Advanced Effects Manual
Contents
1. EZdok CAMERA ADDON EZCA for Microsoft Flight Simulator X Advanced Effects Manual CONTENTS Chapter Title Page Number e 3 aro o o oo Generators ssss lt S 22 Mixerdistributor 9 230 Profiles 11 ee 25 RNDeffecttutorial 14 e y a OnGround Effect 18 28 OnAir Effect 19 a CR Effect a eS Acknowledgement 4 24 1 PREFACE This manual describes the EZdok CAMERA ADDON EZCA effects engine and its principle of operation and settings It is recommended that you first study the EZCA User Manual and make all the necessary setup parameters and or modifications in FSX and EZCA before reading and using this document There are three types of effects in EZCA They are 1 RND 2 DHM and 3 CR Note The following are abstracted from the User Manual RND Random This is a random visual effect simulating the roughness of the apron runway taxiway grass airstrip concrete etc surface when the plane is moving on the ground and the slight general turbulence effect that occurs whenever the aircraft is airborne This is a visual only effect i e it does not take into account the current weather settings in FSX This effect depends on the weight of the aircraft and the type of the surface DHM Dynamic Head Movements DHM simulates the movement of the pilot s head caused by aircraft acceleration and deceleration during taxiing etc maneuvers touchdowns and turbulence Unlike the RND setting t2. At the heart of the RND effect are three independent generators capable of generating composite waveforms They are Generators A B C Generators GENERATOR A CENERATOR B CENECATOR C SIGNAL SOURCE lo lolo Figure 1 Generators A B amp C We need multiple generators because aircraft vibration and or shaking is a mixture of different sources for example e Air turbulence e Engine vibration and e Sporadic pilot movement the pilot is not a dummy and should be capable of movement So by using multiple generators we can simulate these effects with high reliability and reproducibility All of the generators are set up in the same way so we will examine Generator A settings Right Click the RND button on the main EZCA window to open the RND effect settings window then right or left click the Generator A icon to open its settings Each generator A B or C consists of several simple modules LFO gen with hard attack Figure 2 Generator A 1 Sine generator This generates harmonic oscillations It can be used to simulate shaking that has a periodic character e g simulation of engine vibrations In the current version of EZCA the frequency is independent of engine rpm You can adjust frequency and level in the sine generator 2 Resonance generator The RG simulates damped oscillations that occur when an aircraft undergoes impact forces For example oscillations of a camera rigidly attache
3. Frequency This generates the resonance or natural frequency of the EZCA camera suspension system Natural Frequency The term natural frequency needs some explanation Every physical body or system has its own natural frequency When you apply a force to a body mass it starts to oscillate with some definite frequency This frequency is called the natural frequency Further with little or no damping then the resonant frequency is approximately equal to a natural frequency of the system An example of this physical phenomenon is a tuning fork that is used by musicians to tune their instruments So by adjusting this value you set the frequency with which your camera will shake after for instance a simulated bump Attack sets how a fast shaking amplitude reaches maximum Release sets how a fast shaking amplitude fades to zero Intensity or generator start rate This value sets how often the generator will start to generate a signal i e the frequency of any bumps The picture below illustrates these terms Level Random period of time inversily of intensity Attack Release Envelop of the signal Figure 4 Signal Generator 3 Noise generator Frequency Sets how often shaking occurs The more the value the more frequent they are The level is self explanatory 4 LFOgen with hard attack Intensity See the Resonance generator above LPfilter Low pass filter This filters the vibr
4. In this example the signal from Generator A has an effect on the HeadY BodyY axes up and down movement and rotation of the camera whereas the signal of Generator B moves and rotates the camera to the right and to the left BodyX and HeadX 14 Noise Generator A Right click icon A to open the Generator A settings window and enable only Noise Generator by clicking the small green button in the noise generator section Set the values as shown in the following picture sine generator O FREQUENCY FREQUENCY LFO gen with soft attack gt EP FILTER Figure 12 Noise Generator A resonance generator ATTACK RELEASE Es master out LFO gen with hard attack meter fo EP FILTER 15 Noise Generator B Open Generator B settings and repeat but use different values See picture below Note when you change the settings the values are automatically saved So it is recommended to backup any settings before you experiment with them i e Export to an external file sine generator resonance generator O OO FREQUENCY FREQUENCY ATTACK O LEVEL RELEASE LEVEL LFO gen with soft attack LFO gen with hard attack 6 EP FILTER INTENSITY LP FILTER INTENSITY Figure 13 Noise Generator B Note when you change the settings the values are automatically saved Congratulations You ve just created effect similar to camera shake during the takeoff roll Now w
5. main EZCA window Right click the same button to open the RND settings window Click the Edit button to enter the profiles edit mode When you do this two additional buttons will appears in the window OnGround and OnAir These buttons are used to select which profile to edit Profile indicator Figure 8 Profile Editor 11 2 4 DEPENDENCIES PROCESSOR In real terms totally random vibration shaking is not very realistic Shaking depends on many factors and changes during a flight Our unique Dependencies Processor allows emulation of reality by introducing some dependencies Figure 9 Dependencies processor Right click Dependencies processor button Two adjustable graphs will be displayed zil Hi Pass FILTER CURVE Figure 10 Gain Curve amp Hi Pass Filter Curve The upper graph Gain curve sets the dependence of shaking amplitude and aircraft speed The horizontal axis of the graph represents aircraft speed in kph and the vertical axis represents the Vibration gain 12 Vibration gain is an amplification factor gain of the shaking amplitude Amplification Factor Value Shaking Amplitude gt 1 Increases lt 1 Decreases 0 No Shaking The lower graph Hi Pass Filter Curve or Vibration smooth sets the dependence of shaking frequency and aircraft speed It works like a low pass filter that cuts off high frequency part of the signal T
6. and react However we had to simplify the effect somewhat on order to reduce the effect on FSX performance and frame rates Note The DHM effect works with the Virtual cockpit cameras and is the same for all of the cameras The only parameter that is individual is the Main effect level 20 3 1 DHM effect settings f asis 6 6 mer ANGLE OF SLOPE OF A HEAD MOVEMENTS FROM LATERAL G Load EE cis RELEASE TIME FOR sn f pa ALL G Load IMPULSES CONSTANT IMPULSE MOVEMENT G Load X G Load X amp LIMITER CONSTANT INPULSE G Load Y G Load Y BANKING EFFECT on HEAD MASS Z asis ens HEAD RESONANCE CONSTANT mr G Load Z MOVEMENTS X AXES Figure 16 DHM Effects 1 Acceleration processing units for X Y and Z axes The inertial force is a function of acceleration or G load GForce of the aircraft EZCA reads acceleration values from FSX via Simconnect processes them and then calculates movement of a human head taking into account the pilot s body parameters next item The components that you can change include Constant G Load X Y amp Z and Impulse G load X Y For more versatility G loads are divided into two components e Constant G load and e Impulse G load An example of a Constant G load component is the force felt during steep banking turn and an example of an Impulse G load component is felt during fast tight maneuvers i e it depends on rate of change of acceleration Banking
7. ations allowing slow low frequency vibrations signals and significantly attenuates reduces the amplitude of the signals with frequencies higher than the cut off frequency The LP filter knob actually sets the Cut off Frequency The higher the frequency the faster the filter will pass the shaking effect to the output 5 LFOgen with soft attack Settings are similar to LFOgen with hard attack All of the signals of module generators are consolidated via the Master Out Meter and the total signal is transmitted to the mixer distributor oe RELEASE LFO gen with hard attack Figure 5 Consolidation of the signal 2 2 MIXER DISTRIBUTOR The Mixer Distributor mixes the signals of A B amp C generators and distributes them to all of the degrees of freedom i e the simulated 3D positions of the camera What are degrees of freedom DOF Each EZCA camera has 6 degrees of freedom dof This means that the camera can move in a virtual 3 dimensional manner e 1 dof or X axis left to right e 2 dof or Y axis up and down 3 dof or Z axis forward and backward Each camera can also rotate around these 3 axes and that gives 3 additional degrees of freedom In EZCA we have made the following assumptions with respect to body movement and head rotation The first 3 degrees of freedom are called Body X e Body Y and Body 2 The final three degrees of freedom are called Hea
8. d X head rotation to left right or yaw Head Y pitch Head Z bank roll Each generator has an effect on each of the 6 degrees of freedom of the camera You can set how this will impact on what you see and experience in the SIM by the use of the appropriate generator knobs 1 See picture below Figure 6 Generator Knobs The Knobs are color coded i e they have the same color as the generators they relate to i e Red knob sets the level of the Generator A e Green knob Generator B level and the e Blue knob Generator C level The total amount of the effect of the generators on a specific DOF is set with knob 2 Note The total strength of the effect is set with Global Gain knob Figure 7 Global Gain 10 2 3 PROFILES The behavior of an airplane in flight and one on the ground is completely different so it would be incorrect to use the same effects for both situations EZCA solves this problem by using two profiles OnGround amp OnAir These two profiles are automatically loaded depending on the position of the plane For example when the aircraft touches the ground the OnGround profile is loaded and when it becomes airborne the OnAir profile is loaded This changes all of the settings of the appropriate generators Note All of the profiles are completely independent from each other To edit the profiles Enable the RND effect by left clicking the RND button on the
9. d to the aircraft or the action of the landing gear shock absorbers after landing on a rough bumpy surface You can adjust the various parameters frequency attack intensity and release of the signal and the generator level rate Noise generator This generates a random rumble noise signal For example it can be used to simulate rolling on a rough surface or flying in turbulence including the frequency and level at which that will occur Total output level indicator Master out meter This displays the level of the composite effect of the generator parameters LFOgen with hard attack effect This is a Low Frequency Oscillation generator with hard attack It can be used to simulate the pilot s body movement due to the aircraft bumping whilst moving on a runway or taxiway A hard attack is usually faster and more vigorous than a soft attack LFOgen with soft attack effect This is similar to LFOgen With hard attack but has a softer effect in terms of dynamic movement It can be used to simulate the pilot s irregular body movements or movements caused by slight turbulence during flight Generator Settings Detailed Description 1 Sine generator Frequency frequency of harmonic oscillation Level amplitude of oscillations Figure 3 Sine Wave Resonance Generator Resonance is the tendency of a system to oscillate with larger amplitude at some frequencies than at others
10. e will use Dependencies processor to set the dependence of shaking on speed 16 2 6 Dependencies Processor Click the Edit button once more to leave the Edit mode OnAir and OnGround buttons disappear Check the Profile indicator to make sure that the OnGround profile is active Right click the Dependencies processor icon This will open the dependencies processor settings window Form new curves by dragging the green circles plotting points with the mouse as shown on the picture below Vibration Gain GAIN CURVE 226 339 Aircraft speed KPH Hi Pass FILTER CURVE e y gt ho gt o 226 339 Aircraft speed KPH Figure 14 Dependencies Processor The above settings are pretty close to real life values for light GA airplanes Do feel free to experiment maybe you will find settings that better satisfy your taste or experience 17 2 7 OnGround Profile Edit We recommend the following sequence for editing the OnGround profile 1 Create and adjust the effect for the precise moment of takeoff using the generators and the mixer distributor 2 Try to takeoff in the Flight Simulator with these settings 3 Pause the simulator at the exact moment of takeoff 4 Open the RND settings window enter Edit mode select the OnGround profile and leave Edit mode 5 Open the Dependencies processor settings window The small vertical Red line shows the current speed which in this instance is equal to
11. effect This effect is similar to Angle of slope of a head from lateral G load but results from banking the aircraft 21 Limit Movements or Movement Limiter X Y Z This is a soft limiter for axes X Y Z simulating pilot s seat and seat belts 2 Pilot s body parameters settings These parameters determine how the pilot s body reacts to the inertia forces The components that you can change include Release time for all G Load impulses This sets how the impulses fade Angle of slope of a head from lateral G load During certain maneuvers that you experience lateral g loads g Force the head bends to the left and to the right This value sets the level of this effect Head Resonance This parameter has an effect on the number of oscillations that a head will experience before it returns to the equilibrium after it has been deflected by inertia force The higher the value the faster the head movement returns to normal Head Mass This value can be described as pilot s head inertia It sets how fast the head returns to the neutral position after it has been deflected by inertia force The higher the value for head mass the slower the head moves i e there will be lower frequency of oscillations that were described earlier 3 Landing effect settings The effects experienced during landing e g the operation of shock absorbers of the landing gear as the plane lands The components that you can change incl
12. he higher the curve the less of the high frequency components of the signal are transmitted to the output resulting in smoother and slower shaking If the value is zero the signal goes to the output unchanged e no shaking The shape of the curves can be adjusted by dragging each of the plotting points i e the small green circles with a mouse For example if we want to simulate aircraft s shaking during take off roll we would want the amplitude and frequency of bumps to increase with acceleration i e increasing speed from zero So we would move the green circles on the upper graph i e adjust the slope of the curve upwards with increasing speed until we achieved the take off vibration effect that suited the plane that we were flying Note The Dependency processor is completely disabled during tuning of the generators and mixer distributor i e Vibration gain 1 Vibration smooth 0 13 2 5 RND EFFECT TUTORIAL This is a short tutorial on how to create RND effects Enable a RND effect by left clicking the RND button on the main EZCA window Right click the same button to open the RND settings window Click the Edit button to enter profiles edit mode Pause the Flight Simulator and select the OnGround profile and set the knobs on the mixer distributor as shown in the picture below SIGNAL SOURCE cence CENA CENE CENT CENA CENE CENT OOOO OSE Body x Hea x o GOAISEIG Figure 11 Mixer Distributor
13. his effect depends on the weather settings used in FSX DHM is designed to be used with the Virtual Cockpit cameras only CR Camera Resonance This effect is similar to Dynamic Head Movement and simulates the shaking of a camera attached to the aircraft as it lands 2 RND EFFECT As stated earlier RND is a visual only effect EZCA in RND Effect mode does not calculate dynamic head movements but uses simple formulas and adjustable random number generators to simulate complex physical phenomena By using this technique the EZDOK add on has little effect on FSX performance i e it is frame rate friendly RND effect has individual settings for each aircraft and each virtual cockpit camera Moreover each camera has two independent profiles 1 OnGround and 2 OnAir These determine the different shaking modes for when the plane is flying or is on the ground When switching between cameras with different RND settings EZCA ensures a smooth transition from one camera setting to another and avoids an uncomfortable jerky change The ability to independently set effects for all cameras makes EZCA very versatile and capable of simulating various dynamic effects for different cameras For example for a camera that represents the pilot we need smooth and precise fluctuations of the point of view but for camera attached to aircraft engine cowl you will need fast vigorous shaking That can easily be achieved with EZCA 2 1 GENERATORS
14. lence is also rudimentary In terms of turbulence effects and landing an aircraft the RND effects are more spectacular and realistic The DHM effects include e Aerodynamic forces lift and drag e Gravity e Engine thrust and e Impact force These forces cause the aircraft to accelerate decelerate in different directions and make the pilot feel the so called inertial force The Pilot s body not being a rigid object reacts to this force i e his her head and body moves and attempts to rotate This is the same force that slams you back into your seat if you accelerate fast in a powerful car or plane To compensate for these forces the pilot would contract and relax various muscles in an attempt to return the body to the neutral comfortable position Because the body has a mass and is subject to an effect such as inertial force once it starts to move it cannot stop moving immediately away from the neutral position and it continues to move further away from this comfort zone Hence it requires considerable muscular co ordination to counteract the effect and return to the neutral position This behavior is very similar to that of a pendulum and the EZCA model using our unique DHM effect is based on this and is quite realistic However we had to incorporate some modifications to counteract the limitations of the FSX SDK dynamics calculations Fortunately we were able introduce features on how a real life human body might move
15. the takeoff speed Of course take off speed depends on many factors and it can be ignored in this instance The amplitude of vibrations step by step decrease The point of take off E Vibration Gain 272 395 Aircraft speed KPH The sharp and fast oscillations are decrease Figure 15 OnGround effects The upper graph Gain Curve in the above picture indicates that the shaking amplitude or shaking effect increases with speed up to take off speed On the lower graph we can see that at low speeds the shaking is smooth and slow but the more the speed increases the faster and sharper they become 18 2 8 OnAir Profile Edit OnAir profile settings are adjusted in a similar way but the settings will be completely different because of different nature of the shaking in the air and on the ground Creating shake effects in the air is more complex So if you cannot accomplish a result that suits you import settings from a similar aircraft with predefined settings and try to play with them and see what happens 19 3 DHM EFFECT The DHM effect simulates the pilot s body movement caused by forces affecting aircraft for example when the pilot operates the throttles applies the brakes makes turns accelerates decelerates flies through turbulence etc Note the DHM effect takes into account the turbulence in weather settings used for FSX but because the FSX model of turbulence is very simplified the EZCA DHM effect of turbu
16. ude Landing Effect e Level to X Axes The Level of DHM effect for the X axis e Level to Y Axes The Level of DHM effect for the Y axis Shock Absorber e Sharpness Sharpness sets the coefficient of viscosity of shock absorber fluid The higher the value the faster oscillations fades e Amplitude of Sharpness Sets the shock absorber stroke 4 Total effect level Main Level The Total level of the DHM effect and this is unique for each camera 22 4 Camera Resonance CR EFFECT 00 ATTACK RELEASE FREQUENCY LEVEL Figure 17 Camera Resonance Effect The camera resonance effect works in a similar fashion to the resonance generator and uses the same settings Refer to page 6 of this manual for information 23 5 Acknowledgment We would like to thank Peter Hayes Australia for the editorial support and for making valuable additions to the manual 24
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