Discussion Modeling Boats, Ships, and Other Watercraft in Orbiter? Experiments with Hydrostatics and the Touchdown Model

[Thunder Chicken]

Check out this wind heel:



I get some strange behavior of the rudder - it seems to reverse direction sometimes when under sail, and I don't see a reason why. The vessel isn't being pushed backwards, so I don't know what is causing that.

Lua stopped hiding my wind tell on scenario start, which is nice.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

OK, the skiff is out as an add-on:

Lua Script Sailing Skiff

Dec 12, 2024

Lua Testbed for Buoyancy, Sails, Engines, and Propellers

• Thunder Chicken
• Orbiter Addon

 

[N_Molson]

Mostly needs texturing now :

 

[MaxBuzz]

I did all this in the "Station Mir" add-on (or rather ISS)

Project Post in thread 'Mir station complex / UR-500 family'

Jan 19, 2023

ship "north pole" and MI-8

• MaxBuzz

• 

It will also be useful for those who don't have enough snow for the New Year

 

[N_Molson]

Rubber mats on the decks and anchors on top of the fore cabin :

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Rubber mats on the decks and anchors on top of the fore cabin :

View attachment 41522

That looks amazing. I've got a script ready with the -44 engine and vessel specs. Just using my skiff as a placeholder mesh. She rides really low in the water with the weight of the 44:

 

[N_Molson]

I can model some VC instruments, like a speedometer, tachometers, a fuel gauge, a radar scope, a MFD (MapMFD is a GPS)... What do you think ? Maybe a wind direction indicator ? The document you linked above should even give me the real layout of these instruments.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

I can model some VC instruments, like a speedometer, tachometers, a fuel gauge, a radar scope, a MFD (MapMFD is a GPS)... What do you think ? Maybe a wind direction indicator ? The document you linked above should even give me the real layout of these instruments.

Whatever you think would look good would be great. If you could just provide the locations and axes of the dials for the animations, I could animate them pretty easily.

 

[Urwumpe]

I can model some VC instruments, like a speedometer, tachometers, a fuel gauge, a radar scope, a MFD (MapMFD is a GPS)... What do you think ? Maybe a wind direction indicator ? The document you linked above should even give me the real layout of these instruments.

AFAIR, the fuel gauge is a dip stick for that one. Also, maybe a compass would be of higher priority.

 

[N_Molson]

AFAIR, the fuel gauge is a dip stick for that one. Also, maybe a compass would be of higher priority.

Of course, the compass. I had the feeling I was forgetting something. And probably a roll indicator. I now remember that on small sailboats the two are usually combined into one instrument.

 

[N_Molson]

Bingo :

USCG 44301

Explore this photo album by Clive Lawford on Flickr!

www.flickr.com

 

[Thunder Chicken]

AFAIR, the fuel gauge is a dip stick for that one.

Yep. A float type fuel sender wouldn't be very useful in a vessel that can pitch and roll like a 44 can.

Also, maybe a compass would be of higher priority.

Never thought about it, but I don't know if they have gyros for these, as that really would only be necessary for an autopilot, and I don't think these guys have them. Am I going to need to get a compass declination map?

 

[N_Molson]

I remember we had compass declination tables for our J-80 sailboat. We had to calibrate the compass each year placing small magnets to compensate for the declination.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

I remember we had compass declination tables for our J-80 sailboat. We had to calibrate the compass each year placing small magnets to compensate for the declination.

I know on the bigger binnacles they have Lord Kelvin's balls to adjust for the magnetism of the steel ship hulls, but I am pretty sure they didn't correct for declination as they were on transoceanic ships. I'll probably just set the compass to true heading unless someone really has an objection.

I've gone to sea a few times, but I'm not a sailor by any stretch, and I was mostly adjacent to the Morlocks in the engine room and not the Eloi up on deck. Keeping the ship on the blue parts of the chart was someone else's job.

 

[N_Molson]

Something like that should work :

 

[Urwumpe]

Doesn't seem to be far off, on most photograph, I can also see a hemispherical cover over the compass, with a small window to read the heading.

 

[N_Molson]

Yes. There's usually a transparent fluid that dampens oscillations and diffuses light evenly, which helps in rough weather and at night. Like a snowglobe, without the snow

 

[Linguofreak]

Keeping the ship on the blue parts of the chart was someone else's job.

Traditionally, that job doesn't even go to anyone on board, but to Wolfgang Pauli and James Clerk Maxwell. There are people aboard, though, whose job is to make sure that you don't actually make Pauli and Maxwell do much work, as they tend to knock dents into the hull when disturbed.

 

[N_Molson]

@Thunder Chicken : I'm curious about the series of 6 switches you can see below to the left of the helm. Never seen that type of switch. Are the grey parts switch covers, or the switches themselves ?

https://flic.kr/p/8digjB

 

[Urwumpe]

These COULD be switch covers, but I am not sure if the search light controls need them. The manual shows normal lever-type switches. The compass is a 5" Danforth Constellation compass.