DGIII alpha release available part 1 (closed)

[DanSteph]

Spets:

Radiator=already todo list

Air-intake= this is normal Orbiter have only one tank for
O2 and "Hydrogen" (9 ton to go in orbit, that doesn't look like hydrogen)
Thus when the air intake is open and there is not a sufficient airflow
the missing O2 is taken from the O2 tank = more 'fuel' comsumption.

For shut down, as said there is an automatic switch beetween external O2 and tank O2
so no shut down... anyway I have somewhat an idea to make a separated
"atmosphere reactor" only ... idea that float in my mind.... I don't think I'll do
 it , it would be too much weight for a poor avantage.

I find prospec excellent like that, of course if you click on the keyboard with the mouse
it's a pain, but I recall you can TYPE on your real keyboard instead. this take 2 second.

Try typing:  CP903S42   ('C' clear the previous autopilot and the number has to be typed
from the top of your keyboard not the numpad) Then type  'E' to execute.

Just tried again the temp work right, the lower wings have more temperature
when the airflow have an angle coming from this wings... well don't have the word in
english....  if the upper wings get more temp it's because your slide in direction of this wings
while you are 'turning' this make sense... I can make a litle drawing if you want?.
Anyway I checked my airspeed vector and made some test , it work as it should.

And the "belly" temperature display is in fact the "top" temperature this is why

Dan

BTW I just added the DGII's doc in PDF format to the download
page, most of info that it contain are still up to date for the DGIII.

[Spets]

Ok, sounds good!

Can you post the current bug list so I know what I don't have to report in?

[DanSteph]

Fun thing to try:


Simulate a major power loss (will be a real failure available later)
------------------------------------
-take "docked to iss" scenario
-Undock iss
-click APU button OFF on the top panel (you loss all power)
-click emergency power red button (click for cover, click to engage)
-select rotator to "emergency power"

Now each system that is ON eat some power (see top panel "total power used" display at the
right)

The goal is to manage the various system in order to maintain enough power
until you land safely. On the computer the DISP 4 display show you how many time
the emergency power will last with the current comsumption...
this value increase/decrease as you shut down/restart various system.

Restart at least:
"Main bus" (flight computer)
"life support button" (and only 'A' system on the lower panel)
"Autopilot" when needed (deorbit burn retrograd, later reentry program)
"Engine" (when needed don't forget lower panel RCS/main engine button)


I just landed safely with 3h37 hours power remaining

Recall:
you can type 'D' 'number' on your real keyboard to change
the computer display instead of clicking on the panel's keyboard.
After your deorbit burn you can accelerate time until 80km altitude before
returning normal time and engaging the pro104spec40 autopilot.

Dan

Mhhh sorry spets, the current bug or missing feature is too long
I bet,  as it's an alpha there will be time to report when the beta will be on
the way. Anyway I think you can fly the beast without to much problem now.

[Spets]

Ah, but here's another bug, I hope! I pray this one is useful :P

Bug: when elevons are deflected and you manually switch to RCS mode, the elevons stay
deflected, instead of returning to neutral.

Suggestion: in automatic atmosphere mode, switch from Elevon to RCS when speed is below 50
m/s in order to facilitate hover control? I mean it's an automatic mode afterall maybe tie the
nosewheel into the RCS controls as well.

was just doing some atmospheric flight testing  and noticed these. Let me know if I'm being too
eager with my bug reports

[MattNW]

The HUD looks great now. No white at all. I haven't gotten the panels to freeze again so that was
likely an Orbiter glitch and not the DG III. I've only taken one flight since downloading it but no
problems in that one. I'll post again if I find something.

A suggestion. You might want to include ApT and PeT as one of the values available in the HUD.
That's a pretty useful field for orbital maneuvers. Also a speed in knots would be nice since most
pilots are used to that.

Darn music is still there in HUD mode 5.

You may not be making the add on of the centry but it's definately my choice for add on of the year.

[DanSteph]

spets:
no worry,

I think the "elevon bug" is an "orbiter bug" we cannot act at all on the elevon position.
Switching to rcs when < 50 = todo list,
wheel control not possible with RCS (Orbiter limitation, joystick input)
(4 am here so I use few word )

Matt:
ApT and PeT=todo list
speed in knot, no promise yet ... I'm not used to knot, feet or whatewer
(I tried already but discarded it  the problem is when you switch from scale
meter to km etc etc so knots< ??? Kknots ?)

Oh and the music is a futur "easter egg" that is not hidden for now

I'm going to bed finaly  

Dan

[Spets]

Dan,

1 m/s = 1.943845 knots.

Andrey

[canadave]

Pilot to Developer:

Thank you sir!!!  RCS control now a lot less like an arcade game

What a great ship.  The hover autopilot ABSOLUTELY ROCKS.  Landed at Brighton Beach, smooth
as silk.  One suggestion for the DG Mark 4: a "camera mode" for the MFD, so we can see where
we're going when hovering downwards.  I had to keep switching to the external camera mode to
see where I was going and gauge my approach to the landing pad.

Did I mention what a great ship the DG3 is???

Dave

[Wilko]

With the total power failure scenario, I think it would be a real challenge if you lost APU power
during a trip to the moon. You would have to effectively turn off every system bar the life support
to make it to the moon. But then you have to keep checking your instruments to see if you are
oncourse or whatnot, and then if you aren't you have to switch on the engines etc. And finally
once you get to the moon you have to use the engines and other instruments constantly to get
into a proper orbit and land safely at Brighton to get everything repaired.

How long would a full deck (four passengers and a pilot) be able to live in the DGIII? Say you were
drifting back to earth from Mars and your power suddenly went out. You would have to shut off
every system almost permenantly except life support to even make it back. How long could you
last like this?

Dan to make it more fair, if a total power failure did happen on a big trip like that, perhaps you
could put in a 1 in 100 or 1 in 500 chance of getting the APU switched back on? Even then the
chances of it failing again are skyrocketing every second, so you might have to go easy on power
requirements. Also you could get the APU to charge up the emergency battery maybe? But it
would be a very slim chance of getting it working again.

[mgka]

I second canadave's post. Just tried the hover AP and it's great! If possible, a camera MFD would
be cool, but this is already partially covered by the landing MFD.

Here's a suggestion for the computer. PRO ENTER displays a list of installed programs and what
their parameters do. Just a short summary, eg:

903: Ascent autopilot.
SPEC: Input desired inclination

If all functions don't all fit on the screen at once, pressing enter goes to next page.
In fact, I think this could be easily implemented in the checklist screen, simply by editing a text file.

Anyway, thanks for a great addon.

[MattNW]

Just finished a trip to ISS using the Ascent AP. Don't change a thing on that. Best interception with
ISS I've ever done and I made two mistakes while doing it. First I launched a little too late and I
turned on the Turbo late. Still made it up there with a minimum of effort. If I'd done everything
right I should have smacked the sucker at the top of my orbit. AP worked perfectly. Just set the
inclination, turn it on and have a coffee break.

You might want to tweak the RCS power down a little. It's only a minor thing but it'd give it a
better feel. Either that or do what someone suggested earlier and have two RCS Modes (hi/low).

Still getting great frame rates. 40+ in cockpit with main panel. 35+ with bottom panel. 75 external
view. Docked with Project Alpha ISS.

I assume that you haven't implimented the fading thruster sound when outside yet. I had thruster
sound all the way up. If you haven't then every things fine. If you have then it's not fading.

I second the camera mode suggestion but that's something you might want to save for another
release. Sounds pretty complicated.

[canadave]

MattNW:

Download the latest DG3 alpha release.  Dan has adjusted the RCS to be less powerful.

Dave

[Arkalius]

The DGIII is really cool... thanks Dan Did a launch and docked at ISS after setting up a good
scenario for it using real ISS orbital data...

One bug I noticed is that when you have more than one of the DG3 in orbiter, wierd things can
happen. When I switched to external view, the ship flew off really quick or something, it was
strange.

Anyway, an "alpha release" is an oxymoron

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=alpha%20test
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=beta%20test

[MattNW]

Hey anyone tried crashing this sucker yet.

http://www.savepic.com/freepicturehosting/is.php?i=61431&img=Crash2.jpg

Go to outside view Global Frame. Watch it tumble.

http://www.savepic.com/freepicturehosting/is.php?i=61494&img=Crash3.jpg


You probably allready thought of this but there should be some kind of consequences if you leave
the radiator deployed and reenter or take off and fly too fast in atmosphere.

[DanSteph]

Arkalius:
Strange ? I'm aware of sound problem when using two DGIII in the same scenario
but I tought I was ride of all other problem ? Two DGIII instance don't share any value now
(I least I think it was) can you try again and tell exactly what happen or send me a scenario
where it happen (hit CTL-S to save the scenario)

mqka:
Look at the "checklist display" (lower panel)  the program are mentionned here
under "10- computer flight operation". (scroll down a bit all the program are here)
It's true anyway I still must add the two hover autopilot in this list.


The camera idea is a cool one I was thinking also since a long time about a litle
probe that you can eject with a camera and that you can control and have a view
of the camera in one MFD. Anyway , no chance, the SDK don't allow us to open
a second 3d view...

Spets:  (about knots and feet)
--------
Conversion is not hard, What cause me problem is what when you go with higher
number, I cannot display a lot of number so you have to change the scale
(as in Meter->km), so how do you call:  (I need the short version as in "Km")
1'000 Kts ? =  1.0 Kkts ? (Kilos Knots?)
1000'000 Kts ? = 1.0 Mkts (millions knots?)

Same for feet ?  does 'Kfts' 'Mfts' exist ?

I really cannot display '40000000 fts' or worse '400000000000 fts' in the hud.
(would be 400.0 bfts ? (billion feets?)


SHARING HUD CONFIG:
later (I cannot *garantee* for now that the HUD.CFG file will not change format)
some can share their hud configuration file made with the customhud.exe
So I can put a choice of them in the DGIII downlad page. (with credit of course).


Well I have some work

Dan

[Krytom]

Dan

Would it be possible to put an MMU into the DGIII?

[Krytom]

Dan

Would it be possible to put an MMU into the DGIII?

[Pran]

MMU would be great!

------
Doubts:
1 - What's Auto Air Intake function? What does it do?
2 - What's Ext Radiator(that thing on the rear) function? What does it do?

Not only Dan(The Busy Boy) but anyone can answer me...


------
Does anyone uses the Pitch/Yaw/Bank/AngularVel/Torque light indicator from upper pannel? that
black thing, u know...?
My vote is to erase that thing and  use the available space to others usefull things... a thirth MFD
screen? Eject buttom? A hydraulic monitor(bad idea)?
or just in case of lack of pannel's space...who knows...?

[Wilko]

If it were going to be replaced my vote would be for two engine fire handles. One pull shuts off
the engine, and a twist to the left blankets the inside of the engine with Co2 (or whatever they
would use for earth and space as an extinguisher fluid).

[DanSteph]

I just looked at  the bank/pitch on the top panel, it's true it can free some space
but err.... I like this display
In case of missing place on the top panel I can still design another "top right"
and "top left panel".

About MMU, I was thinking about it... but it's not yet in my todo list.
the problem I alway face is the lack of control over the Deltaglider mesh,
I don't have the 3ds file... a lot more things can be done if I could tweak it
with more animation, door etc etc (arm ?)

the air intake help to save some fuel when your in atmosphere. (see check list)


Still working, now the radiator button is reworked, there is a sound as well as a flashing
light (transit) when it deploy (version not released yet)

Again I'm facing a problem due of my lack of control over the mesh... how can I
damage the radiator if deployed to fast in atmosphere.... just making it
instantly reentering isn't very much satisfying... anyway... no other solution.

Dan

[Leemon]

I'm ignorant of all of the facts, but with all you've done to improve the DG series will the original
designer not give you the .3DS file to modify?  That sure would be a wonderful thing for the Orbiter
community.

Thanks -- just curious,

Lee

[DanSteph]

I asked one time to frying tiger but he didn't looked very
enthousiast

"radiator button" version released, minor version I must say

Dan

[canadave]

A good question.  Alternatively, would some kind soul more proficient in mesh design than myself
be willing to volunteer to design a similar mesh that Dan could use and modify as he sees fit?

Dave

[DanSteph]

I'm not bad at modelling and always wanted to do an Orbiter model,
too bad I'm too busy

Here my arleigh burke:




and my toulonnaise:


time to take a bath: (yes the stock VS's shark is mine)


The "secret project" we had one time (if one recall) was in fact with frying tiger himself, he
was doing  a whole new model for the DGII panel (it looked really great, it was a bigger ship
than the DG) too bad he didn't had time or willing to finish it = end of "secret project"


Anyway before making a new model or taking someone else's model I must first finish the DGIII, otherwise a lot of my current job would be broken
(autopilot, animation etc etc)


Dan

[canadave]

Right, duh...sorry Dan, I completely forgot you do modeling too!  If you're so damned good at
everything, how come I *still* don't have stewardesses handing out muffins on the DG3?????

Dave