Any fans of Orbiter (spaceflight simulator) around here?

[Joecoolyo]

Maybe I'll fly into the world trade center .

Whoa dude, not cool

 

[remake20]

Ah maybe I'll fly into a spaghetti tree instead. http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/P0/

 

[Winner]

Whoa dude, not cool

It's impossible anyway, AFAIK there are no Google-Earth-like models of buildings, except for spaceports, airports, space stations, surface bases, etc.

 

[Winner]

For all aspiring "Orbinauts", here's a sort of 'manual' to Orbiter - it really teaches you step-by-step how to do things in space, explains how things work, how to configure your program, how to use MFDs, how to fly here and there, etc. It helped me a lot, and I also learned a lot about spaceflight in general from it. I recommend you start with it

Go Play in Space by Bruce Irving

 

[remake20]

Where do I get the game?

 

[Winner]

Google or the Wiki page I linked in the opening post are your friends. Use them.

And it is hardly a game. It's Orbiter Space Flight Simulator

 

[Yared]

Yes, srz bznz


http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/download.html

 

[Leonel]

Damn I've never been able to transfer to other planets.

 

[Winner]

Me neither. I am still struggling with re-entry. It's easy on the Moon - no atmosphere there - but on Earth it's pretty difficult. But I found a good tutorial, so hopefully I'll master it next week, when I get some time to go through it.

Then I'll move to interplanetary travel

 

[Shylock]

I tested a good add-on ship yesterday - it has scramjet engines which allow you to reach ~Mach 20 in the upper atmosphere, you you only need rockets for the take of and the final push that allows you to reach orbit.

Gods, I wish someone built this in real world.

I was so stoked when I finally got that thing through the atmosphere without destroying it. That is like the only ship with good damage modelling.

Trick is to dump 98% your fuel before you hit atmo

 

[cardgame]

It stole the SR-71's engines

And wings. And rudders.

And slapped them on a shuttle.

 

[remake20]

This looks cool, downloading.

 

[Winner]

I was so stoked when I finally got that thing through the atmosphere without destroying it. That is like the only ship with good damage modelling.

Trick is to dump 98% your fuel before you hit atmo

How am I supposed to land then? I always break the gear because I can't keep the vertical speed in acceptable limits

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Can you nuke from orbit?

 

[Winner]

It's not a space-shooter game, there are no weapons, AFAIK.

I think there is an add-on simulating an ICBM's ballistic trajectory though.

 

[Leonel]

There are MFD's simulating warp speed. There's actually Zefram Cochrane's Phoenix space ship that simulates warp.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

It's not a space-shooter game, there are no weapons, AFAIK

Come on modders, heed the call...

Anyway, sounds pretty interesting. But I don't think I have the time for all the tutorials. I'd enjoy watching people play though.

 

[Winner]

There are MFD's simulating warp speed. There's actually Zefram Cochrane's Phoenix space ship that simulates warp.

Well, the problem is that Orbiter uses Newtonian physics, not the relativistic one. So when you modify your ship's CFG file (or create a new add-on) and give its engines unrealistic thrust and ISP, you can accelerate to speeds many times faster than the speed of light.

That's not what Orbiter is designed for though. I'd of course love to see relativistic physics and interstellar travel implemented (the educational value would be huge). It would be a huge leap forward if people could properly simulate other star systems and plausible ways of (sublight) interstellar travel.

 

[remake20]

I tried to play and I can't do crap.

 

[Winner]

Bez práce nejsou koláče*

I just finished my first successful night re-entry and powered 'Harrier-style' VTOL landing I'll give it few more practice runs and then I am going to learn how to travel beyond low-Earth orbit. Moon, Mars, Venus, the moons of Jupiter...

Spoiler :

* - There's no pie without effort.