General Question Starting Addon Development

[jupiterjoe51]

I am very interested in creating addons for Orbiter. I'm fairly new to Orbiter but have experience with 3d design, code, etc. can someone guide me to a starting point? Most of the tutorials I've seen are for 2006, I have 2010.

 

[sorindafabico]

If you have knowledge of coding and 3D design, a good starting point is the documentation in orbiterSDK folder.

 

[Zatnikitelman]

If you can do the tutorials for 2006, you can make stuff for 2010. The only real difference is some naming and new methods for vessels at least.

 

[jupiterjoe51]

Thank you guys!

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Can you specify what you want to do (vessel, base, plugin), and what you know how to do (meshing, coding in C++, even a good knowledge of physics is helpful)

 

[N_Molson]

Also, if you want to make a vessel, gather solid documentation about it. If it is fictionnal, create it. It will give a very appreciable "consistency" to the addon. :yes:

 

[Urwumpe]

And if you have experiences in programming and 3D Modelling, all you really might lack is basic experiences in astrodynamics and spacecraft engineering. Not that you need much of it, but it clearly helps to learn what the difference between torque and force is.

Good question for testing if you are already ready for Orbiter:

A single satellite thruster with 10N vacuum thrust is operating in tangentional direction and is 1 meter away from the CoG. Thus it produces a torque of 10Nm. How high is the total resulting force on the satellite?

If you can answer this question instantly and correct, you are prepared already and need no emergency training in physics.

(If you want more fun, I recommend learning rocket engine theory... "really big cinema", to mistranslate a German proverb)