General Question Creating a tutorial: Adding notes while recording?

[blixel]

I'm interested in creating some tutorials. (Primarily for my own keepsake, but I'd be more than happy to share them if they are deemed useful enough.)

My question is about adding notes. It seems as though you have to record your flight in its entirety, and then go back through the Playback and add notes using the Playback Editor. Is that the case?

The reason I ask is because the recorder does not record what you are doing with your MFD's. So when you are watching the playback, you have to remember what you did with the MFD's so that you can add notes that coincide with what is going on in the playback.

This seems rather problematic once your tutorial goes much beyond 5 or 10 minutes. If you could rewind time during the playback, this wouldn't be too much of a problem ... you could watch 2 to 3 minutes of your playback at a time, and then rewind ... adjust your MFD's accordingly, and add the appropriate notes.

So my question is, what are people doing to keep track of the events so they can add in the appropriate notes at the appropriate time when editing the playback.

Or - am I completely wrong? Can you pause Orbiter while recording, and add notes "on the fly?"

Also, if I'm not mistaken, it seems like recording a Playback is all or nothing. I was trying to see if I could record a few minutes worth of events, and then save what I had done up to that point so I could then resume recording another time. But it doesn't seem to work that way.

The great thing about saving scenarios is that you can get yourself to a point where everything has gone according to plan, and then save your scenario so that if the next thing you try goes sideways on you, you can exit out and start back again at the point where things were going well. (This is really helpful for trying new ideas that you aren't sure about.)

But when recording, it seems as though once you hit stop - that's it. You can't continue recording from where you left off. So if you are trying to make a tutorial ... and you make a stupid mistake, you just have to start over from scratch.

Hopefully I'm just misunderstanding the recorder. Does anyone have any experience with these kinds of things I'm talking about?

Earlier this evening, I started working on a tutorial for my own keeping, and due to the fact that I was focused on thinking about the notes I was going to add in later, I ended up making a stupid mistake about 20 minutes into my recording that I couldn't recover from.

I figured I would just stop the recording, exit out, start the Playback, get back to the point where everything was going well, interrupt the Playback, and continue the recording from that point forward. But, unless I'm mistaken, it doesn't seem to let you do that. You can start a different recording from the point you left off at, but it doesn't seem like you can interrupt the recording and then APPEND new information from that point forward to an existing recording.

Am I wrong on one or both points? (I hope so.)

I would sure like to be able to add notes while I'm going, and to be able to save periodically and pick up where I left off.

 

[TSPenguin]

You can not record notes with the orbiter recorder directly. However, you can write your own annotations in the system.dat file in the corresponding Flights folder. The DG to the Moon is a great example of that. Of course a full description of the annotation format is in the documentation. I found it practical to use a ship funtion that is logged but irrelevant to mark certain points in my flight. Like switching on the strobe in the stock DG. Those can easily be search and replaced later on.

You should be able to watch any replay, make a save at any time, stop and start recording as well as resume full control over orbiter at any time.
This is only limited by the fact that you can not resume a recording. Which makes sense.
If you stop and start while paused, you can simply append the files together. But if you do anything else, including letting time run, you will see strange effects as orbiter records the actual position data of the vessel and that has priority over anything else.
With the power of manual editing, you can, without a problem edit two or more replays together, provided they are continuous.

 

[Tommy]

You can not record notes with the orbiter recorder directly. However, you can write your own annotations in the system.dat file in the corresponding Flights folder.

That isn't quite true anymore (since Orbiter 2010) - however, notes can only be added during playback if I remember correctly (haven't actually used the new recorder yet - the stuff I'm working on was started before 2010, so I'm still using the 2006P1 to complete the WIP's)

Recorded events (notes, positions, attitudes, animations, etc) are recorded with a time stamp (in simtime). It's possible to append and combine recordings if you make sure that the time stamps match. However, as noted above, the recorder overrides the physics engine - so if a vessel has moved it will "jump" when the recording hits the "seam". To try to "edit out" an error you should playback the first recording until just before the error, then pause. Stop the playback and start the recorder - making note of the simtime. Then you can delete any events after that time from all the files in the first recording, then append the files from the second recording. It won't be quite perfect - but may be good enough.

That said, there are several files for each vessel, and all would have to be edited. It is often easier and less time consuming to simply start over.

As for the notes, I just use a pencil and paper to make notes as I record, then add the actual annotation later. This allows me to use "shorthand" while taking the notes (thus not totally derailing my train of thought during the flight) - and then spend time figuring out how to phrase the annotation for "understandability" later.

 

[TSPenguin]

That isn't quite true anymore (since Orbiter 2010) - however, notes can only be added during playback if I remember correctly

You remember correctly. The feature is called "Playback event editor" and I completely forgot about it! Haven't used it myself until now.
You can access it via the recorder window (ctrl+f5) and add or edit various things in the system.dat. It has a great camera management mode(!) and lets you add and edit annotations in a breeze.

070703
* New feature: "Playback event editor" (accessible via Ctrl-F5 during playback).
- Allows to edit, add and delete events in the "system.dat" file. This should make
it easier to add annotations and fine-tune camera angles and time compression.

P.S.: And if I had the ability to read, I would have known that from the OP. D'oh!

P.P.S.: Also, the good old screenshot is absolutely essential if doing more complex MFD work.

 

[Tommy]

The feature is called "Playback event editor"

Thanks for verifying my memory! I haven't used it myself either, but it sounds quite a bit easier than the old method of editing .atc files! Unfortunately, I'm still trying to find some free time (while I'm actually home) to finish up my end of the IMFD Full manual update. This last year, I'm lucky if I get home to sleep - most nights I baby sit my "nephews". At this point, I'm trying to document a flight recording I made almost a year ago, and it takes more time to sort through the screenshots than it does to write the text! My "sister" just got a new PC, so maybe I can just bring everything to her house an finish it there.

I've found the secret to a good flight recording is Preparation. Be sure you know EXACTLY what you want to do, and that you have plenty of time to make the flight "all in one go". Expect to fly the mission several times before getting a "keeper" - and have a nice, thick notebook to keep track of what you are doing. Also, sometimes a "mission" can be separated into more than one recording. For instance, the "Advanced Concepts" tutorial (for IMFD) that I'm currently trying to finish is in three "segments". The first segment starts at KSC, and ends just as I enter Jupiter's SOI. The second picks up where the first leaves off, and covers the Jupiter sling up to the where I enter Titan's SOI. The third covers the aerocapture and landing on Titan.

Many missions can be broken into "segments" like this. For instance, a KSC to BB flight could easily be done in three segments - 1; launch and circularisation of parking orbit. 2; TMI and lunar orbit insert, 3; de-orbit and landing.