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ORBITER VISUALISATION PROJECT
Graphics Client Plugins for Orbiter Space Flight Simulator
Copyright (C) 2006-2014  Martin Schweiger


The aim of the Orbiter Visualisation Project (OVP) is to provide 3-D
visualisation support for Orbiter Space Flight Simulator via external plugin
modules.

The next Orbiter release distribution will include a "non-graphics" version
of the Orbiter core executable. This can be used as a standalone application
(e.g. as a server in a multi-user environment), but it also allows to load
a graphics client module to provide visualisation support. 

Separating the physics engine (orbiter core) and 3-D graphics support
(graphics clients) will ease code maintenance and provide an upgrade path
for future versions of rendering interfaces. It also allows developers to
implement new graphics features not found in the standard Orbiter
distribution.

OVP is an open source project that spans a number of (relatively independent)
client implementations.

- A DirectX-7 client (D3D7Client) which implements most of the graphics
  features of the Orbiter inline graphics engine. This is intended as a
  reference implementation.

- A DirectX-9 client

- An OpenGL client

Other clients may be added in the future.


Installing OVP
--------------
The installation requirements for the different clients may vary. Check the
documentation in the individual client directories for installation and
compilation prerequisites.

Graphics clients are currently only supported by Orbiter beta snapshots. To
install Orbiter-Beta:

- Create a new Orbiter 2006-P1 (v.060929) installation from the Orbiter Base
  and SDK packages found at orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk

- Patch to an Orbiter Beta version by downloading one of the beta diffs
  found at download.orbit.m6.net/betaNG/orbiter_beta.html. Note that different
  clients may be compiled against different beta snapshots. Always check
  the individual client documentation to get the right version.

- Download the OVP sources from http://sourceforge.net/projects/orbitervis
  You need a CVS client for this. Download the CVS source tree with

  cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@orbitervis.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/orbitervis login
  cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@orbitervis.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/orbitervis co -P orbitervis

  You should end up with a directory "orbitervis" inside you Orbiter root
  directory.

- Then consult the documentation of the individual clients for further
  instructions.


License
-------
This program is free software; it is dual licensed under the
GNU General Public License (GPL) or the Lesser General Public
License (LGPL), both as published by the free Software Foundation.

You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of
either of these licenses, whichever you prefer; either version 3
of the GPL and LGPL, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.