So, if I understand correctly, if I photograph from the wall location FSOne will locate me there. Then how do I determine what direction I will be facing? And how then does the stiching process work, since it looks to create a panorama. Doesn't the pano process look to connect in a 360? Or can I just photgraph from the extreem right to the extreem left?
Thanks

Scott -

When viewing the new panorama in FS One, the pilot view direction is based on the starting position of the airplane. To set the starting position of the airplane, taxi the airplane to the desired starting point and then press the single-quote-key '. This key will popup a widget with the current x-y position of the airplane. Write down that information, stop FS One, open the PanoExample.fld file and enter the x-y position in this area of the file. There are entries for the first airplane (used in single player mode) and the second (used in two-player mode). The z-position should remain as zero.

Michael

ps I'm not sure I understand your second question. With AutoStitch, it will take whatever you give it (a full orbit of photos, or a partial pan). If you tell it to create a full panorama, it will leave the unphotographed areas black.

I am running Service Pack 4.

Oh my god! Thank you Michael! You fixed the same problem I had! I could not figure out how to get the airplane to start. Pressing J started the motor but only while you held it down! Actually for me I had to hold down shift and J, the motor would start but would instantly quit once you let go. I must note that I am using the supplied TacCon controller and not my own radio so this behavior does seem odd to me. Once I edited the TX file for the TacCon associated with the ALpha40 everything works, but it seems I may have to do this with all of the models. FWIW I could never use the reset button on the TacCon: it never did anything, neither did the space bar.

After 2 days, I am finally flying in FSone! I have to say I love it!

[System: Asus P5B-E, Intel P4 3.2ghz, 2gig ram, evga Gforce 7300GS video]

Suggestion: Most 3d based games and simulations allow you to set the resolution that the simulation runs at. For me anything less than 30fps is not really usable. Smaller resolutions usually allow you to get acceptable frame rates on many video cards. From what I can tell, FSone does not have an option to do this. Having this ability might make sense for some systems. Being able to at least determine that the simulation runs well, for instance, at 800x600 but not at 1280x1024 may allow one to determine that they need a better graphics card. $.02

Thanks again

Ken
San Jose, CA



quote:

ORIGINAL: Robotech
That makes sense. It does appear to be in a constant reset when you go to the field. The messages appear and reappear in the top left corner.

That particlar axis is on my trainer switch and is spring loaded. Axis 1 is not on the edit screen.



>Ok, there are two solutions.
>
>One is to take your radio and move that channel from the two-position
>trainer switch to a three-position switch or dial so that you can set
>it in the neutral position (InstantUp/Reset not active).
>
>The other solution is to edit the Tx file in windows. The file is
>located here (using the name in the FAQ example):
>
>C\:Program Files\FS One\RadioEquip\Controllers\MyFut9CAP-MiG15.cfg
>
>Comment out the line with the "IsSpecial = 1" by placing a semicolon
>at the beginning of the line like shown below. When this is done, it
>will turn off the InstantUp/Reset functionality for that radio. Then
>use the keyboard (spacebar or 'u' key) for resetting the airplane.
>
>(ps, Yes, Axis 1 is not in the edit window.)
>
>Michael
-SNIP_

Steve -- Ok, your system setup seems fine. Let's do some things to get more info about the crash.

1) Edit your devoptions.txt file, located in the Options folder. In the [DEV_OPTIONS] section, be sure that it includes a line that reads:

UseConsole = 1

This will turn on a console display, that may help show errors you may be having.

2) Open a Command Prompt window (Start->All Programs->Accessories->Command Promt).

3) Within the Command Prompt window, change the directory to your FS One folder. For example, type: "cd C:\Program Files\FS One" be sure to include the quotes, due to the spaces in the path.

4) Once within the FS One directory in the Command Prompt window, type: FS_One.exe and hit Enter. This should cause FS One to start within the window.

5) After running (and encountering the crash), you can then take a look at the console window, to see if any error messages are displayed. Do this and let me know what it says and then we'll see what to do next.

Ken -- FS One does allow varoius video resolutions. Click on "Options" in the lower right of the Main Menu. Within the Options Menu, click on "Video" in the left sidebar.

At the Video Menu, you have several choices:

Auto Fullscreen -- This is the default and it automatically does fullscreen mode at the currently selected video resolution when FS One was started.

Manual Fullscreen -- This allows you to manually select your desired resolution for fullscreen mode. Here, you should see a range of resolutions, such as 800x600, that your video card and monitor support.

Windowed -- This allows you to manually set the resolution of your FS One display. Be sure that you set a resolution that is less than or equal to your current screen resolution. You can also set an offset for the top left corner of the window.

Once you have selected your video settings, click Ok in the bottom left of the screen.

Let me know if you need more clarification. Hope this helps.

If your using the TacCon and had trouble w/ the reset, then I think during calibration the part where is says to press the Reset/InstantUp button was skipped. Those buttons need to be pressed to calibrate. Otherwise it can get stuck in a always on reset situation.

You asked about screen resolution. On the Options menu, there's a Video button and w/ that you can change the screen resolution to anything you like. As you note, a smaller resolution will make the sim run faster. Pressing 'f' will give frame rate info.

Also - Real glad to hear it's working!

Michael

Is FS One easy for beginners who doesn´t understand much about flying, with no flying skills?

Brian, thank you for the tip. I did not catch that, I thought the modes under Options - Video were for something else because when I tried to change them they had no affect, at least while in full screen. I tried them just now and you are right, it does work although not necessarily right away which is probably why I thought they didn't work. For instance I made a change while in full screen mode to use windowed mode and the change did not happen until AFTER I quite FSone and came back in. But if your in windowed mode and make a change the change seems to happen right then. I could go from windowed to manual or auto but not from auto to windowed: have to quit for that. Not a huge deal now that I know it works.

On the subject of the motor starting (constant reset) issue that skorman brought up, I made the changes Michael suggested in the TacCon transmitter file for the Alpha40 but obviously that change doesn't work for other aircraft. Essentially I cannot fly any other aircraft because I can't get them started. Is this standard or did I do something wrong? I'd kill for a tech manual...

Thanks

Ken-

Thank you Brian! When I followed the instructions above, I got this:

C:\Program Files\FS One>FS_One.exe
Video is not in 32bpp mode. Attempting to set 32bit mode...
System Info:
Operating System : Windows 2000
Service Pack : SP4
DirectX Version : DirectX 9.0c
Number of processors : 1
The mouse has a wheel.
A network is present.

*************************************
Exception thrown!

unknown type
*************************************

I changed my display from 16 bit mode to 32 bit and it worked! I didn't even know it wasn't in 32 bit mode. Thanks again for your help. I am now excited again about FS One.

After playing with version 1.0.5, I am finding problems with engine sound staying at a constant level no matter how far or near the plane is. I downgraded to version 1.0.4 and sound is perfect. Anyone else experiencing this?

Yes, I am getting the same thing with 1.0.5..... it get's a little anoying at times.

Hi

I have two more questions on creating panos.

1) How does one determine where on the pano north would be? I've created a pano but north is somewhere in the middle of it. Should the pano perhaps start and end at north (i.e. if I look at my pano in a photo editor, is north defined by the points on the extreme left and extreme right of the pano)?
2) Is there perhaps a way of setting a specific zoom per pano (my pano seems more realistic when I zoom out slightly, while I like the standard FS One panos with the default zoom)?

Your answers are greatly appreciated.

Regards

2)

Hi Guys,
I'm struggling with the pano of the garage too:
1) My garage looks strangly out of proportion. I have 8 tiles 4 x 2 (2048 x 2048 each)
2) the vantage point is about 6 ft off the ground, which is where it is supposed to be, but when I zoom out it looks like a pinpoint by my feet and in front of me the heli looks three times too big compared to the space. Or is it the space looks 3 times too small. I don't know.
4) I'd also like to know if I can set the zoom out, as I feel like I'm standing in the middle of the garage when I know the photo's were taken with me by one wall
Thanks
Scott

Edit: Thought this visual might help.

skorman -- Great news. I'm glad you're running again. And I'm glad that this seems to show that the 1.0.4 and 1.0.5 versions are fully runnable for you!

skorman & preich -- We'll look into this. If we can reproduce this issue, we'll fix it in the next patch, which we expect to release in about 1-1/2 weeks. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Thanks Michael and Brian, especially posting across a weekend, that is very cool!

Michael: thanks for the tip on the TacCon, you were right, I recalibrated and the reset button now works. Flying the P51 is friggin awesome!! Love it.

Any possibility of a manual soon? At this point I'd just love to leave you guys alone and fly and I could do this with a manual that told me what everything did!

My biggest problem now is how do you replay back the movies you make? I see how to select them but how do you play them back? When I select them and press FLY I get the movie and the plane that is about fly both on the screen!! Can you export them to AVI or QT?

Here is some info that could possibly help others: I run a ASUS P5B-E motherboard with an Intel P4 641 3.2ghz processor. Video is supplied by a Geforce 7300GS which is just barely enough for me. I run a 24" monitor at 1920x1200. I run FSone in windowed mode, 1280x1024. This is a good size for me, enough for me to fly and have a good view but the frame rate is about 19 to 20FPS which is "barely usable". I started playing with the controls on my video card and finally found the "expert" section. My Anisotropic filter was set to 8x and Anti Aliasing was at 4x. I dropped these to 4x and 2xQ respectively and gained 10fps!! FSone is now a totally different program. I couldn't actually detect any quality loss but that extra 10fps, I'm now at a solid 30, is incredible. It is so awesome to fly now!!

Thanks again

Ken

What I'm thinking here is that the basic (pre FS One) pano image is not right. I've never seen anything like this appear in the sim, and we've done many dozen panos.

Do you know if you're using a spherical projection? Also is that a full pano, i.e. from directly down to directly up and closes along the "horizon"? Put differently, is it complete like the samples you've seen elsewhere?

Nice garage! It still has room for more stuff!

Michael

Answer to Question 1: To change the direction of north in the pano, open the PanoExample.dom file and edit the Azimuth (deg) value. Changing this Azimuth value will rotate the dome (pano). Changing the Pitch (deg) and Roll (deg) in the file will tilt the pano and can be used to make the horizon in the pano line up better with the ground elevation. To move the sun position, edit the Azimuth (deg) and Elevation (deg) values in the Sun section of the file. To turn on/off the lens flare, set the flag to 1/0. These sections are shown below in the attached.

I'll reply tomorrow night about changing the camera zoom. It's a file tweak (customization outside FS One). If you want, in the meantime, take a look at the cameras.txt file in the Cameras/Pano folder.

This stuff is getting pretty deep into the sim, which is OK w/ me. However, I don't want the average user to think that they need to deal w/ this side of things.

Michael

Hi Michael,
According to the information I read about Autostitch, it does create a sperical projection.
I wouldn't call my image "complete". I've tried many sets of photos which developed into many panos, all using a tripod. I photo'ed in a circular pattern. starting from about the angle if you were to tilt your head straight down (keeping your back straight), then raised the camera and did another circular pattern, then raised it higher and higher again, ending at a tilt of angling your head straight up (keeping your back straight. The maximum lower and highest elevations were pretty much limitations of the tripod. When I did this set of photos and processed in Autostich, Autostich had trouble lining up the gray floor, white ceiling and the very close wall behind where I was standing.
Oh yeh, and I tried the photos at several zoom settings on my camera. It is such a small room, not much of the room is photographed at the same time.
I had read the information on "troubled matching" in Autostich and that was able to significantly help match up some panos, but let's face it white next to white is trouble, so is gray on gray.

Scott

Has anybody created any pano sites that they would like to share?

Hi again!!

Is FS One easy for beginners who doesn´t understand much about flying, with no flying skills?

I'll take a swing at this. If you buy the version with the TacCon controller, I think it is beginner friendly. You can just load the sim, click on Freestyle, and away you go. However, you have to have at least a basic knowledge of how a real transmitter works to adjust throws, exponential, etc. And if you use your own transmitter, then you have to have a good working knowledge of that transmitter to 1) get it to work with the sim, and 2) get the most out of the sim. The one other feature the sim has is the series of "How To" recordings that come as part of the sim that are directed toward the beginner. Very useful.

thank´s for the input SitNfly. My english is a bit rusty. Can you explain me what are "throws" and "exponential"? What´s the meaning of TacCon?

I don´t have a lot of experience flying (5-10 times). But I don´t want to spend a lot of money for a sim if I can´t take the most out of it