Welcome to the final part of how to write a full vessel configuration.
Now we will flight test our ship and make her Space worthy.
To start off, you will need to do the following things.
1) Download and install the meshes and texture files from the link at the end of this tutorial. This is the Original Jester mesh and textures made by Jon Marcure and used by me for instructional purposes. The mesh and texture folders have been modified by me so as not to conflict with the Jester being used in Jons Module building tutorials.
2) Start up Orbiter and activate the Thruster Control MFD in the Launchpad Dialog box. Shut down Orbiter.
3) Send one copy of your temperary QJTV.cfg to Orbiter Configurations.
4) Send a SECOND copy of your temporary QJTV.cfg to Orbiter\ Configuration\ Vessels
Now, open up your primary copy of the QJTV.cfg and look at this secion.
Isp =
MaxMainThrust =
MaxRetroThrust =
MaxHoverThrust =
MaxAttitudeThrust =
These are the areas we will be concerning ourselves with for getting all the thrust paramerts right for our model so that it flys properly in Orbiter.
Minimize the window and start up Orbiter and load the scenario provided with the mesh and textures.
You should have the Surface MFD displayed on the left and the Thruster Control MFD on the right. Make sure that your HUD display is set to SURFACE mode. You'll want the numbers displayed in the SPEED box on the upper left.
Lets begin by playing around and see how she handles. Pretty clunky huh ? Our arbitrary numbers we started with get us in flyable condition but they definately need tweeking.
MAIN THRUST:
Begin with Main thrust. Click the VAC button on the Thrust Control MFD ( TC-MFD ) and type in 1e7 then press Enter.
OK, that's a little better but not good enough. Try 5e7.
Ooooops, that's a bit too fast for my taste. Back it down to 4e7.
There ya go ! Now we're cookin with Crisko !
MaxMainThrust = 4e7
REVERSE THRUST:
Since our model has reverse thrusters ( even though they're not shown with thruster flames ) we want our reverse thrust to be 70 to 80 percent of our main thrust level to make course correction a bit easier. We'll use 3e7 as our number.
MaxRetroThrust = 3e7
HOVER THRUSTERS:
We want our hover thrusters to be powerfull enough to lift our ship in 1 Earth gravity but not overly powerful because that would waste fuel. Now as it turns out, our main thrust level gives us a rating of just over 20. Experiance has taught me that I want my Hover Thruster level to be just over 10 for good performance so we will use half our main thrust level to get the number we want.
MaxHoverThrust = 2e7
ATTUTUDE THRUST:
We saw from our initial tests that our model really wallows around using attitude thrusters. We want them to be powerful enough to move our ship responcively but not so powerful that we lose control. Our initial setting is clearly too weak so let's start by doubling it.
MaxAttitudeThrust = 4e4
That's a little better but still not responcive enough to make our ship very manuverable. Lets bump it up again to 6e4.
MaxAttitudeThrust = 6e4
Ok. we're closer now but we're still not there yet. Before we kick it into a higher level lets try out a setting of 8e4 before going to an e5 level.
MaxAttitudeThrust = 8e4
Nope, that won't do it. She's still too slugish. We'll kick it to a higher energy level now and try out a setting of 1e5
MaxAttitudeThrust = 1e5
Ok, the higher energy level paid off. We're ALMOST where I'd like to see it. Lets try 2.5e5 and see how this works out.
Perfect ! A level of 2.5e5 makes our ship manuverable enough to give a reasonable responce time without losing control While not being fast like a fighter. Our final number is 2.5e5
MaxAttitudeThrust = 2.5e5
ENGINE EFFICIANCY
Our ISP level should be set so that our ship uses fuel effeciantly and yet does not have an unlimited supply. The Jester was once a front line vessel religated to a training ship once newer more effective ships were availible. Since refueling procedures are a part of crew training we want to set our ISP number low enough to make refueling a needed part of any long term flight. By playing around with the ISP button on the TC-MFD, we can find a usefull rating of 5e5.
The parameters we started with should now look like this.
Isp = 5e5
MaxMainThrust = 4e7
MaxRetroThrust = 3e7
MaxHoverThrust = 2e7
MaxAttitudeThrust = 2.5e5
The last thing you need to do is replace the temporary cinfigs with your new final vessel .cfg.
Remember folks, one copy in your main config folder and one copy in your config\vessels folder.
Happy Landings !
You should now have a good set of numbers to make the QJTV a fun and usefull vessel to play around with. By following the instructions in this tutorial series, you should now be able to write up a fully fleshed out vessel configuration for any model you want to fly in Orbiter. You will also have a ready made file to pull data from if you want to make an SC3 .ini file, or a CPP file for building a custom module for any ship.
DOWNLOAD LINKS:
QJTV ~
http://www.4shared.com/file/58531377/5647f34d/QJTV_Ship.htmlThrust Control MFD ~ see the Plugins board in the R&D section.
[EDIT]
OOOOOPS. I forgot to add the scenario to the download ! Use this to flight test the QJTV.
BEGIN_DESC
END_DESC
BEGIN_ENVIRONMENT
System Sol
Date MJD 51981.6293776433
END_ENVIRONMENT
BEGIN_FOCUS
Ship Jester mk1
END_FOCUS
BEGIN_CAMERA
TARGET Jester mk1
MODE Cockpit
FOV 50.00
END_CAMERA
BEGIN_HUD
TYPE Surface
END_HUD
BEGIN_MFD Left
TYPE Surface
SPDMODE 1
END_MFD
BEGIN_MFD Right
TYPE User
MODE Thruster Control MFD
END_MFD
BEGIN_SHIPS
Jester mk1:QJTV
STATUS Orbiting Earth
RPOS -3498633.91 11429.03 7437475.32
RVEL -6939.469 -1.756 -2164.246
AROT -179.96 73.94 179.96
PRPLEVEL 0:0.998 1:1.000
IDS 0:107 10
NAVFREQ 0 0
XPDR 0
END
END_SHIPS
BEGIN_Attachment Manager
END
BEGIN_ExtMFD
END
BEGIN_RemoteAnimMFD
STATEFILE Scenarios/RAMFD/RAMFDState1.cfg
END
