Project Space Shuttle Vessel

[GLS]

It's Tuesday, so a good time to start a thread

So, almost 2 months into this:

• I've settled on the name Space Shuttle Vessel, or SSV
• took the opportunity to "clean the house" and made some structural changes in several places
• added tons of checking and corrections to standards in the code
• added development branches for future developments
• despite all that, I'd say over 90% of the time has been spent on meshes

Lots of work done already, but still a huge mountain left to climb, which means I'm still months away from a release, but things are moving forward.
Not long after that there will be changes to the "VC experience" and a new mission file format that should kick things forward quite a bit.
The new OMS/RCS is now a bit down the road due to the extra workload.

I'll provide more news when I get closer to a release.

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Project Homepage: https://github.com/GLS-SSV/SSV

 

[gattispilot]

I guess I don't understand. IS another space shuttle or a new SSU?

 

[IronRain]

From the link GLS provided:

But because I really want an "advanced" shuttle simulation to be available for Orbiter, I will fork SSU and continue on my own (after I come up with a new name ). Help is of course appreciated and needed.

 

[Urwumpe]

I guess I don't understand. IS another space shuttle or a new SSU?

Its a fork of SSU, so consider it the fourth Space Shuttle add-on in Orbiter.



Of course, we won't do SSV support in SSU. We insist that we have never had any sharp edges in our branding.

 

[Wolf]

Thanks for this GLS and all the best for the future of SSV

Question: is the current SSV available to the public or we need to wait for an official release?

 

[GLS]

Question: is the current SSV available to the public or we need to wait for an official release?

No, it is not available to the public as currently it is just me working, and I doubt that I'll have company before I show some results. :shrug:
But if anyone shows up, I'm sure something could be setup.

Upon release yes, the whole source thing will also be released... not sure on the details yet.

If you want to help with the textures, then you still have to wait a bit, as first the vertices have to be put in the right places.

 

[Wolf]

Hey GLS any news on this project so far?

 

[GLS]

Hey GLS any news on this project so far?

Still working the mesh... not that far away from having the payload bay finished (finished = mesh shape, UV mapping later). Inside it, Ku-band antenna, RMS and OBSS are also done for now. The upper stages will have to wait for another train... I only have 2 hands. :shrug:

On the outside, the SSMEs got a major improvement about 2 weeks ago, but the "final touches" will only be made when the aft compartment gets worked.
From now on, the "scary bits" are the OMS pods, fwd and aft fuselage (which has some interesting geometry).
I have no ETA on finishing the modeling and starting the UV mapping, but once the PLB is done, it very likely could be mapped (along with the items inside) as it seems isolated enough from the fuselage. The job is yours, if you want it....


On the code side, just "behind-the-scenes" work sometime ago to have things better organized. The new features are still dormant in branches, waiting for me to finish the mesh work. Also, maybe 90% of the renaming is done.

And this weekend I worked the manual a bit.

So, although this hasn't yet progressed to something visual that I can post about, I'm working as fast as I can... probably too fast, as I'm almost up to revision 300, and it's been less than 3 months.

 

[GLS]

New forum, new update: currently working the bottom-half of the payload bay, which should be much, much faster than the top-half. So there's light at the end of the "PLB tunnel".
Still inside the PLB, had to do some "emergency work" on the CISS, due to its integration with the PLB. I haven't decided yet if anything else is needed now, so it's possible that I'll end up with a bit more on my plate.
Other "emergency work" was also required on some other meshes.

Outside, the mid body is about 95% finished.
One major question still to answer is: do I cut the hatches for the ejection seats now, or leave that for later? I'm inclined to not do it now, as I don't know exactly where they are, and also the usage of that feature is "3 VCs away" = many years at this rate. ?‍


There have also been some developments in the code front, with some planned changes being brought forward. This was needed to avoid a "2.0" version with major changes for the users soon after "1.0" is out. Most of the work was already done, so it didn't delay the graphics much. I won't say what those changes are just yet, but I can say that "some things" will look better and be easier. ?

 

[Sbb1413]

do I cut the hatches for the ejection seats now, or leave that for later? I'm inclined to not do it now, as I don't know exactly where they are, and also the usage of that feature is "3 VCs away" = many years at this rate. ?‍

I think we should leave that for later, because it will be a lot of hassles. The hatches for the ejection seats are situated between the above windows and the black-coloured area around the cockpit in the image shown below.

 

[GLS]

A quick update: work remaining in the PLB seems less and less, which hopefully means I'll move outside soon. In the meantime there have been some small pauses to do some more emergency work, increase performance and also some "get-ahead" work.
In the code, got the new font function in D3D9 to work, so now fonts look as intended everywhere.

 

[GLS]

Totally missed my end of September target (partially because I had to do some more "emergency" work), but finally finished major work in the payload bay!!!!
A few small parts are missing and others were not (fully) corrected, but they will be worked in future versions as they are related to new features. They are relatively isolated so they shouldn't "rock the boat".

Although there are still a couple more small things that I want to change in the code, to allow future features without major compatibility issues, the code is pretty much where I want it for now, so it should be 99.9% graphics all the way to the end (plus updating the manual).

Next up is the outside of the vehicle: forward fuselage, wings, tail, OMS pods and aft compartment.

 

[Sbb1413]

Happy to see that you have climbed the Everest of SSV. I have some questions related with SSV:

1. Is SSV a simplified version of SSU or a sophisticated one?
2. Do you have any plans for initial release of SSV?

I acknowledge that I have not entirely read the development of SSU 5.0. Can you tell me in a nutshell what tempted you to fork SSU anyway?

 

[GLS]

1. Is SSV a simplified version of SSU or a sophisticated one?

It is an evolution.

2. Do you have any plans for initial release of SSV?

Yes, initial and subsequent releases, but first I have to finish the main model.... when will that happen, I don't know.

I acknowledge that I have not entirely read the development of SSU 5.0. Can you tell me in a nutshell what tempted you to fork SSU anyway?

Lack of progress.

 

[GLS]

Small update: work in the wings, underside and RCC has now produced a initial version of those parts, although still tons of details are missing. Spent about 3 days (not proud) working the air data probes, and hopefully that mesh is done and dusted. Also, cleaned up the code a bit, so only UV mapping remains for now. Next on the menu are the ET umbilical and gear doors... trying to limit the work to the outside of those areas (I want to defer work that doesn't depend on the external textures, in order to get to a release ASAP), but who knows what's going to happen.

@Wolf do you still want to work the textures?

 

[Wolf]

Hi GLS, glad to hear this project is progressing and really looking forward to the future release. Currently I am not able to work on the textures due to lack of time but if things change in the future I'll be more than happy to help.

 

[GLS]

Hi GLS, glad to hear this project is progressing and really looking forward to the future release. Currently I am not able to work on the textures due to lack of time but if things change in the future I'll be more than happy to help.

The UV mapping is still a bit in the future, but I have some decisions to make now as to how I proceed with the forward fuselage mesh that will affect mapping, thus my question.
My estimation is that mesh work should be finished sometime in December or January, and only then will texture work start. If you find time between now and then, you might want to learn UV mapping in blender (I'm using v2.79) or something else.

 

[GLS]

Update of the month:
Working the elevons, currently about 75% done... it's taking much longer than expected . This jumped ahead of the gear and ET umbilical doors, and I'll only move to them after I finish the aft end of the wings (which is the only unfinished area of the wings).

 

[GLS]

Update time, with bad news and good news.

Bad news: still working the elevon area... ?‍ ?‍
Good news: it's almost done! Finished the elevon seal panel animations today, after several days of switching between designs that were too complex and didn't look that great and designs that were too simple for what those panels do... thus they also didn't look great. Anyway, I'm really happy with the result, even if currently it looks like cr*p as I haven't bothered with the normals yet.
The only parts missing now are the sides of the seal panels, and this might also hurt a bit as those sides also have to seal to the elevons.
So, well over the "elevon hump"!

 

[GLS]

It's that time of the month again!
Finished the elevons and their seal panels a few days ago. The sides of the seal panels don't really look that great, but I don't think I can do much better, but as they are +/- hidden it shouldn't be a big issue. Anyway, that closes out the wing (except for the landing gear door).
Next were the ET umbilicals and their doors, which I just finished "hammering" into place. I only truly worried about the outside, and only did course corrections and cleanup on the inside structures as they don't depend on the "main" model or texture. This way I defer some work for a later release instead of delaying this one even more. The same strategy will apply to the landing gears. This means that the door drive animation is now more simplified (i.e., it doesn't work ?), although I think I now fully understand the mechanism and hope to implement it in the future, along with the GPC command logic. Anyway, when open, the door should be very close to the correct position.... so that's another part done with!
Next on the list are the landing gear doors.