This post will detail the steps required to always have the latest items of SSU, including the all important modules (dynamic link libraries or *.dll files).
First the external utilities that required to have an up to date SSU installation.
MS Visual Studio 2019 Community Edition: https://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/
TortoiseSVN: http://tortoisesvn.net/downloads.html
Once you have downloaded those items, we'll start off by installing VC++ and setting it up to compile Orbiter modules.
When installing VS2019, make sure that all the Windows SDK 10.0.xxxxx options are selected.
Then it is time to install the tool that will keep your SSU installation fresh and up to date, which is TortoiseSVN. TortoiseSVN is straightforward to install, just follow the on screen instructions of the installer and you should be set.
Once the installation of the external tools are complete and done, it's time to get things rolling.
First create a new and empty folder where you would like your SSU installation. For this thread I'm going to use C:\SSU.
Once that folder have been created, right-click on it and a context menu should appear. From this context menu choose SVN Checkout...
In window that comes up, in the field that has the label "URL of repository" add this: svn://orbiter-radio.co.uk/shuttleultra/trunk.
Then verify that the Checkout directory (second field) is the folder of your SSU installation (in this case, C:\SSU).
Now just click OK. TortoiseSVN will now retrieve all the files from the SSU repository. Depending on Internet connection speeds, this can take a while since there's alot of files to be downloaded and some are quite large.
Once the checkout is complete just click on the OK button of the checkout window. Now it is time to install the base Orbiter 2016 files into this folder. You can obtain those here: http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/download.html. Windows will ask you if you want to overwrite some of the files, so answer yes when that comes up.
You do need to install the D3D9Client to obtain the Graphics Client (GC) API source files that SSU now makes use of.
You might have noticed that the folder icon of your SSU installation has a red exclamation mark on it. This is just TortoiseSVN's way of telling that it has detected some files that it monitors for changes have changed. This is easily fixed by right-clicking on the folder and going TortoiseSVN>Revert... and just clicking OK on the window that comes up. If these doesn't show up, please try the steps outlined in this query of Stack Overflow (Although the query is for Windows 7, the steps are identical for any other versions like Win10): http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1057734/tortoisesvn-icons-not-showing-up-under-windows-7
Once the reverting is complete, the folder should have a green checkmark on it. There's just two more things we have to do to enable successful building of the SSU sources and that is to install OrbiterSound 4.0. Once OS 4.0 has been installed, navigate to the Sound\OrbiterSound_SDK\VESSELSOUND_SDK\ShuttlePB_project\ folder. Then select the two files named "OrbiterSoundSDK40.h" and "OrbiterSoundSDK40.lib". Once selected cut them (Ctrl-X) and then navigate to Orbitersdk\include folder and paste them into it. Once this is done, select the file named "OrbiterSoundSDK40.lib" and cut it (Ctrl-X) paste it into the Orbitersdk\lib folder.
Now it is time to fire up VC++ to build the SSU source code so they become modules that can be used by Orbiter.
This might seem a bit complicated but it really isn't. Everything has already been set up if you followed the VC++ setup video linked earlier in this thread.
Now click on the Open Project... option of the VC++ Start Page and the navigate to the Orbitersdk\Space Shuttle Ultra\ folder. Then find the file called "Atlantis_2019.sln" (it might be just called "Atlantis_2019" if you haven't enabled the display of file extensions). This will load all the various SSU projects.
Once everything has been loaded, make sure in the top-left field it says "Release", then just go Build>Build Solution or you can just press F7. This will start the build process, this will take a while. At the end of the build process the log window at the bottom should say "========== Build: 16 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========". Don't worry about the one failed project. It has not yet been setup to build properly.
After this, install the "SSU_Font_A" and "SSU_Font_B" fonts, located in the Orbiter base directory, by opening it and selecting install. After installation the files can be deleted.
The following lines need to be added to the list of textures of the "<orbiter_installation>\Config\Base.cfg" file:
SSU\NOR1735tex
SSU\NOR2305tex
The displays in SSU require the MFD resolution of 512 x 512 (Orbiter Launchpad > Extra > Instruments and panels > MFD parameter configuration > MFD texture size).
Now you should have your up to date SSU modules. Now it is time to test them. Simply fire up Orbiter(regular or with D3D9Client). Now find the folder named "Space Shuttle Ultra" and then open the subfolder named "Testing scenarios". From this folder launch the "Atlantis in orbit" scenario". If all has gone well, it should load just fine and this will validate the module build.
Any time you want to check if there's anything new, just right-click on the SSU installation folder and select the SVN Update option. This will update your installation with any new or changed files. If the sources have been updated, then you'll need to rebuild them using VC++. This done by simply reopening the "Atlantis_2019.sln" file in VC++ and going Build>Rebuild Solution. Once again, building the modules will take a while. Once it is done the log should report that the rebuild was successful.
Now you should have the knowledge required to keeping your SSU installation updated and not be dependent on the occasional precompiled module releases.
First the external utilities that required to have an up to date SSU installation.
MS Visual Studio 2019 Community Edition: https://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/
TortoiseSVN: http://tortoisesvn.net/downloads.html
Once you have downloaded those items, we'll start off by installing VC++ and setting it up to compile Orbiter modules.
When installing VS2019, make sure that all the Windows SDK 10.0.xxxxx options are selected.
Then it is time to install the tool that will keep your SSU installation fresh and up to date, which is TortoiseSVN. TortoiseSVN is straightforward to install, just follow the on screen instructions of the installer and you should be set.
Once the installation of the external tools are complete and done, it's time to get things rolling.
First create a new and empty folder where you would like your SSU installation. For this thread I'm going to use C:\SSU.
Once that folder have been created, right-click on it and a context menu should appear. From this context menu choose SVN Checkout...
In window that comes up, in the field that has the label "URL of repository" add this: svn://orbiter-radio.co.uk/shuttleultra/trunk.
Then verify that the Checkout directory (second field) is the folder of your SSU installation (in this case, C:\SSU).
Now just click OK. TortoiseSVN will now retrieve all the files from the SSU repository. Depending on Internet connection speeds, this can take a while since there's alot of files to be downloaded and some are quite large.
Once the checkout is complete just click on the OK button of the checkout window. Now it is time to install the base Orbiter 2016 files into this folder. You can obtain those here: http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/download.html. Windows will ask you if you want to overwrite some of the files, so answer yes when that comes up.
You do need to install the D3D9Client to obtain the Graphics Client (GC) API source files that SSU now makes use of.
You might have noticed that the folder icon of your SSU installation has a red exclamation mark on it. This is just TortoiseSVN's way of telling that it has detected some files that it monitors for changes have changed. This is easily fixed by right-clicking on the folder and going TortoiseSVN>Revert... and just clicking OK on the window that comes up. If these doesn't show up, please try the steps outlined in this query of Stack Overflow (Although the query is for Windows 7, the steps are identical for any other versions like Win10): http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1057734/tortoisesvn-icons-not-showing-up-under-windows-7
Once the reverting is complete, the folder should have a green checkmark on it. There's just two more things we have to do to enable successful building of the SSU sources and that is to install OrbiterSound 4.0. Once OS 4.0 has been installed, navigate to the Sound\OrbiterSound_SDK\VESSELSOUND_SDK\ShuttlePB_project\ folder. Then select the two files named "OrbiterSoundSDK40.h" and "OrbiterSoundSDK40.lib". Once selected cut them (Ctrl-X) and then navigate to Orbitersdk\include folder and paste them into it. Once this is done, select the file named "OrbiterSoundSDK40.lib" and cut it (Ctrl-X) paste it into the Orbitersdk\lib folder.
Now it is time to fire up VC++ to build the SSU source code so they become modules that can be used by Orbiter.
This might seem a bit complicated but it really isn't. Everything has already been set up if you followed the VC++ setup video linked earlier in this thread.
Now click on the Open Project... option of the VC++ Start Page and the navigate to the Orbitersdk\Space Shuttle Ultra\ folder. Then find the file called "Atlantis_2019.sln" (it might be just called "Atlantis_2019" if you haven't enabled the display of file extensions). This will load all the various SSU projects.
Once everything has been loaded, make sure in the top-left field it says "Release", then just go Build>Build Solution or you can just press F7. This will start the build process, this will take a while. At the end of the build process the log window at the bottom should say "========== Build: 16 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========". Don't worry about the one failed project. It has not yet been setup to build properly.
After this, install the "SSU_Font_A" and "SSU_Font_B" fonts, located in the Orbiter base directory, by opening it and selecting install. After installation the files can be deleted.
The following lines need to be added to the list of textures of the "<orbiter_installation>\Config\Base.cfg" file:
SSU\NOR1735tex
SSU\NOR2305tex
The displays in SSU require the MFD resolution of 512 x 512 (Orbiter Launchpad > Extra > Instruments and panels > MFD parameter configuration > MFD texture size).
Now you should have your up to date SSU modules. Now it is time to test them. Simply fire up Orbiter(regular or with D3D9Client). Now find the folder named "Space Shuttle Ultra" and then open the subfolder named "Testing scenarios". From this folder launch the "Atlantis in orbit" scenario". If all has gone well, it should load just fine and this will validate the module build.
Any time you want to check if there's anything new, just right-click on the SSU installation folder and select the SVN Update option. This will update your installation with any new or changed files. If the sources have been updated, then you'll need to rebuild them using VC++. This done by simply reopening the "Atlantis_2019.sln" file in VC++ and going Build>Rebuild Solution. Once again, building the modules will take a while. Once it is done the log should report that the rebuild was successful.
Now you should have the knowledge required to keeping your SSU installation updated and not be dependent on the occasional precompiled module releases.
Last edited:
