OHM Moon3D

[OrbitHangar]

Complete mesh of the Moon's surface gives impression of topography from low orbit.Default installation uses eight 2048 x 2048 surface textures, may not be compatible with older or lower spec graphics cards. Alternative "Low-res" 512 x 512 surface textures are included, see Doc/moon3d_README.txt for installation instructions.Tested on Orbiter version 060929, Windows XP, nVidia FX5600XT graphics card (128Mb).

[ame=http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3570]More...[/ame]

 

[MajorTom]

Brilliant idea Brian!

I'm sure it will make Apollo and Orion missions much more realistic.

Thanks!

 

[Orbiter]

Thats beautyful il take it and test in on both low and high end camputers .

 

[Saturn V]

Does not work with AMSO.

Visually, from low lunar orbit, it's beautiful and will make you drool. Unfortunately, the AMSO landing sites are below the surface of the mesh.

Fantastic for Apollo 8 or other orbital missions though.

 

[Kaito]

I was really excited for this, but when i loaded Brighton beach and found that it was below the mesh...i was a bit disappointed.

(I dont know much about modeling, so this might not be even possible)...maybe make the mesh solid? Dont know how you would do that with the Orbiter Engine, but i'm sure there might be some way

 

[Andy44]

MeshLand is what you need; look it up. I think Artlav made it. While you're at it, check out his Orulex scenery generator.

 

[OrbitHangar]

Legacy Reviews

Legacy Add-on Reviews from Orbit Hangar Mods


Review by saturn v
Pros: Excellent effect!
Cons: Can not be used for landing missions
Review:
Gorgeous from low orbit! Unfortunately, landing sites (I only tried it with AMSO) end up below the surface. Fantastic for Apollo 8 or other orbital missions!!!


Review by aleinikov
Pros: Fantastic look from orbit
Cons: You can not land, bases are under the ground.
Review:
As saturn v already said, it looks great from orbit, but surface bases are under the ground. I tried it with Prelude II base and it is far below the surface. Are there chances of a fix for that? Maybe "shrink" the whole mesh a bit ? ...

 

[BrianJ]

Hi there,
thought I'd transfer this one over to OH as it goes quite well with my LRO project(still in the works). Kind of a "Poor Man's Orulex for the Moon" - useful if, like me, your computer suffers from a drop in f.p.s. when using Orulex.

Last time I tried using Meshland with it (Smart-1) it didn't work too well, but I'd be interested to hear if anyone can get it to work properly.

Does not work with AMSO.

Hmmm, might be able to fix that if the AMSO guys give me permission to reference their Moon surface tile textures. We'll see.

All the best,
Brian

Off-topic: Maj.Tom - nice Orca avatar! I have a recording of a specific pod from Puget - I forget the name now, though.

 

[NukeET]

Does not work with AMSO.

Visually, from low lunar orbit, it's beautiful and will make you drool. Unfortunately, the AMSO landing sites are below the surface of the mesh.

Fantastic for Apollo 8 or other orbital missions though.

I would say that the two add-ons do not play together well.

Change "MaxPatchResolution" to "0" in Config/AMSO/Moon.cfg.

Run the PDI scenario in my Apollo 15 scenario pack and watch the interesting results - suddenly, the AMSO mesh broke through the Moon3D mesh.

I saw the Bowman effect, i.e., "My God, it is full of stars!":lol:

Seriously, "Earthrise" from Apollo 8 looks a lot better because the horizon is more accurately portrayed. Outstanding job on this add-on!

 

[BrianJ]

Hi,
I've had a few emails from folks about changing the size of the Moon3D mesh to use with AMSO or NASSP.

Really, it needs to be re-made from the beginning by editing the height-map used to create the mesh so that the areas around the Apollo sites are at 0km alt. I don't really have the time at the moment - and since Orulex uses height-maps now it seems a bit redundant. And the AMSO landing site meshes are quite beautiful enough by themselves, I reckon.

But... you can use the ShipEdit.exe in the OrbiterSDK/Utils/ folder to shrink or expand the mesh (Orbiter/Meshes/moon.msh). Just remember that Orbiter multiplies the size of the mesh by the radius of the Moon (1738km), so if you want to shrink the mesh by 5km, you should use 1733/1738 = 0.99712313 as the scale factor. And don't forget to replace the texture entries at the end of the mesh file, since ShipEdit will remove them.

Here's a short vid I made of the AMSO Apollo 15 LM descent after shrinking the Moon3D mesh to fit the AMSO landing site
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVw-C8T_NGY"]YouTube - Orbiter + AMSO1.17 + Moon3D[/ame]

I'm just glad I took the opportunity to get the latest AMSO version - simply stunning add-on. Wonderful

Regards,
Brian

 

[tblaxland]

Nice vid Brian. IIRC, Orulex also has a feature to automagically sink the mesh down to 0 alt where bases are located. I'm not a big user of Orulex since it knocks my FX5200 around too much (at least when I last tried it) but Moon 3D seems OK. I'll have to try your mesh scaling trick.

 

[Apollofan]

Hi Brian,

very nice work there!! I love that!

Despite the fact, that i am no Developer or someone, who had lots of experience with SDK and stuff, here 's my question:

Could you explain your method of this mesh scaling trick a bit more detailed please!? I want to try that too!

Your video looks really outstanding with Moon 3D and the great AMSO add-on!!


Greetings!

 

[Saturn V]

I'll second Apollofan's motion!

I tried following the advice given in your last post, but all I managed to do was crash Orbiter. Shame too, because I think this will prove to be one of the essential addons for Orbiter over the long term. It really IS a sight to behold as you're barnstorming the surface. Very, very nice work indeed.

 

[BrianJ]

Hello,
I'm not sure where you guys are coming unstuck with the procedure but I'll take it from the top....

1. Download and install Moon3D and the OrbiterSDK(full) package.

2. Find the mesh "moon.msh" in your Orbiter/Meshes/ folder , make a copy and name it "moon_original.msh" (for future reference)

3. Find out how much you need to enlarge or reduce the mesh:
Run one of the AMSO scenarios where the landing site mesh is present (LM descent scenarios) and set the landing site as the camera target. Either estimate by eye or move the camera directly above or below the landing site until it's at the same level as the Moon3D mesh and read off the distance to the target (on screen, top left).

Let's say the Moon3D mesh is about 4.5km above the AMSO landing site.
So you need to lower it by 4.5km.

The Moon is 1738km radius, so your scaling factor will be
(1738 - 4.5)/1738 = 1733.5/1738 ~ 0.997410817

4. Find ShipEdit.exe in your Orbiter/OrbiterSDK/Utils/ folder.
Start it by double left-clicking on it.

5. Select "File" -> "Load Mesh"
Load the "moon_original.msh"

6. Select "Transform" -> "Scale"
Enter your scaling factor 0.997410817 into each of the X,Y and Z fields and click "OK"

7. Select "File" -> "Save As"
Save your new mesh as "moon.msh" in the Orbiter/Meshes/ folder (overwrite the old one).

8. Replace the texture entries in your new moon.msh:
Open the moon_original.msh with Notepad, scroll down to the very bottom and copy the last 8 lines (after the line "TEXTURES 8"), paste them at the end of your new moon.msh (after the line "TEXTURES 8").

9. Run the scenario again to see how it looks - not quite right? Repeat procedure from step 3. !

Hope this helps - good luck with it!
Brian

 

[Aleinikov]

ShipEdit.EXE ?

...Find ShipEdit.exe in your Orbiter/OrbiterSDK/Utils/ folder....

Hm, I can not find it there..Is ShipEdit an add-on which I have to download, and where do i find it? :huh:
You wrote: download and install "OrbiterSDK(full) package" ...I think I missed that.

 

[Apollofan]

HI Brian,

thanks for your detailed step-by-step-tutorial! It was a great help, to understand things the right way!

@Aleinikov - Yes, you need to install OrbiterSDK first i guess. After that, you'll find the OrbiterSDK-folder in your Orbiter main-folder.

 

[Notebook]

Hm, I can not find it there..Is ShipEdit an add-on which I have to download, and where do i find it? :huh:
You wrote: download and install "OrbiterSDK(full) package" ...I think I missed that.

You should find ShipEdit in your Orbiter SDK utils directory.
For example C:\Orbitersdk\utils

N.

 

[SPASE_1976]

your mesh needs a bit optimization at the edges of the hemispheres.
i used my tool mesh2obj to convert the mesh to an obj file and
i corrected it for personal use

i used metaseq to join the 'incorrect' vertices
just highlight 'rope' select drawing a circle and press CTRL+J

i didnt knew that orbiter has this feature ! :speakcool:

is there any free 3d prog to convert bumpmapping spheres into 3d meshes?

 

[BrianJ]

your mesh needs a bit optimization at the edges of the hemispheres.
i used my tool mesh2obj to convert the mesh to an obj file and
i corrected it for personal use

Excellent. Any chance you could email the mesh to me? (address in the Moon3D doc)

is there any free 3d prog to convert bumpmapping spheres into 3d meshes?

I used Gmax to create the mesh, it has a "displacement" function that you can use with grey-scale height maps. Due to the limitations of Gmax and my old computer, I had to export the mesh in 8 sections (hence the messed up vertices). Maybe metaseq does not have this limitation?

Regards,
Brian

 

[-Apollo-]

10/10 Can't fly anymore without this addon :thumbup: