Lights for spacecraft on the dark side?

[rocketman768]

Is there anyway to turn on lights in the Shuttle Fleet or DG or DGIV...? It's really annoying when I rendezvous with another spacecraft that I want to dock with or deliver a payload to, when suddenly, I cross into night and can't see a thing.

 

[ar81]

This is why you set orbit intersection point upon dawn. That would give you 1 hour of light.

 

[Chupacabra]

Both the DG and the DGIV have lights. I don't believe the shuttle fleet has any.
For the DG/DGIV/XR-series there are a few switches on the upper panel. You may activate the lights on the DG with the CTRL-Spacebar menu.

-You may also raise the ambience level in the launchpad settings.
-You may wait nearby the target spacecraft until sunrise.
-You may get used to the instruments. (Yeah I know not fun, you'll get the hang of it eventually though.)

Happy Orbiting!

 

[Urwumpe]

The ISS in reality also has lights, but they still prefer docking in sun light.

 

[rocketman768]

I don't believe the shuttle fleet has any.

Really? That's a shame. I know the real shuttle's cargo bay is outfitted with lights for those multi-hour EVAs.

 

[silent_protagonist]

One thing you might try is turning up your ambient light level on the launchpad. I usually have mine set at 5-10, which allows me to just make out a nearby ship or station, while still keeping things nice and dark (enough to make rendezvous a bit easier, although I still like to perform dockings and EVA's in the daylight). It's not even too terribly unrealistic, since in real life you would have the stars and sometimes moons/planets to provide illumination.

Or you can just wait for the next version of Orbiter, which should (with the right graphics client) support all sorts of dynamic lighting goodies, including work lights.

EDIT: Just noticed that Chupacabra already mentioned the Ambient lighting. Reading ftw lol. :lol:

 

[rocketman768]

Or you can just wait for the next version of Orbiter, which should (with the right graphics client) support all sorts of dynamic lighting goodies, including work lights.

I can't wait! When's it coming out? I hope adding/removing addons is easier and has some sort of dependency checking to prevent package breaking.

 

[ar81]

Really? That's a shame. I know the real shuttle's cargo bay is outfitted with lights for those multi-hour EVAs.

If you want to add lighting to shuttle bay, you could manually edit shuttle mesh materials and create a new material that has ambient light = 0.7 and assign cargo bay groups to that material.

The problem of such lighting is that it will look lighted in the dark always, just like interior of cockpit.

 

[silent_protagonist]

I can't wait! When's it coming out? I hope adding/removing addons is easier and has some sort of dependency checking to prevent package breaking.

The short answer is Soon(tm); "Tuesday" and "When it's ready" work too. I don't know if improved addon support is planned or not, but it would be nice; in the meantime there are numerous addon managers available, of which [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2701"]Generic Mod Enabler v1.4.0[/ame] seems to be the most popular.

 

[orwellkid]

This is why you set orbit intersection point upon dawn. That would give you 1 hour of light.

How do you calculate when the orbit intersection will be dawn or dark?

 

[Arrowstar]

-You may get used to the instruments. (Yeah I know not fun, you'll get the hang of it eventually though.)

This is what I now prefer to do, though when I started daylight docking was a must. I found once you get used to the Docking HUD and MFD it's not too terribly difficult to dock with just about anything.

 

[ar81]

How do you calculate when the orbit intersection will be dawn or dark?

See this tutorial
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3074"]Tutorial: DG to ISS[/ame]

 

[James.Denholm]

The short answer is Soon(tm); "Tuesday" and "When it's ready" work too. I don't know if improved addon support is planned or not, but it would be nice; in the meantime there are numerous addon managers available, of which http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2701 seems to be the most popular.

Personaly, I use Generic Mod Enabler, made by JoneSoft. It's a real pain to install and set up your addons initialy, but is realy, realy handy when done.

 

[orwellkid]

See this tutorial
http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3074

Cheers. Docking in night has never been a problem, but is not visually stimulating. I never thought about adjusting the intersection point when in twilight... makes perfect sense.

Cheers!

_O.K._

 

[tblaxland]

The ISS in reality also has lights, but they still prefer docking in sun light.

A slight clarification on that. Rendezvous is in sun light but actual docking takes place under spotlights in the dark. IIRC, the typical approach timeline for recent missions has been something like:

1. RPM at approx local noon.
2. Vbar arrival approx 10 min before sunset.
3. Docking approx 5 min before sunrise.

I'm not sure if this was different before Return-to-Flight.

Is there anyway to turn on lights in the Shuttle Fleet or DG or DGIV...? It's really annoying when I rendezvous with another spacecraft that I want to dock with or deliver a payload to, when suddenly, I cross into night and can't see a thing.

Another option for vessels that don't have lights on them already is to use computerex's Orbiter Spotlights addon.

 

[rocketman768]

Personaly, I use Generic Mod Enabler, made by JoneSoft. It's a real pain to install and set up your addons initialy, but is realy, realy handy when done.

Yeah, but all it does is physically copy (and overwrite!) files. Different mods may require different versions of the same file. Mods should be completely encapsulated in their own directories. What I'm saying is that Orbiter should treat file references made within a particular mod smartly.

Cheers. Docking in night has never been a problem, but is not visually stimulating. I never thought about adjusting the intersection point when in twilight... makes perfect sense.

Yeah, but it sucks when you have to use the robotic arm to remove a crew module from the cargo bay and place it in the VERY cramped space aboard the Lunar Transfer Vehicle (by Andy44).

 

[James.Denholm]

Yeah, but all it does is physically copy (and overwrite!) files.

It does backup those files though. And you can remove those mods. And so what if your Orbiter is at times twice as big as it needs to be?

It's not made specificaly for Orbiter, but it works just the same.

Different mods may require different versions of the same file. Mods should be completely encapsulated in their own directories. What I'm saying is that Orbiter should treat file references made within a particular mod smartly.

These mods would not be compatible in Orbiter anyway, if they use different versions of the same file.

 

[ar81]

Cheers. Docking in night has never been a problem, but is not visually stimulating. I never thought about adjusting the intersection point when in twilight... makes perfect sense.

If I was in real life I would like to dock during daylight because I think it could be dangerous to rely on instruments only for docking.

 

[rocketman768]

These mods would not be compatible in Orbiter anyway, if they use different versions of the same file.

Exactly! You made my point.

 

[silent_protagonist]

The short answer is Soon(tm); "Tuesday" and "When it's ready" work too. I don't know if improved addon support is planned or not, but it would be nice; in the meantime there are numerous addon managers available, of which http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2701 seems to be the most popular.

Personaly, I use Generic Mod Enabler, made by JoneSoft. It's a real pain to install and set up your addons initialy, but is realy, realy handy when done.

Hmm, 1.4.0 vs 2.1.0, I hadn't realized that the version at OH was so out of date. (Not too surprising, though. I guess I really ought to know better than to get an app from a mirror without checking the original site.) I'll have to give the newer version a try.