Orbiter Screenshot Thread

[mode1bravo]

A few more Apollo 13:

 

[Donamy]

A wild goose chase

 

[LTrotsky]

The DG-LDT returning to Earth. Visual aids and flight data included.

[URL=http://s840.photobucket.com/user/LTrotsky/media/STP002x-HCSN044_mjd56770_visualization_zps55a1d169.png.html] [/URL]

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Which atmosphere are you using? It looks different then the default one.

Just the standard Orbiter one with D3D9. It probably looks different due to the contrast effects being applied in Paint.net afterwards. They seem to really accentuate the look of the atmosphere by making the differences between the ground->atmosphere->space look sharper IMO.



By the way LTrotsky, really cool pics :thumbup:

 

[LTrotsky]

Just the standard Orbiter one with D3D9. It probably looks different due to the contrast effects being applied in Paint.net afterwards. They seem to really accentuate the look of the atmosphere by making the differences between the ground->atmosphere->space look sharper IMO.



By the way LTrotsky, really cool pics :thumbup:

Hey thanks. Here's the view from the cockpit. Earth's much closer now.

[URL=http://s840.photobucket.com/user/LTrotsky/media/STP002x-HCSN045_mjd56863_9days_344million_km_zpsce5c156b.png.html] [/URL]

And . . . closer and closer. Running live in the background.

[URL=http://s840.photobucket.com/user/LTrotsky/media/STP002x-HCSN046_mjd56870_2days_A_Million_KM_Away_zps4c50488e.png.html] [/URL]

Earth Orbit Achieved!

[URL=http://s840.photobucket.com/user/LTrotsky/media/STP002x-HCSN047_mjd56872_EarthDawn_zps7c412609.png.html] [/URL]

 

[Skookum]

Solar Conqueror Maiden Voyage

The Solar Conqueror began her maiden voyage today, completing a successful departure from low earth orbit. Her trip to Jupiter will take approximately seven and a half months. On the way, her science team will conduct gravity field experiments and study relativistic phenomena which are expected to be measurable at Solar Conqueror's high speed.

 

[asbjos]

After several hours of coding and optimizing, my first ever module for Orbiter is almost finished. The last huge step was animations, but now I've done that too. A really great moment when those panels deployed!

 

[Felix24]

Here is a work in progress.

Level 11 monthly textures for Earth. Here are some screenshots from October:




Some features: True L11 specular map, polar caps and sea ice, some freshwater ice and frozen lakes, L11 city night lights.

Color data is from NASA's Blue Marble Next Generation.

Once they're finished, distribution will be an issue, as they're huge. 9.5 GB for 12 months of standard quality, and over 26 GB for 12 months of full quality (both are L11; standard quality cuts out more tiles to save space).

I just wish there was a way to automatically load a new month's textures while in Orbiter.

 

[orb]

I just wish there was a way to automatically load a new month's textures while in Orbiter.

This might be possible in future:

Now, an even better approach would be to load the data separately.
Use a global lower resolution color map, and then generate the high resolution shadings using the height data and normal maps.
And of course, a specmap to give the albedo variations.
This setup could handle seasonal variations and might be easier to assemble.

I like your idea about seasonal changes! But I guess that may still be a while ahead for Orbiter.

 

[N_Molson]

Once they're finished, distribution will be an issue, as they're huge. 9.5 GB for 12 months of standard quality, and over 26 GB for 12 months of full quality (both are L11; standard quality cuts out more tiles to save space).

Don't feel sorry, the Landsat textures that martins is developping for next Orbiter are probably going to be 100 GB heavy !

 

[4throck]

Yes, that's too much data. I've looked into this issue and really I can't find any reasonable solution using global textures. The only way I can think of is really using "color maps" or "difference maps" to change a global dataset. From my tests, the only format that gives good quality with large compression is.... JPG! You can upload JPGs up to 30MB without much trouble, and those can give you large enough resolutions. At least my old PC can open such monsters with relative ease.

Here's one (22 MB, JPEG, 13500x13500):
http://eoimages2.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/79000/79765/dnb_land_ocean_ice.2012.13500x13500.C1.jpg

But this is really a discussion for another thread.

 

[orb]

From my tests, the only format that gives good quality with large compression is.... JPG! You can upload JPGs up to 30MB without much trouble, and those can give you large enough resolutions.

And then you need a fast and somehow good quality real time DXT compression algorithm (and they need to have or be cropped to power of 2 dimensions to do that), which will keep them compact (but not as much as in JPG on disk) also in the video memory.

 

[Felix24]

And then you need a fast and somehow good quality real time DXT compression algorithm (and they need to have or be cropped to power of 2 dimensions to do that), which will keep them compact (but not as much as in JPG on disk) also in the video memory.

Tileproxy for FS9/FSX does something very similar to that. It downloads tiles from satellite photos on popular map sites, slices and dices them, compresses and formats them as DXT, and inserts them into FS, all in real time, as you fly. You need a decently fast internet connection and at least two CPU cores so that it won't fall behind and run out of ground textures.

I remember there was once a time when Orbiter-related files were available as torrents. I think this would probably be the best way to distribute the large BMNG Earth texture collections. Any other ideas?

 

[Dantassii]

Lunar Station Assembly Mission 108 Screen Captures

I just finished Lunar Station Assembly Mission 108. It was a standard night-time launch from Brighton Beach with an M=1 approach to the Lunar Station (that means docking in < 1 orbit). Assembly was done using the URMS on the station plus 16 astronauts on EVA (They don't show up in the photos). Undocking occurred at the end of the first daylight pass and landing at Brighton Beach took place less than 1 orbit after undocking. And now for the screen captures.

I preconfigure all my MFDs prior to lift off that way I don't have to spend any time during timing critical moments in the mission. Here is the XR5 sitting at Brighton Beach waiting for the launch window to open.

A few minutes later, the launch window opens. Notice the position of the Lunar Station in orbit.

I usually launch with my hover engines set at 10m/s and then power my way into a very low orbit. As I'm going to need to do some serious plane changes to get to the Lunar Station in 1 orbit, starting out at a low orbit helps conserve fuel. Here's the XR5 at MECO.

I usually use 2 burns to do the plane change. I purposefully overshoot burn 1 so that burn 2 happens very soon afterwards. Here's what it looked like at the start of burn 1.

The end of plane change burn 1.

And the end of plane change burn 2.

Now that I'm all aligned up, I need to tweek the orbit just a bit so that I arrive at the Lunar Station just before sunrise.

The Interplanetary MFD makes matching orbits with a station almost trivial if you've trimmed your arrival time to less than 2-3 seconds.

And now for something that would probably never happen in reality, a night time approach and docking.

Final approach.

Ready to dock.

And just as I'm about to dock... the sun comes up and I can see what I'm about to dock with. Perfect timing.

This is an external photo taken by one of the EVA astronauts just before the first module is extracted.

The BM011's have all been offloaded.

A BT101 being moved into position by the URMS.

All the BT101s have been offloaded.

Last photo of the EVA taken just before undocking.

Cockpit view just before undocking showing how much daylight is left.

Undocking from the docking port view.

I usually do the base alignment burn at a node for fuel conservation.

Deorbit burn occurs 1/8th of an orbit before passing over the base

A few minutes later, the XR5 is on decent in landing-mode.

This is just after VOR lock and just before my powered decent burn 1 starts at 250 seconds away from the base.

Because I started the landing burns with a light fuel load, I terminated the initial powered decent burn at TAS of 900 M/S. If I was heavy, I would end it at 800 M/S.

Terminal landing burn begins at 100km from the base.

Things get a little busy so I didn't take any more screen captures until after landing. Upon landing, I do a quick lift off and rotate so the ship is facing 270 degrees then I do a final landing and begin refueling. At this point, I'm ready to load up the next mission's cargo, and do Mission 109.

Dantassii
HUMONGOUS IMS shipbuilder

 

[Kyle]

So, who remembers watching this live?

 

[Loru]

Another day in CSSC
testflights, testflights, testflights...

---------- Post added at 09:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:32 PM ----------

And morning patrol:

---------- Post added 10-30-13 at 12:34 AM ---------- Previous post was 10-29-13 at 09:43 PM ----------

Guess the director's name!

 

[Donamy]

Coppola ?

 

[Interceptor]

Coppola ?

I love the smell of Napalm in the morning.:lol:

 

[Loru]

Coppola did this only once. Try again

 

[Donamy]

Speilberg ?