Unreal Engine Guidelines for Next Generation Flight Sims

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Krishty
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Unreal Engine Guidelines for Next Generation Flight Sims

Post by Krishty »

Antoinette Project: tools to create the next generation of flight simulators
The Antoinette Project consists of:
  • The Trends and Best Practices for Flight Simulation information paper, which describes guidelines to use Unreal Engine in this context. The paper also includes insights from users who are already using the engine to build solutions for their own needs.
     
  • A DIY tutorial that illustrates how simple and fast it is to create a basic flight simulator. The tutorial provides detailed information on how to:
    • Connect input control devices for your pilot interface such as keyboard and mouse, gamepad, joystick, or flight-specific control device
    • Integrate an aircraft model from the Unreal Engine Marketplace
    • Add accurate flight dynamics using the open source JSBSIM plugin for Unreal Engine
    • Simulate flying above world data using the Cesium for Unreal or the ESRI ArcGIS Maps SDK for Unreal Engine
     
  • A JSBSim plugin for Unreal Engine, […]
     
  • The Antoinette Project demo, a proof-of-concept flight simulator with Unreal Engine at its core and […]
Wow … I guess this one’s gonna be a must-read!
mikew
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Re: Unreal Engine Guidelines for Next Generation Flight Sims

Post by mikew »

Looks amazing...and it seems 64 bit coordinates are built in now.

For me, it would go something like this though:
1. Download and install UE5
2. Follow the DIY tutorial
3. Bask in the glory of getting it working
4. Have no idea what to do next.

Is this of any help for TFXplorer? I know how you love 3rd party stuff. :)
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Krishty
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Re: Unreal Engine Guidelines for Next Generation Flight Sims

Post by Krishty »

mikew wrote: 2022-May-07, 20:29Looks amazing...and it seems 64 bit coordinates are built in now.
Indeed, the PDF says:
We are pleased to say that Unreal Engine supports 64-bit calculations in its latest release, Unreal Engine 5. The integration of 64-bit precision means that the engine is now suitable for simulations that take place over long distances, retaining accuracy through thousands of miles of virtual travel without the need for error-correcting methods. Accuracy over long distances implies taking earth curvature into consideration, and ellipsoidal datums like WGS84 are fully supported through a native georeferencing plugin.
mikew wrote: 2022-May-07, 20:29Is this of any help for TFXplorer? I know how you love 3rd party stuff. :)
A little. I won’t use UE5, but:
  1. The PDF about future trends is full of useful things to consider, obviously.
     
  2. A less obvious thing: The push for GIS (Geographic Information System) integration. My wife works in GIS, has always done, but I didn’t actually realize that I could just plug GIS databases into the terrain generation until I read it there 🤦‍♂️
     
  3. Different flight models being available on Unreal’s marketplace … this basically tells me that I’m on the right track with that modular approach I’m pushing since I started refactoring the API.
     
  4. If this gets big, we *could* be on the way to a new Golden Age of flight simulations. They always had a terrible cost-benefit ratio, and with the development of flight simulations becoming easy and cheap, they could become more popular.
If you play around with UE5, I’d be happy to hear how it works out!
mikew
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Re: Unreal Engine Guidelines for Next Generation Flight Sims

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Obviously, the TFX maps are not hugely accurate, but at one time I was looking to see if it was worth trying to map it to the UTM system so existing GIS tools could be used, and then it's only a step away from WGS-84 if it turns out the Earth is round.
It would also be cool to specify the tiles in Openstreetmap format to take advantage of existing tools.

If your API was compatible with jsbsim's, then that might help with development as jsbsim has a quite a good test system. I haven't dug too deep into it though.

While it's one thing to produce a nice looking flight sim, it quite another to produce a working combat flight sim where you need to keep track of a lot more stuff.
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Krishty
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Re: Unreal Engine Guidelines for Next Generation Flight Sims

Post by Krishty »

To be honest, I have decided back in 2019 – it must have been when Toumals F-117 remake fell apart due to lack of 64-bit coordinate support – that I will not make the Earth round yet.

For one, it’s enormous work getting all this stuff right. Using 64-bit coordinates doesn’t save you from it because you still need some kind of superstructure or hierarchy for stuff like collision detection, especially if you work with heightmaps. The return is pretty small as long as we’re in the ADF/TAW era looks.

Second, the combat part is more urgent, as you indicated. You can forgive a good flight sim that its Earth is flat (we did for TAW and everyone did for Ace Combat), but a good planet simulation without combat is just no fun.

Here’s what I’ve been doing to make the transition, may it happen some day, as smooth as possible: Vehicle simulation does never work with absolute coordinates, ever. Any waypoint you request, and any position of other planes/ground units is always given as three 32-bit numbers relative to your current Earth coordinates. When the transition happens, those numbers may change a tiny little bit, and that’s all.
mikew
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Re: Unreal Engine Guidelines for Next Generation Flight Sims

Post by mikew »

If you play around with UE5, I’d be happy to hear how it works out!
Not very well. Trying the first item in the tutorial:
Start a new project from the Game/Blank Template
...gives a missing .net dll error.
I'm reinstalling it right now, but it's a 20GB download so it takes a while. Not sure if I can separate the download and install processes, but the thing is run from the Epic launcher (after account login etc) so maybe they don't want us doing that.

While the game might not use real world coordinates, there is merit in some 'mythical design tool' using them. Then you'd press a 'magic button' and the design tool would spit out a set of files (in this case .env/.asc/.lst/.ssd etc) appropriate to what the game engine is capable of at the time.
Just need to find my magic wand. :D

Maybe Unreal would be useful in that role, but I suspect the 'free' stuff is somehow not enough, and the lure of the 'Asset Store' will be too tempting. They know what they're doing...
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