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[bluephoenix]

But that version of orulex is for orbiter 2006 isn't it?

[Robsoie]

It should work from what i read on the orbiter forum (never used it myself, my system may not be good enough and as i spend more time above planets than on them, it's not important to me)
http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=20667

[sluissa]

Ok, I love the XR-5. It's huge and it's lumbering and it's got tons of cargo space and has most of the features I love about the DG IV. Gave it a test orbit and managed to pin the landing at KSC on the first try. Undershot it a bit, but the scramjets made up for it easily. The speed was even a bit more than I wanted it to be when I hit the atmosphere, but she took it easily. Giving the XR-2 a test run now. The DGIV is still my favorite, but if I want to move more than 4 units of cargo into or out of orbit at once, now I know where I need to turn.

[Robsoie]

The Arrow freighter from the UCGO pack from the same author of the DG-IV is really impressive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukb33V0gSWs
It even has a great 3D cockpit for it.

[Carrion]

Just tried the DGIV.  Wow.

Also, thanks for the suggestions Robsoie, when I get a little more comfortable, I'll consider installing the height maps and stuff.

Edit:  How the hell does that freighter take off from Earth?  It's enormous!

Edit Edit: From the description: In reality ships like the Arrow would be designed only for deep solar system exploration and never for Earth flight.  As it was assembled in orbit the construction is very light there is no control surface, and the lift is mainly done by the hull.

[sluissa]

Yeah, the arrow isn't much  meant for atmospheric flight. It'll have to stay in orbit around earth and just use other craft to ferry goods up to it. (Why I was so excited about the XR5, 10 flights in a delta glider is good practice, but gets old.) The arrow can, however, easily land on low gravity moons with no atmosphere. This is where it excels. The rover in the lift bay, and the base modules included in the pack are designed to go along with the Arrow and set up a base on other moons and planets.

[bluephoenix]

I wonder when the XR2 ravenstar mkII comes out, it will have a nice 3d cockpit.

[Omegastick]

Downloaded, looks fun.

[Carrion]

I wonder when the XR2 ravenstar mkII comes out, it will have a nice 3d cockpit.

A 3D cockpit would be wonderful in the DGIV and if the XR2 it is as sweet as you've all been saying, it would probably be way nice too.  What I like most about the DGIV is all of the stuff you can mess with; it's so immersive.  Being able to look around and adjust switches in a 3D environment would make it much more so.  It will be interesting to see how the programers/designers will fit all of that stuff in a 3D cockpit.  I think I am going to go try the XR2 right now...

An aside:  Has anyone messed with the Orbiter Visualization Project yet?  To what result? 

[sluissa]

So far since downloading the XR5 and XR2 I've spawned an arrow freighter in space. Spawned an XR2 in its docking bay, decided to go to the moon with the freighter. Realized the XR2 wasn't ideal to use on the moon. Deorbited the XR2, overshot KSC and ended up trying to slow down and turn just a tad too quick, resulting in overstressing the wings and losing one aileron. Despite that, autopilot let me keep control of the craft and I set her down for a decent landing at KSC.

Once that one was unloaded and sent off for repairs(and the crew given a complementary 2 weeks of vacation) I Loaded up a XR5 with UCGO cargo (Thanks to the add on cargo pallets) Launched it, rendezvoused with the Arrow, transferred the cargo. (Did a couple by hand with a MMU but just "grappled" the rest) Deorbited the XR5, landed, only slightly short of the runway, completely out of regular fuel, having not taken advantage of the leftover scram fuel when I was going fast enough to use it. Set the XR5 aside for later use. Loaded up a DGIV, brought it, with a crew, up to the arrow and docked.

Then the Arrow went on a nice 4 day trip from the earth to the moon using Transx. A couple of minor course corrections were needed along the way. (my course shifted so that I would have hit the moon, rather than passed by it.) Now I'm in orbit around the moon, readying up the DGIV to take a transponder beacon to the surface. Once that's done the arrow will use the transponder to deorbit and land, unload it's cargo and a small base will be setup. Arrow will stay on station while an XR5 loaded up with additional fuel tanks will launch for the moon with further base modules and supplies.

That's as far as my planning has gotten.

[Nistenf]

That's almost exactly what I'm doing, except that since I didn't know the cargoes I just spawned some on the Arrow and went to the Moon with a DG-IV. How do you us UCGO on the XRs? And what add-ons would you recommend for space station building? ISS and fictional/custom

[sluissa]

That's almost exactly what I'm doing, except that since I didn't know the cargoes I just spawned some on the Arrow and went to the Moon with a DG-IV. How do you us UCGO on the XRs? And what add-ons would you recommend for space station building? ISS and fictional/custom

http://www.alteaaerospace.com/index-4.html

That page has some user make cargo platforms for the bays of the XR2 and XR5 which allow you to carry UCGO cargo. There's also an alternate cargo container for the XR5, I haven't tried that one yet.

As for building stations, I've never tried it myself, but there's a great set of modules that can fit together any way you want. go to www.orbithanger.com and search for "Station Building Blocks" I believe 4.1b is the latest version. There are also add-ons which let you use the XR5 to transport them.

[Nistenf]

I know about them, I didn't know they worked in the new version. Gonna try that and look for more stuff, thanks!

[Robsoie]

Building stations in space is beyond my knowledge for now, that's something i always want to do , but i'm always distracting by other Orbiter "actions" , there have been people in the past collaborating (sharing their quicksave/current state .scn) to build space stations.

While i think about it, for those that didn't noticed, Orbiter comes with a nice flight recording feature. It's often used for video tutorials, as you can edit them and add texts.

To activate the recording :
Ingame, press F4 to bring the side menu and click on the Record/Play button.

It will bring a panel , type a replay name (by default the replay name will be the same as the one of the scenario you loaded).
Click on the arrow pointing down to open the drop down menu and set your recording options (if you untick "Record Time Acceleration", during the replay you'll be able to set yourself the accelerated time)

Then once you're setup, press on the red button "Record"
You can close this panel, and the F4 side panel too.

Once you're finished with recording press F4 to bring the side menu and click on the Record/Play button, then press the black "Stop" one to end your recording.

It will save a .scn file (named as you wished it) in the .\Scenarios\Playback folder
The flight datas will be saved to the .\Flight folder , in a subfolder named the same as your recorded .scn.

When you will want to watch your replay, in the Orbiter menu, open the Playback folder and select your replay, then load it, simple as that.

Using the scenario editor during the replay, you can spawn another vessel (or use another existing ship), take control of it and fly along your "ghost".

The flight datas can be interesting, by example in this thread about a very impressive record for a KSC to ISS challenge ( less than 10 minutes flight time ! ).
http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=14722

You can try to beat it (good luck, it is a really awesome record) by challenging the "ghost" of this flight in a scenario , the XR2 piloted by dgatsoulis (the owner of this record) is starting on your right as soon as the scenario is finished to load, so don't waste time :
http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?p=182921&postcount=22

(if you have no account on orbiter-forum, i uploaded it to sendspace )
Extract the folders Scenarios and Flights that are in the downloaded archive, and put them in your Orbiter directory, don't worry it will overwrite nothing inside of the default Orbiter install.

Then in the menu, load the scenario named "Challenge KSC to ISS 10min"

[Carrion]

I just completed my first orbital insertion from Earth, into LEO (Low Earth Orbit).  This was with the XR2, which I wish had more gadgets like the DGIV, but it's still cool.  The problem now is that I used nearly all of my main thrusters fuel.  I still have some reserve, but not much.  Really, though, I don't have a true goal... well, I just wanted to get into orbit.  What is a more fuel effective way?  Or, what are the SCRAM jets and how should I use them?  I could just look this up, but you all are much more insightful.