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Creating planes for Micro Flight
Micro Flight supports several types of vehicles, the following sections show the detailes of the various formats of these vehicles and gives instructions for creating them.

All of these vehicles have intrument panels which share the same format and are documented in the following sections.

  Plane Tutorial Main Page   Airplanes Hang gliders
  Gyroplanes   Balloons   Helicopters
  Land vehicles   Instrument panels   Weapons

The foot launched gliders are built in the format of HangSim gliders, they are based upon a chracter animation for the pilot which is used in chase view, and a static wing model that is used in pilot view.

The aircraft directory inside the MicroFlight directory containes the available gliders, each glider is placed inside a directory inside the MicroFlight\aircraft directory.

Inside each glider directory are the following files:

Glider.cfg
This file containes the aerodynamic characteristecs of the glider and a short description for it.

The structure of the Glider.cfg file is as follows:

----------------------------------------
0
30.0
16.0
0.05
0.025
120.0
3.5
0.3
0.0
0.15
1.0
650.0
6.0
6.0
3.0
0.0
----------------------------------------@
Low preformance Trainer.
High wing area, low speed , low glide ratio.
breaks easily , Unpowered .
Excells in slow speed , good for rigde flights.
Poor penetration against head winds.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Explanation:


This file is composed of two sections:

1.the glider data:

HasEngine; // does the glider have engine 0 or 1
VNE = 30; // never exceed speed
s = 16.0; // m^2
cd0 = 0.05; // unitless
ki = 0.025; // unitless
float m = 120.0; // kg
cla = 3.5; // unitless
al_max = 0.3; // radians
al_min = 0.0; // radians
alfa0 = 0.15; // radians
th_factor = 1.0; // thrust efficiency
th_static = 650; // static thrust newtons
g_max = 6; // max g
sink_max = 6; // max sink rate on ground
thermal_sense = 3; // thermal sensitivity factor
glider type = 0; // 0 - hang glider 1 - convetional 2 - paraglider

2. The glider description :

this part is a simple text only section that must begin with @ and endes when the file ends.

Wing_0.x
This is the main model file for the glider without the pilot, this model file will be used only from the pilot's view.

This is a simple one frame hirarchy mesh file, it can be created by converting a 3DS file into an X file by using the command "conv3ds -m [filename.3ds]" , conv3ds.exe is a small freeware converter written by Microsoft.

Wing_fa.x
This is an animated mesh file which includes the glider and the pilot, this model file will be used only for the chase and leave view.

This file can be created by converting a 3DS file into an X file by using the command "conv3ds -A [filename.3ds]" , conv3ds.exe is a small freeware converter written by Microsoft.

The animation containes 120 frames with the following keys:


0 - pilot is standing

0 - 30 - pilot is running

30 - 60 - transition phase

60 - 70 speed effects

70 - 80 transition phase

80 - 100 breaking phase

100 - 120 pilot's behaviour while glider broken.

Wing_fb.x
This is the simple model file for the glider as a traffic object , this model file will be used only for traffic items of this glider only.

This is a simple one frame hirarchy mesh file, it can be created by converting a 3DS file into an X file by using the command "conv3ds -m [filename.3ds]" , conv3ds.exe is a small freeware converter written by Microsoft.

The X files may contain any number of textures, the format of these textures must be a BMP file ( 256 colors or better ) and it must be rectangular with size of 16x16 to 256x256 pixels.

All these textures will be placed into the glider directory so the program can find it when loading a glider.

Download sample source files for a glider and conv3ds