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FlightGear Changelog

What's new in FlightGear 2020.3.18

Mar 21, 2023
  • Logbook Add-on‎ diffhist 0‎ PlayeRom talk contribs
  • Aircraft-set.xml‎ diffhist +1,226‎ Johan G talk contribs →‎-set.xml Sections: + Checking FlightGear version and aircraft folder name. After tip from Mika, and from flightgear/Main/fg_init.cxx, around line 400
  • WS3.0 Subprojects‎ diffhist +1‎ Merspieler talk contribs Fix typo Tag: Visual edit
  • Logbook Add-on‎
  • Fix broken links. Was missing "src/"
  • correct syntax error

New in FlightGear 2020.3.8 (Apr 1, 2021)

  • User creation log User account JVanelli talk contribs was created ‎

New in FlightGear 2020.3.5 (Dec 22, 2020)

  • Change default Windows download location to %USERS%FlightGearDownloads, to avoid problems with Windows Defender blocking un-trusted applications from writing to Documents, which was the previous location.
  • Fix a crash when returning to FlightGear from another application and scrolling or clicking
  • Avoid crashing with UIUC-based aircraft such as the Wright Flyer
  • Fix a crash on macOS when a joystick failed to open
  • Update the macOS application icon
  • Fix Nasal crash on reset
  • Canvas: allow anisotropic filtering
  • Larger, improved moon texture
  • UFO speed goes to 11

New in FlightGear 2020.3 (Oct 28, 2020)

  • (User creation log)‎ . . [TheKezStrel‎; TheRealAce‎]:
  • User account TheKezStrel (Talk | contribs) was created ‎
  • User account TheRealAce (Talk | contribs) was created
  • 2020 LTS Keflavik news post draft‎‎ (8 changes | history) . . (-263)‎ . . [Vs‎ (8×)]:
  • (cur | prev) . . (+68)‎ . . Vs (Talk | contribs)
  • (cur | prev) . . (-25)‎ . . Vs (Talk | contribs)
  • (cur | prev) . . (+26)‎ . . Vs (Talk | contribs) (cleanup)
  • (cur | prev) . . (+46)‎ . . Vs (Talk | contribs) (cleanup)
  • (cur | prev) . . (+1)‎ . . Vs (Talk | contribs)
  • (cur | prev) . . (-2,195)‎ . . Vs (Talk | contribs) (Split content focusing on LTS, BIKF, Iceland improvements, and FG settings for Iceland to tour article - replace with brief summary. add current release philosophy)
  • (cur | prev) . . (+15)‎ . . Vs (Talk | contribs)
  • (cur | prev) . . (+1,801)‎ . . Vs (Talk | contribs) (cleanup)
  • 2020 LTS airport announcement and Iceland intro draft‎ (diff | hist) . . (+5,605)‎ . . Vs (Talk | contribs) (Start page for a potential (!) tours post on FG homepage focusing LTS, default airport, Iceland improvements)

New in FlightGear 2018.3.6 (Aug 10, 2020)

  • QSeries‎ (diff | hist) . . (+3,403)‎ . . D-ECHO (Talk | contribs) (add livery and operators table)
  • Howto:Build and run FlightGear on Raspberry Pi 4‎ (diff | hist) . . (-86)‎ . . Puffergas (Talk | contribs) (→‎Building Flightgear - Raspbian)
  • User:Johan G/Things I am working on‎ (diff | hist) . . (+50)‎ . . Johan G (Talk | contribs) (→‎Categorization of uncategorized pages: Minor update)
  • Category:Articles that suggest writing to fgdata‎ (diff | hist) . . (+38)‎ . . Johan G (Talk | contribs) (cat: Wiki maintenance)
  • Template:Diagonal split header‎ (diff | hist) . . (+1,525)‎ . . Johan G (Talk | contribs) (+- Default background color; Doc; cat: Templates)
  • Category:All disambiguation pages‎ (diff | hist) . . (+10)‎ . . Johan G (Talk | contribs) (+-cat: Root category → Disambiguation pages‎)
  • Howto:Troubleshooting Memory Leaks‎‎ (2 changes | history) . . (+203)‎ . . [Hooray‎; Johan G‎]

New in FlightGear 2020.1.2 Preview (May 23, 2020)

  • Template:Note‎ (diff | hist) . . (-11)‎ . . Pablc (Talk | contribs)
  • Es/de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter‎‎ (4 changes | history) . . (+2,133)‎ . . [Pablc‎ (4×)]
  • Template:Caution‎ (diff | hist) . . (+14)‎ . . Pablc (Talk | contribs)
  • MD-11‎ (diff | hist) . . (+45)‎ . . Octal450 (Talk | contribs) (→‎Aircraft help)
  • Emesary Notifications‎ (diff | hist) . . (+145)‎ . . Jsb (Talk | contribs) (reserve id 22 for EFISNotification)

New in FlightGear 2020.1.1 Preview (May 15, 2020)

  • Launcher:
  • Aircraft can now be marked as Favourites, and filtered, making it easier to see find your favourite aircraft out of the hundreds available.
  • The launcher now supports aircraft carriers, including selecting a carrier and setting a start position.
  • Graphics:
  • The Compositor renderer is included as part of this release, but not enabled. It provides a fully XML-configurable multi-pass rendering pipeline that is compatible with ALS and includes clustered shading.
  • A new Tower AGL view has been added. This is similar to Tower View, except that it keeps both the aircraft and the ground immediately below the aircraft in view, zooming and panning smoothly as the aircraft moves. Good for viewing landings.
  • Use of non-directional point sprites as a fallback for drivers that do not support triangles of point sprites is now supported by setting /rendering/triangle-directional-lights=false.
  • Regional textures for Asia, Iceland, Jan Mayen island.
  • Active volcanoes - Katla, Eyjafjallajokull, Surtsey.
  • Instanced-based random and OpenStreetMap buildings, improving performance and graphical quality significantly.
  • Improvements to the Wingflex Shader.
  • JSBSim:
  • [Backward compatibility breakage] Gyros are now measuring rotation rates instead of rotational accelerations. Gyros that measure rotational accelerations do not exist in the real world.
  • Output properties of flight control elements are no longer tied. This saves a lot of spurious warning messages and allows direct references of the same properties among several flight controls.
  • Water vapor in the atmosphere is now managed through its mass fraction rather than its partial pressure. The former being the physical quantity that is conserved when pressure and temperature vary.
  • Check that there are at least 3 contacts before trying to trim on ground.
  • ECEF to ECI frame conversion has been moved from FGLocation to FGPropagate and FGInitialConditions since not all FGLocation need to manage that.
  • Gravity computations have been moved to FGInertial because it is where all the constants to compute gravity are stored. This reduces the amount of data transmitted between FGInertial and FGAccelerations.
  • Added optional transmission of the simulation time for FG UDP interface
  • Code cleanup and use more C++11 idioms (override, constexpr, range-based for loop, etc.)
  • The existence of the property that is used for table independent vars is now checked during execution rather than when the XML definition is parsed. This relaxes the order in which filters, table and more generally flight controls need to be declared in the XML definition files.
  • YASim:
  • Support for transonic flow effects.
  • Control initial gear state directly by setting /fdm/yasim/respect-external-gear-state=true, rather then YASim settings this depending on whether the aircraft is in the air or on the ground.
  • Electric engines are now supported.
  • Carriers:
  • Two new standard state overlays are supported in the launcher: carrier-takeoff and carrier-approach.
  • A new --carrier-position command-line argument has been added. This can be used to select the aircraft start position on an aircraft carrier. Either a catapult (e.g. cat-1), a parking position (e.g. park-1), on final approach on the FLOLS (flols) or abeam the carrier (abeam).
  • AI:
  • New AI models for the CRJ900, SR-71, Saab 340.
  • Updated AI models for the A-4, KA6-D, ERJ-195, CRJ-700, CRJ-200.
  • Updated AI traffic for Aeormar Mexico, AirDolomiti, Air Tahiti, American Eagle, China Southern, Delta Connection, Horizon Air, IcelandAir, JetBlue, LoganAir, LOT, Lufthansa, Lufthansa CityLine, MNG (Cargo), SkyUp, United Parcel Service, Ural Airlines, Uzbekistan Airways, Westjet Regional.
  • Updated AI liveries for Aeormar Mexico, Airbus, Air Canada, Air Europa, Air Tahiti, American Airlines, American Eagle, Alaska, Belavia, China Southern, Gulf Air, Hop!, Icelandair, JetBlue, LoganAir, LOT, Rusline, SkyUp, South African Express, United Express, Ural Airlines, Uzbekistan Airways, Virgin Australia, Westjet,
  • Space Shuttle TAEM and approach at KEDW scenario.
  • Accurate Britten-Norman Islander performance data, from an Islander pilot.
  • Multiplayer:
  • FGComm now supports both COM1 and COM2, as well as volume settings.
  • The views defined by the user's aircraft (Pilot view, Helicopter view, Tower view etc) can now be used with multiplayer aircraft. Viewing a particular multiplayer aircraft is done by clicking in the Pilot List dialogue's "view' column (see the "Multiplayer/Pilot List" menu).
  • Connection to VATSIM via swift is now available via the GUI.
  • disable-hold-short option which allows the user to force a start on the runway when multiplayer is enabled. This option should be used with caution - it can give other pilots and ATC a nasty fright to find an aircraft materialize on the runway!
  • MPCarrier can now be detected by the GUI even if not available on startup. To enable this feature set /sim/mp-carriers/auto-attach=true.
  • Nasal Scripting:
  • Garbage collection improvements to reduce frame stuttering
  • Re-loadable nasal modules
  • Canvas EFIS framework
  • Canvas:
  • Three new methods in Canvas Image to set colors of pixels in the image.
  • Aircraft:
  • Boeing 777
  • Douglas A-26-Invader
  • Airbus A320
  • Antonov AN-24
  • Diamond DA40 NG G1000
  • Robin DR400 Ecoflyer
  • General Dynamics F-16
  • Piper J3 Cub
  • Saab JA37 Viggen
  • Piper PA 28 Cherokee
  • Bombardier Q400
  • Ryan Navion
  • Space Shuttle
  • Cirrus SR22
  • Yak 52
  • Miscellaneous:
  • Increased turbulence will be encountered near active volcanoes.
  • Configurable METAR URL.
  • METAR strings are decoded and displayed in a human-readable form in the weather dialog.
  • Polish translations of the UI are now available.
  • Improved Chinese translations for the launcher.
  • Improve glider vario instrument.

New in FlightGear 2018.3 (Dec 6, 2018)

  • Usability:
  • Flightplan loading within the launcher.
  • Chinese, Russian and Italian translations for the launcher and UI
  • Improved support for the state of the aircraft depending on starting location - cold and dark on the ramp, engine running ready for take-off on the runway, or in cruise flight.
  • Input:
  • Improved joystick configuration and binding options.
  • AI / Multiplayer:
  • Multiple Levels of Detail (LoD) for MP and AI aircraft. To improve performance, low-detail models are used when the viewer is far from the MP aircraft.
  • Fallback models to display in the case where a viewer does not have the MP aircraft installed.
  • Many improvements to AI models including new liveries, timetabled movements
  • Graphics:
  • Support for retrieving Canvas images over HTTP. This is a useful feature for displaying instruments like a PFD, ND, EICAS or any MFD externally from the FlightGear 3D main window in a separate window or on a separate monitor, computer or a mobile device. See Read_canvas_image_by_HTTP for more information.
  • Improved cloud rendering with stronger Mie scattering on cloud fringes, improved scattering on cirrus clouds
  • Scenery:
  • Improved scenery for Hawaii, the default location for this release.
  • New scenery for Jan Mayen, situated northeast of Iceland. Including the active volcano of Beerenberg (2277m).
  • Significant Aircraft Updates:
  • "Metadata" has been added to many aircraft, making it easier to find new exciting aircraft to fly using the launcher, whether you are interested in aircraft from the 1920s or twin engined business jets.
  • B-25 : Various bug fixes and minor improvements
  • Cessna 172 : Improved cockpit, interior lighting.
  • Citation II : New panels, radio instruments. Complete remodeling of the electric system, with accurate bus voltage, circuit breakers. System test knob implemented.
  • F4U : new FDM
  • F-14 : V1.8. Improved flight model, particularly in a low-speed regime. Improved cockpit.
  • F-15 : V1.8. Updated flight model, particularly armament mass location. Performance optimizations. Autopilot improvements.
  • F-16 : v3.0. Store options. New liveries. Radar performance optimizations. Autopilot and system improvements. FDM fixes.
  • Saab 37 Viggen : Version 4.311. Various updates, particularly to radar and armament models.
  • Seneca II: Long range tanks, interior lighting,
  • SpaceShuttle : Milestone-10. Improved interior (including furry velcro), launch guidance and orbital plane targeting, more realistic OMS burn procedures, expanded systems including circuit breaker simulation and failure modeling.
  • 777: Our flagship airliner now fully supports checklists, allowing you to learn everything about the aircraft from within the simulator. Full support to auto-push was also implemented. Bug fixes and minor improvements.
  • Other:
  • FG1000 glass panel display, based on the Garmin G1000
  • Improved Replay handling of AI aircraft and carriers - judge your own carrier landings.
  • KC-130 tanker aircraft for air-to-air refueling

New in FlightGear 2018.1.1 (Apr 11, 2018)

  • Usability:
  • Improved control for aircraft carriers
  • Graphics:
  • Improved "Classic theme" with better fonts and colours
  • Canvas MapStructure support for SlippyMaps, including VFRCharts, STAMEN,
  • Various improvements to the Launcher
  • Atmospheric Light Scattering renderer: extra volumetric vegetation layers for denser undergrowth
  • Scenery:
  • Active Volcanos, including Kilauea, Stromboli, Etna,
  • New Hawaii regional texture definitions
  • Several scenic waterfalls in the Hawaii area
  • New and unique vegetation textures for several parts of the world
  • New 3D Objects: Buildings and structures in France, Portugal, Spain, UK, USA, Australia and Ukraine
  • Improved airports: Valle del Conlara Airport (SAOS) in Argentina, RAF Mount Pleasant (EGYP) in Falkland Islands UK, Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport (LFBD) in France and King Abdulaziz International Airport (OEJN) in Saudi Arabia.
  • Significant Aircraft Updates:
  • A new glider: Rolladen-Schneider LS4
  • Space Shuttle improvements
  • Cessna 182S
  • Amelia - an animated and hard-working co-pilot for the Alouette III capable of taking off and landing
  • Citation II
  • F-14 - various changes including improved carrier operations
  • Robinson R44 helicopter
  • Major DHC-6 Twin Otter update: JSBSim variant added (status: experimental), more realistic fuel system in JSBSim, significantly more detailed simulation of the electrical system including various DC and AC buses, circuit breakers and bus tie relay
  • Other:
  • CH Products Throttle Quadrant supported out-of-the-box. Thanks to CH Products for providing a sample quadrant.
  • Improved support for add-ons[1]
  • Support NMEA traffic alerts (e.g. flarm) to allow FG to feed AI/MP traffic to Nav/moving map clients such as xcsoar, skydemon, skymap
  • Improvements to YASIM, including multiple wing sections, support for whole-stabilizer trim, better information from CLI tools
  • More realistic carrier landings with improvements to the JSBSim arrestor wire behaviour.
  • More AI traffic with up to date flight schedules and liveries.

New in FlightGear 2017.3.1 (Sep 26, 2017)

  • simgear:
  • Remove message "Could not find at least one of the following objects for axis animation" when not relevant.
  • EmbeddedResourceManager: better API with respect to rehashing
  • CMake fails to detect OpenRTI include files.
  • Fix a warning
  • Remove the .spec file
  • Clear Uniform cache on reset.
  • Fix thumbnail loading on Windows
  • Persistent thumbnail cache for aircraft packages
  • Add efficient hasTag check to Package.
  • Fix MSVC build.
  • Remove dependency to TR1.
  • Fix SimGear test target for change in commandmgr api
  • Model relative property tree root binding.
  • Enable display lists for random trees.
  • Extend Package delegate callbacks.
  • Work-around older Curl on macOS 10.8n and earlier
  • Axis based animation use ObjectName-axis as default if nothing specified.
  • Templated lookup of subsystem-group members.
  • Link shared SimGearScene with libgdal when enabled
  • EmbeddedResourceManager.hxx: refine the previous MSVC workaround
  • Fix build errors related to template instantiations on Windows
  • Embedded resources system: SimGear part
  • CharArrayStream_test: fix failing test (logic error in the test code)
  • CharArrayStream_test.cxx: attempt to fix build errors on Windows
  • Add CharArrayStreambuf and related IOStreams classes for working with char arrays
  • Remove the last traces of enhanced lighting support ~/FlightGear/fgmeta
  • flightgear:
  • Nasal FlightPlan insertWp[After] return the leg.
  • Make Nasal Flightplan.indexOfWP work on Legs
  • Saving flightplans from Nasal.
  • Fix clearing FlightPlan elements from Nasal.
  • Add createFlightplan Nasal hook
  • Fix Nasal owning of FlightPlans
  • Re-indent my fix from yesterday to 2-space mode.
  • Fix carrier starts
  • Catch large ground-cache requests.
  • Activating a FlightPlan sets it on the route-mgr
  • remove orphan directories with --remove-orphan
  • Fix for the pilot list (and possibly other things) that fail with the new _setValues API.
  • Change how anti-aliasing is requested by the launcher.
  • FGLogger::Log: use std::unique_ptr to manage the sg_ofstream instance
  • FGLogger: fix error handling when file opening fails; modernize and simplify
  • Security: don't allow FGLogger to overwrite arbitrary files
  • Call fgInitAllowedPaths() earlier: after Options::processOptions()
  • Remove XLIFF files from this repository
  • C++ versions of props.nas setValues/setChildren()
  • fgrcc: use correct C++ variable names in generated C++ files
  • Add XLIFF 1.2 translation files and register them as embedded resources
  • Fix back-slashes in quoted args in the launcher
  • Animation bindings: fix bug with specified index on bindings
  • Make some AI-traffic warnings DEV_WARN
  • Fix custom download-dir in launcher
  • Only qInfo was added in 5.5
  • Introduce commandline-option --addon
  • Hopefully fix "qInfo not defined"
  • Use SGMisc wrapper for _isnan makes "other" OSes happy
  • FreeBSD: fix build when libudev is found
  • Model relative property tree root binding.
  • Translate man pages to Italian
  • Man pages: fix some errors
  • Non-launcher parts of minimum-fg-version support
  • Launcher: more robust preview downloading.
  • Fix for build with Qt 5.2
  • Initial attempt at —-uninstall mode for FGFS
  • Tentative fix for the MSVC build
  • Compat fixes for older Qt versions.
  • GraphicsWindowQt5: improved keyboard + modifiers
  • Integrate the EmbeddedResourceManager into FlightGear
  • Minor changes in locale.cxx and locale.hxx
  • Add method FGLocale::getPreferredLanguage()
  • Make the Unix impl. of FGLocale::getUserLanguage() consistent with the others
  • Fix warnings in fgrcc.cxx
  • Embedded resources: add a resource compiler (fgrcc)
  • Added the generation of wake induced force and moment for JSBSim models.
  • Different work-around for Qt < 5.5
  • Added the computation of the wake of all AI aircrafts.
  • Compile AI wake numerical core in FG main executable.
  • Added missing <cmath> header for Mac to compile.
  • Added the core of the AI wake computations with its tests.
  • Added missing header <memory> for Linux.
  • Fix compilation with older OSG / Qt
  • QtGraphicsWindow: Remove deferred event support.
  • Expose device-pixel-ratio to properties.
  • Strong and stable ownership of the window, context
  • Make some methods public for the AI wake feature.
  • Let Qt pick the default window position.
  • GraphicsWinQt toggles fullscreen natively.
  • Fix intermittent crash on exit with Qt+XCB
  • Remove alignLocaliserWithRunway(): deemed to be a "misfeature" :-)
  • GraphicsWindow using Qt5, work-in-progress.
  • Fixed LaRCSim matrix computation routines.
  • Sync. w/ JSBSim
  • Mark enhanced lighting options and --adf as deprecated
  • Man pages update
  • Console: restore option to open console early.
  • Fix --console from the launcher
  • Auto-select built-in FGdata when possible.
  • Clean up of the Ephemeris class members, removing the raw pointers.
  • Untied the /environment/moonlight property.
  • Fixes to the trim on ground feature.
  • Cleaned up the JSBSim interface.
  • Add CMake Linux install directives for the icons and the .desktop file
  • Use GetUserDefaultLocaleName
  • Launcher: Enable DPI-scaling
  • Fix launcher failure with custom MP server
  • Validate MP callsign with a reg-exp
  • Validation of METAR in the launcher
  • Canvas exception during re-init.
  • 2017.2 Multiplayer compatibility fixes
  • Remove distribution-specific packaging files and an old icon ~/FlightGear/fgmeta
  • fgdata:
  • Remove unused g_num_layers from grass shaders
  • ALS terrain overlay shaders, not yet used, terrain definitions will follow post-release
  • Set up dialog to list nearby AI-objects which can be controlled, interface Truman with dialog
  • Joystick name fixes.
  • Remove cruise ship reference from Truman AI scenario, fix Truman elevator rail timing issue, add wakes to Truman escort ships
  • Cleanup - remove executable tags from Truman files
  • Fix particle wake for USS Truman
  • Procedural lights for Fresnel Lens Optical Landing System when using ALS
  • Carriers use procedural deck lights with ALS
  • Procedural light definitions for carriers
  • Make ALS procedural light shader palatable to nouveau driver
  • Add Truman TACAN to carrier navaids
  • Add light and JBD controls and wave motion to USS Harry Truman
  • Start fixing USS Harry Truman animations, add control dialog (click on bridge to bring it up)
  • New AI Airline traffic file HVN Vietnam Airlines
  • Added Vietnam Airlines Liveries for new models ATR 72 & B787-900
  • Updated TAP Air Portugal Traffic File by Marcin
  • Carrier USS Harry S. Truman with highly detailed 3d model based on work by Michael Habarta and forum user karla - at this point a butcher job because the control scripts by Michael use a complete re-structuring of the AI carrier system and I'm not comfortable committing this without in-depth testing
  • Fix AW METAR mode check for T-storms
  • Added A350 variables to AI performance data DB
  • EuroAlantic 777-200 livery for TAP Traffic
  • EuroAtlantic Livery for AI 767-300 model
  • New AI Model A350-900 Added to TAM traffic file
  • A350-900 Model addd to Qatar Airways traffic file
  • Updated FINNAIR Traffic file for Timetable AUG 2017
  • New AI Model Airbus A350-900 with Paintkit and Liveries for Aircrafts delivered to date
  • Swissair Traffic file Update by Marcin
  • Add XLIFF 1.2 translation files
  • Remove redundant QuantasLink traffic
  • Don't complain about non-existant /addon property
  • Overhauled Austrian traffic file from Marcin
  • New Fokker added to Marcin's Baltic traffic file
  • Nordic Regional AT7 Texture for Finnair Traffic file
  • New Traffic File, Montenegro Airlines by Marcin
  • Kuwait traffic update with new 777-300 aircraft
  • New Kuwait livery for 777-300
  • Qantas Traffic update. Includes QantasLink
  • AI Liveries Montenegro Airlines
  • New 777-300 Livery for Swiss Airlines
  • Fokker 100 Model fix and new Mapping. Incl. Paintkit and 4 liveries
  • Use new C++ setValues/setChildren
  • Traffic and Liveries for Travel Service Czech Republic
  • JAL traffic Update from Timetable for SEP OCT 2017 includes new 777 and 787 models liveries
  • Remove extraneous space in Translations/default/menu.xml
  • Addd new AI Model B737-900ER to El Al and Ukraine Intl trafic files
  • New AI Model B737-900ER incl Paintkit and 5 liveries
  • Bug Fix to missing performance data error for CRJ 1000 AI model. Added model to PerformanceDB.xml (Iata Code CRK) and Updated HOP traffic file
  • Asiana Update. Replaced 777-200 with newest model.
  • Updated 733 AI. Fixed AC model(s) & Winglets Mapping. New Windhshield Texture. Updated Paintkit and existing liveries
  • Updated LATAM Brazil (TAM) traffic file as per Tietable week of 10 JUL 16
  • Emesary multiplayer bridge rework.
  • Remove obsolete JAT.xml traffic file
  • Santa Barbara TRaffic file updated by legoboyvdlp
  • Update to British Airways Traffic by Marcin Kuzniar (added E70 & E90 flights)
  • Air Serbia (Formely JAT) Traffic file update by Marcin Kuzniar
  • AI Liveries Update by Brett Harrison
  • TAM Brazil AI 777-300 Livery
  • Introduce handler for --addon commandline switch
  • reset executable bit for nasal script
  • Translations: rename Translations/en to Translations/default
  • Translations: minor consistency fix in Translations/es/menu.xml
  • Translations: remove unwanted leading and trailing whitespace
  • Translations: remove duplicate string from Translations/fr/menu.xml
  • Translations: remove obsolete strings from Translations/nl/options.xml
  • Added the AI wake induced force and moment.
  • Added options for AI wake in the AI menu.
  • David Megginson: here are the generic protocols I implemented for ForeFlight's sim integration (also supported by Garmin Pilot). The XATT one isn't fully working in Garmin Pilot (I've checked that the output is correct by sending it to a file), so I'd be grateful if anyone with an iOS device could try it in ForeFlight. The XGPS one is working flawlessly in Garmin Pilot on Android.
  • Provide more granularity on tree density
  • Add Simplified Chinese startup tips (disabled for now)
  • ALS: rotor wash effect for volumetric grass and water shaders
  • Air Madagascar Traffic file (NEW) from timeable of JUL 2017
  • Air Madagascar AI Liveries for ATR 72-500, A340-300 & B737-800
  • Austrian Airlines Livery for new 777-200
  • Air Mauritius Traffic File, Timetable JUL-OCT 2017
  • Air Mauritius Liveries for ATR 72 & A319
  • Austrian Airlines Liveries for AI models Fokker 70 & Embraer ERJ195
  • Changed 777 AI models Pitch method; from AC Model itself to main XML
  • Remove obsolete 'position-on-ground' translated string (menu.xml)
  • Remove obsolete 'display-options' translated string (menu.xml)
  • ALS - begin infrastructure for moonlight perception filtering
  • ALS model shader: allow dirt overlay to change surface reflectivity, add grain merge reflection type to space shader
  • ALS space shader: Allow dirt overlay to influence glow visuals
  • LOT Traffic file JUN 2017 Update by Marcin Kuzniar. Dash8 LOT Livery by Brett Harrison
  • ALS road shader: show car tail lights dependent on view direction, change road lighting model such that high traffic density causes additional illumination
  • Added the default values for the AI wake feature.
  • Daily variation of road traffic with commuter rush hours based on actual traffic studies for ALS road shader
  • Handle more than 10 runways in Select Airport dialog
  • ALS volumetric grass responds to wind
  • Remove /sim/navdb/localizers/auto-align and /sim/navdb/localizers/auto-align-threshold-deg from defaults.xml
  • LOT, Vueling TAP and Wideroe Liveries by Brett Harrison for 733 738 319 321 AT7 and Dash 8
  • Mojave desert shrub textures extracted from CC0-licensed imagery
  • ALS model effect accepts a snow flag to let OSM building roofs be snow-covered in winter
  • Activate ALS volumetric grass effect for more regions
  • UFO ‘d’ key writes to clipboard as well stdout.
  • Fix for sticking message tooltip.
  • Fix to Canvas-GUI window transparency
  • Glow effect for ALS space shader, converting a temperature into surface blackbody radiation color
  • Volumetric grass effect for ALS utilizing a geomerty shader, based on work by Fernando Garcia Linan
  • Mediterranean evergreen tree textures (cypress, cedar, pine,...) based on CC0 licensed photographs on pixabay and publicdomainpictures
  • Atlas for 2017.2 using 16k*256 size
  • Added Spanish translation for startup tips.

New in FlightGear 2017.1.1 (Feb 23, 2017)

  • Major features of the new release:
  • Greatly updated/refined flight dynamics model, even more closely adhering to the historically reported behavior of the aircraft
  • Crashes modeled - parts break, dust, explosions, etc.
  • JSBSim Camel: Bad Crash
  • Completely new sound design - hear when you are rolling, landing gear makes contact, wind buffeting etc
  • Ground interactions - tail drag, wheels, wingtip, etc dragging surface kicks up dust
  • Water landings - you can successfully ditch in water, kicks up spray & other effects
  • Friction effects and bumps - you can land or take off on almost any suitable land, but you will notice increased drag from e.g. tall grass, bumps, and you might break a landing gear if you're not careful. Use 'n' key to nudge the aircraft if you get stuck in a hole or ditch.
  • New Inspect Aircraft View - based on Walk View, this allows you to easily get various views near the aircraft

New in FlightGear 2016.4.4 (Dec 29, 2016)

  • SimGear security fix: This avoids a malicious repository writing to files outside the local storage root.
  • FlightGear Security fix: don't allow the route manager to overwrite any file
  • Add the latest scenemodels updates for the LSZH base package

New in FlightGear 2016.4.3 (Dec 29, 2016)

  • fixes the issue with restoring variants in the launcher
  • better rendering of aircraft ratings
  • includes the latest scenemodel updates for the Zürich area

New in FlightGear 2016.4.2 (Nov 25, 2016)

  • Fixed crash on Mac OS X during startup
  • Fixed issues with multiplayer port and the launcher storing variant
  • Fixed wrong default airport when first starting FlightGear

New in FlightGear 2016.4 (Nov 25, 2016)

  • Major enhancements in this release:
  • Core:
  • FlightGear is migrating to C++11. Those of you who compile FlightGear yourself might find nasty compilation errors. If please ask on our (flightgear-devel) mailing list.
  • Atmospheric Light Scattering:
  • The moonlight and moon positioning code under ALS has been improved.
  • Misc/Uncategorized:
  • FGRun has been removed from the release.
  • ATC Chatter has been re-introduced.
  • Scenery:
  • New STG verbs added
  • Support for apt.dat files inside scenery folders.
  • Highlighted new and improved aircraft:
  • Milestone 7 of the Space Shuttle has been released, with more impressive detail than ever before. Download it from FGAddon.
  • Other:
  • Support for GoFlight EFIS and TQ6 added
  • --json-report option added to output data including FlightGear version and directories.
  • --allow-nasal-read option added to clear directories for Nasal read operations.

New in FlightGear 2016.3.1 (Sep 13, 2016)

  • Nasal Scripting: Emesary MPI framwork and multiplayer bridge have been added [2]
  • Highlighted new and improved aircraft: Cessna 150
  • Bug fixes
  • Core:
  • new XML Sound expression support
  • Enable the Qt gui inside the sim [1]

New in FlightGear 2016.2.1 (Jun 8, 2016)

  • Core:
  • Video configuration can now be saved.
  • The TerraSync server has been switched to a HTTP-based system instead of SVN.
  • All scenery models have been cleaned up and moved to TerraSync.
  • ATIS and METAR:
  • Various improvements in the reporting of wind, atmospheric pressure, and sky cover.
  • Custom ATIS formats for the US/Canada/Pacific region and the UK based on real recordings.
  • Bug fixes and data updates to reduce occurrence of NIL weather.
  • Atmospheric Light Scattering:
  • Filters have been added, enabling infrared and night-vision views.
  • ALS procedural lights have been added.
  • An ALS-based system for displaying birds has been added.
  • Environment Rendering:
  • A bug that prevented precipitation from appearing has been fixed.
  • Multiplayer:
  • A bug in the multiplayer protocol has been fixed.
  • Usability:
  • Route Manager now allows entry of a space-separated list of waypoints.
  • Internationalization:
  • The Italian translation for menus, loading messages and help for command line switches has been updated.
  • Scenery:
  • Further improvements to regional textures.
  • New buildings for Heathrow Airport and Barcelona–El Prat Airport.
  • Nasal Scripting:
  • A bug in "math.clamp()" has been fixed.
  • Documentation:
  • A Chinese translation of the Manual has been added.
  • Highlighted new and improved aircraft:
  • Parachutist.
  • Piper J3 Cub.
  • Boeing 757.
  • Extra EA-500.
  • Saab JA-37 Viggen.
  • Cessna 182S Skylane.
  • Space Shuttle.
  • Beagle Pup.
  • Icaro Laminar 13 MRX.
  • Other.
  • FGPromo: A FlightGear Promotional Video
  • After more than 5 months of hard work, FGPromo, a video showing off FlightGear at its finest, has been released.
  • Bug fixes:
  • Launcher crash with debug info.
  • Flightgear fails to build when simgear is built without DNS resolver.
  • TerraSync broken in 2016.2.
  • Precipitation completely broken.
  • Lightcones at KHAF are solid (enable hot).
  • File selector in jetways_edit.nas broken.
  • Add date to Time Settings dialogue.

New in FlightGear 2016.1 (Jun 8, 2016)

  • Core:
  • The Interactive traffic system has been re-enabled, having been disabled by mistake some releases previously.
  • Various security improvements, including the disabling of system.fgfsrc.
  • Reduction in the memory footprint due to scenery.
  • Improved performance when displaying large numbers of scenery objects.
  • Aircraft Modeling:
  • Tooltips can now be positioned at a specific place on-screen.
  • Wing flex module added, controllable via Nasal or Property rules.
  • Bug-fixes and improvements to the Failure Manager.
  • tag in the aircraft-set.xml file has been added (see FlightGear Newsletter March 2015).
  • Automatic checklist execution, which can, for example, be used for auto-start.
  • 8.33 kHz spacing is now supported on radios.
  • JSBSim:
  • Sync with the latest version of JSBSim.
  • The pitot angle can now be tweaked with the "" tag in the "" block.
  • The refuel rate is now configurable with the "" tag in the "" block.
  • Rendering:
  • Improved vegetation including 3D grass and shadows for trees.
  • Better cockpit rendering, including:
  • Interior shadows.
  • Glass reflections, dynamical raindrops, fogging and frosting.
  • Panel back-lighting.
  • Irradiance mapping for more realistic distribution of indirect light.
  • Diffuse illumination of the interior by instrument lighting.
  • New thruster effect (can be used for afterburners flames, rockets, etc.).
  • Lightning strikes illuminating the surrounding clouds during thunderstorms.
  • Rainbows.
  • Improved airport rendering, including runway skid marks and better effects for the runways and surrounding grass.
  • New optical phenomena in icy conditionshazes:
  • Halos.
  • Sundogs.
  • Parhelic ring.
  • Light pillar.
  • Aurora Borealis at night.
  • More realistic rendering of generic lights (runway, PAPI, taxiway, etc.).
  • Detailed procedurally generated lights for aircraft.
  • A dynamical wingflex shader suitable for wing beats (see the Dragon).
  • Usability:
  • The aircraft page of the Qt launcher for FlightGear 3.5 as rendered on Windows 7.
  • Many improvements to Phi, the built-in web interface.
  • GUI cleanup to improve support for multiple GUI styles.
  • The built-in Qt launcher is available for all of FlightGear's supported operating systems.
  • Additional latitude and longitude formats are now supported in the HUD.
  • Scenery:
  • Regional texture definitions for Florida, Brazil, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Southeastern Asia.
  • stgmerge tool added to merge objects in a scenery tile into a smaller number of meshes.
  • In the hangar:
  • Aircraft with major enhancements:
  • Complete refresh of the default Cessna 172P, including engine options, various tire sizes and floats.
  • Major enhancements to the Space Shuttle. The Shuttle can be flown as per the Crew Operations Manual from launch to touchdown.
  • The following aircraft have also received significant updates:
  • McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle.
  • Rockwell B-1B Lancer.
  • Saab JA-37 Viggen.
  • Cessna 550 Citation II.
  • Lockheed Constellation.
  • Boeing 737-300.
  • Mirage 2000-5.
  • De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter.
  • MiG-15.
  • Bombardier CRJ700 series.
  • Boeing 757.
  • New aircraft:
  • A dragon has been added, complete with fire breath.
  • Beagle Pup.
  • Pottier P.130UL Coccinelle.
  • Boeing 767.
  • Misc/uncategorized:
  • Improved support for KDI572-574 DME equipment.
  • Update to the World Magnetic Model 2015.
  • Nasal Scripting:
  • Global functions "createViaTo()" and "createDiscontinuity()" added.
  • "activate()" method added to the flightplan ghost object.
  • Documentation:
  • The FlightGear Manual is now available in Chinese.
  • Bug fixes:
  • Phi has no tabs.
  • Runway PAPI lights doesn't show red color anymore.
  • Precipitation completely broken.
  • GPS reports altitude in the wrong unit.
  • Freeze wtith 777 seattle above FL290.
  • Altitude range arc is not functioning in the ND Center mode.
  • Flightgear crash on exit.
  • Strange mebu color after installation with D&C.sh.
  • Lightcones at KHAF are solid (enable hot.
  • Start paused - enable-freeze does not work.

New in FlightGear 3.6.0 (Jun 8, 2016)

  • Project Organization:
  • The base package has been reduced in size to 1.3 GB. All aircraft except the Cessna 172P and UFO have been removed.
  • All core repositories have been moved to SourceForge.
  • Core:
  • Interactive traffic system re-enabled, having been disabled by mistake some releases previously.
  • Various security improvements, including the disabling of system.fgfsrc.
  • Launcher:
  • The aircraft page of the Qt launcher for FlightGear 3.5 as rendered on Windows 7.
  • The built-in Qt launcher is available for all of FlightGear's supported operating systems.
  • Aircraft Modeling:
  • Tooltips can now be positioned at a specific place on-screen.
  • wing flex module added, controllable via Nasal or Property Rules.
  • Bug-fixes and improvements to the Failure Manager.
  • tag in the *-set.xml file has been added. See FlightGear Newsletter March 2015.
  • Automatic checklist execution, which can, for example, be used for autostart.
  • 8.33 kHz spacing is now supported on comms radios.
  • JSBSim:
  • Sync with the latest version of JSBSim.
  • The pitot angle can now be tweaked with the tag in the block.
  • The refuel rate is now configurable with the tag in the block.
  • Atmospheric Light Scattering:
  • The addition of 3D grass to the random vegetation system.
  • Tree shadows.
  • Interior cockpit shadows.
  • Interior glass reflections, frosting and fogging.
  • Interior panel backlighting.
  • New thruster effect (can be used for afterburners flames, rockets, etc.).
  • Usability:
  • Many improvements to Phi, the built-in web interface.
  • GUI cleanup to improve support for multiple GUI styles.
  • Scenery:
  • Regional texture definitions for Florida, Brazil, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Southeastern Asia.
  • stgmerge tool added to merge objects in a scenery tile into a smaller number of meshes.
  • Highlighted new and improved aircraft:
  • Complete refresh of the default Cessna 172P, including engine options, various tire sizes and floats.
  • Major enhancements to the Space Shuttle. The Shuttle can be flown as per the Crew Operations Manual from launch to touchdown.
  • The following aircraft have also received significant updates:
  • McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle.
  • Rockwell B-1B Lancer.
  • Saab JA-37 Viggen.
  • Cessna 550 Citation II.
  • Lockheed Constellation.
  • Boeing 737-300.
  • Mirage 2000-5.
  • De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter.
  • Misc/uncategorized:
  • Improved support for KDI572-574 DME equipment
  • Update the World Magnetic Model to version 2015.0.
  • Bug fixes:
  • An Error Message Every 10 sec, AI related.
  • Add date to Time Settings dialogue.
  • Incorrect HUD values.
  • Graphical glitches (conical "circus tent" shapes).
  • Simplified Chinese (zh_CN) translation for FGrun.
  • Resizing behaviour in dialogs broken by FGDATA commit b4d166.
  • Phi: Some browsers cache the aircraft thumbnail image.
  • Alpha channel for svg and setColorFill on a svg object don't work.
  • FGAddon aircraft path fixes after the FGData split - patch series for review.
  • 3.5 nightly clear route manager and you can't even enter the airports.
  • Relative paths in FGADDON craft broken.
  • Canvas ND: Implementation of Position trend vector.

New in FlightGear 3.4.0 (Feb 18, 2015)

  • Performance:
  • Improved frame-rates on some systems from more efficient use of Uniforms
  • Reduced memory occupancy for scenery tiles
  • AI models are now rendered based on display size rather than range
  • AI/MP models may now define objects as being part of the interior, which will not be rendered at large distances
  • Usability:
  • Built-in web server now includes a moving map, a screenshot grabber, and supports SVG-based panels
  • In-application launcher for Mac, based on Qt5
  • Graphics:
  • Improved rendering of runway and other lights under ALS
  • Landing and spotlight support for ALS
  • Scenery:
  • Improved materials XML format making customer material definition easier
  • Procedural rock material definition
  • JSBSim:
  • Synchronization with latest JSBSim
  • Highlighted new and improved aircraft:
  • Extra EA-500
  • North American P-51D Mustang
  • Cessna Citation II
  • Other:
  • Firewall exceptions are automatically added during setup on Windows systems
  • Aircraft moved to a SVN repository.
  • Bug fixes:
  • REST/JSON/AJAX interface.
  • hPa/mb input in instrument options.
  • 3.2rc1 Simplify far terrain has aircraft ground contact problems.
  • void ADF::update (double delta_time_sec) not updating ident.
  • Falling snow broken in advanced weather.
  • FG HTML Propertry Browser don't escape character.
  • ATIS voicing but no information.
  • Seneca II - No NAV sounds.

New in FlightGear 3.2.0 (Oct 16, 2014)

  • Aircraft Modeling:
  • A Failure Management Framework for FlightGear has been added
  • The JSBSim flight dynamics model now has support for ground effects like bumpiness, solid-ground detection and adjusting of friction factors. Additionally, bogey type contact points sink in non-solid surfaces, making it no longer possible to ride on water.
  • YASim now has versioning support. The YASim FDM now checks a version tag in it’s configuration file to allow improvements to the YASim FDM without risking breaking older aircraft.
  • Additional aircraft have started adopting the Canvas navigation display that was introduced with FlightGear 3.0.
  • Graphics:
  • Improved rendering of VASI, PAPI, runway and taxiway lights.
  • Orbital rendering using textures from the NASA Visible Earth project
  • Additions to the Atmospheric Light Scattering (ALS) rendering include:
  • an experimental framework to render cloud shadows on the ground (requires Advanced Weather)
  • a substantial extension of cloud layer visibility using impostor techniques to 150 km
  • a new agriculture effect allowing to render fields without tiling artifacts
  • a new forest effect to simulate managed forest, varying tree size by patch
  • sparkle and fog effect on runway lights
  • much improved visual appearance of rock faces
  • Usability:
  • An experimental aircraft package manager allows the download of new aircraft, and changing the current aircraft in-sim.
  • A new internal web server (aka httpd) based on mongoose httpd has been added. It supports various AJAX requests, a screenshot server, a property tree browser, and a web-based moving map and much more.
  • The integrated Map dialog now uses an azimuthal equidistant projection, for better representation in polar regions and across the International Date Line.
  • Windows users are now able to use the scroll wheel in dialog lists
  • Canvas System:
  • Improvements to Canvas, FlightGear’s scriptable 2D rendering system include
  • Better performance
  • MapStructure-based layers can now be customized and styled
  • Support for mouse button and modifiers
  • CanvasImage now supports the http:// protocol for dynamically retrieving raster images.
  • An experimental Map dialog using Canvas is available under the Equipment menu.
  • Canvas Layout Engine
  • Nasal Scripting:
  • A new fully-interactive Nasal GUI console based on Canvas has been added: Interactive Nasal Console
  • the hard-coded flight path history subsystem which samples aircraft position is now exposed via Nasal.
  • Documentation:
  • Nasal documentation is now included
  • Highlighted new and improved aircraft:
  • Boeing 757-200: Improved autopilot and additional systems, like hydraulics and pneumatic. The aircraft comes with two engine options.
  • Cessna 337G Skymaster: Tuned autopilot and improved instrument stack.
  • Mainair Flash 2 Alpha: Simulated weightshift-control and new wing model.
  • North American P-51D: All new highly accurate external model based on factory blueprints.
  • Tupolev Tu-154B2: version 3.1
  • Other:
  • A text-to-speech system based on flite+hts_engine has been implemented, which is used for ATIS and other messages.
  • Improved loading behaviour for AI/MP aircraft
  • Bug fixes:
  • A serious bug was found late in the release causing large numbers of crashes. Fixing this delayed he release, but had a nice side-effect of improving performance on some systems that were previously CPU-limited.
  • See our bugtracker for an extensive, yet incomplete, list of the bugs fixed in this release.

New in FlightGear 3.0.2 RC 2 (Oct 6, 2014)

  • Missions:
  • The Flightgear world is becoming more interesting. A mission subsystem is being added. This allows to define tasks to be completed by a player which then receives points. Visual guidance symbols can be used to indicate the location of the next task. The mission system combines with the Milestone 4 release of the walker,and thus more complex adventures can be built in which the player has to exit an aircraft and walk to a certain location. The walker subsystem now allows for more complex animated motion and adds NPCs, characters with whom a player can interact. Also, check out the selection of cars and motorbikes to explore the Flightgear world!
  • Cloud shadows:
  • Finally some shade! Cloud shadows are notoriously difficult to render, but for Advanced Weather in combination with the Atmospheric Light Scattering rendering framework, there is now an experimental option to add them (at least close to the aircraft) to the experience.
  • Earthview:
  • See the world from high up! Introduced to provide better visuals for the spacecraft in Flightgear, Earthview is an alternative rendering engine intended for use at high altitudes. It renders Earth as a simple, textured sphere surrounded by a cloud sphere. The textures are provided by the NASA Visible Earth project. By default, a set of 2048×2048 textures is distributed, but Earthview is intended to allow easy access for users who want to install their own hires texture set. At full resolution of about 21000×21000 pixels per texture provided by NASA, it looks simply spectacular even from just 50 km altitude – see the Vostok capsule above entering the atmosphere.
  • Built-in http server:
  • Access the property tree in a novel way! Flightgear now includes the Mongoose web server as a httpd. This allows for interesting new application, for instance merging information from Flightgear and OpenStreetMap or Mapquest, leading to a new moving map application covering the whole world is available which tracks the airplane’s position.
  • Cloud drawing distance:
  • See clouds out to the horizon! Flightgear’s weather rendering so far has not been up to the task of showing a plausible view from high altitude. But this has now changed – a new framerate-friendly impostor technique is used to render clouds out to the horizon – wherever that may be (the system has been tested for 1000 km visibility from low Earth orbit).
  • Rendering improvements:
  • Visuals keep getting better! Lots of work has been done on the small details. New tree textures at higher resolutions make the forests actually look nice. Novel noise function are used to improve the visuals of snow on steep terrain slopes, to change tree height in discrete patches mimicking patterns of forest management, or to remove tiling artifacts from large-scale agriculture. Enjoy all the details the new version will have to offer.
  • Much work is done under the hood which is not obviously visible:
  • The YASim flight dynamics engine is finally being developed further, with some long-standing bugs and limitations being addressed for the time being
  • Ground interactions have been added to the JSBSim flight dynamics engine
  • a new text-to-speech message is about to replace the old pre-recorded ATIS messages, adding a lot of flexibility
  • an interface for allowing add-ons that use FSUIPC (an addon framework for Microsoft Flight Simulator) to talk to FlightGear
  • osgEarth integration is still on the horizon

New in FlightGear 3.0.0 (Aug 22, 2014)

  • Aircraft Modeling:
  • All glider models have now Total Energy compensated variometers.
  • Environment Rendering:
  • Sea color is more realistic, using a a global sea map is used to render shallow ocean a different color.
  • Improved random building textures
  • Atmospheric Light Scattering (ALS) improvements including
  • significant work on a more natural appearance of a low haze or fog layer which includes now altitude variations
  • atmosphere rendering beyond the lowest fog layer takes now actual aloft visibility into account, leading to a blurred horizon
  • the horizon line is now rendered with angular variations, simulating different vertical extent of air layers far away in the atmosphere
  • the wake shader rendering the waves generated by a ship has been ported to ALS
  • Performance:
  • Terrain loading times improved by deferring loading of objects within scenery.
  • Usability:
  • Tab key is used to cycle mouse modes: aircraft control, view control, idle
  • TerraSync is pre-configured and works as is without user configuration required
  • FGCom, the multiplayer voice communications client is now integrated within FlightGear
  • Internationalization:
  • Italian translation of the FlightGear Manual.
  • Scenery:
  • Scenery 2.0 is now available, using improved elevation, road and terrain data.
  • Updated navigation data
  • Regional texture definitions have been added for Scandinavia, Corsica and Ascension Island.
  • Canvas System:
  • FlightGear's fully scriptable 2D rendering system now includes improved APIs for creating maps and navigation displays amongst many other improvements. People no longer need to have programming experience to add a working ND to their aircraft, it can now be all done by copying and pasting 30 lines of text and customizing a few properties. The so called MapStructure back-end handles efficient updating of all ND layers transparently.
  • Nasal Scripting:
  • Faster complex spacial searches
  • HTTP bindings
  • A new Nasal library has been added for implementing specialised soaring instruments. The library currently supports Total Energy compensated varios as well as Netto, Super Netto (aka Relative) and Speed Command variometers.
  • Documentation:
  • PDF/LaTeX docs of the internals of the Nasal engine (C code) have been added to $FG_ROOT/Docs.
  • An Italian translation of the FlightGear Manual is now available.
  • Highlighted new and improved aircraft:
  • Robin DR400 Dauphin 180ch
  • CAP10C
  • Boeing 707
  • North American P-51D
  • Boeing 777
  • Other:
  • Additional joysticks and rudder pedals are supported out-of-the-box:
  • Logitech Flight System G940 (joystick, pedals and throttle)
  • Bug fixes:
  • City disappears with urban shader and certain quality level
  • GUI interface for anti-aliasing settings
  • Shortcut Key For Map
  • A380 - No departure page
  • mp aircrafts don't use --fg-aircraft preference when loading
  • more consistent startup profiles - and an option to disable/override startup files like fgfsrc autosave.xml etc
  • --FOV doesn't always override preferences.xml and aircraft-set.xml values
  • Remote Format String Vulnerability in FlightGear
  • Airports with only short runways (< 2000ft) do not appear in the map widget
  • Black clouds
  • A380 fatal 'cycle-mouse-mode' error
  • Incorrect computation in moving average filter (with test and patch)
  • visibility stuck at 120000meter
  • GPS menu problem
  • Any key you press goes into multiplayer chat box
  • Real weather fetch doesn't work
  • 'Esc' key inconsistent handling
  • Boeing 777 lacks thumbnail
  • JSBSim cannot handle startup with offset-distance > 0.1
  • Segfault on exit
  • Can't see airports in fgrun unless you have the terrain files
  • Wrong server url for "Enable Multiplay" in Mac launcher

New in FlightGear 2.12.0 (Sep 23, 2013)

  • Aircraft Modeling:
  • A new tracking animation provides an easy way for aircraft developers to animate complex kinematic systems like gear scissors or landing gear doors attached to struts. The animation can be implemented in Blender and then exported to FlightGear.
  • Environment:
  • Icebergs now appear in the arctic seas.
  • Deciduous trees shed their foliage if they are above the snowline, creating a convincing winter look.
  • The climatic snow line moves up and down as you fly around the world.
  • Basic weather is now integrated with Atmospheric Light Scattering.
  • Clouds are placed more realistically when using detailed weather modelling.
  • Transponder:
  • The transponder instrument system has been overhauled, making it easier to use from panels, supporting Mode-S altitude encoding, and sending the important properties over multi-player. This will allow more realistic ATC interactions, since id (squawk) codes now matter! See this wiki page for more information on installing / updating the transponder installation in aircraft.
  • Performance:
  • Many NavCache related startup issues experienced by Windows users (lag) were resolved
  • Portability:
  • Portability for older systems without GLSL (shaders) support has been restored again, so that FlightGear no longer crashes on such systems.
  • Atmospheric Light Scattering:
  • An ultra-high quality shader has been introduced, algorithmically generating detail down to the centimetre scale.
  • Autumn colors are now simulated from the middle of summer through to the beginning of winter.
  • Low visibility conditions are now more realistically rendered.
  • Trees move with the wind.
  • Surf is now visibile below steep sea-cliffs.
  • Improved performance, reduced memory occupancy
  • Usability:
  • The checklist feature has been expanded.
  • Checklist items are color coded to indicate whether they are complete - green for those items that are complete, yellow for those that are incomplete.
  • To ease cockpit familiarization, users can request that the relevant control is highlighted.
  • A virtual co-pilot can execute checklist items on behalf of the pilot.
  • Tutorials are auto-generated from checklists providing a virtual instructor to guide you through completing the checklist.
  • A knob animation generalizes the operation of knobs and switches in the cockpits of various aircraft.
  • The Weather dialog has been improved to make it easier to understand.
  • Tooltips (available under the Debug menu) provide feedback that computer pilots have to miss due to an absence of audio or haptic feedback. When you hover your mouse over a switch or lever, a little window tells you the current state of the switch.
  • Internationalization:
  • The menu and system messages have been translated to Portuguese.
  • Canvas System:
  • The "canvas" system is FlightGear's fully scriptable 2D rendering system, which makes it easy for users to create new instruments, glass cockpit displays, HUDs and even dialogs and custom GUI widgets using FlightGear's built-in scripting language Nasal (which looks really similar to JavaScript).
  • Canvas improvements in this release include:
  • The style setter system has been reworked, style setters are now only setup once for each element type and not for each element instance as before. A static map holds the setters for each element type. Also an animation type is stored which will later allow to animate properties of Canvas elements without specifying an animation type.
  • The Nasal/cppbind framework has been improved to expose more Canvas internals to Nasal space
  • Canvas textures can now not only be used as aircraft/cockpit textures (instruments, MFDs) and for the HUD/GUI, but also for scenery objects. Canvas textures can now be placed on scenery objects. This allows for example creating animated signs/monitors such as a Visual Docking Guidance System.
  • Enable texture repeat for Canvas images
  • Improved support for displaying GUI widgets.
  • Nasal Scripting:
  • All methods exposed to the Nasal props module now accept an optional first parameter refering to another node by a relative path.
  • SimGear's SGTimer class is now fully exposed to Nasal, see the new maketimer() API.
  • Several Nasal bugs that could previously trigger a crash were fixed.
  • Rembrandt:
  • A growing number of aircraft are compliant with the Rembrandt rendering technique.
  • AI Improvements:
  • AI scenarios may now be loaded at runtime.
  • A broad range of AI aircraft received a fresh paint job. The Airbus A320 and A330 have been remodelled, while some other models got improved animations.
  • Air-to-air refueling has been improved:
  • Pilots can now have a choice of a number of AI air-to-air refueling tankers and can select the airspeed of the tanker to match their own aircraft if required.
  • Tankers are more realistic, support multiple refuelling points, configurable fuel flow rates, and the refuelling "envelope" centered on the drogue/boom position.
  • The probe position on the receiving aircraft taken into account when calculating whether contact has been made.
  • Refuelling difficulty is configurable in-sim by setting the distance from the drogue/boom that refuelling occurs.
  • The tanker is now able report a successful contact to the pilot.
  • Regional Textures:
  • The following areas now include their own region-specific texturing and auto-generated models/buildings:
  • Indonesia
  • The Middle East
  • The United Kingdom,
  • The North Atlantic Islands - Faroe, Shetland, Greenland
  • Madagascar
  • Highlighted new and improved aircraft:
  • Mudry CAP 10C
  • Tupolev Tu-154B-2
  • Schleicher ASW 20
  • Other:
  • Additional joysticks and rudder pedals are supported out-of-the-box:
  • GoFlight TQ6-ADV
  • Genius Metalstrike 3D
  • Microsoft SideWinder Precision Racing Wheel rudder pedals

New in FlightGear 2.10.0.3 (Feb 18, 2013)

  • Improved modularization:
  • Architecture improvements introduced in this release mean that subsystems such as the traffic manager may be stopped and re-started dynamically within a simulation session. In future releases it is expected that more and more subsystems will support this function, making FG more scalable, and more flexible for distributed multi-machine simulators.
  • Atmospheric Light Scattering:
  • Atmospheric light scattering is an alternative rendering framework, using exceptionally realistic environment-dependent fog and light computations for clouds and terrain. The simulation includes the following lighting models.
  • Rayleigh, Mie and diffuse multiple scattering of light in the atmosphere, on haze and on clouds, for more realistic atmospheric lighting.
  • Volumetric ground fog simulation, so fog varies in thickness both horizontally and vertically.
  • Realistic ambient and diffuse light curves for sunset and sunrise conditions, making evening flights more realistic.
  • Improved night VFR flying due to a moonlight illumination model.
  • Together with Advanced Weather, it functions as an integrated environment simulation in which the individual elements mutually influence each other. For instance
  • Clouds and winds are influenced by the distribution of terrain elevation
  • Prevailing winds, terrain slopes and stability of the lower atmosphere determine the shape of visible clouds
  • Cloud layers and haze influence color and intensity of light reflections
  • Winds influence wave patterns on water
  • Light at sunrise and sunset is position and altitude dependent, allowing for phenomena such as Alpenglow or brightly illuminated high-altitude clouds while the ground is dark
  • For more powerful graphics cards, the framework includes procedural terrain texturing, including features such as the following.
  • Non-tiling slope dependent terrain texturing, so scenery looks more featured but with fewer tiling artefacts.
  • High resolution close-up texturing effects with up to 10 cm detail resolution and dynamically added bumpmap for low-level flight and better depth perception
  • Environmental effects such as terrain wetness (including puddles), dustiness, mossiness, and snow cover. All adjustable by the user and respecting the terrain slope where appropriate.
  • Improved performance, reduced memory occupancy:
  • Startup time and memory occupancy has been reduced by the implementation of a cache of navigation data. Further memory occupancy reductions have been made by improved random buildings. Frame-rates have been improved when using 3D clouds, particularly in overcast conditions.
  • Usability:
  • Improving FlightGear's usability has been a focus for a number of developers for this release. Changes include:
  • A new tool allowing joystick configuration in-sim, making it easier for new users to configure their joysticks as they wish and get flying!
  • The Nasal Console has been improved to support copy/paste, making Nasal script development easier.
  • The About dialog now includes additional system information, and the ability to copy information to the clipboard, making remote diagnosis of users problems faster and more straightforward.
  • The Select Airport option now displays an overhead view of the selected airport, allowing users to preview their new location, and making it easier to choose the correct runway or parking position.
  • In-sim checklists have been introduced for a number of aircraft.
  • An in-sim documentation browser is included, so users can more easily browse all the documentation available in the base package.
  • The weather configuration UIs have been combined and rationalized into a single weather UI, making it easier to select a nice VFR day, or a difficult CATIII approach.
  • Flight path can now be displayed on the in-sim map.
  • Instant replay may now be saved as a flight recorder, edited externally to add a commentary, and then replayed as a tutorial, with the user able to take control at any point.
  • Multiplayer setup dialog now includes a dynamically generated list of active MP servers, making it even easier to take part in FlightGear's worldwide multi-player environment.
  • Internationalization:
  • FlightGear continued to benefit from contributions from across the globe.
  • The FlightGear Manual is now included in both English and French.
  • System messages on startup are available in eight languages, just like the in-sim menu.
  • Flight Planning and Route Manager:
  • Route Manager now has better support for Navigraph procedures.
  • Auto-generated SIDs and STARs are available for airports where real procedure data is not available. This generates plausible straight in approach and terminal waypoints based on the route course.
  • The "flightplan" Nasal extension function has been improved, making it possible to retrieve a hash representation of the flight plan stored in the route manager. It is now possible to directly show a SVG image for each waypoint and connect them using OpenVG paths.
  • Canvas System:
  • The "canvas" system is FlightGear's fully scriptable 2D rendering system, which makes it possible for users to easily create new instruments, HUDs and even dialogs and custom GUI widgets using FlightGear's built-in scripting language Nasal (which looks really similar to JavaScript). The Canvas can also be used for the creation of complex glass cockpit displays like navigational displays and other MFDs, none of this requires rebuilding FlightGear from source or writing C++ code.
  • Canvas improvements in this release include:
  • Lazy updating/rendering to improve performance in situations where a texture doesn't need to be redrawn
  • Creating GUI windows, including popup menus or menubars
  • Native copy/paste via 2 new Nasal extension functions
  • Nested canvases, where a canvas may contain images created by another canvas texture
  • Window stacking
  • raster images (vector images were already supported)
  • Improved event handling GUI events using osgGA
  • A new DOM-based event handling system
  • Rembrandt:
  • The Rembrandt renderer has been extended with a number of post-processing filters:
  • Night vision including amplification grain and restrained field of view
  • Cinema effect including:
  • Vignetting
  • Color shift, with Sepia as default value
  • Radial distortion (barrel and pincushion distortion, with scale compensation)
  • Lateral chromatic aberration (purple fringing)
  • Film wear simulation
  • Additional aircraft have been updated to make use of Rembrandt effects.
  • AI Improvements:
  • AI aircraft take-offs and landings are now more realistic.
  • AI tankers can now be found using the HUD target marker.
  • Regional Textures:
  • Building on the work in 2.8, the following areas now have region-specific texture-sets for more realistic terrain:
  • Caribbean
  • Western Europe
  • Iceland
  • Tropical South America
  • Highlighted new and improved aircraft:
  • The Boeing 777 has improved cockpit, PFD and NavDisplay.
  • The Dassault Mirage 2000-5 has various instrumentation, HUD and stores added.
  • The Douglas A-4F Skyhawk has an improved FDM and cockpit, including terrain-clearance radar and navigational computer.
  • The Hawker Hurricane has improved FDM and cockpit.
  • The Mudry Cap 10B, a classic French two-seat training aerobatic aircraft has been added by the PAF team.
  • Other:
  • Additional joysticks and rudder pedals are supported out-of-the-box.
  • An interactive aircraft download page allows users to filter aircraft based on their level of completeness and accuracy, making it easier to discover the true gems of our extensive hangar.

New in FlightGear 2.8.0.5 (Dec 6, 2012)

  • V2.8.0 includes improvements making FlightGear world more realistic than ever before. Placement of random buildings and trees match the underlying terrain texture, and urban areas now have denser random buildings. Textures can be region specific, and users can select between summer and winter textures in-sim. An improved atmospheric scattering and terrain haze model means the lighting of the terrain is more realistic. Finally, a new automated system is now available for scenery submissions that automatically get rolled into the scenery distribution to be enjoyed by everyone.
  • Some of the major changes include:
  • AI Traffic:
  • Improved aircraft models and textures.
  • Flight dynamics
  • FlightGear has been synced with the JSBSim project.
  • Environment:
  • Region-specific terrain textures are used for Europe and Hawaii. Now towns in Europe look different from towns in the USA.
  • Cities and towns now look more populated due to random 3D buildings, complete with lighting at night.
  • Scenery looks more realistic due to improved placement of random objects, buildings and trees.
  • Airport signs are now rendered in 3D, with support for double-sided signs. Full apt.dat 850 syntax is supported.
  • You can now select between summer and winter scenery in-sim.
  • Instruments & HUDs:
  • A new flexible, 2D rendering system designed for complex instruments such as CDUs, MFDs, EICAS, HUDs and other glass cockpit interfaces. Canvas allows aircraft designers to easily build complex instruments without needing specialized C++ code.
  • Interface:
  • Support for translation of the main menu into languages other than English.
  • A Nasal API is available allowing access to Navigation and route-manager data.
  • Highlighted new and improved aircraft:
  • Airwave Xtreme 150: complete new (JSBSim) flight dynamics, new model, advanced pilot animations.
  • Cessna 337G Skymaster
  • Project infrastructure:
  • Various improvements to our scenery database make it easier than ever to add, delete or update objects to the FlightGear world.
  • The new aircraft download page allows you to easily find quality aircraft, by filtering on status indications.
  • Visual effects:
  • Improved simulation of atmospheric light scattering with terrain haze.
  • An experimental renderer, named after the famous painter Rembrandt, is included for testing purposes. The Rembrandt rendered supports multiple light sources (landing lights, instrument lights), real-time shadows and ambient occlusion across aircraft and scenery for a much more realistic visual experience.
  • Other:
  • Additional joysticks and rudder pedals are supported out-of-the-box:
  • InterLink Elite
  • Micorosft Xbox 360 Controller
  • Qware USB
  • Saitek Cyborg X (F.L.Y. 5)
  • Saitek Pro Flight Cessna Yoke
  • Saitek Pro Flight Cessna Trim Wheel
  • Saitek Pro Flight Cessna Rudder Pedals
  • Speedlink Defender
  • A French partial translation of The FlightGear Manual is now available.