A New Surface Base Editor

[GXE3]

I'm creating a website that will host a section for orbiter users and fans. This is where my surface base editor will be available. I might submit it to orbithangar.com, but I haven't decided whether to do so. The website along with the editor is still in development and is going pretty well.

Some features of the program are:

1) Easier user interface
2) Fewer bugs than that of the SBW.
3) **Custom Objects
4) and more.



Post Edited ( 12-11-07 14:33 )

[OmegaRidley]

hmmm, this sounds cool, if you arn't gonna already do it, make it where I can copy the base runways and landing ports and
place as many as I want anywhere


Now THAT would be cool!

[tl8roy]

OmegaRidley wrote:
hmmm, this sounds cool, if you arn't gonna already do it, make it where I can copy the base runways and landing ports and
place as many as I want anywhere


Now THAT would be cool!

Rename the cfg file to what you want it to be called and fix the coordinates in notepad. EASY

[GXE3]

OmegaRidley wrote:
hmmm, this sounds cool, if you arn't gonna already do it, make it where I can copy the base runways and landing
ports and
place as many as I want anywhere


Now THAT would be cool!

Copying is another important feature I plan to add with the first release of the program.
Another feature a eventually want to add is the "Group" feature that will allow the user to create groups of objects.
That way, one could copy a large group of objects instead of one object at a time.
Cool?

[picto]

Cool, but, don't you think it could be a better way to create real mesh groups to optimize the rendering ?
I mean, a base could be a single mesh with 20 groups for example and not 300 single buildings using the same texture which is really not friendly for the renderer.



Message modifié ( 13-11-2007 17:35 )

[GXE3]

picto wrote:

Cool, but, don't you think it could be a better way to create real mesh groups to optimize the rendering ?

Unfortunately, the purpose of my surface base editor is to promote making bases with the standard Orbiter objects
(Block, Hangar, etc). Meshes will eventually become a feature of my program, but I don't think they will be included in
the first release.

[picto]

By the way, it's a good idea.
I'm really waiting to use your tool.
And I'm strongly waiting for the V2  that will allow the use of custom meshes



Message modifié ( 13-11-2007 17:41 )

[GXE3]

picto wrote:
By the way, it's a good idea.
I'm really waiting to use your tool.
And I'm strongly waiting for the V2  that will allow the use of custom meshes

The purpose of custom objects are to allow the user to create a more advanced objects out of the standard objects
defined in the Orbiter package. This more advanced object can be treated as one of the standard objects and can be
created with just the click of a button. For example, a bridge is composed of MANY blocks, tanks and other objects. If
someone wanted to create two bridges, they'd have to copy the objects from the original bridge one piece at a time.
However, with my program, one may define the bridge as a custom object and they'd be able to create the bridge as
if it were a normal block. Cool?

Anyway, I never thought about custom meshes. Could you or someone else expand on the idea. It could be a great
idea.

[GXE3]

One major problem that the program will have is that it is Java based. This means that one must have the Java
Runtime Environment in order for the program to operate. I will, however, provide the installer for the JRE in the
release of the program.

[GXE3]

Does anyone here know the vector sum formula?  
I need it for the program calculator.

[picto]

In C++, you can act this way on vectors

void vector3::operator += (double add)
{
  x+=add;
  y+=add;
  z+=add;  
}


Where operator keyword declares a function specifying what operator-symbol
means when applied to instances of a class. This gives the operator more
than one meaning, or "overloads" it. The compiler distinguishes between
the different meanings of an operator by examining the types of its operands.

And add a double variable that shifts current Vector3 value of X, Y and Z

Hope it help ?



Message modifié ( 13-11-2007 23:35 )

[tl8roy]

This would really make things complicated, but integrating a surface tile viewer or even better surface tile maker.

[GXE3]

Thanks picto, but the programming language I'm using is Java. Second, vector sum is a math formula for calculating
points on the base.

Thanks Anyway.

[OmegaRidley]

GXE3 wrote:

OmegaRidley wrote:
hmmm, this sounds cool, if you arn't gonna already do it, make it where I can copy the base runways and landing
ports and
place as many as I want anywhere


Now THAT would be cool!

Copying is another important feature I plan to add with the first release of the program.
Another feature a eventually want to add is the "Group" feature that will allow the user to create groups of objects.
That way, one could copy a large group of objects instead of one object at a time.
Cool?

Sounds even better

I would also like something that can attach multiple objects that cannot dock, and if they can, not using docking mode in
SCNEditer, Make a whole bunch of rockets into 1 rocket that goes really fast!


Orbiter rules!

[tl8roy]

how about multi-stage dll, also made be vinka

[tl8roy]

an idea, taxiways

[James.Denholm]

Taxiways... you mean those paths between the pads and so on?  That would be nice.

Good luck GXE3, now just don't take 6 months! Actualy, christmas hollidays are coming up, that will make a nice
opportunity. And if you live in America or Canada or Europe or Russia or wherever, it's probably going to snow a fair
bit. I'll be thinking of all of you who are stuck indoors as I swim under an Australian sun...

[GXE3]

tl8roy wrote:
an idea, taxiways

I do plan to add taxiways to the program.
Taxiways are a priority

[GXE3]

James.Denholm wrote:
Taxiways... you mean those paths between the pads and so on?  That would be nice.

Good luck GXE3, now just don't take 6 months! Actualy, christmas hollidays are coming up, that will make a nice
opportunity. And if you live in America or Canada or Europe or Russia or wherever, it's probably going to snow a fair
bit. I'll be thinking of all of you who are stuck indoors as I swim under an Australian sun...

Don't rush me. I want to create a bug free program, not a low quality program that was created in 2 weeks!

[GXE3]

The following are requests that I plan to include in the program.
Make requests and I'll update this list.  

1) Taxiways (by Tl8roy)
2) Custom Meshes (by Picto)

[ar81]

Working full time it would take entire weeks (a few months) to do that.
Depending on how it is debugged and how complex the program is, it may take longer.

To me it looks reasonable to take 6 months or more for an Orbiter project.
But of course, if you are a user who is eager to use it, one day of waiting could be an eternity.

If the project ends up being what you say it could be, I can imagine it like the Orbiter version of Simcity...

[picto]

Ar81, is your program only a base editor or does it allow a dynamic rendering of objects in Orbiter ?
I mean, does it render only the objects in the field of camera ( for optimization of perfs ) ?
Do you plan to try this ?

[ar81]

What do you mean with "dynamic rendering"?
If you mean 3D, no.
It has a blueprints view only.

When you enable mesh display it will display ALL meshes.
Not only the ones in the field of view.
When I made it I was more focused on standard objects, not really mesh display.
Mesh display is very slow with my app.
Blame visual basic which is about 280 times slower than C++ for math ops.
So I left mesh display severly undeveloped.

It is slow because it does not load the mesh into memory, but it reads the file and it displays as it reads the file.
I am still trying to figure out about an efficient method to load multiple meshes.
Even Mesh Wizard method is very uncomfortable to add groups, let alone dynamically allocate multiple meshes.

[ar81]

I have not too much time since I got married and got my current job.
As a freelancer I used to have more time.
But at least I have a paycheck for sure every month...

[GXE3]

ar81 wrote:
What do you mean with "dynamic rendering"?
If you mean 3D, no.
It has a blueprints view only.

Sorry, but my program will only display the blueprints of objects as well; it will not display the objects as 3D shapes.
However, I plan to include validation tools in the program. For example, I plan to include a tool that will search for
incomplete objects or objects that contain default values.

By the way, I just want to say thanks to ar81 for creating the Surface Base Wizard and the idea of a surface base program.