New Release XR2 Ravenstar 1.0 / XR1 1.5 / XR5 Vanguard 1.2 Released

[Wraith]

I think I just found a tiny bug: if you disable APU automatic shutdown via config file, leave the APU on and switch ships, the working APU sound won't be playing when you return to the XR2. Restarting the APU brings the sound back.

Tested on clean install: Orbiter core, then OrbiterSound 3.5 and UMMU 1.5, then XR2.

 

[dbeachy1]

Thanks for the heads-up; however, technically that is an OrbiterSound bug: if a sound is playing and you switch to a different ship and then switch back, OrbiterSound does not resume playing the sound (this affects all vessels that use sounds that loop, not just XR vessels). In other words, sounds that are in progress are not remembered across a vessel switch. In theory it would be possible to program a workaround for that at the vessel DLL (i.e., XR code) level, but it would be messy; the real fix would be for that to be handled by OrbiterSound. Coding a workaround would be a lot of work for what is a minor bug, so unfortunately it won't be fixed anytime soon...

 

[Wraith]

technically that is an OrbiterSound bug

Oh, now I know why it looks so familiar! Now I remember seeing the very the same bug when I was hacking a rocket booster of my own design, when encountered the same thing: the sound stopped when switched vessels. I did the 'hackaround' though - just restarted the sound manually.

And just discovered another, well, "issue": You can safely open the cabin hatch and engage scramjets on planets without oxygen in the atmosphere:

 

[AstroCam]

You could *probably* make a scramjet style engine on mars - it would have to actually be a large air-augmented rocket (Compressing and heating the atmosphere). Or it could involve lasers to heat the martian atmosphere that enters the engine

 

[tblaxland]

You could *probably* make a scramjet style engine on mars - it would have to actually be a large air-augmented rocket (Compressing and heating the atmosphere). Or it could involve lasers to heat the martian atmosphere that enters the engine

On the first suggestion, Mars only contains trace amounts of oxygen so you would need a very big scoop to be able to get enough to burn fuel. The second idea smacks of a water powered car - where does the energy to power the laser come from? Why not just use that energy and its associated mass to power a rocket directly?

 

[AstroCam]

Fission reactor powering high powered solid state lasers?
Anyway, the ideas are not using the atmosphere to burn fuel, the motors a traditional rocket engine, the atmosphere entering a scoop is compressed by the vessels forward movement, and accelerated out the tailpipe due to the exhaust gas mixing with it.

 

[TSPenguin]

I don't think orbiter simulates contents of the athmosphere. It only has pressure and density.
Please correct me if I am wrong!

 

[Max Pain]

Thanks very much woo482

 

[dbeachy1]

I don't think orbiter simulates contents of the athmosphere. It only has pressure and density.
Please correct me if I am wrong!

TS is exactly correct: Orbiter does not model the content of an atmosphere. Only pressure (i.e., density) is modeled, and so SCRAMJET performance is tied to atmospheric pressure. Granted, I could easily "hard-code" the SCRAM engines to only work in Earth's atmosphere, but some users fly in custom solar systems as well. Therefore, it is up to the pilot to decide whether he wants to "cheat" or not by running the SCRAM engines on a planet that does not contain oxygen in its atmosphere.

 

[streb2001]

Just a thought: how about a list of planets in the config that have O2 atmospheres? Then if a user wants to add Tatooine or Betazed then they can use the scrams there?

 

[Woo482]

@Max Pain. I all ways help people out when I can .
and what other XR craft are planned ?

 

[Dman1410]

I think they said the next XR vessel is the XR7?
please correct me if i am wrong

 

[yagni01]

I think they said the next XR vessel is the XR7?
please correct me if i am wrong

There was both an XR7 and an XR0 preliminary design suggested, but no fixed order that I know of. The next one coming out should be the XR2-mkII.


-----Posted Added-----

Therefore, it is up to the pilot to decide whether he wants to "cheat" or not by running the SCRAM engines on a planet that does not contain oxygen in its atmosphere.

Or assume the cryo prop is a monopropellant that self ignites at a high dynamic pressure and something higher than room temperature.

 

[Wraith]

TS is exactly correct: Orbiter does not model the content of an atmosphere. Only pressure (i.e., density) is modeled, and so SCRAMJET performance is tied to atmospheric pressure. Granted, I could easily "hard-code" the SCRAM engines to only work in Earth's atmosphere, but some users fly in custom solar systems as well. Therefore, it is up to the pilot to decide whether he wants to "cheat" or not by running the SCRAM engines on a planet that does not contain oxygen in its atmosphere.

Maybe you could make a config option for this? I.e. a list of planet names that are considered to have oxygen and if its safe to open hatches and airlocks. You could even add the oxygen percentage as a parameter so that would result in different scramjet performance on different planets.

 

[streb2001]

Maybe you could make a config option for this?

Yes, I suggested this above.

 

[James.Denholm]

Wow! She's a beautiful ship, the first thing I did was take her up to the Moon and back, and this marks the first time I've done that with any ship. Though I nearly ran out of fuel twice. :lol:

But, I've found a quite interesting bug!

Load attached scenario, pause immediatley, zoom as far as you want out (I'm guessing far enough so that the Orbiter core dosen't render the mesh anymore), zoom back in, and the XR2 will look like it's in the middle of re-entry, clearly visible from the XYZth image attached (the second image shows the hull wasn't hot at all). Un-pausing fixes the bug, untill you pause and zoom out again.

Other than that, well done indeed!

 

[dbeachy1]

Actually, what you are seeing is normal: that occurs simply because the simulation is paused before the first frame is rendered by the XR2 code, and therefore the code did not have a chance to vary the heating mesh yet. Each frame the XR2 code varies the transparency of the heating mesh (or hides it entirely). When the model is first loaded, however, all meshes are initialized normally and so the heating mesh is fully opaque. As soon as the first frame is rendered, however, the heating mesh is hidden.

 

[Cairan]

Shame on me... Some requests...

Put me in front of the firing squad, put I've got some requests for the XR-familly... These are after having taken the ships thru their paces...

- The hull should have a "crush pressure", because it doesn't seem right to be able to take the XR2 all the way to the surface of Venus, without collapsing. This would be based on the differential pressure between internal (101 kPa) and the atmospheric pressure...

- When the efficiency of the engines drops to 0, or near that value, the Master Warning light should go on, and warn us that the engines are inoperative. We shouldn't be able to ignite the engines either...

- For the radiator, the coolant temperature needs to go up when the external temperature is above the coolant temperature and the radiator is deployed.

- It would be nice to be able to bring payload bay tanks of APU fuel and/or coolant. For example, when gliding in the atmosphere of Titan or Venus, it would be cool to have extra APU fuel, or to have extra coolant which would reduce the heating (and cooling...) rate of the fluid.

- By default, an XR-1, XR-2 and XR-5 should have only the pilot and copilot in the cabin instead of a full complement. It's really sad to have to leave a pile of people on the runway... But that's just me.

That's about it, I won't loose any sleep if they never make the cut one day, it's just some food for thought.

On a side note, I've managed with the DGIV payload tutorial to modify the MKSAT and bring it up on the XR-2 instead of the Hab module. I'll add the relevant lines later tonight in this post.

Thanks guys for the ships! Great work.

 

[AstroCam]

Hmm, 'crush depth' and external air temp sound like good ideas to put in.

Maybe adding an EMER COOL button to the XR2 panel somewhere - lowers the hull exterior temp a bit, and significantly lowers the interior temp. Of course, since this would be LN2 or Main fuel (if cryogenic) going through cooling channels, the EMER button should only be allowed to run 2 or 3 times per flight.

As for more APU fuel/lox, you could just use sputniks velcro rockets add-on. Add a non removable drop tank to the XR2, and use your common sense as to its dimensions, weight etc. It would just be a matter of finding what propellant resource is what.

If you wanna look far into the future, a XR-# ship could reroute the cram intakes to siphon LOX and fuel out of a planets atmosphere. This is of course when orbiter can support atmospheric compositon. 2009 Edition anyone? (BTW, when is orbiter 2008 coming out?)

 

[Cairan]

If you wanna look far into the future, a XR-# ship could reroute the cram intakes to siphon LOX and fuel out of a planets atmosphere. This is of course when orbiter can support atmospheric compositon. 2009 Edition anyone? (BTW, when is orbiter 2008 coming out?)

Yeah that would be a must sooner or later...