Modular Ship development
- Thread starter vchamp
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jedidia
shoemaker without legs
Since we did some more work and a bit of advertisement and marketing hype cannot do too much harm, here's a few more shots:
This is a ship I built for testing purposes, the TestMe: Note the newly modeled fuel tanks and the recently finished wheel. Also Vchamp outdid himself by adding fully functional solar panels that search for the sun and boosters that can be seperated after use:
08.07.03 18-30-41 TestMe.jpg
Blasting off with Booster assistance:
08.07.03 18-39-00 TestMe.jpg
The TestMe wasn't quite big enough for what I intended, which was a testflight to mercury for testing the temperature dynamics. (apart from this she ran into a nasty bug shortly after blast off. We still have alot of work to do...) So I built a bigger one, the TestMe II (yes, I'm terribly creative with names!)
08.07.05 18-20-28 TestMe.jpg
here's a better look on her engine section. I wish everything would be properly modeled and textured allready!
08.07.07 18-06-47 booster1.jpg
and from the distance with deployed circular solar panels:
08.07.05 18-27-13 TestMe.jpg
shortly thereafter she launched on her testflight which she would never finish, because she too fell victim to a bug, one that seems only to happen to ships with more than four RCS-blocks built in... All in all, the two testflights provided me with a rather long list of minor and major bugs, so all in all, mission accomplished. If you want to help us Beta test, feel free, get the download, but in this stage it's still rather hard work than pure fun, so be warned...
@Scarecrow, if you'r still flying around here somewhere and would still like to help with modeling, you'd be warmly welcome. Vchamp codes new kinds of modules way faster than I can make them!
This is a ship I built for testing purposes, the TestMe: Note the newly modeled fuel tanks and the recently finished wheel. Also Vchamp outdid himself by adding fully functional solar panels that search for the sun and boosters that can be seperated after use:
08.07.03 18-30-41 TestMe.jpg
Blasting off with Booster assistance:
08.07.03 18-39-00 TestMe.jpg
The TestMe wasn't quite big enough for what I intended, which was a testflight to mercury for testing the temperature dynamics. (apart from this she ran into a nasty bug shortly after blast off. We still have alot of work to do...) So I built a bigger one, the TestMe II (yes, I'm terribly creative with names!)
08.07.05 18-20-28 TestMe.jpg
here's a better look on her engine section. I wish everything would be properly modeled and textured allready!
08.07.07 18-06-47 booster1.jpg
and from the distance with deployed circular solar panels:
08.07.05 18-27-13 TestMe.jpg
shortly thereafter she launched on her testflight which she would never finish, because she too fell victim to a bug, one that seems only to happen to ships with more than four RCS-blocks built in... All in all, the two testflights provided me with a rather long list of minor and major bugs, so all in all, mission accomplished. If you want to help us Beta test, feel free, get the download, but in this stage it's still rather hard work than pure fun, so be warned...
@Scarecrow, if you'r still flying around here somewhere and would still like to help with modeling, you'd be warmly welcome. Vchamp codes new kinds of modules way faster than I can make them!
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Black dog
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Greetings
I saw this thread and couldn't resist. Here is the only surviving screenshot I have of a modular ship I made up from existing addons, which sadly I lost when my PC crashed. The picture was black as black can be so it looks pretty rough by the time I pumped up the contrast etc so it could be seen.
It was indeed a frame rate killer but I loved it anyway.
I saw this thread and couldn't resist. Here is the only surviving screenshot I have of a modular ship I made up from existing addons, which sadly I lost when my PC crashed. The picture was black as black can be so it looks pretty rough by the time I pumped up the contrast etc so it could be seen.
It was indeed a frame rate killer but I loved it anyway.
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Black dog
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In an effort to be helpful rather than just posting an old picture, I had 2 control modules, one that did the usual prograde/retrograde/normal/antinormal, and one that I accidentally stuck on sideways and found that it gave me an outward/inward plane-aligned maneuvre and that was OK for a trip to the moon. I lost the ship in the PC crash before I had a chance to try for another planet though. The control modules were very high powered to move the combined mass of all the other modules, and they were right up the front of the ship. It seemed to maneuvre pretty good when I tried some of the other big ships around. I hope I might have made an actual contribution now.
jedidia
shoemaker without legs
I knew there was a try for a modular ship design further back in history, but I never really found much about it.
Anyways, this here is a new attempt. It eats less framerate because it incorporates all the modules into one vessel class, so you don't have all the modules handeled as different vessels attached together. Also it only shows up as only one ship in the contact list, so you don't have to cycle between 10 modules. Plus all modules can be controled from the command module, allowing for easier handling and I think more flexibility, but as I said I don't really know the older one.
It could however be interesting using some meshes from the old mod, if the author agrees. For this, however, I'd have to find out who the Author is. Maybe you could give me a hint on where you downloaded it?
Anyways, this here is a new attempt. It eats less framerate because it incorporates all the modules into one vessel class, so you don't have all the modules handeled as different vessels attached together. Also it only shows up as only one ship in the contact list, so you don't have to cycle between 10 modules. Plus all modules can be controled from the command module, allowing for easier handling and I think more flexibility, but as I said I don't really know the older one.
It could however be interesting using some meshes from the old mod, if the author agrees. For this, however, I'd have to find out who the Author is. Maybe you could give me a hint on where you downloaded it?
Black dog
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Hi jedidia,
Sorry, can't help there. I made up the ship I posted the picture of, out of vinka dll's and various existing station and ship bit addons. You are right, the contact list was very long, and I had to use RControl to managme the various engines etc. There was no horizon level either. I had fun though.
This project sounds brilliant. I do not feel I can be of help at the moment, but I am teaching myself to model, and if I succeed, I might ask if I can play too.
Meanwhile, I hope things move along nicely. Got to end here before I get logged out again.
Sorry, can't help there. I made up the ship I posted the picture of, out of vinka dll's and various existing station and ship bit addons. You are right, the contact list was very long, and I had to use RControl to managme the various engines etc. There was no horizon level either. I had fun though.
This project sounds brilliant. I do not feel I can be of help at the moment, but I am teaching myself to model, and if I succeed, I might ask if I can play too.
Meanwhile, I hope things move along nicely. Got to end here before I get logged out again.
Nexiss
Addon Developer
Hey guys what a fantastic idea, how are things progressing?
Usquanigo
New member
A bit of necro, but this is a fascinating project. I was thinking about this very thing for a long-ish term play project I'm working on (meaning one where I am simming a project, but not really actually making much of anything, because I can't, even though I really wish I could).
But I digress..... thinking of using space station building blocks (or similar) lead me to dig more, and that lead to this.
Is this project still alive?
But I digress..... thinking of using space station building blocks (or similar) lead me to dig more, and that lead to this.
Is this project still alive?
jedidia
shoemaker without legs
unfortunately not, but the source code should still be up on source forge if you're interested in carrying it on. The current version is in a kind of pre-alpha stage, there are problems with the heat dynamics and occasional ctd's if I remember correctly.
Usquanigo
New member
Bummer.I wish I could pick it up, and maybe at some point I might be bold enough to dive into it, but right now I can safely say it's over my head.
It's a brilliant concept and one I'm surprised hasn't gotten more attention before. Just as we want to piece our space stations together, we also want to build inter-planetary ships, then fly them. Not just blink right into a monster ship sitting in parked orbit for free.
