What are the opinions of this. I just fond out about it and saw the video on their site. It looks good but wondered if it was as good as it looks. Anyone try it yet?Rob

Tried it, and it does everything it says it will :)One "downside" is that the learning curve can be rather steep, but with some practice (and difficulty set to easy), you should get the hang of it quickly.

SSM 2007 is a space shuttle mission simulator and is structured around historic missions. There is not a free flight mode as in Microsoft FS. It simulates all phases of a shuttle mission. You can even go EVA which is awesome with the recently added support for Track IR and Matrox triple head displays. There is a text prompting system that guides you through the sometimes complex procedures. If you like flipping switches this simulator is for you. A big plus is it works well with a midstream PC. There is a virtual cockpit which looks awesome with the 3H2Go display support. However you cannot actuate the switches in the VC mode but it is easy to switch back and forth from 3D to 2D. This simulator requires hitting the operator manuals and some trial and error to nail the more complex docking and grappling procedures. All the included missions allow you to enter at a number of different points such as reentry or landing phase. There is a time acceleration feature that allows you to skip thru non activity periods and accomplish multiday missions in a few hours realtime. The video on their website will give you a very good idea of what you are getting into. There have been some bugs and glitches but most missions and features work very well and ES seems to be very proactive on releasing updates and patches. Good luck.

Hey twabi,Shouldn't you be more upfront with us and announce that you are one of the guys behind SSM instead of stating "Tried it, and it does everything it says it will :)"IIRC advertisments like this are not allowed on AVSIMJust a friendly advice,

Correction: I helped on S3, which later evolved into SSM, as it was acquired by Exciting Simulations.At this moment, all I do is moderate some of the forums there.So, my opinion is no more (or less) biased than that of an Orbiter user for example.I did not get any financial profits from SSM, and I have no benefits whatsoever in promoting the game.So before accusing me of advertising, please do your research.My post was no more an advertisement than any other Orbiter or other space sim related post here.

My apologies twabi. And please do not see my post as an accusation. It was meant as an advice.Again sorry,

Very real. Very beautiful from a graphics perspective, but at the same time very very real.You can play to yer heart's content, or you can just watch liftoffs from all perspective, even from the cabin.I'm in liftoff phase right now...life gets in the way, but the rest is waiting for me whenever I choose.My humble opinion,bt

No hard feelings Mats, I would've made the same remark if I saw a similar situation.BTW: Someone published a review here on Avsim, why not have a look at it?http://www.avsim.com/pages/0408/SSM/Shuttle.htm-Toine

I really fancy getting this when I buy a new PC. I am aware that it will be very complex, but I have always wanted a decent Space Shuttle simulator that accurately recreates the launch sequence (pitch forward when the main engines fire, six second delay until the SRBs fire, roll manouevre etc).How impressive are the graphics ? There is nothing I hate more than a patch of satellite mapped terrain (looking like a postcard) surrounded by a huge blurry mess.

Depends on the GPU you have.IMO the graphics are good enough to give you the impression of being in space,but some people still think earth is a blurry mess...I'd say: take a look at the screenshots, what you see is what you'll get :)

It certainly would be nice if the resolution of the Earth textures could be improved from the current 1km per pixel, but I haven't seen the simulator in action yet to determine the current visual quality. The screenshots look good, so that's a start !Like I said, I would be installing this on the hard disk of a new PC, so the detail levels would be set to MAXIMUM :-)

I've been a long time user of Orbiter, and recently purchased SSM. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, in my opinion.SSM's "Earth Graphics" are nowhere near as good as some of the higher resolution ones available for Orbiter. But I think that will probably (hopefully!) change with some possible upgrades in the future. The graphics "on orbit" are great when it comes to the Shuttle, Space Station, EVA's, etc, but the "blurry" textures of the Earth in the background detract from the overall experience. SSM does run on the Matrox TH2G, however...and that is the winner for me. Orbiter can't be run across all 3 TH2G monitors at 3840 x 1024 due to it's "Vertical FOV" constraint. SSM at 3840 x 1024 is awesome. I would like to see a fully functional Virtual Cockpit in it with clickable switches. Although a previous post mentioned it is easy to switch between VC and 2D cockpits to throw switches (it is), having a 3840 x 1024 screen display with the TrackIR capability to look all over the cockpit, and NOT being able to click the switches there is disheartening. All in all, if you are looking for a realistic Space Shuttle sim from a technical point of view, SSM does it. Except for the minor stuff I noted above, it will keep you busy (and happy) as a wanna-be astronaut.

It's just my luck that I have sent an e-mail to Exciting Simulations, only to discover that they will all be away from the office until April 26. I wanted to know when higher resolution Earth textures would be available. Whilst this aspect might be irrelevant to some hardcore guys, I personally feel that looking down at various geographical features of our beautiful planet would be a very relaxing and enjoyable thing to do, so these really need to be as clear and detailed as possible. Since I intend to purchase a decent Core 2 Quad based PC in the near future, framerates shouldn't be a problem.

Well...the Orbiter 2006 Earth higher resolution textures are DDS files. Interestingly, the Earth texture files in SSM are also DDS files. Hmmm.......I wonder if...nah...couldn't be THAT simple...could it? :-hmmm PS - Frame rates no problem for a C2Quad. I'm getting more frames per second than I know what to do with in SSM with a C2Duo on a TH2G monitor setup.

I tried it out after the review - I'm blown away by it. I've alway been a Fly! fan and this sim has many of the same attributes - excellent modeling of systems and procedures right down to the button. You can even play around with the computers, especially in Orbital Maneuvering operations.I'm still on a P4 - my nVidia 256MB card (AGP) couldn't get much above 20 FPS at launch (with a lot of the detail dialed back), with a rise in rate once in orbit. I set the sim aside for a few days and ordered a GeForce 7700 series 512MB (AGP) card. This improved things quite a bit and I got a steady 32FPS in all areas with everything maxed. Those with more modern duo-core processors and video cards are getting 50 FPS and above for smooth operations.Here's a twist: someone on the ES forums discovered that if you access a web page with Flash running (such as the ES home page) and shrink it to the task bar before starting SSM, your rate will shoot up! I tried it and I'm averaging 50 FPS - really strange! :-)