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SODE Jetway Control

12bPilot

12bPilot

Messages
611
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switzerland
Hi,

Here is a quick video showing the current development state of the jetway control system. A 'thank you' goes to Tic for providing his static jetway model for the development!
The user can assign a jetway to a desired aircraft door. The door positions are extracted from the aircraft.cfg [exits] section. So, in theory, also AI planes could be served (but not implemented at the moment).


There will be a custom max script that will take a static model as an input and by a press of a button, it will create a correctly animated jetway to use with SODE :) More details on the script will be posted when I release this.

-Jeff

P.S. The animations run smooth in FSX, the choppy playback comes from the video capturing software I used...
 
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dave hoeffgen

dave hoeffgen

Resource contributor
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1,439
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germany
Nice!!

Are you planning any support for Blender? or a doc how this jetway has to be rigged manually?

Keep up the good work:)
 
Marc L

Marc L

Messages
2,129
Country
france
Cool,
But, can you explain what is it please? :) a Scennery you are doing? an addon to get Gates ? or something for people who need Gates for their scenery?

Grtz :), Aviana Scenery
 
12bPilot

12bPilot

Messages
611
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switzerland
dave hoeffgen said:
Nice!!

Are you planning any support for Blender? or a doc how this jetway has to be rigged manually?

Keep up the good work:)
Click to expand...

One of my "design goals" of this year is to start using Blender. So perhaps I might end up with writing something for that. But for the initial release, there will only be that max script. I will update the documentation to include a description of the principle behind, so you can rig up the animation and the necessary parameters yourself.
 
Marc L

Marc L

Messages
2,129
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france
Cool :), but the Gate can be placed on a scenery via an Object placement? and then Scenery got gates that moves? :)
 
7

737freak

Messages
50
Country
netherlands
Jeffrey,

This is an impressive and much needed innovation! What you have accomplished so far (regarding SODE as a whole and this next step) is a very important step towards 'phasing out' AES as the only proper jetway implementation and reduce the community's dependency on AES.

I would personally recommend turning this part of SODE into a specific payware addon for jetway animation that allows users to swap existing jetway models for animated ones.

A product based on this could look something like this:
- Include a variation of jetway models: USA, European, Asian, glass, closed off, high, low, A380-type, large, small, older perpendicular sliding type, etc.
- Include a detailed paint kit system for these models to allow user customization (repaint packs like PMDG?).
- Include a GUI that allows to the user to place the models on 3rd party scenery, from inside the sim (like instant scenery?).
- Include an easy tool to exclude existing static models from 3rd party airport terminals.
- Inlcude a tool to generate the xml code per airport that the user 'fills' with jetways.

I think it is very important that we see some kind of universal & cross platform standard for jetway animation. Right now, one party has to much 'power', so it would make sense to start a trend where jetway implementation is shifted from a 3rd party to the scenery developers and end users as much a possible.

Anyway, I wish you good luck with the development. Let's hope it starts a revolution regarding jetways... :)
 
12bPilot

12bPilot

Messages
611
Country
switzerland
I'm quite happy how my jetway control system has grown in the meantime. I tested, if the jetways could also serve AI planes and yes, that coding effort was successful! :)

I attached a screenshot of my test site with multiple test jetways placed and two AI planes being served. Also notice the random orientation of the jetways that changes everytime you restart SODE!

The second shot shows another innovation, the jetway hood is a modelled with two bones, one for the front and the aft edge. With that, the hood can follow the contours of the aircraft fuselage much better! In the shot, you see the default 737 which has a very extreme fuselage curvature around the main door.

What I managed to do so far:
  • maxScript that generates a fully skinned and animated model by a press of a button! You just provide a static model with a specific naming convention for the different jetway parts, the script does the rest! Using a skinned mesh, the jetway only uses 1 drawcall.
  • Support for the "typical" jetway-type (rotation, elevation, telescope-extension). It also supports up to 3 bridge elements/segments.
  • Support for stairs.
  • Text menu based jetway control system: The user can select which jetway drives to which door (multiple jetways/doors supported)!
  • Optional, randomized positioning (rotation, length, elevation) of the jetways on every startup.
  • Preliminary AI aircraft support. Multi door support still to be developed...
The next steps will be the support of LODs in the maxScript (proof-of-concept done) and the multi door support for AI aircraft. As a further step, other jetway types will be included.

To ensure the stability of the system, I'm asking for some brave people to test this with their scenery. So if you are using SODE already and want to test the jetway control system, please write a PM. I'll be providing the test jetway, which you can place wherever you want.
 

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  • SODE_Jetway_Hood.png
    SODE_Jetway_Hood.png
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Marc L

Marc L

Messages
2,129
Country
france
Unbelievable :) :)

Lazaro: I think its Free :), but still too awesome thing to be really Free :)
 
N

nzeddy

Messages
231
Country
newzealand
Yes! Looks amazing. :D Hopefully 3rd party developers start using this for their jetways instead of needing AES for animated jetways.

Does SODE work with P3D V2?
 
12bPilot

12bPilot

Messages
611
Country
switzerland
nzeddy said:
Does SODE work with P3D V2?
Click to expand...

Well, not officially, as my computer can't handle P3D v2...so you can imagine where I want to invest the donations ;)
But some developers have released sceneries compatible with P3D v2 using SODE and because it's all SimConnect code, no major faults so far.
 
O

ollyau

Resource contributor
Messages
1,026
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us-california
Very cool! Also, if you don't mind explaining: how do you control the movement of the model? I'm curious if a similar method could be used in other applications (e.g. aerial refueling where the drogue actually connects to the refueling probe).
 
7

737freak

Messages
50
Country
netherlands
Very impressive Jeffrey! I really hope this becomes a serious alternative for AES, but that depends on developer support & utilization I guess. Good luck with further development of this feature!:)
 
N

nz255

Messages
393
Country
newzealand
This is great. Could you catch the normal control j command to activate the jetway? If there are multiple choices then it could bring up the window. You may have to have a dummy jetway placed so you don't get the no jetway message...not sure if this will effect fps
 
DrzewieckiDesign

DrzewieckiDesign

Messages
118
Jeffrey is doing a great job with this software. It provides a very convenient in-scenery solution (without extra add-ons) to animate jetways, vehicles, hangar doors, to switch seasons automatically and do much more stuff. It works in P3D, models can even have LODs and although they are placed in SimObjects folder you can use your project's original textures from Addon Scenery (using [fltsim] / fallback.1=(...) ). You can also program multiple jetways to operate together (no limitations). We hope to see more developers using this software! I do recommend it a lot.

Jetways_zpsj86l79pe.jpg

jwy_zpsbhp3hrnc.jpg
 
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