Too high Orulex!

[Spacethingy]

I love Orulex, especially with collision detection, but I have one minor gripe:

You can't use ordinary Bases because the Orulex "base craters" look ridiculous. You have to hover to a silly height of several kilometres before taking off.

Is there any way of decreasing the height of the mesh so that the bases sit in more sensible craters (e.g. just a few 100m deep)?

 

[jedidia]

Is there any way of decreasing the height of the mesh so that the bases sit in more sensible craters (e.g. just a few 100m deep)?

The bases must sit at zero altitude, that's the trouble. So how deep the crater is depends entirely on how high the terrain is in that particular place.

 

[Spacethingy]

Shame. The crater editing thing in World Studio can only make steep craters, it'd be nice if it could do huge shallow craters.

 

[4throck]

A better solution would be to move the bases to places were the terrain is flatter and closer to the zero level. In reality that's how it should be. Look at the spaceports on Earth. They are usually located on flat and low ground.
The Apollo landing sites were also generally flat.

 

[n72.75]

Shame. The crater editing thing in World Studio can only make steep craters, it'd be nice if it could do huge shallow craters.

Shallow craters would look nicer.

 

[Spacethingy]

How do I find out where the terrain has lower altitude?

I'm guessing some serious trial-and-error will be needed....

 

[Hmuda]

Actually, it's not always true. I clearly remember WAI having colossal blue walls around it, and that's supposed to be an island. I also recall certain non-modelled bases sitting in the middle of a circle of spikey ridges that almost immediately fall back down to ground level (maybe even Olympus, altough I'm not certain about that).

 

[statickid]

I think there is an option to make sure the ocean is flat but it's been so long since I installed and haven't ever had to correct it I only "might remember" this from pre-reading docs about 3 years ago. My oceans are flat in Orulex.

 

[Mandella]

I think there is an option to make sure the ocean is flat but it's been so long since I installed and haven't ever had to correct it I only "might remember" this from pre-reading docs about 3 years ago. My oceans are flat in Orulex.

Likewise, I *think* there is a way to play with the crater diameter and slope, but I don't have it currently installed since I've been focusing on using 2010.

But yeah, even though space bases might be found on mostly flat ground, they sure aren't all at sea level, and if you have added airfields to your base collection then all bets are off, with some being right against mountain ranges.

When I had Orulex installed, I usually deactivated it when launching or landing on Earth due to the immersion breaking look to the area around the bases (and I never knew about the "flat water" switch!).

Here's to looking forward to the next version, the Ultimate Orbiter Ultimate Experience!

 

[statickid]

Likewise, I *think* there is a way to play with the crater diameter and slope, but I don't have it currently installed since I've been focusing on using 2010.

<SNIP>

btw are you aware that orulex works fine with 2010? I have not more (or less) problems with orulex than I ever did... :lol:

ok I looked back at the "stuff" I was just remembering that IF you WANT flat water, then you need to install a height map for the Earth. Following suit, if you want ANY accurate portrayals of planet surfaces you need to install height maps for any/all of them otherwise they are just generic (such as mountains in the ocean).

 

[Mandella]

btw are you aware that orulex works fine with 2010? I have not more (or less) problems with orulex than I ever did... :lol:

Thanks! But to clarify further, I am running 2010 in Windows 7, and my once super fast GeForce 8800 GT can only manage in the low teens right now in some scenarios, and since Orulex caused a substantial framerate hit even with XP I've put off installing it until a planned upgrade early next year.

But I was under the impression that it was much more glitchy under 2010. Nice to know that I should be able to keep using it once I catch my system up with the times.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

I'll look it up when I get home to be certain, but you can shallow out (or get rid of) the base craters (as well as the blue wall around AIA) with the menu settings in World Studio. I didn't download any additional heightmaps, but did get the 'look' I wanted just with the right menu selections.

 

[jedidia]

Actually, it's not always true. I clearly remember WAI having colossal blue walls around it, and that's supposed to be an island. I also recall certain non-modelled bases sitting in the middle of a circle of spikey ridges that almost immediately fall back down to ground level (maybe even Olympus, altough I'm not certain about that).

And that's why you can define the ridge height in the terrain config for the planet. As well as smooth craters.

As with bases being deep in the sea, that's because you have terrain that goes below sealevel, and don't allow rendering beneath zero altitude. If you allow it, sealevel should be at 0 altitude (at least when it's floored in the function), but you can't fly BELOW that, even if the terrain goes below it (you'll crash into the invisible ground at zero altitude).

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Found it...
I was right, it's in "World Studio". When you select the base in question on the map, a pop-up menu appears. It allows you to define the crater, the help menu explains each definition (shallow, tear, etc).

 

[Archabacteria]

I'm sorry to derail your lovely thread here, but all the mentions of height maps and such make me wonder just what you are talking about and how to get my hands on it. The same with this 'world studio' thing.

 

[jedidia]

I'm sorry to derail your lovely thread here, but all the mentions of height maps and such make me wonder just what you are talking about and how to get my hands on it. The same with this 'world studio' thing.

http://www.orbithangar.com/search_quick.php?text=orulex&submit.x=0&submit.y=0

get the second and the third download. seperate location for downloading heightmaps is noted in the Orulex LandGen download

 

[4throck]

With careful setup, you can chose the desired crater width for each base. This way Orulex is non intrusive. For Earth, most bases do sit on level ground and near the ocean.

No problem with KSC, Edwards, Kourou, Baikonour, etc. etc. if properly configured.

What is harder to do is to have an elevated base. There are some examples of this (seach Orbiter Hangar), but of course your instruments will indicate the altitude relative to "sea level", so landing will be very hard (eye ball only).

 

[PhantomCruiser]

World Studio comes with Orulex.

 

[Mandella]

Okay. Just got Orulex reinstalled, and have been playing around with the crater editor. For some reason, the edits done in the world studio don't properly change the crater radius as advertised -- although I do get some visually fascinating effects (jagged towers to the stars like some cover from an old Weird Tales magazine :thumbup: ).

I did find a workaround. Apparently Orulex gets its base radius from the SIZE parameter in the base's config file. Changing it upward smooths out the crater nicely. I've found that 15000 works best. No idea what unintended consequences this is going to cause.

Unfortunately, Orulex has all the glitches remembered, plus more on Windows 7 (random Vista crash bug, and Orbiter always crashes on close). It's a testament to just how wonderful this app is that I have no intention of uninstalling it now I've added it back.

 

[Spacethingy]

Thanks for the work arounds!

The crash on exit is something do to with Orulex wanting trees...
See here: http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=19480