How about some racing ?

Robsoie

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using the playback system of Orbiter to get around the lack of air traffic AI by inserting flight data in a normal scenario, so you can fly along those playback, i tried to apply the idea to some kind of racing.

clipd01xl7.jpg


No addon needed, it just use the default Deltaglider that comes with Orbiter
Download the scenario and the flight data there :
http://files.filefront.com/racingDGrar/;12449028;/fileinfo.html

To install, it is very simple : open the racingDG.rar archive then
Drop the folders named
-Scenarios (that contains the main scenario)
-Flights (that contains the flight datas for the contestants)
that are inside the archive into your Orbiter directory

It will ask to overwrite folders of the same name, don't worry it replaces in fact absolutely nothing, it just installs the files where they need.

Launch Orbiter, select the scenario named " Runner1.scn " and load it

It will place you in control of Runner1 on the runway, to your right you have Runner2 and to your left your have Runner3

Runner3 will launch in the next 3/4 seconds, Runner2 1/2 seconds later, so you can give yourself an advantage or a handicap according to when you launch yourself, it is up to you to decide.

The point is to fly according to the racing line here without cheating and ignoring the race circuit ;) :
racingrh2.jpg


When Runner3 and Runner2 will over the central KSC launchpads, they will cut their engine to lose speed and land safely to the final runway.
So unless you got a better trajectory than them (not that hard as i made the contestant flying with not big precision), this is a time you can easily move ahead if you are alway behind by managing your decceleration better.

Then of course, try to land safely on the runway before the 2 other.

Have fun

The scenario was simply made by inserting previously recorded flight data of the same scenario , using the other DG than Runner1, in the .scn as you will notice if you give a look into it.

This kind of easy trick could be used to simulate some kind of air traffic, create some racing event, etc...
 
The point is to fly according to the racing line here without cheating and ignoring the race circuit ;) :

Am I allowed to use the Black Dart? :P Or is that considered cheating?

Didn't somebody make Air Race gates once?
 
Remove the Black Dart from the list, this is no cheating, this is insane. I had trouble staying on course because the Black Dart was too maneuverable (except that it was a bit slow on the roll axis)... after flying over LC-39, I flew over the VAB, made a close inspection of the VAB paint while turning towards KSC industrial park.

Am I supposed to land on the Patrik AFB runway or is it enough to just zip over it? If I am supposed to land on it, I should learn to fly Pugashev's Cobra, while opening the hover doors. At the first test I made, still had Mach 1 when lining up.
 
Well, your 2 opponents are landing, so you are expected to do the same, but there are no real rules as there is nothing to win or lose ;)

I have only tried with the default deltaglider, not yet with another aircraft or shuttle, so it may be more difficult to follow the race correctly if you have something too powerfull to handle correctly on short races like this one.

Such ship could be more interesting to use on a trans country race.

With the stock deltaglider, going full power and turning the reactors off only when being over the center launchpads group will get you slow enough to land very safely without having to use the retro-reactors to lose speed.
Just breaking on the runway as usual to stop.

But i guess with shuttles that have bigger accelerations and top speed, it may proves to be a bigger challenge to follow the track and manage to land before your opponents as losing speed would involve some more circling.

Or maybe instead of continuing to use the full power of your reactors during the race, use only half of it when reaching the half of the track ?
 
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maybe we can start a collection for Face so he can quit his job and devote all his time to the orbital multi-player project he is coding...
 
Glad to see people have fun with this little racing.

I updated it, and build 2 more opponents along the already existing 2, to see if the engine would not go crazy with 4 different flight data running in the same time... and it worked very nicely and that even on a low end machine without a problem, Orbiter is very solid and optimised.

So this time the racing is featuring 5 contestants, you being one of them, always starting in the center.

You can download the updated scenario here :
http://files.filefront.com/Racing5testrar/;12539821;/fileinfo.html

Installation is the same, i changed the files and folders names so it does not overwrite the previous racing scenario (you against 2 opponents).

I included 3 variations of the racing :
-1 in which you are onboard a stock Deltaglider and you are competing with the 4 opponents. You need no addons to use this scenario, just Orbiter itself.

-1 in which you are onboard a XR2 Ravenstar and you are competing with the 4 opponents.
Obviously you need to download the XR2 Ravenstar if you want to use this scenario :
http://www.dougsorbiterpage.com/index-3.html

-1 in which you are onboard a DGIV and you are competing with the 4 opponents.
Obviously you need to download the DGIV if you want to use this scenario :
http://orbiter.dansteph.com/index.php?disp=d

Some screenshots :
The starting line.
clipboard02ll7.jpg

Gentlemen , start your engines !
clipboard03me2.jpg

Who will land first in the runway ?
clipboard01ye6.jpg


Have fun with this updated racing.
 
I think what would be a cool little thing is if you made kind of like a "track"....like floating beacons or something
 
maybe we can start a collection for Face so he can quit his job and devote all his time to the orbital multi-player project he is coding...

Well, this is already possible now. I'll bring the server if you bring the racers...

regards,
Face
 
(Did he really say that??)
 
I personally think Face is serving himself by hosting the race.... wants some testers to do some wild and crazy stuff. BTW face, I never herd back on being part of your beta testing team...

All joking aside, Think it be cool to fly around with some RL people in space..
 
I personally think Face is serving himself by hosting the race.... wants some testers to do some wild and crazy stuff. BTW face, I never herd back on being part of your beta testing team...

You're right. The beta team activity was very low recently, mostly due to me not doing much development lately. Would be a nice follow-up to have such an event going.

Call me if you have a plan for the race (timeline, participants, scenarios, vessels, etc), so I can bundle software-packages and setup the server. I'll then inform the beta team (you included ;) of course) about the hosting and race. You can then distribute it to the race-participants...

regards,
Face
 
Well please correct me if I am wrong but your software is 2 parts right.... Server and Client? I would be EXTREMELY excited and I am sure others would be to if you would set up a server so people can fly stock Delta Gliders so all you need is a clean install of orbiter Orbiter Sound if you so wish and your plugins... I bet your get over 1/2 the people on this forum hitting you up just to fly multiplayer orbiter in DG's and the ISS. I look forward to the day where I can run my own solar system and get on some VoIP software and build a space station with multiple people... I am sure there are some fellow nerds out there and I'd prob have to reset my server from 100's of stations in orbit...

this ofc is just my wish list of things I need to get out of bed in the mornings... i am sure you have a plan

You got any teasers out there for your fellow orbitrnauts? cause I feel confident 100% matter of fact that your project is the most wondered about
 
Well please correct me if I am wrong but your software is 2 parts right.... Server and Client?

Yes. Server and client. Server is just a .NET command-line executable that can be run on Windows or Linux boxes. Client is a mixed-mode Orbiter plugin.

I would be EXTREMELY excited and I am sure others would be to if you would set up a server so people can fly stock Delta Gliders so all you need is a clean install of orbiter Orbiter Sound if you so wish and your plugins... I bet your get over 1/2 the people on this forum hitting you up just to fly multiplayer orbiter in DG's and the ISS. I look forward to the day where I can run my own solar system and get on some VoIP software and build a space station with multiple people... I am sure there are some fellow nerds out there and I'd prob have to reset my server from 100's of stations in orbit...

I'd be not so sure about that... Experience tells that first excitement drops fast as soon as you did your first multiplayer docking, because of... what to do now? This is where I think the race-idea is picking up the loose ends..

this ofc is just my wish list of things I need to get out of bed in the mornings... i am sure you have a plan

I hope you have a plan for the race. Because I don't have one.

You got any teasers out there for your fellow orbitrnauts? cause I feel confident 100% matter of fact that your project is the most wondered about

There are some [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2470"]playbacks [/ame]up on OH showing a multiplayer session, whereas the smooth moving is due to the playback interpolation. Do not expect such smooth moving during online sessions.

regards,
Face
 
This post is about your Multiplayer addon but since your monitoring this thread, what about the space shuttle, XR5, or DG Ummu class ships where u can have crews. Does your addon support say one user sitting commander, pilot and mission specalists? I hate to use the space station building example (don't have another one) but if the pilot is flying the craft gets crew into orbit, can u jump out of the craft can u play a Ummu transfer to a UMMU craft and take control of the craft?

Maybe we should have a dedicated area for discussing the Rocket race

BTW, I did a search for your name and could not find any playbacks of your MP sessions


-----Post Added-----


IMPORTANT EDIT!!!
I have created a social group concerning the Orbiter Rocket Racing League so if your serious and interested in this concept, PLEASE go there and join the group. I would say once we get 20-30 members signed up, we can start talking first about a date and time we wanna have the race then we can get Face to setup the server and do this in real time with everyone logged in. OFC this is all still dependent on if Face still wants to host the Multi-player server and we agree to his terms... It is his software and we have to respect his wishes with it as with anyone that develops and releases addons
 
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