Project Multistage2015 - Development Thread

[Interceptor]

How about a mission control view for unmanned,and a astronauts's view looking forward for manned?

---------- Post added at 02:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:08 PM ----------

Fred are you planning
to do failure simulation with ms2015 too?

 

[4throck]

I think I understand what you suggest and some eye candy would be great.
It's not hard to get a free mission control mesh and display it:
http://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/detail/jscmiscon1-room

I don't see it as very useful (I'd prefer failures and status panel), but Spacecraft3 allows for it (mesh name, groups for MFDs and HUD).
So why not add the same syntax here ?

From Spaceraft.dll manual:

[VC]
This is for virtual cockpit mode
MESHNAME="atlantis": specify the mesh of the cockpit, if the cockpit mesh is inside the
vessel mesh, just put the same name as the one you have specified in the [config] section
MFD_LEFT=125 : mesh group where Orbiter standard left MFD will be drawn. See Orbiter
SDK documentation for restriction on this mesh group (must be a rectangle)
MFD_RIGHT=126 mesh group where Orbiter standard right MFD will be drawn.
HUD=127 : mesh group where Orbiter HUD will be displayed
HUD_SIZE=0.252 : screen size (in meter) for HUD display. See Orbiter SDK for details.
HUD_CENTER=(-0.5479,2.325,15.777) : coordinates of HUD center on the mesh. See
Orbiter SDK for details.

 

[K_Jameson]

How about a mission control view

Already done by FOI with Gaia station :thumbup:; I don't recall if the mission control view was inserted in the final addon (the only module released) or not...
Only eye-candy anyway.

 

[fred18]

Good morning gents,

Thanks for your suggestions, i'll try to summarize my idea on this topic and on the rest:

1) as 4throck said, MS2015 will support "live" payloads, which means that for a manned mission you will be able to jump in the vehicle and enjoy the view from the cockpit

2) regarding the MCC mesh I'm a bit reluctant to add it, because it will mean to take it around along with the rocket and even though the one used with the Gaia station was amazing, there could be a lot of issues with graphic clients etc that coud lead to a mess. Since live payloads will be supported a special payload with the mesh of the MCC visibile only in VC view could be created and added by the users that will want it
3) relevant to the control panel i was thinking of creating a dedicated MFD for MS2015, but i never did MFDs, so I will have to learn how to do it, leaving this. The other option is to make a dialog window which rensemble a MCC, which is an option that I quite like, but I don't know if it will be used since it will take out a big portion of screen.
4) my idea is to implement failures (only post launch, no countdown holdings). Could be explosion for first stage and engine stop/reduction for higher stages. Don't know if I can make it for the first release, but I think yes
5) also LES shall be supported, so I will probably add a section in the ini file that will create LES, which will be possible to jettison manually with F key as fairing and via guidance with an appropriate les() command.
6) another point that would be cool to explore are the launchpads. But I still haven't figured out how would be an efficient and useful way to do it, so this will probably wait for the next release.

So that's it! Let me know your thoughts!

Cheers!
Fred

 

[Interceptor]

Good morning gents,

Thanks for your suggestions, i'll try to summarize my idea on this topic and on the rest:

1) as 4throck said, MS2015 will support "live" payloads, which means that for a manned mission you will be able to jump in the vehicle and enjoy the view from the cockpit

2) regarding the MCC mesh I'm a bit reluctant to add it, because it will mean to take it around along with the rocket and even though the one used with the Gaia station was amazing, there could be a lot of issues with graphic clients etc that coud lead to a mess. Since live payloads will be supported a special payload with the mesh of the MCC visibile only in VC view could be created and added by the users that will want it
3) relevant to the control panel i was thinking of creating a dedicated MFD for MS2015, but i never did MFDs, so I will have to learn how to do it, leaving this. The other option is to make a dialog window which rensemble a MCC, which is an option that I quite like, but I don't know if it will be used since it will take out a big portion of screen.
4) my idea is to implement failures (only post launch, no countdown holdings). Could be explosion for first stage and engine stop/reduction for higher stages. Don't know if I can make it for the first release, but I think yes
5) also LES shall be supported, so I will probably add a section in the ini file that will create LES, which will be possible to jettison manually with F key as fairing and via guidance with an appropriate les() command.
6) another point that would be cool to explore are the launchpads. But I still haven't figured out how would be an efficient and useful way to do it, so this will probably wait for the next release.

So that's it! Let me know your thoughts!

Cheers!
Fred

I liked the countdown hold in Jarvis 3.dll,but it's your addon,since you are thinking of making an mfd,how about a readout,or hud similar to the kulch energy project it shows fuel being used and has text with lights showing booster separation,and stage seperation,and Payload status,I haven't used it in a while,but check it out if you can Fred it might be a good reference for something similar.PS.could you add the countdown,and velocity pop windows to ms2015 like with your Jarvis3.dll addon please.Thanks

 

[4throck]

My suggestion, to keep things as simple as possible, would be to display the stack status* to the left of the screen and the guidance to the right**, both as simple text above the MFDs.

This would help in add-on creation and could be expanded to show failures.


*-what stages are configured, the heights and fuel, the burn sequence (parallel or sequential), fairings and payloads, etc.

** - a list of the guidance commands

 

[romanasul]

I haven't played Orbiter in over six months but it looks like it's time to get back.

 

[Donamy]

My suggestion, to keep things as simple as possible, would be to display the stack status* to the left of the screen and the guidance to the right**, both as simple text above the MFDs.

This would help in add-on creation and could be expanded to show failures.


*-what stages are configured, the heights and fuel, the burn sequence (parallel or sequential), fairings and payloads, etc.

** - a list of the guidance commands

I would suggest this only be shown in the cockpit view.

 

[4throck]

Good suggestion.
VC view would bring the status display, normal view is backward compatible (clean HUD + MFDs).

 

[fred18]

I don't know if that is possible.
Anyway this is the information currently available on the Hud:

I really believe that a multiscreen MFD mode would be a nice solution at this point. If the user wish to check the data can check everything via the MFD, can keep two of them open during launch or many of them open with ExtMFD etc.

 

[4throck]

Looks great ! :thumbup:
If you already have it like that, it's good.

A specific MFD sounds interesting, but I don't know about multiple rockets. What would happen when you switch focus ?

 

[fred18]

Thanks!

Each rocket have its own set of flight variables, mfds will display the updated situation of the focused vessel. But I never made an MFD so I have to check how to do it properly before :embarrassed:

 

[Ripley]

...Anyway this is the information currently available on the Hud...

How does this overlaid text interact with the "generic MFD size" option (Launchpad - Parameters)?
What happens if I resize my MFDs to a BIG number?

 

[fred18]

The overlay text is written within the HUD, so if you increase the mfd size significantly it can happen that the text remains hidden by the mfd. But i don't see many possible solutions to this and I think that the current setup should fit most of the users' resolutions.

---------- Post added 15th Sep 2015 at 03:02 ---------- Previous post was 14th Sep 2015 at 08:41 ----------

Quick update:

Live payloads and rotated payloads are now supported!

I had a bit of a nightmare with Rotation Matrixes but finally everything seems to be working.

For "dead payload" rotation works also if more than one mesh is defined.

For "live" payload rotation works and paylaod mass can be input manually in the ini file to simulate ballast or can be simply left blank and Multistage2015 will get the mass and the size automatically from the live module.

Now what's left:
- Mach1 and Vent effects directly in the ini file - EASY
- LES directly in the ini file - MEDIUM
- Failures - MEDIUM
- Dedicated MFD - HARD

still trying to keep my word for this week

 

[Donamy]

What do you mean by rotated payload ?

 

[fred18]

What do you mean by rotated payload ?

With Vinka you can only load payloads which are oriented towards the forward (Z) axis of the vehicle. Now you'll simply put in the payload section of the ini

rotation=(30,45,70)

To have a payload which is 30 degrees rotated around x axis, 45 around y and 70 around z.

 

[Donamy]

Will the payload thrust be added and offset as well ?

 

[fred18]

Will the payload thrust be added and offset as well ?

You gave me a great point! I implemented it!

Now thrust of live payload is added, rotated and offset. I think that this opens up a big set of new opportunities for developers that can play with live payloads!

For example space shuttle can be implemented with SRBs as live payloads now or you can put an invisible Multistage under another craft to use the Multistage autopilot etc.

Note: Only main thruster are rendered, RCS thrusters are not.

Not true anymore: linear RCS is accounted

 

[Donamy]

Could it also be animated, for things like rotating engines for like Ospreys.

 

[fred18]

Could it also be animated, for things like rotating engines for like Ospreys.

nope, no animation will be implemented