Idea Orbital assembled vessel question

[Gerdih]

It would be possible for orbiter to create a new vessel at the moment when two vessels dock? (Maybe like orbiter galaxy does to charge another solar system).

I ask this thinking about addons done in order to assemble ships in orbit with little vessel modules.

 

[jedidia]

It would be possible for orbiter to create a new vessel at the moment when two vessels dock? (Maybe like orbiter galaxy does to charge another solar system).

It's not possible if the vessels aren't designed to do that. What you need is a main vessel with the ability to integrate the meshes of other vessels into its own and adjust its mass, center of gravity etc. accordingly. There was a project to do just that once, but it died a very silent death when both the coder and the modeler (hrm... that would be me... :shifty kinda simultaniously did less and less work, which lead to a "less work-less motivation-less work-etc spiral.

The source-code is still out there, so it's not out of the question that someone might one day pick up on it.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Didn't TTM24 do just that? I always thought that was pretty slick.

 

[Gerdih]

It's not possible if the vessels aren't designed to do that. What you need is a main vessel with the ability to integrate the meshes of other vessels into its own and adjust its mass, center of gravity etc. accordingly. There was a project to do just that once, but it died a very silent death when both the coder and the modeler (hrm... that would be me... :shifty kinda simultaniously did less and less work, which lead to a "less work-less motivation-less work-etc spiral.

The source-code is still out there, so it's not out of the question that someone might one day pick up on it.

I am not talking about do any vessels from any vessel that you want. Think about a interplanetary ship made by modular structures. For more fun it would be great to do something that detects various vessels, ( modules to form the ship) and if the vessels are docked right then the orbiter charge the entirely vessel, and there is no need to calculate nothing. Only charge a new vessel that is look like the all modules docked.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

:hmm: Looks like a lot of coding, since you would need to design every possible combination yourself, and then write parameters for it. better get a lot of !

 

[Gerdih]

well, the idea is that there is only one correct combination. For example if you want to do the MIR you dock all the modules like the MIR was and then the PC detects it and charge a vessel that will be the MIR.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

OK, that's less complex. So, you would have predefined vessel "plans", and you can make them with standard parts?

 

[Gerdih]

Yes, thats the idea. The developer creates a ship that is capable of be constructed by parts in real life. The user docks the parts that would be docked in real life in order to construct the ship and if he have docked the modules right then the vessel is charged.

 

[Hlynkacg]

It's not possible if the vessels aren't designed to do that. What you need is a main vessel with the ability to integrate the meshes of other vessels into its own and adjust its mass, center of gravity etc. accordingly. There was a project to do just that once, but it died a very silent death when both the coder and the modeler (hrm... that would be me... :shifty kinda simultaniously did less and less work, which lead to a "less work-less motivation-less work-etc spiral.

The source-code is still out there, so it's not out of the question that someone might one day pick up on it.

Jedida, I'd be kind of interested in anything you learned while working on that project as this was a feature that I eventually wanted to add to my NERVA project so that I could simulate the EMPIRE and IMIS interplanetary missions.

 

[jedidia]

Jedida, I'd be kind of interested in anything you learned while working on that project as this was a feature that I eventually wanted to add to my NERVA project so that I could simulate the EMPIRE and IMIS interplanetary missions.

You guys got me thinking just now...

The basic code that vchamp wrote is fully functional, most bugs cocern the advamced features he was working on. Thermodynamics and stuff like that.

Theoretically, it shouldn't be too difficult to dumb down the code to the core features and have it work almost instantaniously...

Write some configs for already existing station blocks to cut down on the modelling...

It wouldn't be very advanced and a far cry from the original plan, but it might be a lot of fun for the effort involved. I'll have a look at the source code one of these days to see what i can do, but i'm not promising anything. Especially since i don't have much time these days. If it works, i'm going to need a few script-monkeys to write a ton of config files, though. Could be done by anyone, no knowledge requiered, it's mostly just tedious. If anyone thinks about volunteering, i'll think about getting the thing to run...

---------- Post added 01-16-12 at 09:37 PM ---------- Previous post was 01-15-12 at 10:46 PM ----------

Strange, as soon as you say something about volunteering, everyone shuts up... :lol:

Anyways, code checked out, amazingly enough still working without apparent trouble with Orbiter 2010, will see what I can do code-wise. But I guess I'll better send vchamp a pm first asking for his blessing... :shifty:

Before bothering too much with the code I'm going to have a look how tough it will be to adapt some of Greg's space station modules. Easy as cake for anything that doesn't have an animation, pretty tricky for anything that does, I assume...

Forgott to ask: What is used nowadays for space station building? it's not exactly a frequent hobby of mine, in my days SSBB 4 was used, are there any newer ones? also, does SSBB 4 contain all modules of earlier versions? (I assume it would...)

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Well, I'm a third shift guy, so sometimes I'm a bit blurry-eyed. But if it's mindless config files you need I could maybe lend a hand. I'm no speed demon, but it free labor.

 

[jedidia]

Test complete, adapting an (unanimated) SSBB module to work with this takes about a minute without any routine and figuring out what is what first. Practically, it only means changing the original docking ports into attachement points and add a line with the module type, and that's it. Animations will be tougher, I'll see about those later. First I'll have to dig through the source code to see how much sense I can make of it...

A modeler to make a better command module would be welcome, I don't have the time (and I haven't exactly smoked the peace pipe with blender yet, either).

Just a command module with a retractable docking port... and a VC, I'm afraid, or I'll have to write up a control panel, which could take a while. The command module I have currently looks crap, even with my attempts at a texture from four years ago (or because of it... not quite sure :lol.

I'm also short of a few usefull drives, currently there's just something akin to a J2. Any donations of drive-like looking meshes are welcome!

 

[Capt_hensley]

I'm also short of a few usefull drives, currently there's just something akin to a J2. Any donations of drive-like looking meshes are welcome!

Just use a Vasimr drive. It's very easy to model and texture.

This is my MARS-1, Interplanetary ship that must be built in space dock at Gateway station. It will be modular as you can't currently launch anything this big.

Think of the nose diameter as a standard CBM, and you get the scale of this behemoth.

I planned to replace this portion of the paper with the MDRM-1 addon by MarkP
http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=21972

The Vasimr mesh segment is easy to isolate, it's everything aft of the solar blanket in this image.

 

[Hlynkacg]

I can whip up some drive modules in blender real quick. What did you have in mind?

A Command Module (assuming you want more than just the external shape) would take some time though. A VC tends to complicate things.

 

[jedidia]

I can whip up some drive modules in blender real quick. What did you have in mind?

A Command Module (assuming you want more than just the external shape) would take some time though. A VC tends to complicate things.

As for drives, anything would be welcome, the more the merrier. Chemicals, Vasimr, ion, maybe even something like a small fusion drive (just pay attention that it can get to orbit somehow, so it should at least fit into an xr5). There won't be any simulation of specific drives, so i could give any drive any specs, different meshes are majorly for wysiwyg effect.
An rcs unit would also be welcome (for small thrusters in four directions on one block).

Every drive should have a visually identifyable attachement point, preferably the size of the docking ports of ssbb. Not more than 500 polys, maybe a thousand if it's really big, textures 256x256 max. Don't need integrated tanks, might have integrated radiators for looks, as high temperature dynamics won't be modeled anyways.

As for the command module, I know a vc complicates things, but i have a vc already coded that would be easily adaptable to another vc that provides the right surfaces. There's quite a bit of custom screens for construction and configuration in this thing. On the other hand, having it all in a panel would allow anyone to use any mesh for a command module and make the whole thing more flexible. Trouble is, I don't have a lot of expierience with instrumentation programming. How difficult is it to adapt vc-code to a panel?

---------- Post added at 08:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:06 AM ----------

I got a green light from vChamp, so let's get this on the road. And off the road again as soon as possible, I really can't afford to go with this for too long currently.