ORBITER is a free flight simulator that goes beyond the confines of Earth's atmosphere. Launch the Space Shuttle from Kennedy Space Center to deploy a satellite, rendezvous with the International Space Station or take the futuristic Delta-glider for a tour through the solar system - the choice is yours.
But make no mistake - ORBITER is not a space shooter. The emphasis is firmly on realism, and the learning curve can be steep. Be prepared to invest some time and effort to brush up on your orbital mechanics background. A good starting point is JPL's Space Flight Learners' Workbook.
Minimum Requirements
300 MHz PC or better (Pentium, Athlon, etc.)
128MB RAM or more
Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP
DirectX 7.0 or higher
DirectX compatible 3D graphics accelerator card with at least 16MB of video RAM (32MB or more recommended) and DXT texture compression support.
Approximately 60MB of free disk space for the minimum installation (additional high-resolution textures and addons will require more space).
DirectX compatible joystick (optional)
There is nothing to prevent you from trying to run Orbiter on a computer with lower specs, but the results are not likely to be satisfactory.
Install Steps
Create a new folder for ORBITER, for example \Program Files\Orbiter_050116.
If a previous version of ORBITER is already installed on your computer, you should not install the new version into the same folder, because this could lead to file conflicts. You may want to keep your old installation until you have made sure that the new version works without problem. Multiple ORBITER installations can exist on the same computer.
Download the Base package into your new ORBITER folder and unzip with WinZip or equivalent utility. Important: Take care to preserve the directory structure of the package (In WinZip, this requires to activate the "Use Folder Names" option).
After unzipping the package, make sure that your Orbiter folder contains the executable (Orbiter.exe) and, among other files, the Config, Meshes, Scenarios and Textures subfolders.
Run Orbiter.exe. This will bring up the ORBITER "Launchpad" dialog, where you can select video options and simulation parameters.
You are now ready to start ORBITER. Select a scenario from the Launchpad dialog, and click the "ORBITER" button!
If you run into problems during installation, you may want to check the Troubleshooting section of the FAQ.
If you want to download the Hi-Rez Textures, that package can be found at this web address:
http://download.orbit.m6.net/mirror.html
