Project XR2 Ravenstar - Mk II

[Woo482]

can you make the xr2 controllable with out the pilot ? (in the current version) and if you can what is the name of it in the config

 

[dbeachy1]

I noticed one thing: When I switch to external view, the ravenstar seems to gain some random translational speed (very low, but easily enough to mess up your final docking aproach). However, I wouldn't expect such a thourough Beta-team as was this one to miss such an obvious bug, so I guess the problem lies somewhere with my configuration... :dry:

I don't follow you here -- that is not making any sense. The Orbiter core handles all the physics, and I can assure you that merely switching camera views does not impart any velocity changes to the ship. If you can reproduce that in a clean install and post a scenario along with detailed steps on how to reproduce the problem and what exactly you are seeing that makes you think that switching camera views imparts a velocity to the ship, I can take a look here.

can you make the xr2 controllable with out the pilot ? (in the current version) and if you can what is the name of it in the config

I don't understand the question -- by default the XR2 is already controllable without the a pilot on board. If you want to change that (i.e., to require the pilot or co-pilot to be on board in order to control the ship), set 'RequirePilotForShipControl=1':

#--------------------------------------------------------------------------
# If enabled, either the Commander or Pilot must be 
# on board in order to control the ship; otherwise, the ship's controls will 
# be disabled until either the Commander or Pilot reenter the ship.  The
# Commander and Pilot are determined by the crew member's rank as defined 
# in the PASSENGER sections.
#
# 0 = Any crew member on board can pilot the ship.
# 1 = Only the Commander or Pilot can pilot the ship.
#
# The default is 0, meaning that any crew member on board can pilot the ship.
#--------------------------------------------------------------------------
RequirePilotForShipControl=0

 

[Woo482]

ok I just wanted to know if I could control it with out the pilot on board

 

[Ursus]

Looks too me as if a couple posters were talking about controlling the ship while *nobody* is on board, as if the vessel were being operated by remote control-- in other words, maybe there should be an option totally disable the code that prevents the vessel from being controlled while no-one is aboard.

I myself wouldn't mind seeing such an option, at least for controlling the airlocks (and hence the APU, since XR crew all seem to be too weak from spending much time in microgravity to manually open and close the airlock), so a person could empty out the vessel while docked then close the lock before undocking the vessel in order to use a remote manipulator or tug to stow the vessel away elsewhere.

-- But that sounds an awful lot like a feature request, and...

BTW, nice ship, guys.

 

[jedidia]

what exactly you are seeing that makes you think that switching camera views imparts a velocity to the ship, I can take a look here.

Well, there where two occasions: first one was when I tried some EVA because I had to wait for the ISS to come by, I threw my guy out of the airlock and switched to external view, when he started to drift away rather fast. First I thought that the UMMU was moving, so I matched speed again and threw a turbopack after him, that's when I noticed that it's the ravenstar that is drifting of, because the turbopack was relatively motionless to me, and the ship was trailing of once more.

I got confirmation when I switched to external camera while aproaching the ISS on the last ten meters. I had a perfectly good aproach, switched camera, there she goes of again.

But, this is anything but a clean install, and it's not the only problem I encountered (the XR2 vanished in external view after activating Attitude hold... huh?), So I'm quite sure that these problems are mine. I currently don't have the time (going of for a week tomorrow... AGAIN!) to check a clean install, but I am pretty convinced that they'd vanish...

 

[dbeachy1]

Looks too me as if a couple posters were talking about controlling the ship while *nobody* is on board, as if the vessel were being operated by remote control-- in other words, maybe there should be an option totally disable the code that prevents the vessel from being controlled while no-one is aboard.

Actually, the ship already prevents ship control if nobody is on board, regardless of the 'RequirePilotForShipControl' setting in the config file. There is no "remote control" for the XR2.

 

[SlyCoopersButt]

Oh, I really really misread what you said then, My mistake.

 

[Coolhand]

Some more development of the new landing gear, way more detailed and realistic than the ones included with V1.

i've also attached a vid of the main gear animation - modelling is still in 'alpha' stage at the moment for most parts, or has even changed since i rendered the video, but the motion is still the same.

Note that the image shows the gear in its extended state, the gear will compress in the sim so the craft will sit lower on the runway than this.

btw, there's a donation link on dougsorbiterpage now, in the xr2 downloads so if you've enjoyed the Ravenstar so far, want to buy doug and myself a beer and support continued development then all donations are appreciated. http://www.dougsorbiterpage.com/index-3.html

 

[willy88]

Woah, that looks neat! Hope the poly count isn't too high, though.

 

[Coolhand]

And what is 'too high' eh? Everything i produce is hand optimised to be as lean as possible... I doubt you'll see any significant framerate hit. if you're having problems running it so far (i've had no complaints) then run reduced size textures, that'll have much bigger impact than shedding a few thousand triangles. If there was demand for a reduced size texture pack (all textures @1/4 the original size so a 2048x2048 becomes 1024x1024 and so on) then i could put one up for download.

 

[willy88]

If it does cause a framerate hit, then maybe Doug could make the landing gear mesh disappear when it's retracted.

 

[James.Denholm]

I've noticed something interesting with the XR2RavenstarPrefs.cfg file (note that I'm downloading the rars, and this is in the first one, downloaded on the 12th):

You've defined a total of 14 UMMU passengers in that file. Dosen't the XR2 only have room for 5?

On another note, I see that the three manuals have been consolidated into a single manual. :speakcool:

 

[willy88]

You've defined a total of 14 UMMU passengers in that file. Dosen't the XR2 only have room for 5?

Count the seats.

 

[James.Denholm]

Oh. :speakcool:

Next time I'll finish downloading a ship before posting stuff.

 

[Coolhand]

If it does cause a framerate hit, then maybe Doug could make the landing gear mesh disappear when it's retracted.

well... lets put it this way, 1 set of new main gear is 1,500 triangles. just 1 of the crew meshes the other hand is over 5,000... so it's such a small increase in triangle count overall that i don't see how it's going to be an issue.

 

[willy88]

well... lets put it this way, 1 set of new main gear is 1,500 triangles. just 1 of the crew meshes the other hand is over 5,000... so it's such a small increase in triangle count overall that i don't see how it's going to be an issue.

Ah, I see. That's not very much.

 

[James.Denholm]

Ah! A chance to redeem myself from my stupidity, visible earlier! *Eureka moment*

Now I know where I got the 5-passenger idea from! The line in the config:

# Define the default name, age, pulse, mass, rank, and mesh of all five crew members.

Shouldn't that be:

# Define the default name, age, pulse, mass, rank, and mesh of all fourteen crew members.

Does this make up for the brain-stall earlier?

 

[Coolhand]

new main gear complete and textured...

 

[Zatnikitelman]

Damn it CH, some of us are at school LOL!
Nice work! Can't wait to try out the new landing gear.

 

[Dman1410]

How do you change the skin of the XR2 in a sceniro