Orbx CrowdFlow tech demo

[koorby]

http://www.fsfiles.org/imagehost/uploads/1291521514.png


Introducing CrowdFlow Technology!

Here's a very brief "tech demo" video showing our upcoming CrowdFlow technology which will make its way into all Orbx airports. With almost zero FPS hit, this adds a whole new dimension to arriving at an airport, and the view from your cockpit will be more immersive than ever!

NOTE: These animated people would not normally be placed airside on the apron; it's just a tech demo meant to show the movement ;)

Watch for CrowdFlow to be patched into all Orbx airports in early 2011, and of course it will be selectable from the airport control panel also


Orbx's new CrowdFlow Technology (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pPoUnSXzvc#ws)

[Francois]

Will they continue to walk around in a circle or should they 'go places' as well?

[Aviator32]

Wow! Just keeps getting better :applause:

(I hope they can run too - with my ground handling finesse it would be easy for several of them to get sucked into my engines or through my propellers :blind:)

[txnetcop]

I don't care if they walk on wings I just love the concept!!!!

[kilo delta]

I don't care if they walk on wings I just love the concept!!!!

Me too! A brilliant idea and NO FPS hit too??? WOW! :)

[Dexdoggy]

You have hit another gold vein I reckon, awesome work!

[AusWilko]

Back in FS9 I had a Cessna I think with a cool looking bloke and a dog in it, loved that plane for that simple reason.

So I would imagine in a bush setting a bloke with fishing gear and his dog could be made to appear wander up with the dog mucking about all excited to go off on a adventure

[mal998]

Amazing...

[Ferry_vO]

Looks great! :applause:

[HighGround22]

.
Now THAT is highly barciferous, umbrigumbrious and most decidedly cool! As the man said, it just keeps getting better, donnit!?!

[allcott]

Interesting indeed! Is the concept also applicable to other animated movers - say like animals and birds and can they be made conditional - i.e. the physical response reflects the proximity of an operating aircraft?

Things such as: Flock of birds rise from the grass adjacent the runway and flutter into the trees nearby, people turn and look as an aircraft engine starts, or turn and move away when one turns toward them?

[Navy Chief]

Now that is cool!

It would be awesome if other scenarios can be developed, i.e. moving flight deck personnel on a aircraft carrier!!!!!!!!!!

NC

[tracyq144]

Back in FS9 I had a Cessna I think with a cool looking bloke and a dog in it, loved that plane for that simple reason.

That wouldn't have been a Piper Tri-Pacer, by any chance?

[Sundog]

The smooth movement of the people looks great! This is going to bring life to all kinds of scenery that you guys make.

BTW, Which one's BOB? ;)

[Bjoern]

Interesting concept, but I'd like to see 200 or 300 of 'em without frame rate hit before I will burst into fits of excitement.

[vora]

Interesting concept, but I'd like to see 200 or 300 of 'em without frame rate hit before I will burst into fits of excitement.
Why would you want hundreds of peeps running around? Do you land on football fields? :icon_lol:
Also, almost zero != zero.


Great feature, it will make smaller airfields really come alive.

[koorby]

Interesting concept, but I'd like to see 200 or 300 of 'em without frame rate hit before I will burst into fits of excitement.

Then you are deluding yourself and don't quite understand FSX's limitations sir :)

FSX has about the crudest form of animation support possibly known, with a max of 60sec loops and very few kinetic 'bones'. Result - very crude, very basic animations. What Russ on our team has done is nothing short of a miracle given the absurd constrains of the FSX engine.

You would not even get current-gen FPS engines like Unreal3 or Crysis2 to have 200 people onscreen at once with no framerate hit. I think you're perhaps being slightly cynical here?

[Cag40Navy]

How will this used John? Like people on sidewalks, walking around airports? I am just wondering. I look forward to it!

[falcon409]

Now that is cool!
It would be awesome if other scenarios can be developed, i.e. moving flight deck personnel on a aircraft carrier!!!!!!!!!!
NC
Man, wouldn't that be something to see. . . .Figures that move along the deck triggered to certain movements by your aircraft's position on the deck. That would really give Carrier Ops a whole new meaning.

[DX-FMJ]

WOW, now this is cool! :jump:

Would be really awesome if this could be integrated with fspassengers, and have crew all around the airports doing tasks.

Amazing development koorby!

[GBrutus]

Very impressive indeed!

[koorby]

Just some thoughts I've been sharing on our forums, about the next phase we'll probably take this tech:



- Passengers walking from terminal to apron to stairs to aircraft in a loop (they would have only 60 seconds to make the journey so it will be tricky, but do-able), i.e. they will begin from inside the terminal and end inside the aircraft, so it will rely on very careful positioning of static aircraft and having an open door and a partial interior so they can disappear into the cabin. On the terminal side, it will rely on an open door or worst case, the passengers will simply walk through the terminal wall/door, probably something we can live with, given the contraints we have

- Lolipop marshallers that are somehow conditionally triggered by approaching aircraft

- Airside maintenance engineering and refuelers working underneath and around the static airliner library

- Moving airside vehicles with animated ground staff

- More 'rural' animations like:
- Bush flying mechanics working on Piper Cubs inside a hangar (with speech and fx attached)
- Guy sitting on a stool casting a fishing line
- Two old guys sitting under a porch reading a newspaper or whittling wood
- Young lovers in a welcome or farewell embrace at the FBO

etc etc.

You also need to realise we have released our 'ObjectFlow' technology, meaning any of these animated people can be automatically triggered to only appear at certain times of the day etc. Slowly but surely we're extending the functionality of FSX to make it do things it really was not meant to do

[jdhaenens]

This looks very impressive, John. Looks a bit like the 3DS animation with rigged models. Translating that into keyframe animation and keeping the framerate hit un-noticible is indeed impressive technology.

Will you folks use this in the rest of the community or is it going to be for Orbx area use only?

Jim

[koorby]

Will you folks use this in the rest of the community or is it going to be for Orbx area use only?

Jim

Orbx libraries for our internal use only, so this won't be available to other developers, no.

You're correct in that this is built with 3DSMax.

[warchild]

Man, wouldn't that be something to see. . . .Figures that move along the deck triggered to certain movements by your aircraft's position on the deck. That would really give Carrier Ops a whole new meaning.

yeah.. I can just see them running for cover and jumping overboard whenever i come in for a lading...

[SADT]

yeah.. I can just see them running for cover and jumping overboard whenever i come in for a lading...

:icon_lol:

And you test flight dynamics :monkies: :icon_lol:

[Francois]

Interesting concept, but I'd like to see 200 or 300 of 'em without frame rate hit before I will burst into fits of excitement.

Buy Call of Duty and stop messing around with FSX.......

[Daube]

Interesting concept, but I'd like to see 200 or 300 of 'em without frame rate hit before I will burst into fits of excitement.

I have the same concerns about the performance.
The fact that we will be able to see some life in the airports is absolutely GREAT ! Especially fi there is some kind of interactivity, like it has been mentionned a little bit above (thanks for those info, by the way :) ).
I imagine that the "amount" of visible people will be adjustable with some settings. I'm quite optimistic about the balance between the performance and the number of visible people that will be able to be obtained. I'm just a little bit worried because of the impact of the airport vehicules, but I don't know if this can be compared to those animated characters...

[vora]

... and of course it will be selectable from the airport control panel also
No sweat, Daube, as John stated in the opening post this feature will be switchable in the control panel of the respective airport.
I don't think that the amount will be adjustable, though, just "on" or "off". Since this feature does not seem to be AI or Living World making it adjustable would be a lot of work for every airport. Or so I guess. Only John or Russ know for sure.

[Francois]

Of course nothing is impossible, assuming you have money to throw at things.

See this.... talking of 200 people..... :wavey:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqBSNAOsMDc&feature=player_embedded#!

By the way, there's a CrowdFlow plug-in available for RealFlow 5...

http://www.realflow.com/rf_prod_rf5_whatis.php

[vora]

oooooh yes, the future looks bright for games....

Here some other engines you can drool about:

Lagoa Multiphysics 1.0:
http://bit.ly/9QsvYj

Geomerics Enlighten 1.0 (Radiosity engine to be included into EVE-Online - Incarna Expansion 2011)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbT8YvBdYz4

Just not for our good ole FSX :crybaby:



PS.: Sorry for OT

[skyhawka4m]

- Young lovers in a welcome or farewell embrace at the FBO



how about young lovers in a car or out on the beach???
topsless wonders at poolside....:salute:

[crashaz]

Now that is cool!

It would be awesome if other scenarios can be developed, i.e. moving flight deck personnel on a aircraft carrier!!!!!!!!!!

NC

Amen brother!!:wiggle:

[mike_cyul]

Wow, me like. :ernae:

Mike

[Navy Chief]

Man, wouldn't that be something to see. . . .Figures that move along the deck triggered to certain movements by your aircraft's position on the deck. That would really give Carrier Ops a whole new meaning.


Even something as simple as a plane captain in front of a aircraft, motioning the pilot to pull forward, turn, brake, etc.... That would be so cool!

NC

[n4gix]

FSX has about the crudest form of animation support possibly known, with a max of 60sec loops and very few kinetic 'bones'. Result - very crude, very basic animations. What Russ on our team has done is nothing short of a miracle given the absurd constrains of the FSX engine.

John, it is entirely possible to create animations of much greater length, but it does require some manual editing of the intermediate files and recompiling for each .mdl file. Details on how are discussed at FS-Developer...

Even without that though, it's a truly marvelous breakthrough and should add a very needed dimension to your scenery products! :ernae:

[Bjoern]

Why would you want hundreds of peeps running around? Do you land on football fields? :icon_lol:

Anything bigger than an A321...




very few kinetic 'bones'.

Wasn't the limit at something like 120 bones?

I remember Mike (Lotussims) mentioning something like this when I was showing off an all "boned up" landing gear.


I think you're perhaps being slightly cynical here?*Shrug*




Buy Call of Duty and stop messing around with FSX.......

Call Of Duty has 20 live opponents and 50 dead ones at best.

The "Total War" series on the other hand...




See this.... talking of 200 people..... :wavey:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqBSNAOsMDc&feature=player_embedded#!

Shweet!




how about young lovers in a car or out on the beach???
topsless wonders at poolside....:salute:

*Chuckle*

[koorby]

Well I just placed a whole bunch of these critters at KORS and there's zero FPS impact. However, the place looks insanely cool as you taxi to a parking spot and see all these people moving about in your peripheral vision. It's nothing like I've ever experienced in FSX before!

@Bill - yep Holger linked us to the FSDeveloper tweak for >60sec loops so we'll be sure to exploit that :)

[Dexdoggy]

Really looking forward to this; well done!

[dexthom]

The original KORS had a guy in the FBO and two mechanics in the hanger walking back and forth but this appears to go to the next level to add realism.

[ShawnG]

- Young lovers in a welcome or farewell embrace at the FBO



how about young lovers in a car or out on the beach???
topsless wonders at poolside....:salute:

FOCUS, man! FOCUS!

it's not going to be called "pornflow" :icon_lol:

[pilottj]

FOCUS, man! FOCUS!

it's not going to be called "pornflow" :icon_lol:


And here we are, on our way to seeing FS Mile High Club ;)

LOL I wonder if A2A could 'accusim' that addon :icon_lol:

[stiz]

now .. is that a no fps hit on koorbys' intel 40 core 6.7 galliahertz, liquid nitro cooled with 5 gazzilion ram that can run PNW on full with no fps hit or a mid range pc?? :icon_lol: :engel016:

[falcon409]

now .. is that a no fps hit on koorbys' intel 40 core 6.7 galliahertz, liquid nitro cooled with 5 gazzilion ram that can run PNW on full with no fps hit or a mid range pc??
lol, pretty funny, and not so far from the truth. Addons, as should be expected, are getting more and more intricate, detailed and incredibly graphic intensive. It is a fact of life that for some of us, those "nice things" will quickly become a luxury we can no longer afford. I am quite happy with what I have and I would love to be able to fly all the additions coming out of the Orbyx Magic Box, but price and stress on a basic system have taken it's toll and aside from a few airplanes to still purchase, I've probably reached my limit.

[Daube]

A limit is often temporary ;)

This product is sounding cooler and cooler. If you guys manage to get past any limitation for the animations, then I'm really curious to see what kind of features you'll get able to add in the final version.

[GBrutus]

I would be happy with just a few animated ground crew to bring some 'life' to FSX, let alone a fully populated airport. Flight sims in general have often felt sterile to me due to the lack of activity on the ground so I'll be following this development with keen interest.

[WAD3]

I would be happy with just a few animated ground crew to bring some 'life' to FSX, let alone a fully populated airport. Flight sims in general have often felt sterile to me due to the lack of activity on the ground so I'll be following this development with keen interest.

I agree about feeling alone out there. I have enjoyed the traffic you see in the Orbx scenery. Seeing people move about will help us not feel so alone.
Even though I use my flightsim time as my alone time. :wiggle:

[koorby]

OK name-change :) We like PeopleFlow better, rolls off the tongue more naturally.

Here's a video showing the 3SD kinetics development and also an in-situ placement of some toons at YBBN, both airside and landside.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiQ8DG_Xcnk

[spotlope]

How about FlowMax? We've got a bunch of old dudes here that could relate... :icon_lol:

[Wing_Z]

Looks just like a bruce I know!
It's a shame to waste this on a flightsim...you should be making an Airport Simulator!

[CodyValkyrie]

John, I hope that you make updates to your existing scenery/airports to include some of these new models. That surely would be fantastic, and another selling point for your teams creations.... not to mention something I can't wait to get my hands on and film.

[gera]

Little details like these dudes walking around is what makes the sim more real...I for one, have desided that in 2011 my scenery will have little people around specially women.....I plan on a mission where the world is running out of women and the pilot has to fly to many airfields out in the boondocks a catch the "hill women"!!!!! eager to meet the pilot.....neat hu?:jump::jump:

[BOOM]

How about FlowMax? We've got a bunch of old dudes here that could relate... :icon_lol:

Hahaha!!!!! Don't quit you're day job!!! :)

[Bjoern]

Here's a video showing the 3SD kinetics development and also an in-situ placement of some toons at YBBN, both airside and landside.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiQ8DG_Xcnk

Ah, now I get how you made them walk! Nice insight. *Nod*

[Bushpounder]

Back in FS9 I had a Cessna I think with a cool looking bloke and a dog in it, loved that plane for that simple reason.

So I would imagine in a bush setting a bloke with fishing gear and his dog could be made to appear wander up with the dog mucking about all excited to go off on a adventure

I'd love to see some bush action too. Hikers, campers, fishermen AND fisherwomen. ;) Dog would be good, providing it didn't hump someone's virtual leg! It just keeps getting better!!

Don