[closed] BETA 4 Of DeltaGliderIV (fourth beta release)

[sunshine135]

pile0nades wrote:
I can't seem to select the Default skin in DGIV config. When I open Orbiter, it switches to the Medical skin. Selecting any
other skin works.

Dan is in the process of changing some of the meshes. The Medical Skin is the default for the time being. He will likely get
all of the skins caught up when he finishes the final design and has advised he will issue a new SDK.

Kind regards,

[sunshine135]

AndyMan wrote:
I am running an AMD 2.2 Ghz with 1 gig of memory, plus a Radeon X700 Graphics card. I am able to run Flight Sim X
with most of the bells and whistles, so it makes me doubtful that it is computer specs being the cause here.

Dan,

Even with my out-of date PC, I didn't notice this dramatic freezing in the game until this last BETA release. Is it possible
that something in the glider coding has become sufficently complex as to bog Orbiter down? 2.2GHZ and a gig of memory should
run Orbiter more than sufficently. I'd be interested to see if anyone else is having the problem.

Kind regards,

[DanSteph]

I would say with current beta testing it's very difficult for me to do a correct work,
to many people give reports with almost no informations and never answers my inquiry...
So at last I must relly on my divination abilities...

I thanks much peoples that make an effort, for other please give as much informations
as you can, try to reproduce the bug, give me how to do, if it's a CTD try to disable all others
modules and see if it happen also, if no problem anymore try to find the modules that
cause problem by enabling one by one. I'll post a new thread about that because it's
impossible to correct problem and get a finished DGIV bug free without beta testing.

About CTD:

Can you try this new DLL and see if it change anything ?
http://www.dansteph.com/publie/DeltaGliderIVLow.zip

Many thanks

Dan

[david23]

DanSteph wrote (regarding the gear bug):
Okay Bug cleared, please try this DLL and see if it's gone for you also:
http://www.dansteph.com/publie/DeltaGliderIVGear.zip

works fine for me, many thanks!

see you, david.

BTW: i haven't seen a single CTD with your addon yet.



Post Edited ( 01-10-07 05:34 )

[sunshine135]

DanSteph wrote:
I would say with current beta testing it's very difficult for me to do a correct work,
to many people give reports with almost no informations and never answers my inquiry...
So at last I must relly on my divination abilities...

Fair enough Dan.

I went ahead and deleted Orbiter and did a fresh install.
Compaq Presario 6010US
1.4 GHZ AMD Processor
224 MB of RAM
32 MB Nvidia on the board graphics.

Clean install of Orbiter with Orbiter Sound 3.0 as the only module activated.
Run the scenario- Delta Glider IV- Earth Scenary- Docked to ISS
Undock from the ISS
Go Prograde
Run the time acceleration at 100X

I am seeing a higher-than-normal degree of oscillation in the DGIV in prograde at 100X. I only saw a drop in frame rate once
to zero. I saw around 32 fps high end and 16fps at the low end. I am hearing the RCS having to kick in hard to maintain the
prograde.

I also altered the visual effects- removed cloud shadows and specular ripples (back to the default install). I still saw the
problem.

The issue is very apparent in LEO. I have not tried yet in orbit around other bodies.

No CTDs though   Just bad oscillation.

Thoughts?

[Arkalius]

DG4 is working good for me. Did a mission flying to ISS, docked, stayed for a few days and reentered and landed at
KSC.

The DG4 Reentry is quite nice, seems there's much more leeway in what you can do. In the DG3, if I got a little too
ambitious with maneuvers it could spell disaster. The DG4 is a little easier to deal with.

[DanSteph]

sunshine135 a écrit:
Thoughts?

Too low framerate... encountered this prob with symphony and IA autopilot.
The code to control a ship run each frame, this lead for problems with too low framerate
and it get worse with time acceleration as control step is multiplied by acceleration.

Let me explain with an example:

Your ship go at 100 m/s mean at 100FPS, each image your ship is displaced by 1 meter.
But at 10 FPS your ship displace 10 meter each image... In first case we have the
control of the ship each meter , largely enough to finely control the ship and counter act
any bad tendencies. In the other case you can control only each 10 meters.

So at 28'000 km/h in orbit the autopilot can control the ship each 486 meter at 16 FPS,
at 10 time acceleration this make 4.86 kilometer and 48.6 kilometer at x 100, mean the ship
detect a situation, fire thruster to correct it and will see the result only 48 km later.

If you preffer is at if you drive your car on a super superhighway but you are only allowed
to turn the Steering-wheel during one second each kilometer...

Hope this explain ?

Sorry I have no solution for that, Orbiter was always sensitive with autopilot, high
time acceleration and low fps ,as DGIV is more demanding you get a low framerate that
give you such effect. Did you tried the new DLL posted above ? it have 3mb less than the Beta 4...
this may help to recover some FPS on low end machine (no change on mine, midle machine)
32mb graphic card is really, really low today. I remember I had a 32mb nvidia on my p400
several years ago.

I'll answer other previous post after sleep...

Much thanks for your post  !

Dan



Message modifié ( 10-01-2007 07:49 )

[sunshine135]

DanSteph wrote:

Too low framerate... encountered this prob with symphony and IA autopilot.
The code to control a ship run each frame, this lead for problems with too low framerate
and it get worse with time acceleration as control step is multiplied by acceleration.

I tried the new DLL and it did not do much to help my situation.
The solution is simple- hardware upgrade for me. I like to hold on to PCs a little longer than normal. To help
this situation I was thinking about going with a 256MB PCI graphics card and maxing out my RAM to 1024MB. This could be done
for about $120.00- $200.00 US versus buying a whole new system, and give me a lot of "bang for my buck".

It makes sense to me though that if you are running say a 256MB graphics card (very standard today),  the more detailed
meshes, and all of you visuals "checked", you could still have some problems with accelerated time.

In the meantime, I will run either 100X with the autopilot turned off or max 10X in LEO. The clean install did much to help
my framerates also, and I was able to get rid of some modules, modifications, and spacecraft I was no longer using.

I think the DGIV is ready for primetime.

[DanSteph]

KellyW a écrit:
I think I have found a small bug. If I unload the crew (boarded the mothership) they still die from high Gs.
DGIV is the best lander ever, and I llike to use it w/o cheat mode, but I also like to zip around in a mothership at light
speed. We might also want an unmaned high G flight profile that would end with docking with another ship or station.

Bug cleared for next version...

Thanks !

Dan

[AndyMan]

Sorry Dan, no joy on that new DLL for me. This time I was testing it doing an atmospheric ferry flight. First two times
it crashed at 35km high, about 2000m/s, with no autopilots running, with and without time acceleration. the third
time, I actually made it to my first stop, landed, shutdown and waited for dawn, then flew at 18km high, wings level
autopilot, at 960 m/s. No time acceleration this time, but I did switch to external view, zoomed way out, then  back in,
it froze while zooming back in. Additional information is I was just coming over the florida tip when it crashed this
third time.