GrayGhost

Beseder.

Shalom, shalom. Le'tsa'ari ani lo yodea ech livnot metosim al hamachshev, aval rak ratsiti lehagid sheyesh po od israeli (lamrot she ani gar be Oklahoma). :) Lefi da'ati anachnu tserechim livnot et halavi T.D. - ani met al hamatos haze. Ani yachol la'avod al kvatsey ha .ini...

I've searched around the community forums and couldn't find a guide to the aerodynamic coefficients in the aircraft data files. I figured I may as well try to put one together. I realize I may have missed an existing guide and this has been done before. Anyway, this is what I've figured so far. I'm posting this for peer review and hopefully when can add this information to the knowledge base when it's verified. Feel free to correct and/or add elaborations on each description, this is by no means comprehensive. Cla = Lift coefficient as a function of AOA CD0 = Zero-lift drag coefficient CDL = Total drag coefficient Cmq = Pitch moment coefficient per radian Cmad = Pitch moment coefficient per radian AOA ? Cyb = Side force coefficent per degree of sideslip Clb = Roll moment coefficient per degree of sideslip Clp = Roll moment coefficient per roll rate (radians) Clr = Roll moment coefficient per yaw rate (radians) Cnb = Yaw moment coefficeint per degee of sideslip Cnp = Yaw moment coefficient per roll rate (radians) Cnr = Yaw moment coefficient per yaw rate (radians) CLaMachTable = Lift coefficient factor (of Cla) vs Mach number CD0MachTable = Zero-lift drag coefficient factor (of CD0) vs Mach number CDLAlphaTable = Total drag coefficient vs AOA CmqMachTable = Pitch moment coefficient vs Mach number ClbAlphaTable = Clb as a function of AOA ClpAlphaTable = Clp as a function of AOA ClrAlphaTable = Clr as a function of AOA CnpAlphaTable = Cnp as a function of AOA CnrAlphaTable = Cnr as a function of AOA XacMachTable = Center-of-pressure distance from wing's neutral point (?) (AOA independent) vs AOA CLmax = Maximum lift coefficient AlphaStall = Angle-of-attack where stall begins AlphaMax = Maximum angle-of-attack while retaining full control? AlphaDepart = Angle-of-attack where wing departs Ymac = Lift moment arm about aircraft's longitudinal axis My references: Modern Combat Aircraft Design by Klaus Huenecke, 1987. http://www.jsbsim.org/CreatingJSBSimAircraft.pdf

Cool! Thanks Fubar!

Not exactly. The GPU itself would be used for physics calculations (i.e. some of its power would be used for physics instead of graphics). This, in a way doesn't make much sense since, incidentally, the reason why games that can use the PhysX chip don't actually run faster (FPS) is because the additional particles and objects require more graphics horsepower to get rendered. We'll see what happens...

I have a PhysX card... As FastCargo said, a game needs to be written with the AGEIA SDK to take advantage of the PhysX chip. As an aside, a game that is written with the AGEIA SDK doesn't need the PhysX chip to run - it will simply use the CPU in its absence. I think that a dedicated physics processor does have a place in flight sims, or any other kind of physics simulation. Althogh were are entering the era of multi-core CPUs, they still don't have as much processing power (for physics) as the PhysX chip. Essentially what the PhysX chip does is handle collision detection and motion calculations. It also handles deformable meshes. Imagine a flight sim where you had true collision detection based on your plane model, and you don't have to do this: CollisionPoint[001]=-1.40, 5.66,-0.91 CollisionPoint[002]= 1.40, 5.66,-0.91 CollisionPoint[003]= 1.23,-3.74,-1.17 CollisionPoint[004]=-1.23,-3.74,-1.17 CollisionPoint[005]= 0.00,-7.54, 0.50 CollisionPoint[006]= 1.21, 5.66, 0.53 CollisionPoint[007]=-1.21, 5.66, 0.53 Imagine that model deforming correctly when it gets hit by shrapnel; its wings flexing in a high-g turn or fluttering when you drop bombs; tails buffeting in high-alpha... I think that if a sim were to be written with the AGEIA card in mind it could be truely awesome. Dreams aside, until there are more games that use AGEIA, I would also recommend holding off on it - but if nobody buys it, who will program for it? ;) Catch 22.