PreludeIII orientation problems with Orbiter 2016 and flat experiment ...

[StarLost]

First off, yes I know that none of Dan's addons have been updated for Orbiter 2016 and its variants. However, try this one on for size:

I have installed a pristine copy of Orbiter 2016 and installed OrcusPatera and Delta Glider 1V (necessary or the required scenarios CTD). I have also installed D3D9 and it's "flattening experiment" variant. Visually everything at OrcusPatera looks good with the exception that several parts of the base are not at "ground level" (with flattening not employed). Local lights appear to be about 100m above the landing pads and oddly the PreludeIII included in OrcusPatera seems to be sitting on an inclined foundation several metres belos the base. Applying surface flattening fixed the concrete parts of the base and the "boxes" on the pads are no longer "floating" (notice that you have to be running orbiter_ng to be seeing this). Nothing seems to improve the position of the PreludeIII.

Since this is an experiment, I have no problem with things that "just can't be fixed" yet. But, has anyone else experimented along these lines and found ways improve the usability of Dan's addons until he finally gets around to fixing them?

[Milouse]

Hello,

Finally, i have installed the Orcus Patera surface base on Orbiter 2016 to see what is happened.
I have set a flat ground with the option in the Orbiter Menu.

For having the Prelude base on a horizontal plan, i have set it like a surface base, and no more like a vessel.
Not surprising, all animations are lost (doors, solar plant on the roof), free positionning with Scenario Editor and UMmu features too.

I have add this lines in the ...\Config\Mars\Base\OrcuPatera.cfg file, just before the "LPAD2A" blocks.

Code: [Select]

MESH
FILE OrcusPreludeIII/LegacyMeshes/PreludeIII
POS 74 0 -442
ROT 180
SCALE 1 1 1
OWNMATERIAL
SHADOW
END
The skin feature don't work with this configuration, but you may want the Orcus Patera skin on the mesh.

Go to ...\Meshes\OrcusPreludeIII\LegacyMeshes and open the PreludeIII.msh file ; yes, it's the file called in the cfg.
At the very end of the file, two textures are called ; only the path need to be change, so :

Code: [Select]

TEXTURES 2
OrcusPreludeIII\SKIN\OrcusPatera\PreludeDetails.dds
OrcusPreludeIII\SKIN\OrcusPatera\PreludeMain.dds
It doesn't need the OrcusPreludeIII "vessel" and its properties in the scenarios ; delete them.
The Prelude mesh should sitting in a very close position to its original place.


Milouse

[StarLost]

Bonjour, Milouse. Comment ça va?

Good to hear from you. Thanks so much. I'll give that a try.

[StarLost]

Merci, Milouse.

That fixed the eye candy problem. Any idea why, in vessel form, the prelude was in an angled position below surface level?

[Milouse]

Hello,

I don't know... but, to me, the surface elevation system seems not at cause. When you rotate the mesh in vessel form with the Scenario Editor (with the Heading command in Location tab), it rotate along a vertical axis ; unlike a rotating mesh on a tilted plan.


Milouse