Open source Orbiter (kind of) license question

Max-Q

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First, I am not sure this is in the right place to post this... Couldn't quite find a category I thought it fit cleanly.

How are the vessels that come with orbiter licensed? Not Orbiter itself, I know that is MIT license.
I am specifically referring to the DeltaGlider cockpit mesh. Is it also MIT licensed, or does Roger “Frying Tiger” Long still own that mesh?
Basically, I need crew meshes for a project I am working on ;) (to be released at a future date) and I am TERRIBLE at meshing things that don't have a good geometric shape.

Thoughts/Comments/Input?
 

jedidia

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How are the vessels that come with orbiter licensed?
That's a good question, as I can see that the samples are not part of the orbiter source code... But then again, what you're asking about is not their code, but their assets, which is another question entirely. as long as nothing else is mentioned, they're "all rights reserved", really.

Basically, I need crew meshes for a project I am working on
I'm really not sure if you'd get happy with the crew meshes for the DG, though. They're showing their age quite clearly. Also, in this particular instance there may be an additional problem, because I think that the DG pilots face was modeled to the likeness of the Doctor, which is a fun easter egg in Orbiter, but at least in europe, using such a thing comes with additional legal strings attached (especially if there's money involved, but also if there isn't).

All in all, I think you'd be best served by buying something from an asset store like Free3D or CGTrader. Might even find something decent for free.
 

Face

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As jedidia already wrote, your best bet is to do it on your own, either by buying assets or getting some free stuff. However, I think no matter what you get, you will have to adjust it to fit your needs. Therefore you will have to use some sort of 3D modeling software, anyway.
In this regards, I'd suggest Blender, because it seems to excel in these things (character modeling). There are many tutorial that show how you can model human characters with it, like this: https://ardas-it.com/human-model-creation-with-a-rig-for-later-work-in-blender . But beware, it can be kind of a rabbit-hole ;) .
 

llarian

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IIRC Dansteph's DGIV has a modifiable astronaut skin.
 

llarian

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IIRC Dansteph's DGIV has a modifiable astronaut skin.
Just an update. When you install the DGIV into orbiter, go to the Textures directory, select the DG directory and you will find a file called dgpilot1.dds. You can modify this as you wish (I used my face and my grandson's face). Resave the modified image as dgpilot1.dds.
 

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If you're not already familiar with Blender and/or its character creation pipeline in particular then you'll be much better off using Daz 3D as it's much easier to get into for that purpose; it can also easily setup and rig humanoid models for you to improve on (e.g. add space suits and the likes in your case) using a different software like Blender or whatever you're comfortable with.
 

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All the Orbiter SDK samples, including the DeltaGlider and its mesh and textures, were already released under the MIT license by Martin. i.e., I'm sure this was already sorted out before Martin released everything under the MIT license.
 

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I'm really not sure if you'd get happy with the crew meshes for the DG, though.
They are adequate for my purposes. My ship has small windows…
Based on the geometry of my seats and rudder pedals, they would fit, to.

If you're not already familiar with Blender
I am familiar with how to open Blender, but that’s about it!
I use Solidworks for modeling, not sure about it’s import capabilities.

including the DeltaGlider and its mesh and textures
So just to confirm, the DG cockpit mesh is definitely MIT license? If it is in the GitHub repo, I missed it.
 

jedidia

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All the Orbiter SDK samples, including the DeltaGlider and its mesh and textures, were already released under the MIT license by Martin
As far as I could see, the deltaglider and shuttle-A samples are not part of the orbiter source repository. Did I completely miss them?
That being said, they have been reused in other instances (and the code is explicitly meant to be reused, what with being an example).
@Max-Q, from your post it is unclear whether your project is for orbiter or not. I had assumed it's not an orbiter project. I'm not sure why in retrospective, I just somehow got that impression from your post.
If the project is for orbiter, then honestly I don't think anybody is going to object. Also, note that the licensing really only covers the matter of distribution, not of use. Legally you are allowed to use anything on your harddrive for whatever you want it, you're just not necessarily allowed to share the result. If you don't need to modify a mesh, so your add-on can use it locally and doesn't need to include it in the download, license is a non-issue to begin with.
 

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Max-Q

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from your post it is unclear whether your project is for orbiter or not
Yes, it is an orbiter project. I would need to modify the mesh, I need each astronaut as a separate mesh to be loaded individually by my code.

Yes, you missed them. There are meshes and textures...
Then since they are in the GitHub repo, then definitely MIT license?
 

jedidia

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Yes, you missed them. There are meshes and textures...
Ah, so the code is not in the sdk folder. No wonder I've missed it. Thanks for correcting me. (Thinking about it, since the whole of orbiter is now open source, it wouldn't have made much sense to keep it in the sdk folder, so, my bad).

Then since they are in the GitHub repo, then definitely MIT license?
The applicability of code licenses to non-code assets is legaly kinda undefined behaviour for all I know, but honestly, if it's for an orbiter project, I cannot imagine that anybody's going to be offended if you give proper attribution.
 
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