New Release Gemini Joe

[Gothmog]

The [ame="http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=6944"]Gemini Joe[/ame] add-on is available for download. I'm starting this thread on Xion's advice since the official Addons & Comments thread won't be available until a few days from now. At that time, this thread will be merged with the official one, and for the time being questions and comments may be posted here. Everything here will eventually become part of the official A&C thread.

To avoid content duplication please click on the link for more details about the purpose and nature of the add-on. In the meantime, this thread exists mainly to advise users to ignore the extra, erroneous copy of the documentation textfile that appears in the Orbiter root folder of the addon.

Additionally, while the initially uploaded version can certainly be flown, a revision will be uploaded shortly embodying corrections to the documentation error mentioned above, and a couple of other minor cleanup issues.

 

[boogabooga]

Are you really using old spacecraft3 and multistage2?

I recommend that you upgrade to spacecraft4 and multistage2015.

 

[Gothmog]

Are you really using old spacecraft3 and multistage2?

I recommend that you upgrade to spacecraft4 and multistage2015.

Would that require much in the way of C++ coding? For one reason and another, I haven't been able to set up the Visual C++ environment in a way that will work correctly with Orbiter. VC++ 2008 Express is missing some MFC components; meanwhile, VC++ 2015 does have those, but will not work with the OrbiterSDK libraries, as they were compiled under an earlier version of VC++. And the libraries aren't open source, so I can't recompile them.

I'm not much of a C++ dev in any case, but if I could only manage to get setup correctly, I don't think it would be that difficult. There were some other changes I wanted to introduce for GJ, likewise reasonably simple, but I had to omit them for now as coding would have been required.

 

[Xyon]

Would that require much in the way of C++ coding?

No, that's the whole point of them.

For one reason and another, I haven't been able to set up the Visual C++ environment in a way that will work correctly with Orbiter. VC++ 2008 Express is missing some MFC components; meanwhile, VC++ 2015 does have those, but will not work with the OrbiterSDK libraries, as they were compiled under an earlier version of VC++. And the libraries aren't open source, so I can't recompile them.

VS 2015 works fine for me for Orbiter development. Specific issues with that would be a different thread, but there should be no problem with the general usage .

 

[Gothmog]

Are you really using old spacecraft3 and multistage2?

I recommend that you upgrade to spacecraft4 and multistage2015.

I just made a perfunctory test* and noticed some interesting differences. Especially in the guided ascent scenario for the second stage configuration, there was a great deal of minor yawing/pitching off prograde with the older versions, though the SW always corrected it to stay generally on course. SC4 and MS2015 eliminate that problem completely, in the guided ascent. However, in free flight the second stage configuration is unflyable. MS2015 makes the attitude controls over-sensitive to the point where the lightest touch sends the spacecraft spinning base over apex, out of control.

The maneuverability issue doesn't happen with the first stage configuration. I think the difference may lie partly in the fact that the second stage configuration probably wouldn't have been stable enough for a pilot to control IRL, and possibly MS2015 provides a more realistic simulation.



*i.e., dropped in the MS2015 and SC4 modules and made necessary edits, but haven't really studied the documentation yet.

 

[Gothmog]

The official A&C thread is now available, here.

Also, I've just uploaded a revision to take advantage of MS2015 and SC4. To address the maneuverability issue in the second stage configuration free-flight scenario, I have kept MS2 for just that one scenario.