I have released version 0.30-1 of sfsim . This release introduces a major overhaul of the rendering code as well as a runway for the spacecraft. The rendering system is implemented using the Clojure programming language as well as GLSL . LWJGL3 is used to access the graphics card’s OpenGL bindings. The new rendering code uses deferred shading , which first computes and stores per-pixel geometry…
Currently I am working on deferred shading. This requires me to separate rendering into two passes: · Geometry pass : render data to a point buffer, normal buffer, and a color buffer, etc. · Lighting pass : use the geometry buffers to compute lighting including shadows and volumetric clouds. The change is quite a bit of work, because I have to split up the graphics code and the shaders for rend…
Hi, Here is release version 0.28-1 of sfsim . This release has a minor fix for time lapse limits. Also I have increased the coverage of the schemas used for checking correctness of the software. The bigger change which hopefully is not noticeable is that I am trialing Github CI builds. Github kindly provides free CI for public repositories . I was already using Github CI for running unit tests.…
Hi, Here is release version 0.23-1 of sfsim . I started adding achievements to sfsim . To begin with I added the following achievements: · breaking the sound barrier: spacecraft exceeds speed of sound · crossing the Kármán line: spacecraft reaches altitude of more than 100 kilometers · achieving stable Earth orbit: lowest point of orbit is above 160 kilometers I think achievements are a useful…
Hi, Here is release version 0.22-1 of sfsim. I added rate pointers for roll, pitch, and yaw angles to the MFD. The pointers are arranged around the navball in the center. · Top: roll rate indicator · Right: pitch rate indicator · Bottom: yaw rate indicator See here for a detailed overview of the space shuttle primary flight display. The rate indicators make it easier to control the attitude of…
Hi, I have released version 0.21-1 of sfsim . The new version of sfsim shows a navball in the bottom right corner of the window. At the moment I configured it to show pitch and roll angle relative to the Earth’s horizon and yaw angle relative to the orbital plane. This should make it useful for orbital flight. I might change it to let the user select the yaw angle instead of aligning it to the…
Hi, I have released version 0.20-1 of sfsim . sfsim now has an orbit display to make launching into an orbit easier. The orbit display shows a visualisation of the planet Earth and the orbit as well as several orbital parameters: · periapsis altitude · apoapsis altitude · current altitude · eccentricity · orbital period · time to periapsis · time to apoapsis · velocity · inclination · longitude…
Hi, I have released version 0.19-1 of sfsim . This version introduces scaling of the graphical user interface. All the user interface elements are scaled up when switching to fullscreen or back taking into account the monitor resolution. This should make it easier to start implementing multi function displays (MFDs). Furthermore I am working on launch trajectory optimization. It is not optimal…
Hello spacers, I released version 0.15-1 of sfsim . sfsim is a realistic 3D space flight simulator with an advanced single-stage-to-orbit space craft. This version displays some orbital information: · height of periapsis above surface · height of apoapsis above surface · time to periapsis · time to apoapsis This should make it much easier to achieve a stable orbit. For example if the periapsis…
Hello everyone, I released version 0.11-2 of sfsim . sfsim is a realistic 3D space flight simulator with an advanced single-stage-to-orbit space craft. I have now added several sound effects and a music track: · Added Andrewkn’s At the Edge of Space for the event when crossing 100 kilometer height · Air flow noise depending on dynamic pressure · Drag noise caused by air brakes and gear · Sound…
Hello everyone, I released version 0.6-1 of sfsim . sfsim is a realistic 3D space flight simulator with an advanced single-stage-to-orbit space craft. The graphics implementation is now using deferred rendering to improve performance and facilitate rendering of small thrusters and lights. Using the “\\” key one can now toggle between aerofoil surfaces and RCS thrusters (please always see the ke…
Hi, I finally managed to release version 0.5-1 of sfsim . sfsim is a realistic 3D space flight simulator with an advanced single-stage-to-orbit space craft. The new version comes with rocket plume graphics. The plume was implemented using OpenGL shaders and uses volumetric rendering. I used the Shadertoy website to get ideas from other users and to develop the shader. The rocket plume shows Mac…
Hi, Version 0.4-1 of sfsim comes with a following camera and improvements to the physics engine. The camera now follows the vehicle and the orientation is controlled using the speed over ground vector. The numerical keypad can still be used to control the camera position. However the keys now control the yaw, pitch, and roll position. There also has been a significant upgrade to the physics cod…
Hi, I finally got the first version of the joystick configuration dialog working. One can configure axes and buttons in the dialog. There also is a common dead-zone setting for all joystick axes. The configuration can be saved using the save button. The config gets saved in the ~/.config/sfsim directory under GNU/Linux. Under windows the configuration directory is %APPDATA%/sfsim. See keyboard…
Hi everybody! I have just pushed a playtest build to Steam and the button to join the playtest is visible on the sfsim page now. Before you join, please be aware that sfsim is still very much a work in progress and a lot of things are still missing! Also check the estimated graphics requirements on the sfsim page in case you want to run the game fullscreen. At the moment you can take off and fl…
I have created landing gear animations with Blender, baked them, and exported the result to glTF. "Inverse kinematics", "Damped track", and "Child of" constraints where used to ensure that torque link, resistance rod, and piston are animated correctly. Animations affecting multiple objects are merged using NLA track names when exporting to glTF. I didn't find a way to create multiple animations…
At the moment I am developing the landing gear for the spacecraft in the upcoming sfsim simulator. The Jolt Physics library provides a great physics implementation for wheeled vehicles. Previously I have implemented extracting a small part from the planet mesh and convert it to a Jolt Physics mesh. This then can be used to simulate the behaviour of the suspension and the wheels when the gear ma…
—
Announcements are the developer’s own posts to the game’s Steam news feed: updates and their patch notes, in-game events, releases and sales. The important ones are marked on the players chart.