DGIII antenna (screenshot)

[DanSteph]

And here my today's work, the AE35 element
This element will be 100% reliable (garanteed
by our computer of the serie 9000)

It miss one door texture and the panel's button.

Ideally I would put automatic "earth heading"
for the antenna but I don't think this would be a good idea,
the code may be hugh and it should not worth the loss of performance
for such a visual candy.... anyway you'll have at least button available
to move it in heading/azimuth.....
Anyway the complete motion for deploying/stowing is done it move
smoothly , door open and the antenna deploy slowly. (the bigger door
close after the antenna is completely deployed)





Dan

[DanSteph]

Bump !

It's perhaps a minor visual candy but it gave me lot of pain to do,
anyway I had to do it because I wanted to try orbiter animation

Dan

[Peer]

Looks great!
Can't wait to play around with it a bit.

[Leemon]

Dan --

The antenna looks terrific!  Funny you should mention your thoughts about pointing it; after seeing
the initial screen shots of the antenna yesterday, I was sitting at work today thinking "Wouldn't it
be cool if the DGIII's antenna could be programmed to automatically point to Earth!"  

I was going to ask you that very question this evening!    Admittedly, not worth the effort or
framerate/CPU slowdown if the computations are tough.

I flew a load of cargo to the ISS today.  I did notice that the orbit took a bit longer to enter with
the Ascent autopilot, but ascent, docking and reentry went perfectly with the 04.02.01 rev1
model.

Lee



Post Edited (02-04-04 00:29)

[Krytom]

Not sure if you guys were aware but on this site:http://www.orbithangar.com there are loads of
DG III repaints. To find them i searched DG3 within the site. I'm not sure if they work with the new
config.exe but i am just about to test them.

Krytom

[mgka]

Here's a couple of ideas for how the antenna could actually work:

1: When extended, radio picks up transponder and IDS signals at greater range (if this can be done. Range
may be hard coded into Orbiter)

2. Radar. This is what I would prefer, and there is plenty of empty space on the lower panel for a radar
screen, but would probably be really difficult to implement. Actually, the Dragonfly has a radar, so this
is possible. It would be better to display range and ID as well as a basic dot, and have the planets
expand as they get closer. If planets show up on radar, that is.

What would be great is the screen responding to antenna direction, and picking up planets, ships, and
surface bases, but even a simpler DF-style thing that only detects vessels would be good. (DF has
steerable antennas, but the mesh isn't animated)

Also, plenty of space on the lower panel.

Even if it's just eye candy, it would be cool. It already looks great, I'm looking forward to the next
release.

[Aqua]

The Dragonfly already has an antenna for radar that as automatic aquire and tracking for objects built
in. Couldn't the code for that be used here also(with the permission of all parites ofcourse)?

[Spets]

looks awesome!

would be nice for it to have a function, but I welcome it all the same!

[MattNW]

Nice antenna but I'd upgrade that Hal 9000 first chance I get. I hear they are kinda unreliable.

[DanSteph]

Leemon:
I said "it may not worth the expense of performance" (to point to earth automatically)
but anyway I'll try because I find this intteresting
My idea to save perf would be to not make it point constantly:
you killrot, hit the "point" button and the antenna will move,
if you rotate your ship you must hit again the point button.
(a warn will tell you "connexion lost")

Krytom:
The "DGIII" repaint aren't anymore compatible even if you copy it as
it is.. (you must rename the texture)
I don't want for now to make them again compatible (asking agent036)
because things may change again in the future until the final release
so this would be a useless job. When time will come I'll ask agent
to pack them in a "DGIII compatible" manner or to let me do this.
(I hope it will agree because the base texture he used is mine after all)

Mqka:
Intteresting idea to make the antenna increase range.... I must study
the SDK to give an answer sometime things are surprising:
I was planning to implement radio on the lower panel so you could
set your nav frequency in an easier way than the MFD but there is NO
function in the SDK that allow that (ie: we have "GetNavFrequency"
but no "SetNavFrequency")

Dan

[darkvoid]

DanSteph wrote:

> My idea to save perf would be to not make it point constantly:
> you killrot, hit the "point" button and the antenna will move,
> if you rotate your ship you must hit again the point button.
> (a warn will tell you "connexion lost")

That idea seems GREAT Dan... The connection lost detail sounds promising....

[DanSteph]

What is great with this image that you can't see,
is the antenna that stay pointed on the iss when
you rotate your ship



I just finished my first attempt to point the antenna
to an object, there is more code to do for special case, (90° down/up)
target selection, panel's button, rotation slowdown (now it move instantly)
etc etc but the hardest work is done.

I think I'll let the option to stay pointed (track mode)
for those that will see impact on performance there
will be a "point" mode button also. (move in position than stop)

About target I hate the input box, I think it broke all the atmoshere
so I think more about a predefined list of target:
8 main planet (there is no pluto in orbiter correct me if this was added)
sun
iss
mir
moon
europe
io

Anything else ?

Dan

[ChristopherT]

 No Pluto still isn't in Orbiter as far as I can tell.  It's not in the Sol.cfg and it doesn't have a
config file for the planet.  Sounds like you did some excellent work again, Dan!

     Christopher

[MattNW]

For extending the range there's the standard IDS where you tune in the frequency on the Nav
Radio and an option for legacy ships where you hit Ctr+Alt+R and input the ship's name and
docking port. This second will track another ship on you HUD from the other side of the planet.
Maybe the antenna being deployed could somehow be linked to this mode to simulate increased
range.

[Orlando Arias]

Great Work, Sir. A little question: Is it possible to have a location on the panels so that we can see
where the antenna is pointing to from the inside of the ship?

"I know you and Frank were planning to disconect me, and I am afraid that is something I cannot allow to
happen."

[Leemon]

Hi Dan --

Congratulations on getting the direction code to work!  

Regarding having a limited set of names:  Is there a way within orbiter that you can retrieve the
names of all of the active planets, moons and ships?  That way, maybe you could provide a one
line scroll box with an up and down arrow where the pilot could select the object he wants to track
from a list of the active Orbiter objects.

The problem I see is that as more add-ons become available there will be new asteroid bases,
space stations, etc. that people would want to track.  

However, that being said, even if we have a "limited" list of tracking objects to choose from it's still
amazing that we can do it at all!  

Regarding "lock on" of the antenna:  I don't know how you are planning to show a successful
target lock, but maybe it could even be as simple as a red and green light, like the lights you use
on the cockpit and radiator status indicators.  That way it would be easy to see from inside the
cockpit whether the antenna was able to maneuver to the target successfully.  If not, you could
reorient the ship while viewing the panel until you are able to get a lock.

Oh well, I'm just daydreaming here.    I have to get back to work...

Lee

[DanSteph]

One idea:

Some software failure would request the download of some patch that need to  point
the long range antenna in some location.

When the communication established you hit download and
see the litle progress bar coming as the download progress.

If success, all is right the patch is installed
if not , well,  your in deep sh.. trouble


Just an idea

Dan

[canadave]

Or, to return to the EVA idea...you could have to go outside the ship to repair the antenna  Oh
boy....

"Dave....Dave....there is a problem with the AE-35 unit."

--canadave

[DanSteph]

shhhhttt .... It's in a litle box somewhere in my mind.

1-software crash
2-antenna is down no download possible
3-must perform an eva to repair the antenna
4-once done download the software patch


Sound cool, I will ask Dan if he can do that

Dan
"I'm not fool it's just that I try to stop smoking those time "

[canadave]

And that's why you da MAN, Dan!

I sometimes wonder if I'm talking to a French-speaking version of a computer, when I see the stuff
you come up with

Dave

[DanSteph]

10011,

10011100, 11001010001.

10 100010 0101010010 1010
0100101010 1010010... 10010
0101010010101011110000


11010011,


DaN

[canadave]

ROFL!!  That's like the old "binary jokes" I used to tell.  "So, this 1 goes into a bar and says to the
bartender, '0101101'.  The bartender says, '11100101 1001101'?  The 1 says: '101100111!'"

hahahaha get it?

*sigh* I'm sick again

dave

[AndrewG]

My favorite was always :-
There are 10 types of people in the world,
Those that can understand binary and those that can't!

[Dave Grover]

Dan,

There is an addon available for Pluto.  It includes Pluto and Charon, it's moon.  I also believe there
is a base on Charon.

Grover