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[Old Thread] KRE - Kerbal Reusability Expansion


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On 6/27/2016 at 7:28 PM, bradleyjh said:

This mod is awesome for landing any of my first stages, the only way I can attempt to show my appreciation is by bringing your attention to my hoverslam kOS script which looks awesome using your legs and I can't wait to try out the new gridfin sizes with it too! Thanks heaps for the awesome mod, including the many laughs with bugs along the way :D

http://github.com/mrbradleyjh/kOS-Hoverslam/

Thanks! Guess it's time for me to finally give kOS a shot and try this out.

22 hours ago, Qwarkk said:

Are there any plans for adding multiple colours for the gridfins?

Like black ones? I've been thinking about it but I'm not sure if it's necessary. But I'll make some for myself to see if it looks good :wink:

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For my next trick I shall make the fins compatible with FAR.

How you ask? Well I don't know.

The only adjustment that's needed is the drag in the deployed position. Even with FAR the stock airbrakes have very high drag so why not have that with the grid fins too. Currently I'm looking for a way to adjust the drag in the deployed position.

Also, what other reusability-related parts would you like to see? Always open for suggestions.

Edited by svendii
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9 hours ago, svendii said:

For my next trick I shall make the fins compatible with FAR.

what other reusability-related parts would you like to see?

1. Hooray for FAR compatibility. :)

2. Reusable fairings would be nice, please. :P i.e. they'd need RCS on them, their own probe core, a small battery, and a parachute. Much like what SpaceX are developing. I wonder if you could write a plugin that would work with the Procedural Fairings mod? @e-dog, is it possible to allow a third-party mod to change the properties of your fairings? e.g. just have it change electric charge and monopropellant values, etc. I guess the player could then stick an RCS part onto the inside of the fairing themselves... 

Edited by DavidHunter
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So I had some thoughts on what to add in the future. I'd like to add more parts to it and go from having just the landing legs to everything reusable rockets might need. The grid fins are a step in that direction.

Here's a WIP of the next addition:

DNUvu6L.png

Just a heat shield and tiny legs, Dragon v2 style.

I don't intend to make full Falcon 9 stages and Dragon capsules but rather to have a suite of SpaceX-inspired parts to add reusability to stock parts. So a likely next step will be to add super dracos that can be attached to capsules (Twitch engines don't work that well). So soon the mod will turn into "SpaceX Reusability Tech" or something along those lines.

@DavidHunter Thanks for the suggestion, but reusable fairings are probably quite hard to do. I don't have much experience with writing plug-ins and like to focus on making parts, at least for now.

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haha, I honestly wasn't expecting you to do the reusable fairings. That'd be crazy-hard. Hence why I haven't done it myself. :P

 

The above looks interesting. Although perhaps you could make a fuel tank that's cone-shaped but with a flat top, and have the Super Dracos built into the fuel tank. Have the top of the tank the same diameter as the bottom of the Mk2 capsule you have there. Then have the heatshield with legs under the fuel tank.

(otherwise you have a capsule with fuel in it but no obvious volume increase)

That way, you could also recess the Super Dracos into the side of the fuel tank (and have it all as one part) rather than having them hang off the side, as you have done in the above (which is problematic for Deadly Reentry reasons...).

 

Just some thoughts. :) Looks good so far!

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9 hours ago, DavidHunter said:

The above looks interesting. Although perhaps you could make a fuel tank that's cone-shaped but with a flat top, and have the Super Dracos built into the fuel tank. Have the top of the tank the same diameter as the bottom of the Mk2 capsule you have there. Then have the heatshield with legs under the fuel tank.

(otherwise you have a capsule with fuel in it but no obvious volume increase)

That way, you could also recess the Super Dracos into the side of the fuel tank (and have it all as one part) rather than having them hang off the side, as you have done in the above (which is problematic for Deadly Reentry reasons...).

Having it all as one part is an interesting idea but I prefer the more modular approach. At some point it's not much of a difference to just build the finished Dragon capsule. Building it yourself is more fun and adds flexibility.
I'll definitely make a small fuel tank that fits between the capsule and the heat shield. Then some engines that can be attached to the side of the capsule. I don't know Deadly Reentry but the engines won't hang off the sides as much and will have a decent heat resistance :wink:.

Edited by svendii
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Have you considered expanding into more of a general reusability mod, rather than just SpaceX? The parts all look great, I'd love to see what sort of original designs you could come up with, especially regarding landing legs.

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18 hours ago, The-Bean said:

Have you considered expanding into more of a general reusability mod, rather than just SpaceX? The parts all look great, I'd love to see what sort of original designs you could come up with, especially regarding landing legs.

Possible, but not in the near future. With the Mars infrastructure announcement in September there will hopefully be some more cool parts to add. But I'll think about it when I run out of SpaceX parts to do :D.

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Arrival of the Dragon

JMMrLNR.png

So a few things I've worked on:

  • Heat Shield with tiny landing legs: makes for a more elegant landing than carefully crashing into the ground.
  • SuperDraco engines: High thrust to weight ratio for a very low efficiency. Together with the fuel tank it adds enough deltaV for some orbital maneuvering and a safe landing. Also adds in-flight abort capability.
  • Fuel Tank: Because clipping tanks inside the capsule is not cool. Nicely fits between capsule and heat shield. Also extends the ladder of the mk1-2 capsule.

LdnaE4T.png

The parts still need some final adjustments but will be released soon. Most likely as part of version 2.0 which will not be called "SpaceX Landing Legs" anymore because well... that's not an accurate description of the mod anymore. Will also move the mod to Addon Releases.

Any thoughts on what the name of the mod should be? I was thinking about Kerbal Reusability Extensions (K-REX). Not sure what sounds good though because it's not my native language :D. Maybe someone has an idea for a name?

Also, constructive criticism is always welcome!

Edited by svendii
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2 hours ago, DavidHunter said:

Looks nice. Very nice.
Can the SuperDracos vector their thrust?

 

I can't wait to get my hands on these. :)

Thanks! No vectoring on the Dracos - just like the real ones. KSP doesn't have differential thrust for steering but SAS gives enough control :wink:

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Svendii, This is beautiful. Love these additions coming, and cannot wait to get my hands on them. I will put my landers on hold until this update :D

 

Btw, K-REX sounds good to me! Has a nice ring to it! 

Edited by Porter_John
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Quote
  • Fuel Tank: Because clipping tanks inside the capsule is not cool. Nicely fits between capsule and heat shield. Also extends the ladder of the mk1-2 capsule.

I feel like the first part of that description is being directed at a certain someone...

>.>

<.<

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1 hour ago, DerpyFirework said:

@svendii, I just pushed an update for my plugin. It doesn't fix anything, but the code is a lot cleaner (and hopefully more reliable) now.

Awesome! Looks cleaner indeed. Does it work for you though? Somehow it doesn't work for me... The fins are moving when stowed and have control forces. Not sure if I've changed anything that would break the plug-in but I don't think so.

1 hour ago, DerpyFirework said:

(If you want RealPlume configs, I'd be happy to do them!)

That would be epic. A first release of the new version is already on Curse if you want to get cracking right away. :wink:

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59 minutes ago, svendii said:

Awesome! Looks cleaner indeed. Does it work for you though? Somehow it doesn't work for me... The fins are moving when stowed and have control forces. Not sure if I've changed anything that would break the plug-in but I don't think so.

Hmm, I'll have a look. I made sure it worked before updating anything, not sure why it isn't working.

EDIT: Very strange, it works fine with the latest one from curse.

59 minutes ago, svendii said:

That would be epic. A first release of the new version is already on Curse if you want to get cracking right away. :wink:

Here it is!

Edited by DerpyFirework
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27 minutes ago, svendii said:

Well that was quick. I've been trying to get two small plumes instead of a big one but that didn't work. Will do some more experimenting but this looks quite cool already :D

All you need is one thrustTransform for each nozzle, and that should do the trick. No extra tweaks necessary.

EDIT: For some reason, the plugin just stopped working for me. Just include the last version for now, it seems I broke something.

EDIT2: Found the issue, it only happens before any staging happens. I'll look into it another day, it's not as if the old version isn't working.

EDIT3: The issue fixes itself on staging, so unless someone launches by action group or some other method than staging, it'll work fine.

Edited by DerpyFirework
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58 minutes ago, DerpyFirework said:

EDIT3: The issue fixes itself on staging, so unless someone launches by action group or some other method than staging, it'll work fine.

Not sure if I understand. I launch my rocket by staging (launch clamps and engines) and it doesn't fix it.

About the plume, added thrustTransformR and thrustTransformL and changed the config:

Spoiler

    PLUME
    {
        name = Hypergolic-Lower
        transformName = thrustTransformL
        localRotation = 0,0,0
        flarePosition = 0,0,0.35
        plumePosition = 0,0,0
        fixedScale = 0.35
        energy = 0.9
        speed = 1
    }

    PLUME
    {
        name = Hypergolic-Lower
        transformName = thrustTransformR
        localRotation = 0,0,0
        flarePosition = 0,0,0.35
        plumePosition = 0,0,0
        fixedScale = 0.35
        energy = 0.9
        speed = 1
    }

That didn't work though, it only shows one plume... ;.;

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3 minutes ago, svendii said:

Not sure if I understand. I launch my rocket by staging (launch clamps and engines) and it doesn't fix it.

About the plume, added thrustTransformR and thrustTransformL and changed the config:

  Hide contents

    PLUME
    {
        name = Hypergolic-Lower
        transformName = thrustTransformL
        localRotation = 0,0,0
        flarePosition = 0,0,0.35
        plumePosition = 0,0,0
        fixedScale = 0.35
        energy = 0.9
        speed = 1
    }

    PLUME
    {
        name = Hypergolic-Lower
        transformName = thrustTransformR
        localRotation = 0,0,0
        flarePosition = 0,0,0.35
        plumePosition = 0,0,0
        fixedScale = 0.35
        energy = 0.9
        speed = 1
    }

That didn't work though, it only shows one plume... ;.;

Ah, just use the old plugin, it was just a bit of an experiment and it seemed to work when I tried it.

As for the plumes, just name both transforms thrustTransform and it should work.

But really, the parts are good enough without any of this.

Edited by DerpyFirework
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30 minutes ago, DerpyFirework said:

As for the plumes, just name both transforms thrustTransform and it should work.

Never thought about just doing that :rolleyes: thanks so much, works beautifully.

aokvdNA.png

32 minutes ago, DerpyFirework said:

Ah, just use the old plugin, it was just a bit of an experiment.

Oh well, but thanks for trying anyway! :wink:

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