D3D9Client uses external libraries that need support for the SSE2 Instruction set (GPSVC.DLL e.g.) and requires XNA Math support, so that the processor must support those Streaming SIMD Extensions.
You need a DirectX February 2010 or newer to run D3D9Client. To install the client itself you need to extract the zip package in the root folder of the Orbiter. In order to use a graphics client you need to run "Orbiter_ng.exe" instead of "Orbiter.exe". Also the client must be activated from the Modules tab.
If the redistributable package isn't installed in your computer you will receive an error message "The program can't start because d3dx9_42.dll is missing from your computer". Or you may see a pop-up window in Orbiter LaunchPad telling about a missing runtimes. If that happens then download and extract the content of the package in any empty directory you want and then find a Setup.exe and run it. You can delete the contents of the directory after the setup is completed. The directory is just a temporary storage for the installation files.
Here is a link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109
In order to use Spacecraft3.dll and Orbiter Sound (Version 3.5) with an
external graphics client –like D3D9Client is one–, symbolic links
in /Modules/Server/ folder must be created.
Note, that for the current version of Orbiter Sound (Version 4.0) the "Sound" link is not necessary anymore. It will not be created via the according Button in D3D9Clients "Advanced Setup" dialog, if D3DClient detects that the loaded Orbiter Sound Module if of Version 4.0. Anyhow, it does not harm if the "Sound" link is present for a Orbiter Sound 4.0 setup.
The two symbolic links in /Modules/Server/ folder for
Config and Sound folders point (or link) to their
"originals" located in the root folder of the Orbiter installation.
If you are using Windows XP or newer and your installation is on a
NTFS
filesystem, these links can easily be created from Video Tab -> Advanced
Setup. If you have problems with creating the links you can also use a
software called Link Shell Extension (see link below) or you can simply copy
the Config and Sound folders into
/Modules/Server/. But then you have to keep them updated
manually.
Here is the link: http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/hardlinkshellext.html
D3D9Client doesn't support alt-tabing in a so-called "True Fullscreen Mode". Therefore, it's recommended that you use a windowed fullscreen mode that will run the orbiter in a fullscreen sized borderless window. There is also a conflict between a GDI based dialog (i.e. pop-up) windows and anti-aliasing in a true fullscreen mode which will disable the anti-aliasing.
Under the regular Video Tab of the Orbiter (Orbiter_NG) Launchpad you find the "Advanced" Button that will show the "D3D9Client Advanced Setup" Dialog. Here you can change several settings to tweak your experience with the D3D9Client.
On the lower left side of the Dialog you'll find the "Create symbolic links" button that will create the symbolic links that are needed for some add-ons. The symbolic links can only be created on an NTFS filesystem, so if you have installed your Orbiter installation for example on an FAT32 of extFS filesystem this feature will not work. In this case you have to copy the according folders as explained in the "Orbiter Sound, Spacecraft3.dll" chapter.
Here you can change the behavior how the D3D9Client will load surface textures. The two options available are either "Load on demand (recommended)" or "Pre-load at session start":
With this recommended option selected the D3D9Client will only load surface textures when they come into view while you are orbiting a planet. The value in the "Max. load frequency [Hz]" input field lets you tune the maximum frequency the D3D9Client will check whether some new surface textures have come into view.
With this option selected the D3D9Client will load all surface textures at startup of a scenario which results in a longer loading time.
The tile archive selector lets you choose the type and order of planetary
body rendering option.
The planetary body data is located under the
/Textures/<Planet> folder and comes in two "flavors".
The Archive sub folder contains compressed data, while the
Elev_mod, Label, Mask and
Surf folders contain the data structures as file system
folders and files.
Access through the archive files is generally faster and should be
preferred over cache access.
The tile archive selection offers three settings:
Here you can change settings according to your graphic hardware:
Depending on your hardware you can select the anti-aliasing feature that will "smoothen" the visual artifacts that occur when displaying edges.
Depending on your hardware you can select the level of anisotropic filtering. For further details about this topic take a look at Anisotropic filtering in the wikipedia.
The value set here is a factor that lets you brighten or dim the "shine" produced by the reflection of a planet. The higher the value the more the current orbiting planet acts like a additional light source. The supported value range is from 0.01 to 2.0. Although you might be able to enter bigger or smaller values, those will be clipped to that range.
The texture mipmaps selector lets you choose the texture mipmap auto
generation policy. The select box lets you decide how to deal with
missing (not defined) mipmaps at load time.
The texture mipmaps selection offers three settings:
The post processing selector lets you choose whether to add one of two
additional post processing shaders.
Note that enabling any post processing will impact framerates.
The post processing selection offers three settings:
Following checkboxes can be checked (enabled) or unchecked (disabled) to further fine-tune your D3D9Client experience:
With this option enabled the D3D9Client
will load all base visuals at startup of a scenario which results in a
longer loading time.
With this option disabled the D3D9Client
will only load base visuals when they come into view while you are e.g.
flying through the atmosphere or orbiting a planet.
With this option enabled D3D9Client will try to add additional texture information for meshes that supply them. This advanced texture maps define for example how "rough" or "shiny" a texture appears.
With this option enabled D3D9Client will try to add improved glass shading (Fresnel reflection) for meshes that supply them.
If the near clip-plane compatibility mode is enabled then the minimum clip-plane distance is 1.0 meters as is in the Orbiters internal engine. If the compatibility mode is disabled then the client can reduce the clip distance down to 0.1 meters, if there is a graphics close to the camera. This setting will only effect in so-called exterior pass. Virtual cockpit near clip-plane distance is defined in D3D9Client.cfg and the default value is 0.1 meters.
Here you can change settings that will affect the rendering of shadows that vessels will cast onto themselves or onto other vessel structures.
This will control how many vessels will receive shadowing feature, varying from "None" to "All visible" vessels.
The vessel mapping selection offers three settings:
This will select filtering for shadow maps. "9 Samples" is the fastest
setting for older computers and "27s dither" is the best that is
currently available.
Better filtering produce smoother (better) edges for shadows. The
difference becomes more visible when zooming the camera into a shadow.
The filter options selection offers three settings:
This setting will choose the shadowing mode for planetary surface and
base-objects.
"Stencil" is the legacy mode that's been there for ages.
"Projective" produces more realistic surface shadows for the focused
(i.e. currently active) vessel but doesn't effect any other vessels (all
the other vessels are using Stencil shadows).
In this mode the focus vessel can cast shadows on base objects. This
shadowing option doesn't work well if the vessel is inside a base object.
The terrain mapping selection offers three settings:
Here you can change settings that will affect the rendering of planetary terrains.
This slider allows to adjust the terrain tile resolution level-of-detail (LOD) bias. Sharper uses higher resolution tiles, which give a sharper appearance, but can induce flickering. Smoother uses lower lower resolution tiles which look smoother and produce less flickering.
This slider allows to adjust the terrain tile mesh resolution. Higher values will result in smoother appearance, but can affect frame rates on some systems.
The SketchPad is used in Orbiter to draw 2D graphics onto surfaces. These are for example MFD Displays or announcements in the Simulation.
The two options you can choose from at "Device to use" are "GDI/DirectX" and "GDI Only".
The four options you can choose from at "Font rendering"
are:
"Crisp", "Default",
"Cleartype" and "Proof Quality".
Each setting will effect how the fonts are pre-rendered for sketchpad use. Choose what ever gives the best visual results. No performance impact.
The generic configuration contains options that will change the general behavior of D3D9Client. For most of the time the default setup should be fine ("Default" Shader set and Debug Level "1"). But you can for example change the verbosity of the internal logging system to be able to report more detailed issue information when you experience an error or failure.
The five options you can choose from here [0...4] represent the level of information that will be written into the log-file. The log-file is called D3D9ClientLog.html which can be found in Modules\D3D9Client\ directory. Higher values will create more detailed output.
Until you have any problems and like to have more detailed information what's going on, you should keep this level reasonably low as higher values will result in more disk I/O what slows down the Simulation.
With this option enabled D3D9Client will provide additional mesh debugging options at runtime. The "D3D9 Debug Controls" dialog will provide a user interface to access several options. For further details see the D3D9 Debug Controls Dialog section below.
The stereoScopic 3D settings allow you to tweak the 3D experience if you are using a NVIDIA graphic card that provides this feature.
The convergence value lets you choose "how far your eyes are apart". The default value is 0.2 meters (20 cm / 7.8 inches) which is round about the average distance between your eyes. Increasing this value might result in a view with "more depth".
In optics, particularly as it relates to film and photography, depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image. In the context of Stereoscopic 3D it defines the distance where the relative position between the "right eye objects" and the "left eye objects" are overlapping exactly and switch their position when further away or closer that that "point". For further details about this topic take a look at Depth of field in the wikipedia.
The reflections and custom camera settings allow you to tweak the parameters that define the behavior of the environment mapping feature. Environment mapping is a feature used to draw reflections of the surrounding environment on reflective surfaces. Custom camera settings will allow add-ons to render images on isolated surfaces (camera screens).
The reflection mode selection offers three settings:
The custom camera interface can be used by add-ons to create e.g.
payload-bay cameras, docking cameras and other things like that.
The camera image rendered by a custom camera can be displayed in an MFD
screen or any other screen in a virtual cockpit or in a panel.
Developer note : See ogci.h for additional details.
The custom camera selection offers therefore only two settings:
Enabled or Disable.
(Note: This has nothing to do with environment maps; it merely uses the
same code and update mechanism to do the rendering)
Selects the number of environment map faces that will be rendered per frame. The update rate selection offers three settings: Light, Medium or Heavy
The D3D9 Debug Controls Dialog allows you look at different things while the
simulation is running.
Such things are for example the highlighting of Meshes or Groups, so their
location and look can be easily checked. Looking at a complete scene in
wireframe mode might for example help in finding any mesh parts that are not
placed correct.
The D3D9 Debug Controls Dialog also allows you to change the settings of
materials at runtime, so that changes can be 'seen' while changing them.
The mesh debugger group contains elements to inspect a mesh. It gives a mesh
developer some tools at hand to better inspect a mesh in its 'natural
environment', the Orbiter Simulation environment.
With the options available in this group one can for example separate
individual parts of the shown scene and leave out all the rest, so it might
be easier to see what really happens at rendering.
Other settings change the environment so that the current lighting
conditions do not apply, so when the mesh is currently in the shadowed part
of the orbit it can still be seen with some artificial ambient light.
For all possibilities, please read the descriptions of the individual GUI-
Elements, below.
This combo box lets you select what parts of a scene is rendered. The possible options are: "Everything", "Selected Visual", "Selected Mesh" or "Selected Group".
This combo box lets you select the camera-mode. It can be either "Center
on visual" or "Wheel Fly/Pan Cam".
Center on visual will select the 'normal' Orbiter camera
operations where with pressed right mouse button you can 'drag' the
camera around the current selected visual.
Wheel Fly/Pan Cam will select another camera-mode where
with pressed left mouse button you can pan the camera left/right or
up/down and with the right mouse button pressed it can be 'tilted'.
This control lets you change the speed of the camera movements when you
are in "Wheel Fly/Pan Cam" camera-mode (see
Camera).
The value is a kind of 'factor' applied to the movement of the mouse (or
the mouse-wheel). It ranges from 1 (being the lowest speed) to 8192
(beeing very fast).
This control lets you select one mesh of a multi-mesh vessel by its index. If a vessel consists of a "hull"-mesh and a cockpit-mesh, you will be able to select the two meshes individually by selecting the according mesh index here.
This control lets you select one group out of the current selected mesh (see Mesh Idx) of a multi-group mesh by its index. If a mesh consists of multiple groups, you will be able to select the individual groups by selecting the according group index here.
With this option enabled the current selected group will be permanently highlighted (green).
With this option enabled the current selected mesh will be permanently highlighted (blue).
With this option enabled the current selected mesh will be lit by artificial ambient light independent of the current 'global' lighting conditions. The mesh is then not only lit from the sun (lighting only parts of the mesh), but from all sides. This also applies to situations when the mesh is usually not lit at all, when on the night (dark) side of an orbit.
Faces are normally only rendered from one side (the "backside" is kind of
completely transparent). With this option enabled all
faces are rendered opaque from both sides.
This option might help developers to identify parts of the mesh that are
"sticking out" of another mesh-part, that are normally only to be seen
from the "inside". A cockpit mesh inside a hull mesh can be for example
much bigger than the hull and it will not be easy to find out, cause from
the "inside", the hull faces are transparent so the (to big) cockpit mesh
can be seen. And from the "outside" the cockpit faces are transparent
although "covering" the hull.
With this option enabled the scene (or only parts of it, see Display) will be rendered as wireframe model. In a wireframe model only the edges (the lines connecting vertices) of the meshes are drawn. This can be helpful to identify 'useless' parts a mesh.
The Pick option is one of the most useful tools for selecting materials. With this option enabled you can just select a material by clicking onto it with the left mouse button.
The options in this group offers additional rendering of bounding boxes or spheres of individual mesh parts.
With this option enabled, objects of the scene will have their bounding boxes also drawn.
With this option enabled, objects of the scene will have their bounding spheres drawn. The sphere represents the smallest volume that still fits the complete geometry.
This is one of three options that let you limit the parts of the mesh that are rendered. With this option enabled, only the currently selected group will be rendered.
This is the second of three options that let you limit the parts of the mesh that are rendered. With this option enabled, only the currently selected mesh will be rendered.
This is the third of the three options that let you limit the parts of the mesh that are rendered. With this option enabled, only the currently selected visual (vessel mesh) will be rendered.
This group contains some debugging options to assist on more severe problems or let you see the current environment, that is used for the environment mapping feature of the D3D9Client.
Client development utility/debugger. Unimportant from user point of view.
Identifies GDI - Render Target conflicts by flashing surfaces in red and yellow. These conflicts can cause a major framerate impact.
With this option enabled the environment mapping "box"
will be displayed as a flattened box. This will become a cross-like area
that shows the environment of each of the sides of that "virtual box".
This box can be imagined as a box with mirror-surfaces which show the
environment the face of the box 'sees'
With this option enabled a frames per second limiter is
enabled that will limit the number of frames that will be rendered per
time interval (per second that is). Limiter FPS value is set using
D3D9Client.cfg
This feature is created to reduce unnecessary GPU/CPU load. Not to
produce a stable frame rate. Improper setting can cause extreme tearing
on the screen. Setting the frame rate limiter to 200fps usually works
pretty well. It is recommended to use vertical sync feature from a video
tab instead of this.
This group contains all the elements that enable you to tweak the different parameter of materials.
This field is used to select a special effect texture for dissolve effect.
Meaning of the fields will depend about the selected material property. See properties from above.
Copy and paste buttons can be used to copy [RGB] values from different material properties for an example from specular color to reflect color.
The link checkbox allows the link the R, G and B fields and after that they can be adjusted simultaneously with the slider.
Not implemented.
The save materials button in the "D3D9 Debug Controls" Dialog
does just that: it saves the materials ;)
Once you are happy with the result you have adjusted in the
Material 'X' group, click on "save materials" and
the changed material specifications will be saved in the
Config\GC\ folder of your Orbiter installation.
Then of course you can tweak these file(s) in Config\GC\ folder
with notepad etc.
So next time you fly with a ship of the same class it will have the
properties, you have defined or changed, applied.
If you want to have the "default" look back, just delete the according file
from that folder (e.g. Config\GC\DeltaGlider.cfg) and the
standard Orbiter appearance will be restored.
The install ZIP of D3D9Client contains some of those files already, that
contain some nice "advanced looks" for some of the standard vessels. You can
always take those and place it back into that folder to get the
"D3D9-Default" look.
The D3D9Client allows you to to configure some more details when settings up
runway lights.
Additionally to the parameters that Orbiter itself defines (see
Doc\OrbiterConfig.pdf for further details) there are some extra
parameters you can define.
For a better understanding how some of those parameters will affect the
rendering of the runway lights this image might help:
First end point of runway (center line).
Second end point of runway (center line).
Runway width (m)
Note: Two different light configurations exists (wide>59m) and
(narrow<59m)
Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI).
Parameters:
Designated approach angle (deg)
Approach cone aperture (deg)
Offset of PAPI location from runway endpoints. (m)
PAPI Mode (int:0-3) (this is optional parameter)
PAPI runway end point (int: 0-1) (if this parameter is not defined then
PAPI is added in both ends)
PAPI Modes:
0: On center line
1: On left side
2: On right side
3 or none: On both sides
PAPI Endpoint:
0: PAPI lights added to END1 only
1: PAPI lights added to END2 only
Not Defined: PAPI lights added in both ends
Note: Runwaylights can have 12 PAPI lights. Orbiter's inline engine will
ignore the last parameter. If more than one PAPI entries exists in the
runwaylights the inline engine will only use the last one.
Visual Approach Slope Indicator (VASI).
Parameters:
Designated approach angle (deg)
Distance between white and red indicator lights (m)
Offset of VASI (red bar) location from runway endpoints (m)
VASI runway end point (int: 0-1) (if not defined then VASI is added in
both ends)
Note: Runwaylights can have 2 VASI lights.
Touch Down displacement (m). (default: 0m)
Displacement between runway endpoint and the green line.
Touch Down displacement for the other end of the runway (m).
(default: 0m)
Displacement between runway endpoint and the green line. If this value
isn't specified then TD_DISP is used for both ends of the runway.
Length of the Touchdown zone (m). (default: 600m)
Two columns of lights on a runway each containing 3 parallel lights.
Length of the "red lights" zone (m). (default: 257m)
This zone contains 2 x 3 x 9 red lights and the spacing between lights
will depend about the length of the zone. The touchdown zone will use the
same spacing about 30m.
Length of the approach lights from the green line (m).
(default: 900m)
It's the long column of 5 parallel lights.
If the singleended keyword is defined then the lights are only rendered when approaching a runway from END1 towards END2. If you want a asymmetric runwaylights then you need two runwaylight sections in a base configuration file.
Defines the category of runway lights. 1 = SSALR, 2 = ALSF-II, If this value isn't specified then the category is automatically selected based on a runway width. ALSF-II is used if the width is greater than 59m.
Example of runway lights for KSC:
RUNWAYLIGHTS END1 -8220 -3 -600 END2 -12670 -12 -3155 WIDTH 100 PAPI 5.0 3.0 257 3 ; both sides of the green line, in both ends PAPI 20.0 3.0 -2000 0 0 ; on a center line 2km before rwy in END 1 PAPI 20.0 3.0 -2000 3 1 ; both sides of center line, 2km before rwy, in END 2 VASI 1.5 152 671 TD_DISP 257 TD_LENGTH 600 DECISION_DIST 257 APPROACH_START 900 END
Additional texture maps can be automatically assigned for a mesh simply by placing additional textures into a texture folder. Additional textures are identified by using an identifier in the end of the textures name like "dgmk4_1_bump.dds" where "dgmk4_1.dds" is the name of the base texture.
A fully specified texture set could for example consist of these files:
cube.dds <= 'base' texture
cube_bump.dds <= 'advanced texture Bump-map'
cube_spec.dds <= 'advanced texture Specular-map'
cube_emis.dds <= 'advanced texture Emission-map'
cube_refl.dds <= 'advanced texture Reflection-map'
Available identifiers are:
Tangent space normal map and the valid formats are:
| <R8G8B8> | 3-bytes per pixel. Best quality (uncompressed) |
| <V8U8> | 2-bytes per pixel. Good quality (uncompressed) |
| <DXT1> | 1-byte per pixel. Bad quality (compressed) |
Note: The configuration of this (_norm) identifier is ignored if a _bump configuration is also found. However, the _norm configuration is the preferred one that should be used when you have the choice (see also _bump).
Specular map controls a specular reflection in per pixel basis. Alpha channel is containing a specular power setting. Value 255 is mapped to maximum matarial defined power and 0 is mapped to 0.0. Specular map is modulated by specular material color. Valid formats are <R8G8B8A8>, <DXT3> or <DXT5>.
Bump maps are also supported by the D3D9Client. They are automatically
converted into normal maps during loading of bump maps (see note).
The recommended formats are <A8> and <L8>:
| <A8> | 1-byte per pixel alpha |
| <L8> | 1-byte per pixel luminance |
| <R8B8G8> | 3-bytes per pixel (only red is used anyway |
| <DXT1> | 1-byte per pixel compressed |
| <R16F> | 2-bytes per pixel (might work, not tested!) |
Note: The configuration using the (_bump) identifier will overwrite any _norm configuration in case both identifiers are found. The _norm configuration is however the one that should be used when you have the choice (see also _norm).
Currently emission map works more like a light map and the simplified equation is:
pixel_color.rgb = texture.rgb * clamp(emission_map.rgb +
sun_light.rgb + local_lights.rgb)
Alpha channel is ignored therefore the recommended formats are
<R8G8B8> or <DXT1>.pixel_color.rgb = texture.rgb * clamp(sun_light.rgb + local_lights.rgb)
+ emission_map.rgb
Of course, the clamp function can be changed to a different kind of
color curve manipulation function to control contrast and lightness.
Reflection map controls material reflectivity and color in a per pixel basis. Fresnel reflection works independently from a reflection map. However, a zero (black) reflection map value will mask off the fresnel reflections as well. A non zero value will apply full fresnel reflections for that pixel. Only [RGB] channels from a texture are used.
Translucence map controls the material translucency on a per pixel basis.
The texture behaves much like a diffuse texture, except that it is
illuminated from behind. Illumination is based on the angle of the sun
relative to the surface; if the sun is directly behind the surface, the
illumination is strong, and if the sun is at a low angle but still behind
the surface, the illumination is dim. If the sun begins to illuminate the
surface from in front, the translucence effect is no longer visible.
Only [RGB] channels from a texture are used.
Transmittance map controls the amount of light that passes through a
translucent material without being diffused. The effect is very similar
to a specular reflection, except that it simulates the bright spot on a
semi-transparent material that is directly between the sun and the
observer.
The [RGBA] channels from a texture are used. The RGB channels provide
color and brightness, while the alpha channel changes the size of the
bright spot. This is analogous to how the specular map
is used.
Note, that not all objects support all advanced texture maps:
| Type | Identifier | Vessel | Base | Planetary Surface |
| Bump-map | _bump | supported | supported | not supported |
| Specular-map | _spec | supported | supported | not supported |
| Emission-map | _emis | supported | supported | not supported |
| Reflection-map | _refl | supported | not supported | not supported |
| Translucence-map | _transl | supported | not supported | not supported |
| Transmittance-map | _transm | supported | not supported | not supported |