UnityFS - Flight Simulation toolkit

[removed]

 

2 part video on new input system and mobile development here:

Also available on website with all other tutorials here :
http://unityfs.chris-cheetham.com

 

Nice, thanks for that Chris. So easy to hook up now.

 

I just released a game built using UnityFS for mobile. It was created for the one month October Challenge over at Ludum Dare. Thanks Chris for this amazing piece of software!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dmtsource.emergencylandingdisaster

 

Great job!! Not only to get something up and running that looks cool, but also for finishing a game *and* getting it on the play store I look forward to see where you take it next

Chris

 

Just purchased. Very impressed so far.

The autoupdater did not work for me. Well the gui popped up with nothing happened after pressing the Download button (presumably). The changelog still shows 1.00. I had to manually grab input.dat and after that ConfigureInput did work. How can you force an update? I click the plane but the autoupdater doesn't come up any longer.

(disclaimer: I ain't no Unity expert either! )

EDIT: After reading basically all posts in this thread I found that others are having similar autoupdate problems and one workaround is just opening the file and downloading the package manually. That worked. BTW, I'm not a big fan of "auto<do stuff for me that I have no control over because when it doesn't work, you're stuck!>" features. I agree that you should add a manual update "start" method somehow.

 

Hi Gameengineer - totally agree with you - the next version will have a manual update button and the latest version will also be pushed to the asset store. I realize this is less than ideal to have to jump through these hoops for new users..and will be fixed asap ( currently finalling a game for the day job so having to put this on hold for the next week atleast. ) Any other issues feel free to email me directly - always happy to help Please keep the feadback, feature requests coming!

 

UnityFS 1.04 Now available.

Hi all I'm pleased to announce UnityFS minor update 1.04 is now available. A manual update button is now included to make updating much easier in the future along with a number of minor fixes and improvements. I have also included a new camera type - The velocity camera which I have had fun playing with.

I have also just pushed this update to the asset store so it will be available directly from the asset store once approved.

Changes :

• Fixed Vector2 reflection bug.
• Fixed playmaker focus bug.
• Fixed mirror wing null exception when deleting parent component.
• Fixed mirror wing keeping empty component after source component deleted on parent.
• Added velocity camera.
• Fixed manual input warning bug.
• Fixed compile error when compiling against .NET 4.5 ( **REFLECTED INPUT CURRENTLY DOES NOT WORK ON WINDOWS METRO** )
• Updated default prefabs to work with new input system.
• Added manual update functionality.
• Added progress bar to updater.
• Fixed autoupdate bug.

 

To update the current version simply open any of your unity fs scenes and select one of your unityfs aircraft in the scene hierarchy view. UnityFS will then scan for updates. (The latest update will make this much easier with the manual update button ) Or failing that you can wait for the Asset Store update which will be available as soon as it is approved

 

Hi Chris, your new update method is really great
btw, as you remember, a cockpit view with numpad keys also would be great

 

Good stuff, thanks for the update. I like that this project is alive and active with fixes and feature additions. I think so many Unity extensions just satisfy a "bucket list" checkbox (complete an extension... check).

 

Very much alive and I have some very big plans hopefully some of which will be revealed very soon! In the mean time however keep the feature requests coming and I will keep adding updates.

Allpay - Right on it!

 

1.04 is now also live on the asset store

 

It appears air mass density is constant in the physics model with a value at mean sea level. It would be good to support atmospheric effects at different altitudes such as varying air density as they affect lift and drag. Wind model would be a great addition too.

At work I've used the 1976 COESA Standard Atmospheric model but it was in Simulink. There might be some available code out there for the models also.

 

Chris, this is easy to implement, I can help you with the code.

Congrats on your project, I am looking forward to the new big plans !


Fred

 

Great!

The Simulink atmospheric model code is fairly simple as well. Given an altitude table (array) and an accompanying temperature gradient table at those altitudes the pressure, air density and speed of sound are calculated. Speed of sound is a by product. Temperature is linear interpolation while pressure uses logarithmic interpolation. Density is then calculated based on the equation

r = p / R*T

r = air density <-- use in the Equations of motion lift and drag calcs
p = air pressure (from our log interpolation based lookup from altitude and temperature lookups)
R = specific gas constant (287 J/K*kg for dry air)
T = temperature in Kelvin (from our linear table lookup based on altitude)

Easy!

 

Thanks Fred - Me too I actually had a rudimentary version of this in the initial version but opted to leave it out until the time came where I could do it properly - gameengineer will add it to the todo list! Fred we should catch up over Skype

 

Is that a directive to me that I should add it to your todo list or should it read "gameengineer, I will add...."? If the former, then show me where your todo list is and I'll add it.

 

It was the latter but now there is no need as you have done all the hard work for me!

 

This is good.

Any rough eta on a helicopter?

 

Hi Shwa, not quite ready to publish eta's just yet. However I can announce that I have enlisted the skills of an extremely talented helicopter programmer who will be pushing the limits way beyond what I could have hoped to achieve with helicopter accuracy. I will be sure to keep this thread up to date with further announcements, sneak peaks etc

 

It is being worked on but release will not be before 4-5 month, helicopter aerodynamics are a whole different thing...


Fred

 

And Fred is that man

 

Just a quick post to say that those that havent spotted it yet Terrain Composer is currently part of the Unity Asset Store 24 hour deal. Terrain composer is the ideal partner for UnityFS allowing you to make stunning terrains for your flight sims. If you don't have it yet why not treat yourself to an early christmas present

 

Thanks UnityFS and Fred,

Sounds exciting. !

 

Cheers Chris and Fred,

Can't wait to test out the new helicopter system when released.

 

A little more info in what we are doing.
It will be called UnityFS Helicopters, we are aiming at a very realistic helicopter simulation but also give the option for a simpler flight model that will allow you to add semi-realistic helicopters in FPS type of games.

I have a quite good experience in game helicopter physics. My first and most complex work was Helicopter Total Realism, a physics helicopters addon for Flight Simulator X, released for free at www.hovercontrol.com. I would say 50%+ of the users there are real helicopter pilots and I got a lot of help from real pilots interested in simulating real life emergencies. HTR required many years work, and is based on several helicopter aerodynamics books where I had to adapt aerodynamic formulas (which tend to calculate static behaviors) into the dynamic behaviors of a game simulation.

I am currently working with a great team into the development of the aerodynamics part of combat helo a realistic Apache game. In the future we will develop it into a fully featured moddable helicopter simulation game with military and civilian helicopters .

I also tried to fix the aerodynamics of a graphically nice but aerodynamically unrealistic game by Bohemia Interactive called Take On helicopters, I offered my advice during the beta but did their own thing, so I ended up fixing their flight model a little and could achieve in a couple of hours a more realisti behavior by patching their XML files. (see here.)

Chris is a great guy and the UnityFS framework is really great to work on, we agreed to take our time and make it a really polished product.

That's it for now!
Fred

 

Dear Fred. For me. In a perfect world is the support of multirotors. As well as the integration of RCradio controllers....I know it is "a lot" to ask...but Chris said....

 

well.. to make an helicopter work you need at least two

but yes multi rotors will be there, if you are interested in multi rotors, read what happened when I did the first chinook HTR physics model

HTR is a predictive engine and it predicted right...

 

Ahhh Fred you are in Italy. I will come visit and you can fly my multirotor with camera...Feliz natal amigo.

 

"UnityFS Helicopters"

Hi,

So will this be part of the UnityFS package, or a separate purchase?

thanks,

 

Hi shwa!

Due to the wealth of features and effort Fred will be putting into this we have decided to produce this as an entirely separate, complementary package.

UnityFS will then take the form of..

uFS Aircraft
uFS Helicopters

There will also be a bundle offer available with both packages sold as one at discounted price, as well as an upgrade option for existing UnityFS customers.

Fred has developed some of the most accurate helicopter flight modelling available with many flight sim users choosing HTR over the FSX and X-Plane helicopter models therefore I am very confident that this will be a must have package!

This will also allow me to focus my efforts where they are best suited pushing the fixed wing modelling as well as integrating new systems, weather and ai modelling etc.

Fred has kindly offered to bring his rotor experience over to UnityFS also to improve the propeller blade modelling - so I have no doubt you will see further improvements to the fixed wing side of things now that he is on board

 

"Hi shwa!

Due to the wealth of features and effort Fred will be putting into this we have decided to produce this as an entirely separate, complimentary package. "

"as well as an upgrade option for existing UnityFS customers."

Sounds good.
Looking forward to helicoptering.

Y'all have a great holiday/Christmas.

/shwa

 

Looking forward to it.

 

Using the new manual input mode, how would it be done? This doesn't seem to work.

but using this directly in the Engine script does work

 

Hi Nosferatu,
Sorry for slight delay have been visiting family for christmas

What you describe is correct - it will not work as you are creating a new InputController which is not understood or used by the base class. The correct thing to do is to modify the base class InputController in your derived class.

(This one)
public InputController Controller = new InputController();

i.e

Edit - just to add, you do not need to create a derived control surface if you wish. You can just add a new script which grabs the control surface, then gets the input controller and sets the manual value that way instead

 

Perfect. I got the Throttle and Rudder working from your explanation, but still boggles as accelerometer.
A few pages back you mention having accelerometer working, could you email me the example if you have time. Thanks.

 

Hi Nosferatu,

Sorry for the slight delay - I have been visiting family over the Christmas period. I have just sent you an email with a simple accelerometer script which can
be used to drive controlsurfaces

If anyone else needs this just ask!

 

Anyone new update and notice from Helicopter?

 

We are working at it, currently I am doing the main rotor code and integration in the UnityFS fantastic workflow, then there will be cleaning, testing and finally releasing... I would say another couple of month considering Chris and I also have day jobs...

Thanks for asking
Fred

 

It looks amazing!

I have a question, It's possible to simulate a variable sweep wing? I have plans to use this add-on to recreate my favorite all-time sim: Tornado from digital integration.

 

I do not doubt there is a game called "Tornado" but Id Software certainly did not make it. They created the first person shooter genre and many great titles like Wolf3D, Doom, Quake and Rage. They don't make simulators.

 

Ooooops it's true sorry, write at night sometimes betrays you :sad:

The company was Digital Integration.

http://www.migman.com/sw/Tornado/Tornado.php

 

Hi kyuss,
This is possible yes you may need to tweak a couple of variables but TomCat style wings are certainly achievable

On another note for those of you who are using UnityFS but do not yet have pretty terrain to fly over, WorldComposer will be on sale tomorrow as part of the Asset Store 24hour deals with 50% off. I strongly recommend you check it out

 

I can confirm that World Composer is great and a steal at that price

 

Thx guys. But I see two different add-ons from the same developer: terrain composer and world composer. Can you tell me what is the difference please?

 

You can check my site to see what the difference is http://www.terraincomposer.com

Nathaniel

 

So, worldcomposer is a tool for extract height maps to a 3d scenery only, and terraincomposer a tool for make 3d maps?

They are mutually exclusive?

I think it would be a good idea for you to include a comparison table or something like that in your website

THX

 

up!

 

Terrain composer is a toolset to extend Unities terrain functionality. It can be used to create advanced terrains with color maps and detail maps. This is a terrain painting / authoring tool.

World composer is a tool for extracting realworld high map data and aerial photography data for specific locations. It can be used to create Unity terrains from real world data.

The two can be combined by using World Composer to extract and import real world terrain data into unity and then using Terrain composer to paint over it to add additional details/remove details or to make your terrain more unique.

RTP can be used to then add even more detail to terrain to make it look really awesome.

Your best bet is to visit the websites read them in detail, watch the videos and decide if these are the right packages for you