Hi guys. Thanks for the generous feedback!
Sorry for the delay in updates, I lost my internet connection for a couple of days, but I think the addon would be ready in a few hours--I'm currently testing the zipfile for errors/missing files. In the meantime, here's the documentation for the addon:
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BRIGHTON BEACH 2011 v1.0
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Orbiter Space Flight Simulator add-on
by Rodion M. Herrera
Hi Orbiter fans! This addon is a visual enhancement/upgrade for the Brighton Beach Lunar Base on the moon. Most of the existing meshes of the old Brighton Base have been replaced with high polycount meshes and higher resolution textures. However, the general layout of Brighton Base remains unchanged, to preserve familiarity and orientation with the base.
LIST OF FEATURES:
1. Redesigned central hub building
2. Central hub building animation (requires spacecraft3.dll)
3. Redesigned landing pads with additional detailing
4. Additional Large Landing Pad for Arrow-class spacecraft
5. Landing Pad 4 has experimental clamshell-type cover, to pressurize entire pad a-la "drydock" (requires spacecraft3.dll to operate)
6. Replaced monorail textures
7. static solar array to the north
8. "Brighton Beach: Full House" scenario (requires spacecraft3.dll, UCGO/UMmu, XR2 Ravenstar and XR5 Vanguard addons)
WARNING: As I've stated previously, this addon contains high poly meshes and high resolution textures. Your computer must be equipped with a fast processor and graphics card--I tested this addon on a Core2Duo with an nVidia GeForce 8800GT video card, and framerates are practically unaffected, so if your machine is much slower, you might encounter degraded performance.
INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:
NOTE: You must have the following addons installed before you install this addon:
PREREQUISITES:
a) Spacecraft3 by Vinka
b) Brightontiles2.zip (find at OrbitHangar, I highly recommend this to enhance the surrounding terrain better)
c) Different Brighton Beach Update.zip (find at OrbitHangar, I highly recommend this to enhance the surrounding terrain better)
Optional (all these are needed to run the "Brighton Full House" scenario):
a) UCGO20_100114 by Dansteph
b) XR2 Ravenstar by Doug Beachy / Altea Aerospace
c) XR5 Vanguard by Doug Beachy / Altea Aerospace
IMPORTANT STEPS:
1. Back up your Brighton.cfg file, located in your \Config\Moon\Base folder (this will be overwritten)
2. Back up your Base.cfg file, located in your \Config folder (this will be overwritten)
3. Once everything above is installed, unzip the brightonbeach2011.zip into your Orbiter folder/directory. The directory structure has been preserved so all you need to do is unzip into your Orbiter working folder. If you are prompted to overwrite files, say "YES/OK"
4. If you want to see/try the animated features of the new base, add the following lines to ANY *.scn file that starts off at Brighton Base, after the "BEGIN_SHIPS" header:
cover:Spacecraft\Spacecraft3
STATUS Landed Moon
POS -33.4377000 41.1315370
HEADING 0.00
AFCMODE 7
NAVFREQ 0 0
RCS 1
CTRL_SURFACE 1
CONFIGURATION 1
CURRENT_PAYLOAD 0
SEQ 0 -2 0.000006
END
disc3:Spacecraft\Spacecraft3
STATUS Landed Moon
POS -33.4375400 41.1250170
HEADING 59.86
AFCMODE 7
NAVFREQ 0 0
RCS 1
CTRL_SURFACE 1
CONFIGURATION 1
CURRENT_PAYLOAD 0
SEQ 0 1 0.940083
SEQ 1 -1 0.000821
SEQ 2 -1 0.617022
END
If you don't do the above procedure, certain base features will not appear on your chosen scenario.
5. You can also try the "Brighton Full House" scenario in the "New Brighton Beach" folder, PROVIDED you have installed UCGO, XR2, and XR5 addons. This scenario has the Arrow Freighter, XR2 Ravenstar, XR5 Vanguard, and a DG-1, all on approach and about to land on Brighton! Don't panic...approach rates are slow and all ships except the DG-1 are on auto-hover/maintain altitude mode. (TIP: The Arrow's Beacon is active on the new large pad, hint, hint). Another problem is that the XR5's landing gear is damaged--so the challenge is to belly-land the Vanguard on Pad 4 (with clamshell cover), so that the repair crews can work in an airtight hangar to fix the Vanguard's landing gear. The Vanguard is a BIG ship but it can fit neatly in the pad, you just have to fly it well into a good belly landing!
6. Landing Pad 4 features a new airtight "clamshell cover", simulating a means to "drydock" a ship, and do maintainance work on it without having to wear a spacesuit and go on EVA. To operate the Clamshell Cover on Pad 4, switch focus (F3) to "cover" and activate by pressing "SHIFT-INS/0" (on keypad). You can then optionally designate the area as a "breathable area" via UMmu once the cover is closed.
FUTURE PLANS:
I intend to keep developing this addon as time permits. Among the planned improvements are more UCGO/UMmu integration, more "adventure/role-play style" scenarios like "Brighton Full House", even better and more optimized meshes and textures for the pads and other features, and more eyecandy!
I hope you enjoy using this new Brighton Beach as much as I enjoyed making it
Cheers to all!
-RODION
---------- Post added at 10:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:27 PM ----------
Some more images:
If you're wondering why my Kara looks different, well that's because she's indeed a bit different--I tweaked the head and body mesh, plus edited the head texture (turned her into a tanned, blue-eyed blonde) and came up with my own "Annika" sexynaut
Here she is, side by side with the Kara model:
If you want one, you might have to wait--I have to ask permission from Steve Tyler if it's possible to release (or package with Brighton) a tweaked version of his meshes/textures.
-RODION