Space Shuttle Ultra 1.25 Revision B development

[Urwumpe]

OK, can look at this at a better moment then, I also didn't find the time yet digging through the SLWT manuals for new details.

Do we need the ET Umbilical well camera position?

 

[DaveS]

OK, can look at this at a better moment then, I also didn't find the time yet digging through the SLWT manuals for new details.

Do we need the ET Umbilical well camera position?

Would be nice view, but instead of the still image camera in the RH umbilical well, we could put it at the film camera position in the LH umbilical well?

 

[Urwumpe]

Would be nice view, but instead of the still image camera in the RH umbilical well, we could put it at the film camera position in the LH umbilical well?

Thought so, would just mean a small design decision:

With the umbilical well camera, it would make sense automatically switching from ET camera to umbilical well during ET separation, using the same "slot" of the VC for this camera, instead of doing the focus switch and VC manipulation stuff with the ET vessel.

 

[Donamy]

My Christmas wish list would be:

1. Mission specific exterior shuttle skins

2. SILTS

3. keyboard bay camera views, with cursor key movement

4. stowable SSMEs

5. Mission tutorial

 

[Urwumpe]

3. keyboard bay camera views, with cursor key movement

What do you mean?

 

[DaveS]

What do you mean?

If I would hazard a guess, it would that he wants to be able to control the pan/tilt angles of the PLB cameras with the keyboard arrow keys.

Speaking of those(PLB cameras), they need to have some improvements:
1: They're limited to +170/-170°s in tilt, they cannot look straight down.
2: Any to improve/eliminate the clipping of the bulkheads that occur when you look inboard?
3: Cam data as shown in this simulator generated views: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/shuttle/rtf/hires/jsc2005e02442.jpg

---------- Post added 12-04-09 at 12:00 AM ---------- Previous post was 12-03-09 at 10:01 PM ----------

My Christmas wish list would be:

1. Mission specific exterior shuttle skins

2. SILTS

3. keyboard bay camera views, with cursor key movement

4. stowable SSMEs

5. Mission tutorial

I would very much like to see these items implemented in the near term future as well. In addition to a number 6:

6. Saving/loading of GNC SPEC 20 DAP mode settings.

 

[Urwumpe]

What could I wish... hmm...what about astronaut meshes? Retracting ET umbilicals? Or an AP-101S assembler manual?

Also...didn't I implement the SILTS already, I thought so...maybe it just got broken along the way.

 

[Donamy]

What do you mean?

While in the VC mode, the ability to control the cameras via cntrl+V that would change the view between the astronaut and baycamera views, then select between each camera with the 1,2,3,4,5,6, and 7 key while using the cursor arrows to pan and tilt. It would greatly enhance the immersion factor.

I didn't know you made the SILTS work. Is that via the missions file and how is it called up ?

 

[Urwumpe]

I didn't know you made the SILTS work. Is that via the missions file and how is it called up ?

Not sure, was in the last winter break AFAIR... I only remember seeing the meshes and adding them to the Orbiter in run-time.

 

[DaveS]

Not sure, was in the last winter break AFAIR... I only remember seeing the meshes and adding them to the Orbiter in run-time.

For SILTS to be realistic we need #1 on Donamy's list.

 

[Donamy]

How do you mean, I've had the mesh for it for a long time.

 

[SiameseCat]

My Christmas wish list would be:

1. Mission specific exterior shuttle skins

2. SILTS

3. keyboard bay camera views, with cursor key movement

4. stowable SSMEs

5. Mission tutorial

I'm thinking the best way of implementing 1 and 2 is to use the mission files to define meshes/textures to be used.

If I would hazard a guess, it would that he wants to be able to control the pan/tilt angles of the PLB cameras with the keyboard arrow keys.

Speaking of those(PLB cameras), they need to have some improvements:
1: They're limited to +170/-170°s in tilt, they cannot look straight down.
2: Any to improve/eliminate the clipping of the bulkheads that occur when you look inboard?
3: Cam data as shown in this simulator generated views: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/shuttle/rtf/hires/jsc2005e02442.jpg

---------- Post added 12-04-09 at 12:00 AM ---------- Previous post was 12-03-09 at 10:01 PM ----------


I would very much like to see these items implemented in the near term future as well. In addition to a number 6:

6. Saving/loading of GNC SPEC 20 DAP mode settings.

Fixing the PLBD cam limits should be easy. Adding the additional camera to the RMS should also be easy. The camera at the end of the OBSS can also be added, but I'm thinking it might be best to use the OBSS cockpit view to simulate this camera.

For saving the SPEC 20 settings, this probably should be implemented as a set of mission file parameters. It might be best to wait for Urwumpe to finish his work on the GPCs before we do this.

 

[Donamy]

Is making the cameras usable by keyboard an easy thing ? Pressing shft+space to select the cameras takes away from the cool factor, IMHO

 

[Urwumpe]

Is making the cameras usable by keyboard an easy thing ? Pressing shft+space to select the cameras takes away from the cool factor, IMHO

Not sure if it is simple, but maybe at least possible, in the worst case, I grab the num-pad inputs.

 

[SiameseCat]

Is making the cameras usable by keyboard an easy thing ? Pressing shft+space to select the cameras takes away from the cool factor, IMHO

It shouldn't be hard to code, but we're already using the arrow keys as an alternate THC input. It might be confusing if we're also using them to pan/tilt cameras.

DaveS: The PLBD cams are already limited to +/- 170 degrees in pan and tilt. I think the problem is that the 0 pan, 0 tilt position corresponds to the camera pointing straight ahead, when the camera should actually be pointing straight ahead; is this correct?.

 

[Donamy]

It shouldn't be hard to code, but we're already using the arrow keys as an alternate THC input. It might be confusing if we're also using them to pan/tilt cameras.

How about if you have to hold the "C" key while moving the cursor arrows, to pan and tilt ?

 

[Urwumpe]

Looking at the real thing... would it be better if we could produce some sort of preview renders in the CCTV screens for the current view of the cameras?

The CCTV is not controlled by a stick, but by panel switches, so maybe moving the CCTV control into the panel would be maybe better as controlling it over an additional keyboard shortcut.

EDIT: Can somebody produce a fish-eye view rendering or photo montage of the full field of view of each camera as a large bitmap? We could paint the CCTV screens by just copying the needed part of the large fish-eye view into the CCTV screens. Would not be very dynamic since the lighting conditions and other spacecraft/payloads would be impossible to be included, but would already produce a useful view on the CCTV screens.

 

[Donamy]

I think the fact that the monitors can't be used is why we need "another keyboard access".

 

[DaveS]

DaveS: The PLBD cams are already limited to +/- 170 degrees in pan and tilt. I think the problem is that the 0 pan, 0 tilt position corresponds to the camera pointing straight ahead, when the camera should actually be pointing straight ahead; is this correct?.

Yes.

 

[SiameseCat]

Looking at the real thing... would it be better if we could produce some sort of preview renders in the CCTV screens for the current view of the cameras?

The CCTV is not controlled by a stick, but by panel switches, so maybe moving the CCTV control into the panel would be maybe better as controlling it over an additional keyboard shortcut.

EDIT: Can somebody produce a fish-eye view rendering or photo montage of the full field of view of each camera as a large bitmap? We could paint the CCTV screens by just copying the needed part of the large fish-eye view into the CCTV screens. Would not be very dynamic since the lighting conditions and other spacecraft/payloads would be impossible to be included, but would already produce a useful view on the CCTV screens.

I don't think creating a bitmap and copying it onto the screen will be helpful. The lighting will be wrong, the Earth won't be in the correct place and we won't be able to see the RMS or any payloads.

I can implement the camera switches, but they won't be accessible from the actual camera view, just from the aft panel views. How about if we allow keyboard control only from within one of the PLBD camera views, and use the switches the rest of the time?