Software Sphere Surface

[Pioneer]

Hall Base on Phobos was one of my favorite destinations in the Solar System, but unfortunately it does not work anymore for Orbiter 2016 due to the surface being defined as the actual mesh. Would it be possible, through the config settings or something, to restore the "invisible sphere" surface for Phobos so Hall Base would work again? Thank you very much!

 

[Abloheet]

Why don't we reconfigure Hall Base itself so that it maps to the terrain surface in Orbiter 2016? A new label(which I don't remember at the moment) has been added to Orbiter 2016, which makes base objects map to terrain elevation. It has to be added in the object definition in the Hall Base .cfg file.

 

[Pioneer]

Why don't we reconfigure Hall Base itself so that it maps to the terrain surface in Orbiter 2016? A new label(which I don't remember at the moment) has been added to Orbiter 2016, which makes base objects map to terrain elevation. It has to be added in the object definition in the Hall Base .cfg file.

Looks like someone already tried that:
https://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=29165&page=3 Post 39

 

[BrianJ]

Would it be possible, through the config settings or something, to restore the "invisible sphere" surface for Phobos so Hall Base would work again? Thank you very much!

I haven't tried this, but I think if you edit your Config/Phobos.cfg file, and set MaxPatchResolution to zero:

MaxPatchResolution = 0

Phobos will revert to the old Orbiter2010 style (the old Orbiter2010 mesh and texture for Phobos are still included in Orbiter2016).
You might need to set size also:

Size = 11e3

 

[martins]

I haven't tried this, but I think if you edit your Config/Phobos.cfg file, and set MaxPatchResolution to zero:

MaxPatchResolution = 0

Phobos will revert to the old Orbiter2010 style (the old Orbiter2010 mesh and texture for Phobos are still included in Orbiter2016).

The entry in question is actually

TileFormat = 1

although setting the max patch resolution to zero might produce some interesting effects :thumbup:

Good point about the old texture still in the distribution. I should thow this out.

Regarding the base elements going wonky in the 2016 edition: The problem is that Orbiter aligns the base object normals with the vector to the centre of the celestial body. This is a good approximation to the local gravity direction for bodies that are approximately spherical, but for Phobos it clearly doesn't work, unless you pick your location carefully.

Aligning the building normals with the local surface normal would also not be a good idea, unless you want buildings on mountain slopes sticking out sideways.

Calculating the local gravity vector is not entirely trivial for such irregular objects, so maybe I should just provide an option to define the normal direction for each base object manually in the config file, and leave it to the base author to come up with sensible values.

In the meantime, my only suggestion is to move the base to a location where the local surface normal happens to coincide with the vector to Phobos' centre.

 

[Abloheet]

Calculating the local gravity vector is not entirely trivial for such irregular objects, so maybe I should just provide an option to define the normal direction for each base object manually in the config file, and leave it to the base author to come up with sensible values.

In the meantime, my only suggestion is to move the base to a location where the local surface normal happens to coincide with the vector to Phobos' centre.

Yes sir, that would be perfect:thumbup: