Orbiter Space Flight Simulator

[Ori]

I was going to post this thread in the first minute i registered, but i forgot it. Ah well!... It's my programming...

Maybe a video first? 6 Minutes of a Orbiter clip:

Orbiter Space Flight Simulator:

Fed up with space games that insult your intelligence and violate every law of physics? Orbiter is a simulator that gives you an idea what space flight really feels like - today and in the not so distant future. And best of all: you can download it for free!

Orbiter is a freeware, physics-driven and largely expandable space flight simulation software made for Windows. In Orbiter you can fly the Space Shuttle in its golden days to the ISS, try out the interesting Delta-Glider; a single-stage-to-orbit concept, or go even further, 'to boldly go where no furry man has ever gone before' and download the WarpDrive modules from OrbitHangar Mods, which work well with the wide array of Star Trek and Star Wars mods, and if you feel nostalgic, we have a low-poly Arwing which i think that is from SF64. Sorry, that's what we have available.

The simulator was created by Martin Schweiger Ph. D, originally starting its development in 2000. With the years, a whole community grew interested in the flight sim. There are people of many age groups and nationalities in Orbiter-Forum. Here are some of the noticeable names over there:

• Martin Schweiger, creator and main Orbiter developer.
  
• 'Tex', O-F admin and famous Orbiter movie maker.
  
• Douglas 'dbeachy1' E. Beachy, O-F admin and software engineer. Founder of the virtual space agency 'Altea Aerospace' and team lead of the XR Spacecraft series.
  
• Daniel 'DanSteph' Polli, creator of the sound module OrbiterSound and a series of addons which add immersion and realism to the sim, like Delta-Glider IV and Universal Cars and Cargos for Orbiter. (UCGO)
  
• Yuri 'Kulch' Kulchitsky, developer of various addons which vary from Universal Payload Manager to ENERGY Project, which features the Energia launch vehicle.
  
• Kev 'Kev33' Shanow, developer of various aircraft/spacecraft addons, Orbiter-compatible 64[?] Arwing developer.
  
• [You?]
  

Why 'you'? Because Orbiter supports the creation of addons, using the C++ language and a bit of LUA, which GMod developers may already know a bit of. With some time, you have the chance to get famous*! It is also easy to retexture and reskin things, as long as you have a editor that supports saving in .DDS (DirectDraw surface format). Want to develop a new star system? An fully functional and accurate Arwing? Something new? It's all up to you to choose.

*:In Orbiter-Forum.

But as mentioned before, it's a steep learning curve to learn orbital mechanics. In O-F, there are tutorials and how-to's to basically everything in Orbiter. Even so, it will take you some practice to get a hang of the controls and how everything works in the simulator. Note, however, that it's not impossible in any meaningful way.

http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/ : Main Orbiter Site

http://www.orbithangar.com/ : Main Orbiter Add-on Distribution

http://www.orbiter-forum.com/ : Orbiter-Forum

http://www.alteaaerospace.com/ : Altea Aerospace

http://orbiter.dansteph.com/ : Dan's Orbiter Page

(Oh well, i think this might be pretty *too* much enough for a proper introduction. )

[Hidi]

Hmm I'll get around to playing with this.....Maybe. Have you ever played Microsoft Flight Simulator? That was a pretty fun game in its day. Also, Google Earth has a flight simulator. When you have Google Earth open, press Ctrl + Alt + A and it'll open up an interface and you choose your takeoff point and plane and you fly. 

 

And Orbiter, if you're programming is so off, how will your AI hold up when we find out whether you're human or not?

[Ori]

Hmm I'll get around to playing with this.....Maybe. Have you ever played Micro$oft Flight Simulator? That was a pretty fun game in its day. Also, Google Earth has a flight simulator. When you have Google Earth open, press Ctrl + Alt + A and it'll open up an interface and you choose your takeoff point and plane and you fly. 

 

And Orbiter, if you're programming is so off, how will your AI hold up when we find out whether you're human or not?

FTFY. 

 

And yes, I've played the FS series since FS2002. Personally I stick to FSX on that series since it has a much bigger variety of addons, and I don't have to pay for any, you know.

 

(What AI? )

 

And before I forget, DanSteph is working on development of OrbiterSound 4.0 (3D sound etc) and the new Arrow freighter version. Plus, we've got three more XR vessels under development. So that makes five mods to look forward to.