SSMS2 ?

[Pappolus]

Thanks for the update Admin, it has actually been a long time since the last one, but it's good to know that things are moving on and fine. I'd like to ask, any chance to have some screenshots? Good luck with STS-128 and enjoy the lovely warm weather. Wishing the whole dev team a good work, cheers

Pappolus

[vinny002]

Hi, Admin!

Thanks for the update of the SSMS2!!

               Cheers,
             Vincent

[MECO]

Appreciate the update Admin

[thammond]

Thanks for the update Admin.

Having been a member of this forum for many years, I would have to say that public relations has not been your strongest virtue.  However that last posting was well done.

Tim

[Pappolus]

News at last!
Jokes aside, it's good to know you're still alive, but more importantly that progresses are slow but steady, which is something that looks good and promising looking at the future of the sim. May I ask about STS-93 if we'll have female voice comms for the entirety of the mission, unlike SSMS07 since the commander was a female astronut (Eileen Collins <3 )? Also, will there be original commentary for the launch/ascent phases of the missions, as well as the real calls from capcom to the shuttle crew during launches (abort calls, performance calls, that kind of stuff)? I hope you'll be able to reply to these few questions, but if not, I shall wish you good work to the development team hoping to hear more from you soon about game progresses.
Cheers for now
Pappolus 

[vinny002]

Hi, Admin! Excellent news!! Thanks for the SSMS2 update!!

              Cheers,
             Vincent

[Admin]

Eh...we actually didn't realise that it was the Eileen Collins mission until after we started to convert it for the new version.
It looked easy to just improve the payload 3D and add shadows to be able to deorbit and land at KSC.
But of course we should have female comms at both ends when needed.
All communications will probably be updated somehow. The system we have now kinda "works" but its not so cool. We also plan to use OpenAL instead of Direct Sound.
We have decided to wait with all communications until we have at least one mission with landings at KSC and EAFB that works perfectly. So it will be after the next mission I suppose.
It will also depend on how much soundstuff we find on the web and the legal rights of usement I guess.

Regards!
Admin
 

News at last!
Jokes aside, it's good to know you're still alive, but more importantly that progresses are slow but steady, which is something that looks good and promising looking at the future of the sim. May I ask about STS-93 if we'll have female voice comms for the entirety of the mission, unlike SSMS07 since the commander was a female astronut (Eileen Collins <3 )? Also, will there be original commentary for the launch/ascent phases of the missions, as well as the real calls from capcom to the shuttle crew during launches (abort calls, performance calls, that kind of stuff)? I hope you'll be able to reply to these few questions, but if not, I shall wish you good work to the development team hoping to hear more from you soon about game progresses.
Cheers for now
Pappolus 

[Pappolus]

How dare you forgot about that awesome astronaut and person that Eileen Collins is? Just joking obviously, but I think that these kind of things add, when and if possible, a touch of realism small but nice to have nonetheless, to have a bit more of historical fidelity. I also understand that, especially at this stage of development sounds aren't the main concern. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, really appreciated. Good work to everyone involved in the development.
Cheers
Pappolus

[Alec]

A free demo of the sts 1 mission would be nice because the original game came with the sts 1 mission as a free demo! I would like to enjoy the parts of the game that have already been developed.

[Pappolus]

Thanks for the update Admin. So, I seem to understand that the plan is to have 250m/pixel textures everywhere eventually, am I right or have I just misunderstood? Also, I assume that release at this point is NET next year, right? Anyway, wishing you some good work and happy birthday to the soon to be 10 years old SSMS2007, with which I'm still having a heck of a lot of fun and entertainment. Best regards

Pappolus

[vinny002]

Hi, Admin!!

That is excellent news!! Thanks for the update!!

                     Cheers,
                  Vincent

[Mogget]

Thanks for the update, Admin. I agree that getting everything done properly is the best option, rather than releasing early and trying to patch things in. When you say "250 metres per pixel" around KSC and EAFB, I assume that you mean the areas some distance away from the complexes? I would expect the texture resolution of the terrain at the launch and landing complexes themselves to be considerably higher than 250 metres per pixel....

[Mogget]

Oh, and don't worry about the excessive download size for a high resolution Earth. I think that I can confidently state that the vast majority of SSMS2 users will want the Earth to look as high res as possible from orbit!

[Admin]

250m/pixel is just earth from orbit of course. Its getting hard to found more detailed textures for free, but around KSC and EAFB we aim for 1m/pixel.
A full globe with 250m/pixel requires 3168x2 textures/masks at 2megs each.
All in all about 12.6gigs. You are right that its not impossible these days. It could be included as a separate download.
Whole thing also needs some downscaleing when viewed from really high altitudes since GPU memory will be insufficient to display 50% of the globe, even with todays standard 2 gigs of graphic memory.
But it doesnt matter since 250m/pixel at that altitude will almst be to sharp.


Admin

[Mogget]

12.6GB is nothing these days with a decent connection. I should be able to download that in less than an hour.