Project VesselBuilder for Orbiter

fred18

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With the SAL addon. When you dock the Dragon to the SAL, you have the option of syncing the tanks and the thrusters, to compensate for the new COG. Can this be done with VB, as an event ?

I think so. I will have to study a bit that situation to understand how that works and suggest what could be a good combinations of events and setup, but I really think it would be possible and not too complicated to do. Honestly i can t wait to finish the implementations so i will be able to study with developers the various "real life" situations.
 

Donamy

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You mean "simulated "real life"" :thumbup:
 

4throck

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...i will add an option to retain the fuel amount of certain tanks

Thanks. Besides fuel we may need to retain attachments, docked objects and animation status.

Imagine that you detach the LEM descent stage while docked to the CSM.
The new LEM should remain docked, the internal hatch should remain open, the antennas pointed the same way, etc.

Ideally any light and camera status should also be preserved, but I can live with it if they don't.
As always, just ideas, no rush to implement.
 

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no more required parameters - fixed
TDP_SECONDSET_ENABLED = FALSE
TDP_CHANGEOVER_ANIM = -1

Using ShuttlePB with default generated touchdown points => CTD (nothig relevant found in both logs Orbiter and VB).

After I defined correct touchdown points from sample ShuttlePB.cpp works ok. :)

I tried again and now I have the full picture. This happends when I press "Just Some Default Points Please..." without setting "Height From Ground" and "Radius" => Height From Ground = 0 and Radius = 0 => that was my fault; I did not set correct parameters.
I recommand if it's possible to set those default values to 1.

Fabulous addon! :thumbup:
 
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Donamy

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Imagine that you detach the LEM descent stage while docked to the CSM.
The new LEM should remain docked, the internal hatch should remain open, the antennas pointed the same way, etc.


Was that even possible ? :huh:
 

fred18

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Thanks. Besides fuel we may need to retain attachments, docked objects and animation status.

Imagine that you detach the LEM descent stage while docked to the CSM.
The new LEM should remain docked, the internal hatch should remain open, the antennas pointed the same way, etc.

Ideally any light and camera status should also be preserved, but I can live with it if they don't.
As always, just ideas, no rush to implement.

The good news is that all this is already possible and I think you're looking at it from the wrong perspective (of course since you haven't had the chance to test events and reconfigs yet). Let me explain:

Reconfigurations will be on a per SECTION basis, which means that each reconfiguration won't be a total one (unless you choose to reconfigure all sections of course), but partial. So it will about what to modify. The rest of course won't be changed. Since a section reconfiguration will reset the section it is true that relevant to propellant there could be the need to retain the values, but just about them in my opinion.

I will take your example of LEM ascent and descent stage together with the CM and here's how I would do it, 3 ways at least I can think of:

1) Two separate vessels:
- Create two vessels one for the LM descent stage and one for the LM ascent stage, and use a "Jettisonable" dock between them. Jettisonable means that as soon as the two vessels undock from each other the docking ports will be deleted and not available anymore. When you want to detach the descent stage just undock it. That's the easiest but maybe less easy to handle when playing

2) Single vessel:
- Create one vessel of course with two meshes,the lower stage mesh and the upper stage mesh.
- Create a CHILD SPAWN event triggered by a keypress that will spawn the Descent Stage and delete its mesh from the LM vessel.
- Create a Reconfiguration Event triggered by the event above that will reconfigure the general settings (Empty Mass, PMI etc ), propellant and engines on the LM vessel so the main engine will be now the ascent engine as it should be. The rest will just stay there: antenna pointed where they need, hatch open, docking etc.

3) something in the middle:
- Create two vessels, one for the ascent, one for the descent stage.
- Configure the propellant and the engines on the ascent stage with the coordinates of the descent stage so you'll have control from the ascent stage.
- Create a Jettison event that will jettison the descent stage
- Create e reconfiguration event that will reconfigure mass, propellant and engines on the upper stage to update the correct values.

That's it!!!

So, again, reconfiguration will be about what to modify and the rest will be the same. And the "crazy" thing is that events themselves will be available to reconfiguration, opening to some infinite possible combinations of things that just the fantasy of the developers will limit!

I hope my explanation was clear enough to let you understand the concepts, please let me know if things are clearer now!

:cheers:

Fabulos addon! :thumbup:
Thanks Man! and I'll add the default values as per your correct suggestions. They are really invaluable inputs, Thanks!!!:thumbup:
 

Donamy

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Are the animations working for the Cupola in your example ? If so, which keys activate it ?
 

fred18

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Are the animations working for the Cupola in your example ? If so, which keys activate it ?

Yes. I am away from the pc but i think it s K (shift k to open, ctrl shift k to close). But have a look at the document, i think i noted it down.
 

Donamy

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Can you add a key as a default to show attachments ?
 

fred18

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Can you add a key as a default to show attachments ?
if you mean the "show grapple points" option which has the atlantis then no, it is not implemented, if you want to see where an attachment is you can use the "show this attachment" checkbox in the Attachment window of the control Dialog
 

Donamy

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Unfortunately you can't do that with NoEdit = TRUE.
 

4throck

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2) Single vessel:
...
I hope my explanation was clear enough to let you understand the


Yes, very clear and perfectly logical.
Example 2 is what I had in mind and follows reality closely.


Another suggestion ;)
An option or a key to display a text field on the HUD. That would be useful to display a list of keys commands, for example.
 
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Donamy

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Trying to use the follow me tool, and getting a VCRUNTIME140D.dll missing from computer error.
 
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fred18

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Trying to use the follow me tool, and getting a VCRUNTIME140D.dll missing from computer error.
Oh i think I forgot to compile it in release mode, sorry. I am abroad for work today, so I ll update it tomorrow
 

fred18

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I gave it a thought and I will make a small but significant modification to the backup procedure, which I believe it will be an improvement:

current procedure:
if in the cfg noeditor flag is set to false at the moment a VB vessel is loaded into the sim a backup of the file is appended to its backup history and at the moment of scn saving (or sim close) the cfg is rewritten with the updated parameters. If noeditor flag is sot to true then nothing of this happens.

this means that if I have for example multiple VB vessels in the same scn and I just modify one of them anyway backups will be appended and cfg rewritten for all of them

The change I want to do:
Backup file is created when the dialog is open (so when the user is about to make modifications) and the cfg will be rewritten only if the dialog has been opened. The NOEDITOR flag will just prevent the dialog from being opened.

This has the only downside that if a user open and closes the dialog many times in the same session multiple backups get appended, but has the more significant good effects that untouched vessels won't have unnecessary backups and unnecessary cfg rewrites. Also it will prevent unnecessary backups or cfg rewrites for those addons that will be released by users that forget to set the noeditor flag to true before release, and I'm sure that there will be some.

So I will implement that. I don't want to speak too much, but I prefer to keep the updates here in the forum so there is a trace that is easy to follow at the end of the development and to keep all the potential users up to date with ongoing modifications.

:cheers:

Fred
 

Donamy

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How about a message, when you close the dialog box, it asks "Do you want to save the changes ?" That way, if you've gotten confused, while making the changes (which often happens to me) you can just say no and the changes won't be made. Then you can just reopen where you started and make new changes. Just a suggestion.
 
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