Drag racing idea

[Azimech]

Something I've been working on and here's the first result. This is a stock contraption. For a race, vehicles need one mod: mechjeb. The rover autopilot keeps it driving in the right direction. I'll upload the craft file later after some more testing. And I'll make a video at some point.

I haven't implemented anything else yet. Ideas?

How it works: I decouple both vehicles and let them roll to the moveable ramp. Set rover pilot to 090. Full throttle on both. Then I press AG 9 for the yellow lights. When I press AG 8 the lights switch to green and the ramp lowers.

Anyway, here are some pictures of my own stock race.

Welcome ladies and gentlemen for the first official real time duel drag race in KSP!                                            _{(I think)}

On this beautiful and shiny day we have the first two warriors. On the left is the famous Dodge Charger R/T from 1969. On the right the Dodge Challenger R/T 1971. They're roughly equal in mass and both have 4 Hemi Juno engines.

There's the green light! They're off!

The Challenger is taking the lead!

People this is crazy! What a race! The reporter next to me has fainted out of excitement!

Look at that! The Charger has decided it's his turn!

There he goes! Goodbye Challenger!

As always, a Charger is hard to beat!

A tiny dot in the mirror! The Challenger is going to need a jumbo sized box of Kleenex!

Hey come on, it's a general, not an admiral!

The Challenger wanted to see if it could become a Barracuda ... it's gotta learn how to reach the water first!

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

Hey, that's brilliant, although would it be anything else coming from 77Industries     With all the racing  going on right now I was thinking along the same lines too. Are you thinking  of a hosted type king of the hill challenge? With the races being run and set up by one person, with a video record perhaps, a good op for people with camera tools skills I'd think.  How would the timing be worked,? would it be first across the line?  or on  mission clock record, what i mean by this is  perhaps have some object that each vehicle would collide with at the end of the run and thereby show a destruction event in the F3 view,  this would probably remove some of the inevitable photo finishes that would arise

Although my stock Foo is spectacularly poor I'd be up for a shot . I'll take it as read coming from the King of stock builds that it would and will be a stock only event,  which is just as it should be

[Azimech]

1 minute ago, SpannerMonkey(smce) said:

Hey, that's brilliant, although would it be anything else coming from 77Industries     With all the racing  going on right now I was thinking along the same lines too. Are you thinking  of a hosted type king of the hill challenge? With the races being run and set up by one person, with a video record perhaps, a good op for people with camera tools skills I'd think.  How would the timing be worked,? would it be first across the line?  or on  mission clock record, what i mean by this is  perhaps have some object that each vehicle would collide with at the end of the run and thereby show a destruction event in the F3 view,  this would probably remove some of the inevitable photo finishes that would arise

Although my stock Foo is spectacularly poor I'd be up for a shot . I'll take it as read coming from the King of stock builds that it would and will be a stock only event,  which is just as it should be

Right now I'm installing signs and lines at 1/8, 1/4 and 1/2 mile, easy to aim camera on. With physics delta-t set to 0.02 it's easy to hammer on F1 and make a lot of screens for a perfect photo finish :-)

A real timer would be awesome but I'm not sure how that would be possible. Maybe a big wall isn't such a bad idea ;-)

[Azimech]

Due to lots of images the next story can be found in the spoiler.

 

Spoiler

Our next race is between the Charger R/D (Road/Dirt) and the Star Racer YKR. That YKR looks fast! It's going to beat that Charger for sure! What do you think, Ralph?

Well Giles ... I don't know about this one. The YKR is built for high speed that's for sure but it's only got 6 Juno's. The R/D has 8 of them. Maybe at the 1/2 mile but I'm betting the Charger is going to win the 1/8 and 1/4.

 

They're ready to go! Yellow lights! Are you going to faint again, Ralph?

Well Giles ... I've done some yoga so I think I'll be okay.

They're off! Amazing! The Charger is taking the lead in the first few yards!

Well Giles ... I told you so.

Past the 1/8 line, the YKR is nowhere to be seen!

And that was the 1/4 line! Amazing!

Ohw no! The Charger crashed into the 1/2 sign! You see Valentina ... or what's left of her, flung out the back of the car!

Well Giles ... what kind of idiot places markers in the middle.

Ralph, they're supposed to drive in a straight line. Blame mechjeb. Drivers need to set the autopilot to 90.5 or 91 degrees.

Yep, that little dust cloud ... that was Valentina. Looks like the YKR was already gaining on the R/D when the accident happened. Let's try again.

Well Giles, I think that would be interesting.

 

Wow! What a start! Again the R/D takes the lead with ease!

The R/D wins the 1/8, 1/4 and 1/2 in both runs. But hey look at that YKR! It's zooming past with incredible speed!

Well Giles, I wasn't totally right because I expected the YKR the win the 1/2. But this is impressive!

You don't have to do that all the time, Ralph. Hey, look where they're going!

Well Giles ... this isn't looking good.

The YKR just smashed itself to bits beyond the end of the runway! What a disaster! And the R/D is heading straight for the runway light!

Well Giles ... seems like we'll have another two funerals in a second.

Thank you captain obvious. And stop doing that.

Let's have a moment of silence.

It's amazing ladies and gentlemen! Steve Kerman survived the impact! We have reports from the sea that the wreck of the YKR is found. No-one could have survived what happened. His name was Utger Kerman.

Well Giles ... miracles do exist.

Well Ralph ... seems I'm going to have a different co-host for the next race.

What do you mean Giles?

You're fired.

 

 

 

Edited January 6, 2017 by Azimech

[DarkOwl57]

Haha I love this!

[Triop]

6 hours ago, Azimech said:

Right now I'm installing signs and lines at 1/8, 1/4 and 1/2 mile, easy to aim camera on. With physics delta-t set to 0.02 it's easy to hammer on F1 and make a lot of screens for a perfect photo finish :-)

A real timer would be awesome but I'm not sure how that would be possible. Maybe a big wall isn't such a bad idea ;-)

I keep telling people that the small and easy to use Races! mod is ideal for timing, but nooooooooo, most all run away..

I'm in btw, I love the idea.

[Azimech]

6 hours ago, SpannerMonkey(smce) said:

Hey, that's brilliant, although would it be anything else coming from 77Industries     With all the racing  going on right now I was thinking along the same lines too. Are you thinking  of a hosted type king of the hill challenge? With the races being run and set up by one person, with a video record perhaps, a good op for people with camera tools skills I'd think.  How would the timing be worked,? would it be first across the line?  or on  mission clock record, what i mean by this is  perhaps have some object that each vehicle would collide with at the end of the run and thereby show a destruction event in the F3 view,  this would probably remove some of the inevitable photo finishes that would arise

Although my stock Foo is spectacularly poor I'd be up for a shot . I'll take it as read coming from the King of stock builds that it would and will be a stock only event,  which is just as it should be

You know what, I'll release a mod within a few weeks with modified configs for the stock wheels. This way people can build their own dragsters with hefty power. But ... this power comes at a price. The wheels will work on a custom resource and you need to build "some kind of an engine" (I need to think how I'm going to do it) to give you that resource. And this engine will develop a lot of heat. Plus it will consume a lot of fuel.

But since I have a lot of experience with ModuleEnginesFX and ModuleResourceConverter, this shouldn't be a problem.

[DarkOwl57]

1 minute ago, Azimech said:

You know what, I'll release a mod within a few weeks with modified configs for the stock wheels. This way people can build their own dragsters with hefty power. But ... this power comes at a price. The wheels will work on a custom resource and you need to build "some kind of an engine" (I need to think how I'm going to do it) to give you that resource. And this engine will develop a lot of heat. Plus it will consume a lot of fuel.

But since I have a lot of experience with ModuleEnginesFX and ModuleResourceConverter, this shouldn't be a problem.

If I make a dragster it's going to be a cockpit, a fuel tank, a long tail thing for a nose, an engine (Probably like a dart or rapier), landing gear, and an almighty wing at the back. That's a dragster

[Azimech]

2 minutes ago, Triop said:

I keep telling people that the small and easy to use Races! mod is ideal for timing, but nooooooooo, most all run away..

I'm in btw, I love the idea.

 

I'll take another look ... screenshots won't do it with drag racing. I wonder though ... is the mod capable of recording the time of two cars?

[DarkOwl57]

4 minutes ago, Triop said:

I keep telling people that the small and easy to use Races! mod is ideal for timing, but nooooooooo, most all run away..

I'm in btw, I love the idea.

Well it isn't that I don't like it; It's just that I've pumped my 4-year-old computer full of so much stuff, it's a miracle it doesn't blow up when I sign in...

[Azimech]

2 minutes ago, DarkOwl57 said:

If I make a dragster it's going to be a cockpit, a fuel tank, a long tail thing for a nose, an engine (Probably like a dart or rapier), landing gear, and an almighty wing at the back. That's a dragster

Yes, naturally a jet or rocket class should be included. But if someone wants power from the wheels, electric is not the way to go. I mean stock electric.

Edited January 6, 2017 by Azimech

[DarkOwl57]

That's why I'm using the landing gear  

Something similar to this,

 

[Triop]

35 minutes ago, Azimech said:

 is the mod capable of recording the time of two cars?

No (or at least, not at the same time). good point, but you can put 2 gates side by side.

 

34 minutes ago, DarkOwl57 said:

Well it isn't that I don't like it; It's just that I've pumped my 4-year-old computer full of so much stuff, it's a miracle it doesn't blow up when I sign in...

Owwwww c'mon, just 1 more mod....

Edited January 6, 2017 by Triop

[DarkOwl57]

2 minutes ago, Triop said:

HAHAHA That's basically my computer XD

[Azimech]

Drag race launcher is online!

 

[Triop]

On 6-1-2017 at 8:06 AM, Azimech said:

 

Needs a drag chute.

Still busy with buggys, but I can't wait to build a dragster !

[Azimech]

@SpannerMonkey(smce) After writing configs for a few hours, I think I have something.

 

 

 

 

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

1 minute ago, Azimech said:

After writing configs for a few hours, I think I have something.

Thats outstandingly cool, and exactly what my mind poisoned by early 70's US drag racing magazines sees when i think of a drag race, rails and funny cars.

The exhaust is epic, but that goes without saying, looking forward to having a play with your new toys

 

[Azimech]

Somehow drag racing has a very high KSP feel.

I'll tell you, with my mod it won't be easy to get a good result as well ;-)

 

[Azimech]

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

1 hour ago, Azimech said:

Somehow drag racing has a very high KSP feel.

I'll tell you, with my mod it won't be easy to get a good result as well ;-)

Theres some wild rides in that video,  don't fancy the blown and burning funny car experience much.

Maybe with such an enforced leveler it will quiet those who seem to constantly moan about hax cheats and krakenesque behavior,  removing everything from the competitor apart from build and set up.

Set up I reckon will be the decider, and i suspect that the set up for a straight line race is a little different than that for an endurance type event.  Any chance of a sneak peak at your proposed curves etc? Did you go for a unique resource as power provider?

[Azimech]

2 minutes ago, SpannerMonkey(smce) said:

Theres some wild rides in that video,  don't fancy the blown and burning funny car experience much.

Maybe with such an enforced leveler it will quiet those who seem to constantly moan about hax cheats and krakenesque behavior,  removing everything from the competitor apart from build and set up.

Set up I reckon will be the decider, and i suspect that the set up for a straight line race is a little different than that for an endurance type event.  Any chance of a sneak peak at your proposed curves etc? Did you go for a unique resource as power provider?

Yep, look at the resource window. Typical race would take less than 10 seconds.

Power conversion looks at follows:

Supercharger: IntakeAir + Torque = CompressedAir -> Cylinder: Nitromethane + CompressedAir = Torque + ExhaustGas (and a lot of heat) -> ExhaustStack/Wheels.

I'm still busy with balancing, might take a while until I'm satisfied. I'm not calculating anything so it takes time. 

[life_on_venus]

Would Turboshaft powered cars be eligible for something like this?

All of my old designs may not work because I just reinstalled CKAN and changed some mods around, but thinking if I can whip up a tuboshaft powered car then I'd imagine it would be pretty easy for others to do as well. Plus then we would have things like engine bearing failures and all that good stuff! I would of course use landing gear as my front wheels to provide precise steering control.

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

7 minutes ago, life_on_venus said:

if I can whip up a tuboshaft powered car then I'd imagine it would be pretty easy for others to do as well

I've a feeling those that can do exactly that are in the minority,   yes almost anyone can build one but the setting up and fine details in order to get it to perform are things that only come with experience and time, and elude most people completely.  I can't think of a more restrictive spec for a challenge and reduces the number of potential competitors from dozens to a handful .

38 minutes ago, Azimech said:

Supercharger: IntakeAir + Torque = CompressedAir -> Cylinder: Nitromethane + CompressedAir = Torque + ExhaustGas (and a lot of heat) -> ExhaustStack/Wheels.

I'm still busy with balancing, might take a while until I'm satisfied. I'm not calculating anything so it takes time. 

So top fuel it is  then, I love the smell of Nitro on a winters morning,  he says reaching to snort from a bottle of 30% glow fuel

I actually like the development by how it feels rather than a soulless spread sheet based on constants that have no place in a Kerbal universe, but that's just me , and i bet the mathematicians out there are recoiling in horror

 

 

[Azimech]

2 minutes ago, SpannerMonkey(smce) said:

I've a feeling those that can do exactly that are in the minority,   yes almost anyone can build one but the setting up and fine details in order to get it to perform are things that only come with experience and time, and elude most people completely.  I can't think of a more restrictive spec for a challenge and reduces the number of potential competitors from dozens to a handful .

So top fuel it is  then, I love the smell of Nitro on a winters morning,  he says reaching to snort from a bottle of 30% glow fuel

I actually like the development by how it feels rather than a soulless spread sheet based on constants that have no place in a Kerbal universe, but that's just me , and i bet the mathematicians out there are recoiling in horror

 

 

 

I agree ... There is nothing wrong with calculating stuff but if one goes that direction, I can imagine the little monster that's whispering "perfection" sitting on the shoulder.

I have to visualize stuff because I left school early. I can't use algebra but I can "feel" physics so to speak. Didn't prevent me from making mods, inventing stuff and keeping the stock turboprop speed record.