Idea Compiling a multimodular vessel into a single object

[PeterRoss]

I'm far from all that programming and modelling stuff, so don't hit me if i'm talking some nonsense here, but what do you think about some universal 'compilation' program that will be able to build a single object from docked/attached vessels? I mean not only building single mesh from all the single meshes docked together, but also inheriting all other properties of initial objects by a single resulting object.

In general, I'm talking about program that would hopefully make a single object of a multimodular space station. I guess it would be impossible to 'compile' animated spacecraft3-powered modules, and there will be some difficulties with free docking/attachment points.

So what do you think, guys?


Sorry if this were discussed earlier, I'm not sure how to search for such thing.

 

[Notebook]

Maybe you could persuade Artlav to add this to his Shipyard project....

http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=10383


N.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

That would be pretty cool. Then we could use the OFSS as a staging point for further missions to the moon.

I did find this thread though...
http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=9653

And this...
http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=1391&highlight=modular

 

[n72.75]

What about: [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3819"]Vessel Stack[/ame]

Would that do what you want?

 

[PeterRoss]

So it's and old theme. It's good I'm not the only one who came up with this idea, still it's pity no one have accomplished such programs yet.

What about: Vessel Stack

Would that do what you want?

No, it's not. I think rather of single space station that is not occupy few pages of ScenarioEditor.

 

[EtherDragon]

Again mr. generic answering here... But I could have sworn that someone was doing something like this...

The idea is elegantly simple really:

There is a Command module that starts off with a specific mesh, and has some docking/attachment ports.

As soon as another object is docked/attached the Command Module consumes all the data about the docking object: Mass, Fuel, Engines, Mesh, Other Docking/Attach Ports etc... and removes the docking object from Orbiter. (I call this process Glomming) The docking object's mesh is added to the Command Module along with all the other relevant data.

As more objects glom on, the command module represents (as a single in game craft) all the information about the glommed objects.

Ideally upon scenario save, the Command Module Glomeration sarializes all of it's parts, so it can be loaded back exactly the same way.

Modules can be released (un-glommed) FILO.

 

[escapetomsfate]

I tried to make something like this a few months ago:
http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=9653

The idea I had for it is, you could take any vessels, merge them together and then fly them like one big ship. This would let users build craft in orbit and then fly interplanetary missions, etc.

It is possible, but only up to a certain point. The API doesn't give enough information about certain things (mesh offsets, animations). It can only really work if you have the code for the vessels to be merged, and know exactly how they will dock - so making a completely generic module is pretty much impossible.
Saying that, if a system with config files (like SC3) were used, that might work out better.

And of course, the real problem is bugs. Plugins like this are full of them. I can't see something like this ever being completely stable.

 

[PeterRoss]

And what about completely external program that will process .scn file independently from Orbiter engine?