Is Orbiter dying a slow death ???

[Keatah]

I don't think I have played Orbiter for nearly half a year now - not because it is boring or bad in any way - it's just because I don't have the motivation to sit down and do a proper mission. I will maybe decide to fly to the ISS just because I fancy it, and then I will end up launching and using time acceleration to catch up with it, and then after a bit of thruster firing, I will dock, and then that's it - I will come home after sitting there for a couple of minutes because I have nothing to do now I'm there!

I still love space and astronomy like I always have, but I don't really find Orbiter fun anymore after a couple of years of playing it at an amateur level.

This will eventually happen to the good Doctor as well. It happens to all of us. For Orbiter to live and grow, the code will have to be sold off or made open source. It is inevitable. If you think not, then I invite you to watch the next 10 years and see what happens.

---------- Post added at 06:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:24 PM ----------

Yeah, that's pretty much right. I used to play flightsim 2004 every night, but now I find that I am just following the same old routines every flight I do, and I don't really find it fun any more. Flying a perfect ILS approach with charts, into my favourite airport, was rewarding for a while, but now I find it rather boring because esentially the same thing happens every time - I will use the checklist to power up the aircraft, I will take off and hand it over to the autopilot for most of the flight, then I will dial some numbers into the autopilot and take over manually about 50ft from the runway when I am landing, and pull back on the stick to touch down. Then I will taxi to the gate, and press exit without having really achieved anything new or rewarding.

It was fun when I started, and it might be fun again in the future, but I am certainly at a low point now in my interest. Maybe it will pick up when I get settled into university next year (I am going to study physics/astrophysics - inspired mainly by my first encounters with Orbiter ) and I also have Orbiter to thank for my interest in space and astronomy, and my wish to work in the field later in life.

I was sort of like this, I wanted to be an Astronomer for the longest of times. But when I found out what it was like I just switched into something else. I looked into the telescope and didn't see space battles and aliens and got bored.

You've got to admit, a lot of us have outgrown Orbiter. And I bet most of us here spend more time on Orbiter-Forum than we do playing the simulation itself.

I'm going to go play my simulation of bowel movements in OE-Cake! At the moment it is extremely satisfying. I have no idea why.

 

[Mantis]

Damn, and I just spent six hours yesterday updating the GPCMFD and Shuttle Fleet to include a payload bay door with latches operation simulation! I could have spent my free time elsewhere...!

Most of us truly appreciate yourk work David!:thumbup:

 

[Keatah]

Picard (my namesake along with the Pokémon, Piplup) is from the 24th century (TNG takes place during the 2360s). That's over 300 years from now. But I see your point.

I see the Pokemon franchise to be much more difficult to understand and pointless than the Orbiter franchise.

 

[statickid]

i stopped for a while because my joystick broke. stupid joystick. Whenever I get bored of flying in orbiter, I try learning more about 3d modeling so maybe one day I can make my own craft. When I'm not doing either of those. A long time ago when I became proficient at flying in orbiter, I started testing my ability to do the flights without several of the main mfd's, doing the math myself. This i find to be much more rewarding, and the cool part is that it actually works!

 

[Keatah]

I too don't own my own PC, however I find that this even contributes more to how I "value" or cherish the time and opportunity I have to fly sims or develop addons--the fact that I share my time with other people in using a PC means that in the interim, my mind is planning and busy on what I will do once I get to sit down in front of a computer.

Will Wright, the famous designer of the Sims series, that started off with Simcity in the early 1990's, has this neat story about how different the gaming or simming community is nowadays, compared to say, the 80's or 90's generation. Back then, graphics were quite crude, yet when you were flying your Spitfire or Me109 in Lucasfilm's "Their Finest Hour: Battle of Britain" you don't "feel" that they are crude or simple--you really feel that you're there! Also, because perhaps of the lack of internet during those days, there's this situation/phenomenon that occurs in-between gaming/simming sessions.

For example, you finished a long mission in a game and you crashed and failed. But you're too tired to redo the mission. You then lie down on your bed, and decide to go to sleep, but at that moment, you then realize what mistakes you made during your last failed mission, and thus you plan for tomorrow's simming session, taking note of those mistakes. Wright says that during these periods, the gaming/simming actually occurs IN YOUR HEAD, not while you're sitting in front of the computer, and he believes a good game has this attribute--you will constantly THINK of the game/sim while your eating, sitting on the potty, or even courting a girl LOL

So I think if one "played" Orbiter in one's head before actually sitting down and firing up the PC/laptop, then it gives more "life" to using such a sim, because the very idea of the sim is alive in your brain, even after the computer has been shut down.

-RODION

That's what most of us are doing, thinking about orbiter and not actually playing it as much.

 

[Pipcard]

I see the Pokemon franchise to be much more difficult to understand and pointless than the Orbiter franchise.

I could understand; there's over 649 Pokémon now. I don't really play Pokémon that much anymore, but it's still cool. That nickname was from 2009, but I kept it (and used it as my username almost all over the internet) since it was a catchy portmanteau (imo).

Orbiter is not a franchise because it has nothing to do with business.

 

[Izack]

That's what most of us are doing, thinking about orbiter and not actually playing it as much.

True. I use Orbiter for fun maybe once or twice a month. But I'll be using it at least once or twice a month for the rest of my life. It's the possibility that hooks some of us - one doesn't quite run out of things to do.

 

[n122vu]

Many add on developers are having real life catchup with them and can't devote time to it.

Bingo. No sooner did I really get started getting into the meat of C++ and developing the Cortez, than life for me really got busy. And as PhantomCruiser pointed out, the holidays are only adding to that.

I have so many more things I want to do with the Cortez (better landing/docking solution, catapult-style launch system for Starfury, etc.), and a few other craft I want to put out there, like the Maintfury, the EA Atmospheric Shuttle. And those are just the Babylon 5-related ships I find myself wanting to do. I have several other types of craft I'd like to do as well, but I want to do them right, so I'm getting my skills up to par with these first.

Whether or not I'll ever have time to realize my ideas, that's a different story...

 

[StevoPistolero]

Bump maps, normal maps, multiplayer, collisions: these are basic things one expects in a game that do not exist. Orbiter 2010 was released outdated.

 

[Andy44]

EDIT: Nevermind....

Back to lurking now...

 

[Loru]

Last year and begining of this one I had a lot of time that allowed me to contribute to Orbiter comunity. I've made few add-ons & collaborated in few. After I started my own company I'm frustrated I don't have enough time to do it anymore (at least at the time).

Last year I could produce like 1 mesh a day and now I've dropped to like 1 mesh per week so my current project (Jarvis SC 2) is going very slow.

I still want to finish Themis, Prometheus and Vertigo in way it should look like but it will take time. A lot of it as they're complex vehicles and I don't want to release unfinished things.

Cheers
Loru

 

[mojoey]

I kinda want to hear what martin has to say. If he thinks this is the beginning of the end...

 

[Face]

I see it this way: as long as only one is working on it, it is not dead. And since in its 10 years history not a single alternative showed up, I'm pretty certain we will find one or another working on it for a long time.

So to answer the thread topic's question: no, unless you define "living" as "dying a slow death".

"Rating" seems to be the new sports, I guess...

regards,
Face

 

[PhantomCruiser]

To me, one of Orbiters best points is that it can be a huge sandbox... With the myriad rockets that have been devloped since the V-2 took to the skies, it's fun (for me) to think "what if...", and get cracking. There are things that were dreamed but never built, things build, but cancelled. And a whole slew of alternate histories that could be explored.

A developer could speed waaaay too many hours doing nothing but re-working add-ons for Orbiter that no longer work, he (or she) could spend just as many (if not more) working on things in the real-world pipeline now (Russian ACTS anyone?, how about Angara or Rus?)

As my skills improve, so does my list of things to build. But anyone here over the age of 25 (or so) has real life that constantly intrudes in the development cycle. I'm reasonably sure this is ever true of Dr. Martin S., but I wouldn't waht to assume...

Now, if anybody is looking for something to do, I could use some generic satellites in various weight classes for my Energia-M to haul up. Maybe a big telescope or something?

 

[Ghostrider]

I see the Pokemon franchise to be much more difficult to understand and pointless than the Orbiter franchise.

Big difference... The Pokemon games appeal to gamer in many ways: you have the RPG aspect, you have the collecting aspect, you have player vs player battles, you have achievements to unlock. Most modern games now incorporate these.

Orbiter is a simulator and not a "franchise" because there's only one product. You don't have Orbiter Gold, Silver and Crystal. You don't have Orbiter: the Phantom Deltaglider. You don't have Orbiter - Vice Trajectory.

I think if we're seeing a "dearth" of novelties for it is because we old O'nauts remember the old days when you had the DG, the Shuttle-A and little else. Now we have UMMU, UCGO, we have NASSP and AMSO to cater for out Apollo-related needs, we have hotrod spacecraft like the XR series, we have the DGIV that can go almost everywhere and the Arrow that gets no matter where, in style. We have MFDs that cater to all needs. With SSU, we won't need another STS sim. Most of the niches have been filled.

So what next... I think more cool objects for UMMU and UCGO would be great. I'd like an in-sim camera, for instance. What about more instruments, more simulated telemetry? Scripted ship behaviour? Missions with specific, in-game measurable objectives? And more ships, of course: I'd love to see a new Exploreur-class spaceship, a new Dragonfly, and more Gemini fun. What about more alternative-history vehicles and missions?

 

[fausto]

I kinda want to hear what martin has to say. If he thinks this is the beginning of the end...

In the 7th december interview with Marins Schweiger you can ask him directly:

http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=25155&highlight=interview

 

[Ghostrider]

Nah. Why bother with the real facts, when we can make up all the conjectures we may ever want?

 

[Yoda]

Damn, and I just spent six hours yesterday updating the GPCMFD and Shuttle Fleet to include a payload bay door with latches operation simulation! I could have spent my free time elsewhere...!

[/sarcasm]

David, as I said before I am very greatfull for the people that create these great additions to Orbiter ( you especially) so don't take this personally; I've just noticed a general decrease in activity ( drive if you want to call it) in our community and wanted to open a frank discussion about the future of Orbiter in lue of dwindling real life Space Exploration.

 

[orb]

I've just noticed a general decrease in activity ( drive if you want to call it) in our community and wanted to open a frank discussion about the future of Orbiter in lue of dwindling real life Space Exploration.

OK, so first, if you wanted to start a discussion whether Orbiter community is dying, the title you used for this thread is misleading, as Orbiter is still being developed. Can I rename it to "Is Orbiter community dying a slow death ???"?

I haven't noticed any general decrease in activity in our community. New members still join Orbiter-Forum (there are 10-15 new members per day, spambots excluded). They still ask how to do that or something else, and if they don't ask, that means they already found their questions answered somewhere, they create new projects, come back to projects they started a long time ago, or update add-ons if it is required.

I can't see real life Space Exploration dwindling either. MESSENGER is making a much better map of Mercury for Orbiter than we have, LRO for Moon, Cassini for Saturn's moons. Juno, New Horizons, MSL haven't arrived yet to their destinations. There are more and more exoplanets found. How you can call it "dwindling"? And some people who were doing real spaceflight and can't do that anymore, now can discover Orbiter, or find more free time for Orbiter.

Bump maps, normal maps, multiplayer, collisions: these are basic things one expects in a game that do not exist.

Normal maps (and you can convert bump maps to normal maps), multiplayer do exist as add-ons. You can bounce from surface of planets, so collision exists too.

 

[Ghostrider]

Can I rename it to "Is Orbiter community dying a slow death ???"?

I knew it...

We're all gonna die.