Discussion Mission Control Mega-Thread

[Xyon]

Well now you see, the problem is... who gets to fly the Ravenstar?

All those people signing up for a mission who can do nothing but watch, in the best traditions of mission control, fair enough, but I'm not seeing a lot of fun in sitting around watching someone play Orbiter when I could be playing Orbiter myself...

It sounds like a cool idea in principle, I agree, but once you look into it a little we start to get problems. I think this has also actually been attempted once. Have a look at [ame=http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3436]this[/ame] - and do note that it's still a beta.

-Mod Note-
From now on, this is the thread for any discussion about mission control addons for Orbiter. Any posts or threads about mission control for Orbiter will be merged with this thread, except for those in the 'OrbitHangar Addons & Comments' forum which are associated directly with an addon on Orbit Hangar.​

Happy Orbiting

 

[deltawing777]

lol

Well now you see, the problem is... who gets to fly the Ravenstar?

All those people signing up for a mission who can do nothing but watch, in the best traditions of mission control, fair enough, but I'm not seeing a lot of fun in sitting around watching someone play Orbiter when I could be playing Orbiter myself...

It sounds like a cool idea in principle, I agree, but once you look into it a little we start to get problems. I think this has also actually been attempted once. Have a look at this - and do note that it's still a beta.

Yes I remember that addon. But yeah, by using the scenerio editor nobody will be bored. You can jump around in and out of ships/vessels ground vehicles, eva just whatever. Nobody will be bored. Have a mission,and see it through.Thats up to you and your buddies to decide who does what,when,how. Or have at least a air traffic control like AVSIM has for Flight Simulator X. Somthing that gets us together. All it could do is strengthen the orbiter community and make orbiter just that much more cooler then it already is.Heck just being able to have sombody in same cockpit or cargo van or Space station would be cool. Now I know about OMP (orbiter multiplayer project) havent tried it with orbiter 2010 but face is working on it im sure and with the addition of UCGO I feel orbiter is about to really take off. Could you imagine mutiplayer With UCGO and a Mission control with comms? WOW! thats just mind-blowing to me. Cant wait to see what the future holds for Orbiter. I have a feeling its going to be really exciting....

 

[Hielor]

Yes I remember that addon. But yeah, by using the scenerio editor nobody will be bored. You can jump around in and out of ships/vessels ground vehicles, eva just whatever. Nobody will be bored. Have a mission,and see it through.Thats up to you and your buddies to decide who does what,when,how. Or have at least a air traffic control like AVSIM has for Flight Simulator X. Somthing that gets us together. All it could do is strengthen the orbiter community and make orbiter just that much more cooler then it already is.Heck just being able to have sombody in same cockpit or cargo van or Space station would be cool. Now I know about OMP (orbiter multiplayer project) havent tried it with orbiter 2010 but face is working on it im sure and with the addition of UCGO I feel orbiter is about to really take off. Could you imagine mutiplayer With UCGO and a Mission control with comms? WOW! thats just mind-blowing to me. Cant wait to see what the future holds for Orbiter. I have a feeling its going to be really exciting....

So you're basically asking for multiplayer?

 

[Keatah]

Sure it's fun to play pilot, but when pilots are done flying, the become capcoms sometimes, don't they? Or perhaps you would like to guide and shape a mission. The guys on the ground are just as important as the guys up top. Need both to fly a mission!

And what about rover missions, there's only guys on the ground..

 

[Hielor]

Sure it's fun to play pilot, but when pilots are done flying, the become capcoms sometimes, don't they? Or perhaps you would like to guide and shape a mission. The guys on the ground are just as important as the guys up top. Need both to fly a mission!

And what about rover missions, there's only guys on the ground..

In reality, the guys on the ground are just as important.

In Orbiter, notsomuch.

 

[Face]

Now I know about OMP (orbiter multiplayer project) havent tried it with orbiter 2010 but face is working on it im sure and with the addition of UCGO I feel orbiter is about to really take off. Could you imagine mutiplayer With UCGO and a Mission control with comms? WOW! thats just mind-blowing to me. Cant wait to see what the future holds for Orbiter. I have a feeling its going to be really exciting....

I guess you have some kind of MMORPG in mind. See the enthusiastic and dead thread/project here.

As for OMP, I've updated it to 2010 already, just not pushed it yet. You won't see much development from me this summer, though, because I'm currently working on a project with WHAP.

regards,
Face

 

[Urwumpe]

I have a small mission management add-on on my work plate with the SimpleLCC project, since some months or so.

It is currently mostly a framework library and some vessels, plan to grow things slowly. Most of the work so far is logistics, like the various communication channels between vessels. Supports UMMU, would like to include UCGO once I have an idea how.

 

[yagni01]

In reality, the guys on the ground are just as important.

In Orbiter, notsomuch.

All too true. The use case for mission control clients is a classroom. For monitoring purposes, I think RemoteMFD could do quite a lot right now.

I haven't looked at Doug's XRVesselCtrl client, but for XR vessels, that allows inputs and might serve as an instructor station (don't know if it has remote capability)

 

[Blacklight]

I love the idea of having a mission control addon. Think of the possibility of remotely controling an unmanned space probe to it's destination. It would open doors to REALLY do the Mars Rover missions and other missions like it the way they are really done from ground based controllers. It would be really cool if it went all the way with the realism and took into account the amount of time it takes for radio signals to travel from Earth to the spacecraft as well.

 

[Spike Spiegel]

So as mission control, your virtual cockpit is a computer terminal at a desk, where you have a depiction of several monitors linked to fixed cameras on your probe?

I think the temptation to "cheat" by switching to an external view of your probe would be pretty tempting.

How about a graphics client for Orbiter that only displays the MFDs? Instruments only people!

 

[deltawing777]

Is anybody working on a Mission control for orbiter

Been looking around forums searching and such...can't find anything thing about if there is any new projects in the works for this topic. Anybody heard anything about any development or anything? I know there are one or two outdated addons I would guess they have been abondoned or shelved

Thanks
-DW

 

[Bloodworth]

I could be wrong, but I thought that there actually WAS an orbiter mission controll add on out there (I could be thinking of a long abandoned project). I was under the impression that it didn't need multi player because it was just a way for a 3rd party to moniter your progress, not actually control the vessel in any way. As such there was no issue with time acceleration which is the main issue that plagues the multiplayer projects.

A little research at the hangar and here it is: [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3436"]Mission Control for Orbiter BETA 1[/ame]

 

[Usquanigo]

Ground/Remote Control

I'm not sure where to put this, as I don't know if it exists or not, so if it should be an add-on request or not, but....

Has anyone done a form of Mission Control where you can launch and control probles from a STATIC location on the ground? I would figure something with just a few MFDs (maybe 3 or more, but at least the standard 2), no HUD unless it's own window, and some controls.

The idea of flying or controling probes which are supposed to be remote and unmanned, in the same way you control ones which you are supposed to actually be on is a bit of a drag.

I'm scheming up a bit mission/plan/challenge to be blogged, and it will include unmanned craft and probes, and it would be nice to control them from a building, maybe even one with a view to the current outside scenary of the base or something, just to show that you aren't actually going any where.

I have seen an 'MFD' which is remote control, but that's just the controls, not remote MFD/sensor input, and no building/office for it to be in.

I'm just wondering if/hoping I've missed it.

 

[Loru]

I suggest using combo of:

1 - Remote Control MFD - for controling ship
2 - CameraMFD - onboard camera with nightvision to act like sensor
3 - all MFD's needed for navigation or you want
to incorporate

All mfd's you're using should be activated in "external MFD" window with ground based camera targeting other vessel (UGCO car for example) to avoid flips during orbital movement of craft you're piloting.

I hope that help you construct that kind of mission

 

[Ashaman42]

I was thinking about this the other day.

Would it be possible to code an add-on that would simulate the lag in control due to distance between the control room and the vessel?

Well I imagine anything is pretty much possible to code I mean more how difficult would it be?

 

[Loru]

I can't code so I won't help you.

I made a try and figured out that both CameraMFD and TelescopeMFD don't working in external view. I'm not sure how difficult would be to fix it.

Mission screen can look like this:

 

[Usquanigo]

Loru, that is awesome. How did you open the MFDs up in nothing like that? (I know, rtfm, right? lol) I guess you're 'in' some sort of ship that is just on the ground, then in External views, right?

If only that could be in some sort of building or tower thing. That might even solve the problem of camera MFD.

The delayed repsonse time sounds like a great idea too, but that is way out of my league. But for the inner system it would be a small delay anyway, so I guess it could be written off, but once you get to the outer planets, it would be more of an issue.

But for quick'n'dirty I think Loru's method has it nailed. Perfect for unmanned cargo launches up into orbit, or probes to local neighbors.

 

[Loru]

Actually if you look at orbit MFD or Aerobrake MFD you'll see that the ship is in orbit.

Camera is in ground mode targetted at Cape Canaveral. Here is camera code in .scn file

BEGIN_CAMERA
  TARGET Cape Canaveral
  MODE Extern
  POS 1.90 23.84 -41.81
  TRACKMODE Ground Earth
  GROUNDLOCATION -80.66035 28.58054 325.00
  FOV 50.00
END_CAMERA

In orbiter launchpad I just enabled Rcontrol & ExtMFD and then from F4 sidemenu brought on screen 4 instances of ExtMFD and configured them.

 

[Loru]

Basically RControl is not needed because focus is still on ship you're piloting. Numkeys would work. I added rcontrol for example.

For scenery there is always an option to make detailed mesh of the control tower and to put camera inside it.

That was easiest way
Now a little ambitios future look

----------- Folowing text is an add-on idea to explore-------------

I think there is a way to design window similar to Rcontrol but with working & linked cameraMFD like utility and few configurable mfd's and then using this window as control center.

Unfortunately I can't code and this looks like big project for me.

 

[docabn]

I think all you would need is an external MFD function that mimics "orbiter remote vessle control" where it allows you to select what vessel you want to get the information from. This would not account for time delay though that would be a neat feature feature. But you could, I believe control multiple unmanned, or manned vessles from a remote loaction.