Another newbie

[tfr001]

Hi All,

I found some of the video you guys have been producing with Orbiter over on Youtube, so I thought I'd check it out. I'll have to get it up on my computer at some point. Might have to upgrade the hardware, I'm not currently a gamer. What do you need to add to a basic PC?

I'm interested in any kind of orbital mechanics simulation. I write my own from time to time. Last project was a rocket launch simulator in Excel, nothing pretty, just numbers in and numbers out.

 

[TSPenguin]

In order to run a very old computer suffices.
Post your specs and we can help you planing any upgrades.
Also to the forum and orbiter in general!

 

[tfr001]

Computer is:

1.3 gig Celeron
40 gig harddrive
512 mb ram
mouse & kb

that's about it... not even a joystick!

 

[TSPenguin]

Interesting would also be graphics card.

Your CPU is sufficient, but with only 512MB ram you should stay away from the third party L10 textures (Like the excellent ones from Seth Eden).

Just try it out. You will be amazed!

 

[Zatnikitelman]

Actually, I only have 512mb RAM on my desktop and run some pretty high resolution textures in Orbiter and except for longer loading time, it runs great.

 

[Scarecrow]

Computer is:

1.3 gig Celeron
40 gig harddrive
512 mb ram
mouse & kb

that's about it... not even a joystick!

I flew without a joystick for a long time, and though it's slightly more difficult for atmospheric flight, you get used to it. If you don't have a number pad or a joystick, however, it gets quite difficult. It's a real pain to use the overlaid number pad on most laptops, though it is possible.

 

[tblaxland]

I flew without a joystick for a long time, and though it's slightly more difficult for atmospheric flight, you get used to it. If you don't have a number pad or a joystick, however, it gets quite difficult. It's a real pain to use the overlaid number pad on most laptops, though it is possible.

I have a joystick and rarely use it - mainly for atmospheric flight.

@tfr001, welcome

 

[Tommy]

A graphics card with at least 32 MB of memory is recommended - for some add-ons (or a scenario with many vessels) a better card will help a lot. Graphics adapters built onto the motherboard don't usually work nearly as well as a dedicated card.

I've run Orbiter pretty well on a 900Mhz AMD Athlon with 768MB RAM, and a 32 MB ATI Radeon 7000. I upgraded to a 64MB NVidea card and that helped the framerate quite a bit.

 

[tfr001]

Thanks for the replies, all!
No fancy graphics card either. The video comes off the back of the motherboard. So I guess I'll look into that... recommendations?
(besides 64MB NVidea card - thanks Tommy!)

 

[Tommy]

I'll recommend NVidea over ATI, they seem to have less issues with Orbiter. Get the best one you can afford and fit in your PC. Some add-ons (such as the space station building blocks) and some hi res surface bases are fairly high poly, and really benefit from more video memory.

A stick will help if you like to fly the shuttle or DG type craft, but other than take-offs and landings they aren't really all that more useful than the keypad.

 

[Rathelm]

I'll recommend NVidea over ATI, they seem to have less issues with Orbiter. Get the best one you can afford and fit in your PC. Some add-ons (such as the space station building blocks) and some hi res surface bases are fairly high poly, and really benefit from more video memory.

A stick will help if you like to fly the shuttle or DG type craft, but other than take-offs and landings they aren't really all that more useful than the keypad.

My 9800 still causes the atmosphere to dissappear on 2006 SP1. The problem is fixed with the 2009 betas though.