Project Universal Car for Orbiter (UCO)

[dansteph]

Hello Folks,

UCO is a project that was started in 2008, it's completed at 95% and I'm decided to release it within one month. It will allow anyone to design cars or rover and make them functionnal in Orbiter by editing only a config file.

You can see an old presentation of the project in this thread:
http://orbiter.dansteph.com/forum/read.php?f=1&i=20873&t=17793

And see the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/DanStephOrbiter#p/a/u/2/Ukb33V0gSWs

The ABFO part will be minimal as Picto have no time to work on it. Good news is that some small rovers will be available as DGIV payload, so you can carry them in cargo bay. Another news is that you'll have up to 3 animation available. (door opening, solar panel, whatewer etc etc) The beta testing will open soon on my forum.

NOW MY ACTUAL QUESTION:
---------------------------

I'm asking myself if I'll develop a "cargo" function for cars, ie allowing cars to transport normalised container (1.5mx1.5m for example) such container could have different mesh as long as they fit in a 1.5x1.5 box.
Such container could also be carried by DGIV.

Another idea would be to make them carry something like O2 , food, fuel and allow UCO to "eat" them ie: you'll have fuel food or o2 managment available for cars. (can be disabled by config ie: unlimited reserves by defaut)

So this would open a whole new word of transportation. Maybe another addon author could use this system to make ship that can carry also containers. (or truck and more transportation cars)

Sound intteresting for you ?


SOME IMAGES OF LATEST DEV:
-----------------------------

New "Azure" rover for mars:

Small rover by Well, those one can be carried also by DGIV:

UCO is made so users can design easily new car but here is the actual collection that will be available by defaut:

As I didn't wanted that peoples miss that they can add "normalised" cargo with my SDK class I decide to do a simple mother ship:


UCGO Arrow Freigther

-Lenght 300m
-Landing only on low gravity planet
-Crew of 20 (UMMU)
-Can carry a DGIV like in bay
-Compatible UCGO can carry up to 32 visible cargo.
-No VC or panel yet (but I always wanted to do a mother ship so maybe later )

Cargo do not show they are located in center and I didn't finish this part (work in progress)

 

[garyw]

sounds amazing!

Another idea would be to make them carry something like O2 , food, fuel and allow UCO to "eat" them ie: you'll have fuel food or o2 managment available for cars. (can be disabled by config ie: unlimited reserves by defaut)

yes please, it'll allow for "proper" traverses over terrain, would be good if the vehicles could replenish the ummu as well as that would allow for overnight campouts during exploration

 

[laminator]

same here, sounds very promising and fun!

 

[Woo482]

Sounds very good ! and I agree with Garyw the ability for the Vehicles to Replenish the UMMU would be a quite nice feature

 

[dansteph]

sounds amazing!
would be good if the vehicles could replenish the ummu as well as that would allow for overnight campouts during exploration

Good idea. By defaut now when you enter/exit a car O2 of UMMU is again 100% , does this fit your need ?

Dan

 

[Urwumpe]

Could you also allow adding slow particle streams, for example for fire trucks? Would not need to actually extinguish fires, but just for the visual fun of it. And for the moral... after you crash, you at least clean the mess...

 

[the.punk]

Yeah.
Cool project.:speakcool:

This idea with th o2 and other life supplys is good. And a carge post would also be nice.
Keep on working.

 

[escapetomsfate]

This looks awesome, good job!

Will they follow the contours of an Orulex heightmap? Or would meshland account for that?

 

[dansteph]

Could you also allow adding slow particle streams, for example for fire trucks? Would not need to actually extinguish fires, but just for the visual fun of it. And for the moral... after you crash, you at least clean the mess...

Sound like a good idea but maybe too specific ? (only firetruck cars) I was thinking to add particle stream for wheels in terrain (dust cloud don't know the name) Not decided yet, I'm in concern with the number of parameters in config file, some users may be affraid by them (here's Azure actual one: http://orbiter.dansteph.com/UCOCarAzure.cfg (and it still miss aux animation and payload managment) and also by performance and dev time.

I'll see that at the very end if I have time.

---------- Post added at 01:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:42 PM ----------

This looks awesome, good job!
Will they follow the contours of an Orulex heightmap? Or would meshland account for that?

Would be really cool but as far as I know UMMU are not able to follow those height map, also making car was only possible with some heavy tricks (addforce) Orbiter don't like to much such things near ground. It work yet but following a terrain open a new can of worm: make weels and car follow terrain would add 1000% prog & car design complexity and possibility of problems.

Would be maybe possible for a special addon dedicated only for one cars but not for a "universal" one that should run many differents cars "programmed" by config file.

 

[Woo482]

going slightly off topic but UMMU's are able to follow the Orulex Hightmap when using this addon http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=6634

 

[Donamy]

Will they have attachment points, to be able to tow something, to allow pushback and such ?

 

[cjp]

I also started a car add-on some time ago:
http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=8368

Turns out some people are interested in tracked vehicles, and in vehicles that can carry other vehicles. Think e.g. about the massive crawler-transporter. I think people would appreciate it if this is supported in your add-on.

Can you keep the default possibilities of config files intact, so that it becomes possible e.g. to attach rocket engines to cars?

I'm looking forward to your first release. If it is what people want, I think I'll suspend my activity on my own car.dll even longer, so that I can work in more interesting projects.

AFAIK you're not really into open source, but I am interested in your implementation details. How detailed is your simulation of the tires and the wheel suspension?

 

[Zatnikitelman]

WOW! I've been looking forward to this since you announced it! It's looking great Dan!
As to your question, I like the cargo idea a lot. The real question is will this handle trailers, or will the trailers just be drug around rigidly? I know that's probably a lot of physics to try to get right.
Looking Good!

 

[Zop]

Great exactly what i need for my Explorership :speakcool:

 

[jedidia]

great going!

I would consider life support and consumables a must.

Cargo capacity would be very nice, and Orulex compatibility would just blow my socks of.

 

[zerofay32]

I see a Shuttle Tow vehicle in our future.

Zerofay32

 

[wehaveaproblem]

Sweet addition Dan,

Can you give us a little rundown of what will be configurable in the cfg file? I'm guessing the idea is that we can apply the file to any mesh by defining wheelbase length, ride height, turning circle etc etc?

Cheers.

 

[garyw]

I see a Shuttle Tow vehicle in our future.

Zerofay32

There already is one. I'm wondering if a config file from this addon can be used with the mesh to create a better version of that tow vehicle.

 

[Schimz]

Ahhhh.... finally...


:speakcool:

 

[jinglesassy]

amazing you are the best addon creator dan steph i think! and i cant wait to add this addon to my 6.4 gigabyte orbiter folder