QUOTE
Welcome to the long awaited developers diary edition 19. In the last edition we talked about the pre-alpha builds which were just about to be completed. Since then we have gone through 3 major builds and I'll start this diary off by talking a little about what is in the most recent version.
User Interface "“ The latest build is the first full build to include a very basic user interface. At this point, like most items in the Alpha build, it is far from what it will be in the complete product, but it gives us a starting point to test some concepts and set a foundation to be built upon and tested.
Terrain "“ The terrain in this build is fairly basic, (at least by the standards at which we have set for the project), for testing we are using a single "tile" patch of the Las Vegas area, with a basic placeholder texture. The terrain is based on the 90 meter SRTM data, which gives fantastic resolution to the elevation data and a much more believable surface than most current simulators. The latest build includes two levels of texturing, one with version 3.0 shaders and another with version 2.0 for older video cards. The terrain has realistic roads and buildings placed accurately from the Las Vegas area. These are used as a basic stress test to determine the efficiency of the graphics engine as it develops.This version of the terrain engine will evolve into our mid-range terrain rendering engine. A high-end terrain renderer will be used for state of the art hardware.
Sky "“ The skydome has seen a drastic improvement in this build and will continue to develop in future builds. Weather is not included in this build as yet, however is progressing well separately and will be merged into the main build in the not too distant future.
Aircraft "“ Both the T38C and T6 are flyable in this build, each with its own flight model. The flight models are still very basic at this point, however are definitely developing, a minor update is planned very soon to include a new generation T38 flight model. Both aircraft now have basic 3d cockpits with working front seat and back seat stations
AI "“ This is the first build to include a basic artificial intelligence.
Using scripting and console commands we are able to have the AI pilot an aircraft and carry out manoeuvres.
Multiplayer "“ This build includes multiplayer operations in several configurations, also VOIP is working. Again this is in a fairly basic format and will form the foundation to be tested and built upon. Local and remote logbooks are working in this build, along with the output of PDF reports. A dedicated server program is also functional in this version. The possible configurations in this build are many. They range from multiple flyables being flown on separate clients to front/back seat multi-player to non-3D clients which resemble an ATC console with basic ATC like functionality or a combination of the above.
Other "“ Multi-monitor support is still present in this build, a number of external views are introduced for the first time, along with panning ability.
The focus of this build was on integrating a number of technologies which were up till now only functioning in separate modules. Graphics was not a priority for this release, and remains roughly the same as in the early pre-alpha builds. The next major build however will have a fairly heavy weighting towards work on the graphics engine (including the introduction of a DirectX 10 version of the graphics engine), and from there on we will start to see a lot more in the way of eye candy, rather than lots of code and design work which does not translate well into visible progress (Of course we will see a lot done in the areas of audio and AI too).
Fighter Operations is an innovative project in many aspects; this concept will be appreciated on the sound engine too.
Concept:
Usually, sampled audio is used to recreate the sounds needed in a flight simulation. Our goal is to avoid using sample audio as much as we can. Sample data can sound real at first sight, but after a while it will be cold, dull, and static. On the other hand sound produced by synthesis is very alive, like the real thing. Obviously not all the sound will be produced by synthesis, sample data will be used too.
The first elements to be synthesized will be the most articulated ones: the engine noise and the noise produced by the wind over the plane. These elements are constantly changing responding to variables like engine RPM, throttle amount, wind speed, angle of incidence, etc. When we generate a sound using synthesis we have enough control to recreate those articulations in a very realistic way.
First tests:
The first tests were made and the results were very good.
Even the sound produced by our jet engine synthesizer sounds better than the sample data used to calculate the values for the synthesis algorithm.
How could be that? Because if the jet engine synthesizer model is very accurate, by calculation you will recreate aspects of the sound that wouldn't be possible to capture by recording due to many circumstances like, outdoor factors, extreme level pressures, etc., even using the best gear. An analogy would be that movie takes that make you think: -"hey how they got that shoot?" In the same way: by image synthesis.
Programming approach:
This is a new approach and there is no guide to follow, we are making our own. For that reason we are considering all the variables as we create what will be a very complicated sound synthesizer.
The first screenshot below is in-game from the current build- Please not that the T-38 model shown is a very basic test model only, and not the new T-38C model (That has not been shown to date) that will be integrated into the next build, using material shaders. Terrain in the screenshot directly below is being developed for lower end cards.
The following screenshots are of our high-end terrain and sea (animated) rendering code. They are not renders or artistic impressions. The sky that is seen in these shots is not our in-game skydome (shots of the skydome have already been posted on the Area51 forums). It goes without saying that these are work in progress shots and will improve in time. In the next build, the new terrain and water rendering code will be integrated into the main codebase.[/quote]
Actual ingame screenshots can be seen here
User Interface "“ The latest build is the first full build to include a very basic user interface. At this point, like most items in the Alpha build, it is far from what it will be in the complete product, but it gives us a starting point to test some concepts and set a foundation to be built upon and tested.
Terrain "“ The terrain in this build is fairly basic, (at least by the standards at which we have set for the project), for testing we are using a single "tile" patch of the Las Vegas area, with a basic placeholder texture. The terrain is based on the 90 meter SRTM data, which gives fantastic resolution to the elevation data and a much more believable surface than most current simulators. The latest build includes two levels of texturing, one with version 3.0 shaders and another with version 2.0 for older video cards. The terrain has realistic roads and buildings placed accurately from the Las Vegas area. These are used as a basic stress test to determine the efficiency of the graphics engine as it develops.This version of the terrain engine will evolve into our mid-range terrain rendering engine. A high-end terrain renderer will be used for state of the art hardware.
Sky "“ The skydome has seen a drastic improvement in this build and will continue to develop in future builds. Weather is not included in this build as yet, however is progressing well separately and will be merged into the main build in the not too distant future.
Aircraft "“ Both the T38C and T6 are flyable in this build, each with its own flight model. The flight models are still very basic at this point, however are definitely developing, a minor update is planned very soon to include a new generation T38 flight model. Both aircraft now have basic 3d cockpits with working front seat and back seat stations
AI "“ This is the first build to include a basic artificial intelligence.
Using scripting and console commands we are able to have the AI pilot an aircraft and carry out manoeuvres.
Multiplayer "“ This build includes multiplayer operations in several configurations, also VOIP is working. Again this is in a fairly basic format and will form the foundation to be tested and built upon. Local and remote logbooks are working in this build, along with the output of PDF reports. A dedicated server program is also functional in this version. The possible configurations in this build are many. They range from multiple flyables being flown on separate clients to front/back seat multi-player to non-3D clients which resemble an ATC console with basic ATC like functionality or a combination of the above.
Other "“ Multi-monitor support is still present in this build, a number of external views are introduced for the first time, along with panning ability.
The focus of this build was on integrating a number of technologies which were up till now only functioning in separate modules. Graphics was not a priority for this release, and remains roughly the same as in the early pre-alpha builds. The next major build however will have a fairly heavy weighting towards work on the graphics engine (including the introduction of a DirectX 10 version of the graphics engine), and from there on we will start to see a lot more in the way of eye candy, rather than lots of code and design work which does not translate well into visible progress (Of course we will see a lot done in the areas of audio and AI too).
Fighter Operations is an innovative project in many aspects; this concept will be appreciated on the sound engine too.
Concept:
Usually, sampled audio is used to recreate the sounds needed in a flight simulation. Our goal is to avoid using sample audio as much as we can. Sample data can sound real at first sight, but after a while it will be cold, dull, and static. On the other hand sound produced by synthesis is very alive, like the real thing. Obviously not all the sound will be produced by synthesis, sample data will be used too.
The first elements to be synthesized will be the most articulated ones: the engine noise and the noise produced by the wind over the plane. These elements are constantly changing responding to variables like engine RPM, throttle amount, wind speed, angle of incidence, etc. When we generate a sound using synthesis we have enough control to recreate those articulations in a very realistic way.
First tests:
The first tests were made and the results were very good.
Even the sound produced by our jet engine synthesizer sounds better than the sample data used to calculate the values for the synthesis algorithm.
How could be that? Because if the jet engine synthesizer model is very accurate, by calculation you will recreate aspects of the sound that wouldn't be possible to capture by recording due to many circumstances like, outdoor factors, extreme level pressures, etc., even using the best gear. An analogy would be that movie takes that make you think: -"hey how they got that shoot?" In the same way: by image synthesis.
Programming approach:
This is a new approach and there is no guide to follow, we are making our own. For that reason we are considering all the variables as we create what will be a very complicated sound synthesizer.
The first screenshot below is in-game from the current build- Please not that the T-38 model shown is a very basic test model only, and not the new T-38C model (That has not been shown to date) that will be integrated into the next build, using material shaders. Terrain in the screenshot directly below is being developed for lower end cards.
The following screenshots are of our high-end terrain and sea (animated) rendering code. They are not renders or artistic impressions. The sky that is seen in these shots is not our in-game skydome (shots of the skydome have already been posted on the Area51 forums). It goes without saying that these are work in progress shots and will improve in time. In the next build, the new terrain and water rendering code will be integrated into the main codebase.[/quote]
Actual ingame screenshots can be seen here
e end of this month XSI are releasing some info to SimHQ which will cover some stuff on their progress.