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New Mercury Simulator coming out soon! - This is why I have so little time for KSP modding now ;)

Mulbin

By Mulbin
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  • 3 weeks later...
Nibb31

Nibb31

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Mercury astronauts didn't have many switches to operate anyway. The capsule was designed to fly chimps. The only controls were to control the attitude RCS thrusters and to fire the retro rockets.

Edited by Nibb31
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Mulbin

Mulbin

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Mercury astronauts didn't have many switches to operate anyway. The capsule was designed to fly chimps. The only controls were to control the attitude RCS thrusters and to fire the retro rockets.

It's a myth that the mercury spacecraft was designed to be flown by chimps. In the test flights a chimp was sealed in a small pressure chamber inside the cockpit but had no access to any controls or switches. The manned capsules were launched and reentered on autopilot, just like all spacecraft ever built (except the shuttle for landing), during flight the astronaut had a joystick and roughly 60 switches and dials to operate the spacecraft.

The film "the right stuff" has a lot to answer for spreading nonsense about mercury :)

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Mulbin

Mulbin

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Have you plan a mac version ? *little eyes* Looks amazing !
Yeah, what platforms? Looks pretty cool to me.

One of the great things about unity 5 (apart from how it finally gets on with 64bit!) Is that it exports for pc and mac at the same time. There will be very little work to ensure it is compatible with windows and mac. Linux is something I will look into further down the road.

Any minimum requirements?

Very hard to say at this point. I am developing it with oculus rift and to use vr, as with all vr you will need a good gaming rig to maintain 70fps. Running it on a monitor will be less demanding.... but I can't recomend vr enough for this title, it really is something special sitting inside the spacecraft!

I know you're probably running around with your hair on fire answering all these questions but how much is it expected to cost in GBP or USD?

TBC! It is very likely I will look at early access/crowdfunding once the first demo is out.

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Beowolf

Beowolf

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The manned capsules were launched and reentered on autopilot, just like all spacecraft ever built (except the shuttle for landing), during flight the astronaut had a joystick and roughly 60 switches and dials to operate the spacecraft.

But few of them did anything interesting. The astronaut could control attitude, but not maneuver beyond firing the retro package. Beyond that, he could play with the cabin fan, wind the clockwork-powered moving map indicator, extend/retract the periscope, and do basic troubleshooting of the electrical and life support system. Some missions had science instruments he deployed by pushing a button.

I assume your sim will be emphasizing the troubleshooting with lots of simulated failures. What else are you doing to make it more fun? I've been through the mission transcripts, and other than the amazing aspect of being in space, Mercury just didn't look very exciting to fly to me. A Gemini sim would sure be cool, though. :)

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Mulbin

Mulbin

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I hope I don't forget about this sim by the time you're done. Good luck.

Actually, after a bit of digging it looks like unity 5 should export directly to linux. Shouldn't be a problem to release a linux build.

But few of them did anything interesting. The astronaut could control attitude, but not maneuver beyond firing the retro package. Beyond that, he could play with the cabin fan, wind the clockwork-powered moving map indicator, extend/retract the periscope, and do basic troubleshooting of the electrical and life support system. Some missions had science instruments he deployed by pushing a button.

I assume your sim will be emphasizing the troubleshooting with lots of simulated failures. What else are you doing to make it more fun? I've been through the mission transcripts, and other than the amazing aspect of being in space, Mercury just didn't look very exciting to fly to me. A Gemini sim would sure be cool, though. :)

I'm not adding anything I'm afraid. It's a serious simulation and learning tool. That being said for a die hard space nut it should still be of interest, in fact I've played for hours on A-Ok wings of mercury in the past and that didnt even have a 3d cockpit! But you're right, it might not appeal if you're after fast paced action particularly on a monitor. If you have a rift though you wont care about gameplay as you'll be experiencing total emersion space flight that feels really, very, very real. I've lost count of how many times I've instinctively tried to flip a switch with my finger ;)

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  • 2 weeks later...
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