XR2 Public Release Candidate Testing

[tonykattvc]

Everyone who has trouble getting the RC1 from dougs site, or simply prefers a torrent, get it from The Pirate Bay.

Be aware, that for the final release there won't be one, so doug can continue to track downloads on his server.

Thanks for the link TS. Downloading as i post.


-----Posted Added-----


It's your fault. You should have PM'ed.

 

[tl8]

I haven't tried it yet on a clean install, but there is a frame rate drop in space, not as bad, it goes from ~80 FPS to ~60 FPS. I theorize that the problem is with the SCRAM heating algorithm... or something like that.

Doug I never noticed this, but it is confirmed!!

I was running at ~60FPS on the No. 2 Scram Accent. I closed and opend the doors and when opening it dropped to ~36 FPS.

I will see if this happens with the other XRs

The XR5 has ~1FPS drop while the XR1 has a ~7FPS Drop. I am not positive on the XR5.
Also note that this was using Beta 2b, but I don't think anything would have changed that may affect this problem. Then again I may be wrong.

Update: Sometimes I get a FPS drop sometimes I don't. Everytime I open the doors the effect gets smaller. IE the FPS drop gets less.

 

[Woo482]

I have no fps drop its all ways 60fps

 

[dbeachy1]

Doug I never noticed this, but it is confirmed!!

I was running at ~60FPS on the No. 2 Scram Accent. I closed and opend the doors and when opening it dropped to ~36 FPS.

I will see if this happens with the other XRs

The XR5 has ~1FPS drop while the XR1 has a ~7FPS Drop. I am not positive on the XR5.
Also note that this was using Beta 2b, but I don't think anything would have changed that may affect this problem. Then again I may be wrong.

Update: Sometimes I get a FPS drop sometimes I don't. Everytime I open the doors the effect gets smaller. IE the FPS drop gets less.

Anytime you start an animation you can get a tiny "blip" of a framerate hit because of the Orbiter core handing the animation (although I am not seeing any real framerate "blips" here when I open or close the SCRAM doors). Also, looking at the framerate indicator only shows the framerate over the previous second, so if you have one frame that takes significantly longer than normal (i.e., the Orbiter core beginning an animation sequence) it can reduce the framerate by a noticable amount for one second. You can see the same effect by switching between the main and lower 2D panels. In addition, on both my systems here the framerate indicator fluctuates constantly so it is impossible to get consistent and reliable readings, as you are seeing when you sometimes see a framerate blip and sometimes you don't.

Also note that the vessel-side code for performing an animation is dirt-simple after the animation is set up: the code simply invokes SetAnimation with the new animation state (between 0.0 and 1.0) and the Orbiter core does the rest.

In any case, as I understood Willy he said he was seeing a sustained framerate hit when the doors are open. If that is the case, something else like a video driver or third-party add-on is likely the problem.

 

[pattersoncr]

Just took the XR2 up for a quick spin to try and figure out some single engine handling characteristics.
Vsse (Min safe single engine speed) seems to be about 240-250m/s

(Vsse is the minimum indicated airspeed at which you can maintain course with full power on a single engine.)

 

[Biscuit]

Finally got it downloaded, and gave it a spin.

So far, I've only taken it into orbit a few times ... but I've got to say I'm seriously, seriously impressed with the quality of workmanship in this thing.

Just point it where you want it to go, punch the throttle, and "ZOOM!" ... she's off and running like a scalded cat.

Very responsive to the throttle and stick, very stable in flight ... you also have a feeling that there is really some mass to it ... it feels "real" ... instead of feeling like you're flying a paper airplane.


My only complaints so far are that I still have to wait for the rest of the features to be put in ... I'm impatient, but I'll survive I suppose. :rofl:

... and I get crackling from my speakers and distorted callouts when throttle is at full ... still playing with the sound settings in the config to see if that makes any difference.

Otherwise ... I think I'd have to give this add-on easily a rating of 8 stars out of 10 (it is a beta, after all.)

Y'all definitely do good work.

 

[Cairan]

Anyone noticed that the radiator can cool the systems to a temperature below ambiant? :blink:

That kinds of violate the laws of thermodynamics! (always wanted to plug that one day! )

It shouldn't be able to cool below ambiant. Not something one would notice except flying around in Venus' atmosphere.

 

[TSPenguin]

... and I get crackling from my speakers and distorted callouts when throttle is at full ... still playing with the sound settings in the config to see if that makes any difference.

Could you please post details about your soundcard?
This is a known issue that has been fixed. At least for the beta testers.

Anyone noticed that the radiator can cool the systems to a temperature below ambiant? :blink:

How do you know the ambiant temperature?

 

[tblaxland]

Anyone noticed that the radiator can cool the systems to a temperature below ambiant? :blink:

That kinds of violate the laws of thermodynamics! (always wanted to plug that one day! )

Except if your radiator is sublimating

 

[Cairan]

How do you know the ambiant temperature?

On the standard XR-type reentry temperatures page, there is a big white number marked "Ambiant", and next to it at the right you have the coolant temperature. Note that the ambiant temperature is also the same as the OAT displayed in Surface MFD.

Granted it -is- possible to cool something below ambiant temperature using evaporation or sublimation, but the radiators are, well, radiating, not flash evaporators or something similar.

It's just kind of weird to be flying in the atmosphere of Venus at 40-50 km altitude, with the radiator deployed, and while descending in the atmosphere and observing the ambiant temperature rise, watch the coolant temperature go down.

You can class it in the "gotcha" folder, I wont loose any sleep, but it's a little detail that goes a long way. A little condition like:

If (RadiatorDeployed And AtmTemp > CoolantTemp) Then CoolantTemp = AtmTemp

 

[TSPenguin]

On the standard XR-type reentry temperatures page, there is a big white number marked "Ambiant", and next to it at the right you have the coolant temperature. Note that the ambiant temperature is also the same as the OAT displayed in Surface MFD.

:blink:I should sleep more....:sorry:

 

[tblaxland]

Granted it -is- possible to cool something below ambiant temperature using evaporation or sublimation, but the radiators are, well, radiating, not flash evaporators or something similar.

I'm stretching my thermodynamics knowledge here, but isn't this also possible if the emissivity of the radiator is greater than the emissivity of the atmosphere?

 

[Biscuit]

Could you please post details about your soundcard?
This is a known issue that has been fixed. At least for the beta testers.
...

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE, 24bit.

EAX Advanced HD audio ...

Audio effects: Off
CMSS 3d Surround: Off
Volume:
Master: 43%
Source (Wave): 90%
volume control on speaker: approx 20%
Speaker Setting: 2/2.1 speakers
Bass boost: Off
EQ: Enabled ... conservative settings, boosting highs a bit as my hearing drops in that range.

Windows settings:
Hardware acceleration: Full
Sample Rate Conversion: Best

Not really sure if you needed that much info, but since I had it readily available I thought it might help.

It's not a big crisis. Probably a setting I tweaked somewhere along the way. It really only gets bad with full throttle noise and lots of wind noise.

But, if you've got a suggestion, I'll be more than willing to try it.

Thanks!

 

[TSPenguin]

Now that is what I call giving accurate information. Nicely done :speakcool:

There is very little you could do. Except if you want to modify the soundfiles yourself...

edit: Sorry, I forgot. Could you please test again with equalizer disabled?

 

[SlyCoopersButt]

If it's crackling it might be due to the speakers themselves or their cord connection might be loose, Happens sometimes. Try unplugging them and then back in again and or also try any others you may have and see if the result is the same. Assuming you are using external speakers.

 

[tonykattvc]

I get crackling from my speakers and distorted callouts when throttle is at full ... still playing with the sound settings in the config to see if that makes any difference.

Yeah, me too, but I bumped my speaker input.

 

[tokeymcbongrip]

All i have to say is i was dying to get my hands on this beautiful ship, almost as much as i was dying to get my hands on spore! the only difference is that this ship delivered on all its promises and spore did not lol! all your hard work payed off because this ship is great!!! i took her from surface to LEO lined up with the moons rotation and shot for the moon, slowed down got sucked into lunar orbit made a couple of orbits and landed at brighton beach <might have spelled that wrong lol! i didnt have a single issue the entire way!

the only problem i had was while using the attitude hold a couple of times if i went into 1000X time acceleration the ship spun out of control for no reason? the first time i was able to stop the spin with about 15 mins of fighting with it, the second time i had to exit the game nothing could get me out of that spin lol


one bug i did notice was that if i pressed ctrl up and say hit open nose cone, then press ctrl down before its done opening it makes a strange noise i want to say cracking noise but im not sure, it happens no matter what function im opening or closing and pretty much 99% of the time ill check it out later and give you more details as i have to get to work now

i just wanted to thank you all for such a beautiful ship, so much detail :speakcool:

lol now if only we could have a recolor program like for the xr1 so i can design my own skins for this ship lol

 

[TSPenguin]

the only problem i had was while using the attitude hold a couple of times if i went into 1000X time acceleration the ship spun out of control for no reason? the first time i was able to stop the spin with about 15 mins of fighting with it, the second time i had to exit the game nothing could get me out of that spin lol

to the forum!

All autopilots come with no warranty for any time acceleration. Dougs autopilots are really good when it comes to that, so you can use them most of the time at 10x and outside an athmosphere often at 100x (depending on the power of your computer). Usaly no autopilot will hold you at 1000x acceleration as the timesteps become too large and even the shortest firing of any thruster results in seconds long burns.

Happy Orbiting

 

[dbeachy1]

It's not a big crisis. Probably a setting I tweaked somewhere along the way. It really only gets bad with full throttle noise and lots of wind noise.

But, if you've got a suggestion, I'll be more than willing to try it.

Thanks!

Some sound cards have trouble with the custom XR2 engine sounds. What you can do is try reducing the 'CustomMainEngineSoundVolume' setting in your XR2RavenstarPrefs.cfg file:

#--------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Set the volume level for the custom main engine sound.
#
# Note: this option is only applicable if 'EnableCustomMainEngineSound=1'.
#
# Valid volume levels are 0 (mute) to 255 (loudest).
#
# The default value is 255 (loudest).
#--------------------------------------------------------------------------
CustomMainEngineSoundVolume=255

If you still can't play the custom engine sounds cleanly, you can switch back to the default OrbiterSound engine effects by setting one or more of these three values to zero:

#--------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Enable or disable custom main, hover, and RCS sounds.
#
# Note: 'EnableCustomMainEngineSound' includes retro engine sound as well.
#
# 0 = custom sound disabled (Orbiter default sound will play instead)
# 1 = custom sound enabled (default)
#--------------------------------------------------------------------------
EnableCustomMainEngineSound=1
EnableCustomHoverEngineSound=1
EnableCustomRCSSound=1

the only problem i had was while using the attitude hold a couple of times if i went into 1000X time acceleration the ship spun out of control for no reason? the first time i was able to stop the spin with about 15 mins of fighting with it, the second time i had to exit the game nothing could get me out of that spin lol

TS is exactly correct. At 1000x time acceleration the effective framerate is only 1/1000th of normal. This means, for example, that if your normal framerate is 60 fps and you switch to 1000x time acceleration the effective framerate for the core and all add-ons is 60 / 1000 = 0.06 frames per second, or one frame every 16.6 seconds of simulation time. In other words, the autopilot can only adjust thruster rates once every 16.6 seconds of simulation time, which makes it difficult if not impossible to hold a stable attitude (and wasting lots of fuel in the process). Therefore, the Attitude Hold autopilot automatically disengages temporarily when time acceleration is 1000x or more in space. This is detailed on page 45 of the XR Flight Operations Manual:

A NOTE ABOUT TIME ACCELERATION:

[FONT=Verdana,Verdana][FONT=Verdana,Verdana]With a decent frame rate (60 fps or higher) you should be able to run the [/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Verdana][FONT=Verdana,Verdana]ATTITUDE HOLD [/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Verdana][FONT=Verdana,Verdana]autopilot at 100x in space and 4x in an atmosphere, even during reentry: great care was taken to make the autopilot as fuel-efficient and stable as possible. If you attempt to engage time acceleration at 1000x in space or 100x in at atmosphere, the autopilot will switch to SUSPENDED status (this will be shown on the MDA screen); it will automatically re-engage when you switch back to a lower time acceleration again. [/FONT][/FONT]

Also, if you are flying the XR1 or XR2 the autopilot should be able to hold a stable attitude even at 10x time acceleration during reentry. For the Vanguard, however, at 60 fps 4x time acceleration is about the limit due to large mass of the ship.

one bug i did notice was that if i pressed ctrl up and say hit open nose cone, then press ctrl down before its done opening it makes a strange noise i want to say cracking noise but im not sure, it happens no matter what function im opening or closing and pretty much 99% of the time ill check it out later and give you more details as i have to get to work now

That is likely caused by a small delay when switching 2D panels (the entire new panel has to rendered all in one frame). Are you running onboard sound? Popping sounds often occur when the sound card's ring buffer empties (i.e., when there is too much delay between consecutive simulation frames). This usually only occurs with onboard sound chipsets, so if you are running onboard sound you could switch to a discrete sound card, which should fix the popping sound.

i just wanted to thank you all for such a beautiful ship, so much detail :speakcool:

lol now if only we could have a recolor program like for the xr1 so i can design my own skins for this ship lol

You're welcome! Steve is a brilliant artist. An XR2 paint kit is planned but is not available yet.

 

[Biscuit]

I dropped the 'CustomMainEngineSoundVolume' value to 235 ... I'll try bringing it down a bit more.

The only time I experience the crackling is during full boost at high speed (lots of engine noise (main and scram especially) + lots of wind noise (basically fast enough to start the heating process to the point where the skin starts glowing)).

Everything else plays clear at exactly those settings ... game sounds, all other orbiter sounds, mp3s, movies, etc ...

But, just to be on the safe side and rule it out, I'll reset the speaker connection, then disable the EQ when I get home from work this afternoon.

Failing that, I'll try normalizing the sound files themselves to a lower level just for my own curiosity. When it first happened, it really sounded to me like a couple of files that were internally too loud and were clipping ... hmmm, I wonder if OrbiterSound is having trouble with it (I can't think why it should, I'm just thinking out loud) because with high mach, full main throttle, and full scram throttle you'd have 3 very high level sounds trying to play simultaniously.

meh ... it's all good ... when it happens I just imagine it being something like the 'popcorn' sound you hear during a shuttle launch, push the throttle even harder, pull back on the stick and grin like a schoolboy copping his first feel. (I think my kids are now totally convince I'm crazy due to all the insane giggling coming from my room.)

:rofl: