News DeltagliderEX

[Schimz]

Hello all,
Actually, I cannot work a lot on it, but it's almost finished. So I made a "beta" release.


Some points :

About the panel, in red : not functional

About the timers : double clic "X" for reset. Green cannot be reset (It's DGex lifetime), Blue reset : static on ground (It's mission time).

Be aware : it's not recommended to use Main+Plasma during autopilot burns.

Also, many many thanks to Darkwanderer who did a great job with gimbal/trim and inertial engines.

Typical payload is still 50t.

http://akaa.free.fr/orbiter

[ame="http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=1074"]Deltaglider EX@OH[/ame]

Remove the underbelly smiley : http://akaa.free.fr/orbiter/DGex_1.dds

 

[Max Pain]

Hy,

the old deltaglider ex was already one of my favourite vessels and now this! Great, I like the new panel and of course, the working plasma engines.

If you don't mind I have some request for you. Could you please make the panels 1280 pixels wide? There don't have to be any buttons outside the 1024 pixel wide area, just the plain panel is enough like in the DG4.

 

[Hielor]

Nice! Love the new exhaust, and the panel is great. There appears to be no back wall to the cockpit, though (at least in external view)...

 

[Travis Reed]

I forgot how much of a pain it is to get this beast into orbit...must be used to the XR2...

 

[PhantomCruiser]

What a nice improvement! :thumbup:
It might be my imagination (or I may be getting better with it), but she seems more responsive, or at least she seemed to take up less runway for the launch.
Will there be an update to the Pilot's Operating Handbook? I've been compiling notes on the (old) DGEX, they may be obsolete now with the new release. No matter, I LIKE IT!
- - note to self - - If you turn up the stereo speaker loud enough that the room shakes when at full throttle, the wife will get really mad...

 

[Travis Reed]

Also, it appears that Schimz is going for a VASIMR with that 'Plasma' engine...

 

[Schimz]

It might be my imagination (or I may be getting better with it), but she seems more responsive

ohhh... "a little bit"... not too much... just 700kN...

- - note to self - - If you turn up the stereo speaker loud enough that the room shakes when at full throttle, the wife will get really mad...

32 sound handles FTW.

Also, it appears that Schimz is going for a VASMIR with that 'Plasma' engine...

300kN is the "perf" setting

There is not limitation at all. But if you want to play it realistic : climb to 11km as a liner, engage reheat to reach 15km then reduce reheat to 75% and engage plasma at 20km alt.

 

[desertman]

What do the different panel buttons do? Especially the auto pilot.

Great job Schimz. I've been waiting for the new DGex since last Tuesday!

Ted

 

[Travis Reed]

The AP buttons are for the regular Orbiter autopilots. Killrot, Level Horizon, Prograde, Retrograde, Orbit +, Orbit -. I think the last one is for the altitude hold with the hover engines.

The Gimbal and trim controls work. There seems to be a button for gimbal 'assist'. I believe this means that when you manuver the craft, the engines will gimbal to assist you with the manuver (though they won't necessarily stay gimbaled once the manuver is complete). The buttons labeled X under the gimbal and trim controls reset that particular gimbal or trim to center.

The buttons for throttle indicate which engines the throttle is controlling. There are three options: MN (Main), PL (Plasma), and MN+PL (Main and Plasma).

The RTR button is non-functional at present. However, this is likely going to be for setting the main engines to Retrograde mode.

The buttons for HUD settings don't work right now, and from their labeling, I'm not certain if Schimz intends them to map to the regular HUD modes or not...

There are several sorts of timers on the left (in different colors). To switch between which is being displayed or manipulated, use the button labeled SW. To reset the timer, hit the button labeled X twice. Schimz has indicated that the Green timer cannot be reset and may remember it's status regardless of scenario (think of it like an odometer...). The Blue timer seems to be a MET timer and can only be reset on the ground. I believe to start a timer you only need to click the X once...for those that don't start automatically anyway...


Also, Schimz, you might consider switching the places for the gimbal directions (the letters, the wheels are fine)

Currently it's something like:
R/D
L/U

Since you have the pitch sets on the left it makes a little more sense to me if it reads like this:

D/R
U/L

As for the 300kN as the Performance setting, that also fits in with the VASIMR design.

 

[Hielor]

Currently it's something like:
R/D
L/U

Since you have the pitch sets on the left it makes a little more sense to me if it reads like this:

D/R
U/L

Wouldn't it be more logical here to have the interface look like that in the stock DG, either a left/right slider for L/R or a 2D control?

 

[Schimz]

Also, Schimz, you might consider switching the places for the gimbal directions (the letters, the wheels are fine)

Thanks for pointing that (also for the rest of the post it seems that the buttons affordance are not so bad )

ed: the blue timer stop when you're static on ground

 

[cinder1992]

found a bug. whenever I try to switch to the top docking port, I get a CTD.

also, I CAN get this monster off the ground but I cannot get it above 30-40Km. even with plasma. am I doing something wrong?

 

[PhantomCruiser]

I got her to orbit basically using the same acsent profile given in the operation manual. Keeping the climb rate to 30 m/s while below 30 Km. Then shallowing out to just under 20 m/s until 60 Km. At around 60-62 Km level out, and have usually started adding down trim.

 

[cinder1992]

ah. i see.

 

[Travis Reed]

I believe there was a pocket of low fuel consumption that I didn't take full advantage of the last time I got this thing to orbit...I may try to see if I can gain some decent speed out of it so I don't get to orbit with less than 50% fuel left...

 

[Schimz]

found a bug. whenever I try to switch to the top docking port, I get a CTD.

Please can you post more details about it. I must remove those buttons on overhead panel since multiport are native with O.06

There appears to be no back wall to the cockpit, though (at least in external view)...

Err... yes I didn't notice. Also the panel lack somes shadows (I didn't turn on the layer group in PS).

 

[DarkWanderer]

A note on the release: along with engines, I've worked on the aerodynamic model of the DGEx. While working on it, I've got a job as an aerodynamic engineer (having a physicist education), but I'm still far from the solution Life is fanciful.

 

[Wraith]

I found a small issue with DGEX engines.
When you switch throttle to 'main' or 'main+plasma', it seems that neither TransX nor BTC (and probably other addons as well) are able to query the main engine specs from the vessel. Yet switching to plasma engine yields correct readings for the plasma engine.

 

[Schimz]

Hello there,
An update avalaible (also in 1st post)
http://akaa.free.fr/orbiter/DeltaGliderEX_dll.zip

• Panel shadows corrected
• Dock panel items removed, use O & K for doors (respectively front & top). Even if I didn't find the top dock bug, I seen that there were 4 docks. Now there are 2 of these.
• Removing Micro Chambers inertia. The bug when throttle is set at Main (or MN+PL) still here (obviously, there is no main engine )

Enjoy!

 

[Wraith]

>The bug when throttle is set at Main (or MN+PL) still here (obviously, there is no main engine )

Well, that's really easy. The addons seem to query the entire THGROUP_MAIN thruster group (to compute combined thrust/burn time/whatever). So you could just assign/remove thrusters to/from that group according to what the pilot selects. Should work.