# FGFS Design Proposals

This is a historic document, kept for nostalgic purposes. Note its date.

Original Flight Gear Proposal -- revision 3.0.1
by David L. Murr -- dmurr@pen.k12.va.us (Updated 10/30/1996)

FLIGHT GEAR FLIGHT SIMULATOR
revision 3.0.1 - Friday, Sep.11.98
"The future of flight simulation is here"
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Table of Contents
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I. Introduction to the project/Mission Statement
II. News and updates (project status)
III. A simplified wish-list
IV. An explanation about GNU
V. Contacting the Development Committee

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I. INTRODUCTION TO THE PROJECT / MISSION STATEMENT

On April 8, 1996, David Murr (dmurr@pen.k12.va.us), drawing on ideas
brought forth by others, proposed a new flight simulator developed by
volunteers over the Internet. This flight simulator was to be
distributed free of charge via the Internet and similar networks.

Since that day, the project that has come to be known as "Flight Gear
Flight Simulator" has mushroomed in size and scope. As of this
writing, a large number of people have inquired about the project and
offered their services in various areas, including kernel development,
world building, documentation writers, and testers. In only a few
short months, Flight Gear has managed to attract the attention of at
least one prominent flight sim magazine, Computer Pilot, as well as a
chance encouter with a real life aerospace company.

So, what exactly is our goal? Briefly, it is to create a new flight
simulator from scratch that:

* is freely available from the Internet and possibly CD-ROMs
* is developed cooperatively over the Internet by fellow
simmers
* is in agreement with the GNU license
* accurately models the geography of the entire world
* has accurate flight modeling
* has extendable capabilities by providing the simulator's
source code and extensive documentation of file structures.

If you would like more information on the current events regarding
FGFS, please visit the FGFS website at:

http://www.menet.umn.edu/~clolson/fgfs/

This page is maintained by Curt Olson. Another site for miscellaneous
information will be served at: http://www.erols.com/fsnews/fgfs/.

If you are unfamiliar with the concept by which Flight Gear will be
developed and distributed, please see resources on the following
software projects:

* Linux (http://www.linux.org)
* POV-Ray (http://www.povray.org)

II. NEWS AND UPDATES (as of November 1, 1996)

Please check the Flight Gear website for the most recent information,
however, as of Nov. 1, 1996, these people are known to be working on
the following items:

* Eric Korpela (Kernel [DOS, Linux, SUN-OS])
- Implementing basic functions for Flight Gear
- Kernel development
- Adding keyboard and mouse support

* Curt Olson (Admin/PR/Kernel)
- Picking apart another free flight simulator for Linux, ACM, to
try and extract information that might be useful to FGFS
- Maintaining the mailing list and website

* Dean Catalano (Flight Modeling)
- Working on flight modeling

* Michael Basler (Docs)
- Coming up with some preliminary documentation provided in
LaTeX and PostScript formats

* David Murr (Admin)
- Converting LaTeX documentation source to HTML

* Matt Pickering (Win95 port, PR)
- Working on a port of FGFS to Windows 95
- Bussiness connection

III. A SIMPLIFIED "WISH-LIST"

This list should not be considered complete at all. It is just a small
listing of features that we would like to see incorperated in version
1.0 of Flight Gear and beyond.

- Multi-player functions for local networks, modem connections, and over
the Internet
- An interactive, intelligent ATC. Simulator add-ons such as Flight Simulator
Flight Shop provide ATC functions, but often do not recognize the
area's topography, sometimes leading one into mountains and other
objects.
- MSFS 5.1-level graphics or better. 24-bit graphics are being explored at
this time.
- Acceptable frame-rates on a 486DX-66. Optimal minimum system configuration
might be: Pentium 133MHz, 24-bit graphics card, Linux or Windows 95,
1-2MB of VRAM, a sound card, CD-ROM, and a mouse or compatible pointing
device.
- Possible compatibility with Microsoft Flight Simulator scenery files.
Please understand that this is NOT very likely, especially in the early
stages of Flight Gear, however, if this is possible, it would allow
coverage of a vast part of the world already designed (originally for
FS5/FSFW95)
- A wide selection of default available aircraft.
- GPS display and other such modern avionics on the default panels

At this point, we're looking at the following operating systems for porting:
* Linux/X11/Mesa/3dfx/glide/etc.
* Windows 95/98/NT
* IRIX
* SUN-OS
* Other Unix
* MacOS
* OS/2 (?)

If there are any features you'd like to see that you haven't seen
mentioned on the website or in this document, please submit them to us
on the mailing list.

IV. THE GNU PUBLIC LICENSE

Please see: http://www.erols.com/fsnews/fgfs/gnu/ for a copy of the
GNU License. It is rather long, and as such, we are not including it
directly in this propsal document.

V. CONTACTING THE DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

* People:

dmurr@pen.k12.va.us - David Murr, Administration
- Curt Olson, Admin/PR/Kernel
pmb@knUUt.de - Michael Basler, Documentation
korpela@ssl.Berkeley.EDU - Eric Korpela, Kernel Development

Please note that there are many other people working on this project,
however, the people listed here are basically team liasons and should
be able to help you or refer you to the appropriate person.

* Flight Gear on the Web:

http://www.menet.umn.edu/~clolson/fgfs/ - Main FGFS Website
http://www.erols.com/fsnews/fgfs/ - Ancillary site

* Flight Gear Developer's Mailing List:

Send an e-mail to message to: flight-gear-request@infoplane.com with
SUBSCRIBE in the body of the message to subscribe to the list.

To send a message to the list participants, send your post to:
flight-gear@infoplane.com.

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### Latest Version

v2.0.0 - 18 Feb 2010

A new major update of the FligtGear simulator. Please check the readme

### Notam

Would all pilots try and avoid mpserver02 as its often overloaded.