Orbiter Screenshot Thread

[Dantassii]

KSC microelevation handpainting is slowly making progress:

Before:

After:

Can/Is this same sort of attention to detail going to be available/done for other locations in the solar system? I'd love to fly down the Valley of the Mariners on Mars with this level of detail....

Dantassii
HUMONGOUS IMS shipbuilder

 

[martins]

Can/Is this same sort of attention to detail going to be available/done for other locations in the solar system? I'd love to fly down the Valley of the Mariners on Mars with this level of detail....

Yes, as long as you have a source of data at this level of resolution (which I don't think exists), or you have enough imagination to make something up yourself (which will take a lifetime for an area the size of Valles Marineris, unless you are much more efficient at this than I am ...)

 

[Dantassii]

Dantassii's Lunar Station Evolution

I've had a couple of requests to repost photos of the evolution of my Lunar Station M-Side tank farm. Using photos I've already uploaded to my albums, here is a look at what this monstrosity has evolved from.

Station after assembly mission 106 showing the start of the tank farm construction

Second photo from mission 106 with F9 shows how many modules there were even at this early stage in the construction. BTW, now (after 307 missions) it's hard to see any individual module names when I hit F9.

Closeup of the tank farm after mission 140

Another photo of the tank farm this time after mission 180

Just before departing the station after mission 230

And now several photos taken just before departure from the station at the end of Mission 282, the tank farm is complete.

Since these photos were captured, I've flown missions 283 through 307. I'm currently working on the hydroponics and life support system that is between the longitudinal truss framework and the M-Side tank farm. Once I've filled that space up with as many modules as I can fit, the station will be roughly half way to Phase 01 complete. I then need to literally mirror image the station to the other half to make the N-Side tank farm, centrifuge wheel, and life support system.

I estimate Phase 01 complete somewhere around mission 550-600.

Phase 02 will include 2 more tank farms (O and P) and 2 more centrifuge wheels.

Phase 03 will include an additional 2 more tank farms (K and L) and 2 more centrifuge wheels.

Each centrifuge wheel can provide hab space for 98 humans. So 6 hab wheels will allow for a permanent population of just under 600 people. Additional zero-g habitation for about another 2,000 people is in the rest of the station.

The Life Support capability of the Lunar Station when Phase 03 is complete should be somewhere around 12,000 people. The Hydroponics capability of the Lunar Station when Phase 03 is complete should be somewhere around 3,000 people. I just hope the variables that store this information in IMS are large enough...

I wonder if Jedidia ever thought someone would try to build something this big when he made IMS? I actually think the word big is too small to describe this station.

Dantassii
HUMONGOUS IMS shipbuilder

 

[jedidia]

I wonder if Jedidia ever thought someone would try to build something this big when he made IMS?

Frankly, no. And it pains me a bit to know that you'll never be able to integrate this thing reliably and make it work as intended...

 

[jarmonik]

Few shots from the latest edition of D3D9Client. With a proper artwork that might actually look good.

 

[Dantassii]

Frankly, no. And it pains me a bit to know that you'll never be able to integrate this thing reliably and make it work as intended...

Depends on what you mean by reliably Jedidia. The only part that causes any grief so far is the centrifuges. If you take them 1 part at a time, and undock/redock the remaining parts as needed they can be integrated. The rest seems to integrate in a well behaved manner.. so long as I remember to turn off Orbitersound before I start integrating that is.

There does appear to be some issues with Orbiter 2010 P1 when there are this many 'ships' in a single scenario file. Many of the MFDs that come standard with Orbiter have features/functionalities that do not work at all when you have over 1,000 'ships' in a single scenario file. Before integration, each IMS module appears as a 'ship' in the MFDs and Scenario Editor, and this seems to be the source of the problems. Then there's also the 'ship naming hash bug' issue that some of the IMS modules (but not all) seem to have whenever you are using a module naming pattern.

You can be assured that once IMS 2.0 has a larger collection of modules to choose from (including centrifuge components that are not at right angles to all the other components) that I will rebuild this station using IMS 2.0 and test out the 'integrate all instantly' feature of IMS 2.0 as well as all the Orbiter 2016 Beta MFDs to be sure that the problems I'm seeing in Orbiter 2010 P1 + IMS 1.0 do not happen in the new code.

I'm VERY curious to see just how long IMS 2.0 takes to do an 'integrate all instantly' command on something this HUMONGOUS.

Dantassii
HUMONGOUS IMS shipbuilder

 

[Donamy]

Few shots from the latest edition of D3D9Client. With a proper artwork that might actually look good.

Complete desolation !! ...but, everyone wants to go there. :thumbup:

 

[SolarLiner]

Few shots from the latest edition of D3D9Client. With a proper artwork that might actually look good.

That's what I thought. The high frequency data was preserved, however the 'big' craters in the microtexture still look flat. It's all from my normals though, so not to worry, I'm going back to work...

Other than that, it does look splendid! :thumbup:

 

[martins]

Few shots from the latest edition of D3D9Client. With a proper artwork that might actually look good.

Looks pretty stunning! My one question is this: how were the microtextures sourced? Do they come from actual close-up images of the lunar surface, or are they rescaled images from a larger distance? I'm not sure if obvious "crater features" would be visible at this distance scale. Lunar surface images seem to look more like a rough sand surface with small rocks of a characteristic size distribution strewn over it. I'm not sure that the crater distribution scales all the way down to the surface level.

Although I have to admit that the second image does have something like a crater close to the left edge. Nonetheless, at this scale it seems to me that the characteristic feature are rocky elevations rather than cratery indendations. What do you think?

 

[SolarLiner]

Another round of Orbiter 2015 D3D9 + ReShade pictures (with realtime DoF, although not practical for gaming purposes, I concede)
(Taken in 4K, then cropped down to 1080p for added composition)

 

[jarmonik]

Although I have to admit that the second image does have something like a crater close to the left edge. Nonetheless, at this scale it seems to me that the characteristic feature are rocky elevations rather than cratery indendations. What do you think?

The current textures are rescaled distant images. I definitely agree that the dominant terrain type should be rocky sand terrain. Finding a terrain like that here from the Earth shouldn't be too difficult. But the photos should be taken directly up to down from 3-4 meters high to be use. That's just my guess I have never really done that. Right now there's nothing else than snow and dirt here.

Although, due to lack of atmosphere even the smallest meteors would reach the surface. I would expect the see small (0.5-2m) impact craters here and there.

Also, It should be possible to add some randomly placed rock formations as meshes. Slight problem is how to keep them clear from the landing pads.

 

[1987VCRProductions]

The first phase of construction of the International Skylab Orbital Workshop has been completed with a successful docking of Salyut 6 to the space station, January 1977.

Here's a profile view:

From left to right: ATM-B, Zarya, Skylab B with Progress-Skylab 1 and SL-8 docked to it, Kristall, and Salyut 6.

Here's a forward facing shot with the Moon in the background:

 

[Ripley]

Gear down!

 

[Donamy]

Wouldn't that be 'gear up' ?

 

[Loru]

You were not landing in Oz!

 

[rstr]

Some sight-seeing on the moon with Orbiter Beta 2015 r.49 + D3D9 Beta 17 for r.47

Approaching Tycho from Clavius .. and still digging for "The Monolith" since 2001 :rofl:

full-scale 5800x1080 pixels image via https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_lJ8zRbeAbQM3ZHZC1FTmhLZjg/view?usp=sharing

Mons Teneriffe / Mons Pico with view of Plato .. most beautiful site even in a small telescope from your backyard btw :blink:

full-scale 5800x1080 pixels image via https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_lJ8zRbeAbQSVY0bGU2LTA0QlE/view?usp=sharing

Rima Hadley ... wow ! :woohoo: wow! (... and thx again to "Marg" and "PostMuch")

full-scale 5800x1080 pixels image via https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_lJ8zRbeAbQZFdqUFdvRDF2NGc/view?usp=sharing

The largest of the "Blair Cuspids" :uhh:

full-scale 5800x1080 pixels images via https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_lJ8zRbeAbQeDFGTU00eEIzU2c/view?usp=sharing
Close-up:

Enjoy - and THX to Dr. M and the D3D9 team and the many other contributors for their great work, making a dream come true again :tiphat:
Rob

 

[Ripley]

What about trying with the latest D3D9ClientBeta18 forRev 49?
http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?p=527074&postcount=3450

 

[rstr]

What about trying with the latest D3D9ClientBeta18 forRev 49?
http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?p=527074&postcount=3450

Thx, Ripley.
I had the beta18 (plus the D3D9Client.dll-fix dated Feb 16th, 2016) installed as well, but stopped using it for the above gallery pictures as the microtexture feature just doesn't look "right" (despite being a good idea) due to the impression of repetitiveness of the terrain, and because the microtexture pattern was not seemlessly merging to its neighbors, thus leaving a visible grid-like structure.

I was about to write a post about this to the D3D9 thread, but wanted to make sure beforehand that it wasn't an installation fault on my side.
Also I remembered having a tool "InfinityTextures" some time ago that was able to automatically convert a texture image into a seamless pattern - if it will run on Win10x64 then I can offer to try to apply it to the microtexture pattern, but need to understand where in the client this microtexture pattern is located (../Textures/D3D9Moon_B.dds ?). I am also about to test the beta 18 with stereoscopic 3D (NVidia + Shutter Glasses), but need a bit more time for this over upcoming weekend. When done, I'll add a post to the D3D9 thread, and hopefully also can provide an improved microtexture pattern that is seamless, and thus not showing the border gridlines.

Basically, the client is working though, and is very promising (I cannot thank the D3D9 team enough for the great job they are doing !).

Anyway, plz see here on the before-mentioned problems, and compare these to the previously published "sight-seeing" pictures http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?p=527490&postcount=6800:

 

[Marg]

my post from d3d9 thread can help (I edited "surface.fx" file):
After a bit experimenting with surface.fx, I changed 64.0 to 16.0 and "repetitevness" is much less noticable:

float3 cDstA = tex2D(MicroBS, frg.texUV.xy*16.0f).rgb; // High altitude micro texture A

Yeah, resolution is a bit low looking from lower altitudes (~500 m) , but look is better. altough increasing resution to 1024x1024 can partially compensate this.

 

[rstr]

Ripley, Marg - I'll move the further discussion on this subject (#6801, #6802, #6803) over to the D3D9 thread, okay ? And thx for your suggestions.

As for the Screenshot thread, I will replace the sight-seeing images from #6800 as soon as the microtexture feature is advancing. Too bad the image size in the forum's gallery is limited (I might try to reference a Google drive next time) - I suppose you'd love to see the 6000x1080 pixel originals in full size ... a faint impression of what a 3-monitor stereoscopic 3D surround view in Orbiter makes onto a space enthusiast.

And maybe I should think about a "The Orbinaut Hitchhiker's Guide to Moon's Places of Interest" :lol: , if there is any positive feedback by other Orbinauts. At least for me it is absolutely amazing how realistic Orbiter2015 Beta plus D3D9Client has become, when comparing e.g. Orbiter's view of Hadley with the Apollo 15 flight pictures.

Thx - Rob