Iron Hill Project Thread

[sorindafabico]

Regarding Chronus 8, here are the next launch time options (all UTC):

Mar 18 07:10:34
Mar 18 17:42:26
Mar 19 07:32:08
Mar 19 18:03:46

I'll be away from keyboard - and probably I'll be AFK in all launch windows before weekend, so you can use the backup crew if you want.

 

[TMac3000]

Backup crew PM'd

 

[dgatsoulis]

I see now, RealTime uses the system date of the computer that runs the scenario, so it immediately goes into time warp if there is a difference between the BEGIN_ENVIRONMENT MJD and the system time.

It seems perfect for the job you want it to do, but I doubt anyone ever tried it with so many ships in a scenario. Don't give up on it yet, there are some things you can try.

One thing that should be an absolute MUST, is to ALWAYS start the scenario PAUSED. (check the Start Paused box in Orbiter launchpad).

Also, (as a prophylactic measure) everyone running the scenarios should have the "Terminate Orbiter process" used in the Extras\Debugging Options\Orbiter shutdown options Tab of the launchpad.

The other suggestions sorindafabico made about grouping the ships according to their state are also very useful. (Landed, orbiting planet/moon, orbiting Sun). And ofcourse get rid of any vessels that you do not intend to use.

A quick way to check if a vessel is "misbehaving" is to open the scenario, press Ctrl-F and type Sun → Find next. This will take you directly to the lines that have the Sun. Press Find next until you see a vessel with "STATUS Orbiting Sun". Look directly two lines below that, it should be the RVEL line with 3 values next to it. If any of those 3 values has 6 digits or more before the decimal point, there is something wrong with that vessel.

 

[sorindafabico]

One thing that should be an absolute MUST, is to ALWAYS start the scenario PAUSED. (check the Start Paused box in Orbiter launchpad).

Also, (as a prophylactic measure) everyone running the scenarios should have the "Terminate Orbiter process" used in the Extras\Debugging Options\Orbiter shutdown options Tab of the launchpad.

The first time I tried, Chronus (a ship that must be landed on Wideawake) was in solar orbit close to Earth. Weird.

I'll try again.

Anyway, thanks, I would never think about the "start paused" option

 

[dgatsoulis]

The first time I tried, Chronus (a ship that must be landed on Wideawake) was in solar orbit close to Earth. Weird.

I'll try again.

Anyway, thanks

I just downloaded the rest of the addons I needed to run the Iron Hill scenarios. I want to try and reproduce this. Which scenario did you run, the last one that TMac posted on #1213 ?

 

[sorindafabico]

I just downloaded the rest of the addons I needed to run the Iron Hill scenarios. I want to try and reproduce this. Which scenario did you run, the last one that TMac posted on #1213 ?

A test scenario I made:

 

[dgatsoulis]

Getting a weird CTD after the scenario loads the planets, without the Orbiter.log mentioning anything. I'll give this another try tomorrow, after I check that I have all the necessary addons.

 

[TMac3000]

I started my old backup file (all the ships and objects were in the right places), and set focus to Chronus. The sim was paused, and RTU was enabled. When I unpaused, the program hung for about 15 seconds, and then Chronus got zapped into space

 

[astrosammy]

Backup crew PM'd

I don't think I'm able to fly this one. Maybe next weekend, if no one else does it until then.

 

[SolarLiner]

Just to ask: Have you all set the value "ACCEL" to True in the "$ORBITERROOT\Config\realtime.cfg" file ?

 

[TMac3000]

I have.

 

[dgatsoulis]

Just to ask: Have you all set the value "ACCEL" to True in the "$ORBITERROOT\Config\realtime.cfg" file ?

Yes, I have set it correctly too. The problem is that the RTU sets the time acceleration instantaniously at the scenario start. Some of the landed ships don't like that and are being flung into space at x100000 the rotational velocity of the planet they were landed on.

It can be solved with a smoother transition from x1 to x100000 on the time-warp setting. I have sent TMac3000 a dll for testing.

 

[TMac3000]

Yes:thumbup: The modified RTU (MRTU?) you sent me works magnificently:thumbup:
Please get this posted on OH, and let's get it distributed to the team ASAP Odyssey has plenty of spare O2, but it's been two weeks since EOI, and we're running out of food and water up here:shifty:

 

[dgatsoulis]

Yes:thumbup: The modified RTU (MRTU?) you sent me works magnificently:thumbup:
Please get this posted on OH, and let's get it distributed to the team ASAP Odyssey has plenty of spare O2, but it's been two weeks since EOI, and we're running out of food and water up here:shifty:

The dll I sent you worked ok, but it had the problem of slow realtime transition for small intervals (< 0.1 days) and very abrubt "stop" for long ones (>50 days).

For example, if you exited the scenario and run it again in less than 2 hours, you'd have to wait up to 2 minutes untill it reached the "new" current state.
And if you run a scenario after 50 days, towards the end, it went from x100000 to x1 very abruptly, causing it to "miss" the real "new" current state (in some cases) by as much as a couple of hours.

This one on the other hand, does work magnificently! :headbang:

I rewrote the function that smooths the time acceleration from normal→small→big→bigger→biggest→bigger→big→small→normal and everything is smooth as silk.
It doesn't matter if you run the scenario 10 seconds later or 100 days later, the time-warp is smooth and everything seems to be where it is supposed to be.

The way to use is similar to the RTU, without the config file:

1.Place the IronHill.dll in your $Orbiterroot\Modules\Plugin directory
2.Replace the RTU lines in the scenario with this:

BEGIN_IronHill
TIME=(the MJD of your scenario)
END

3.Activate the IronHill module in the modules tab.
4.Enjoy your smoothly updated scenario

Remember to deactivate the old RTU, just in case there are any conflicts.

I have tested it even with the focus on landed ships/external camera and there appear to be no problems.

Full credit goes to the original RTU author, all I did was to smooth out the time acceleration/deceleration.

Since this is a simple mod specific to this project, I don't think I'll be making it broadly available through O-H.
Anyone interested can get it from the link above.
Please do keep in mind that there are are no warranties, so don't blame me in the unlikely event your computer explodes. :lol:

 

[TMac3000]

Will install the new one tomorrow

 

[indy91]

Sorry for the late reply. I can fly the mission in the launch window today. I will post some information about the flight, when I have run some 'simulations'.

 

[sorindafabico]

The IronHill plugin worked very well here. Thanks a lot, dgatsoulis!

Here's a state with the plugin enabled and Chronus refueled:

 

[indy91]

Here a little overview:

Mission: Chronus 8
Vehicle: XR5 Vanguard 'Chronus'
Objective: Return the crew of 'Odyssey' safely to Earth
Orbit: Inclination 146.42° (equatorial), ca. 500x600km
Launch: March 19 2013, 18:05:00 UTC
R-Bar arrival: March 20 2013, 09:10:00 UTC (estimated)
Landing: TBD

Crew:
Commander: Indy91
Pilot: Astrosammy
Mission Specialist 1: Mattyv
Mission Specialist 2: Sorindafabico

Passengers (landing):
TMac3000
Felipi1205
Mojoey
Lydia
RickD

Because of lack of reliable internet and skill, I won't be streaming the mission. I will be in the chat for updates though.
If anything is not right, please correct me

 

[SolarLiner]

The IronHill plugin doesn't work for me, at module load (check in the modules tab or at Orbiter launching), it says that "IronHill.dll is not designed to run on Windows or contains an error."
Too bad, that would be too easy ^^

 

[TMac3000]

You'll need to do it manually then. Just make sure you stop a few minutes before the "real" system time, so that RTU doesn't try to send us back in time:lol: That would cause a CTD