Planetary rendering engine and aerospace simulation tools
Skybolt is a real-time planetary environment rendering engine, designed for flight simulators, aerospace R&D, and geospatial applications. Skybolt is written in C++, based on OpenSceneGraph, and supports CIGI for communicating with host applications. Skybolt also features a Python API for easy integration with science and engineering research tools.
The Skybolt repository includes Sprocket, a GUI application providing a sandbox for interactive scenario execution and testing.
Skybolt created and maintained by Matthew Reid. To submit a bug report, please raise an issue on the GitHub repository. For other queries, please our contact form.
This project is licensed under the Mozilla Public License Version 2.0 - see the License.txt file for details.
Skybolt uses the CMake meta-build system, and supports the Conan package manager. Using Conan usage is optional but strongly encouraged, as it automates dependency acquisition and build configuration.
A list of skybolt dependencies can be found in conanfile.py.
Conan can be installed with pip: pip3 install conan
.
To install dependencies with default Skybolt configuraion:
conan install %SKYBOLT_SOURCE% --install-folder=%SKYBOLT_BUILD%
To use a custom configuration instead, configuration options may be supplied with the -o argument, for example:
conan install %SKYBOLT_SOURCE% --install-folder=%SKYBOLT_BUILD% -o openscenegraph-mr:shared=True -o enable_python=True -o enable_sprocket=True -o enable_bullet=True -o enable_cigi=True
Please refer to conanfile.py for a full list of available configuration options.
Once dependencies have been installed, Skybolt CMake project can be generated and compiled with:
conan build %SKYBOLT_SOURCE% --build-folder=%SKYBOLT_BUILD%
At runtime, Skybolt uses assets such as meshes, textures, and shaders. These assets are organized into packages. Each package is a folder containing a hierarchy of asset files on disk.
Skybolt searches for asset packages in these locations:
To run Skybolt, you must ensure the required packages are avilable to Skybolt using either of the above mechanisms.
Skybolt cannot run without the Core package. It is located under /Assets in this repository.
Additional packages for running the example applications are located in the SkyboltAssets repository. SkyboltAssets uses DVC for remote storage and retrieval of large files which are not stored in the git repository itself.
To checkout the SktboltAssets repository:
pip install dvc[s3]
to install with pip
dvc pull
command in the SkyboltAssets root directory to fetch the remote filesLand cover tiles for USA. Used by Skybolt to place trees on terrain in forest areas. This package can be downloaded here.
Map features (buildings, roads, lakes etc) for the city of Seattle. These features were generated from OpenStreetMap data using the MapFeaturesConverter tool. This package can be downloaded here.
Engine settings are stored in a json file, which may be manually edited with a text editor, or edited in Sprocket with the Tools->Settings dialog. An example settings file template is available in this repository under src/SkyboltExamples/ExamplesCommon/ExampleSettings.json.
The settings file can be loaded by example applications with the --settingsFile commandline option. If the option is not specified, a default Settings.json in the Operating System user's home directory will be used. On windows, this is located at C:/Users/%USERNAME%/AppData/Local/Skybolt/Settings.json.
By default, the PlanetEarth entity uses mapbox for albedo and elevation data. To use mapbox, you must acquire an API key from https://mapbox.com Without an API key, the tiles will not download, the the planet will not render correctly. If desired, PlanetEarth can be edited to use Bing maps for albedo instead. A bing key can be obtained from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/bingmaps/getting-started/bing-maps-dev-center-help/getting-a-bing-maps-key Keys are stored in the engine json settings file (see above).