General Question Lpads on TOP of buildings?

[dgatsoulis]

I've been taking my first steps in orbiter addons.
So far, i've been following some of the great tutorials i've found on OH.

I know how to make a (rough) model out of a blueprint and how to turn it into a MSH file for Orbiter, textures included.

Is there a way to put a landing pad on TOP of a building?

For instance, i have an (almost) finished model of the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai, and i'd really like to place a landing pad on it:

I've seen that Artlav has done it on the Shukra station. How?

 

[TSPenguin]

Natively this is not possible.
You might look at how Dan Stephs Prelude base does it.

 

[dgatsoulis]

Natively this is not possible.
You might look at how Dan Stephs Prelude base does it.

I see... I'll have to turn that mesh into a vessel instead of a base then.
(Come to think of it... Artlav's was a vessel too.)

Thanks TSPenguin, i'll look into that!

Before i start, does this include any coding?

 

[Woo482]

It'll probably take quite a bit of coding, but I've never tried to do it so I'm not totally sure

 

[dgatsoulis]

It'll probably take quite a bit of coding, but I've never tried to do it so I'm not totally sure

"...a bit of coding"... i think i can handle, "...quite a bit of coding"... probably not!

 

[dgatsoulis]

I think i may have found a way that doesn't require any coding, thanks to Artlav's MeshLand 1.9.2
(Thank you Artlav! :thumbup

Here is what i've done so far:

1. Set up a base that has the mesh of the building i want to use at POS 0 0 0
2. Create an "invisible" mesh (a simple disk with the same diameter as the building's helipad and 1m height) for the helipad and place it at the correct coordinates.
(For the Burj al Arab building: 0.94 209.55 22.14)
3. Make a pad.cfg file in the visosad\planets\earth\ directory and include it in the Manifest.mrls file

The pad.cfg is like this:

//Collision data for pad base
base-lon=-80.708969
base-lat=28.625715


POS=0 0 0
ROT=0
SCALE=1 1 1
!surface
 
psa=0
pea=1000
mesh=pad

At this point, i do "collide" with the helipad, but it seems that it happens on a specific point of the pad's mesh and not on all of it's surface.
So instead of "landing" on it, my ship get's thrown off of it at a high speed.

Has anyone tried an approach similar to this, to be able to land on TOP of a building?

 

[PhantomCruiser]

I seem to remember a scenario that comes with Meshland (or Orulex??) that had a large building on the moon with similar landing pads. The DG kind of bounced (for lack of a better discription) on the pad, but it is very similar to what you are wanting to do. Once I get home I'll see if I can nail down where/what it is.

 

[dgatsoulis]

I seem to remember a scenario that comes with Meshland (or Orulex??) that had a large building on the moon with similar landing pads.

Yep, that's Sayo base. This is what i've been following to get this result but i must be doing something wrong.

 

[dgatsoulis]

I finally did it!
Thank's to Artlav's wonderful MeshLand!

Now i can land on the Burj Al Arab's helipad! :thumbup:

I think it's time for a "handbrake" landing on it!

Next: the worlds tallest skyscraper!

I hope there's a good model of it in Google 3D Warehouse.

 

[Dambuster]

Awesome, can you post the samples of code you used to do this?

 

[dgatsoulis]

Awesome, can you post the samples of code you used to do this?

No coding at all! Just Meshland_2, a few tweeks in the config files (visosad),
some mesh manipulation, LOTS of trials and errors and i got it.

The only problem now is that the landed ship is bouncing a little bit on the pad.

I will re-trace my steps, while i make the second one (Burj Khalifa), and write a post how i did it. Perhaps someone with better skills than mine can improve it into a "Universal Landing Pad" or something...

 

[TSPenguin]

The bouncing is a real problem in the long term though. Parking a ship and coming back to it later usually results in search parties

 

[Tommy]

I'm not at home, but it seems to me that Artlav released some of the code for Shukra station. This would require some coding, but you won't have the "bounce", and it doesn't require meshland (which can be a framerate killer on older PC's) so it will work for just about anyone.

 

[dgatsoulis]

I'm not at home, but it seems to me that Artlav released some of the code for Shukra station. This would require some coding, but you won't have the "bounce", and it doesn't require meshland (which can be a framerate killer on older PC's) so it will work for just about anyone.

I haven't "bothered" Artlav with this so far, cause i think he shouldn't be distructed from his work... (You know... like an EVIL GENIUS working in his lair!)

That "bouncing" problem doesn't exist on Shukra Station, but i think it's "hard coiled" in the dll... Any way we can turn it in a config file?

 

[Tommy]

Any way we can turn it in a config file?

Not that I'm aware of - it IS hard coded. Check the OrbiterSDK folder (and the docs folders inside), I seem to recall that the sources were included in the release and placed there. I could be wrong, and am not at home to check.

Essentially, give the building a module that detects nearby vessels, and if one is in the right place and descending slowly it gets "attached" to the building, and released if engine power of "captured" vessel exceeds a threshold ( a bit above what it would take to hover) or is increased significantly. An invisible "standard orbiter" L-Pad should be placed directly below the elevated pad to provide directional cues with VTOL MFD - although the altitude shown there will be alt above MSL, not above the pad.

Not as easy as a config, but not that bad. Look also at the Battlestar Galactica add-on (I think sources were available) which uses a similar technique for the "landing" bay.

 

[dumbo2007]

I was wondering if AddForce can be used for this. The minute the craft is very close to the elevated pad , AddForce can apply a force = the weight of the vessel(or the total resultant force acting on the vessel at the time - got by GetForceVector(v) ). Then add in some friction force as well to prevent it from rolling, and we are closer to reality then we can be with the other approaches. But yeah this thing would require a code module.....so
"Essentially, give the building a module..." means that a building can have a code module for it, or do you mean a vessel that looks like a building ?

Also how can you detect nearby vessels even if you do use a vessel as a building ? I mean the code.

One very interesting idea that occurred to me is....this addforce can be used to actually carry the UMMUs in ships, the ship can keep track of UMMUs its carrying and apply forces to keep the UMMU vessel inside it ....now how about that for complexity !!

-----

Hmm tried using addforce() but it doesnt seem to cancel out all the forces a body is experiencing, resulting in violent bouncing. I was hoping this can be used to keep bodies absolutely stable at any altitude or attitude

GetForceVector(dir);

if(apply == TRUE)
AddForce(_V(-dir.x, -dir.y, -dir.z), _V(0,0,0));

 

[sputnik]

Was there a version of the Shukra station that was released with source code? Because I have never seen one.

I'd really like to see it, to understand how it was done.