Speaking of realistic spaceflight... (Off-Topic)

by Mid7night , Rocket BSCHSHCSHSHCCHGGH!!!!!!, Tuesday, November 05, 2013, 11:13 (3824 days ago) @ Leviathan

I've toyed around with X-Plane a LOT, as some of you know, and one of the things I love about it is the fact that you can in fact fly all the way from sea-level into orbit. The trouble is, once you're in orbit, you're moving REALLY FREEKIN FAST, which plays havoc with the chase-view-camera (and the in-cockpit camera is just BORING) :)

But the other neat thing about X-Plane, that almost NO ONE knows about, is the fact that you can change the atmospheric AND planetary constants! So you can set the environment to zero pressure and zero gravity, and simulate much easier the effects of actually flying around in space, without having the camera snap into weird angles because you're not actually being flung along at a bazillion knots.

So a dogfight in this environment would be something you could only expect if you and your opponent were on the same initial orbital trajectory, but "absolute" velocity is not as important in a dogfight as "relative" velocity. That is, your velocity relative to your opponent; which my tweaked-version of X-Plane does a pretty fun job at simulating.

What this little experiment highlighted for me just how DIFFERENT a space-fighter would need to be in order to maneuver effectively in an environment where the ONLY forces at your disposal are the ones you bring with you. You don't have air to push on for changing direction, and you don't have gravity to rely on for an easy trip "down". You wanna go "down"? You gotta have a rocket PUSH you "down"! Wanna turn? That's nice. You can point yourself left all you want, you ain't gonna go there unless you apply force...CONSTANTLY. :P

To say the least; it's tricky. :D

Mr. Quirel, I have planned out a number of space combat scenes for my comic, Mayflower, and Ender's Game was definitely a seed that led me to depicting them in near-realism (while still making it exciting). I often think of you or Stephen Loftus and hope it would do your wants justice. I don't know why film has never realized how unique, terrifying and exhilarating a vision of real space combat could be. Outside, there's no sound of course, the silence expressing the vast void and bringing solemnity to the actions, but inside, you'd be jumping in to hear the contrast of noise inside the cockpits: comm chatter, lock-on alerts, dialogue, and perhaps the rattle of a damaged ship. All this while you see the movements of the players unfold in three unnervingly equal dimensions. I can perfectly see a view from behind the pilot's shoulder as he pushes forward the joystick and Jupiter and the stars go reeling upwards in the vein of a roller coaster fall. Small ships act as sentient missiles, motherships are nowhere near on top of each other. One's pointing this way, one's pointing that way. It's less about dogfights and more about arcing lights moving purposefully and flexibly, like skaters dancing on ice while they perform calculus... Shit, I'm excited, I need to go make this.