• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

A new era in FSX modeling, orbit here we come.

aSIMetric

aSIMetric

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unitedkingdom
Ladies gents a friend and I have being modeling a new vehicle for a while now, we are not pros at this by any means and somewhat new to FSX scene. However we are interested in pursuing this model to help us with an edu nonprofit. Wondering if anyone would be willing to help us on this project to square away some annoying little issues: animation quirks, landing gear deployment to fast Aircraft CFG file timings did not seem to help, some little texture issues etc.

We called this the Seraphim and we have been building it with both the up coming SpacePort FSX mod and traditional FSX in mind. An SSTO runway to orbit composed of three parts we refer to as the ODEV system Orbit Delivery and Exploration Vehicle. Any support appreciated.
Seraphim VS-X1 small.png
 

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hairyspin

hairyspin

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unitedkingdom
You might say what you’re using to model it, since it’s unlikely a Blender user could help with a Gmax model, or vice versa.
 
lionheart

lionheart

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Dang, that is brilliant! Love the design, the graphics, the instrumentation.

The name makes me think of Origin. Are you in alliance with Jeffs team?

What is the first animation quirk? Lets get you going on this.
 
aSIMetric

aSIMetric

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unitedkingdom
Lionheart thanks for the response if you would like to know more contact us on vpacconcept@gmail.com we can plug you into the internal discussion, you can talk with our modeler which would be better with you guys speaking the same language. I know some of those stubborn issues include some texture challenges, the speed at which the landing gear deploys, this appears a hard coded issue and best way to implement afterburner effects etc. Same goes to anyone here who would like to know more about this project. We will continue to update this thread as we progress. Thanks
 
antaris

antaris

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mexico
One word for your project: Beautiful!!! Hopefully, you'll find a way to fix any ongoing issues.

Keep up the good work lads!
Sergio.
:)
 
aSIMetric

aSIMetric

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unitedkingdom
Using SpacePort FSX we are told we will be able to stage vehicles which opens up a world of very interesting opportunities in orbit. VPACC is exploring those possibilities and making good use of the staging and hopefully lifting payloads. An aircraft to a lifting body to an orbiter with the ability to operate beyond LEO.
 

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Misho

Misho

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ca-ontario
Hi guys!

I'm the FSX SpacePort developer! This looks awesome! How are you projecting the outside view? Curved screen/projector? Looks crisp!

Yup - staging has been in place for quite a while now. I'm working on a demo which will illustrate the full cycle, from launch to recovery. I'm happy to report that EVERYTHING is in, even parachute ballistics. The one last thing I am implementing is proper buoyancy after the capsule drops into ocean. This is more of a "nice to have" and since our physics engine has sophisticated buoyancy feature, we thought, sure, let's have that too!

In order to understand what we're doing, you have to first realize that we have completely replaced the FSX's flight model with our own. We didn't "remove" it from FSX, but rather "disabled" it. In your case - I have to underscore that our physics engine does NOT contain an atmospheric flight model. It is a "ballistic" flight model that incorporates re-entry drag forces, calculated using ballistic drag equations. We may also incorporate small lift components generated by space capsules when they re-enter at attitudes that are off-axis to their velocity vector. This means that your spacecraft won't fly - it will just drop. However - and we have not tested this yet - but it is perfectly possible to re-enable FSX flight model in mid-flight. If this is done too soon at the point of re-entry, outside of what FSX considers a "valid" speed, FSX will go crazy.

So - your mission (should you choose to accept it :cool:), if you want your project to work with FSX SpacePort, is to literally "push the envelope" and research, test, tweak and fine-tune the .air and .cfg files of your SSTO, and find a flight model that handles well that will give you the highest possible speed/altitude envelope. I'm not the expert in this, but someone out here might know what is FSX's highest possible speed (Mach) that it can handle. You might want to look into flight models of some fine freeware super/hypersonic aircraft such as X-15, Blackbird, and even Space Shuttle (I think there is a freeware of Space Shuttle that has a supersonic to subsonic transition, although it needs slew mode to reach space).

Once you have it tested and working, let me know at what attitudes and speeds you can save the flight and re-load it without any instabilities, and I can make an entry in the CFG file instructing FSX SpacePort to "relinquish" flight model back to FSX :cool:
 
aSIMetric

aSIMetric

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unitedkingdom
Exciting stuff, I have been aware of these challenges and we have spoken about this before Misho. So while waiting for Spaceport we have being thinking about the options like having two distinct modes ‘atmospheric flight’ and Orbit mode or rocket mode. The question is in ballistic mode would we be able to simulate horizontal motion minus the lift? However yes a transition point between the two engines would be ideal and I know you have mentioned the possibility of this before so fingers crossed.

I have messed around with config files and you can get anything to leap off the runway at Mach 2 if you want but very difficult to keep control at altitude. Being new to this its a learning curve and I have being hoping to recruit help from this forum for these reasons and others. Day job keeps me real busy also. Iv yet to explore the Air file, looks terrifying. Again if anyone here is willing to help us explore this topic get in touch, this is getting interesting. In the mean time mission excepted.
 
Misho

Misho

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814
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ca-ontario
VPACC said:
The question is in ballistic mode would we be able to simulate horizontal motion minus the lift?
Click to expand...

Yes, I am providing for a lift force vector to be definable is the settings. The reason for it is that even a capsule-shaped blunt body, if positioned off-axis towards air flow, will generate some lift. That's why Apollo capsule was at ~20 degrees during re-entry (to control G force) and also, it was possible to "bounce" off the atmosphere back into space if this angle was too large.
 
aSIMetric

aSIMetric

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unitedkingdom
The specific problem we have right now is the process of importing the model and textures, we have ran aground on this right now and im hoping someone might be able to help us there.
 
lionheart

lionheart

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10,088
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us-arizona
Small notes;

1. Textures must be exact sizes to work in the sim. 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, and 4096 are the only pixel sizes of textures the sim will take. You can mix those dimensions as well, such as 512x1024, etc.

2. Make sure you are exporting X and Xanim files, then converting them (interior and exterior models) to MDL format.

3. The Prepar3D V4.x SDK models will not work in FSX or V1 thru V3. You will need the Prepar3D V1.4 SDK to generate the X, Xanim and MDL files for use in FSX/V1-V3. V4 only works in V4.

Hope that helps.
 
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