Space Shuttle Ultra development thread

[Mission_CDR]

it would most likely not be ready untill the end of this month, I am on a busy schedule this month and only have a few hours on the weekends to work on addons. Do you think SSU will be done earlier or later?

 

[DaveS]

it would most likely not be ready untill the end of this month, I am on a busy schedule this month and only have a few hours on the weekends to work on addons. Do you think SSU will be done earlier or later?

SSU won't be done for quite a while. There's still alot of systems missing and some systems are only partially implemented.

 

[SiameseCat]

I've been working on adding the R11 and Aft MDUs. The problem is that adding these 2 MDUs will give SSU a total of 11 MFDs, while Orbiter supports a maximum of 10.

The easiest fix for this is simply to have less than 10 MFDs active at any one time. This might cause some minor visual problems, since there are places in the cockpit where all 11 MDUs are visible, although only some of them will be treated as MDUs.

 

[DaveS]

I've been working on adding the R11 and Aft MDUs. The problem is that adding these 2 MDUs will give SSU a total of 11 MFDs, while Orbiter supports a maximum of 10.

The easiest fix for this is simply to have less than 10 MFDs active at any one time. This might cause some minor visual problems, since there are places in the cockpit where all 11 MDUs are visible, although only some of them will be treated as MDUs.

There's no times where all 11 MDUs are powered up at the same time. Right after the GO for orbit ops from the Ascent/Entry team in the MCC, the crew begins work on the so called Group B powerdown. Group B powerdown involves shut down of many redundant equipment like GPCs, MDUs and other equipment.

 

[Urwumpe]

As alternative, what about making the Aft flight director no MFD, but a special object? It has not the DPS screens and as it need to use aft sense, instead of forward sense, like orbiters standard MFDs, it would not be useful to use MFDs at all.

 

[Mission_CDR]

When I am done making the surface bases how will I send the files to whoever is going to submitt the addon into Orbit Hanger? who will submitt it?

 

[SiameseCat]

As alternative, what about making the Aft flight director no MFD, but a special object? It has not the DPS screens and as it need to use aft sense, instead of forward sense, like orbiters standard MFDs, it would not be useful to use MFDs at all.

I thought the aft MDU was similar to the other non-DPS MFDs. Since it only seems to support the Orbit ADI display, it's probably best to leave this until we have functioning MEDS displays.

 

[DaveS]

As alternative, what about making the Aft flight director no MFD, but a special object? It has not the DPS screens and as it need to use aft sense, instead of forward sense, like orbiters standard MFDs, it would not be useful to use MFDs at all.

Actually, it does display DPS screens as indicated by this prox ops photo taken during STS-114/ISS LF1: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/shuttle/sts-114/hires/s114e5656.jpg

If I read the screen right, it is displaying the PDRS OPS screen(SM SPEC 94). And if I have understood the MDU setup correctly, it's tied to IDP4 as indicated by the large "4" in the square.

 

[SiameseCat]

We'll go back to the original plan of disabling MFDs as required then.

 

[DaveS]

We'll go back to the original plan of disabling MFDs as required then.

Yes. And speaking of the MDUs: How about improving the visuals of them? I mean the actual screens. They're currently a bit wrong. For example: The menu lines remain even if the MDU is powered off. This should be fixed. Also the menus themselves need a bit of fixing.

All the MEDS detail is in the MEDS.pdf file I uploaded earlier.

 

[zerofay32]

Not to jump into the discotion, but there was a project to impliment the MEDS a while back. It was set up so the MEDS screens could be shown on another computer over a network. It was never completed as far as I know. Here is the project website:

http://www.pixelcartoon.it/orbiter/meds/

It hasn't been updated since 2005 so it's safe to assume that it's a dead project. For the most part it works, although it's incomplete. Of course you would have to track down the authors. It's just somthing I found a long time ago.

Great work.

Zerofay32

 

[Urwumpe]

OK, the network diagram in MEDS.pdf made it look like it can't have DPS screens, because it had two ports used.

Looks like, the diagram has to be interpreted that all MDUs, which have only one port used, can only display DPS screens reliable.


-----Posted Added-----


Some small news: I managed to get some papers printed at university from the IEEE Xplore...

1. One about the development of the AP-101S, including the differences to the AP-101B. Not really much will be surprising there, but some quick summary I have:

One aspect, I did not know about the AP-101S - it is not only able to run System/4Pi code (called MMP architecture), but by just throwing a "switch", it can be made running MIL-STD-1750A code. It also explains the differences between both architectures. The old MMP code from IBM allows using 2x8 32 bit registers, but is limited in memory to 512K half-words (16 bit words, 1 MB RAM). The MIL-STD-1750A architecture uses 16 16 bit registers, but can address twice as much memory. Otherwise, both seem to be equivalent in capability, but the MIL-STD-1750A standard has less history ballast (only 13 instruction formats, but 196 instructions).

More important for us: It explains the IOP architecture.

2. A paper about the radar capabilities of the Ku-Band antenna. While most of the plain signal theory stuff will be beyond the scope of the simulation, it also contains much better block diagrams of the Ku-Band subsystem as the NASA documents. It also contains information about the internal modes of the radar, which are not accessible by the panel (SPD/CFAR), but which have an effect on the signal strength indicator.

And finally: I bought a replacement for my failed GPU, will install it after letting the PC discharge over night. Chances are good that I am back in development this weekend.

 

[SiameseCat]

Yes. And speaking of the MDUs: How about improving the visuals of them? I mean the actual screens. They're currently a bit wrong. For example: The menu lines remain even if the MDU is powered off. This should be fixed. Also the menus themselves need a bit of fixing.

All the MEDS detail is in the MEDS.pdf file I uploaded earlier.

I don't think there's much point is changing how the MFD menus work; given that we have to support the default MFDs, anything we do will be unrealistic, and I think what we have is a good enough approximation.

The menu lines on the MDU come from one of the textures; it should be possible to replace this with a blank texture when the MDU if off.

 

[Mission_CDR]

I decided that in addition to making Shannon and Gander, I will also make surface bases in Banjul, Gander, Istres, Moron, and Zaragoza. (all with lvl 6 surf. tiles) I posted this mainly beacuse I want to know if should also make Dakar, it is no longer a TAL abort site because there is a dip in the runway that could damage the shuttle, but I think it would be nice to make a new Dakar to override the old one.

 

[SiameseCat]

It'll be great if you can make Dakar, but the sites that are still in use should be given higher priority.

 

[Mission_CDR]

Ok,I am sorry to ask so many questions, but is there a limit to how many MB's the surface bases should all take up?

 

[Urwumpe]

Ok,I am sorry to ask so many questions, but is there a limit to how many MB's the surface bases should all take up?

If you can do with less, we are happy.

You don't need to use the highest resolution all the time, you can make the outer regions of the base with lower resolution tiles.

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Hi all.

I've just installed the XR2 Ravenstar, and the effects on that are Amazing!

Do you think, and I know this would be a long-term project, that eventually, some of the effects from the XR2, (Like heatshield glowing orange during re-entry, and actual wheels spinning when landing etc), could eventually be included in SSU?

And will the new SSU have actual APU systems that you can control?
And will the VC be fully usable?

Thanks.

-Pete

 

[Urwumpe]

Do you think, and I know this would be a long-term project, that eventually, some of the effects from the XR2, (Like heatshield glowing orange during re-entry, and actual wheels spinning when landing etc), could eventually be included in SSU?

Wheel spinning should be possible soon, I work on porting the wheel spin code from the Black Dart to SSU.

 

[Mission_CDR]

Wow! I am almost done with Shannon.
I am making a seperate solar system and earth cfg. so that when the addon is installed, the user will not have to go through the complicated process of adding all sorts of lines and deleting some from the earth.cfg. It will contain all of planets and will be completly identicle to the normal solar sytem except for the fact that earth will contian the bases I am making + KSC WS EAFB.
If you have objections to this then please let me know.