Request Fighter Mode Autopilot

[Cainthekiller]

Hi ! So, something's been bugging me out. I haven't been able to find an add-on that would make you fly a spaceship the way you would in a game. I can hear the voices yelling "Why would you want to ?! Orbiter's a complex simulator intended to be as realistic as possible !"

Point taken. BUT. There are some pretty realistic space games out there that are bind to newtonian physics. I can think of one from the top of my head : Independence War 2 : Edge of Chaos. That was some serious simulation and it was, on top of that, very fun to play.

So, would anyone want to do like to make an autopilot that would help you fly when in the vacuum of space ? Altitude-keeping when on the moon, hover and retro engines to maintain an atmospheric-like maneuverability when in open space... Maybe a mode where the throttle setting indicates whether or not you are moving (with a top speed maybe) instead of whether or not the engine is running, keeping in to account the fact that it would take some time to stop with the retro engines. The same would be cool for the rotation mode of rcs (if the joystick is in a neutral position, the spaceship is not turning). All of this with the possibility to momentarily turn it of to coast. I think it would be awesome. What do you think about it ? Does anyone have the knowledge of orbiter to do it ? Let someone help us fly and kick ass Battlestar-Galactica style !

Greetings, Cainthekiller.

 

[Urwumpe]

So, would anyone want to do like to make an autopilot that would help you fly when in the vacuum of space ? Altitude-keeping when on the moon, hover and retro engines to maintain an atmospheric-like maneuverability when in open space...

And that you call a help? That is not only a waste of precious fuel, but also stealing you many options in space combat.

I currently program a (simple) spacefighter here, I can't tell I would miss any of your features in it, I see different problems that need solutions. You see the things with the eyes of a casual gamer, who is easily betrayed by pseudo-realism (making a lot of fuzz around a simplified physics engine to at least pretend real activity), not with somebody who really would fly a space fighter and train for it.

Why waste fuel on flying like in the air? Be happy that this dense soup called air is gone. you don't even need prograde or retrograde, you just need a few direction vectors to point at: LOS to the target, direction to intercept target, direction to match speed with target (or automatic speed matching), and the inverse directions (since you often can also fire retrograde)

Maybe a few more that I did not yet realize.

 

[Topper]

I remember there was an add on called "Star Wars Physics MFD" or so, but it was some years ago i think it was a MFD but i'm not sure.
[Edit]

[ame="http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=869"]JELAIR's GravityMotionStabilizer model-JEL/SW1[/ame]

, but i don't know if it's working in Orbiter 2010

 

[Carmen A]

I think some of us forumers tried that out and didn't work, requires updating to 2010.

May not be realistic but it's a "fun" concept. Useful for Star Trek non-Newtonian maneuvers.