Project Shuttle-A Mk4

[cinder1992]

I've decided to announce the "Secret Project" that I'm working on, the Shuttle-A Mk 4.

The Shuttle A has evolved over the course of 9 years (I think), and has progressed from being a simple, and blocky, craft to the damage and fuel simulation of the Shuttle-A 2.0 (in reality, it is the third incarnation of the Shuttle-A). This fourth incarnation hopes to take the dream further than ever, by adding full damage simulation, a 100% reprogrammable computer, a brand new look and feel (whilst remaining the Shuttle-A of course), and UCGO+UMMU support.

Whilst maintaining that this IS the Shuttle-A, it will be compatible with current SAC (Shuttle-A Class) cargo. The UCGO support will allow it to carry up to 15 cargo modules per SAC slot (with an adapter). The UMMU support will allow this beast to transfer crew between the ever more popular DGIV and XR class vessels.

The computer is a special design of my own, technical details will be available when the debugVM is finished (damn directX, you fail me once again). It is an 8 bit computer with 4 registers full access to the thrust and life-support controls, witch will allow developers that become fluent in the SAASM (Shuttle-A ASseMbly) language to make autopilots and even possibly full operating systems!

The new and improved look of the craft is desinged to say "hey buddy! I was Bolted together in three hours from spare parts, so be carefull!" It uses 50cm by 50cm Carbon Fibre laminate Re-enforced steel I-Beams. The cockpit is made out of CFL re-enforced steel plating (5mm thick), with internal dimensions of (in Hight x Width x length format) 2m x 3m x 2m. The engines have been the most modified of all, now sporting 4 main engines (at 1/2 original size), 2 auxiliary pods, and 4 RCS pods. The vessel will also have a URMS rail, making the RMS optional.

HELP NEEDED:

the debugVM is at an impasse. I can make the emulator itself, but WINAPI and directX is far beyond my level of expertise. If someone could help me (now, my problem is a bit embarrassing...) make a winapi window with a internal size of 800x600 and the ability to put a pixel of any RGB value anywhere inside the area specified, I would be eternally grateful.

 

[Moach]

sounds promising! :thumbup: i hope you can get it up to pace again...

hold on, i'll run some research on possible solutions for your flight computer display (i have similar matters regarding my G42 SSTO shuttle)...

as for the mesh, you're in luck, there are many talented modelers in this forum which in turn, know little about coding... :hmm:


cheerz

 

[Woo482]

This sounds like a rather large project :lol: have you tried doing something a little simpler first? I'd hate to see you try and do it and fail.

 

[cinder1992]

Just to clarify, the problem is with the emulated display, not the one on-board the shuttle itself.
and yes, it is a quite complicated project, but at least it's simpler than the DSTS thing I tried back in '09.

 

[ar81]

Post the blueprints and sketches for vessel cockpit. That would make people to get involved. I may not help for my computer died a few weeks ago.

I also may like to suggest to add an arm to the Shuttle A. Trying to maneuver using external view to dock with cargo containers is unrealistic and also a bit annoying.

 

[cinder1992]

The RMS isn't going to be on the vessel as it already has a rail for URMS, the computer is too complex to modify any more than I have too.

 

[Urwumpe]

If you need a CPU emulation, I have a partial PowerPC emulation here, I just lost the reason to continue development, because Lua does practically all that I wanted to do with the CPU emulation. Maybe you should consider using Lua as well, it is powerful.

If I ever get into making low-level drivers for the Black Dart, I would also likely use a special virtual machine instead of a CPU emulation. Why waste execution time on fixing endians or execution orders, if you actually want less than that, just an abstract way to load small programs and execute them in a time step, without the risks of a C++ API.

 

[cinder1992]

Thank you Urwumpe, but the CPU I'm using is of my own design, being specially made for the Shuttle-A Mk 4, Witch is why I'm making my own compiler for it's ASM language.

 

[Urwumpe]

Thank you Urwumpe, but the CPU I'm using is of my own design, being specially made for the Shuttle-A Mk 4, Witch is why I'm making my own compiler for it's ASM language.

Then do it, if you want to play for CPU emulations. But from a practical point of view, a Lua instance would do the job likely better.

 

[cinder1992]

hmm, I'll think about it. Lua would have the advantage of allowing me to make the computer faster, but I'm no even close to fluent in the language. I didn't even know what lua was before orbiter 2009.

 

[Urwumpe]

hmm, I'll think about it. Lua would have the advantage of allowing me to make the computer faster, but I'm no even close to fluent in the language. I didn't even know what lua was before orbiter 2009.

It is now not a magical language, or complex. Actually it is executed as compiled code in a small stack-based VM, which means it is already similar to what you want to do.

 

[mc_]

Any screenshots?

 

[cinder1992]

god, I am an IDIOT. I just realised that I CAN make the mesh for the cockpit because I have the blueprints. disaster averted.

I may have some screenshots when I get the cockpit done.

---------- Post added at 07:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:16 PM ----------

well, I've decided to release the emulator without the GUI algorithms, so to the untrained eye, the output will look like gibberish, but to one who looks at EMU_IO.LOG, the output will be more consistent.

one slight problem:

I had to do a sloppy patch job with my windows install, so when I tried to save the .CPP files, the computer crashed and corrupted the files. I'm having to start from scratch on Linux now (and yes, the files are corrupted, not in another format).

 

[Hielor]

HELP NEEDED:

the computer emulator is at an impasse. I can make the emulator itself, but WINAPI and directX is far beyond my level of expertise. If someone could help me (now, my problem is a bit embarrassing...) make a winapi window with a internal size of 800x600 and the ability to put a pixel of any RGB value anywhere inside the area specified, I would be eternally grateful.

Couldn't you just use a dynamic texture area in the cockpit and a SketchPad interface to it? You wouldn't want to use DirectX, since then it might not work with other graphics clients like OGLA.

Alternately, couldn't you just do it as an MFD?

 

[cinder1992]

let me attempt to clarify once again, the computer EMULATOR is a separate thing to the Shuttle-A's COMPUTER. the EMULATOR is made so that people can develop programs for the Shuttle-A's COMPUTER.

in other words: the EMULATOR is a standalone, whilst the COMPUTER is integrated with the Shuttle-A.

 

[T.Neo]

let me attempt to clarify once again, the computer EMULATOR is a separate thing to the Shuttle-A's COMPUTER. the EMULATOR is made so that people can develop programs for the Shuttle-A's COMPUTER.

in other words: the EMULATOR is a standalone, whilst the COMPUTER is integrated with the Shuttle-A.

Your EMULATOR and COMPUTER have left me confused. :focus:

 

[Urwumpe]

Actually, you emulate it also inside the shuttle-A module, but I think we understood you.

Maybe you should name the things "embedded VM" and "debug VM" for clarity.

 

[cinder1992]

done, thank you Urwumpe

 

[Linguofreak]

hmm, I'll think about it. Lua would have the advantage of allowing me to make the computer faster, but I'm no even close to fluent in the language. I didn't even know what lua was before orbiter 2009.

I actually like the idea of using a full CPU emulation, just in the interests of computer-nerdy tinkering.

 

[Izack]

I'm interested to see this completed! With all the attention the Deltaglider has gotten, the S-A is in need of some serious attention.