External view and 3D dsiplay in P3D

[Malkymoo]

Hello,

I am looking at doing some marshaling training and I wouldn't mind some help with two areas, hopefully both simple.

1. I'd like to use one PC with the display showing the view from the control tower. I've tried to find info on how to locate and define altitude for a tower in P3D but no such luck. I thought if we used the control tower as the view, it always follows the aircraft. The marshaller would watch the aircraft and the instructor would taxi the aircraft depending on how the student moved their hands. This way, we just need one PC and screen. better frame rate and keep things simple. So, I'd like the "tower" to be invisible and about 6 foot high in the middle of a taxiway.

2. Any secrets for setting up P3D for 3D? We have a good PC and projector, all capable of projecting 3D and we have a set of good glasses. We will project onto a wall.

All info appreciated. FYI, we will move to Oculus rift for this next year so I'll need your help again.

Malky Hamilton

[Ian Warren]

The Just Flight group have a program , not sure if its what you want with in the Traffic 360X , it dose come with point of reference , seriously this type of inter- reaction is very limited , every today is so automated on commercial airfields almost gone are the batmans .

[Malkymoo]

This is for RNZAF technical training. Looking at simulation before doing the real thing at Ohakea and Auckland. Handy to replicate day/night fixed/rotary situations.

[Ian Warren]

I would say that would be very much outside the realm of flight sim current .

[mfraser]

This is for RNZAF technical training. Looking at simulation before doing the real thing at Ohakea and Auckland. Handy to replicate day/night fixed/rotary situations.

Cool proposal Malky - the mob has certainly embraced advanced training technologies since my time! Given there's accurate versions of WB, OH and WP floating around you could get quite a realistic simulated environment.

I've mucked around with tower views in FS9 and FSX and wouldn't think P3D would be altogether too different. Depending on the scenery you're using you might have to decompile a .BGL to get at the Tower definition. FSX versions usually have an ADE file which defines the runways, taxiways, parking spots, AI movement and Tower views. I have used Airport Design Editor in the past to alter/add tower views so that could be a place to start?

Hope you and Kerry and doing well.
Regards,
Mat

[richbarry]

I can possibly help with what you're after here.
Here's 3D Over Under and SBS demo's from P3D on Youtube. Best in 1920x1080 HD, and make sure you maximise the video to get the screen split in the correct place for the 3D to function.
The Fixed camera(s) would be placed in a fixed position and should be able to track the users aircraft. I haven't checked this out yet, but theory so far is standing up.

Over Under https://youtu.be/RMxHDd1M8wM
SBS http://youtu.be/QUUlSeFaJl8


Let me know if the 3D meets what you're expecting and if so I'll point you to the latest version of the software.

Cheers

Richard

[Malkymoo]

Thanks for help thus far. We don't have our system running yet but hope to soon. I did jump on FSX last week on another platform to do the tower view. I thought there was an easy way to adjust the height and location of the tower in some airfield settings. I'll click on some of the links tomorrow when I get some other jobs out of the way.

M

[richbarry]

There's one more link which is playing around with 3D tower view.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipHbzzRCgME

There's a few options for tower placement.
1) Decompile and edit the airport BGL like someone earlier suggested. Rather advanced.
2) Create a Fixed position camera. Easy to create and place, but there seems to be a bug in Fixed when moving the eyepoint, which means it can't be used for 3D. 2D is fine
3) Create a new tower BGL in the middle of the runway/taxiway or where ever you want. Fairly simple to do and works fine - I've tested it.

[Malkymoo]

Thanks Rich. Do I need to go through all 3 options or just go for option 3? The video was good but I guess I'm at a standstill until I get the PC and projector set up.

[richbarry]

Easiest for you to taxi a plane to the spots where you want "towers", go World, Map, and give me the Lat, Long & Alt for each spot plus how high above the ground to position them.
The rest is just a few minutes work.

Cheers

[Malkymoo]

Progress thus far: Have PC set up and connected to Epson projector. Enabled stereoscopic 3D on FFX card and running P3D. Great 3D using shutter glasses. Have realised that it is easier to connect a second PC and have an invisible plane to watch the aircraft being marshaled. Have tested on FSX but will install P3D on another PC later to test. Easier than setting up towers around the place. Thanks for your help and offer of assistance. Seems that there are a few options of achieving this training output. Will look into shared aircraft across 2 PC's later as we will have a class using 3D glasses to observe marshaling wile the marshaler will have oculus rift. That's a next year project.