flysim 0.4.0

Minimal 3D drone simulator with keyboard/mouse/HID (WFLY ET16S) control, lighting, shadow, and live-tunable physics.

FlySim

A minimal but complete 3D drone simulator with real-time OpenGL rendering, lighting, shadow, and three input methods: keyboard, mouse, and the WFLY ET16S RC transmitter over USB HID.

Features

• Real-time 3D rendering (pygame + PyOpenGL): perspective camera, depth test, per-vertex lighting (ambient + diffuse), smooth shading
• Tiled checkerboard ground with cardinal direction markers (N/E arrows)
• Point light source (yellow sphere) with ambient + diffuse components
• Soft blob shadow projected under the drone
• Drone model: body, 4 arms, 4 motors, independently spinning propellers (speed scales with throttle + differential for pitch/roll/yaw)
• Payload box hanging by a rope below the drone (swings with acceleration)
• Front markers: two red squares on the nose; rear marker: green triangle
• Third-person orbit camera (mouse drag = orbit, wheel = zoom)
• Flight telemetry HUD: position (N/E/Alt from takeoff), heading, pitch/roll, speed, acceleration, velocity vector
• Live RC transmitter visualization panel (twin-stick, Mode 2)
• Fully configurable HID axis mapping (axis index + sign per channel)
• Live-tunable physics: max tilt, pitch/roll/throttle force, yaw rate, damping
• Persistent config: axismap.txt and tuning.txt auto-loaded/saved

Install

pip install dronesim

Or from source:

git clone https://github.com/CodeOfMe/FlySim.git
cd FlySim
pip install -e .

Run

dronesim          # installed entry point
# or
python -m dronesim

Requirements

• Python >= 3.10
• pygame >= 2.4, PyOpenGL >= 3.1.7, numpy >= 1.24

Controls

Keyboard

Action	Keys
Forward / back (pitch)	W / S or Up / Down
Strafe left / right (roll)	A / D or Left / Right
Yaw left / right	Q / E
Throttle up / down	Shift / Ctrl
Orbit camera	Mouse drag
Zoom	Mouse wheel
Pause	P
Reset drone	R
Toggle help	H
Toggle axis editor	F1
Quit	ESC

WFLY ET16S (HID, Mode 2 / USA transmitter)

Action	Stick
Throttle (up/down)	Left stick Y
Yaw (turn)	Left stick X
Pitch (forward/back)	Right stick Y
Roll (left/right)	Right stick X

The HID input is auto-detected. If any ET16S stick moves beyond its deadzone, it takes priority over the keyboard.

Live HID axis configuration

Press F1 to open the axis editor. Then:

Key	Action
1 / 2 / 3 / 4	Select channel: throttle / yaw / pitch / roll
[ / ]	Decrement / increment axis index
; / '	Flip sign for current channel
F2	Save axis map to axismap.txt

Live physics tuning

Key	Action
F3	Select max_tilt_deg
F4	Select pitch_force
F5	Select roll_force
F6	Select throttle_force
F7	Select yaw_rate
F8	Select damping
+ / -	Increase / decrease selected parameter
F9	Save tuning to tuning.txt
F10	Load tuning from tuning.txt

Scene

• Ground: 40 x 40 m checkerboard with N (red) and E (blue) arrows, origin cross
• Light: point light at (20, 30, 15) with ambient + diffuse
• Shadow: soft radial blob projected on ground under the drone
• Drone: body + 4 arms + 4 motors + spinning props + payload on rope
• Camera: third-person orbit, follows the drone

Coordinate system

• Origin = takeoff point on the ground
• North = -Z, South = +Z, East = +X, West = -X, Up = +Y
• yaw = 0 faces North; yaw increases clockwise (top view)

License

GPL-3.0-or-later. See LICENSE.