Orbiter - Space Flight Simulator

[SUBMAN1]

For anyone who is tired of the Arcade physics of Star Wars type games and wants real life physics. The only true game I can think of off the top of my head that used real theoretical technology and real physics was the Independence War series (Which I loved of course). Of course it was too difficult for the average player to deal with drifting to one side while strafing, etc, so it didn't do so well.

Anyway, here is the game incase you feel like having a go at it - warning steep learning curve!:

-S

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

http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/images/gallery72.jpg

http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/images/gallery71.jpg

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http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/images/STAchase2.jpg

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http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/images/saturn-full.jpg

http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/images/uranus-full.jpg

[SUBMAN1]

Some additional info can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbiter_%28sim%29

-S

PS. I forgot to mention the price - It is Freeware!!!

[NeonSamurai]

Looks cool ill have to give it a whirl :)

[Egan]

It's a beautiful beautiful game with great physics and free as well. Unfortunately I just felt a bit too stupid to get to grips with it. Found it very difficult. One of these days I will get back into it again - there is nothing else out there remotely like it.

[Sulikate]

Looks cool. I'll try it out.

[Smaragdadler]

Some places to look for Orbiter tutorials:

http://www.eharm.net/shop/freeware/orbiter/tutorials/tutorials.html
http://solo.dc3.com/orbiter/
http://www.orbitermars.co.uk/oldindex.htm
http://www.orbiter.migman.com/orbiter.htm

[Oberon]

Have they fixed the time compression - loss of control bug yet? I'll have to look into it again, Orbiters a great sim, easy to get the basics but very hard to master :D

[NeonSamurai]

Nope that one is definatly there

[CaptainCruise]

Wow....that is impressive! The graphics look incredible. I think I'll also try this one out in the near future.

[NeonSamurai]

Figured i would bump this up again, and throw on some links.

http://www.orbithangar.com/
Best place to find mods and other stuff

http://orbiter.dansteph.com/index.php
Home of orbitersound (which is a must have) and delta glider III and IV

http://www.ibiblio.org/mscorbit/
Meadville Space Center (Check the sourceforge site link for downloads). Projects Mercury and Gemini, and Earth 1962 found here.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/nassp/
Home of Project Apollo (NASSP)

http://www.orbithangar.com/searchauth.php?search=david413
Shuttle Fleet Package

[SUBMAN1]

Figured i would bump this up again, and throw on some links.

http://www.orbithangar.com/
Best place to find mods and other stuff

http://orbiter.dansteph.com/index.php
Home of orbitersound (which is a must have) and delta glider III and IV

http://www.ibiblio.org/mscorbit/
Meadville Space Center (Check the sourceforge site link for downloads). Projects Mercury and Gemini, and Earth 1962 found here.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/nassp/
Home of Project Apollo (NASSP)

http://www.orbithangar.com/searchauth.php?search=david413
Shuttle Fleet Package

Thx for the links! I'll have to check these out. Been a while since I played this.

-S

[Smaragdadler]

:ping: Orbiter Atmospheric Visual Enhancement V3 (OAVE) for Orbiter 2006 :ping:
by Kevin M. Stoffel AKA "EndeavourCmdr"

http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2379

:up:

[GlobalExplorer]

Would it be possible to play missions in this game that were created in an external program? I ask because I am looking for a game to link with my next project, and this looks interesting.

[SmokinTep]

This sim is awesome. Been messing with it for 3 weeks now and have yet to dock to the ISS. I can launch, get into orbit, align planes, but trying to sync orbits has me messed up at the time being. This thing has a steep learning curve.

[NeonSamurai]

I would suggest this tutorial for learning how to dock with the ISS (and go to the moon, mars, etc). Its what i used to get started :)

http://www.orbiter.migman.com/orbiter.htm

[GlobalExplorer]

Yeah that is what's keeping me away from this type of game too. I don't mind some proper physics in a game, but isnt it that calculating trajectories might be a bit too demanding?

[SmokinTep]

I would suggest this tutorial for learning how to dock with the ISS (and go to the moon, mars, etc). Its what i used to get started :)

http://www.orbiter.migman.com/orbiter.htm

I have downloaded everything known to man. I'll get it, just may take some time.

[SUBMAN1]

Yeah that is what's keeping me away from this type of game too. I don't mind some proper physics in a game, but isnt it that calculating trajectories might be a bit too demanding?

If it were too easy and arcadish, it would cease to hold any interest for anyone. What you are seeing for yourself here is an education on how things are really done. That is the true gem of the sim - the education you will get.

-S

[Letum]

I tried this a year or two ago. Very good.

[NeonSamurai]

Also the game's MFD's tend to do the number crunching, once you learn how its actualy pretty easy.

[SmokinTep]

Finaially got close to the ISS yesterday. Hopefully I can make a sucessful docking.

[GlobalExplorer]

Is there actually a way to get the game to play any kind of audio?

[NeonSamurai]

http://orbiter.dansteph.com/index.php
Home of orbitersound (which is a must have)


See that link for sound

[Iron Budokan]

Is there a link to download the USS Voyager add on? Thank you!

[NeonSamurai]

http://www.orbithangar.com/ would be the first place to search, if not try googling it

[Iron Budokan]

Thank you! Wow, I started messing around with this last night. Awesome! And very, very difficult...but therein lies its appeal.

What ship do you guys recommend learning off of first?

[Iron Budokan]

I want to thank you guys for turning me on to this game. I've been playing it for two weeks now, definitely one of my current favorites. Love it!:up:

[NeonSamurai]

I learned off the stock Delta Glider, its very forgiving, easy to get into orbit with, can hover (other then earth if realistic flight behavior is on) and has lots of fuel (enough to go from the surface of earth to the surface of mars).

[Iron Budokan]

Yes, that's what I've been using, too, it is more forgiving, especially for a lousy pilot like myself. Last weekend I was able to get into earth orbit. Woo Hoo! Now I gotta try and dock.

And by the way, my 9 year old loves this game, too.

[Harmsway!]

I just noticed that you guys linked to my website in this thread. I've been active with OrbiterSim for many years now. It does have a steep learning curve but you can use the MFDs to do the math. You don't have to do your own calculations unless you want to.

The sense of accomplishment of docking your spacecraft the first time is indescribable. Docking the Space Shuttle is even better.

http://www.eharm.net/shop/freeware/orbiter/orbiter.html

Gene

[Stryker412]

You guys want to get on Teamspeak one night and do a mission (somewhat) together?

[goldorak]

I learned off the stock Delta Glider, its very forgiving, easy to get into orbit with, can hover (other then earth if realistic flight behavior is on) and has lots of fuel (enough to go from the surface of earth to the surface of mars).

I would use the Deltaglider IV developped by dansteph.
Its an awesome ship to learn to get into orbit andp dock, and of course to re-entry.
It has an autopilot, checklist procedures for take-off, docking, re-entry etc.. It als has enviromental sensors. Believe me, its the most complete ship in the orbiter universe. :cool:

[goldorak]

You guys want to get on Teamspeak one night and do a mission (somewhat) together?

I don't remember Orbiter having native multiplayer capabilities.
Some years ago someone developped a sort of a poor mans multiplayer client through the irc network.
I don't know whats the state of multiplayer clients these days.

[Stryker412]

Yeah no MP but we could do missions at the same time and help each other out if need be over voice chat.

[Chock]

I've had a play around with Orbiter in the past, but with only a passing interest in a 'nuts and bolts' space simulator, it required a lot of me to just figure out getting the shuttle off the launch pad!

It is a great program, but as has been stated, it doesn't so much have a learning 'curve' as a cliff!

:D Chock

[goldorak]

I've had a play around with Orbiter in the past, but with only a pssing interest in a 'nuts and bolts' space simulator, it required a lot of me to just figure out getting the shuttle off the launch pad!

It is a great program, but as has been stated, it doesn't so much have a learning 'curve' as a cliff!

:D Chock

Yeah but I cursed Microsoft for many years because they didn't follw in the steps of their first Space Simulator. Now that was an awesome game and to be honest even quite difficult.
Orbiter is quite difficult, its true, but with the tons of tutorials lying around you can overcome most of the difficulties.
One thing the english community is lacking is a set of pdf tutorials that cover not only Orbiter but also most of its addons. NASSP or AMSO, or Mercury etc.
In this respect the french comunity was far ahead, they have a set of tutorials which is amazing in clarity and giudes you step by step in using the different addons.
Of couse every new version of orbiter, the addons implies that the documentation is updated to reflect the changes.

[NeonSamurai]

Honestly i would not recommend starting with the Delta Glider IV as a brand new nub. Its alot more complex and realistic, especialy with damage model, and reentry. Too much to worry about at once.

So still suggest starting with the stock delta glider, learn how to get into orbit, how to dock, how to undock, get to the moon, get to other planets, learn all the stock MFD's, try out the addon MFD's (iMFD is a good one, does similar things as TransX, but i think offers more functionality, and is a bit easier to learn). Then you can start playing around with the other ships, and mods like NASSP, or Shuttle Fleet.

Trying to start off with the space shuttle (the included one or Shuttle Fleet) is a especialy bad idea, as it super unforgiving as far as fuel and launching.

[Skybird]

It'S a great simulation - but I must confess that I miserably fail at it, due to my bad mathemagical skills. Number-stuff is not my shining side...