If it could interest anyone they have a down-loadable demo available now.
It only includes STS-1 and I guess its not much to do in orbit.
However, having tested BOTH Orbiter and SSM I must say SSM is cool.
The difference between them is actually quite big.
If you wanna play around in space Orbiter is best. Also, the earth looks better in Orbiter. Think it has twice the resolution compared to SSM.
But if you are keen for the shuttle only, SSM kicks ass.
No matter how many shuttle add-ons or ultra-shuttles there will be for Orbiter.
SSM is at version 1.33 for the moment and have had two new missions since release, and I think the pace of development is high compared to Orbiter.
Well, since Orbiter is FREE it has a great advantage, but it will not be improved with the same frequency when its developed in spare time of course.
Although, sometimes it seems like users here demands a LOT for something they haven't payed anything for.
So, a final conclusion:
Which one is best?? Eh....Depends..Both I think.
Is SSM worth the money?? Eh...Depends.
With the current dollar situation it costs about 30-35 Euro if you buy it from Europe. And that's definitely not to much.
If you live in the US on the other-hand, I don't know.
To me it was just a matter if spending a Saturday home from the local pub so it was not a hard effort.
And it have gave me more pleasure for sure.
And now a final,final conclusion:
Orbiter pros:
-Orbiter is free, SSM is not.
-Orbiters earth is super, SSM earth is good.
-Orbiters physics is super, SSMs is good
-Add ons can be made for Orbiter, not for SSM. ( At least not yet )
-In Orbiter you can play around, in SSM you have to follow the mission procedure to complete the mission.
SSM pros:
-You don't have to search around the web and download gazillions of bytes to get add-ons to get a super space shuttle and launch/landing sites.
- There's actually a goal in SSM. To complete the missions. In Orbiter you just play around.
- The overall 3D graphics, with the earth exception, is better then Orbiter.
- The virtual cockpit is super in SSM.
- SSM is more stable then Orbiter, and easier to get started with.
- SSM support and the atmosphere in their forum is in a higher universe compared to Orbiter. (
its a fact. )
So, before I get flamed of all forum members I must say that I am NOT endorsed by the developers of SSM
.
I use them both, with much joy. But it seems to me that the attitude of some Orbiter users is that if you don't ONLY use Orbiter your sick.
It tends to be like the old Amiga/Atari, Nintendo/Sega wars.
Also, a lot of people are VERY fast to call everything else then Orbiter crap without even tried the other application.
I don't think we, Orbiter users have anything to fear of SSM. Why would we??
Do you think everyone would stop using Orbiter because they buy SSM??
Personally I think the differences between them is to big for one to exclude the other.