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Hey, can you tell me how long until the project is finished? Also i wonder if you will release a beta/test version of it online once its almost finished.
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Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:
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FS2004 Boeing 747 Classic
- Thread starter FSMuseum
- Start date
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My support percentage for your project:
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Hey all,
Long time no see here!
Unfortunately real life matters took a dramatic turn, which means I have not had true development time in months now. However, this last week I have finally had some time to work on some stuff and the 747 has received some much needed attention.
Let's get right into today's development update.
Autopilot
Pneumatics/Air Conditioning
Here's a list of features, additions, and functionality that is still being worked on, in no particular order:
Long time no see here!
Unfortunately real life matters took a dramatic turn, which means I have not had true development time in months now. However, this last week I have finally had some time to work on some stuff and the 747 has received some much needed attention.
Let's get right into today's development update.
Autopilot
- Autothrottle rewritten (again) - The new autothrottle is much more stable than the previous one, and includes a reasonable approximation of the Mach submode of the FFRATS system which is referenced to engine speed rather than inertial dynamics, making the system very stable (though slow to respond to deviations) even in unsettled conditions. This is intentional and how the actual system was originally designed.
- Near-complete system re-write - The original electrical system in the FSMuseum 747 was one of the first things I wrote back when I was still a newbie with XML. Now that I am an experienced newbie, looking back at that code made me physically cringe. Hard to read, hard to work with, harder still to expand upon. So, I re-wrote it almost from scratch. Some details of the new system are listed:
- Fully accurate generator paralleling/split-bus modeling
- Battery chargers fully simulated, including the 'pulsing' behavior of the charger when the battery reaches full charge before going into the 'maintain' submode.
- Batteries are also fully simulated, with voltages dynamically calculated based on temperature and amperage. This code is based on a scientific paper detailing a simulation of Nickel-Cadmium battery discharge characteristics.
- APU Re-written from scratch - Originally, the APU I had written was very basic, simply counting up RPM and adjusting fuel flow and EGT outputs based on linear variations of APU load. This was sufficient for a basic simulation, but I wanted more. So, now the APU is a much more complete (though still somewhat simplified) gas turbine simulation. This simulation dynamically calculates RPM, EGT, pressure ratio/mass flow rate of the compressor, bleed air ouput, and accounts for the acceleration/deceleration characteristics of the compressor spools. This ensures that the APU will output correct dynamics in all phases of flight.
Pneumatics/Air Conditioning
- The pneumatic system of the 747 has been nearly fully realized, from the engine bleed air precoolers to the trim air valves. These elements are coded as physics-based: heat exchanger efficiencies, flow rates, pressures, valve flow coefficients, air temperatures and densities, all of this and more has been accounted for at every step from when the air leaves the engine to when it is delivered to the cabin and dumped through the outflow valves. The only physics element not directly accounted for is moisture in the air, since (as far as I know) I cannot access dew point temperature information from FS2004 using XML (someone, please correct me on this if I am wrong! There's a lot I'd like to do with this information!)
- Physics-based ACM simulation, including affects of ram air door inlet and exit door positions.
- Physics-based temperature simulation of cabin zones - this already existed in the simulation, but has been refined and updated with new information. The amount of air delivered to each zone from the conditioned air plenum is exactly accurate for each zone. Presently I am brain-storming a way to seamlessly and easily simulate differing passenger heat loads without inconveniencing the user with having to input this information, and solar heat loads without direct access to the weather state in the simulator.
- Upgraded basic compressor simulation - The basic jet engine model of FS2004 has been supplemented by my own additions to more fully model a gas turbine compressor, such as windmilling N2 speed, dynamic compressor pressure ratio and mass flow rate calculation, and bleed air extraction effects on airflow/N2/EGT.
- Physics-based EGT simulation - EGT is dependent on fuel/air ratio entering the combustion chambers, mass flow rate through the turbine section, and the current combustion state of the engine.
- Accurate PW JT9D JFC-68 fuel controller simulation - The fuel controller will accurate adjust fuel flow to account for engine acceleration, deceleration, starting, and steady state conditions. The workings of the controller are based directly on documentation detailing the fuel governing cam contours of the JFC-68 fuel controller.
- Indicator lights - My original simulation would dim the indicator lights based on the indicator light bright/dim switch in the cockpit. Simple enough, but then I had this idea - incandescent lights take a moment to light up and dim down from and to 0 brightness. This delay just so happens to be approximately the length of 2 XML gauge cycles (1/18 second each). So, now ALL indicator lights utilizing incandescent bulbs take advantage of my bright/dim code to simulate the brief moment it takes the lights to illuminate, which I think makes for a wonderful visual effect. See gif below:
Here's a list of features, additions, and functionality that is still being worked on, in no particular order:
- Finishing up visuals, including knobs and switches that I've been lazy about, mostly on the hydraulic and miscellaneous panels
- Night time visuals (making all those bitmaps drives me batty... I avoid it... sorry...)
- Menu/Performance Calculator/Options selector updates
- Miscellaneous systems and simulations, such as pitot heaters, communications systems, etc
- Power switching from one AC source to another
- Key commands
- Manuals and Documentation
Last edited:
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- 253
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I've been doing a lot of work with the panel bitmaps lately. A lot of these bitmaps, especially things like the electrical panel and the switches you see on it, were some of the very first bitmaps I ever worked with in this project. This means only one thing: they were pretty terrible, at least to my own trained eye.
As such, I have gone about basically re-doing, from scratch, every single one of these bitmaps (this also makes it easier for me to go about making the night lighting bitmaps as I can do it for each gauge all in 'one' operation, gradually completing the panel one piece at a time).
The bulk of this work has actually gone into font research, believe it or not. The base fonts used for the gauges are not just your average every day MILSPEC or Futura fonts. It turns out the companies that Boeing commissioned to make their gauges (such as Smiths, Weston, etc.) sometimes had their own version of Futura (or some knock-off) that had unique quirks. The most obvious quirks are the non-circular oval-shaped letters O and Q, the non-geometric letters M and W, and the number 6 has a flat top on it's ascender.
Further, as for the panels themselves, the closest font that I have found to match them is called URW Gordon, which is obviously inspired by the router fonts created by Gorton. I would like to shoutout Ronald Burkey of the virtual Apollo Guidance Computer project for leading me to this font. He didn't personally talk to me at all, but his website mentioned a link to a digitized Gorton engraver font, which was the first time I had found such a thing, and doing searches for similar fonts led me to the URW font which very closely (if not exactly) matches pretty much every Boeing panel I have compared it to. You can visit Ronald's website and project here: https://www.ibiblio.org/apollo
I was not able to locate the version of Futura in use on the panel gauges anywhere, and even looking at Paul Renner's original drafts for the font revealed that he seemingly never created this variation, near-confirming that the font is indeed some kind of knock-off of Futura rather than Futura itself. Naturally of course, I recreated this font using FontForge and have now applied it to my gauges. Interestingly, not all gauges are created equally in this regard: the CSD Oil gauges for example, feature the actual circular O of Futura, and some gauges have the Futura geometric M, though I have not found any that have Futura geometric letter W's.
The end goal of this panel bitmap re-making has been to achieve as near to photo-realistic or 'as the eye sees' look as is possible given the limitations of 8-bit 256 color poorly rendered FS2004 bitmaps. Almost everything seen below was created by hand, with some elements (such as the switches) coming from photographs and modified to fit the lighting conditions of the panel.
I like to think it's coming along pretty nicely, and I'm excited to get to show off the new night-lighting once that has been completed.
As such, I have gone about basically re-doing, from scratch, every single one of these bitmaps (this also makes it easier for me to go about making the night lighting bitmaps as I can do it for each gauge all in 'one' operation, gradually completing the panel one piece at a time).
The bulk of this work has actually gone into font research, believe it or not. The base fonts used for the gauges are not just your average every day MILSPEC or Futura fonts. It turns out the companies that Boeing commissioned to make their gauges (such as Smiths, Weston, etc.) sometimes had their own version of Futura (or some knock-off) that had unique quirks. The most obvious quirks are the non-circular oval-shaped letters O and Q, the non-geometric letters M and W, and the number 6 has a flat top on it's ascender.
Further, as for the panels themselves, the closest font that I have found to match them is called URW Gordon, which is obviously inspired by the router fonts created by Gorton. I would like to shoutout Ronald Burkey of the virtual Apollo Guidance Computer project for leading me to this font. He didn't personally talk to me at all, but his website mentioned a link to a digitized Gorton engraver font, which was the first time I had found such a thing, and doing searches for similar fonts led me to the URW font which very closely (if not exactly) matches pretty much every Boeing panel I have compared it to. You can visit Ronald's website and project here: https://www.ibiblio.org/apollo
I was not able to locate the version of Futura in use on the panel gauges anywhere, and even looking at Paul Renner's original drafts for the font revealed that he seemingly never created this variation, near-confirming that the font is indeed some kind of knock-off of Futura rather than Futura itself. Naturally of course, I recreated this font using FontForge and have now applied it to my gauges. Interestingly, not all gauges are created equally in this regard: the CSD Oil gauges for example, feature the actual circular O of Futura, and some gauges have the Futura geometric M, though I have not found any that have Futura geometric letter W's.
The end goal of this panel bitmap re-making has been to achieve as near to photo-realistic or 'as the eye sees' look as is possible given the limitations of 8-bit 256 color poorly rendered FS2004 bitmaps. Almost everything seen below was created by hand, with some elements (such as the switches) coming from photographs and modified to fit the lighting conditions of the panel.
I like to think it's coming along pretty nicely, and I'm excited to get to show off the new night-lighting once that has been completed.
DragonflightDesign
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FontForge... an absolutely brilliant program, especially as it's freeware. I used it to create the numerical font that Boeing used for the B-314.
arwasairl
Resource contributor
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- 33
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Hey all, just as an update to this project as a whole. While @FSMuseum has been busy hammering at the 2D panels and code, I've also been working on a unique VC and external 3D model. The external 3D model has been shown here in other threads, but here is the VC:
There are still some visible bugs, but nothing that's too hard to fix. Really goes to show what you can achieve with modern tools in FS9.
There are still some visible bugs, but nothing that's too hard to fix. Really goes to show what you can achieve with modern tools in FS9.
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