Question A TOTALLY newbie guide?

[kimmag]

Hey! Im Kim and i am really interested in space and so on. I found this sim, and i want to try it. But its not like that easy to play, the controlls are weird, and there is not a good tutorial from before. I have tried a few tutorials, but they arent that good... Im good in english, but the tutorials doesnt make sence... Can anyone tell me the basics of flying a rocket or ? Like
Throttle up-
Throttle down-
turn left-

And tell me some of that stuff?

Greets Kim!

 

[RisingFury]

Numpad keys are the basic controls:
2 will pitch up, 8 will pitch down.
4 will roll left, 6 will roll right.
1 will yaw left, 3 will yaw right.
Holding 0 will increase hover thrusters if the ship has them, , will decrease them.
Holding Ctrl and + will increase main thrust, Ctrl and - will decrease.
You can hold down + and briefly press Ctrl to apply full thrust and kill the thrust will -.
You can press 5 to kill rotation once in space.


Find a read "Go play in space" tutorial. It's the best guide for beginners to Orbiter.

 

[Scrooge McDuck]

For your reference, the Go Play in Space tutorial can be found here (it's a PDF in the zip file).

regards,
mcduck

 

[kimmag]

Thanks guys

 

[ar81]

http://www.orbiter-forum.com/tutorials/

 

[Scarecrow]

Even though it's already been mentioned, I just need to say that "Go Play in Space" is Very Good. You can find it through the links already posted, or through Google.

 

[Tommy]

Also check out the flight recordings in the Tutorials and Playback folders (just start them as scenarios in Launchpad. Those let you see actual flights, which I think helps a lot. The manuals give you the theory, but it can be very hard and frustrating trying to put those theories into practice.

Over the next couple weeks I'll be making a tutorial series called "The Basics", aimed at the absolute beginner. They'll be a little light on theory, but longer on practice, with explanations of why I did some particular thing, or where a number I use for setting a MFD comes from (I hate all the "magic numbers" in many other tuts - they help you fly only that specific scenario). Look for them in the "Orbit Hanger - New Releases" thread starting sometime next week.

 

[Omhra]

in the beginning (when I was an Earth-bound biped...) I started with this... http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/basics/bsf3-4.html really helped me brake away from this Earthly realm...

 

[Kaito]

Feel free to Message me on here or over AIM if you have some very direct Questions:

AIM: kaito2112

 

[Talon1]

Hey! Im Kim and i am really interested in space and so on. I found this sim, and i want to try it. But its not like that easy to play, the controlls are weird, and there is not a good tutorial from before. I have tried a few tutorials, but they arent that good... Im good in english, but the tutorials doesnt make sence... Can anyone tell me the basics of flying a rocket or ? Like
Throttle up-
Throttle down-
turn left-

And tell me some of that stuff?

Greets Kim!

Just so you know, I wasn't all that good at flying in orbiter when I first tried but with time I got better. The same goes to you.

 

[MajorTom]

Use Autopilots and See How it's Done

Reading manuals, tutorials and all that is a fine way to learn. At some point you will of course want to run Orbiter, and hands-on playing with orbiter is best. But it's a really hard simulator to use when you don't know what you're doing yet.

Here's another suggestion for learning:
Download a rocket add-on (see http://www.orbiter-forum.com/faq.php?faq=addon_list#faq_addons or http://www.orbithangar.com/). Try Soyuz, Apollo, SpaceX... just about anything will do. Most have autopilots. Autopilots are great: just hit the autopilot key (given in the scenario description) and sit back and let the rocket automatically take you to orbit.

While the autopilot is in control, look closely at everything is happening. Try running the orbit and surface MFDs. Turn on your heads-up display (use the h key to toggle between HUD modes) and watch what is going on. See the pitch angle change. Watch the varying thrust, fuel level going down, altitude going up, speed going up... It's a great way to study without worrying about crashing.

Have fun!

 

[SPASE_1976]

I have tried a few tutorials, but they arent that good... Im good in english, but the tutorials doesnt make sence..
Greets Kim!

i agree with you 1000000000000000% that the tutorials are not user friendly and that they are complex while they shouldnt.
50% of the documentation is not needed

First read the keyboard mapping

THE MFD's:F1 cockpit view - At the 'spacecraft computer screen ' click [SEL]
and then a function [>] or [<]
usefull functions

-SURFACE
-ORBIT
-AND IF U R LOST IN EARTH.. THE MAP!

 

[Keatah]

Problem is is that if you're a xbox fanboy or ps3 afficianado, you're gonna find orbiter strange and all over the place. Orbiter is definitely not gta4! Each tutorial seems to try its best, everyone has their own way of describing stuff. So just keep looking. put bits and pieces together and build up from there. It's gonna take some time.

 

[kevinvr]

Go Play in Space is good and I just completed "Dancing in the Dark", but now with the IMFD I am struggling to understand or get the right stuff entered. I couldn't find how to start it till I read Asmo's guide and realized I had to enter an ID number to get it shared and I get the right MFD SHared but not the left. Then I still have another problem because due to my own lack of understanding I cannot figure out how to get "Off-Plane Intercept" as in the "Go Play In Space" guide pg 6-6, Scenario 1. Awaiting Take-off from Cape Canaceral. Point No 2. I'd also love some help

 

[Urwumpe]

Important basics:
Throttle forward: Engine loud
Throttle backward: Engine silent
Stick forward: Buildings become larger
Stick backward: Buildings become smaller

This is the stuff you should know before even attempting to reach orbit.

The rest, is easy. Before you go into space, read about where in Bobs name you are going to. You sure don't travel into a foreign country without learning the basic words in the local language first. How is it like in space? What is an orbit? What are the numbers this strange Orbit MFD displays? Do I really need to know them (About 60% of the numbers are important, the rest is redundant or just a different format)

When you know, what space is, visit it. Go up, reach orbital velocity (remember: tangential to Earth. Your velocity marker should be close to 0° on SURFACE HUD when you have reached your intended distance to Earth)

 

[atuhalpa]

Would this be feasible?

I was wandering if it would be feasible to set up a Skype or some other VOIP connection with a neophyte and talk them through a scenario that had been downloaded by both parties? I would volunteer for such a project as I find the written word to be somewhat problematical myself when attempting to walk through a tutorial.

 

[Tommy]

That could be a good idea, as long as experienced people are able (and willing) to do it. The only problem could be finding a time when both people are available.

I'm working on some tutorials, as mentioned above. Unfortunately, things have changed and I have much less time available, so the tuts are taking much longer than I had hoped. They are still coming, but it will be at least a couple more weeks before they start arriving. One of the ideas I'm hoping I can use for them is to use Orbitsound's sequencer to provide verbal commentary synced to the flight recordings.
I'm hoping that will help some, but I suspect that for quite a few people being able to ask questions (and get good answers) will be indispensible.

Perhaps you should start a dedicated thread for this, and hopefully get some volunteers enlisted. Perhaps one of the "chat" clients like teamspeak would be better, or "conference calling", so that classes with more than one "student" could be held. That would be more efficient than a one-on-one approach for basics like ascent, alignment, rendevous, etc.

 

[Pithecanthropu]

Important basics:
Throttle forward: Engine loud
Throttle backward: Engine silent
Stick forward: Buildings become larger
Stick backward: Buildings become smaller

This is the stuff you should know before even attempting to reach orbit.

The rest, is easy. Before you go into space, read about where in Bobs name you are going to. You sure don't travel into a foreign country without learning the basic words in the local language first. How is it like in space? What is an orbit? What are the numbers this strange Orbit MFD displays? Do I really need to know them (About 60% of the numbers are important, the rest is redundant or just a different format)

When you know, what space is, visit it. Go up, reach orbital velocity (remember: tangential to Earth. Your velocity marker should be close to 0° on SURFACE HUD when you have reached your intended distance to Earth)

Also, just in case you happen to be working from a notebook, yes you can run Orbiter on a notebook. There should be a subset of keys that stand in for the numeric keypad--

1. fn+f11 should shift the keys to numeric
2. fn+<some_key> gives you the numeric keypad value for <some_key> on an ad hoc basis. You will need to use this for some scenarios that require the standard keys, for example Space Ship One.

I actually didn't know (2) until recently.

 

[Tommy]

"Go Play in Space" was written for an older version of IMFD, and some of the options have moved or been re-named. It adds a bit of confusion, but the principle is still the same. You'll just have to try different buttons until you find what you need. I'm not at home, so I can't fire up Orbiter and give you better instructions. Maybe tomorrow night, provided no-one else beats me to it.

 

[unknown_orbiter]

It really makes me proud to be a member of this forum to see everyone going out of their way to help someone with basic questions. Honestly, everywhere else it would be "n00b g0 reed teh tu0riul cuz u iz stupid!!11". Good job guys.