Microprose is releasing more and more hints about their Outerra based flightsim, The Mighty Eighth, even as the Outerra developers themselves have been silent for quite some time, I suspect due to licensing and keeping things under wraps.

Perhaps not for that much longer.....

Lots of quiet progress has apparently been made on the world of Outerra.

Outerra World Sandbox

Also: (you may see glimpses of the Outerra world, here....)

https://www.microprose.com/games/the-mighty-eighth/

Never underestimate the freeware creators and modders!!!

Quote

It is my pleasure to release an upgrade of my previous mig29-fly77 mod for the new 64 bit version of outerra.

Download the model files from here (for installation instructions see below)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1SpuGU-tZ6SFR9zftlN6HczqnqRoKFPCt?usp=sharing

20.0.0.12677
* 64-bit version
* 3D trees
* global city dataset
* global imagery resolution 20m (adjustable, default 40m, demo mode 160m)
* forest map resolution 10m (adjustable, default 20m, demo mode 80m)
* dynamic environment reflections
* cloud shadows
* global weather from captured satellite data
* scriptable scenery objects
* ...

The Ceo of TitanIM (Using Outerra engine) has also been posting on the Microprose Twitter...

• Collision shape support in importer : will allow collisions with statics objects (and maybe trees)
• Lights support

• $include support for scripts
• uncached video capture (faster)

Clouds may also be released for the first time with this update, if Cameni manage to solve some of the remaining problems:
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-ts=1421782837&v=laBpPERiCMM&x-yt-cl=84359240

Anyway, even though the thing is still not finished and it's not unlikely that it will be redone differently yet, I think there will be a testable ugly version soon™ to break the fast. A couple of things that prevent me from pushing it out now - rendering not working when you are inside the cloud, cloud cover missing after 100km, and various artifacts. I'd at least like to fix the inside rendering before the release, but I'm not sure what obstacles await me there yet.

This is using a global cloud density map with resolution around 5km, which is driving the fractal cloud generator. Both the speed of clouds and dynamics of shape change are adjustable, although the wind speed is global and blowing always to the west.

 
 
Some additionnal informations:

How complex are the cloud formations that can be made? Or is it just a layer of clouds at a certain altitude?


Right now it's just a single layer. High altitude clouds will be in other (simpler) ones. Some other clouds will be probably created on top of this layer but using a different technique. The used fractal gives it somehow unified look, so I would like to use some predefined patterns broken by fractals in the future, but there's a problem how to map these onto a spherical world.

I have a hunch that the resources used here might be of use, Cameni: https://www.windyty.com/?surface,wind,now,42.064,-87.992,4


Yea that would be ideal as one of possible weather drivers. Right now we are using a single 8k*4k texture with cloud densities (~5km res), and rotating it. From weather plugins we would need at least two such maps, each representing a snapshot at different time. The density will be interpolated between them; meanwhile the plugin would prepare the next one. This would provide weather that predeterminedly lags behind the real one.
Another option, that also allows weather modification, is to simulate weather cells and precipitation transfers, winds, sources and sinks.

From the ground:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=84359240&x-yt-ts=1421782837&v=TUOgf3YPgfw

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I have the pleasure to share here with you (see download link below) the extraordinarily beautiful and extended "Bodo" scenery,  
created with love, creativity and lots of attention to detail and correspondence to reality by aWac9 apparently in years of work and with incredible patience.

The scenery reproduces Bodo, a small nice city having about 50000 inhabitants, located in the north of norway just beyond the arctic circle in the midst 
of beautiful fjords and icy mountains and islands, not far from some renown locations such as the lofoten islands 93km 315º (NW) from Bodo. 

It is an honour that I could receive this scenery from aWac9 and we agreed that it should be a great contribution to share with the community.

This scenery is for earth2 ! meaning that when entering the outerra startup window you need to choose planet "earth2" and not the present "earth7". 
Don't be mislead however... while it doesn't use the latest earth7 the realism and detail of the scenery greatly outperforms the default earth7 scenery !
In my humble opinion it sets a landmark and target of correspondence to reality for cities for future outerra versions, that we hope will be matched or exceeded.

The scenery at the moment requires at least 3 Gbyte of space on your outerra installation drive. 
Another limitation could be that you might notice a drop in frame rates because of the sheer amount of buildings and some very detailed models placed in the scenery. 
So you eventually will need to experiment with the outerra settings.

https://forum.outerra.com/index.php?topic=3901.0;topicseen

It's a pleasure to present here un upgraded version of Levi's
Airbus A380-800 model. To make the model more enjoyable I added
cockpit lights as well as emissive gauge textures, landing lights, navigation and strobe lights as well as gear lights.
It seems something had already been done on cockpit lights by uriah but 
I worked on a version of the A380 without cockpit lights and so I decided to add my own.

Also in addition to the default external view (key "C") and pilot view I added some other first person view cameras which allow 
some new nice views including also a 
"fly-by" view as common in flight simulators as well as a 
"formation-flight" camera that simulates the view of the plane from another plane

Commands:

press "L" key to switch on landing lights
press "shift+L" to switch on cockpit lights
press "shift + N" to switch on navigation lights
press "cntrl + L" to switch on strobe lights

cameras: 

press c for external camera
press v for first-person view cameras: left pilot seat cockpit camera
press v once more for right seat cockpit camera
press v once more for left wing camera  (look around with mouse)
press v once more for right wing camera (look around with mouse)
press v once more for landing gear camera
press v once more for "fly-by" camera watching the from outside plane fly by
press v once more for "formation flight" camera watching the plane from outside keeping the ability to look around with the mouse
press key "H" to increase "fly-by range"
press key "J" to decrease "fly-by range"
Press numpad + and - to zoom in and out

ENJOY ! 

Anyway, lest one think things have utterly died, just updating a few of the things currently happening with Outerra. (And by the way, following the trend, Outerra is also going 64Bit)

Outerra Anteworld Forest Dataset Comparison

Bern with imported forest map applied. Using Global Forest Change dataset from UMD to get a global tree coverage.

Outerra F/A-18E/F Super Hornet MPCD / ATFLIR

Moonlight shadows

Dynamically controlled emissive textures

Enhanced car physics, controls. New OSM road import (Switzerland).

Early multiplayer test with aircraft. Server in Slovakia, two clients in France and Mexico.

• Lakes (worldwide) & land below sea level support
• River width variation, riverbed modulation, rocks in rivers.
• Boats working on rivers and lakes
• Updated water rendering (not final), adjustable wave parameters
• Lightnings & thunders.
• Refined elevation data, enhanced US coastal bathymetry
• OSM Roads (world coverage), including airport footprints
• (experimental) global buildings coverage, currently limited to small villages, full coverage will be coming with new pipeline after some more performance optimizations and tuning.
  (disabled by default; activate it in menu/world/datasets, full version only)
• PBR material rendering fixes and updates (new GGX roughness shader)
• Grass runway type
• Working tire friction on moving objects
• Vehicle physics optimizations, objects wake up by craters appearing, vehicle vibrations fix
• Steering animations
• New vehicles: BK 117 Helicopter, F-16 Fighting Falcon, M1 Abrams, ASLAV, HMS sailboat, donated by Titan
• Buggy (OT original design)
• 2500+ Buildings Library (with night emissive textures)

https://forum.outerra.com/index.php?topic=3746.0;topicseen

FORGOTTEN ISLAND

« on: July 12, 2017, 03:33:14 pm »

Quote from AndFly

I have devoted much of my free time these months to trying to lay the foundations of a project that excites my imagination: creating an isolated environment (an island, just) where I gather things I like, without thinking too much about Reality (but with tremendous attention to Realism) I would like to combine the representation of wilder and primordial nature with super-technological and futuristic aspects.

The world of Outerra is well suited for this purpose: the environment is fantastic, the engine manages to support the coexistence of innumerable models without any significant slowdowns, the methods and functions for programming allow "a great deal of maneuver" ... adding A little fancy and research and continuous study to find and implement "ever better" solutions, I thought I could be "at least beginning".

Before presenting the project I have to give thanks:

The first thanks to cameni, who has previewed this work on behalf of the developers and gave her approval.

Then I thank the builders of three-dimensional models that make their work, free of charge, available on free download sites. I would not have been able to build Brachiosaurus and Pteranodon ... I found them on the CadNav site (http://www.cadnav.com/), worrying about choosing the ones defined: "Free (Personal and Commercial)".

The link to download the mod is this:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6114pZ3kPTgVG5xbUdEVEZLVTg/view?usp=sharing

And now some descriptions:

The first aspect is the wild and mysterious setting. This video explains what I mean.

Then we have to include living forms (real, fantasy, current, past ...).
It is important, in my opinion, not to have limits derived from historical or climatic logic.
All that inspires emotion is permissible. If you succeed (and it is not easy) too: surprise and wonder.
The only focus is: do not fall into ridicule!
There are also limits to the most unbridled fantasy that, if passed, can lead to "bad taste".

For now the island is still poorly populated but, if the enthusiasm does not abandon me, it is my intention to add another life.

One thing can be immediately noticed: the lack of Land animals on the move! The explanation is simple ... I did not realize the difficulties! Animating a fish or a bird is relatively easy, even if you do not do an accurate job it is enough to wiggle the wings or move the tail to recreate the feeling of movement.

With an animal or a human being things change! I thought it was enough to put one leg behind the other and swing your arms ...

Now let me explain why in the videos of the great entertainment software companies you see the studios with real actors, black dresses and white balls in the joints, ... a "credible" movement is very articulate, better recorded live than designing mathematical algorithms capable of play it! This does not mean that it is impossible ... but it requires me to study and search for documentation and examples on the web.

(The first attempts were so ridiculous that they were not yet worthy of publication! )

The final part of the job is to equip the vehicle user to use in the exploration of the environment and thus create a more direct involvement, giving the feeling of "being there".
For the moment I have inserted two of my old models: the sailboat and the submarine (they are in the small bay near the center of the island).But nothing is forbidden to use other models already in Anteworld.

Is still a little .... but there is still (for now) little to see ...

Fortunately, Outerra expects the use of "UFO" mode, which at the moment is the best way to explore the entire environment.

Some little advice:
* Try diving, with the submarine, night (no moon) ... Outerra is amazing ...
* If you are lucky enough to utilize the oculus rift, try to approach the ocean animals of Forgot Island.
You will have an idea of the mastodontic size of a whale and megalodon ...
* You can attend the exit of the bats from 16 to 19 and at the entrance from 6 to 8.
* You can use the individual models of Forgot Island even in other places.
 They have only a limited range of 10 or 20 km from the point where they are positioned.

What to say in conclusion?

I hope this job is fun and enjoyable.
I hope he can convey at least a little of the emotions that have caused me to build it.
I hope his praises are superior to his (yet many) defects to perfect ...

In conclusion
Good Exploration !!!

***

Let's start with some awesomeness : Outerra has currently no MFD or dynamic textures support. But we do have Uriah (devellopping the AeroKinetics mod), and Uriah is crazy.
So he came up with his own solution to display dynamic data on texture, using meshes and hide/show scripts reading JBSIM data.
 

Without render to texture, I had to make multiple meshes per number/letter to be displayed. Each mesh has a different material/texture applied to it and all the meshes are hidden by the script except the one matching the current alphanumeric value of the variable. If you just need to display numbers, each digit requires ten meshes, with materials for numbers 0 through 9. If you need to display just letters, each requires 26 meshes, A through Z. If you need it to display numbers and letters, 36 meshes, 0-9, A-Z, and symbols, etc. This method can be used for more advanced display elements, such as a Heading Indicator (horizontal compass), or Attitude Indicator. The complexity is greater because the hide/show logic needs to account for X, Y, Z rotation/translation coordinates, and hide elements as they move "off screen". I already have a working Heading Indicator, but it has a few bugs that needs to be fixed.

 
 


 
 
Forum post here
 
He is working with Levi to add this feature in his upcoming F-117 port 

Are they only developing features for military applications / their military customers and have given up on a commercial mass-produced rendering/planetary engine?

It looks like X-Plane will be at their second major release of a full blown simulator before Outerra has a finished product. Just curious. 

http://forum.outerra.com/index.php?topic=3659.0;topicseen

Source:

http://reset-game.net/?p=752

And "Outerra as a flight simulator" By David McClean. 

http://titanim.net/www/

• Ted Stevens (ANC), with a fairly low detail level. No surroundings, only the runways and taxiways layout and some placeholder buildings. I have created this basic airport layout for Levi's A380 (hard to land this thing on a gravel airstrip). Since Anchorage is a very dense scenery, working on it with current tools would be really hard so I'm just gonna keep this basic version for big airliners, and will focus on smaller density airports.
• Talkeetna (PATK) is one of these. More detailed, located in a fairly nice landscape, not far away from Denali park.

Disclaimer: yes, this is not ORBX.
I have started to create these scenes mostly because I was under the impression that, without human made landmarks, it was really hard to get a true perspective of distances in Outerra. The engine only allow for the moment creation of roads and buildings placement. There is no terrain modification tool, no possibility to modify the vegetation distribution (outside than a dull hack involving a blank road vector). Everything is hand made. Even limited, the current tools are extremly powerful : Ted Stevens scenery was made in less than 3 hours. I hope you will enjoy it, this is a work in progress and updates will come!
 
If you have suggestions to improve the current Outerra road tools, check here.
 
Installation
Unzip the archive. Copy the content of the cache folder in your own Outerra folder (not the program files one), located by default in Yourname/Outerra/cache/.
If you want a quick and easy access to these airports, you can copy the content of the campos folder included in this package in Yourname/Outerra/campos/earth. It will add two new entries in the Locations menu (F2).

Warning!
Please note that tthis operation will erase all roads and object placement you may have done in this area of the world. Files included are : cache/earth/object/+z/11, 12 and 13.  I included a map in the .zip wich show what region of the world is modified. I strongly recommend to make a backup of you own cache/earth folder before installing the new ones.
I will try to update this scene when I have time, so I don't recommend you to add your own roads in this region, any new update using my cache will erase them.
 
Required models
This folder only contains roads data and buildings position data.
It does not however, come with these buildings. I have listed below all the models used in this scene. You can install them and thanks their creators :smile: . Most of the models use the .otx format. You just need to click on the file, follow the instructions and the content will be installed in the proper location.
If you load the scenery without having installed these buildings, the console will pop-up and show a wild number of red errors (and these models won't be here, of course). You can close the console using the "p" key. Even with all the models installed, you will still get errors messages, from a broken model. This is gonna be corrected in the future.
 
Buildings list (v0.2):

• NewS's awesome Scandinavian houses pack: http://forum.outerra.com/index.php?topic=1546.0
• Murkz's hangar type k: http://forum.outerra.com/index.php?topic=2050.0
• Deathevor's Soviet Building: http://forum.outerra.com/index.php?topic=1469.0> (yes, in Alaska  :rolleyes: ) and his Outerra Billboard: http://forum.outerra.com/index.php?topic=1561.0
• NewS's locomotive pack (with a few buildings): http://forum.outerra.com/index.php?topic=1536.0
• Mori's models: http://forum.outerra.com/index.php?topic=2065.0
• Planets's radio telescopes : http://forum.outerra.com/index.php?topic=2655.0

I couldn't find back the thread for ProfessorX various models I'm using in this scene, so I have included them in this package. You need to extract it in YourName/Outerra/packages/ProfessorX.
 
World2XPlane models will be added soon, as well as other various buildings.
 
Screenshots

(Outerra does not support rivers vectors, yet)

Changelog:
 
v0.2
Talkeetna modfications

• Improved roads and additional buildings.
• Added a few missing locations at the east of the city.
• Added roads, buildings and fields on the west bank of Chulitna River
• Two dirt runways on the west bank of Chulitna River

Changing snow levels can be cool on that specific scene. HiFlyer have done a complete tutorial for that here.
Talkeetna region under snow is visible in this video from user M7: http://youtu.be/8saphXmNvXc.

An OT user, langdon, developed a small plugin to inject direct FSX/P3D player location (with FSUIPC) using this API. As a result, he is able to use FSX FM and planes on Outerra. Note that only the plane location is shared, not the plane model and the systems. langdon is using a home made set up, with instruments rendered on a laptop for that.

You can find the thread (and the plugin here: http://forum.outerra.com/index.php?topic=2705.45).

Some videos of the result in motion:
Langdon used my LFNA scenery and the result seems to match very well, even at runway level.

An other one, by Rudeboy:

I run Linux Mint 17.1 XFCE with latest Nvidia drivers (980GTX) and get these errors before application fails and closes down.

1) Unable to find Nvidia driver version number. Please update you graphics card drivers,......
2) Error initializing OpenGL subsystem. This program requires OpenGL 3.3 capable graphics card with recent drivers. No suitable pixel format found.

If by miracle someone is able to help me, cheers

Its a nice feature, but for those who simply want the entire dataset at one time, and wish to dispense with the real-time loading, you can download the entire thing here: http://forum.outerra.com/index.php?topic=2396.0

For me its much nicer to just zoom anywhere I want without waiting for things to load, no matter how quickly! 

Let me start with a brief history of the engine for people that might be interested in how it came to be and where it's now (and where it is going).

Outerra started in 2008 as a hobby project, evolving from an earlier fractal terrain program. This was the first iteration of the to-be Outerra engine in summer 2008:



It was a hobby project back then, and probably a very few people would have guessed it's got any future.
The first video that hinted at any flight simulator potential was shown in summer 2009, followed by the "Cessna Test Flight" video that first raised interest from the flight sim community.

• A prototype demonstrating all the potential and important basic capabilities.
  
  Generally, for successful campaign we will need a prototype showcasing the potential and addressing the main concerns. The prototype is also needed for other developers that would want to prepare and develop early for the simulator. That means enhanced scenery tools, stuff like basic weather support, plugin support for simulation cores, 3D cockpits and instrument rendering, support for other simulator types (mainly the rails for the prototype) and more.
  Note that even though these will be fully developed as a part of the simulator work, initial versions have to be created for the prototype to convince a significant part of the target audience.
   
• Getting support or endorsement from addon and HW makers early in the process, best ahead of the campaign launch.
  
  The prototype already needs to be created with this in mind, as the addon makers are essential for the success of the platform, and also the crowd-funding goals could be hardly achievable without some declaration of support from the developers.
   
• Making the simulator platform universal, suitable not only for flight but also other simulator types - vehicles and rails, sea and deep waters as well as the space, to make it appealing to a wider user base. With Outerra it's realistically achievable on a global scale.
  
  There's more to it - our goal is actually to make it possible to plug in multiple simulator cores, even for the same type. For example, ground vehicles can be simulated in a simple way as it is currently done in the tech demo, where they are using a simplified physics core with raycast wheels. There could be a more advanced simulation plugin possibly developed by a racing specialist, where tires and transmission are simulated in complex way. Aircraft are currently using JSBSim core, but the simulator is meant to be designed in a way that developers can plug their own core, and have other developers using it instead of the default one for their models.
  
  This has also some downsides, as some hardcore flight simmers will fear that a universal simulator will compromise on the flight sim aspect, so this needs to be addressed in the campaign.

There's a lot more things that have to be addressed for such a project, but these are probably the most important ones early on. The prototype will probably take most of the time, depending how far we'll have to go with it. We would welcome your opinions in this regard - where to draw the line between what the prototype must have and what's best left for the project itself, balancing the time needed for the former with a reduced workforce vs. the enticing potential of the campaign when less of it is shown in the prototype.

Of course, if crowd-funding becomes the chosen way to create an OT-based simulator platform, it will be essentially driven by you, and we would like to hear your opinions on every aspect of it. This newly created forum looks like an ideal start point for the discussion.

Thanks everybody in advance for participation!