N_Molson
Addon Developer
I just had that idea while I was trying to sleep... :idea:
I've always found that the Orbiter world (well, especially on Earth) lacked of signs of human presence. One way to do that would be to add some housing and buildings around surface bases. But not several ones, a lot of them.
Doing that "by the hand" is an awfully painful, and extremely repetitive task. Exactly the kind of things that a computer can handle very well in a few milliseconds.
So the result would be a small utility program run under Windows, that would output in a .txt like format the base configuration file lines for the buildings you want to add. From there, a mere Ctrl-C / Ctrl-V, and it's done.
That utility would be able to :
- Generate a list of randomly of X positioned buildings, where you could define X ;
- You could define a few types of buildings amongst Orbiter "primitives", for variety (small houses, low buildings, towers...), and you could define the representation in % of each category.
- You could define the above categories by selecting the "primitive" type (block, hangar, tank...) and set a range of properties (like height 3-4 m, length 8-12 meters...) for each category. The numbers would be randomly defined into the ranges to add variety ;
- Heading (rotation) of the buildings could be random too ;
- It would be possible to define a "void" disc around the center of the base (so that you could lay the runways and the base itself without having houses & flats everywhere) ;
- It would be (of course) possible to define a radius, defining the outer limit of buildings generation ;
Now I have no idea how many buildings you can put on a surface base and which influence can have let's say 200 or 500 scattered basic buildings on framerate. That would for sure have been crazy back in 2001, on the first versions of Orbiter, but nowadays computers are much more powerful, plus we have DX clients...
I've always found that the Orbiter world (well, especially on Earth) lacked of signs of human presence. One way to do that would be to add some housing and buildings around surface bases. But not several ones, a lot of them.
Doing that "by the hand" is an awfully painful, and extremely repetitive task. Exactly the kind of things that a computer can handle very well in a few milliseconds.
So the result would be a small utility program run under Windows, that would output in a .txt like format the base configuration file lines for the buildings you want to add. From there, a mere Ctrl-C / Ctrl-V, and it's done.
That utility would be able to :
- Generate a list of randomly of X positioned buildings, where you could define X ;
- You could define a few types of buildings amongst Orbiter "primitives", for variety (small houses, low buildings, towers...), and you could define the representation in % of each category.
- You could define the above categories by selecting the "primitive" type (block, hangar, tank...) and set a range of properties (like height 3-4 m, length 8-12 meters...) for each category. The numbers would be randomly defined into the ranges to add variety ;
- Heading (rotation) of the buildings could be random too ;
- It would be possible to define a "void" disc around the center of the base (so that you could lay the runways and the base itself without having houses & flats everywhere) ;
- It would be (of course) possible to define a radius, defining the outer limit of buildings generation ;
Now I have no idea how many buildings you can put on a surface base and which influence can have let's say 200 or 500 scattered basic buildings on framerate. That would for sure have been crazy back in 2001, on the first versions of Orbiter, but nowadays computers are much more powerful, plus we have DX clients...
(unless you want to make a GUI, but I'd suggest just a config-based self-runner for starters).
