Orbiter Screenshot Thread

[misha.physics]

Seems to be spectrum on a suit:

 

[CurlSnout]

Ruhrstahl X-4: Not exactly 'orbital' in nature, the X-4 was an air-to-air wire-guided missile developed by Germany during WWII - but was never deployed during wartime. Another example of a missile precursor that inspired further work and later developments in the field of rocketry science.





I cheated a bit here; these images were captured after launching from the ground at Cape Canaveral (LC14). And, maybe I could use better exhaust textures. Anyway.

cs

 

[Urwumpe]

Yeah, for Surface to Air use, there was the radio guided Wasserfall missile.

 

[francisdrake]

Playing around with the metal-foil textures, normals and specular maps of the Lunar Excursion Vehicle (LEV).
The Ukert crater is coming up in the distance, for a landing on the crater rim.

 

[CurlSnout]

Great shots. I imagine all of those variables (metal textures, nomals, spec maps) are tricky on their own, and the possible combinations are endless. The ones you have here are very convincing.

 

[francisdrake]

The ones you have here are very convincing.

Thanks! Yes, it is tricky to find a good combination. The very basic material parameters like color and reflective color are always a bit different in the 3D-modelling program compared to Orbiter's rendering. My very first tries looked more like granite stone, not like metal.

I found a site online that creates normal maps from the textures, which is very helpful! The rest is trial and error.

 

[Buck Rogers]

Pixel based metal shader- Orbiter2024 (no noticable fps impact!)

 

[N_Molson]

 

[CurlSnout]

Day and Night (or, rather, Light and Dark):





Hi-Ho,

cs

 

[Marg]

Default Orbiter 2024 sun does not look good at all in most screenshots. "My" sun is better, I managed to change high frequency spikes (more blurred, so it's better).

 

[francisdrake]

Could you maybe post your sun texture? It may be interesting to compare the visuals.

 

[Nikogori]

Orbiter 2024 test flight: Earth to Saturn
using TransX 2018.05.06 MMExt2 for Orbiter 2016

Jan 18 2018 Earth departure

Dec 29 2019 Jupiter flyby



Apr 01 2023 Saturn orbit insertion


Apr 26 2023 Titan orbit insertion

 

[Marg]

Could you maybe post your sun texture? It may be interesting to compare the visuals.

I edited part of glare.hlsl, (backup the file though) and replace these parts (file is in Modules\D3D9client folder):
I think I edited mostly rows with " // High frequency spikes "

// ====================================================================
// Creation of "glare" textures
// ====================================================================



// ======================================================================
// Render sun "Glare" (seen in space)
//
float4 CreateSunGlarePS(float u : TEXCOORD0, float v : TEXCOORD1) : COLOR
{
u = u * 2.0 - 1.0; v = v * 2.0 - 1.0;

float a = atan2(u, v);
float r = sqrt(u * u + v * v);

float q = 0.5f + 0.3f * pow(sin(3.0f * a), 4.0f);
float w = 0.5f + 0.2f * pow(sin(30.0f * a), 2.0f) * pow(sin(41.0f * a), 2.0f);

//float I = pow(max(0, 2.0f * (1 - r / q)), 12.0f);
//float K = pow(max(0, 2.0f * (1 - r / w)), 12.0f);
//float I = exp(max(0, 10.0f * (1 - r / q))) - 1.0f;
//float K = exp(max(0, 10.0f * (1 - r / w))) - 1.0f;

float L = pow(max(0, (1 - r / q)), 2.0f) * 3.0f; // Low frequency spikes
float H = pow(max(0, (1 - r / w)), 8.0f) * 5.0f; // High frequency spikes
float C = ilerp(0.03, 0.01, r) * 7.0f; // Core
float S = ilerp(1.7f, 0.35f, r); // Skirt

C *= C;
C += S * S * 0.40f;

return float4(max(L + C, H + C), 0, 0, 1);
}



// ======================================================================
// Render sun "Glare" (seen in atmosphere)
//
float4 CreateSunGlareAtmPS(float u : TEXCOORD0, float v : TEXCOORD1) : COLOR
{
u = u * 2.0 - 1.0; v = v * 2.0 - 1.0;

float a = atan2(u, v);
float r = sqrt(u * u + v * v);

float q = 0.5f + 1.0f * pow(sin(3.0f * a), 4.0f);
float w = 0.5f + 0.8f * pow(sin(10.0f * a), 2.0f) * pow(sin(6.0f * a), 2.0f);

float I = pow(max(0, (1 - r / q)), 3.0f) * 4;
float K = pow(max(0, (1 - r / w)), 8.0f) * 8;

float L = ilerp(0.05, 0.01, r) * 16.0f;
float T = max(0, max(I + L, K + L)) * 2.0f;

return float4(T, 0, 0, 1);
}

 

[CurlSnout]

Thanks. With your edits I get this:

 

[CurlSnout]

Similar capture, in Orbiter 2016 (where there is no glare.hlsl in Modules\D3D9client), looks like this:

 

[Marg]

Thanks. With your edits I get this:

View attachment 42864

Yes, this is what I have. Not perfect anyway, but I like better than default. Maybe someone can tweak it even better.

 

[francisdrake]

High over the Sundarbans a Dragon capsule is delivering the crew to the Lunar excursion vehicle (LEV). The three-day flight to the Moon will be a bit cramped in the small cabin of the LEV. Note the FalconHeavy upper stage has a grey stripe to prevent the fuel from freezing while it was waiting for the crew to arrive.

 

[Donamy]

View attachment 42879
High over the Sundarbans a Dragon capsule is delivering the crew to the Lunar excursion vehicle (LEV). The three-day flight to the Moon will be a bit cramped in the small cabin of the LEV. Note the FalconHeavy upper stage has a grey stripe to prevent the fuel from freezing while it was waiting for the crew to arrive.

Question. How do they get home ?

 

[francisdrake]

Question. How do they get home ?

That's a bit longer story, described in full here: Moon Direct - A purpose-driven plan to open the lunar frontier.

Before the crewed mission, uncrewed mission(s) set up an automated base on the Lunar surface, with a refuelling depot.
Then: LEV to parking orbit on a FalconHeavy. Crew of 2 to LEV on a Falcon9 in a Dragon Capsule. TLI burn of LEV on the FalconHeavy 2nd stage.
LEV Moon orbit capture and landing at the pre-deployed base. One week stay. Refuelling. Direct launch back to Earth. Propulsive capture of the LEV into LEO. Re-docking with Dragon. Crew returns to Earth in the Dragon capsule.

 

[CurlSnout]

Agena upper stages. The CORONA program, active primarily during the 1960s, deployed a series of satellites for the purposes of photographic reconnaissance. Early satellites within the program ran under the name 'Discoverer' and later missions flew under the name 'Keyhole' (KH). Most of these were launched on top of Thor boosters (some of the later missions employed Titan). Here are a few representatives flying in Orbiter 2024.

KH-1 CORONA ("C" model - single panoramic camera); Agena-A module:





KH-2 CORONA ("C Prime" model - improved panoramic camera); Agena-B module:





KH-4 CORONA ("MURAL" model - 2 cameras for stereoscopic imaging); Agena-B module:





KH-1, KH-2, and KH-4 flying in tandem formation (a fantasy scenario):





Hi-Ho,

cs