Vaporware?

[statisticsnerd]

Sorry, I haven't messed around with Orbiter in over a year... graduated a year and a half ago from university and have been BUSY BUSY working ever since, so forgive me if this has been discussed...

What ever happened to that AilantD guy and his ambitious "Aresa World" project? He had a webpage and everything, and I remember that LONG thread on the old "official" board with pages and pages of beautiful renderings that made me drool, and the variety of interesting spaceship designs..

Did he and his "Aresa World" go poof??

What about some other ambitious projects that never materialized?? I seem to remember work being done on a NASSP-level simulation of the Soyuz, don't know what happened to that..

Anywhoo, hail

 

[Ark]

IMO, you see at least two vaporware projects for every modding project that actually comes to fruition. People go out and promise the world, then figure out they have no clue how to actually make it happen.

 

[Enjo]

... or sometimes simply not enough time because they have to make a living to feed their pets, not to become their preys

---------- Post added at 11:03 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:23 AM ----------

And besides, what you see as promises from devs, are actually their requests for motivation. For example they may want to see how many people are interested in a given project, to estimate how much worth the work on the project is.

 

[Ghostrider]

People go out and promise the world, then figure out they have no clue how to actually make it happen.

It's no problem, as long as they don't take other people's money to make it happen only their ego suffers.

 

[Andy44]

IMO, you see at least two vaporware projects for every modding project that actually comes to fruition. People go out and promise the world, then figure out they have no clue how to actually make it happen.

Or sometimes they just stop working on it because they get a vibe of lack of appreciation from cynical people. As a poster above says, often they are fishing for interested people to see if it's worth their while to take on a large project for which they will often never be paid so much as a thank you, let alone money.

 

[Arrowstar]

And of course, one must also remember that large projects take a lot of creative energy to finish. Sometimes you can't just sit down in one big go and complete something on such a large scale. I certainly take breaks when working on private projects, if for no other reason than to let the creative juices come back. It gives me a greater appreciation for Dan, the SSU team, and the folks who put together the XRx series vehicles, as those are incredible projects that they managed to stay with, make great, and release!

 

[NukeET]

...And besides, what you see as promises from devs, are actually their requests for motivation. For example they may want to see how many people are interested in a given project, to estimate how much worth the work on the project is.

Or sometimes they just stop working on it because they get a vibe of lack of appreciation from cynical people. As a poster above says, often they are fishing for interested people to see if it's worth their while to take on a large project for which they will often never be paid so much as a thank you, let alone money.

I have to agree with these two gentlemen. Case in point, I posted a poll over a year ago to gauge the interest for a Messenger scenario pack (http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=6911).

After 1 thread reply and only 5 votes total...I got my answer.

 

[Quick_Nick]

Pics and useless info:
http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=2856

 

[hypersonic]

I think the most infamous example of this is 'Noctis' .. Whilst it is just a 'one man show' developing it, so are numerous other projects, including Orbiter to larger degree.

The current version of that program dating from 2000 - 10 years old!!

 

[4throck]

Most people have no clue about how to organize a big project, and don't realize that they have to break it into small steps.So they start and then after a few days they loose interest.

Also, they have no clear understanding of what they can do themselves and what can be done with the help of others. There's no place for egos on the development of large projects... and the amount of work needed requires many people getting involved. And yes, those other people will need to change / improve / suggest what you have done, so you will have to redo it That's how it works.

The motivation is always down to YOU wanting to have the addon yourself and not if others find it useful or not.

 

[Urwumpe]

The motivation is always down to YOU wanting to have the addon yourself and not if others find it useful or not.

Exactly - you have to awake the Derek Smart inside of you.

 

[statisticsnerd]

OT: In case anyone's wondering, the kind of dog in my avatar is a Maltee-poo (1/2 Maltese 1/2 poodle) and those aren't little white rats in the bed with her. They are her puppies!!

BTW, since I'm already going fftopic:, :givemebeer::rofl:

HAIL !!!!

 

[Izack]

I hate you for showing me this Aresa World thing. Now I want it, even though it's been dead for years! Aaargh!

(No, I don't really hate you. Sorry.)

 

[castorp]

1) Non-virtual reality is demanding of one's time, especially for those with families, 2) orbiter/orbiter add-on development isn't necessarily one's own attention-sucking hobby [!], and 3) collaboration can be a tricky road to walk, exasperated and magnified by 1) and 2) above.

'totally agree about the self-motivation thing...
i've suggested before and continue to hold that if you're "modding" to please others, then you're probably in the wrong hobby! ;-)

cheers
-g

 

[Lionclaw]

What about some other ambitious projects that never materialized?? I seem to remember work being done on a NASSP-level simulation of the Soyuz, don't know what happened to that..

Was that called "October Sky" or something? It was in the Addon Development section in the old forum, I was looking forward to that one.

Can't remember how many years ago that was though, I've been out of the loop for some time and haven't been up to date with developments.

 

[4throck]

The best way to have fun creating something for Orbiter (or any other simulation) is having a realistic estimate of what time is needed and organizer your "work" in small steps. That way, you can have fun texturing, configuring, testing whatever you are messing around even if you only have 30minutes of free time.

You can then post the images and write something about it here . At least I feel like I'm making progress that way and keep feeling motivated.

Also, you should only start doing what you can realistically finish, even if it takes an year.
Cooperation with others should be seen as an objective in itself (work as part of a team) and not as having someone do what you don't know or don't want to do :thumbup:

 

[Dambuster]

I sent AilantD a message a few months ago asking about this, here's his response (you can see it on my profile page):

Hi, I´m looking for a coder for propper dll to aresa ships. No one for the moment. Also now I 'm waiting to see what is the orbiter graphical future, following OGLA for example, which is determinant to the future of the addon. In fact The addon has been stopped a long time now because all this, but is in my mind go in it again when this two questions have answer.
Regards.

So if any of you are coders and want to help, I guess you might as well get in touch with him, and bring this addon thing one step closer to completion!

 

[ar81]

Some addons come up because of a need.
I started to make Alysimia city, trying to use analythical methods only to place buildings and suddenly I realized that I had so many buildings that I lost awareness of empty spaces, so I needed a graphical interface. So Surface Base Wizard was created.

Addons require good planning, knowledge, persistence, inspiration, patience and time. If one is missing, it is likely to become vaporware.

The existence of addons also prove something interesting. Ideologists think people need money and competition to actually do something worthy. Addons were not created that way. So we may figure a new type of economic model based on this fact, a model where money is not involved.