls to alter the shape of each aerofoil

 

Hello

1. You can adjust the default properties on the SilantroCore object. Each aircraft has its own atmosphere component that calculates the air properties at its current altitude.



2 and 3: It's a design choice. I decided to go with ASL over AGL for performance and simplicity reasons.
The way to accurately do AGL would be to use a constant firing raycast to check the ground distance. That would add extra performance overhead to the already large requirement of the aerofoils (especially the cells) and it might not be needed in most cases.

So the ground origin point is assumed to be the world's 0m point.

You can change it from the SilantroCore component but adding a more detailed height calculation based on the requirements of your project.



Depending on how fast your aircrafts are moving, a raycast height check from a low point on the fuselage, running at 50 fps should do the trick.

4. Another performance decision. To avoid having an aircraft on the ground, not flying, and contributing heavily to the physics calls in your scene while you're flying another aircraft is why that functionality was added.
So in external control mode (enter-exit), the aircraft upper-level physics and general computation will only be done when it's "activated". It will still interact with the world and do general rigidbody stuff, like collision and wheels but it will not calculate aerodynamics.

The control is done with the "isControllable" bool.


5. You can email me questions about any of the components you have issues with.

Oyedoyin

 

Can we please get a tutorial on how to setup the Waypoint and autonomous flying?

 

I just bought the Silantro Flight Simulator Toolkit. I had the impression that there were numerous ready-to-fly models in the package but all I can find is the Cessna 182 Skyline. Is this the only plane that Silantro includes?

 

Yea, just the one demo aircraft. I explained a little bit about why it's just one in the later part of this post: https://forum.unity.com/threads/released-silantro-flight-simulator.522642/page-22#post-8572445

The demo videos are made with 3rd party 3D models with editorial licences.

 

Hi Oyedoyin,
First, thanks for your clear reply. Below are two additional questions.

Are there 3rd party sources for Silantro flight sim models?

Our design team wants to use Silantro in a combat video game with the players flying electric motor fpv combat drones.
Can you point me to any resources that would help us use Silantro to simulate and fly 3D models of electric motor fpv drones accurately?

Thanks for your great work on Silantro, Oyedoyin.

 

Here are the tutorials you need: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJkxX6TkFwO92f8Qphy3ihB5T6-Fbp0Bf.

In fact, since you're working on an FPV system, you might not need 3D models. You can just get 2D images of the drone with a 3-view division (front, side, top) and use that to set up the aircraft. Kinda like this;

Top View



Perspective



Complete Model



Let me know via email if you run into any problems.

 

Thanks very much for your tips and images, Oyedoyin!
We'll work with them and get back to you with any questions.

 

Hello!
* Can you provide some info on the Shear Modes (A, B or C) implemented on Core component?
Although I see the parameter on the inspector, it seems it has not been integrated to the wind calculus. Anyway, if you used any source documentation for this, and can give any hint, I will go on my own.
* Is the weight and COG affected by engine mass and position? Or I should use a payload component?

Thanks for this great asset!

 

Yes, it's a remnant from one of my other projects that was integrated into Silantro. It's based on the turbulence model from page 53 of the MIL-F-8785C and the shear limits are from the FAA Windshear Training Aid Vol. 2.

The weight and cg are calculated from all the weighted components attached to the aircraft so fuel tanks, payload, and munitions. The SilantroCore component does that calculation and you can find a Vector3 containing the deviation of the current CG from the empty CG.

If you turn on Gizmos in scene view, you'll find 2 spheres with lines at the centre of the aircraft. The blue one is the empty CG and the red is the current CG calculated based on the weights and positions. You can adjust one of the weights to see it move in Playmode.

 

Hello, I have a minor problem. I bought your product and I can't control anything as if there were no settings