[z64555]

The US space shuttle has a couple of Reactionary Control System thrusters... which basically allow it to maneuver in various directions.

One thing that I haven't seen on a space sim to date is firing of the RCS thrusters when turning, rolling, or screeching to a dead stop. Basically, I'm thinking of having definable points on the ship model that will "fire" when a particular condition is met.

For example, say we have some RCS thrusters that control the pitch and roll.  2 thrusters on the "top" and 2 thrusters on the bottom:

Nose up - the bottom thrusters will animate.

Nose down - the top thrusters will animate.

Roll clockwise - the right (in relation to the pilot) top thruster and the left bottom thruster will animate.



Would this be possible to do in FSO? or would it be too much of a headache?

[FUBAR-BDHR]

It already exists.  Been around for ages.  Look up $Thruster entries in ships.tbl.

[z64555]

Doh, how did I miss that. 

Many thanks, hopefully I'll see if I can use it on some of FringeSpace's ships in the future.

[Parias]

The US space shuttle has a couple of Reactionary Control System thrusters... which basically allow it to maneuver in various directions.

One thing that I haven't seen on a space sim to date is firing of the RCS thrusters when turning, rolling, or screeching to a dead stop. Basically, I'm thinking of having definable points on the ship model that will "fire" when a particular condition is met.

Slight off the track, but you should check out Nexus: The Jupiter Incident and the games from the Independence War series, both of which did these details particularly well.

[Scourge of Ages]

Didn't the Vipers in BtRL have exactly that? It looked awesome.

[JGZinv]

Supposedly yes, it was a big deal back then too... I never actually saw them while I was playing though.
Not sure why at the time..

[torc]

Didn't the Vipers in BtRL have exactly that? It looked awesome.

yes,and you can add sound to them... it should implemented in diaspora too...and in all other mods for my tastes

[chief1983]

Not all universes use RCS thrusters for maneuvering.  Some are a bit more wishy-washy, like the ethereal rudder, or gyro systems.

[Flaser]

Not all universes use RCS thrusters for maneuvering.  Some are a bit more wishy-washy, like the ethereal rudder, or gyro systems.

There is nothing physically implausible in using a gyro to change the orientation of a spacecraft...
...it'd be just a tad heavy.

[Enioch]

...or it'd have to spin really really fast

[z64555]

Gyros might not be a good thing for craft that have hyperspace capability... 

[Tomo]

Not all universes use RCS thrusters for maneuvering.  Some are a bit more wishy-washy, like the ethereal rudder, or gyro systems.

There is nothing physically implausible in using a gyro to change the orientation of a spacecraft...

Indeed - in fact pretty much all current orientable spacecraft use them.
They tend to call them 'reaction wheels' rather than gyros though, as the term 'gyroscope' is generally reserved for the sensing apparatus used to keep track of where you're currently pointing, rather than doing the orientation directly.

However, actual delta-v takes the expenditure of reaction mass. Unless of course we find that physics isn't quite what we thought and you really can push against the quantum foam...

[z64555]

Not all universes use RCS thrusters for maneuvering.  Some are a bit more wishy-washy, like the ethereal rudder, or gyro systems.

There is nothing physically implausible in using a gyro to change the orientation of a spacecraft...

Indeed - in fact pretty much all current orientable spacecraft use them.
They tend to call them 'reaction wheels' rather than gyros though, as the term 'gyroscope' is generally reserved for the sensing apparatus used to keep track of where you're currently pointing, rather than doing the orientation directly.

However, actual delta-v takes the expenditure of reaction mass. Unless of course we find that physics isn't quite what we thought and you really can push against the quantum foam...

Read up a little about the reaction wheels and it makes sense now... but to my understanding a reaction-wheel might take too long to re-orient a dog fighting spacecraft.

In related news, saw some info about Hall Effect thrusters. Dang Russians beat us to it..!

[Nuke]

reaction wheels and hets are kinda slow and really only used for station keeping in satellites. reaction wheels are pretty much only used in situations where precision is critical, and its usually always used in conjunction with some kind of rcs thrusters, since you must detorque the wheels from time to time. for a space fighter you might want to use a much more powerful thruster, and for a huge ship you might need a pretty powerful engines just for turning (probably using bleed gases from the main engine, or better yet, gimbaled main engines).

[z64555]

Hmm, now that I'm thinking about it, I imagine that a reaction wheel would be used right before craft's do their hyperspace jump... since they are going quite a far distance away, they need a very high precision attitude.

[Nuke]

Hmm, now that I'm thinking about it, I imagine that a reaction wheel would be used right before craft's do their hyperspace jump... since they are going quite a far distance away, they need a very high precision attitude.

that is assuming a change of orientation is necessary, i never see ships move to any specific orientation before warping out.

[z64555]

They might need to stop all rotational momentum, though...