After a year+ of setting Orbiter aside for a while, I recently got back into it when I got a friend interested in the sim. My interest has always been the Space Shuttle. Development in Orbiter on this vessel has often been on a par with or beyond most other models.
My model series of choice has been the Shuttle Fleet due to its aggressive updates and timely shuttle mission expansion packs.
My recent experience creating a new Orbiter installation from scratch and building a new dedicated Shuttle Fleet installation to support the 4.0+ version(s) was very frustrating requiring days of work.
For obvious reasons, the distribution server of choice is Orbiter Hanger Mods. Searching other servers reveals they are largely dead players (AVSIM hasn't had spacecraft upload in 3+ years.)
The orbitersim.com forum hasn't had a post in 6+ months.
Actions and results:
I searched and downloaded everything I could find on Hanger Mods related to the highest version of Shuttle Fleet full installs I could find. It appears older full installs get purged quite aggressively now on that server.
The latest full install I could find was 4.01. No indication of anything 4.00 could be found. In my aging collection of past downloads, I had 3.9.4 as the most recent full install and it depended heavily on yet earlier packages. I also have expansion packs related to 4.0+ mission updates which converted 3.9+ installs. In the 4.01, 4.01 patch, 4.10 dll, GPCMFD and 4.1.1 patch, there is no mention in the docs how far back you have to go in full installs and expansion packs in order for the 4.0+ stuff to work. I found out the hard way 4.0+ stuff installed on a new Orbiter installation does not work out of the box.
Problems:
1) There are missions in the distribution which require certain ISS components like Jem, ISS10a, Kibo and other spacecraft3 meshes are missing causing crashes. Searching on Orbiter Mods looking for distributions of these components using these words produced nothing, only reference to other non-existing distributions.
2) The only expansion patch update I had for converting/upgrading UP from non-4.0 stuff to 4.0 stuff was STS122 expansion pack 4.0.0. I had that in my archived files and in it was the instructions:
To build the necessary installation for simulations of STS-122, download the following
packages:
Shuttle Fleet Full Package V3.9.4:
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2932"]Search[/ame]
ISS Fleet Full Package V2.0.0:
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2933"]Search[/ame]
Shuttle Expansion Pack Full Package V4.0.0:
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2931"]Search[/ame]
NASA Aircraft Fleet Full Package V4.0.0:
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2999"]Search[/ame]
Shuttle Fleet Upgrade Patch to V4.0.0:
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3162"]Search[/ame]
Node Module by Well:
http://orbiter.mustard-fr.com/addons/download.php?file=WellArtemisThemisPMA
Columbus Module by No Matter:
http://orbiter.mustard-fr.com/addons/download.php?file=Columbusv2
None of the "4.0" upgrade or full install packages exist any longer on Orbiter Mods. The 3.9.4 doesn't exist. I was only able to find the most recent ISS Fleet, Themis PMA and Columbus distributions. Fortunately, I had the 2.9.4 full install I downloaded in July of 2007 on my drive. There is no list of prerequisites or installation instructions in the PDF file. This distribution also lacks the required meshes. Putting in the latest ISS Fleet also lacked these meshes.
Finally after messing around for a long time, searching all Orbiter servers and databases using Google and other tools, I did a Windows search for text on my hard drive directory containing all Orbiter stuff I download over the last 5 years on the word "Jem" and found a file I download last May for STS 124 and Ultra. I put that in and Jem problems went away. So I searched for files on Orbiter mods related to this and found STS 126 for Ultra and put that in. More problems went away. Again, only a few hints in Shuttle Fleet docs how closely the SF and Ultra distributions are tied together. I was unaware of this. I'm also uncomfortable with throwing in every Ultra distribution I see into me dedicated Shuttle Fleet install not knowing what will happen.
Now I was getting scenario loads that did not crash at once, or dis not crash after running for 2 minutes.
Now, when loading 4.0.0 scenarios, I had problems with:
1) Missions with payloads based on Ultra objects not showing up, or showing up mis-aligned. Ultra MPLMs would not show up at all although the sim didn't crash. This tells me the objects exist in the sim, but are not loaded into the attachments/docing correctly.
2) Nearly all the scenarios have been created using the Ultra OBSS and MPMs objects. These components appeared sideways on the shuttle skewering through the middle like Steve Martin wearing an arrow. After much investigation I realised these components were added without the required PL1-6 entries in the shuttle section of the ships and also lacking the required 0:2 and 0:7 docking points commands.
This forces the user to investigate these errors and correct them before the scenario will perform correctly. I was able to fix the OBSS but no manipulation of the Ultra MPLM would show up. I reverted to the "generic" "Leonardo_mplm" and that loaded fine. So this required another series of edits to all the MPLM missions.
The sim now appears to be stable, the missions I edited have the correct components docked on launch.
Summary:
1) Recent Shuttle Fleet distributions contain scenarios which require components not distributed with the current "Full" or nearly full Installs.
2) The current 4.0+ distributions depend on earlier distributions which are not documented in the recent distributions and/or are no longer available on Orbiter Mods or other servers.
3) The dependance on Ultra distributions is only hinted at in the documents with no installation instructions informing which ones are required.
4) The most recent "base " SF distribution on which 4.0+ distributions heavily depend (sol_alt, earth_alt, earth.cfg files, as well as certain models and meshes) are no longer availble on Orbiter Mods.
5) New scenarios or recent STS missions which have been converted to use the Ultra components were not done completely requiring the 1st time user to learn the docking mechanisms and convert the scenarios.
Requests for future consideration:
1) When new distributions which appear to but full or close to full Shuttle Fleet installs become available, it's important to always include depandancy documentation. My wish is that even number (n.0) distributions contain installation depenancy lists and that those dependancies are know to exist on a major server.
2) When depenancy distributions get dropped from Orbiter Mods, a new "Complete" distribution or collection of same should be released.
3) Scenarios which get added or changed using new technology or models from other deveopers need to be tested on systems which have been built from scratch using current existing installation instructions need to be tested. For a new user to Orbiter who wants to get going on Space Shuttle simulation using Shuttle Fleet, the time to completion is dauting requiring more than introductory knowledge of Orbiter and Shuttle Fleet internals. I'm not a newbie myself, though I'm also not a developer-skill user.
Hope this is helpful to someone.
-Pv-
My model series of choice has been the Shuttle Fleet due to its aggressive updates and timely shuttle mission expansion packs.
My recent experience creating a new Orbiter installation from scratch and building a new dedicated Shuttle Fleet installation to support the 4.0+ version(s) was very frustrating requiring days of work.
For obvious reasons, the distribution server of choice is Orbiter Hanger Mods. Searching other servers reveals they are largely dead players (AVSIM hasn't had spacecraft upload in 3+ years.)
The orbitersim.com forum hasn't had a post in 6+ months.
Actions and results:
I searched and downloaded everything I could find on Hanger Mods related to the highest version of Shuttle Fleet full installs I could find. It appears older full installs get purged quite aggressively now on that server.
The latest full install I could find was 4.01. No indication of anything 4.00 could be found. In my aging collection of past downloads, I had 3.9.4 as the most recent full install and it depended heavily on yet earlier packages. I also have expansion packs related to 4.0+ mission updates which converted 3.9+ installs. In the 4.01, 4.01 patch, 4.10 dll, GPCMFD and 4.1.1 patch, there is no mention in the docs how far back you have to go in full installs and expansion packs in order for the 4.0+ stuff to work. I found out the hard way 4.0+ stuff installed on a new Orbiter installation does not work out of the box.
Problems:
1) There are missions in the distribution which require certain ISS components like Jem, ISS10a, Kibo and other spacecraft3 meshes are missing causing crashes. Searching on Orbiter Mods looking for distributions of these components using these words produced nothing, only reference to other non-existing distributions.
2) The only expansion patch update I had for converting/upgrading UP from non-4.0 stuff to 4.0 stuff was STS122 expansion pack 4.0.0. I had that in my archived files and in it was the instructions:
To build the necessary installation for simulations of STS-122, download the following
packages:
Shuttle Fleet Full Package V3.9.4:
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2932"]Search[/ame]
ISS Fleet Full Package V2.0.0:
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2933"]Search[/ame]
Shuttle Expansion Pack Full Package V4.0.0:
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2931"]Search[/ame]
NASA Aircraft Fleet Full Package V4.0.0:
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2999"]Search[/ame]
Shuttle Fleet Upgrade Patch to V4.0.0:
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3162"]Search[/ame]
Node Module by Well:
http://orbiter.mustard-fr.com/addons/download.php?file=WellArtemisThemisPMA
Columbus Module by No Matter:
http://orbiter.mustard-fr.com/addons/download.php?file=Columbusv2
None of the "4.0" upgrade or full install packages exist any longer on Orbiter Mods. The 3.9.4 doesn't exist. I was only able to find the most recent ISS Fleet, Themis PMA and Columbus distributions. Fortunately, I had the 2.9.4 full install I downloaded in July of 2007 on my drive. There is no list of prerequisites or installation instructions in the PDF file. This distribution also lacks the required meshes. Putting in the latest ISS Fleet also lacked these meshes.
Finally after messing around for a long time, searching all Orbiter servers and databases using Google and other tools, I did a Windows search for text on my hard drive directory containing all Orbiter stuff I download over the last 5 years on the word "Jem" and found a file I download last May for STS 124 and Ultra. I put that in and Jem problems went away. So I searched for files on Orbiter mods related to this and found STS 126 for Ultra and put that in. More problems went away. Again, only a few hints in Shuttle Fleet docs how closely the SF and Ultra distributions are tied together. I was unaware of this. I'm also uncomfortable with throwing in every Ultra distribution I see into me dedicated Shuttle Fleet install not knowing what will happen.
Now I was getting scenario loads that did not crash at once, or dis not crash after running for 2 minutes.
Now, when loading 4.0.0 scenarios, I had problems with:
1) Missions with payloads based on Ultra objects not showing up, or showing up mis-aligned. Ultra MPLMs would not show up at all although the sim didn't crash. This tells me the objects exist in the sim, but are not loaded into the attachments/docing correctly.
2) Nearly all the scenarios have been created using the Ultra OBSS and MPMs objects. These components appeared sideways on the shuttle skewering through the middle like Steve Martin wearing an arrow. After much investigation I realised these components were added without the required PL1-6 entries in the shuttle section of the ships and also lacking the required 0:2 and 0:7 docking points commands.
This forces the user to investigate these errors and correct them before the scenario will perform correctly. I was able to fix the OBSS but no manipulation of the Ultra MPLM would show up. I reverted to the "generic" "Leonardo_mplm" and that loaded fine. So this required another series of edits to all the MPLM missions.
The sim now appears to be stable, the missions I edited have the correct components docked on launch.
Summary:
1) Recent Shuttle Fleet distributions contain scenarios which require components not distributed with the current "Full" or nearly full Installs.
2) The current 4.0+ distributions depend on earlier distributions which are not documented in the recent distributions and/or are no longer available on Orbiter Mods or other servers.
3) The dependance on Ultra distributions is only hinted at in the documents with no installation instructions informing which ones are required.
4) The most recent "base " SF distribution on which 4.0+ distributions heavily depend (sol_alt, earth_alt, earth.cfg files, as well as certain models and meshes) are no longer availble on Orbiter Mods.
5) New scenarios or recent STS missions which have been converted to use the Ultra components were not done completely requiring the 1st time user to learn the docking mechanisms and convert the scenarios.
Requests for future consideration:
1) When new distributions which appear to but full or close to full Shuttle Fleet installs become available, it's important to always include depandancy documentation. My wish is that even number (n.0) distributions contain installation depenancy lists and that those dependancies are know to exist on a major server.
2) When depenancy distributions get dropped from Orbiter Mods, a new "Complete" distribution or collection of same should be released.
3) Scenarios which get added or changed using new technology or models from other deveopers need to be tested on systems which have been built from scratch using current existing installation instructions need to be tested. For a new user to Orbiter who wants to get going on Space Shuttle simulation using Shuttle Fleet, the time to completion is dauting requiring more than introductory knowledge of Orbiter and Shuttle Fleet internals. I'm not a newbie myself, though I'm also not a developer-skill user.
Hope this is helpful to someone.
-Pv-
