Games [WIP] Soaring Stars Lab: Flight Soaring Simulator

A simulator very first drawing between 1980 and 1985 thinking about a Soaring Simulator Software. I use to play in C64 mode the game REVS and little programming my C128 using POKE (peek and poke) and a 3D tool inside Geos software but was so slow and I was very young.

["Glider Simulator" over Pampa] Simulator very first drawing​

I learned "Basic" code language in extracurricular courses around 1986/87. But the coding industry was too young so I decided to wait.

I learn 3D industrial design in Alias at the IED University.
And soon later I was making car designer for Pininfarina and sailboats for German Frers.
While making aeroplanes for Ruttan cannot be an option, I return back to the base.

Later in early 2009, I try UE3 SDK.

2010 A real first attempt was using AngelScript inside RAD game engine, I learn PhysX and Dx9.[Dell Inspiron 9200]

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2011 Then U.D.K. attempt for 2 Yr. I learn how to make more complex material shaders and post process effects but I was not able to code it and the screenshot made in the awesome Unreal Engine shows well my depression. The school glider was not able to take off.[GPU GTX460]


2012 I was not able to pay 10.000 for Unigine so I jump also to CryEngine because it handles large worlds.

Later, in Sep 2013 using Unity4.2 I came up with the conclusion, it was the best option. Unity was growing fast, I was able to make the same visual aesthetic as my favourite Unreal and I was now able to understand and code in it [GPU 2x HD7970].

Game screenshot: real time post process effects



05-2013 Game screenshot: real-time post process canvas



In 2016 as experienced Unity enthusiasts I pass my first Unity certification. Hoping to become a real Indipendente game developer I look forward to publishing my first game.

Listening to David Helgason talk, my slogan is: "A world that everybody wants to explore."

Thanks for your time,
Alan Mattano.

 

2011 PhysX Ragdoll​

Inspiring research board.
In 2011 using RAD I was able to make the first 3D ragdoll for the game that includes the camera on the head. The neck was flexible using a configurable joint to absorb PhysX accelerations and translate that to the camera.

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The original idea was to have the normal of the camera direction pointing down (camera local Y) to CG of a pending plumb with some joint limitations. The plumb is under the joint. A collider is used to change the cg of the head. In this way is possible to simulate the accelerations forces that take place on an aeroplane.

From there comes the idea of incorporating in the video game the rotation of the camera in the acceleration phase made in RAD later UDK, Unity4 and Unity5. With the inclusion of VR using Oculus DK2 that was natural because having a fixed horizon (on acceleration) was causing nausea.

 

2013 LOGO

BRANDING LOGO PROGRESS
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Logo 2014







Logo 2015






Logo 2016







Logo 2017




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2018 ICON

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I was inspired by my father Aimar Mattanó and the "Soaring" magazine.

 

2014 PBR

Plastic Glider Shader Material​

Sep. 2013 PBR using Shader Forge and Unity4.2

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2014 VOIP

Internet Voice Chat
Radio Simulation
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2018 OCTANE RENDER
Instruments
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I think I wouldn't play it, never played any flight simulators etc. But as far as I know, theres nothing like that and there are a lot of hobby soaring flyers who might be interested in it. But I would advice not to call it Simulator.
The word Simulator is so overused, there are a lot of people who are ignoring everything thats has the word Simulator in the title, caus steam is full of it (Rock simulator etc.)

 

Well in that case since is my first simulator... the name can fit...
Yes, it will look for a better name or take up the challenge to make a better "Soaring Simulator" I was thinking to change the name to "Flight Soaring", later "Soaring Stars" (the same as my lab) and in the transition use the acronym of FSS18 for Flight Soaring Simulator 2018.

 

Good idea, I'd suggest going for VR as otherwise soaring is maybe a little too 'minimal' for a computer game. People often expect loads of stuff to be going on in the game all at once. But in VR you have the opportunity to really wrap the experience around them and make it feel more real.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing more!

 

flight simulators have always existed not like rock simulators. there is a lot of people awaiting for simulators of existing hobbies like hunting fishing, but watching rocks is not a very popular hobby indeed.

Im interested and subscribe to this, i had

 

2016 VR​

Yes, @Billy4184 I purchase an old and cheaper Oculus DK2 for testing it in VR. Here is a screenshot testing the landing gear suspension of the virtual J3 Cub. Nice idea @Damien-Delmarle, I will include the seaplane version as well.

 

2017 Realtime Substance Painter​

I will start testing this new live link plugin from Substance Painter [link] for updating the textures inside Unity in real-time.

Here are some wheel screenshots. The progress of this weekend: J3 CUB Wheel

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2018 CFD

Digital Airfoil Designer DAD CFD inside FSS
User Interface for of airfoil wing section modification
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When I was a child, my father Aimar Mattanó show me the book "Theory of Wing Sections"by Abbott and VonDoenhoff. It was the answer to so many questions. I was never able to fully understand it but if we make things fly better to use the correct tools. So I start designing a tool for making airfoils inside the simulator. Here there are some sketch ideas.


and after two months of intense work, I was able to make the first prototype using Unity 2017.4 and the Unity new UI



History: In Aprile after working in the new Unity AI I was hoping to include it int the game but I didn't know well how. My first idea was that my Ai searches and make a good airfoil shape in any given Reynolds number. I ask @reynold_cracker for a formula but there was no formula I can use.
First I started by learning how to make a Bezier curve that we (Industrial Designers) usually use in Cad Nurbs applications. Thanks to the Youtuber NurFACEGAMES and his tutorial Bezier Curves in Unity: Linear Curve. Multiple line-renderer are now used for making the outline shape of the airfoil. And the airfoil is rendered in a render texture via a second camera and then used inside the UI.

• I use 4 Bezier curves for making the airfoil. This idea was also documented
• In the inspector, I create simple slider parameters for controlling the airfoil
• Created a UI canvas for the Interface following the sketches layout
• Thanks to @methos5k I was able to make the integration with old 77 Fortran
• I was able to read data from xFoil file and import it into Unity.

May 2018

• Pass the polar data to the Simple Chart
• The Unity UI slider component move the Bezier control points
• Include O.S. folder browser system "Native File Browser" purchase in the asset store
  
• So I was able to import and export .dat airfoil files
• and make my own .dad airfoil file for storing airfoil information
• The UI handles the input information for launching xFoil

Mark Drela xFoil is used as a digital wind tunnel.
Since I will become a dad, I call this software Digital Airfoil Designer and DAD as the acronym.

 

FSS18
Flight Soaring Simulator 2018 }}
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Shorter branding name. Screenshot testing grass and SpeedTree. Using Unity 2017 PBR materials.

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@AlanMattano This looks very interesting. I've also been looking into soaring simulation, etc. for a few years. Have you thought about wind/thermal/ridge rift/etc. simulation?

 

Yes, I have thought for decades how to implement it. Here are some of the ideas
In draft: I recorded the wind sound noise in the city, flat countryside and sea at 1 meter (Different wind intensity). I use that recording stereo audio as a random wind speed and direction generator. The direction is made by the stereo and the intensity by the volume and frequency. This gives me a nice starting real-time parameter that I loop it over time. The atmosphere has a curve value multiplier in function of the altitude. It follows the indication of the Nasa records and is calculated in real-time in function of the glider altitude. It also gets the Re numbers that is used for selecting the correct airfoil aerodynamic chart. This is just for starting because then there are layers from 0 to 100m, 100 to 700, etc... that [layer*] can go up and down and has different pre-calculated aerodynamic properties like Nc (turbulence) rotors, waves, the thermal characteristics. So that at low altitude when landing the pilot suffers the big gust bursts. The variation and altitude are in function of the day conditions. Probably the pilot will be able to move the traditional soaring dew point atmospheric aerodynamic conditions chart. And the chart will be given by history data of that particular place. That on flat land. The LOD houses and trees game objects include a trigger collider in direction of the wind and trigger that learps to the turbulent city wind audio model. The intensity is in function of the distance. It also creates a rotor and wave that is calculated in real-time. In 2000 I made an Excel algorithm that simulates all that in 2D. My intention is to use a lot of this 2D calculation at start. So there are real-time rays from the glider pointing in the direction of the wind looking for obstacles, rays looking down for calculating the terrain locally as well as looking up searching for other layers*. These layers are meshes. There will be, also meshes where air temperature changes direction for the base of the clouds, rotor delimitation, etc... These meshes that mimic the terrain with the addition of the waves [or rotors] are pre-calculated at the start. And let me collect data for the real-time calculation. It will become more complex with mountains, change of atmospheric condition, enter of breeze and storm. But at the beginning will be just flat land, and obstacles. Thermals are calculated by temperature, and colour of the surface texture [point generator]. Also can at some point be move buy wind. Then the bubbles move in real-time inside that atmosphere and shift following the wind direction just like a ballon. It can contain an attraction to other thermals or it can be divided in 2 like a tree. I was also considering upside down tree meshes for this. When the glider is more close to the centre of the column (sphere collider media) the additional wind shift will follow the thermal chart's curve[of the zone]. Data collected is use to define the size and intensity in function of the altitude. So that the mix with the atmosphere creates more thin and broken at low altitude.

The intention is to put the pilot in normal conditions and dangerous conditions. As for example landing with gust that makes the glider float, thermals that flip the glider, cumulus that sucks at the base, c. congestus that throw water decreasing the air Nc efficient value. Mosquitos or ice in the leading edge, spiders and serpents in the VR cabin!

 

wow looks awesome

 

Congratulations on progress so far- Love the airfoil design and indeed your overall approach to a sim in general. Thanks for sharing your work.

We have lots in common, I'm also from an Industrial Design background (Pininfarina would be my dream job! I used to own one of the 90s Alfa GTVs by Pininfarina), a new Dad, and creating a flightsim with weather simulation in Unity, although in my case it's more of an excuse to design a sort of non-combat Crimson-Skies-esque setting for fantasy yet realistic aircraft. I simulate my wind using vector fields via Megaflow- it's more manual and probably inaccurate, but it feels 'right' to someone who did a bit of glider time years ago..

 

Thanks! Yes, Working with Pininfarina family was and it is a dream job! Is important to dream it first. Is also important to have good mentors. And I try to be a good family member, here, in-house and at job as well. At the time of the GTV, I was a junior car designer and just author of the drawings and model 3D GTV restyling Pininfarina idea. The drawing intention was to bring back the old Alfa design style following a previous concept show car Dardo. Thanks to the old Pininfarina modellers and coworkers (really awesome people), that teach me to be simple, synthetic and surrounded by a nice curve. Co-author was Dr Cartia my Project Manager at the time and he used to finish the model and take me to the wind tunnel for testing this new style now included in all models.

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[Pininfarina] 2002 drawing (Photoshop), 3D model (Rhinoceros and GPU Voodoo ) and the first prototype (Epowood).

But let's continue, there is a lot to do...

Yes, Nicholas, Unity, in general, is a great platform to test wind turbine or TOROA "concept aeroplane", the pilot will need a render texture screen VR camera showing the exterior in the cockpit that the designer can add-on and if one turbine fails, lets test if the thin airfoil rudder handles it! Is a good idea to push the ventral tail fin back or make it bigger? I choose Unity because Is possible to share content or purchase content plugin and models (aeroplane, instruments) in the asset store.

Game Sharing Content [FBX content, game: gps position, avatars, points, coins, etc] can be interesting for the players but is far away for now as well as other:

"Concept Show Designer" Later (far away) my intention is to give to a junior, a designer platform to test and show their own work. A lot of car junior designers make, for example, doors that cannot be opened properly. The game is just an introduction for junior designers since reality is complex and there is a lot to learn.

 

@AlanMattano Have you started implementing the ideas you related above regarding wind/thermals/etc.?

For effects generated by terrain I would still consider some type of vector field as @Karearea relayed. I'm not sure what manual labor he was referring to. These vector fields should be generated automatically according to the terrain and other wind factors, etc.

I assume a lot of tweaking can make it feel 'right' to a glider pilot like @Karearea mentioned.

I've been considering particle systems as a simple approach to some of these effects (for example, a thermal could be made of particle systems with varying speed and diameter, etc. their collision with aircraft will add forces to flight model and so on). I'm not sure this would give sufficient results but would be quite easy to prototype and test.

 

Yes, I have started implementing these ideas in Unity4 and U5. I did not pass them already to the latest version.

I was not considering vector field as Karearea mention because I think that Megaflow use as a source a 3ds Max output and I'm not able to use Autodesk unaffordable product (in my case).

Yes is a good idea. I do not know how to bake wind fields of all the scene 3Kx3K km (at 3m, 6m, 50m, 300m, 600m etc from terrain). Is a lot of data! I use something that can be similar good but more CPU expensive. I´m using two surfaces (layers) that create a local vector field and in real-time a local calculation. As data, I'm using "Dancing with the Wind" book. This data is generated at the start with the main wind direction. I has my own simple algorithm.

I was looking at Book of The Dead wind fields. Are a good example solution to follow for a local small scene and I need to understand it for evaluation in a much big environment. But my first thought, time ago, was that backing shadow maps or backing wind fields picks up too much HD data and time and is also are immutable. In my case, since we are talking of 1000s of km, for obtaining a good atmospheric local resolution, I'm forced to make them at the scene start with the direction of the wind (random sat media data and user inputs). Also because the environment, game objects position on the map are always changing upgrading itself. So I need to create a big input (not too big) for all the scene and make a local real-time calculation.
But now that you are pointing out that, you make me think that, yes. I understand a wind field as a texture that stores 3d direction. I can use a set of library database of some local objects turbulence wind field and apply that more accurate data mixing it with the turbulentcity wind audio data. This is triggers as usual when the raycasts (in direction of the wind) hits with a game object collider (static tree, house, etc... ).
I can use fantastic Megaflow in the glider for example inside a wind tunnel so that the younger player has a better understanding of what is happening. But I'm afraid of the result: I do not know how accurate is the Max output. I thought about that but the only situation when is useful (visual fan aside) is when two aeroplanes or gliders are so close to each other, that the wind influences the aircraft direction. If two aeroplanes are side by side but with wings are overlapping, the aeroplane wind influence on top push down the wing of the aeroplane that is down. This makes the aeroplane down to roll a bit. And the aeroplanes enter in a path collision. It triggers an almost inescapable fatality. I do not like automatic acrobats but I need to simulate this effect in some way to prevent the accident of, for example, acrobatic teams or gliders in a thermal. I will add later pushing forces. The best is to show, after the accident, the wind stream flow around the two aeroplanes. Inside my possibilities, I wish to avoid "feels right" and to make it correct. Since each situation is different and you need a lot of different angles(+-30° Y and X) the only way I can imagine it is to calculate it in real-time.

But at the moment, I do not know how to make well calculated aerodynamic filed around a mesh in real-time or who can make it for me.

Yes in UDK and Unity 4 or 5 I has done that. I need to try that with this new U20xx particle system. Anyway, for the thermal and cloud (not render side), I prefer, instead of using particles and PhysX, to use just individual sphere collider and move them vias scripting calculating locally the atmospheric conditions. If the glider enters in that sphere zone the vector change as if is a hot air bubble inside a thermal. The collider can change in size but is tricky. The same bubble later go down. I try to make clouds via particle using Gtx 460, but was too much GPU expensive at the time. There was a nice asset for that now deprecated I'm the author since 2007 of the SoaringClouds photorealistic textures. Having lots of particles is more realistic and can be big. Here it's me using the unbeatable Condor and my photorealistic cloud textures in 2012.

Visualisation of the cloud
I try trueSkyAlpha but is hard when I move the sliders. probably via scripting is more simple. Visually I prefer in status zone conditions to use several cylinders instead of planes like trueSkyAlpha but that renders inside the scene environment and not outside. The procedural cloud covered is triggered by the individual sphere colliders. But I did not implement at the moment this solution.

 

I wasn't referring to Megaflow specifically but some type of generated data as you later mention.

It's enough to have a look at the first few diagrams in Dancing with the Wind to understand there is a lot to simulate here (even if you only simulate a small subset of effects at play).

I can try and re-find some papers, etc. that I've come across that do different types of real-time computational fluid dynamics. It goes above my head but I could try and consult with a professor in the field when you get to concrete questions.

It would be interesting to see what Condor 2 actually implements and how in these regards. A lot of the stuff I have seen (in plugins for x-plane, etc.) was quite naive and primitive.

You're attempting to pull off something quite beautiful. Let me know if I can assist. I've been leaning towards keeping behavior to feel/behave correctly and not worry about simulating things correctly. It would depend what you're trying to achieve.

ATM, I'm interested in R/C simulation (Gliders included). All of these effects can and should be modeled for a realistic environment but I'm not sure how important it is for the actual fluid dynamics to be calculated correctly.

Here's one example of real-time fluid dynamics. (this will only achieve "realistic" results in a steady flow state which makes it irrelevant if I understand correctly. "realistic" because the results you will get will be rough approximations, at best and hopefully will deliver believable result.)

I'm no expert. Far from it. Most likely wrong in a few places above.

 

Hi guys, by ‘manual setup’ I meant that Megaflow can generate flow data from splines that simulate localised wind strength and direction. The splines need to be manually placed to represent wind behaviour, which means reading about anabatic airflow etc and guessing what the dynamics should be. It can also import and handle data from proper CFD software, but this is beyond my budget for the current project.

 

What is important for a car designer and the car industry at high speed is the cl in each individual wheel. Some cars have a very bad cd, but be more aerodynamically performer via a smaller front surface area and very good -cl including in strong crosswind at high speed. Using that software the 85 per cent of the result can contain an error range margin of 0.06 in cd and can confuse the inexperient designer. The usage of AI in Aerodynamic is smart.
I prefer a shader that makes the cl cd equation in the GPU and translates the force directly to the flexing mesh. [Something like probably is done in the Book of The Dead]. I try using shader scripting for this but I was not able to control in the shader the output. I hope for the new Unity shader graph gives me more possibilities in the future. In my case, I implement for the same author of Megaflow, the West brothers, MegaFire to bend the wings in 2015.



@Karearea Thanks the spline info. Yes is possible to put the splines by hand but is better to generate correctly. I do not know how to make a proper CFD. I'm using Xfoil as 2D CFD cd cl data and place that in the wings sections that returns the CD CL to get the final wing LD.

More in detail I'm using a Rigidbody in the wind C.G. that contains the mass of the wing plus the water ballast. It moves up and down, and this float moves the MegaFier mesh modifier giving the illusion of flexible wings. I put on liked to this flexible mesh the aerodynamic controller that is in charge to make local lift drag force using Xfoil data plus wing equation. In this way for example in the case of the ETA glider or Concordia, the lift is calculated in the correct place with the correct effect (and local wind). The Rigidbody collider is connected by a breakable joint. As Jean Marie Clément describes in his book on page 195, If you take out the aerodynamic air brake at high speed (Because is flexing down) you break the wing because all the lift is applied suddenly into the tip and flexes up.

So at the moment making a pure 3D CFD using the mesh is out of my capacity. I'm waiting for a GPU CFD

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Liking the progress so far! Can I ask if you are creating your own controller/code for the glider/thermal/wind physics? I would be interested to know how you are approaching that part of it.

 

2014 LIFT DRAG
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The input is done by using Guavaman Enterprises Rewired. I'm waiting for the new Unity 2018.3 Input system. I grab from there the Input and apply that value to the excellent Chris Cheetham asset. My Unity5 FSS glider/thermal/wind physics controller applies different equation explain above and is a modification of that Unity FS. Here the only screenshot at that time.

2014 Flight Soaring Simulator using Chris Cheetham GUI​

 

Ok cool, I thought unity FS is not available anymore, I wonder if it works with Unity 2018.. I wish you good progress/all the best with this project. I love aircraft, especially gliders, such amazing aircraft type to be able to fly without an engine!

 

Yes, FS is working in Unity 2018 inside FSS after minor corrections. I'm taking out the FS Java Xfoil data and in the future, I will put D.A.D. input.

Thanks for the good wishes
Now I'm working in Soaring Starts Lab, Soaring lab improvements: A new baby

Here is my "FullWing" sailplane glider concept art. Looking for a new and better wing fuselage interaction. I'm trying to get good LD from the fuselage section. I remember the Horten idea and ability to almost take out the fuselage from the aircraft. I use the same technic that characterises this 400kg 13.5meters class glider concept.

 

Here there are more sketches drawing of the "FullWing 2018 13":

 

DAD will be integrated into Flight Soaring Simulator as a plugin. It keeps the same visual feeling of Fortran Drela Xfoil.

The idea here is to make a new software that makes airfoil via TensorFlow Ml-agent. So that the Ai Designer is in charge of making new airfoils. The player/user will be a designer and is in charge of the glider project. He can create a new glider.

 

2018 BOX UVMAPPING​

I'm trying to achieve photorealism since the start. Inside my research, here there is an investigation about box UV mapping.

Game objects: an F1A Nordic suitcase box (1960) for free flight models.

For feedback, there is a dedicated thread: FORUM LINK

Here there are some renders made in Unity 2018.3, Unity 2019.1 realtime PBR, Blender 2.8 using Eevee and Substance Painter.




Is empty but in the game will be full of old FAI glider class F1A free flight models
I'm using PBR standard material

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This game object is scalable

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I make this box as an asset for the Unity Asset Store
WIP and waiting for approval at the Unity Asset Store: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/slug/139384

Include LOD with hi, low poly and photorealistic textures

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Now DAD is capable of interacting with NACA airfoil series. This 1940s airfoil shapes developed by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics are still commonly used in aircraft manufacturing and energy sector.

Chart comparison of NACA 0009 versus DAD AM airfoil with higher LD efficient.
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Since DAD has it's own development, here it is a link to a specific WIP thread.
https://forum.unity.com/threads/wip-soaring-stars-lab-dad-digital-airfoil-designer.666556/

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2018 DONATION
donor-advised funds
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For a future founding, I place a Patreon support motivated link: https://www.patreon.com/soaringsimulator
The benefit of supporting this project is that I can release earlier.
GoFoundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/soaring-stars-lab

 

2019 UV MAPPING
SPHERICAL & CYLINDRICAL
Projection Research​

For making FSS more realistic, I'm making a new 3D model workflow (radical and unconventional) for hard surface game development. The reason for this is photorealism.


GoNuts 4 Trim and Color: WIP wheel nuts product that will be available in the asset store.

In general, in the game development environment, 3D objects surface does not reflect the designer intention. Because the mesh is low poly and also used average vertex normals. This is not good for showing Industrial Design objects. Especially if the surface contains a fixed radius with no smooth transitions. Using average normals bends the light reflection in a non-correct way. A capsule can look like a potato. In StarCityzen as an example, you can notice this problem becuse is almost all industrial design environment using the traditional game object modelling workflow. So my intention inside this simulator is to create perfect vertex normals that reflect the style intention of the Industrial designer by using triangles instead of quads and custom normals instead of average normals.

If we use Blender2.8 with the new fantastic interface or I presume 3DMax to create the hard surface model, we finish applying extra loops in the edges to prevent average vertex normals. When a flat surface intersects a surface containing radius edge, there is an unrealistic artificial transition between the two surfaces. Custom normals are possible but we need to import them. And the final result is not a constant radius. So you finish making the NURBS parametric model outside. There is no way to make a perfect sphere using, for example, advance subdivision modelling surface. So there are not many 3d modelling tools.


GoNuts 4 Trim and Color asset AM12 made inside Blender using Rhino custom vertex normals to compare the poly count.

In the 90s I was using the 70.000 U$D Alias in an Indigo as a car designer and later Alias split into Maya. In my opinion, for creating a correct hard surface modelling, Alias is needed. Is better than CATIA, Solidworks or Other parametric because allow more style flexibility to the designer. It allows me to create complex stylish shapes that later I used as a designer in the car industry for Pininfarina. Then you need to convert that NURB polysurface to polygons conserving UV vertex normals. For the conversion, you need a tool like the new PiXYZ. Maya does not conserve all the NURBS tools as Alias do. You can´t create a surface in Maya. So you need Alias + PiXYZ + Maya for UV mapping, rigging animation each year. The cost is not easily affordable. And the result is not at the level of my expectations.

2019 VERTEX NORMALS
STUDY AND RESEARCH​

For me was natural as a solution to migrate to 300U$D Rhino that runs inside a PC at the end of the 90s. What I'm trying to make inside Rhino since then is to make NURBS, unfolding or unwrapping the UV map using surface edges that are simple to select than polygons and then convert that NURBS polysurface into polygons conserving the correct vertex normals and same UV mapping. Now I do not need to think about vertex normals since this tool handles it automatically all this inside one cheaper tool. Along the decades, I talk to developers and suggested pushing for UV mapping tools that came out in Rhino 4, now UVMapping bug fixes and now subdivision modelling via the forum, bug reports, and emails to Bob Robert McNeel. Now Rhino 7 cost around 1000U$D. Is still not ready for game development as Blender, 3D Max and Maya is but can be an option for hard surface modelling game development. Not a good one for game development in general! A different alternative one. I'm just a user.

Here there is my research inside Rhino6 of a sphere and cylindrical UVmpaing projection conserving NURBS vertex normals:

 

2019 AUTOMATIC UNWRAPPING
SUBSTANCE PAINTER 2019.3.1​

After learning how to box and cylindrical projection wrapping, I'm testing the new Substance Painter 2019.3 that includes automatic UV unwrapping. Unfortunately, at this moment, it is in an early release stage and does not support for industrial design, cylindrical shapes. Still make a nice job when you are separating objects in a conscious way.


GOGO GURU R13, WIP: racing tires that will be available in the asset store.



GOGO F1 GURU rear slicks.

2019 RIZOMUV REAL SPACE
CUSTOM UV MAPPING​

When you are having quads as for example these tires, a tool like Remi Arquier RizomUV is a much better option for aligning the UV mapping projection and increase overall efficiency. Sometimes after letting Substance Painter do the automatic UV mapping, I import the mesh back to Rhino. I make a UV mapping reprojection of the parts that are not good inside Rhino. And I use Rizom to pack correctly.


GOGO All-Road Tire R16 (205/55) now available in the asset store.

Dealing with Rhino3D and meshes is not simple. In my case, I prefer RizomUV Real Space since I will be using CAD meshes out from NURBs with custom vertex normals instead of average vertex normals. For that, I created a different new workflow for game development.

2019 TESSELLETION HDRP
SQUARE QUADS​

For creating tessellation, perfect squares quads are needed. If not you will get a zigzag issue. For making my research about tessellation, I chose tires as a playground. After making the quads out from the NURBs, if the quads are nor square, I import the mesh into Blender 2.81. In there I add edge loops to get square quads.



Tessellation research using quad meshes.

If you want to read more about GOGO tires: https://forum.unity.com/threads/wip-gogo-tires.783767/

 

Soaring Simulator 2019

SUMMARY​

In this past year, I make a research about how to develop hi-quality 3d models and paint them. In Pininfarina, for making Ferraris, I was using Rhino 3d. So Is my favorite choice editor to make NURBS type surface and convert them into triangles. But Rhino was not made for game development so I needed to convert that. I was especially focused on UV unwrapping and unwrapping technics since is a big problem for complex polygon surfaces.

Many things happened this year and this is just a summary:

1. I try to make a workflow for converting poly surface NURBS into polygons. I created a tool inside Grasshopper for this. It allows a fast conversion but it does not conserve UV mapping.
   
   
2. So I take a course in Udemy Learn UV Unwrapping with Blender for Unity 3D Game Design since Blender is one of my favorite tools.
   
   
3. Following other tutorials, I was able to learn how to Unrapp polysurface inside Rhinoceros before polygon conversion.
   
   
4. At first, I learn how to make a Box project making this F1A wood box: https://assetstore.unity.com/packag...l/photorealistic-f1a-old-wood-box-case-139384
   
   
5. Second I try and learn how to use the spherical projection. And form that research, I finish making some tires: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/vehicles/land/gogo-allroad-tire-r16-157878
   
   
6. And more to come: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/dOmqdx
   
   
7. Also, I make a research using the cylindrical projection: https://assetstore.unity.com/packag...-color-stylish-cool-automotive-customi-151486
   
   
8. Since Rhino UV mapping editor was failing I isolate and debug a lot of issues (20?). I was able to submit well, several bugs report that will help Rhinoceros 3D evolution: BUGs LINK
   
   
9. Bug report takes a lot of time so I created a separate special UV mapping texture that helps me in the process of visualizing UVs: https://discourse.mcneel.com/t/uveditor-tip-uv-mapping-replace-your-uv-grid-texture/88856
   
   
10. Since Unfolding polygon meshes were taking almost all my time, I finish learning and using a specific tool. First I test a variety of UV mapping software. RizomUV was one of my favorites.
    
    
11. So I created a fast icon button to talk with Rhinoceros. A Rizom Bridge; In this way is faster moving the mesh around between the two https://discourse.mcneel.com/t/uv-mapping-rizomuv-rhinoceros3d-bridge-workflow-am-mesh-bridge/94241
    
    
12. I updated to Substance Painter 2019 and I was able to paint all my 2019 3D models. They are not specific for the simulator but are necessary for the research and learning process.
    
    
13. I submitted all in the Unity Asset Store and Cgtrade searching for finance. But salses are rare and incomes are very low.
    
    
14. Since purchasing new computer and software is necessary, I open a new place office that is called "Soaring Stars lab" where I give you the opportunity to make donations if you wish so: https://www.patreon.com/soaringsimulator
    
    
15. To optimize game performance: I'm making a workflow for converting the mesh triangles to a low detail mesh LOD (Level of Detail). And for this, I make a subscription and still testing InstaLOD. I also purchase and testing other assets systems.
    
    
16. Remember that my workflow is unique. There was no connection from Rhinoceros 3D models for industrial design converted and optimized for game development. For this reason, I created a specific workflow and documented on this thread: https://discourse.mcneel.com/t/how-...-rino3d-to-substance-painter-workflow/77006/6
    

Thx for reading!

Alan Mattanó

 

Flight Soaring Simulator 2020
FSS20 ROADMAP GOALS​

What's coming

• Rename Soaring Simulator to Flight Soaring Simulator 2020.x (FSS20).
  
• Post articles or video progress on Instagram and YouTube weekly for the following projects. (in Eng, Ita, Spa).
  
• Publish the following articles as Soaring Stars lab in the Unity Asset Store.
• Publish a Udemie design course
• Publish GOGO Tires R16 Guru, R17 Sport, R18 R19 R21
  
• Make better 3D logo and intro video
• Learn to use RizomUV
  
• Make and Publish Rim Wheels R17 R19 R21 with correct UV mapping projection.
• Finish and sell online the trees (Eucalyptus, etc.) created in the past years.
• Buy US books on the calculation of a finite wing and CFD. Here my list: LINK
  
• Improve and correct the most obvious bugs for DAD.
• Try to publish DAD on the Microsoft Steam platform.
  
• Try to publish Color Picker & Eyedropper Tool.
• Patreon donation option for followers.

 

Flight Soaring Simulator 20 .01
First weekly video for followers.​

When I saw uTires dynamic tire deformation in the asset store, I was thinking this is awesome for the landing gear and showing via a cam a perfect landing.

So here is my first implementation of mesh deformation behavior of an aeronautic tire under load. Realtime dynamic physics simulation using C#, tessellation, Nvidia PhysX, and of course, Pecek 2SD "uTire"!

 

Flight Soaring Simulator 20 .01
Aircraft landing gear under stress.​

Implementation of landing gear and tire shader vertex mesh deformation behavior. Realtime dynamic physics simulation using C#, tessellation, Nvidia PhysX, and Pecek 2SD "uTire". Airplane fuselage J3-CUB.

The basic idea of Pecek 2SD "uTire" is to use the GPU and the shader program to interpolates the mesh vertex between two states. This lets PhysX out. It is using the PhysX to read the PhysX wheel component position or dynamic visual (I presume by casting rays). So is fast.

SETUP

• After installing uTire
• Open uTire manager.
• Drag and drop the game object containing the rigid-body component.
• Later set the number of wheels into the array, that in my case are 2.
• And drag and drop the wheels game objects.
• Open the TSD > uTire Material Editor
• Have fun editing

 

FSS20 .01
J3CUB Fabric Cover& Seat​

I try to cover the fuselage frame using fabric simulation but I fail.






So I make the seat instead.
It is difficult to make the seat of the J3 CUB. So instead of modeling in a traditional way by using Maya, Zbrush or Blender as a sculpting tool, this time I prefer to use Rhino for the tube frame. Later I import that structure to Marvelous Designer. I create there the fabric and weld them. Finally, I give a bit of pressure on it.

After packing UV-mapping to avoid overlapping, I paint it in Substance P. and here there is a render.

 

Looks fantastic mate! Really admire your realist approach to the intersection of both physics and art. I hope you're enjoying fatherhood, and you and your family are safe and well over in Italy.

 

2020 RINOCEROS 7 WIP SubD
J3CUB Propeller​

March 2020: We must stay at home. Looking for 3D printer ventilators. Also folding (at) home that can help to unfold from home a vaccine.

Meanwhile

And making this propeller blade for the J3-CUB. For modeling, I was using the new tool SubD inside a WIP Rhinoceros 7. RizomUV for mapping and Substance Painter. Renders were done using Iray.

​

 

Marvelous Designer
Pilot Leather Helmet
​

3D initial model made by Witold Jaworski. I added a fabric leather cloth layer on top using Marvelous Designer and UV mapping made in RizomUV.

​

 

Soaring Instructor
Fist Pilot Prototype for FSS20


​

 

Awesome modeling and texturing, that looks great.

 

J-3 CUB
​

Going around with my brother on a J-3 CUB
Short clip preparation and taxi.

​

The construction of the 3D model for the game. I use Grasshopper to create procedurally the fuselage frame in a non-destructive way. This lets me build in a simple way the next PA11 Pa12 and mu custom models.

​

 

Clo3D​

I go live stream
I will try to cover with fabric the tail of a J3-CUB.

More live: www.youtube.com/channel/UC5LpqNEx2XDmD7r4QYTELhQ

 

Soaring Hat​

I go live now!
In this live stream, I will try to paint in real-time a soaring hat.

NAMES
​

The first name was "Glider Simulator" (at the time I make the drawings) and translated to "Simulador de Planeadores". At the time Flight Simulator was purchase by Microsoft the name was "Soaring Simulator". So that was closer to Microsoft branding (in case it was purchase). But the SS acronym was not a good one. Also, SS is used in the fashion industry as an acronym for "summer season". So I decided to change the "Soaring Simulator" name to "Flight Soaring Simulator". The RAD, Unreal and Cry game versions were called Soaring Simulator. The Unity version will be "Flight Soaring Simulator" with acronym FSS19, FSS20, etc.

 

InstaLOD
Meshes Optimisation​

​

Default material,

• 473 objects with no optimization (tot 23800 batches) (FBX file was 1.8Mb)
• 537 objects, draw calls reduction from 15 to 4 (tot 5955 batches) (file increase to 7.9Mb)
  [objects n° +13% , FPS + 20%]
  
• 537objects, custom export, no embedded media, binormals, smooth groups, vertex color, empty meshes, and empty nodes. (file size 2.6Mb)

POLY REDUCTION

• InstaLOD: (All object) No LOD was tested. As a draft indication: 32000 objects after InstaLOD with 2 LOD 50% and 10% triangles of the original mesh. [FPS + 1000%] I loose vertex normals and distance was not set up properly. Some notes: file size was increasing. And enter in an infinite loop optimizing. I need to experiment more.
• Blender: (Tire) I was able to reduce the tire made of quads 50% but I'm losing the vertex normals on the seams.
• Mantis LOD: (Tire) Looks like the same algorithm as in Blender but without losing vertex normals at the seams.
• Blender: (Tire) manually dissolving edges loop form 9600 to 3600 (x2.6 boost or the 37% of original).

General notes there was not a way to conserve quads. I was not able to reduce the quad mesh inside Rhino without losing UV mapping.

 

FSS20 WIP Live Stream
Every Day

Hawaii 8 AM | Los Angeles 11 | NY 14 | BsAs 15 | Brazilia 15 | London 19 | Paris 20
Rome 20 | Moscow 21 | Beijing 2 | Tokyo 3 PM




​

I go live now!
Every day I will try to go live stream. In this session, I will try to optimize the tail wheel of the J3Cub. I will import it into Unity. I will double-check the 3D FBX model ( Vertex normals, UV mapping, and textures).