Orbiter Visualisation Project

The Orbiter Visualisation Project (OVP) aims at replacing the built-in Orbiter graphics engine with an external graphics module. This will allow to support new graphics interfaces and new graphics features without affecting the simulation core.

OVP is an open-source project hosted by sourceforge.To access the sources, you need a SVN client. Follow the readme file for compilation requirements and installation advice.

Running the graphics subsystem as an external plugin will be possible in the next Orbiter release, which will include a "non-graphics" (NG) version of the Orbiter executable. Orbiter NG will be of use in its own right (for example as a server in network applications, or as a numerical trajectory simulation tool), but it will also feature a graphics API which allows external renderers to be attached.

A beta snapshot of the current and some previous Orbiter development versions is available on the Orbiter homepage (Any orbiter beta packages should be unpacked over a fresh 060929 installation). The beta is primarily intended for developers who want to try, test or modify the OVP sources.

Currently, a DirectX7 graphics client is under active development on OVP. This will essentially be a re-implementation of Orbiter's internal graphics system (or a subset of it) in the form of a plugin. It is mainly intended as a reference implementation, or demonstrator. It is expected that the main development effort will eventually switch to more up-to-date graphics interfaces, such as OpenGL or DirectXn (n >= 9).

Other renderers under development

• DirectX 9
• OpenGL 2.0