Orbiter OS

[Urwumpe]

erm... I hate to break it to you, but without full DirectX or OpenGL support your OS won't run orbiter...



I'm sure Braben would consider that a very apropriate usage of his contraption! :lol:

Put his basic stick inside a special Orbiter controller, that you just connect to your TV and it would be fun.

 

[Keatah]

Let's just forget about all those ports and begin to consider running Orbiter on the Atari 2600 -- http://www.atariage.com/2600/systems/sys_AtariVCS.jpg

I believe it is doable. Look at these screenshots from Activision's space simulation -- SpaceShuttle -- http://www.atariage.com/screenshot_page.html?SystemID=2600&SoftwareID=1313&ItemTypeID=SCREENSHOT

Here is instruction manual for SpaceShuttle -- http://www.atariage.com/manual_thumbs.html?SoftwareLabelID=466

All the development tools and documentation is right here -- http://www.atariage.com/2600/programming/index.html

And finally here is the hardware you have to work with -- http://archive.kontek.net/2600ce.classicgaming.gamespy.com/details/hiwconsole.html

 

[Linguofreak]

We need to make this thing run Orbiter:

( http://www.raspberrypi.org )

Now that would be a portable Orbiter USB stick, all you need is a TV and a bluetooth keypad.

Wouldn't work, as that thing is ARM-based.

 

[Artlav]

Wouldn't work, as that thing is ARM-based.

Not a reason not to wonder.

 

[Hielor]

Wouldn't work, as that thing is ARM-based.

As I mentioned in the other thread, Windows 8 will run on ARM devices, although 700 MHz is probably not enough.

 

[Ripley]

...How often do you think, "If only I had orbiter on me right now?"...

Not too often in fact.
But when I'd do, I think just a fresh Orbiter install on a USB stick would do, along with its VC redist, and even a copy of DirectX maybe (if Internet is not available).

But all this is just theory.
If I ever sit down and decide to fire up Orbiter, I need time, relaxation, silence, printed pdfs...in a few words, my home.

 

[Keatah]

If I ever sit down and decide to fire up Orbiter, I need time, relaxation, silence, printed pdfs...in a few words, my home.

:facepalm:The horror!! Printed .pdf's ?? Good god. Silence?? OHH MY!! I like need my reader going with 5 or 6 files open at once on multiple monitors. I need some space-music or soft rock from the 70's and 80's wafting up from the speakers. My Argiope collection should be freshly riled-up too!

But, sometimes you turn it all off except for big-ass lazy orbit around the outer planets or something and you fall asleep to the humming of ship's systems.

 

[garyw]

:facepalm:The horror!! Printed .pdf's ??

Of course - how else do you jot down notes and changes to the mission plan?

 

[Keatah]

Of course - how else do you jot down notes and changes to the mission plan?

:facepalm::facepalm: Writing with an ink-dispensing stylus takes too long, The only way to keep records of plan changes and schedules and things like that is to use notepad, and the annotate feature of the reader. Left hand = left keyboard, right hand = right keyboard. Left thumb = left touchpad, right thumb = right touchpad.

 

[orb]

As I mentioned in the other thread, Windows 8 will run on ARM devices, although 700 MHz is probably not enough.

But this thread is about an OS that runs Orbiter atop of it, and ARM processors don't support x86 instruction set, that is used by Orbiter, so Orbiter won't run without emulation layer, or without recompiling Orbiter and its add-ons to ARM instruction set. I read somewhere that 3rd party applications will need to be recompiled for ARM based Windows, or will there be emulation layer implemented for x86 (& x86_64) applications? (WINE?)

 

[Keatah]

If it needs an emulation layer, then we're going to need a hella lot more processing power. Perhaps some sort of emulation in hardware or something would go along way toward making it feasible.

If ARM continues to grow in popularity, I can see some sort of hardware abstraction layer for emulation coming to pass. Or something, but unless we get 3 and 4 ghz speeds, emulation of x86 instructions and libraries is out of the question.

 

[garyw]

If ARM continues to grow in popularity, I can see some sort of hardware abstraction layer for emulation coming to pass. Or something, but unless we get 3 and 4 ghz speeds, emulation of x86 instructions and libraries is out of the question.

ARM already exists in 1Ghz and there are so experiments around the ARM version of dual core processing for mobile devices. The problem here is around battery life. 700mhz + wifi already kills most smart phones inside 24 hours. Now imagine a 1ghz chip or a dual core.... Extra processing power is no problem. Battery life is if you want to go the portable route.

 

[Artlav]

I read somewhere that 3rd party applications will need to be recompiled for ARM based Windows, or will there be emulation layer implemented for x86 (& x86_64) applications? (WINE?)

Windows is not like Linux (which is pretty much the same on all platforms).

ARM versions of Windows (WinCE) so far are almost entirely different from the x86 one.
So, compatibility would require both an instruction set emulator (qemu) and API emulator (WINE).

Maybe they'll do something about it - Windows NT on Alpha had a very fast translator for x86 (and similar API), so programs worked just fine. On the other hand, MIPS Windows only had the similar API, and finding programs for it is extreme archaeology.