Better understanding of orbital mechanics in Orbiter through KSP's ingenious map view?

[szputnyik]

Is there anyone else here who got better in Orbiter because of playing KSP?

I first started playing Orbiter in 2008. I learned basic orbital mechanics from it, like going up to LEO, rendezvousing with the ISS, and flying to the Moon, but I could never figure out the more complex rocket science needed to fly to other planets. I was clicking around in TransX and IMFD and didn't really know what I was doing. I remember once trying to reach Mars using the more primitive but easier to understand Transfer MFD, and managing to get close enough, that Mars was a small circle in the distance, not a red star-like object, but that was the most I could do.

When I started playing KSP, I had a large head-start of simpler orbital manoeuvres because of Orbiter, and thanks to the ingenious, simple and intuitive map view of KSP with the manoeuvre function, I successfully flew to Eve after about 2 weeks of playing KSP, when the whole interplanetary transfer thing clicked in my brain and for the first time, I actually knew what I was doing.

Did anyone else get a better understanding of orbital mechanics that could be used in more complex sims, like Orbiter, because of KSP?

[sal_vager]

Sorta, though not with Orbiter, I tried a few things I'd learned from KSP in Pioneer, a remake of Frontier Elite 2.

Just basic stuff like raising and lowering my apoapsis and periapsis, and plane changing manoeuvres, even managed a hohmann transfer to the Moon, none of this I'd have tried without knowing about them from KSP.

[Pipcard]

Actually, I got a better understanding of KSP because I played Orbiter first. I learned how to use TransX to get to Mars (and even landed on it) before I even bought KSP, and even made

. Edited June 13, 2015 by Pipcard

[TinfoilChef]

Actually, I got a better understanding of KSP because I played Orbiter first. I learned how to use TransX to get to Mars (and even landed on it) before I even bought KSP, and even made

.

I too learned stuff in Orbiter 2010 that helped me a lot in KSP. David Courtney's many excellent TransX tutorials made it a lot easier to "see" whats going on in KSP, especially once the Precise Node mod was introduced. It's not TransX but it's as close as we are likely to get in KSP.