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[Fayrik]

Will this ship of yours be able to dock? I can't imagine flying a ship without the ability to dock to a station!

[Robsoie]

I'm no good texturer, i have some difficulty with UV mapping, but i gave a try using a barrel texture for fun.

If you're interested (it's 2 textures/2 materials couldn't get the top cone right without a secondary texture) i can upload this somewhere.

the texture i used is this :
http://www.sharecg.com/v/40699/view/6/Texture/Seamless-Wood-Barrel-text-#01

the secondary is just a projection mapping of the same texture, but bent in a way it fit the cone uv map

[PolliMatrix]

Will this ship of yours be able to dock? I can't imagine flying a ship without the ability to dock to a station!

Yes, it will be able to dock at the front cone like the delta glider. I may make an animation of the cone opening and closing if I get to animating the mesh, but as this is my first Orbiter mod it may take a while until I get to that. I think I will add a docking point even without the animation first, even if it may look a bit strange.

I'm no good texturer, i have some difficulty with UV mapping, but i gave a try using a barrel texture for fun.
[...]
If you're interested (it's 2 textures/2 materials couldn't get the top cone right without a secondary texture) i can upload this somewhere.

I think we should leave texturing for later and focus on the shape of the model first. After using the subsurface modifier your model really looks like I wanted it to look when I made the sketch. But after looking at the technical things I'd like to make the ship a bit more like the delta glider or space shuttle, so the pilot's view, instruments and landing direction will be aligned horizontally. Also two of the barrel pods should be removed and replaced with a triangular landing gear (one front wheel, two rear wheels).
Here's a little ASCII graphic of what I mean:

Old:             New (landing or   New (vertical launch)
    _             horiz. launch)      _   ^
   / \                               / \  | PV   
  /   W -> PV    ##------+          / W \   
  |   |          *#      Ww  ->PV   |   |
 0| 0 |0         *|  *0    |       0|   |0
 *| * |*         *#       /        *|   |*
  #---#          ##------+          #---#
 ##***##            O   O          ##***##
--------------------------------------------------------
0 = barrel pod, O = landing gear wheel * = thruster exhaust
P.V. = pilot's view direction  W = window


If you could do a version with a wheels instead of two of the pods, that would be great. Also it may be easier to animate later if you made the landing gear a separate object or at least easy to separate from the rest of the ship.
Again, thanks for your efforts! I'll keep looking for someone else who can help with the model for times when you are too busy or just don't feel like working on it.

[Robsoie]

No sorry, i don't have more time to devote to this, but with the provided blend maybe someone else could rework the ship in the new direction you want it to take.
Maybe ask either on the creative forum on bay12 in the hope there are modellers there or on the orbiter forum in which i imagine other Orbiter addon builders should be more easily found for technical and modelling help.

[DrPoo]

Used to play this alot, kind of returned, and stopped again. I keep getting crashes with the Dragonfly, and the modules you can build with arent really that fun, anyone got a suggestion?
Also i would like some easier to fly than Dragonfly since i dont like pausing to look in manuals all the time to make sure things are set up correctly, i just want to build stations and do spacewalks..

[Robsoie]

The stock deltaglider that comes with Orbiter should be easy to fly too.

But that said, the more "complex" (in term of learning curve) ships are usually in the end the easier to fly because they have lot of automated systems that nearly do everything for you (by example the DG-IV has a computer that make the whole ascent in your place without you doing anything).

Anyways, my favorite ships from the most excellent XR- serie have recieved an update , get them here :
http://www.alteaaerospace.com/index-3.html

[bluephoenix]

The xr2 mk2 should be coming out soon.

[DrPoo]

I love this sim.
Kind of suck at orbits, does anybody know if that orbit mfd's grey circle actually means surface?

[sluissa]

for those of you plagued with crashes, as I am.


Autosave plugin

http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=16679

getting ready to give it a try myself. will report back

[Robsoie]

For whoever it can be of use, as you may have noticed you can have sometime Orbiter crashing when you use an UMMU and get it into the ship.

Here's a little experience i made to see if it there were ways to prevent it.
I launched the XR-2 docked at ISS scenario, undocked, depressurized and opened the outer door.
I got the "Kara Miller" pilot to get into EVA, started controlling her and once back near to airlock i pressed E to have her enter the ship again.
No crash.
I had only Map and Dock MFD active

Then i switched to every MFD available and once done, i relaunched the girl in an EVA
Again i switched to every MFD available , took control of the woman and once back near the airlock, i press E, always no crash.

Then i tried something different, in the Dock MFD i set the target of the docking as Kara Miller to have information about her position in relation to the XR2 being displayed.
In Map MFD i set the Target as Kara Miller too
In Orbit MFD i set the target as that UMMU too.

And switched to another MFD to stay displayed (MFD that didn't involved Kara Miller in any ways).

Took control of Kara Miller and went back into the ship pressing E and ... no crash
Switched back to Dock MFD ... no problem, Kara is no referenced anymore, that MFD does a good job at updating itself correctly with deleted objects.
Switched back to Map MFD .... oh there's a strange object referenced with a very lot of senseless symbols as a name, hmm hint of a problem, it's not updating correctly regarding deleted objects
Switched to Orbit MFD .... game crash

That's it, the referencing problem with object being removed (i guess problem would be the same if you added anything with the mission editor ingame and deleted it after having it referenced in a MFD) is leading to direct crashes.

But another experience :
I relaunched Orbiter, same scenario, undocked, depressurize and opened out door, and Kara Miller kicked out of the ship.
I referenced as target Kara Miller in Dock, Map and Orbit MFD as previously.

Now before having the UMMU to get back into the XR-2, i referenced as target in Dock, Map and Orbit MFD something else entirely (ISS by example), so Kara Miller would not be taken in account by those MFD anymore.

And there after I controlled Kara Miller and got her back in i switched back to Dock, Map and Orbit and no problem no crash.

So lesson to learn from this experience is that before having someone to enter a ship, to be sure none of the MFD have the individual that want to enter the ship in reference/target, if so select a different reference/target to remove the individual from the MFD display

[Zaphod]

I just downloaded this.
I spent most of the day doing the mission smack mission (not 24 hours straight but on and off) until i mastered it. I kept missing the exact time i needed to end the thrust on my engines to fix my orbit or smack into the earth.
I got to the second mission that was going to have me orbit the moon in small craft. I had to take off from a lunar base. I set up my nav computer to local transponders. Slowly took off. I felt great so I said fuck it and decided to go joyriding. I didn't realize it, but I had broken orbit with the moon. So I turn around to head back to base. I then opened my mouth in horror. The moon was moving faster than the max speed of my engines....
If this were real life I'd either have to wait until the moon orbited back around again or try and shoot for earth.
SO MUCH SPACE GOTTA SEE IT ALL!

[Robsoie]

In Orbiter i always had lots of difficulty to make a correct (in term of fuel expense and in term of precision and not crashing hard on the moon surface) flight from Earth to the Brighton Beach moon base.

And i found a very well done and nicely commented video tutorial for it :
http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=19647


After waiting until the moon orbit was crossing my location (for fuel sparring reason), taking off from Wideawake International , then orienting to the correct direction according to my Launch MFD setup for the moon, i start my ascent method.

Important : while waiting (acceleration time) open the various doors of your XR2 to get air circulating, instead of counting on your onboard system to breath, at accelerated time it will be empty in no time and your crew will die.
But remember to close everything before taking off.


Once in circular orbit (i was somewhere over Saudi Arabia at that point), i open my cargo bay and jetison one of my two additional main fuel tanks (that was emptied by the fuel demanding ascent and circularisation of the orbit) as it would be useless weight now, better be less heavy for gravity, (that i embarked  those additional main tanks specially to get enough fuel for the whole travel.)



After building my eject plan on the TransX MFD, i full burn to the direction required for my planned ejection from Earth orbit and getting into the moon



Leaving Earth behind



Moon in sight.



Screwed up a bit my approach in the mid course correction, so i'll have to wait a few orbits before doing my retrograde burn and get a good entry with Basesync MFD



Waiting in moon orbit.



After setting things correctly, it's time for the descent, thanks to the excellent Descent Hold autopilot of the XR-2 , it's piece of cake to control and adjust it, automated control of the hoover engines is very helpfull while i use the retro engine to slow me down as much as possible, once at +/- 200km from the goal.



The flight was very good, i begin to see the Brighton Beach moon base !



Approaching and playing with the translation RCS to get aligned with one of the pads



Nearly there, heading to pad 3, can't believe everything is going that smoothly and nothing has broken my plan



A little cockpit view for immersion.



The XR-2 have landed on the moon , we're alive !



zooming out to show where on the moon is that moon bas



A view of Earth and the moon base tower. That was a long road to come there.

Very good tutorial, be sure to refer to it if you want to make nice wideawake -> brighton beach flights.

[Zaphod]

Could some one point me in the direction of good (I think it's called this) sky box texture for space? I'm using one of the preloaded ones that makes it look all red and stuff. I want some thing more realistic. I have a good pc, so I can handle any thing.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Thats what im currently using.

[Fayrik]

Could some one point me in the direction of good (I think it's called this) sky box texture for space? I'm using one of the preloaded ones that makes it look all red and stuff. I want some thing more realistic.

Uh, set the Celestial Sphere to Visible (DSS2/Wikisky) with an intensity lower than 0.25. I personally like 0.15, but you might want to put all the way up to 0.25 to make it more visible, but anything over 0.25 just becomes overly bright and unrealistic.

And i found a very well done and nicely commented video tutorial for it :
http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=19647

I'll have to give that a go, after I get back to earth from my current mission... If I can get back without dying!

[Zaphod]

Thanks thats much better. Using the lets play in space pdf walk through. although it makes this all simple and understandable, it makes space no more forgiving or any less difficult. About the only thing im some what competent at on day 3 of having this is correcting orbits around earth (scenario smack!)


How do I find my forward velocity in the delta glider?