XR2 Public Release Candidate Testing

[Coolhand]

Maybe "Are we there, yet?" every five minutes, too. You could always record some girlish screams from a roller coaster ride. . .

Nah, too much background/wind noise that would start up and end with the samples. need nice clean samples really.

I had some thoughts ages ago about a mission where you have to fly within very strict parameters, like don't exceed 3g - like say you were transporting someone frail, perhaps a very old, crinkly version of doug(hey it's the future, right?) transporting the boss around and you have to give him a smooth ride or its mission over... event triggered audio would work well for this so the passengers would complain if you were flying too aggressively.

 

[SlyCoopersButt]

Setting individual crew members G-force endurance and or complaint level by scenario editor on the fly like that would be a great thing. What about EVA meshes? Are they going to be a future prospect in scenario editor like DGIV does for crew?

 

[Coolhand]

you can EVA the crew if you want. I might build some actual separate passengers too, perhaps some familiar faces, who knows. Otherwise i assume you'll be left with the stock characters.

 

[yagni01]

Setting individual crew members G-force endurance and or complaint level by scenario editor on the fly like that would be a great thing. What about EVA meshes? Are they going to be a future prospect in scenario editor like DGIV does for crew?

That's a lot of code to write just for sounds. I'm wondering though, if with the lua scripting anticipated for the next Orbiter release, people could write their own sound events.

 

[dbeachy1]

Setting individual crew members G-force endurance and or complaint level by scenario editor on the fly like that would be a great thing.

Sorry, I have way too much other work to do first -- like making the VC fully active in the Mk II release.

What about EVA meshes? Are they going to be a future prospect in scenario editor like DGIV does for crew?

You can fully configure EVA meshes as well as other crew member settings in the XR2RavenstarPrefs.cfg file. XR crew member EVA mesh settings are not stored in the scenario file, so it wouldn't make any sense to have those settings in the scenario editor. If EVA mesh settings would be stored in the scenario file it would be a royal pain to update 50 different scenarios each time you wanted to change the mesh used by a crew member.

 

[RangerPL]

The Ravenstar is one awesome looking ship... it's my new wallpaper
But release it fast or I will be forced to assault the Altea headquarters and release it myself... with the help of Mr. 60-ton-tank. You have been warned

Seriously, I can't wait for this ship. It will complement the other XR's quite nicely.

 

[SlyCoopersButt]

Ah yes, I didn't think about that (A phrase I use a lot in real life). Well the long work of this has already long exceeded any expectations! You've trully delivered with all of the XR series and is worth many thanks *Salute*!

 

[dbeachy1]

Thanks, guys. I'm hard at work on it. Some good news here: I just got Steve's new Main/Hover and RCS sound effects working! Steve's new sound effect files were fine: the bug is in OrbiterSound, so I ended up having to write code to play the main/hover/RCS sound effects manually and disabling the normal engine effects played by OrbiterSound.

I also added new preference settings in case anyone prefers the original engine and/or RCS sounds:

#--------------------------------------------------------------------------
# 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

 

[willy88]

But release it fast or I will be forced to assault the Altea headquarters and release it myself... with the help of Mr. 60-ton-tank. You have been warned

Dat- err, I mean, Altea Aerospace's security will counter your threat easily.

 

[adamb193]

But release it fast or I will be forced to assault the Altea headquarters and release it myself... with the help of Mr. 60-ton-tank. You have been warned

Hey I can get an M-60 we'll assault tomarrow at midnight.

 

[Ghostrider]

Hey I can get an M-60 we'll assault tomarrow at midnight.

The M60 is not that great a weapon, especially for a commando operation. Get a GPMG if you really need a SAW that bad, or a Minimi if you're not into that retro warfare thingy.

 

[RangerPL]

Maybe he means the M60 Patton tank...


I'm sure that computerex can make a TankMFD for us.

 

[Coolhand]

Thanks, guys. I'm hard at work on it. Some good news here: I just got Steve's new Main/Hover and RCS sound effects working! Steve's new sound effect files were fine: the bug is in OrbiterSound, so I ended up having to write code to play the main/hover/RCS sound effects manually and disabling the normal engine effects played by OrbiterSound.

I also added new preference settings in case anyone prefers the original engine and/or RCS sounds:

cool. I found out what the problem was with the RCS effects... essentially the effect was being played back in orbiter several octaves lower than it should have been.... Basically the loud bulk of the sound was being played so low that it would be below what even a dedicated subwoofer could play or what the human ear could detect even if you could. so, only the quieter mid frequency sounds could be heard as a quiet low bass along with a little high frequency that then became mid bass... I'll be interested in hearing if your code has changed this playback bug, and also what the reason would be for this bug.

I've resolved it myself by taking the sample i made, loading it back into 'loops and re-rendering the wav at 3 octaves higher.. so if you listen to the sound in media player then it's just a quick 'blip' noise but it sounds just about right in orbiter.

 

[dbeachy1]

Thanks for the heads-up. The good news is everything sounds fine at the higher sample rate in Orbiter since I'm playing all engine sounds manually now via code. Based on the new information you mentioned, it looks like OrbiterSound is specifying an explicit sample rate when playing back main/hover/RCS sound effects and so when we tested new effects by replacing the stock sounds with higher-quality wavs, the sample rate was off resulting in low volumes as well. The bug is that OrbiterSound apparently requires that all replacement engine sounds be at 22 KHz. However, since I am playing everything manually now the high-quality engine sounds are working perfectly. :speakcool:

 

[C3PO]

Nice catch! I can't believe that nobody has run into this untill now.
I've posted the bug in Dan's forum.

 

[Coolhand]

Thanks for the heads-up. The good news is everything sounds fine at the higher sample rate in Orbiter since I'm playing all engine sounds manually now via code. Based on the new information you mentioned, it looks like OrbiterSound is specifying an explicit sample rate when playing back main/hover/RCS sound effects and so when we tested new effects by replacing the stock sounds with higher-quality wavs, the sample rate was off resulting in low volumes as well. The bug is that OrbiterSound apparently requires that all replacement engine sounds be at 22 KHz. However, since I am playing everything manually now the high-quality engine sounds are working perfectly. :speakcool:

I told you it had something to do with the sample rates Glad it's fixed properly now.

 

[adamb193]

Maybe he means the M60 Patton tank...


I'm sure that computerex can make a TankMFD for us.

Yep the tank, if I had to go with a machine gun I'd take an updated MG-42, but I'm sure we'd be bombed.

 

[Cale]

Ok, have finally had a chance to try out Beta 1B. Love the new effects. Had some much slower performace, however (~10-17fps in some views). Then figured out my wife had, accidentally she says, messed with some of the video settings. Reset those and things look great. Followed Steve's advice about throttling back to 40% right after wheels up and maintained a 20 degree pitch angle when I engaged the SCRAM engines. Actually had a very good alignnment with the ISS this time and rendezvoused very quickly. Will try de-orbit and landing tomorrow night, though I'm getting home late from work (will actually be on TV tomorrow afternoon...joy. Better make sure my fly's done up:beach

Cheers,

Cale

 

[willy88]

Doug, do you have any idea of an ETA for a public release (beta or otherwise)?

 

[dbeachy1]

Doug, do you have any idea of an ETA for a public release (beta or otherwise)?

Well, we're close to Beta-1c going out here, after which the only big piece remaining is payload support, which then will be Beta-2. Then we have scenario editor and vessel ctrl dialog support plus any other noticeable loose ends for Beta-3, and then Beta-4 will have the flight manual. Then after that we'll have a public Release Candidate One that everyone here on the forum can fly. So realistically we're looking at mid-September for the public RC1 release, with RC2 and then a 1.0 release after that.

And once that is released I'll get to work on the XR2 Mk II, which will include a fully active virtual cockpit. :beach: