KSP Interstellar Extended Continued Development Thread

[FreeThinker]

Next release: Improved radiator realism

Notice the temperature of the graphite radiator is limited to 1200 K

Notice the both radiator have the same temperature

[FreeThinker]

A new beta KSPI -E 1.13.2  is ready and can be downloaded from here

Changelog

* Added Graphene radiator maximum temperature is now limited in atmospheres rather than surface area

* Added active Temperature between graphene and titanium radiators are the same while within upper temperature limit

* Balance: MHD capability is limited to Open Cycle Gas Core Reactor

* Balance Confinement Fusion Reactor core temperatures increased, Tokamak twice of Stellarator

* Balance Reduced Tokamak Q factor by 33%

* Balance: Allow Mou8nted ArcetRCS to me scaled up larger

* Balance: Made Plasma nozzle available earlier, with plasma propulsion

* Fixed balance for charged particle fusion modes

* Fixed balance radiators at low waste heat ratios

Edited May 8, 2017 by FreeThinker

[iontom]

I'm got this issue with every time I load a ship from the tracking station, all my radiators explode. Not just some, but all of them. I'll have to find a way to unit test later this week with other mods - but since all the radiators are from this one I thought I'd just bring it up and see if anybody else has encountered this. 

Also, something seems to have happened to the magnetic nozzle in 1.13.3, it doesn't apply any force anymore, in warp mode or otherwise. Did you ever bump up the ISP on that or are there preset limits on that?

Edited May 9, 2017 by iontom

[raxo2222]

I have suggestion: What about exosphere thrust mode for engines, that can use compressed air?

Basically it would cause variable ISP engines to change their throttle limiter to balance usage of air, so amount of compressed air is same during flight.

This way thrust/isp would be automatically optimized for atmosphere flow changing depending on altitude.

 

Edit: compressed air buffer in refrigator is too tiny.

Heres test craft:

http://www71.zippyshare.com/v/3z3Ti9B6/file.html

 

Edited May 9, 2017 by raxo2222

[Maelstrom Vortex]

13.3 seems to be causing crashes with the nuclear candle rockets, the small ones not the LV-N style nuclear rockets. The probe sized parts.

Had it happen to me twice so far streaming on twitch in Dragons in Space Episode 20.

Suspect possible malicious code may have uploaded on ckan's 1.13.3 version. When trying to destroy the probe that was put on the pad from the tracking station, it shows it as in a very far displaced orbit and triggers an extremely high pitched pulsing audio siren that sounds almost like pacman.

Caught it all on tape on twitch, 2 hours 15 minutes into the program roughly is when the siren shows up. Still trying to work out the error.

Cleansed the save, made a back up, repeated the issue. Same thing happened. Funds were 0'd out and made NAN when craft was launched with candle engines and game crashed.

Edited May 9, 2017 by Maelstrom Vortex

[FreeThinker]

Version 1.13.4 for Kerbal Space Program 1.2.2

Released on 2017-05-09

• Fix for exploding radiators and engine with build in radiators
• Fix for VISTA fuel mode switching

Edited May 9, 2017 by FreeThinker

[Maelstrom Vortex]

The sound hasn't repeated thankfully, I think it may have been caused by what ever triggered the crash in the save. I have ruled out the Candle as a soul cause. It appears to be a 3 symmetry / stock fairing payload bay interaction that may be causing the problem.

Update: Extremely high confidence problem is interaction between 3 symmetry engine mount payloads and stock fairings.

Edited May 9, 2017 by Maelstrom Vortex

[Maelstrom Vortex]

Confirmed the candles are okay. They're just long enough that if you mount it in the first payload rack mount above the fairing that they will clip through the fairing and cause a collision which doesn't cause the parts to explode or fly off as it should, but fully crashes the game. If you move it up to the second mount in the fairing column, they work fine. Conclusion, 3 colliders clipping a plane causes significant damage and the candles are just long enough to do that on the lowest part of a fairing column for a rocket. All parts confirmed good, it's a physics problem and a game handling the collision problem not a part or mod problem.

[FreeThinker]

2 hours ago, Maelstrom Vortex said:

Confirmed the candles are okay. They're just long enough that if you mount it in the first payload rack mount above the fairing that they will clip through the fairing and cause a collision which doesn't cause the parts to explode or fly off as it should, but fully crashes the game. If you move it up to the second mount in the fairing column, they work fine. Conclusion, 3 colliders clipping a plane causes significant damage and the candles are just long enough to do that on the lowest part of a fairing column for a rocket. All parts confirmed good, it's a physics problem and a game handling the collision problem not a part or mod problem.

 

 

I don't understand. Could you demonstrate with some pictures

Edited May 9, 2017 by FreeThinker

[FreeThinker]

Dammit, last patch was creating divide by zerro errors. fixing now

Edited May 9, 2017 by FreeThinker

[FreeThinker]

Version 1.13.5 for Kerbal Space Program 1.2.2 which can be downloaded from here

Released on 2017-05-09

• Fixed a divide by 0 error which would cause any new vessel with 0 wasteheat to crash the game

Edited May 9, 2017 by FreeThinker

[FreeThinker]

Alright, now that this is handled, I'm going to update some documentation. I removed all the double content and reserve this tрread only for current and future development. I will no longer answer any support questions here. 

12 hours ago, raxo2222 said:

Edit: compressed air buffer in refrigerator is too tiny.

Why is it too small?

12 hours ago, raxo2222 said:

I have suggestion: What about exosphere thrust mode for engines, that can use compressed air?

Well I guess I could allow thermal engine to run on  compressed air as an advanced fuel mode, you can technically partially already do it if you put the compressor in reverse, it would just function like a buffer, allowing you to fly out of the atmosphere using compressed air

Edited May 9, 2017 by FreeThinker

[iontom]

Wow! You're really knocking it out of the park today! Thanks for solving that radiator problem. Will test tonight.

[raxo2222]

1 hour ago, FreeThinker said:

Alright, now that this is handled, I'm going to update some documentation. I removed all the double content and reselve this tread only for current and future develoment. I will no longer answer any support questions here. 

Why is it too small?

Well I guess I could allow thermal engine to run on  compressed air as an advanced fuel mode, you can technically partially already do it if you put the compressor in reverse, it would just function like a buffer, allowing you to fly out of the atmosphere using compressed air

Electric engines are easily too starved. I posted link to test craft >.>

Still needed to use standard gas tank as air container.

 

Also second suggestion is for electric engines to throttle down if they have variable ISP as you ascend atmosphere and you ran out of compressed air.

Edited May 9, 2017 by raxo2222

[FreeThinker]

11 hours ago, raxo2222 said:

Electric engines are easily too starved. I posted link to test craft >.>

Still needed to use standard gas tank as air container.

 

Also second suggestion is for electric engines to throttle down if they have variable ISP as you ascend atmosphere and you ran out of compressed air.

Well do note that I the amount of output from compressor is going to decrease because I now realize (using this calculator) it take at least 20 Kw = 20 Ec, (instead of 1 Ec) to compress 1 Atm gas to 200 Atm CompressedAir .

 

Edited May 10, 2017 by FreeThinker

[iontom]

So I was thinking about modding your magnetic nozzle when it's attached to the beam core reactor. According to Atomic Rockets the Isp is supposed to be 10,193,680 s but you currently have it as 100,000 s  (source)

Can you just update the part config file? Or is there a more involved process because of tweakscale or knowing what it's attached to? Also - is there a maximum ISP limited by the game itself?

https://github.com/sswelm/KSP-Interstellar-Extended/blob/master/GameData/WarpPlugin/Parts/Engines/MagneticNozzle3/MagneticNozzle3.cfg

atmosphereCurve
	{
	key = 0 100000
	key = 0.99 0
	key = 1 0
	}

 

Edited May 9, 2017 by iontom

[FreeThinker]

7 hours ago, iontom said:

So I was thinking about modding your magnetic nozzle when it's attached to the beam core reactor. According to Atomic Rockets the Isp is supposed to be 10,193,680 s but you currently have it as 100,000 s  (source)

Can you just update the part config file? Or is there a more involved process because of tweakscale or knowing what it's attached to? Also - is there a maximum ISP limited by the game itself?

https://github.com/sswelm/KSP-Interstellar-Extended/blob/master/GameData/WarpPlugin/Parts/Engines/MagneticNozzle3/MagneticNozzle3.cfg

atmosphereCurve
	{
	key = 0 100000
	key = 0.99 0
	key = 1 0
	}

 

It's calculated differently, and those numbers are not correct and only used in the VAB and tools like mechjeb to get a hint of its Isp.. I added a point to my to do list which is now visible on the Dev OP (first page)

Edited May 10, 2017 by FreeThinker

[raxo2222]

17 hours ago, FreeThinker said:

Well do note that I the amount of output from compressor is going to decrease because I now realize (using this calculator) it take at least 20 Kw = 20 Ec, (instead of 1 Ec) to compress 1 Atm gas to 200 Atm CompressedAir .

 

I guess you could make refrigator use 20x more electricity

We already have superconducting wires, that can conduct GWs power with ease from generator to electric engine

This doesn't change fact, that still I need external air buffer.

[FreeThinker]

1 hour ago, raxo2222 said:

I guess you could make refrigator use 20x more electricity

We already have superconducting wires, that can conduct GWs power with ease from generator to electric engine

This doesn't change fact, that still I need external air buffer.

 

 

I agree the buffer should at least have enough capacity to allow the part to function at maxumum capacity. I have some idea to make the cost variable depending on the % remaining room, meaning it start with minimum cost and the higher the pressure, the more energy is required to fill it up

Edited May 10, 2017 by FreeThinker

[raxo2222]

3 hours ago, FreeThinker said:

I agree the buffer should at least have enough capacity to allow the part to function at maxumum effieincy. I have some idea to make the cost variable depending on the % remaining room, meaning it start with minimum cost and the higher the pressure, the more energy is required to fill it up

Buffer for compressed air in refrigator can be easily 1000x bigger.

Smallest air tank can hold 200 000 units of compressed air. that is 256.6 kg of weight.

Same diameter (1.25m) refrigator can hold 37.5 units of compressed air. That is 48 GRAMS of air. Probably there is more air in whole refrigator....

This means without external buffer electric engines are easily starved if using lets say arcjet RCS along with it and with buffer you can use it indefinitely and continuusly as long you are collecting sufficient amount of compressed air.

-------------------------------------------------

 

My bird is pretty fly.

How I can further improve its perfomance?

Its uses atmpsphere for deep atmpsphere flight, compressed air once above 20 km mark and cesium when ascending to orbit (WAKEFIELD engine has too low thrust to overcome drag and avoid burning).

-------------------------------------------------

On unrelated note: Is overheat efficiency of electrical engines tied directly to radiator temperature now?

Edit: ARCJET engines are badass electric engines yet again: almost 2 MN of thrust, while WAKEFIELD produced 1.3 MN at best and 700 kN of thrust when reaching thermal balance.

Since ARCJET has ISP of around 750 - 800 for compressed air it needs 2 2m radius air intakes and refrigators to feed itself with air at 14 GW of power, that reactors can provide.

 

 

Edited May 10, 2017 by raxo2222

[TheOrqwithVagrant]

On 4/15/2017 at 10:25 PM, DGerry said:

I haven't looked into it much yet but it appears that KSPI ISRU "background" processing may be bugged -  It seems like it's using up the materials without producing anything?  After ~50days, my processor has used up about 100,000 Hydrates but essentially has zero CO2 in storage.  Near as I can tell it didn't make any water either but the processing going on with MKS may be affecting that.  I'll look into it some more soon and see if I can get anything specific.

I'm not sure this is a 'generic' error, but there's definitely something off with CO2 production from Hydrate processing. My methane plant on Minmus is currently basically useless due to this, currently. According to resource info Hydrates are supposed to produce %25 water, %5 CO2 - after processing enough Hydrates to fill my 8000L water tanks, I had produced less than 2L of LqdCO2...

Looking at Extractor.cfg, I notice CarbonDioxide, unlike Water, has 'DumpExcess' == True. I've noticed in some situations, resources don't 'make it' to tanks - I have a Moho base that thinks water storage is full and refuses to process more hydrates unless I manually transfer water from the 'buffers' to the storage tanks. Perhaps something similar is happening to CO2 - it's not 'making it' to the available tanks, and gets 'vented' even though there's available storage somewhere on the base?

[danielboro]

i have updated to the new version using ckan

after the update my tourist tug (that uses 4x Solid Core Nuclear Engine) EC production dropped to 0

is this a bug fixed or introduced?

[FreeThinker]

13 hours ago, TheOrqwithVagrant said:

Looking at Extractor.cfg, I notice CarbonDioxide, unlike Water, has 'DumpExcess' == True. I've noticed in some situations, resources don't 'make it' to tanks - I have a Moho base that thinks water storage is full and refuses to process more hydrates unless I manually transfer water from the 'buffers' to the storage tanks. Perhaps something similar is happening to CO2 - it's not 'making it' to the available tanks, and gets 'vented' even though there's available storage somewhere on the base?

 

 

 

 

You might try the following fix:

		OUTPUT_RESOURCE
		{
			ResourceName = CarbonDioxide
			Ratio = 0.05
			DumpExcess = True
			FlowMode = STAGE_PRIORITY_FLOW
		}

and if that doesn't work replace STAGE_PRIORITY_FLOW by ALL_VESSEL

Edited May 11, 2017 by FreeThinker

[FreeThinker]

9 hours ago, danielboro said:

i have updated to the new version using ckan

after the update my tourist tug (that uses 4x Solid Core Nuclear Engine) EC production dropped to 0

is this a bug fixed or introduced?

 

 

Yes something changed, the build in alternator was replaced by a build in thermal electric generator. Does it work in the vessels?

Edited May 11, 2017 by FreeThinker

[Nompeng2]

I have same issue, no EC production for CANDLE and Solid Core Nuclear Engine.
I looked in cfg files, and found

upgradeTechReq = Thermal Electric Generator Mk2

I think it is weird, but don't know whether it is the reason. I tried to fix it, imitating other generator part working correctly, but didn't work.
And another question, the original alternatorPowerKW was 10 for CANDLE, and the replaced generator would produce much less EC. Maybe 0.04 to 0.08? Is it intended?