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Author Topic: space between????  (Read 1289 times)

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Offline asbelt

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08 August 2005, 07:51:18
im curious, did the developers include any of the asteroid belt in the sim?

« Last Edit: 08 August 2005, 10:09:43 by asbelt »

Offline StarLost

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Reply #1 - 08 August 2005, 10:09:43
In a word, no. There are several asteroid addons availabe at OrbitHanger and AVSIM. In addition there are several that I know
of that have been done privately but not published to the general Orbiter community.

Remember that the asteroid belt is a misnomer. The distance between individual asteroids is very great (as evidenced in
reality). Also, adding asteroids causes quite a drag on Orbiter when it has to load every body in the solar system. Usually
when I'm playing around with my asteroids, I chop most of the planets out of the system and include the Sun, Earth, Mars and
Jupiter only for gravitic interactions. If it gets too wierd, I stick Saturn back in.

Another problem with most asteroids is they are non-spherical objects. This creates some difficulty. In past versions of
Orbiter, gravitic interaction with the asteroid took place as if it was spherical. This meant that a base on the asteroid
could possibly be above the surface or you could actually pass through the surface until you reached the "sphere of
interaction". Thankfully, the latest version permitted non-spherical bodies, but I still sometimes encounter problems with
surface interactions (though it could be the coding of my addons).

Another problem arises when you build an asteroid as a ship. In the case of one addon, the scenario requires you to change
the orbit of the asteroid so that it becomes a space station between earth and mars. It's a big model, but it works (not all
of the modelling bugs are out yet, I'd say it was at the beta 0.5 level). But as a ship or station, you don't have that
"sphere of influence" and Orbiter does not yet have collision modelling built into it. If my docking is not accurate, I pass
right through the asteroid. This is OK if you want to emulate Ryker's multiphasic cloaking device ... but it ain't reality.

So waddaya do? Get whatever asteroids are available (don't forget the KBOs) and build your own belt. Experiment with
different sol.cfg files to reduce the bodies in the system to just what you need and the big mothers for accurate gravity
portrayal in the system. Ask politely if any non-published asteroid models might be available.

Have fun. The boys in the Solar Nations will get to you yet!

« Last Edit: 08 August 2005, 10:09:43 by StarLost »