Project XR Facility and base

[Interceptor]

Just awesome,WOW!

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

U P D A T E

The main tanks and pipes are complete with improved textures. I remapped the tanks as sections of the old texture wasn't matching properly. The tanks that sit atop of the facility have yet to be textured, but will be done by the next update. The staircase to the top of the large tanks is my best mesh and skin to date and I'm proud of them. I plan to produce more of these in other bases as you can't go wrong with checker plate and hazzard tape, seriously. :thumbup:

The pipes and gas distribution nodes (if thats the name) will not be colour coded. I tried different colours and shades, but plain off white seemed the best way forward. Minor night textures give light to the dials and signage but I will be makeing a small mesh, like a lamp that'll angle over the face of the console and then I'll improve the area effect of the night texture. This will be done in several areas where lighting has difficulty in creating the effects.

Four floodlight style lights either side of the facility have been fitted which hang from the ceiling. They are static, but hopefully they will emit light once coded across the floor and oposeing walls. A night time dds has been produced to demotrate the "hoped for effects" below.
The inner gantries now marry to the new access doors and they just need trimming as well as the external gantry doors. They are the same size and although not accessable, are scaled to size. As displayed, night time textures have worked well on both interior and exterier doors.

Considering Earth has 50% night time (disputable in consideration to geological location) it seems alot of thinking has to go into this area to maintain it's function for the user. I don't know about you, but I get annoyed with the dark, as I can't see. Let there light and plentry of it.
Below, is an example of what's disired useing light at night. The tempary night textures double the graphical size of the addon, but these are just to showcase.

Apart from a few minor meshes to be made up and mapped, the main facility just has to be tidied up. But the futher builds incorperated into this addon to actually make it function as an actual facility still have to be finished and coded. So in that respect, there's still alot to be done.
My kids house is almost decorated so I'll have some more free time to do so. On the whole it's going well.

Thankyou :tiphat:

Did you apply an Orbiter theme for your kid's room?

 

[PennyBlack]

I was tempted to swap my grankids Ben-10 theme colours and use Altea's blue colour scheme though. It would have looked good with small paper cutouts of the XR fleet bluetacked onto his projecting night globe. I'm not touching anything with plastic bristles again and if it's got "Ultra, Super Dupa Value" written on the tin, forget it. :facepalm: You'll end up applying more layers than one of those gob-stoppers has around that little Aniseed.
I'm glad it's done, because I was sick of being frozen. I like warmth. Anything else can be finished when they move in and with my eyes, that's probabley going to be fair bit.

I'm going to be looking into Spacecraft.dd tutorial for the rest of today, in a warm room I might add and hope to see how people create with the technical side of addons. I managed the Sprite addon, so it would be good to find out about attachments ect. It'll open things up abit more.

 

[PennyBlack]

U P D A T E

Hopefully this is the final update prior to a beta release. As a work in progress, it will recieve new updates as time passes, with planned additions to add to the main package to add to the Orbinauts experience.

It was hard to choose the location for the facility, but I think the chosen location, as illistrated by the below image, is the best place on Earth. It has less scenery added to that area and hopefully won't cause to much scenery conflict with your addons. Other locations for the facility are being viewed, such as the moon and mars so those partial to lunar and martian activity will be catered for.

Russ has laboured long and hard to make this a viable addon. As you can see from the below illistration, we have a complete working crane offering features like a cockpit mode, allowing you to use a mouse over button control panel (no spoiler on the panel sorry). Functional displays that operate in real time with your cranes activities, updating information on where your cargo is. Controls that allow you to operate lights, doors and extract exhaust smoke via ceiling fans. You will also be able to use the typical keyboard interface for operations when in external view.

Identification of your cargo is easy with a user friendly computer system that you use to locate your cargo and beacons activate to visually guide you to it. The cargo is visually named. A computer screen on the side of the cargo will allow you to see what it's contents are. A default scenario will place preset cargos and each one can be renamed as you wish via scenario editing to form your own cargo inventories before you load your XR5 for takeoff should you wish.

The lights are operational within the facility that compliment the night textures very well. You are not blinded by bright light, moreover an ambient light to ensure cargo opperations continue in the hours of total darkness.

There are several things that need to done before release and attention is being made to ensure a release is very soon, hopefully Tuesday next. All being well and if Russ doesn't escape.

A manual to help users operate the facility will be included in the download package.

:tiphat:

 

[Pipcard]

Now it looks like a proper expansion to the KSC Runway.

 

[Interceptor]

OMG,This looks incredible,PennyBlack,I can't wait to give it a spin,thanks,to you,and Russ for making this for the orbiter community.:tiphat:BTW is it going to be UCGO,also!

 

[wehaveaproblem]

This is looking really special, some superb modelling/artwork and the coding functions sound great! I'm very happy to see Russ on board too.

I'm particularly taken by your talk of the cargo/crane system, look forward to testing this addon. Will the source code be open source when it is done?

 

[PennyBlack]

At some point, hopefully in a future update, UCGO compatability maywell be included.

And the source code, won't be open.

Believe me, I have spent many many hours playing... er sorry, TESTING the system. Most enjoyable. :thumbup: Any artwork or rough paints are a mere distraction.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Outstanding! This is near the top of my must-have addons, just behind the new UCGO and the XR-3.

 

[PennyBlack]

ANOTHER UPDATE

Another post, but changes had to be made to the spreader. One of those "I should have thought about it" thing's...

Orginally the spreader was designed to pick up 40' containers. But what about those 20' foot containers.!!
A new spreader had to be designed that folded inwards from 40' to 20' to cater for those who wish to use either, along with new a new 20' cargo for you to use should you wish to. The new spreader and new cargo was then rushed off in a 40' container for Russ to program. Although I loved the old spreader, getting it to fold inwards was a design nightmare, the new design is as good I think...

Now, I know how to produce normal maps, thanx to a little guidance from Russ, I have decided to include a few with the Facility. Here's a snapshot of a standard setup with a standard setup of Orbiter and what it would look like with a normal thrown in useing D3D9.

A new button has been added to the main control panel for users to change it's size. Now, this has come as a huge inconvienience to Russ who had to reprogram the cranes system to cater for the change, but I think the little extra work and extra dds's are worth while. The XR5 bay in the background is still being retex'd for normals, but my focus is the facility. I hope to include the outer walls and top...

...inner walls and ceiling, floor and doors with normal maps. It's quite graphically intense and I wouldn't recommend the facility download for ZX81 or 386 users, but it's a beta-release so I do hope for any feedback on any aspects including graphics.

There is however an issue that cannot be avioded. The crane is a vessel while the facility itself is a base. The vessel can only be included in a scenario like the ISS and the Mir vessels, while the Facility intigrates itself as a base and is always there like New Brighton and Kennedy. The facility and crane could have been combined into one vessel and included into a user scenario, but as I wanted night time textures to add to the romance of it all, it isn't possible to do this. Lights in Orbiter are funny and can travel though walls which I didn't want at all. So, when you don't activate the scenario which uses the crane, you still get the facility, sitting at the end of the runway and as the doors are a part of the animations and therfor part of the vessel, they will be absent. A shell of the Facility will only be present, standing vacant and allowing in the acid rain to pour in, striping the paint off whatever you have parked there. Being Beta, everything is being thrown into the package. Feedback will dictate whats included or removed in the update and how it is structured for practicle and ease of use.

It will definatley not be to long now as it's heading toward a fully releasable model, I cannot see anything else I've forgotten to mention or add.

Thankyou for the patience.

 

[Loru]

I must say I'm really impressed by your texture work.

Keep up good work.

 

[Shakal]

] So, when you don't activate the scenario which uses the crane, you still get the facility, sitting at the end of the runway and as the doors are a part of the animations and therfor part of the vessel, they will be absent. A shell of the Facility will only be present, standing vacant and allowing in the acid rain to pour in, striping the paint off whatever you have parked there.

How about this thing: [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3009"]Default Scenario[/ame]

It allow to have a set of vessels present by default in every scenario you run.

 

[PennyBlack]

How about this thing: Default Scenario

It allow to have a set of vessels present by default in every scenario you run.

Thankyou for the suggestion Shakal...

I checked the Default Scenario by Artlav, very good idea and I enjoyed the potential for it's use with the facility. I installed it on 3 seperate fresh installs of Orbiter to test it's function and found...

Orbiter 2010 - P1 v. 100830 - NOT FUNCTIONAL (As indicated in the comments section of the addon, but you got to try. Different machines and setups can produce different results.)

Orbiter 2010 - Basic Distribution v. 100606 - NOT FUNTIONAL

2006 P1 Edition - Basic Distribution v. 060929 - WORKS (but it only focuses on the facility shell and doesn't show the crane vessel.)

I figure it'll work in the same manner with lesser dated editions, but with the same issue as I found in the 2006 P1 Edition.

This something that can be looked at in Beta. I do know that people have different setups which affect certain aspects of addons ect.

Graphics...
Just so users know, D3D9 is not a compusary option for the facility. The use of normals and rich textures I find, does drastically reduced the performance of Orbiter especially if you have a host of other integrated addons like scenary ect. I think it's a case of user beware isn't it, but it is planned that we make it as compatable as possible with both a standard and D3D9+ setup.

 

[PennyBlack]

The programing for the containers have been done and they operate well. The textures have been sorted and the best ones selected and included into the package. Several scenarios has been written to allow users to use both the 20' and 40' containers alone and with the XR5 (must be installed). The containers will be laid out in the loading zone at the rear of the facility. The below images just demonstrate the basic scenario layout and the number of containers are limited to demonstrate the selection of choice. There are other cargo meshes and textures in the pipeline and will be included in the update while we work on any bugs.

It's amazing that normal maps have been around for a while, yet as they where new to me and seeing there effects on the facility, I got carried away in regards of what I wanted to do. How quickly was any dream of normals dashed with the heavy lagg they produced, so I have to dump that idea of producing them for now and should have thought about that alittle more. I will produce them later and do a seperate download for high end users, but my machine screams blue murder with just a few of the them. I see why there are very few in use now. But you live and learn ay :facepalm:

The manual is basic and has been produced with illistrations, in PDF form and like the facility will be updated with any feedback on the BETA from users. The base and addons that was originally planned with the facility is still in progress, but will be a seperate download and oweing to the use of habitats will be placed on another planet, which is where I spend most of my time anyway.

I personally want to thank Russ for all the hard work, which I didn't understand was required not being a programmer. Thankyou Russ :tiphat:

The only thing prior to beta release is to put the files together and tidy up before presentation for download. Hopefully before Tuesday and as soon as possible.

 

[Interceptor]

Thank you PennyBlack,and,Russ,it looks beautiful so far.

 

[Eccentrus]

certainly can't wait for Tuesday now

 

[Donamy]

When will you do a moon base, or Mars ?

 

[masterrooot]

OMG, it's awesome, dude!!!
Am waiting for beta!!!

 

[PennyBlack]

When will you do a moon base, or Mars ?

As and when I can, but I have a surface base in progress, domes ect., that can be applied to the martian surface as well as lunar. Differing texture packages could cater for that. But there's so much real-estate out there, it's a dev's delight.

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You can find the upload Facility here guy's...

[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=6052"]XR Facility[/ame]

Hope you like and any feedback would be great :thumbup:

 

[Russ_H]

I want to thank PennyBlack for all that he has done. I can't tell you how many times I had to change parts of the model. Some times you have to model with the programming in mind. It was always in that back of my mind that, if I can just get the crane to work the way we need it to work, Colin would fix whatever I screwed up. Also I went down wrong paths with an idea and Colin would have to work to change the model to match the way I was coding it.

Thank you PennyBlack for all the hard work and care you have given to this project.

I know that we are going to need a major rewrite of the cargo computer. We need to do a bunch of things that PennyBlack and I could not have know about until we finished or had most of this project finished. So we are sitting at 6 months of work on our project knowing that some things are not right. Before we start on the new development we would like feed back and new ideas from the testers. I feel that the testers will have a view of our project that is fresh.

One other note about the crane. The old containers that come with the XR5 are not compatible with the crane. The new smart cargo containers are compatible with the XR5.