Tutorial Videos for NASSP (Brainstorming thread)

n72.75

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The subject of video tutorials for NASSP has come up a number of times on the forums, and on other places around the internet (Reddit, Facebook, YouTube comments). I have no doubt that these will add a valuable resource for new and experienced users alike, and will probably help drive new and continued interest as well. The work done by Matt Wagner showcasing new features of DCS has been an inspiration.

What I'm looking to do with this discussion is demo the format and content, and get feedback as we create new videos. Of course there is no substitute for the documentation, and that includes ours and the original Apollo docs. This is not an attempt to replace, merely to reduce some barriers to entry.

As far as subjects for videos are concerned, this is where I'll need a little help. I already have some ideas for a list but I'm also coming at this from the perspective of a long time NASSP user and Orbiter user, developer, and engineer.

As far as a format is concerned, I want to limit the length of the videos as much as possible to around 10 minutes. 10 minutes is a very "bite-sized" length and is long enough to be useful but not so long as to be overwhelming (an hour long video of flipping switches isn't helpful as a tutorial). They say people decide of they want to watch a YouTube video within the first 5 seconds (and in other cases that the first 3rd of the video can be skipped), so opening with a clear statement of what is going to be communicated is key.

Here's how I envision a general workflow for creating these:
*Decide on a subject.
*Review necessary checklists and documentation.
*Record a video performing the procedure, reviewing for technical correctness.
*Write a script that covers the steps taken in the video and record the spoken audio separately.
*Edit the two together pausing or slowing the video where necessary to highlight, and cutting out any unnecessary waiting time in the video.

Ideally I'd like references to documentation cited at the end or in the video description.

Now on to subject ideas:

*NASSP Installation Guide (maybe wait for release version.
*Guide to the Apollo Missions Supported by NASSP
*Using ChecklistMFD in NASSP.
*Interacting with Mission Control.
*Specific AGC major modes(hard to keep the scope focused on this one)
*Specific panel and system overviews?
...etc.

I envision myself doing these in the beginning. Maybe it could be a team effort, e.g. someone records the video, someone else records the voice-over and edits it?

Not a small project. That's for sure.
 

Lupus_Vulpes

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That's a great idea, it's good to start with installation guides and basic interface. What i noticed as a new player myself, the switches are not the problem, after all, if you get stuck, you can make the game do it automatically, where most problems come for new players is when you have to do something yourself, like nulling the att error on FDAI, or calculate the average of Ha/Hp and enter the altitude, or using the sextant etc. Some basic overview of the systems is also a good idea, but i think the best approach would be to explain to people certain steps visually why they are doing them, for example, when explaining the ORDEAL panel, using visual illustrations to explain people what is it used for, like this image and then it's easier to understand what this is used for, to set-up an orbital-rate on the FDAI
 

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sw34669

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great idea. What's missing, for me, is the first pass at a high level of the stages of the journey from the cape to the sea. I think the work should be divided into short, insight filled, bursts of the following 3 things. This way, people can review what they need to do, why they are doing it and how they go about it, get info from pads and plug it in when the checklist stops at a yellow item :-

1) The WHY - Short descrption of the subject and some context "Trans Lunar injection .... bla bla , setup the directio we're pointing and a countdown burn to extend our orbit out from the earth to just around the other side of the moon"
2) The WHAT - show single slide of the high level things we will be doing (mcc data we need from pad - systems setup, dsky setup, burning, seperation and re-docking, extraction, final tidy up items ..... LoX dump watch and translate away etc
3) The HOW - edited going through the process with either speaking or text at the bottom or just do it slowly with a BIG cursor

This way, information is presented like the news (Tell them what they are going to hear, tell them it, tell them what they heard)

I think this would cover the major areas of the mission, i think we need to stick to a mission everyone new knows and would want to fly A11

Pre-Launch / Launch and how to maybe select different views let people know it's fully automated at this point (set correct options for multi thread and slow button push .. cover time compression to 50X issue).

Stage 1 - Earth Orbit actions
Stage 2 - TLI (inc sep/dock/extract)
Stage 3 - Coast to the moon - what can you expect
Stage 4 - Inserting into lunar orbit
Stage 5 - LM Prep, undocking
Stage 6 - Trip down to the moon (DOI to line up and entry burn, approach and final landing using P64/P65 autoland as they are a new user)
Stage 7 - Surface actions / EVA / BBQ (check propane tank)
Stage 8 - Ascent stages to re-dock
Stage 9 - Leaving lunar orbit for earth TEI
Stage 10 - Earth arrival and final descent to a watery grave/ticker tape welcome

Orbiter essentials wrt saving and loading your journey to ensure you dont lose anything
Apollo ship Essentials - all the parts of the rockets boosters CSM LM TTFN etc - moving about in cockpits/2d/virtual/between ships/inside/outside
AGC/Dsky basics verbs nouns progs R12 and 3 , editing them and the V21/2/3/4/5E
Checklist MFD Essentials
LM Essentials - brief overview of systems and all the button/swith clusters including how to carry out basic moves (manual and automatic )/DAP including pesky Radars for rescue, ground .
CSM Essentials - ditto
PADs and MCC - High level overview of what they are, how to interact and include uplinks - show a list of all the pads for the mission
Apollo 11 Flight plan document and forms essentials -
Orbital basics - plenty we can already point to but a short vid going through

1612453970916.png

Maybe we also add the to earth coast also and have 11 steps of apollo 11, as launch is automatic no need to cover it other than switching view to enjoy it from the outside and in.

Gotchas - dont update NASSP when in middle of flight, the sound is broken at the moment, the optical stuff can just be left if you dont want to do it
FAQ - collect the huge value of answered questions (in the forum) into a single faq , call it the NaQ, there's a good one! This will also save the experts a lot of time answering the same basic questions, that i've asked, over and over again and the keybaord mapping etc. Would also have links to the above 10 steps to the moon and the essentials list.

This way, we cover 10 stages of the flight, each with a short 3 WHY, WHAT and HOW with links to the deeper reading people will have to do. There's a lot out there and some of it is really good, short and sharp (indy's stuff, i can see what he's doing without also hearing about what diseases he may have or what he had for lunch). People can watch these a few times and then go and re-enact it

Lastly, small bits of insight would be great to get into the pre-saved scenarions text on the right of the orbiter scenario screen . SHowing people what's coming next, what pads they will need and the high level (a few paras) running order and any references a little goes a long way.

As Lupus points out, these need to be highly visual . I would add to that, they all need the same structure (Why what and how).

In summary, people then get some background about how the stuff works, you take them on the 10 steps to the moon and have the gotchas and NaQ to go to when they have an issue. A lot of this material is around but, refining highly visual aids, to just the facts, shouldn't need too much work. I mean, you need to have a dream, dont you :)
 
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Urwumpe

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Could you maybe also explain some of the basic navigation tasks there? How to use telescope and sextant is one of the most arcane tasks in NASSP and it could fit into your timebox of 10 minutes.

Also, interacting with the MCC could be alone a number of videos then.
 

MrFickles

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Could you maybe also explain some of the basic navigation tasks there? How to use telescope and sextant is one of the most arcane tasks in NASSP and it could fit into your timebox of 10 minutes.

Also, interacting with the MCC could be alone a number of videos then.
Honestly, I think navigation with the telescope and sextant (as in P22/P23) isn't really essential to successfully complete a mission since you'd always be able to get a fresh SV from RTCC or PAMFD. Alignment of the IMU with P51/P52 should be more important.
 

sw34669

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Could you maybe also explain some of the basic navigation tasks there? How to use telescope and sextant is one of the most arcane tasks in NASSP and it could fit into your timebox of 10 minutes.

Also, interacting with the MCC could be alone a number of videos then.

I think you make a good point here. I mean, we all love 4,800 page manuals (EU Regulations on the sale of cabbages), but what would be great is a brief summary of the area so we've at least got some sort of taxonomy, for each of the areas that act like a digestive for eating through the detail.

Here are the types of navigation prog ..... pointers to how you do each and if you need to . As a glutton for punishment I always like to, at least until the strobing effect makes me ill. I passed my higher maths using log tables !

Someone (may have been yourself) suggested on another thread "An IDIOTS guide to NASSP" . This is exactly the type of thing with links off to the actual gems like this document. https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/nasa58040.pdf
It comes in at less that 40 pages and covers the descent and ascent from the moon. After reading it last night a lot of my trunionated gimbals fell into place and, at long last i have that ambidextrous rescue radar working. Luckilly I havnt had to use it in anger, either way up.

Nav wise, I think the key insight is you can drop the ground target and the star/horizon stuff but the P52/57 have to be done. I have run into problems with the TOD @ PDI being 1500 feet too high due to this.

It's a sim so detailed more people really should get a blast out of it.

Right i'm off to start homeward journey after a few days on the moon. Dumb question but how do you leave the ship to explore or do we need to wait for Dans UCCGCGCO update ?
 

sw34669

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Honestly, I think navigation with the telescope and sextant (as in P22/P23) isn't really essential to successfully complete a mission since you'd always be able to get a fresh SV from RTCC or PAMFD. Alignment of the IMU with P51/P52 should be more important.
and P57 due to the gravity plus star alignment.
P22, after a very long evening caused me to ragequit and start drinking
Tricky aside though, what excellent simulations of the actual thing
If you listen in to MCC recordings of many of the missions you can hear them all bitching about doing this stuff and trying to fit the lenses back into a box that's shrunk slightly
 

n72.75

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Good info folks. Thank you for all the feedback. I've got a few long-running projects that need to be finished and then I will probably start on something.

It's been 10 or so years since I made that purple badge up there count for something.
 

sw34669

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splendid, but, you're not alone, im sure a number of us can pitch in to make, punchy, short docs or vids. I mean, it's not rocket science, oh hang on, it is :)
Getting the scenario files and checklists polished will help a lot for the new user; indy is of course on that for A10 and 11.

question, the LM, in translation mode, the num keypad is

7 -X -Y
4 5 +Y
+Z +X -Z

I notice when trying to translate -Y, the front left forward thruster does not fire, i get the rear 2 for +Y, has it failed, where can I buy a new one or what stupid thing have I dont wrong. All the others seem to fire ok. Apol in advance for thread-creep ...
 
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