Orbiter in 20 years

[Sbb1413]

Kerbal Space Program has taken over, Orbiter has been mostly forgotten
?

Strongly disagree! I still believe Orbiter rules. In fact, KSP itself is inspired by Orbiter.

 

[WolfAngriff]

I agree. I've played KSP for a while, and came back to Orbiter. I've used what i learned with Orbiter in KSP, but KSP didn't learn me anything about space travel or vessels' mechanics. I've used tons of mods in KSP as to play... Orbiter-ish ! As Max-Q said, KSP is a game. A good one, funny and relatively immersive, but it's a game. I'm thinking about (daring ! ?) opening a topic in the forum, as to collect the weak/strong points of Orbiter from the end-user point of view. Surely not the coolest topic, but i think it's a necessary process. The idea is to determine "what would we like to see/use/play in Orbiter ?".

 

[n72.75]

I agree. I've played KSP for a while, and came back to Orbiter. I've used what i learned with Orbiter in KSP, but KSP didn't learn me anything about space travel or vessels' mechanics. I've used tons of mods in KSP as to play... Orbiter-ish ! As Max-Q said, KSP is a game. A good one, funny and relatively immersive, but it's a game. I'm thinking about (daring ! ?) opening a topic in the forum, as to collect the weak/strong points of Orbiter from the end-user point of view. Surely not the coolest topic, but i think it's a necessary process. The idea is to determine "what would we like to see/use/play in Orbiter ?".

One of the biggest selling points of KSP is the assembly of random parts into a rocket. Modular parts with systems interoperability, and a handy UI for management is not outside of the realm of possibilities. This could be an addon/addon SDK. Easily.

 

[Kyle]

I enjoy the out-of-the box realism that Orbiter offers vs Kerbal. I also think Orbiter is a more visually stunning experience, especially with the right mods. Kerbal, for me, is only enjoyable with RSS/RO when it's as close to Orbiter in terms of realism as possible. When I discovered RSS, I ended up playing Kerbal 100x more often.

 

[STS]

...In fact, KSP itself is inspired by Orbiter.

Exactly, and looks like nobody knows.

 

[gamer19]

I have nothing against KSP, but it is a game, and a payware one at that.
Orbiter is not only free and open-source, but with a realistic physics engine and an amazing API, it is an engineering tool and trajectory analysis tool as well.
However, even with all the power and capability under the hood, it can still be used as a game if the user wishes, with vessels like the DG and navigation tools like TransX/IMFD.
And another thing, just try and build an addon like NASSP (running real Apollo AGC software) in KSP! Go ahead, I dare you!

well said.
if I want painfully realistic space history class - I fire up NASSP
and if I want to just have fun while looking gorgeous - time for AMSO
possibilities are endless ? suffice to say there's also a lot other mods too.

 

[4throck]

Why ignore Reentry? It's unbeatable for immersion. Once spent 45 minutes flipping switches on a Gemini capsule prior to launch. Full 3D cockpit with nice modern graphics. Nothing beats Reentry in that regard...

 

[n72.75]

Why ignore Reentry? It's unbeatable for immersion. Once spent 45 minutes flipping switches on a Gemini capsule prior to launch. Full 3D cockpit with nice modern graphics. Nothing beats Reentry in that regard...

The developer also loves orbiter and NASSP. Great guy.

 

[jedidia]

This could be an addon/addon SDK. Easily.

I somewhat disagree on the "easily" part. It is in fact quite challenging. And a larger amount of work than you probably imagine...

 

[gamer19]

Why ignore Reentry? It's unbeatable for immersion. Once spent 45 minutes flipping switches on a Gemini capsule prior to launch. Full 3D cockpit with nice modern graphics. Nothing beats Reentry in that regard...

it's not exactly ignored https://www.orbiter-forum.com/threads/what-games-are-you-playing.36296/page-7#post-590423
however I had a tons of crashes so had to push the eject button. for now.

 

[n72.75]

I somewhat disagree on the "easily" part. It is in fact quite challenging. And a larger amount of work that you probably imagine...

I ment easily from the conceptual standpoint. Most of the stuff needed to do this has been done to some degree in orbiter before, e.g, the scenarios editor tools that Kulch's addons use, and systems simulation that the Dragonfly and NASSP use. It wouldn't require fundamental changes to Orbiter. And yes, I understand it would be a huge amount of work to impliment...but less work than implimenting a new simulator from the ground up.

 

[Krishnan]

Kerbal Space Program has taken over, Orbiter has been mostly forgotten
?

Edit: I didn't mean that KSP is better than Orbiter, I do love Orbiter and the quality it provides. I just mean that Orbiter isn't popular anymore, and KSP has kind of hidden Orbiter's reputation. Orbiter is a great piece of software that I thoroughly love, but I meant in terms of people who play it mainstream/Golden ages. Sorry for upsetting the community.

 

[n72.75]

Remember that Orbiter kind of used to be the only option for even space-related games, let alone simulators from like the late 1990s to 2010. But I thin you're overestimating how popular Orbiter used to be. If anything Orbiter seems to have roughly the same usership that it always has, but the internet is much bigger/and very different than it used to be.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&geo=US&q=%2Fm%2F026pq7,%2Fm%2F0h68f9g

Google trends isn't a scientific or unbiased way to look at things, but there is a multiple order of magnitude difference between the two in popularity. This is what paying for marketing gets you.

 

[Krishnan]

Remember that Orbiter kind of used to be the only option for even space-related games, let alone simulators from like the late 1990s to 2010. But I thin you're overestimating how popular Orbiter used to be. If anything Orbiter seems to have roughly the same usership that it always has, but the internet is much bigger/and very different than it used to be.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&geo=US&q=%2Fm%2F026pq7,%2Fm%2F0h68f9g

Google trends isn't a scientific or unbiased way to look at things, but there is a multiple order of magnitude difference between the two in popularity. This is what paying for marketing gets you.

That is true, I see my fault.

 

[4throck]

It's not marketing, it's what you can do with the software.
KSP allows you to do the same things that made Orbiter 2010 popular (transfer crew and cargo, use multiple different spaceships) with the innovations of 2016 (nice visuals, terrain).

And they've added a few things that Orbiter doesn't do - signal strength and communications, power handling, etc.
Those are conceptually realistic. For example, the lack of solar power when doing a burn on the night side is realistic due to orbital mechanics. To avoid that you need to plan your launch date better. In that regard, KSP offers the best experience available.

 

[Sbb1413]

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&geo=US&q=%2Fm%2F026pq7,%2Fm%2F0h68f9g

Google trends isn't a scientific or unbiased way to look at things, but there is a multiple order of magnitude difference between the two in popularity. This is what paying for marketing gets you.

Although the United States is not the whole world, the result will be nearly the same if I input the same thing in worldwide: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today 5-y&q=/m/026pq7,/m/0h68f9g

In worldwide Google Trends, New Zealand searches for Orbiter the most, then Bosnia & Herzegovina, Armenia, Slovakia and Kenya, and ironically, we don't have active forum members from any of the countries.

On the other hand, Estonia searches for KSP the most, then Israel, Czechia, Canada and New Zealand.

 

[N_Molson]

Google trends isn't a scientific or unbiased way to look at things, but there is a multiple order of magnitude difference between the two in popularity. This is what paying for marketing gets you.

Very interesting, glad to see Orbiter is healthy in Florida ?

It is everyone of us job to promote Orbiter around us and on the Web. ? Orbiter has nothing like a PR departement.

 

[Urwumpe]

Very interesting, glad to see Orbiter is healthy in Florida ?

They ARE strictly an Orbiter shop.

 

[gamer19]

Although the United States is not the whole world, the result will be nearly the same if I input the same thing in worldwide: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today 5-y&q=/m/026pq7,/m/0h68f9g
In worldwide Google Trends, New Zealand searches for Orbiter the most, then Bosnia & Herzegovina, Armenia, Slovakia and Kenya, and ironically, we don't have active forum members from any of the countries.
On the other hand, Estonia searches for KSP the most, then Israel, Czechia, Canada and New Zealand.

seems like we're pretty strong in new zealand and india ?

Father Forgive’ them for they know not what they do.’ Luke 23:34

?

 

[N_Molson]

It could be interesting to try to "infiltrate" other space sims forums and try to shanghai people into Orbiter. And see if it has an influence on Google Trends ?