Re: [Flightgear-devel] Volcano - scenery model or AI scenario?

[Thorsten R. <tho...@sc...>]

> i would say scene-model but have to ask why is it time-dependent?

and

> I think it should be a scenery model, distributed in the normal
> manner.  Volcanos
> don't change their lat/lon, and we can add any Nasal/animations
> required (I think).

Just to to make sure we're on the same page - I'm not talking about the  
volcano itself - that is part of the terrain mesh. I'm talking about  
activity (lava eruption, smoke, lava flow, ash clouds, ...)

These phenomena can change their lat/lon (even in relatively steady  
Kilauea, the point where the lava flow is seen on the surface changes  
somewhat) and they have a strong time-dependence - sometimes there's just  
a hot crust of glowing rock, sometimes a boiling cauldron of lava throwing  
hot magma into the air.

That's even more pronounced for other volcanoes. Think Eyjafjallajökull  
(yes, I had to google it to get the correct writing) - it had some  
eruptions in the 1820s and then started again in 2010. Most of the time  
it's off - but when it's on, you can't help noticing - it's massive.

If volcanic activity is a scene model, then the question becomes - what  
turns this on or off?

We most definitely don't want Eyjafjallajökull 'always on', because it  
seriously affects flyability of the area. But if we have it always off,  
there's no point in doing it in the first place. So it needs to be  
controllable.

In the AI-model idea, it's straightforward after the last discussion on  
carriers - you have to load the AI scenario, and when you get close  
enough, the new 'nearby AI' GUI item is going to offer you the activity  
control dialogs of the volcanoes, i.e. the user can set what he wants to  
experience. On the other hand, we don't have a ready mechanism of  
controlling scenery objects.

Iceland alone has 30 active volcanos, so any fixed GUI option listing them  
all is definitely out.

If volcanoes in Iceland are to be scenery models, I need some idea how to  
turn them on individually.

> wouldn't that go with the others where we can regulatethe density of  
> scenery objects

Sorry, you lost me here - we can regulate the density of random objects,  
not of any static or shared objects, so I don't see the connection.

* Thorsten