The main applications are listed in [[spaceroom-system-components|Spaceroom System Components]].
Development History
The development of the software for the spaceroom has been a voyage of discovery in terms of learning new coding techniques, languages, and modeling simulation concepts.The simulation software has gone through numerous iterations. It has been an excuse to try new tools and techniques that often have been of later benefit in my actual work. It has also been a great opportunity to try to create an cooperative interactive environment. The other challenge has been that all of the equipment has been collected at no cost so it tends to be at the bottom end of the performance spectrum so it has been important to make sure that the software is functional on machines that have no business being used at this point. (We are still using Windows 98!) (** 2008 Update! Windows XP on 2.3 GH machines! **)
1990 - 1995 The original version was built on DOS machines using Moses Network card (NETBIOS). It provided the ability to do simple 2 dimensional navigation and it was possible to "battle" against virtual opponents. It was written in C++. This version introduced a multi-user chat system that was deployed through the whole house. At the time, home networks were few and far between. The original simulation software was also created. Text based windowing was used create different functional screens.
1996 - 2000 We started to get some machines that could run Windows 95. We started to develop using Delphi since it is an ideal Windows development tool. The final DOS development was done to create a special program for the 2000 New Years Party where we created a true Y2K meltdown. (The video link will be forthcoming).
2000 - Present Continued development using Delphi. New networking components have allowed easier management of the connections and data communication side of things. The model has going through a number of iterations. One phase included experimenting with integrating with Sim Orbiter. Recent work is investigation of using plugin technology to allow better customization of the console screens.
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