OHM DarkEnergy Spaceplane

[Max-Q]

DarkEnergy Spaceplane - DarkEnergy is a realistic manned spacecraft with working systems




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[pushkin]

This is amazing. It's quickly becoming one of my favorite add-ons. The only thing I miss in a complex vessel like this is a nice 2D panel view to get a better overview of all the different systems. Do you have any plans for that?

 

[Max-Q]

This is amazing. It's quickly becoming one of my favorite add-ons. The only thing I miss in a complex vessel like this is a nice 2D panel view to get a better overview of all the different systems. Do you have any plans for that?

I’m glad you are enjoying it! I had fun making it and am excited to share it with the Orbiter community.
Unfortunately no 2D panel is planned. If it is helpful, there is a panel layout in section 5 of the manual.
If you need a closer look at anything on the 3D panel you can zoom in with the mouse wheel.

 

[Urwumpe]

Is there any way to provide panel lighting? Its terribly hard to see the switches while headsdown in the launch scenarios.

 

[WolfAngriff]

Hi. This is a very good addon. I've made the first mission, it was very immersive and everything works fine. As Urwumpe said, a panel lighting could be a good thing. Another thing could be useful : an alarm control panel. During reentry an alarm rang, and i took me some time to see i was at 10% RCS fuel. I used the crossfeed, and it stoped. And when the foil was deployed, another one rang loud, very... alarming. I've followed the procedure and everything was nominal, but i didn't find any way to shut down the alarm... But as i said, this is a very very good addon, just complex enough to be immersive, and just automated enough to not be too much difficult. The reentry autopilot is amazing. I think that this kind of addon is exactly what the Never-Happy-End-User i am could wait for. Oh, and the launcher is wonderful too. Thanx a lot for that !

 

[Urwumpe]

Also, I found a small bug by accident. If you press the deploy foil button before setting the respective pyro arm switch, the foil can deploy during launch (Because I did not see initially that the two panels are different)

 

[WolfAngriff]

Oh yes, it reminds me something else : when i changed the view (Ctl + arrows), the orbit MFD, and base sync MFD are reseted to their default parameters. Not a big problem when everything is nominal, but could be a problem in case of emergency. I've found a trick : i used F8, ajust PROJ, DIST, etc on Orbit MFD for example, in the MFD view, and then came back to the cockpit view. Then, i've been able to toggle views without any problem. And i have FPS drops in cockpit view, but as i've had the same problem with other addons (Deepstar...), so i think this could be caused by my config : CPU 3.7 Ghz, 8Gb RAM, GC Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 (pilot updated), graphic client R4.26 october 2021.

 

[drewski_505]

Great addon!

 

[Max-Q]

Is there any way to provide panel lighting? Its terribly hard to see the switches while headsdown in the launch scenarios.

As Urwumpe said, a panel lighting could be a good thing.

See the manual, page 61, item 24; Rotary selectors.

Another thing could be useful : an alarm control panel.

Good idea, I may look into that, or at least a clear description of all the things that will trigger an alarm. I admit, the release was a bit rushed, I was excited.

And when the foil was deployed, another one rang loud, very... alarming. I've followed the procedure and everything was nominal, but i didn't find any way to shut down the alarm...

That is because the G-load got too high. (>10 Gs)
Please make sure you are under 220 m/s and Mach 0.6 before deploying, and it will want to pitch up so be ready. It can be hard to control if you don’t fly with a joystick.

FYI, any alarm can be dismissed by pushing the lit master caution or warning light.

But as i said, this is a very very good addon, just complex enough to be immersive, and just automated enough to not be too much difficult. The reentry autopilot is amazing. I think that this kind of addon is exactly what the Never-Happy-End-User i am could wait for. Oh, and the launcher is wonderful too. Thanx a lot for that !

Then I think i achieved what I was aiming for with this one. Thanks for the kind words!

Also, I found a small bug by accident. If you press the deploy foil button before setting the respective pyro arm switch, the foil can deploy during launch (Because I did not see initially that the two panels are different)

Nice catch! I will try and replicate on my end and fix. FYI, I am away from my PC until early September, so no testing/bugfixing until then.

Oh yes, it reminds me something else : when i changed the view (Ctl + arrows), the orbit MFD, and base sync MFD are reseted to their default parameters. Not a big problem when everything is nominal, but could be a problem in case of emergency. I've found a trick : i used F8, ajust PROJ, DIST, etc on Orbit MFD for example, in the MFD view, and then came back to the cockpit view. Then, i've been able to toggle views without any problem.

I think this is an Orbiter limitation. I noticed that as well, but not sure if I can do anything about it.

And i have FPS drops in cockpit view, but as i've had the same problem with other addons (Deepstar...), so i think this could be caused by my config : CPU 3.7 Ghz, 8Gb RAM, GC Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 (pilot updated), graphic client R4.26 october 2021.

I have FPS drop as well. I think it has to do with the way I have VC viewpoint shaking implemented. I run a NVIDIA RTX2060 and Intel i9-9900K at 4.6 GHz, so I don’t think it is a hardware thing. I’ll see if I can make it better in the next version.

 

[WolfAngriff]

For the FPS drop, i'll check how it changes depending on the distance from earth.

I'll make the ISS mission this week, and will try to be closer to nominal for operations. I'll report about alarms. I have a joystick.

For the panel lighting, i guess Urwumpe speaks about retro-lighting ? That's what i meant. Not mandatory from my POV, just more comfortable and eye-candy. But it's true that all the switches and buttons are not easy to reach, or read. Maybe a central point of view with Ctrl + arrow between PLT and CMD could fix this "easily"... There's no way to make the POV move in translation, via mouse or keyboard, AFAIK.

Thank you for your answers and informations.

 

[Urwumpe]

See the manual, page 61, item 24; Rotary selectors.

Had set them to full before launch, as preferred. Doesn't work here:

 

[Urwumpe]

But it's true that all the switches and buttons are not easy to reach, or read. Maybe a central point of view with Ctrl + arrow between PLT and CMD could fix this "easily"... There's no way to make the POV move in translation, via mouse or keyboard, AFAIK.

Its easy with ALT + CTRL + Arrow.

 

[WolfAngriff]

Hmmm... Maybe...
Thanx !

 

[Max-Q]

Had set them to full before launch, as preferred. Doesn't work here:

View attachment 30104

Do you have local light sources enabled?

For the panel lighting, i guess Urwumpe speaks about retro-lighting ? That's what i meant.

You mean where the writing on the panel glows? That would be great but I don’t know how to implement. The stock DG does this so maybe I can look at that.

 

[Urwumpe]

Do you have local light sources enabled?

That was it: I had them enabled and configured in DirectX9 but disabled in Orbiter itself. Re-enabling the effect again fixed it.

 

[jedidia]

Absolutely loving my first steps with this, but also somewhat panicked. Power is up, they retracted the tower, and my roof is still open. I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to be like this... How do I close my roof?? Help, before those bozos try shooting me into space like this. I'm not a Kerbal!

 

[WolfAngriff]

You mean where the writing on the panel glows? That would be great but I don’t know how to implement. The stock DG does this so maybe I can look at that.

Yes, that's what i mean. As i said, the provided lighting does the job, but it could fit well with this kind of vessel, with all those needles and switches.

 

[jedidia]

Well, they did it. The absolute madlads shot me into space without a roof. The crewdidn't seem to mind, even when they took off their spacesuits. Meanwhile, everybody's scrambling around the cockpit looking for the illusive LV SEP button to get rid of the dead weight we're towing behind us.

Otherwise, this was quite a smooth and pleasant ride to orbit, I must say.

 

[Max-Q]

Absolutely loving my first steps with this, but also somewhat panicked. Power is up, they retracted the tower, and my roof is still open. I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to be like this... How do I close my roof?? Help, before those bozos try shooting me into space like this. I'm not a Kerbal!

Well, they did it. The absolute madlads shot me into space without a roof. The crewdidn't seem to mind, even when they took off their spacesuits. Meanwhile, everybody's scrambling around the cockpit looking for the illusive LV SEP button to get rid of the dead weight we're towing behind us.

Otherwise, this was quite a smooth and pleasant ride to orbit, I must say.

Either it is a hatch or a really big and clear window…
Crew access hatch can be open/closed with Shift+K. I should probably implement a feature to stop the count if the hatch is open!
There are two LV sep buttons, one each on the lower left and right corners of the main panel, grouped with the attitude mode buttons.

The crazy thing is, if you look at the cabin pressure gauge on the center console, it will always show 14.7 psi… And by the way, the crew will use no O2 during your open-cockpit mission, my ECLSS code assumes if the hatch is open breathable air is coming in from outside!

If you want the hatch closed, you can edit the scenario: set the “ACCESSHATCH“ parameter to 0.

 

[jedidia]

Either it is a hatch or a really big and clear window…

I did actually go back to the forum and look at the screenshots to check just that, but saw that it was supposed to have a solid roof on it...

If you want the hatch closed, you can edit the scenario: set the “ACCESSHATCH“ parameter to 0.

Nah, I'll just start from scratch again. Will help me get a bit more familiar with all them switches. Didn't expect to make it on the first go anyways.

There are two LV sep buttons, one each on the lower left and right corners of the main panel, grouped with the attitude mode buttons.

Oh... I just glanced at the buttons overall and thought "nah, that's just the autopilots buttons, that doesn't fit in there, must be somewhere else...". All of which was only a semi-concious process, obviously, the kind where your brain half-aware discards a possibility because it just doesn't penetrate your topmost filters due to some unconcious predicate failing. That kind of of premature optimisation by my brain is why I always suck at searching things and am always only half aware of my surroundings...

A couple of things I noticed apart from crew genetically engineered for vacuum resistance:
In the camera view hovering on top of the central switches panel looking down (ctrl-alt-up I think) the camera seems to strive towards a certain point and then can't be rotated anymore. I'm suspecting a gimbal lock.
My RCS propellant gauge is showing empty all the time for some reason. Note that this may be because RCS propellant is actually empty, I haven't gotten to try maneuvering due to not finding the seperation button yet. But if so, I'm not quite sure how to change that. I rechecked all my switches after power-up and they seem to be correct? Well, except for the roof...