Project XR2 Ravenstar - Mk II

[Coolhand]

a "hole" between scram engines? sounds like its asking for trouble. but i suppose if you can make a spaceship that runs on magic, you can put a hole through anything safely

what kind of payload do you imagine will "fall through" that hole btw, its awfully narrow for a rover

well, flying at mach 30 is asking for trouble but it doesn't seem to stop anyone... And it only runs on magic if you want it to. But either way, those are separate self contained engines so its reasonable to imagine there could be room for something like this.

The 2 new ground access hatches add plenty of useful functionality, and like the forward hatch, access like this is something that's been requested before.

I've given plenty of examples of use. More specifically, any number of vehicles, robots or jetpacks can be deployed from the cargo bay to the ground below - even animals, livestock, -lol- who knows... such things might be valuable? you could fit inflatable habs through there just fine, supplies, water, batteries, generators, you could get an entire mini/temporary colony out of there if you use some imagination.

So, just because its a relatively narrow space, does not mean that it can't be useful. I guess even a larger vehicle could be deployed in sections or as some kind of fold out mechanism.

It might aid scientific missions, land over an area to survey and deploy a core drill from the payload bay for example - could be a real time saver for any number of scientific or exploration activities.

so for use, perhaps a standard sized payload module could spawn things over the hole or on the ground below (it sits basically in the mid-fuel tank position so there would be room for a CHM a "payload dispenser" and a fuel tank) otherwise you might imagine people working in the bay, loading and deploying items to those below.

perhaps it should have some type of elevator? but otherwise to deploy safely, there might be a winch above or something to lower things down.

thought I'd have a go at guessing what is visible in this picture:
Purple: The under-body Access hatch Coolhand just revealed.
Red: The SCRAM Access Panels. (Also visible on XR2 MKI)
Yellow: The Underwing Gear. (obviously)
Turquoise: I suspect these may be underwing compartments, which I think Coolhand has mentioned at some point before.
Blue: SCRAM Intake doors.
Green: I think it is probably the front Hover jet cover.
White/Pastel Blue: Unknown.

NOTE: YMMV with what you see the colours as actually being.

thats not far off, the door marked green is probably going to be removed - it houses the now redundant forward vtol engine. This engine is replaced with 2 engines further forwards, marked white in your image. I think everything has been mentioned previously but no harm in a re-cap, thanks.

 

[White Wolf]

Is there anything this ship doesn't have?

If i hadn't already flown the mkI i wouldn't believe that something this nice could be free. anyway, i have to admit that i like the repositioning of the forward vtol engines. i always thought the old positioning would choke the scram intakes a bit on both this ship and the DGIV.

Thanks for the update, stuff like this reminds me that this ship is going to be worth the wait.

 

[Coolhand]

well it doesn't have a galley, so there's one thing i can say it doesn't have...:facepalm:

Hard for me to believe how many years i've been working on this model now, since i began showing images of it on the m6 board in 2007 - It can take several days just to paint one 2k texture and since i started its become more and more difficult to find the time.

Moving the nozzle is more of a centre of mass & safety thing... dont forget the forward part has been extended quite a lot.

Here's a dump of a few more images of the underside, now working on texturing the bays.

 

[Coolhand]

definitely preferring this bay texture to the mk1's. Also seems to have solved the worrying problem of alien abductions.

 

[Wishbone]

"Deep fried alien"-abductions, considering the craft should be hovering...

 

[jinglesassy]

Will it still have the easter eggs we all love?

 

[willy88]

Wow, the Mark II is really starting to take shape!

 

[Coolhand]

"Deep fried alien"-abductions, considering the craft should be hovering...

note how i said problem solved.... and more like flame grilled, no?:lol:

As for easter eggs, who is to say... I'm sure soon as its out someone will go through all the of the image files to try to find some out of place texture.

What i'd like to do, and its not an easter egg, is to have more passengers in there, and perhaps J-Rod will be allowed inside as some sort of bonus feature.

Obviously with the mk1, you only had empty seats, this was to be addressed but basically its probably because i had enough to do and couldn't find time to build the passengers.

 

[Keatah]

I can't wait to do doughnuts with this ship..

As far as passengers, make it super easy for even the most non-technical among us to be able to put in pics of our buddies and stuff.

---------- Post added at 11:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:58 PM ----------

"Deep fried alien"-abductions, considering the craft should be hovering...

As far as that goes, couldn't the retro doors swing into the exhaust slightly. thereby deflecting the hot gasses away from the 'just rescued' astronaut ?? Or some sort of thrust vectoring maybe? Sure it would result in some inefficiencies, but perhaps its doable.

Or maybe the astronaut and cable and "stuff to be hauled up" are just naturally heat resistant somehow.

 

[Wishbone]

Right. Doable but on smaller moons only, on anything larger Coolhand's rover is preferred...

 

[ercsim]

Coolhand,

Your model looks extremely pretty at this point of time. It is so complete that I feel like its more than ready to be released. Great model. Love it.

 

[Coolhand]

we are on the final lap for certain as far as the model is concerned. still a number of jobs to do...

texture the low detail bays (50%)
unwrap and texture high detail bays (front and rear ladder bays, airlock)
fix minor unwrapping issues, distortions, finalise maps.
unwrap and texture cabin furniture, finalise cabin & flightdeck and hatches.
unwrap and texture new nose cone interior, airlock + new docking system / bow bulkhead

(as yet unseen, but the nosecone had to be modified to allow for the ladder access, allowing space access while docked, sometimes one change forces another and so on.)

Keatah / wishbone, you mean like some sort of SAR vessel? perhaps not on earth - assume a bare skinned or lightly clothed human or alien, would you cook them under those circumstances? i don't know. would depend on how much radiation they can soak up before burning, output of the engines and time taken to winch them up through the most intense part.

But if you angled the engines out as you say it might be possible and would be fun to explore the idea, the bays are now re-designed to visually accommodate engine gimbaling. either way i'm sure it would be possible to use a longer cable to lift and tow things.

 

[Keatah]

Perhaps we could just make the winch rope long enough and drag the victims to a flat area, land there and let them board that way. OR, include a tiny egg-shaped enclosure or a suit or something, that gets lowered to the hapless soon-to-be-rescued survivor. Or perhaps something as simple as a thermal blanket attached to the end of the cable would be sufficient. Like a rain poncho. Just be sure the cable is long enough so we don't set any wooden roofs on fire!

Or do what NASA did and give us one of these --
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Rescue_Enclosure"]Personal Rescue Enclosure - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/reseball.htm

Anways, the ship is looking good enough, and I only use it for SAR ops or spacegoing party-bus. Kind of like soul plane! heheheheeeaAAAAAaAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!! RRROOOAAAAARRRRR!!

 

[boby_nadeau]

Will the 3d cockpit be functionnal ?

 

[Stevodoran]

Will the 3d cockpit be functionnal ?

I think v1 will have a static cockpit and v2 will gave a functional cockpit.

 

[dbeachy1]

Yes, the Mark II will have a fully active VC.

 

[markl316]

I am flabbergasted with excitement. Coolhand, I almost cried when I saw the model. This is going to be incredible; Coolhand and Doug, keep up the fantastic work!!!

 

[halcyon]

So at this point Coolhand & Doug, does the ship require more systems modelling/coding or is the only work left the texturing that was mentioned?

 

[Lucy]

The texturing mentioned needs to be completed, then the vessel can be coded, a process which hasn't started yet.

 

[Keatah]

I couldn't imagine a large commercial games studio doing better than this! Cruising right along now..
And thanks for fixing the problem I mentioned in msg #1467.
http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?p=212488&postcount=1467
The option in the .cfg file to change the button behavior makes a huge difference, to me.