Flux - Dynamic Object Placement

[Ben Russell]

This is NOT an April Fools, this product is real. 

This video demonstrates the Flux Object Placement and "Distribution" system.

Traditional scenery requires that the user downloads and installs scenery packages that define how objects are placed in the world.

Flux discards this concept in favor of Server-Based Object Placement and Distribution.

Flux will connect to a server and download object placement data as you fly around the world.

Publishing your scenery is also as easy as pressing the "Update" / "Publish" button which will send object coordinates to the server.

Flux will be tied to the X-Pilot.com forum member list, if you have an account on the forums you will be able to login to flux to access and share scenery.

We plan to offer multiple levels of scenery content from the basic "Free" object-placement data, which allows you to create scenery with pre-downloaded object packages (eg. OpenScenery X (I have cleared this with Aussi..)) through to premium packages which will feature high quality content created by Artists such as Tom Kyler. Premium packages will be available via a very affordable subscription system.

Without further ado I present the flux Alpha Preview video demonstrating two copies of X-Plane running side by side on my G5 sharing object placement data in near realtime, the data is passed between copies of X-Plane via a remote server which stores the object placement data so that it can be loaded by any client that connects.

This video is taking a while to encode on YouTube so please grab the attachment on this post while you wait...

Flux_-_Dynamic_Object_Placement.mov

[Nils]

Awesome Ben! That's thinking outside the box!

Assuming you're using the draw object API, have you checked yet if hard surfaces work on drawn objects? It'd sure be nice to be able to replace the hideous default heli pads.

[Ben Russell]

Hey Nils, thanks for the comments. It's a fun toy to play with - I think it will be awesome once it gets some momentum.

I haven't investigated the Hard-Object issue at all... I'm really not sure, I suspect they aren't available.

I might tie the bullet physics lib into this one day... that opens up -lots- of fun options. For now though I just wanted to show off the core technology.

Due to the nature of this product I'll be releasing a public beta as soon as possible for people to play around with.

The content will take a while to grow but it's kinda fun to make 'in sim'. Lots of instant gratification.

Good to see you over here.. hope you like what you see.

Ben.

[Nils]

I haven't investigated the Hard-Object issue at all... I'm really not sure, I suspect they aren't available.

Yeah, that's what I suspect too. Perhaps you'd consider a custom hard surface functionality using groundplane override sometime down the road?

I might tie the bullet physics lib into this one day... that opens up -lots- of fun options. For now though I just wanted to show off the core technology.

Due to the nature of this product I'll be releasing a public beta as soon as possible for people to play around with.

The content will take a while to grow but it's kinda fun to make 'in sim'. Lots of instant gratification.

Good to see you over here.. hope you like what you see.

Ben.

I really really like the idea of having all scenery available on demand without having to install stuff. I can see the potential for wiki-like collaborations once everyone starts adding stuff. Very cool.

Re bullet physics, one could really see something like this as a great platform for games and missions too.

[Ben Russell]

Yeah, that's what I suspect too. Perhaps you'd consider a custom hard surface functionality using groundplane override sometime down the road?

That's where bullet comes in, it can compute all the object collision stuff, then I just push the ground data into x-plane.. very handy.

The tricky part is the different world scales, bullet doesn't like an environment the size of X-Planes so you have to come up with some fancy code to keep switching the active object contexts around without hitting performance too hard.

Bullet suggests a 10 kilometer box in its sample code.

I really really like the idea of having all scenery available on demand without having to install stuff. I can see the potential for wiki-like collaborations once everyone starts adding stuff. Very cool.

Re bullet physics, one could really see something like this as a great platform for games and missions too.

It's a bit of a combination of both.

Eventually, it will be capable of pulling down OBJ+Image files off the server as well as placement data.

To begin with I plan on leveraging OpenScenery X - a lot of people have it installed and by referencing it's object paths we can begin to populate the world.

I do not have permission to redistribute the OpenScenery X library so people will have to pre-install that to see it.

I don't think that'll be too much bother though, it's already got enough momentum.

It'll definitely get interesting as time progresses.

One of the things I can see in my mind is an iterative build up of the world.

Normally when working on a scenery package you need to finish all your objects and then work out the placements and then package it all up and push it out the door.

With flux I can see a workflow where you can knock out a rough version of a given building, upload it to the flux server, place it in the world, then work on the building for another week or whatever, uploading better content as you go, replacing the mesh of the first version you placed but keeping the location data.

This way the world will be more alive, each time a user flies through a given area they will see the buildings being improved on.

I want to get the ST3400 out first, then probably X-Joystick 'cause it's closer to completion and then flux some time down the line.

[sigoo]

This has amazing potential. Can't wait to try it out.