Which Space Shuttle addon do you prefer?

[Kyle]

NASSP nearly beats SSM07 I think we all can agree, in fact its more realistic.

 

[SlyCoopersButt]

For now Shuttle fleet is my choice of addon for shuttle missions. But a future version of SSU will probably sway me as it's sounding very interesting. Though I'm not fond of the fact that default Atlantis is over-written.

 

[Sherrif of Nottingham]

Somewhere around 2004-2005 I heard of a space shuttle simulator under development and decided to take a look. It was called S3 (Space Shuttle Simulator) and was being written as a true simulator. Back then the system requirements were high enough that they pushed my system very near to the limit. The one man developer of S3 is one of the main developers of SSM2007 and when I tried the demo for SSM2007 it seemed to be almost exactly like that beta snapshot of S3 that I used to fool around with, albeit far more complete. One of the other main developers created a few other simulations, some of which I used to use frequently.

I'm fairly certain that SSM2007 is a complete simulator, even if the interface and 'gameplay' lead you to think otherwise. I've only been follin around with the demo, which only lets you simulate STS-1, but the full version has several other missions. Some feature the ISS, Hubble, and other satelites. Not certain whether any have Mir, but it's possible.

I'm also fairly certain that if you know what you're doing, you can manually enter attitude and burntime data instead of just getting it from the 'ground'. This would enable you to do pretty much anything to your orbit within the fuel reserves...again...assuming you know what your doing, especially with how to use the GPCs to do more than just grab data from the 'ground'.

Wut?

Why does it matter? Why are we talking about other simulators... in the Orbiter Forum?

I'm not trying to be rude, but I came here to look for orbiter stuff... what I see is people trying to advertise other simulators. I AM new to the orbiter forum, but I HAVE tried to start my own forum for another game. This kind of stuff, as harmless as it may seem cause my own forum's downfall, everybody found these new games similar to the game I had, and thought they were more fun, sooner or later there was only one active member left, me...

So please take this discussion at least in the off topic section, if it belongs anywhere.

 

[Urwumpe]

 

[Acepilot]

I tried the demo, brought my FPS down to 15!

I'm not buying that sim. I'm sticking with Orbiters Space Shuttle.

 

[DaveS]

I downloaded it last week with a link on this forum .. It is great it is just like the NASSP but for the shuttle and Fleet and SSU look old. The graphics are awesome, but I can't figure out how to put up a picture link here??? Can you tell me how???

When reploying click on the paperclip icon, then Browse button and select the files you wish to upload. Please make sure they're in the .jpg format!

 

[Travis Reed]

Aww crap...I've opened a can of worms...and it started with this

I don't use any of 'em. XR series for me mostly. If I want to run the shuttle, I'll use SSM2007 instead.

I should not have made further comments on the other sim, even when people began asking questions and making comments...

I probably should not have mentioned at all...

I wish to apologize for dragging this thread off topic.

I think I'll go :hide: now...

 

[Moonwalker]

I would love to see a space shuttle addon which almost fully recreates the instrument panels and systems...

 

[tl8]

Thread has been cleaned to remove references to Shuttle 08

 

[ryan]

I would love to see a space shuttle addon which almost fully recreates the instrument panels and systems...

I think SSU is working on it, but they havnt released a new version in quiet a while.

 

[Urwumpe]

I think SSU is working on it, but they havnt released a new version in quiet a while.

We now have almost all flight deck panels modeled, they just need to be implemented in the code.

 

[Moonwalker]

Actually SSU already is on my favourites list

The flightdeck looks amazing. If it is going to work in future (including the GPC's and much more...) it will be another basic reason for me to use Orbiter (beside NASSP of course ).

 

[Urwumpe]

Actually SSU already is on my favourites list

The flightdeck looks amazing. If it is going to work in future (including the GPC's and much more...) it will be another basic reason for me to use Orbiter (beside NASSP of course ).

Well, in 3 years, a standard computer could emulate 5 GPCs with original software. Which means actually simulating 10 CPUs... but thank god, the System/360 series is not too powerful.

 

[Moonwalker]

Well, in 3 years, a standard computer could emulate 5 GPCs with original software. Which means actually simulating 10 CPUs... but thank god, the System/360 series is not too powerful.

As an average user I think it is not really a requirement to actually simulate the 5 GPC's at 100% including the original software (is it available already by the way?). But the most important features required and used during a usual mission would be awesome. I think that the original software contains much more control/monitoring of processes and events which we won't have completely in Orbiter anyway...

 

[Tschachim]

... a standard computer could emulate 5 GPCs with original software.

By the way, do you have any idea or hint if the original software is or will be public anytime?

Cheers
Tschachim

EDIT: Ah, looks like you had the same thought, Moonwalker...

 

[Urwumpe]

By the way, do you have any idea or hint if the original software is or will be public anytime?

Honestly: Likely not before the retirement of the Shuttle, the B-1B bomber and the B-52H. Because all use the same computer, the required documents about the military System/4Pi will not be published soon. The Shuttle software might not be released under the Freedom of Information act soon, as it might allow reverse engineering the changes to the System/360 architecture.

But it would be cool and would make our development maybe a bit simpler, as we currently effectively rewrite the Shuttle software in C++. We could already write a free implementation of the HAL/S language, as the language docs including the runtime library used for the Shuttle (HAL/FC) is now released.

 

[Tschachim]

...as we currently effectively rewrite the Shuttle software in C++.

Yes, that's pretty much the same the NASSP guys (that was before my time) did before we had the Virtual AGC, we called it AGC++ (now the "Simple AGC": http://nassp.sf.net/wiki/Simple_AGC). But for me personally it's not the same, using the real flight software is a completely different feeling...

So it looks like we need to wait for a "Virtual GPC", but I really hope the shuttle flight software won't get lost in the deeps of the NASA archives (as the Apollo software almost did, there are still important parts missing we're searching for since years meanwhile...).

Cheers
Tschachim

 

[Urwumpe]

So it looks like we need to wait for a "Virtual GPC", but I really hope the shuttle flight software won't get lost in the deeps of the NASA archives (as the Apollo software almost did, there are still important parts missing we're searching for since years meanwhile...).

Well, we have just small things missing for realizing one. There are some good System/360 emulators, and the behavior of the CPU is not too complex. But the GPC has some small changes to the instruction set, which I don't know yet. Also, the interface to the IOP and the instruction set of the IOP is still unknown - i only have data about the skylab computer and it's IOP, which are also System/360 based, but have a different behavior as the Shuttle computers.

 

[The Aviator]

So, a day we will see a Virtual GPC on SSU???

 

[Urwumpe]

So, a day we will see a Virtual GPC on SSU???

One day - yes. But I think the USA will land on the moon earlier - at least regarding the fact that the US Airforce does not yet plan to retire the B-52H early.