External Shuttle Launch Animations

[Cras]

Now I have flown all the missions SSM has to offer.  Even STS-401, which quite frankly I will never fly again.  I did not enjoy, even in a simulation, going up and rescuing a stranded Shuttle in LEO only to have me leave up there to decay.  Sad sad sad indeed.

I flew all these on easy.  I very much enjoyed having the checklist as it were displayed for me on the screen.  The arrows were nice, and the EVA action zone cheat also came very much in handy for me.

A lazy Astronaut you could say I was, but not anymore.  I am now flying them all again in chronological order on Hard, using Michaels checklists to fly the Shuttle without so much of the crutches Easy afforded me.  I have flown STS-1 twice now to get the hang of the Hard difficulty, and on the second run through, I decided to watch the launch from the external view.  I always liked the launch from the internal view, because I have seen a Shuttle launch from the outside.  Awesome as it was to see her shoot off into the sky, being inside I am sure is much much more intense, and cooler.  And after watching the Shuttle launch from the external view in SSM, I must say well done with the animations.
First that caught my attention first was the sound.  Then the little sparks to burn off the hydrogen around the SSMEs.  The Shuttle mains then fired up and low and behold, the Shuttle twangs!  Holy cow did I not expect to see that.  Then the SRBs light and off we go to another adventure in low Earth orbit.

Well done Exciting Sims.  And of course, I very much look forward to the version 2.

Cheers,
Scott 

[Admin]

Hi Scott,

Congratulations for finishing all the missions, and for your determination to re-doing all of them on high difficulty.

Michael has invested a lot of effort and love into those checklists, that we all use. We all hope he's recovering from the health issues which hit him and many others after their participation in the 9/11 rescue activities (read the "Get Well Michael" thread).

Launch animation: yep, the twang is there, together with other "small" details such as  gimballing of the MEs, etc. The next version will have new details that couldn't make it in SSMS1. We hope that you'll enjoy SSMS2 just as much.

See you on orbit!
/Admin

[Cras]

Yes the gimbal of the mains was very cool.  I did notice those, during the hydraulic checks

And you mention of new details to come in the next version is exciting.

Michael has done a great job with those checklists, and I would find HARD to be rather impossible without them.