Project Mission Control For Orbiter (Rebirth)

davewave

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Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, orbinauts across the world.
I have been away for sometime as I have moved interstate and a new life and job. As such, my work here as been on hold for some time. But now its time for me to make an announcment.

To all those familiar with the Mission Control For Orbiter (MCFO) project, it is my intention to finish it off once and for all. To be successful in this endevour I will need help:

1) Volunteers to test the program over the internet
2) A show of hands to see just how many people would use this program
3) One or two developers to edit the source code with me.
4) One person to edit the website, keep the people happy and do the PR whilst we are busy programming.
5) A Community of orbinauts to recommend ideas on all facets of the concept.


To all those unfamilliar with the project here is a rundown:

MCOF is a multiuser concept in which one person flys a mission as the pilot whilst one or more other users look on and act as that pilots mission control.
This is achieved using a mod which was created a while back which basically transmits and receives orbiter telemetry from a computer anywhere in the world, to any number of computers connected at the time.
My program takes this telemetry and displays it in a friendly and functional way such that those looking on can not only track the current flight and information of the pilot, but also assist in that pilots flight.

The concept is taken to a whole new level when the pilot and the mission control operators use over-the-net communication (using something like Skype) and simulate a real mission control for the pilot.

This is particularly useful for crews (a crew is a pilot and his/her mission control team) who want to fly the more realistic missions such as the advanced shuttle missions or AMSO/NASSP.

I have already got fantastic network code implemented and I am basically upto the point where I am working out what telemetry needs to be displayed and to design it in such a way that anyone who joins the mission control team each has a function.

For example. Crew member "A" may monitor things like the shuttle's actual heading, attitude, velocity and fuel. This crew member has the task of informing the flight operator whether there are any problems and whether the pilot is ready for the next manuevre.

Crew member "B" may take the role of flight operator. This person can monitor all facets of the mission but is the only one allowed to voice chat to the pilot so as to reduce confusion in instructions. Of course this is merely a semantic which can be sorted out when determining what skype channels to use, etc. I also think Roger Wilco isn't such a bad option either.

Of course you have the pilot who, if this concept succeeeds, whilst being the centre of attention will not neccessarily have the most important role.

Remember, the main concept of MCFO is to have a mission succeed (or fail) based upon the efforts of an entire crew.

Please contact me on the following channels.
Please note that I am only interested in serious volunteers as I don't have time to sort out people who aren't giving it 100%.
I am only taking on a few people as described above.

1) email: [email protected] *Preffered*
2) MSN: [email protected] *Preffered*
3) Private Message on the forum *Least preffered*
4) Reply to the post here

remember the positions are as follows:
2 people needed to develop the software
1-2 people needed to do PR, website maintenance and liasing between myself and the public on the forums.

Ok. A long message but I am sure you will all agree this is a concept that has many many advantages in increasing the realism of simulating a real space flight.

Regards,
David (MCFO Team leader)
 

bradfirj92

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Yes yes a million times yes. I'll happily test this, i have no programming ability to speak of, but i.ve been looking forward to this for so long I want to help in any way I can. Good luck!
 

Woo482

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I could help out with testing it if you want.
 

EJ316

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I'm happy to offer my services in whatever way possible. This sounds amazing!
 

yagni01

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Welcome back Dave,

There have been quite a few changes to Orb:Connect since you started the project. I think you'll appreciate the subscription service.

Good luck.
 

davewave

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I can maintain a nice site for you if you manage to get me a decent webhost with php.

Im already hosting one with sourceforge : http://sourceforge.net/projects/mcfo/

just need to ssh to the directory and upload your files there.
ill organise passwords, etc.
please pm me and msn me

---------- Post added at 03:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:27 AM ----------

Welcome back Dave,

There have been quite a few changes to Orb:Connect since you started the project. I think you'll appreciate the subscription service.

Good luck.

Yagni01: It would be an honour if you would join me on this project as it seems our two ideas have found a match for each other!

-dave-
please pm and msn me so we can communicate more regularly

---------- Post added at 03:34 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:29 AM ----------

I will be recruiting for this project over the next 2 weeks.
Once I feel I have got the crew I need to work on this project I will inform you of what is happening next.

Just incase you weren't sure, the jobs are as follows:

2 Programmers (using C++ AND Visual Basic .NET 2008)
1-2 PR for web site and forum maintenance
2-3 People prefferably from different corners of the globe to test internet speeds and the final project in full flight.


-dave-
 

Zatnikitelman

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If you need a tester, I'm on board. Unfortunately my only two languages are C# and Java and I'm not an expert at either (just ask Hielor :rofl:) and unless the website is just entering stuff into a template or something, I'm not too good at web design either though I do know HTML.
 

davewave

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If you need a tester, I'm on board. Unfortunately my only two languages are C# and Java and I'm not an expert at either (just ask Hielor :rofl:) and unless the website is just entering stuff into a template or something, I'm not too good at web design either though I do know HTML.

the kind of tester I'm after are people to run the game and play it, see if it works. Don't worry about the code, thats for myself and the programmers to do.
We do our own software testing. But to test the whole concept in full flight we need more people. We also want to see what the maximum number of people connecting is appropriate. We dont want the game to become so complex that only a crew of 20 will do because thats just too hard to organise for a sunday night of orbiter in 20 different timezones.

-dave-

---------- Post added at 06:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:36 AM ----------

Hi All.
Just to those interested in redoing the website, I found where I'm hosting the current site:
http://new-frontiers.sourceforge.net/download.html

But I think I want to move it to the MCFO relative link because the above link is from a project I was working on unrelated to orbiter.
 

TheSirius

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Great project! I could use some aspects of it for my own private addons/plugin.
 

insane_alien

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i can test it out if you want. i know some C++ but not enough to program in it.
 

davewave

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Great project! I could use some aspects of it for my own private addons/plugin.


This isn't an addon or a plugin but an actual stand alone software "an .exe" file which people run on their computers to connect to the pilot so there will be little here that may help you in developing an addon.

Just a reminder, I am looking for people who are quite experienced in programming VB .net and PHP.

Cheers
 

bradfirj92

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Out of curiosity what's the VB for anyway? It's a horrible slow language and c# does everything it does only better. (I code c# in case you had not guessed.)
 

Face

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Out of curiosity what's the VB for anyway? It's a horrible slow language and c# does everything it does only better. (I code c# in case you had not guessed.)

Hm. Since it is about VB.NET, I don't think that there is a significant speed difference between VB.NET (compiling to IL) and C# (compiling to IL). Both languages are almost completely interchangable AFAIK.

regards,
Face
 

pilotpercy

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sounds like a brilliant idea, unfortunatly as per request of 100% commitment I have my finals coming up and after that I have my PhD to worry about but i will defenatly be an avid user once the program is up and running, all the best and good luck!
 

Bergotronic

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I'd be willing to help out. As far as development goes I can do some VB, C#, and PHP. My skills are fairly basic, but I can certainly play with data and forms. I've got a pretty strong Photoshop / Graphic Design / Video /Web skills so I can certainly do some pr as well as front end interface design. I find that producing a good deal of screenshots / video capture and keeping the various mod pages updated goes a long way to keep project interest high. I find the "multiplayer" possibilities for orbiter to be a very exciting prospect, it'd be really neat to work on this project.
 

davewave

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Out of curiosity what's the VB for anyway? It's a horrible slow language and c# does everything it does only better. (I code c# in case you had not guessed.)

In the old days this was true but now they are both object oriented languages using the .NET framework so they compile the same "in essence". But the illusion is still given that a C coded program is more "powerful". Even the new C# has dumbed down (or made invisible) the memory allocation and garbage collection.

So IMHO they are the same and seeing as I'm more experience with VB, I will stay with VB.

---------- Post added at 07:59 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:57 AM ----------

sounds like a brilliant idea, unfortunatly as per request of 100% commitment I have my finals coming up and after that I have my PhD to worry about but i will defenatly be an avid user once the program is up and running, all the best and good luck!


what I mean by 100% is that you will be consistent in the time you give to the project and if you are unable to be present or help out you inform me. Nothing is more frustrating then people just all of a sudden dissapearing, not replying to emails, never online, because that is how projects crumble. I've seen it before and I won't let it happen again.

But if you want to help out amongst your work, thats fine.
 

davewave

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Welcome back Dave,

There have been quite a few changes to Orb:Connect since you started the project. I think you'll appreciate the subscription service.

Good luck.

Hey Yagni01 I have a problem and I was wandering if you could help me fix it.

Due to reasons in programming, the current setup for subscription is becoming technically difficult to monitor.

currently the way it works is you send "SUBSCRIBE:5:Command"
and you get back "SUBSCRIBE:4:Command=1000"

where the 1000 above is the unique ID for the command.
for reasons to complex to go into here I was wandering if you can allow me, the api programmer, to tell orbconnect what uniqueID im using per command.
for example:

"SUBSCRIBE:5:1045:Command"

where 5 is the times per second and "1045" is the unique ID that gets returnd in future posts:

1045:Data
1045:data etc ....


could you reprogram this please and send me the module???

p.s. basically all im asking is that you allow the programmer to assign the unique ID to commands rather then it being automated by the orbconnect program
 

yagni01

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It was done this way to avoid conflicts between multiple clients trying to use the same ids, and the additional exception handling involved. What's the issue?
 
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