A first addon...

[spcefrk]

Hi guys,

I've been around the community for a long time playing around with Orbiter and all the many addons. I've tried to get my hands dirty at making my own addons, but was never able to articulate what I wanted in models much less figure out how to get things into Orbiter. I think I've finally got a very simple model I'd like to cut my proverbial teeth on.

It's about 1000 vertices (about 60% of which are in the three engines which I think I'll replace with simple cones). So it's something I think I can easily learn to make textures for. There's no option of moving parts etc... except the addition of a sliding cargo bay door (the green square). All in all I think it's pretty basic to learn on.

My question is where do I need to go now? I don't want to go in and try textures and all that yet, I want to figure out the ins and outs of making it work in Orbiter. If I'm not trying anything fancy, can I just use Spacecraft3?.dll and put some specs in a config file and I'm ready to go? Also, where was the program to go between .3ds and .msh? I had a copy about 2 years ago when I last tried to fall into addon making, but I've since lost it...

 

[Black dog]

YES, you can use spacecraft3, as long as you don't want strobes & beacons.

You can get max2mesh from Orbithangar Mods.

Good luck!

 

[perseus]

Hello, in order to convertr
3ds to MSH
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2740"]Mesh Wizard 1.9d[/ame]

http://users.swing.be/vinka/

http://users.swing.be/vinka/3ds2msh_050630.zip

[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2698"]http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2698[/ame]

[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3397"]Anim8orto3ds2msh[/ame]

 

[spcefrk]

Okay, I've got a mesh that doesn't look like jumbled nonsense which must be a good sign. Is there a manual to using Spacecraft3? I downloaded it from Vinka's site and understand that I need to make a .ini file but is there a reference that explains all the commands?

EDIT: Ignore that. I forgot there were multiple folders to the Spacecraft3 zip.

 

[Black dog]

Also, if you want strobes/beacons check out Computerex's addons for OrbSpotlights. I just found out about it, haven't used it myself.

 

[ar81]

Tutorials on spacecraft.dll

[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2747"]Tutorial: How to use Spacecraft.dll (Lesson 1)[/ame]
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2748"]Tutorial: How to use Spacecraft.dll parameters (Le[/ame]

Also you will need Mesh Wizard to tweak your mesh once you converted it to .msh format.
Read the manual so you understand .msh format
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2740"]Mesh Wizard 1.9d[/ame]
The idea of Mesh Wizard was to help with very boring and time consuming tasks, but there are things that can only be done by editing a mesh in notepad.

If you are going to use attachment or docking ports or animations you may need this tool
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3429"]Vector normalizer tool[/ame]
and this tutorial to understand vectors
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3178"]Tutorial: Vectors for dummies[/ame]

 

[spcefrk]

Tutorials on spacecraft.dll

http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2747
http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2748

Also you will need Mesh Wizard to tweak your mesh once you converted it to .msh format.
Read the manual so you understand .msh format
http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2740
The idea of Mesh Wizard was to help with very boring and time consuming tasks, but there are things that can only be done by editing a mesh in notepad.

If you are going to use attachment or docking ports or animations you may need this tool
http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3429
and this tutorial to understand vectors
http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3178

Thanks for the help. I have to put this on hold for a few weeks. I'm in the last stages of my Masters Thesis. I've got a 3d Studio Max model and I fear I may run into trouble with the fuselage as it looks like the shadow on one side of the nose is backward. But it was quick to make. I've also completely forgotten how to make the UV mapping work, but I'm going to work on that after I get something flying in orbiter. So anyway, thanks for the links, I'll check them out when I have some time in the next couple of weeks.

 

[tgep]

This thing reminds me of Project Have Blue. I'll be intrested in seeing what you do with it.

 

[no matter]

... I've got a 3d Studio Max model and I fear I may run into trouble with the fuselage as it looks like the shadow on one side of the nose is backward. But it was quick to make. ...

I guess you have used something like the mirror button?
In order to fix the problem, select the resulting object and go to the utilities tabs (the last tab; hammer icon).
In the utility tab, press the button "ResetXForm" and do it.

Then, as a last step you may have to flip normals on the whole object using a normal modifier or, if the object is an editable mesh, using the corresponding button in face sub-object level while all the faces are selected.

 

[spcefrk]

I roughed something out in X-plane the other day (which is my lazy way of making sure things are stable) and surprisingly it wasn't too bad. Certainly not optimized, but it didn't take a lot to trim it in pitch. It had some yaw issues but that was to be expected with a V-Tail -- something even basic automatic controls can handle.

Anyway, I've called this Hyper-1 as I intend it to be a hypersonic test bed -- sort of an unmanned updated X-15. I've got ideas for bigger versions that don't reach full orbit, but enough to go about 1/3rd around the planet as a two-stage vehicle with a single-stage flyback. A little trial and error and The fourth or fifth vehicle would be a LEO shuttle. At that point I've got wild ambitions to make my reusable lunar mission. Hyper-1 is the babystep