Update Arrow Freighter version 2012 updated (screenshots)

[Urwumpe]

This is more than the price I spend for each new computer. I always keep some material from the old (as case, motherboard power supply etc.) take always 1-1.5 years old hardware and assemble it myself. This ensure lower price possible with still very good performance. (I choose wisely the hardware and read a lot of test and article before buying)

My actual PC is about 1 years old now (with two to four years old material) and it was able to run recent game at almost max setting with very good FPS and high resolution.

Yeah, I had done the same with my PC, I always replaced parts by new parts of the same price, so, while I once paid 1250€ for the PC, over the years it averaged around 250€ p.a. for replacements or upgrades. But the final years of university had been a smaller version of the Euro crisis for me, even the 25 € for a new fitting CPU cooler last year had been a major investment.

Of course in your case you can't re-use about nothing but with this budget you can have a very good PC.

Not really, no modern RAM, no SATA, no PCI-Express. Once I start replacing the mainboard, all will go.

But it is only relatively good... sit at work at a work station with 96 GB RAM, dual hexacore CPU and a NVS 300 GPU and your perception gets a bit distorted. :rofl: But that kind of PC would cause the next Euro crisis here.

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Same for me, but that is mostly because my PC is very old and I am too lazy to install the DirectX 9 SDK on my PC for recompiling the DirectX 9 client without SSE2 instructions (My 2004 AMD CPU only knows SSE). It is strange, but there are some many reasons why.

The next computer will be much better...I think about raising my 1250 € budget for computer core hardware a bit.

Oh, so theres other things I have to install for DX9/11. I guess I have to get the DX SDK from Microsoft website? I just thought DX9 was really, really resource hungry even for a fast computer.

---------- Post added at 01:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:16 PM ----------

That's very strange, but anyway all the new release work on stock Orbiter2010 of course.



:lol:

One hours is for me doing a new simple scenario, setting, text, test, control.
Modelling a simple (and badly designed) VC is more like 4-6 days.

A good one take 2-3 weeks at least not to speak about one with instruments.
Some peoples might do all that faster than me but it's all about quality and attention to details.

The new DGIV is yet finished as Ummu and OrbiterSound so I don't plan to add or rework anything (Apart if a bug is discovered of course)

Oh, sorry, didnt mean to imply that it should be rushed & kinda bad. I guess 1 hour is a little unrealistic, but im not at a very advanced level of modelling yet anyways. If you want any help in translation for docs/scenarios, im happy to help

 

[dansteph]

I just thought DX9 was really, really resource hungry even for a fast computer.

I use DX9 since 2002, -10 years ago- on very low end computer, never saw any slowdown as it's only a 3d/sound acceleration API that is not used natively in anyway by the OS.

In FsX or any other gamer community they all have far better computer than mine but here sometime it seem time have stopped at computer stone age. :lol:

but im not at a very advanced level of modelling yet anyways. If you want any help in translation for docs/scenarios, im happy to help

Yep, peoples often badly underestimate the time required to make prog or modelisation. No prob thought. Thanks for offer anyway, we'll see at beta.

 

[Urwumpe]

Oh, so theres other things I have to install for DX9/11. I guess I have to get the DX SDK from Microsoft website? I just thought DX9 was really, really resource hungry even for a fast computer.

No, it disarms a few many bottlenecks, especially on slower older computers with AGP port.

You only need the DX SDK for recompiling the source code of the DX9 client, otherwise, the DirectX installation on your PC should be enough.

---------- Post added at 06:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:29 PM ----------

Yep, peoples often badly underestimate the time required to make prog or modelisation. No prob thought. Thanks for offer anyway, we'll see at beta.

Yeah, I wish I would have a dollar every time some customer says "200 hours for only a handful pages of feature requests? I could do this myself in 40 hours!" (would give me a nice extra income before I have to fix what the customer caused in 1000 hours then before getting fired)

 

[dansteph]

DEV NEWS - CRASH DEBRIS

I added to temperature, pressure and crash destruction the G destruction. A 500ms delay ensure that no false destruction occurs. (moving with scn editor)

I added also debris spawning, default is 100 (which is a lot for low end computer but as said before I decided to target more the middle/high computer) Of course you can set the debris number in cfg file (from 0 to 1000)

Meteor shower:

DEV NEWS - ABOUT DESTRUCTION

I lowered the limits to something more realistic (800C°, 7G), this open a whole new game play as planet shadow and door open are taken in account you must be careful for example to conduct Mercury operation in the shadow of mercury else a door open will make you burn.

The new specs indicate limit with doors open:

Not exactly the right time to open a door ! The center screen instruct you to not to. "(No door !)"

For the record I reworked the temperature class to compute Earth's season and latitude temperatures. (You'll freeze on north pole or in winter) Not very useful for the Arrow which is not a "earth" vessel but may be a nice addition. It's the kind of small detail I like anyway.





DEV NEWS - GLOBAL STATISTICS

I added a persistent "global statistic" display, see details on screen. Engine run time might be useful in next version for engine maintenance (UMmu EVA + action area)

If you see typo it would be nice to indicate them to me yet with the correct text to copy/past in my code, this would shorter correction time at beta. Much thanks !

 

[Ripley]

...If you see typo it would be nice to indicate them to me yet with the correct text to copy/past in my code, this would shorter correction time at beta. Much thanks !

In this last screen:
- "Number of Arrows spawned"
- "Hover / Retro engine run time"

As well, I would "pluralize" all the various "Number of ..." on that part of the screen...So:

- "...good landings"
- "...EVAs / Transfers"
- "...Ingresses / Transfers"
- "...vessel dockings"
- "...cargo grapples / releases"

- "Crew killed by hard landings"
- "Number of Arrows destroyed"

And finally: "Flight time includes only the focused Arrow".

P.S.: is the "s" key of your keyboard broken??


-----------------------------------------

First screen (AF help page 10/12)

- "Temperature calculations" (I'm not English, but "calculus" sounds wrong to me)
- "take into account"
- "If a red "No door" warning shows on center screen, opening one may destroy the Arrow"
- "land on planets like earth..."
- "powerful"
- "interesting"

 

[N_Molson]

I like that hull temperature realism very much ! :thumbup:

 

[dansteph]

P.S.: is the "s" key of your keyboard broken??

Yep ort of.

Much thank, code updated for both creen. :thumbup:

Dan

 

[Cras]

man, this thing just keeps getting better and better.

Well done.

 

[TerraMimic]

So, what happens if the arrow breaks up while docked with a DG-IV-2 in safe mode?

I would guess that when the Arrow is destroyed, it will cause the DG to come out of safe mode? Once out of safe mode, will the DG be destroyed as well?

It looks like the Arrow is more susceptible to damge than the DG. From what I've seen so far, it looks like we'll be able to use a docked ship as an emergency escape pod.

Dan, please let us know what will happen. Or, we could just crash one and find out for ourselves. :dj:

 

[dansteph]

So, what happens if the arrow breaks up while docked with a DG-IV-2 in safe mode?

The DG is undocked and start to spin out of control in the windflow. In the "real life" this vessel is supposed empty, so ... the end anyway.

In simulation you can make it out of safe mode and get the crew back but in case of aero-brake destruction imho you'll not have enough time to regain control before burn... the end.

All that is completely realistic. With a vessel exploding around him such vessel would be lost and the crew aboard have no chance to take any safety escape pod or board the DG.

The key is to fly safely or escape long before the Arrow break.

 

[TerraMimic]

Well, I was also thinking about other scenarios. I believe you said that the new temperature calculations will cause the Arrow to burn if it gets too close to the sun? As far as I know, the DG doesn't do this. In that case, when the Arrow breaks, the DG would just continue on the same trajectory without consequence.

And, I was wondering, what happens to the crew when the DG is in safe mode? I don't believe they are actually transfered anywhere.

 

[dansteph]

Well, I was also thinking about other scenarios. I believe you said that the new temperature calculations will cause the Arrow to burn if it gets too close to the sun? As far as I know, the DG doesn't do this. In that case, when the Arrow breaks, the DG would just continue on the same trajectory without consequence.

And, I was wondering, what happens to the crew when the DG is in safe mode? I don't believe they are actually transfered anywhere.

Yes, no consequences in that case and yes you can get back the crew.
It's unrealistic but why not ? The only solution would be that the Arrow destroy (delete) all docked vessel but that might cause some problems in some cases and it may not look appealing at all. (Maybe only the dock 0, inside bay ?)

As Arrow's destruction might very often sign mission failure there is no point to spend yet efforts on such details ? Also some may like to consider that the DGIV is an escape pod and continue the mission even if it's completely unrealistic.

 

[Cairan]

The only way I can figure the docked ships would be useful as escape pods is if either the ship has structural damage which precludes maintaining pressurization in any of the habitable spaces and/or the onboard nuclear reactor(s) suffer a catastrophic failure which requires to abandon ship. Otherwise, if you ain't gonna make it with the Arrow, you probably won't make it either with any docked vessels or capsules...

 

[dansteph]

The only way I can figure the docked ships would be useful as escape pods is if either the ship has structural damage which precludes maintaining pressurization in any of the habitable spaces and/or the onboard nuclear reactor(s) suffer a catastrophic failure which requires to abandon ship. Otherwise, if you ain't gonna make it with the Arrow, you probably won't make it either with any docked vessels or capsules...

And there is still the [ame=http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=4488]ISRU[/ame], in a future version I may add ejectable ISRU from side doors. 4 on each side, enough for the 20 crew.

Of course it would not be instantaneous, crew must reach pods a random delay of 15-40 seconds for each pod would be nice. (they would eject already inflated)

But not for this version.

 

[marcheenek]

Oh boy, for the last few weeks I've been checking this topic every 10 minutes for updates Thank you Dan for rekindling my Orbiter passion!

I just thought how awesome it would be to build the Arrow on orbit - deliver pieces by some kind of heavy lifter like Jarvis or Quasar and put them together. I will probably be flamed for my ignorance in programming, but this could be actually a separate addon - mimicked Arrow parts that would be swapped with the actual, functional vessel only after complete assembly. Sorry if my imagination carried me too far, but since the Arrow cannot fly in the Earth's atmosphere, then how the hell did she get on orbit?

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Hmm, a mashup of IMS and/or Thorton's ISS and the Arrow?

 

[Urwumpe]

Just my two cents of annoyance: Would it be possible to have a gradual fragmentation of the wreck? Not just all exploding at once, but rather over time, with the destruction sequence being determined by the energy and forces absorbed by the fragments?

Is a more realistic behavior, you use such "destruction trees" in the analysis of future reentry events, to tell how the debris will be spread over the ground track. Could also mean that "a bit over the red line" is not automatically fatal, if it happens at the right time to safety - but you still won't land in one piece. So, no instant mission failure and no equation of mission failure to loss of crew and vehicle. (In 99% of all cases, you would still get to LOCV quickly ... but at least not instantly)

Now you would have a rather small debris field. With such a sequence, you could get the hundreds of kilometer long debris trail that resulted from Columbia.

 

[TerraMimic]

Yes, no consequences in that case and yes you can get back the crew.
It's unrealistic but why not ? The only solution would be that the Arrow destroy (delete) all docked vessel but that might cause some problems in some cases and it may not look appealing at all. (Maybe only the dock 0, inside bay ?)

Ok, I thought it might be something like that. I could easily see another vessel's dll not liking it being deleted mid-run like that. Perhaps in a later DG update, the Arrow's destruction could trigger the DG destruct? :lol:

I just thought how awesome it would be to build the Arrow on orbit - deliver pieces by some kind of heavy lifter like Jarvis or Quasar and put them together. I will probably be flamed for my ignorance in programming, but this could be actually a separate addon - mimicked Arrow parts that would be swapped with the actual, functional vessel only after complete assembly. Sorry if my imagination carried me too far, but since the Arrow cannot fly in the Earth's atmosphere, then how the hell did she get on orbit?

IIRC, the UCGO cargos unpack the Ore Miner and Ore Refinery were at one point supposed to be the start of an Orbiter economy system (or something along those lines). Raw ore could be mined, then refined and packed into UCGO containers (currently released). And I think the plan was to allow for either other materials or processes that could eventually be loaded into a UCGO type object that would "convert" the resources and spawn a vessel. Again, I don't know how accurate this might be, or if it was just in my imagination (but it does sound like it could be fun :thumbup.

[ame="http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=4577"]GDI MkI Miner.[/ame]
[ame="http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=4593"]GDI MkI Ore Mill[/ame]
If you want to play with them.

 

[dansteph]

Just my two cents of annoyance: Would it be possible to have a gradual fragmentation of the wreck? Not just all exploding at once, but rather over time, with the destruction sequence being determined by the energy and forces absorbed by the fragments?

The problem is that speaking about particle effect Orbiter suck and displaying 100 debris is already a challenge. (each one is a vessel)
Only 200 which is a very low particle count make my framerate drop slightly while all other things I added to the Arrow barely made any difference. (and the debris have low poly count, tiny texture, no shadow and there is only 2 type of them)

So whatever the effort the result would visually suck because a nice effect would require 100 time this count of particles and much more control over mesh. (vertex shader, pixel shader)

Now a partial damage system would require more complex system and this may require a lot of time to be nicely done.

Last the "natural" accidents (not due to failure) in space are often binary; there is nothing to recover when you aerobrake at mach 20 in Arrow or impact at 500 m/s.

So imho giving the actual 3d engine it would be actually a waste of time for just a game over. This said the particles have different weight and "random" ejection so they naturally spread over the trajectory in re-entry.

---------- Post added 07-13-12 at 12:54 AM ---------- Previous post was 07-12-12 at 11:23 PM ----------

DEV NEWS - A LOG TO RECORD YOUR SOLAR SYSTEM TOUR

After the global statistic (see last "dev news" above) I decided that a simple log of your flight was fast to do and a great add when making a tour.

I changed also the "display" buttons so to make room for the two new screens buttons.

(Displayed log is filled with tests and cheat to programatically fill it)