Vessel ISV Venture Star and Valkyrie shuttle from "Avatar"

cosmonaut2040

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Still, I think the mesh is backwards. The front is on the right hand side.

Actually, the ship is supposed to fly with the sail/shield in front (left-hand side in your picture) during it's interstellar journey - the sail structure acts as a debris shield, and it is also the main means of propulsion during escape from, and return to, the Solar system (propelled by an array of lasers located in solar orbit).

Source: https://james-camerons-avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Interstellar_Vehicle_Venture_Star

Edit: sorry, just as I wrote this I realised that the shield is not the same as the sail (which is supposedly packaged inside the cylinder between the engine radiators). So the direction of the main thrust is the same for the engines and the sail, you were right.
 
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gattispilot

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Sounds like all is good. The docking ports may need adjusting. I will try to adjust to the Valkyrie. I suppose the sail mesh group could be scaled by animation. We know it is 16 kilometers in diameter and stored in the cargo area when not in use,

"The largest component of the ship is not located on the primary structure. It is the “sail,” which receives the beam of photons and extracts the momentum to accelerate or decelerate the ship. It is a shallow bowl 16 kilometers in diameter and stabilized by rotation. The material of the sail is incredibly thin, being only a few dozen molecules thick in most places. Its basic structure is a fabric woven from carbon nanotube thread, and coated with a refractory ceramic that fills in the interstices.[3] The working side of the sail is further coated with a vacuum-deposited multilayer diachronic reflector, which is 99.99999% efficient. What little heating of the sail that occurs is dissipated by radiation from its back side. Carbon nanotube cables connect it to the main body of the ship, and these cables also have a diachronic coating which reflects 99.99999% of the beam energy that strikes them, and prevents the cables from instantly vaporizing. When not in use, the sail is folded along molecular hinge lines, and occupies a surprisingly small volume. It is stored in the cargo area when not in use, along with the spools of connecting cables. Rigging and removal of the sail is done autonomously by the service bots, but can be done manually in an emergency by awakening the other two crew teams"
 

francisdrake

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Took the Venture Star for a run around Neptune. Modified the config-file to show a long exhaust, as it has an exhaust velocity of 0.3 c. This shows, why the end mirrors have a smaller side, to allow the exhaust pass by.
(Also adjusted ship mass, thrust, ISP, etc.)

Thanks for this good looking ship! (y)
 

gattispilot

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Can you post your cfg

Redid the dock [DOCK_0] ;top POS=(0,20.117,-308.2) DIR=(0,1,0) ROT=(0,0,1) [DOCK_1] ;bottom dock POS=(0,-20.117,-308.2) DIR=(0,-1,0) ROT=(0,0,1)
 

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francisdrake

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Here is the 'e' Version of the Venturestar, with the modified cfg-file. Masses derived from tank size. ISP values from anti-matter drives on the Atomic Rockets page. Thrust is scaled to provide 1.5 g acceleration with half-full tanks. Removed all cross-section and cw values. Docking ports as proposed by gattispilot.

This is for Orbiter 2016 with spacecraft4, so the links in the scenario file point to
ISVVENTURESTAR:Spacecraft\Spacecraft

In the Neptune scenario a DeltaGlider is waiting in orbit as a rendezvous target. :)
 

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francisdrake

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By adding a white specular and relfection map to the 'Metal_panel' texture, I was able to create a reflection of the the planet in the rear mirror. But the heck, the ship itself is not showing up. The reflection mode is set to 'full scene' in the Video - Advanced tab. Would anybody know how to get this working? I think it would add to the cinematic effect of the ship.
 

Luke Reichelt

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By adding a white specular and relfection map to the 'Metal_panel' texture, I was able to create a reflection of the the planet in the rear mirror. But the heck, the ship itself is not showing up. The reflection mode is set to 'full scene' in the Video - Advanced tab. Would anybody know how to get this working? I think it would add to the cinematic effect of the ship.
Personally, I feel that's largely unnecessary since my computer doesn't have D3D9, however it probably would still be a good idea to include optional reflective textures for those that do.

On a unrelated and more humorous note, part of what inspired me to embark on this project was a joke I made about what would happen if someone decided to re-edit Avatar into a slasher film under the title of Abattoir, with Col. Quaritch as a serial killer in the vein of Jason Voorhees (to the point of wearing the exact same mask).
 
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francisdrake

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... what would happen if someone decided to re-edit Avatar into a slasher film ...
You would have my approval! While Avatar provides visually stunning pictures and a cynic Sigourney Weaver, the story of "Pokahontas in blue" makes it somewhat boring. A little slashing, blood and gore would definitely help. ;)
 

Luke Reichelt

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You would have my approval! While Avatar provides visually stunning pictures and a cynic Sigourney Weaver, the story of "Pokahontas in blue" makes it somewhat boring. A little slashing, blood and gore would definitely help. ;)
And that's not even getting into the Abattoir sequels! (Eight of them, to be precise.) To attempt to summarize the whole thing:

It turns out Col. Quaritch wasn't actually dead, merely comatose, and so he embarks on a demented quest for revenge. He continues to terrorize the area for the next two years (in-universe) before finally fleeing from Pandora in a stolen Valkyrie shuttle at the end of the fourth film, placing himself in suspended animation for the 32-year journey back to Earth. In the meantime, a copycat killer, specifically a member of the Colonel's squad who went insane following the apparent death of his commanding officer, attacks another ISV in orbit above Polyphemus, ultimately resulting in the destruction of said vessel and the loss of everyone onboard.

In the year 2187, with less than a year remaining in Quaritch's journey back to Earth, the stolen Valkyrie shuttle is intercepted by the crew of the ISV Hermes, a vessel en route to the Barnard's Star system, where a large concentration of unobtanium has been found on an uninhabited super-Earth-type world. Upon doing so, they unknowingly release him from suspended animation. Once revived, Quaritch embarks on another killing spree, and despite all efforts to stop him, he manages to escape as the Hermes self-destructs. However, because of the communications barrier caused by the vast distances involved plus the Colonel disabling the vessel's communications systems, no one on Earth is able to figure any of this out. Six months later, the crew of an RDA research station orbiting Io intercept Quaritch's Valkyrie shuttle, with similar results, leaving only a single survivor.

A further six months later, Quaritch finally makes it to Earth, with the Valkyrie shuttle landing just outside of New York City. By this point, the Colonel has gone completely mad, targeting anyone he considers even tangentially responsible for what happened to him on Pandora. He kills about a dozen people in New York before making a run for it and hopping onboard a freight train. Immediately afterwards, Quaritch jumps off the train and seeks refuge in an abandoned slaughterhouse somewhere off the American east coast, where he carries out one final massacre before the U.S. government, who have been attempting to track him down since the incident above Io, closes in on him and destroys him once and for all in an airstrike.

(Much of what I described was inspired by how the Friday the 13th series progressed, in case you were wondering. Indeed, if such a series really did exist, it would've been set in an alternate continuity from the "official" James Cameron films.)
 
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jedidia

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I at least assume it doesn't. To be fair, I'm not really an expert in that kind of thing.
It would essentially have to be a card produced during the Win95/2000 era. WinXP already standardised Dx9, and pretty much any graphics cards coming out at that time were Dx9-capable. There were still onboard cards without accelerators, but those couldn't do Dx7 either. Frankly, I doubt you'd find Win10 compatible drivers for such an old card, but then I don't know what OS you're running. If you can play any games that came out for WinXP, your card is almost certainly Dx9-capable.
 

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I updated the zip-file "ISV_Venturestar10e" further up on this page. Added 2 textures, Metal_Panel_refl.dds and Metal_Panel_spec.dds. They provide reflection in the d3d9 client, when this is activated in the Video-Advanced tab.

Side effects: When in deep space, only black space is reflected, so the mirrors become nearly invisible dark. If you don't like this, just delete the 2 textures mentioned above.

When in orbit, only Earth is reflected, Neptune is not. Don't ask me why ... :sick:
 

francisdrake

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The ISV Venture Star braking braking into orbit around Polyphemus in the Alpha Centauri A System. She is flying low to save fuel, utilizing the Oberth effect. I installed the Alpha Centauri A System V2 by xssa, to show the Venture Star in her natural environment :). I am not sure if this the best or most recent version of the Alpha Centauri system, I am open to suggestions.

A question to Luke:
Do you intend to continue this addon, e.g by adding the Valkyrie shuttle into the package, and by adding maybe some Alpha Centauri scenarios?
 

Luke Reichelt

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The ISV Venture Star braking braking into orbit around Polyphemus in the Alpha Centauri A System. She is flying low to save fuel, utilizing the Oberth effect. I installed the Alpha Centauri A System V2 by xssa, to show the Venture Star in her natural environment :). I am not sure if this the best or most recent version of the Alpha Centauri system, I am open to suggestions.

A question to Luke:
Do you intend to continue this addon, e.g by adding the Valkyrie shuttle into the package, and by adding maybe some Alpha Centauri scenarios?
Personally, I recommend using flexer's Avatar system add-on, as that's what I use. And yes, I have created some scenarios set in said system, though for some reason I seem to be having a bit of trouble establishing a stable orbit over Polyphemus.

By the way, what did you think about my ideas for the Abattoir sequels?
 
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francisdrake

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I will try flexer's Alpha Centauri addon.

On your Abattoir sequels:
You have already drafted the story board. What would you think about publishing this online as a series of short stories?
You could invite the readers to constructive critics, give a different view on details or propose the next chapter's content.

If you think about writing, I can really recommend Pixar’s Rules Of Storytelling. ;)
These describe the difference between simply telling a story, and telling a story so the audience is eager to read more.
 

Luke Reichelt

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I will try flexer's Alpha Centauri addon.

On your Abattoir sequels:
You have already drafted the story board. What would you think about publishing this online as a series of short stories?
You could invite the readers to constructive critics, give a different view on details or propose the next chapter's content.

If you think about writing, I can really recommend Pixar’s Rules Of Storytelling. ;)
These describe the difference between simply telling a story, and telling a story so the audience is eager to read more.
I'd normally be happy to do that, but I'm currently backlogged with writing projects, including at least two film/television pitches as well as my novella The Plutonian Chronicles, the latter inspired by several other Orbiter add-on developers' works. (Incidentally, one of my other Orbiter projects involves creating spacecraft3 versions of three of said add-ons so they can function in Orbiter 2010, though the originals will still be required for meshes.)

Of course, that whole business about Abattoir and its sequels was intended primarily as a joke/thought experiment, and thus should probably be treated as such.
 

francisdrake

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The Venture Star in the Avatar System over Polyphemus, thrusting to sync orbits with the lush green moon Pandora visible in the distance.

The Avatar system by flexer is good looking, but hard to navigate. The orbit around Polyphemus drifts a lot, makes it challenging to reach a stable orbit around Pandora.
 

Luke Reichelt

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The Venture Star in the Avatar System over Polyphemus, thrusting to sync orbits with the lush green moon Pandora visible in the distance.

The Avatar system by flexer is good looking, but hard to navigate. The orbit around Polyphemus drifts a lot, makes it challenging to reach a stable orbit around Pandora.
Can you provide me with a scenario file featuring the Venture Star in a stable orbit around Polyphemus?
 

francisdrake

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Can you provide me with a scenario file featuring the Venture Star in a stable orbit around Polyphemus?
Sorry, no. I tried, but due to the complex gravity in this system, the orbit around Polyphemus is always drifting.
I updated the zip-file (further up on this page) with a scenario called "ISV Venturestar Avatar Encounter.scn", with the ship approaching Polyphemus, ready for the breaking burn to orbit insertion.
But still this orbit will not be stable, and approaching Pandora is quite difficult.
 
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