OHM HoverMFD 1.1.1 for Orbiter 2010

[Ripley]

He must be coming back soon.

I didn't know it would have been SO soon!
:thumbup:

TOP-class documentation, btw.

 

[m131167]

Looks like an exellent product. On vacation now but have studied the PDF...cant wait to get home an get my hands on it.
Michael

 

[Interceptor]

Great job,it performs excellent, Thankyou:thumbup:

 

[jgrillo2002]

Excellent MFD! You have my fullest of thanks :tiphat:

 

[Furet]

Very useful MFD. Many thanks. :tiphat:

 

[NukeET]

Well done sir!

The only improvement I can see is: while using the "set" button, the dialog window opens with the current value - perhaps blank would be better.

 

[Mythos]

The only improvement I can see is: while using the "set" button, the dialog window opens with the current value - perhaps blank would be better.

Yes, I thought about that. I will remove that or make it optional in later versions.

 

[Keatah]

A fine mfd no doubt. And it works! Complete fun hovering around Gigabase! But for some odd and strange reason I find it difficult to use, and I don't know why..

Now having said that, perhaps there is a way to somehow hook this to a joystick? (but that's not what makes it hard to use..?!!?

 

[Mythos]

A fine mfd no doubt. And it works! Complete fun hovering around Gigabase! But for some odd and strange reason I find it difficult to use, and I don't know why..

Now having said that, perhaps there is a way to somehow hook this to a joystick? (but that's not what makes it hard to use..?!!?

Hover MFD is just an autopilot and therefor only brings your vessel in a desired position, speed, direction or something. These parameters are set up by MFD buttons or keyboard, since they shoul remain constant for at least a short while.

I don't understand what you want to have controlled (more rapid) by joystick :hmm:

A planned feature is a HELI mode, where setting up some pitch will result in applying more hover to maintain altitude or VS while speeding up by hover engine just like a helicopter. You may turn off rcs control then and control rcs by joystick? I think it is possible by orbiter already? I don't use a joystick. Maybe that's a reason why I have more need to an AP controling pitch and all?

That's all no new stuff, UAP can do that already. But that's a MFD i find very difficult to use. So I wanted just to build a better, more variable "level horizon", "hold altitude" thing with some helpful and hopefully easy to understand info in display.

If you get the point what you find difficult to use or understand at all, just let me know. Maybe there is a concrete question?

 

[Keatah]

I got the hang of it. I hope you keep developing this. I've tried it with the DGIV and its fine. It won't work with the XR-2 (didn't try xr-1 or xr-5 yet)

 

[Mythos]

I got the hang of it. I hope you keep developing this. I've tried it with the DGIV and its fine. It won't work with the XR-2 (didn't try xr-1 or xr-5 yet)

I am developing and one of the lines of my next version description says "now testing with XR fleet also" (I'm new to XR and spent some time in XR5 cockpit. I like that ). So I tested XR2 and didn't have any problems since it behaves just like a DG, DGIV or XR1.

What's your exact problem with XR2?

For next version I slightly tuned some parameters for pitch / bank / heading overshooting and such and you will be able to fine tune that by yourself in default or vessel specific config files.

 

[Keatah]

Well, it sort of works with the xr-2. I use a cheatcode - setting the hover thrust higher so I can hover around GigaBase and the Cape.

#from the xr-2 config prefs file
#--------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Maximum hover engine thrust in newtons, PER ENGINE (x2 for total)
#
# Note: internally the three engines are controlled as two separate
# engines: fore and aft.
#--------------------------------------------------------------------------
#MaxHoverThrust=2.0783e5 ***(default/original)***
MaxHoverThrust=3.0783e5

This last line here is the modified cheat value. This is enough to float around town. But the MFD doesn't consider this value. It appears to work off the default/original value. And therefore doesn't seem to control xr-2 hovering.

Now. This works fine on the moon, the MFD works as I would expect it to. With or without the cheatcode.


I guess the xr-2 doesn't have enough hover thrust to hover on earth. Unless I use the cheatcode, in which case the mfd doesn't recognize it.. Does that make sense?

 

[NukeET]

I got the hang of it. I hope you keep developing this. I've tried it with the DGIV and its fine. It won't work with the XR-2 (didn't try xr-1 or xr-5 yet)

I've used this with both the XR2 and XR5 and it works fine for me.

 

[Keatah]

Did you try it on Earth at the Cape, and using a cheatcode to get extra hover thrust?
It works fine on the moon, without cheatcode.

 

[Mythos]

Did you try it on Earth at the Cape, and using a cheatcode to get extra hover thrust?
It works fine on the moon, without cheatcode.

Of course Hover MFD get's vessel actual max thrust, so it works if it's changed in config file or ingame (max thrust is read every 10s). That's why it works on moon in your case since it wouldn't work at all if max thrust wasn't read out correctly.

I just tried the XR2 on earth. As I said in the manual, Hover MFD is NOT made for atmospheric flight and that's too diffucult for me to build in coming versions. But if you increase the values a bit, it some kind of works if your hover thrust is enough (changed in config file in this case). If you set up VS to 5 and altitude to 30, it would reach altitude 20 by 3 VS or something. Hover MFD can't do better.

 

[NukeET]

Did you try it on Earth at the Cape, and using a cheatcode to get extra hover thrust?

NO

I just tried the XR2 on earth. As I said in the manual, Hover MFD is NOT made for atmospheric flight and that's too diffucult for me to build in coming versions.

RTFM

 

[Keatah]

I *did* RTFM from cover to cover. It is also wrong in saying it does not work in atmospheric flight. IT WORKS FINE in atmospheric flight. The XR-2 VV and ALT are offset in the atmosphere. Once you take that into consideration, you can hover your way to to orbit and all through re-entry.. Once you know what you're doing..

---------- Post added at 11:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:00 PM ----------

Once you get the hang of just how everything works this is one of the most useful MFD's for making your flying look good.

 

[Mythos]

VV and ALT are offset in the atmosphere

I put a general question into SDK forum and maybe someone can tell me more about that atmospheric offset: http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=27785

 

[Keatah]

In the atmosphere, on the runway, at KSC:
DG-IV:
Altitude 2.4530 -- ok
Vertical speed works 1.0000 = ~1.0000 -- good enough and ok
I can get airborne and hovering with an Altitude setting of 2.5 and Vertical Speed of 0.1000

XR-2
Altitude 2.6000 -- ok.
I have to set Altitude to 9.8000 for the ship to give wheels up callout.
Vertical Speed 2.5000 is also needed to get any vertical movement

Brighton Beach landing pad
XR-2 is working fine!
Altitude is 2.6000
Vertical speed 1.0000 = 1.0000
no "offsets" needed to get off the ground. I just picked an altitude of 3.0000 and Vertical Speed of 1.000 and it was fine.

So it appears the XR-2 has a minor offset problem at KSC.
The controls do work as intended though and the MFD is quite usable and quite good overall. I'm just trying to help make it even better. I was doing all sorts of aerobatics around Gigabase. What fun!

 

[Mythos]

I'm surprised that DGIV doesn't have that problem althogh its hover engines are less powerful than XR2's in standard config.

Your idea to work out a factor and write that into config file is difficult since that factor would be different for every vessel and every planet with atmosphere. In fact I already implemented config files in coming Hover MFD version, a default one, the ability to have vessel specific files and some samples of them of course. Having files or different property names for each planet (solar system, fictional systems) would be too much.

The help from my SDK thread was interesting but not really helpful so far.