General Question What is spacecraft3?

[joey1405]

I want to install some ships, but most of them require Vinka's Spacecraft3. I don't understand what it does. Someone plz enlighten me.

 

[MJR]

I can't really explain it other than that it is a special module that most addons use to make it work.

 

[joey1405]

I can't really explain it other than that it is a special module that most addons use to make it work.

Well, thats all I need to know.

 

[eveningsky339]

In order to create a vessel for Orbiter, one must either create a simple .cfg file or a complex .dll coded in C++. A .cfg vessel is extremely simple, and it takes knowledge and hard work to learn C++ and code.

Vinka created a generic .dll which "reads" ship information that a SC3 developer writes into a text file (called an ".ini file"). In this way, a developer need not know C++, but can write a text file which has some limited qualities of a .dll vessel.

 

[ar81]

Spacecraft3 is a DLL module that allows addon makers who are not experts in C++ to create generic vessels. Instead of writing C++ code, and compiling, they only need to write a text INI file with notepad to set all characteristics of a ship. So addon makers focus on modelling instead of coding C++.

It means that vessels created for Spacecraft3 need Vinka's Spacecraft3 module installed.

Spacecraft, Spacecraft2 and Spacecraft3 are 3 addons created by Vinka that have slight differences, so for compatibility Vinka decided to leave them as separate files.

So spacecraft DLL addons are like a template to create generic ships.

 

[fort]

Some others informations here and a link to vinka's page :

http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=3381

http://users.swing.be/vinka/

For spacecraft3.dll you will need :

spacecraft3 full package (dll + examples) 060302 for Orbiter build 050216

and

Spacecraft3 patch