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[1.3.1] Ferram Aerospace Research: v0.15.9.1 "Liepmann" 4/2/18


ferram4

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A miracle happened today. A real, honest miracle.

I was testing the plugin at high altitude, high speed flight (after finding the low alt, low speed performance more than satisfactory), and it happened. After topping out at around 400 m/s at 150,000 m, I decided that my design needed refinement. On a whim, I pulled back on the stick abruptly, pulling about 70 degrees AOA.

My plane disintegrated.

Wing boards and delta wings flew off my ship, fuel tanks blew up as they collided in the slipstream, the remnants of the fuselage spinning crazily connected to one, lone delta wing... it was glorious. As I fired the cockpit ejection rockets to disconnect poor Hephram from the deathtrap, my only regret was that my hand had not been poised over F1 at the time.

Thank you very much for this fantastic mod. I hope that the devs see this and base their next lift system on this system.

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My game hung up on loading Standard ctrl surface. Did I install it wrong? (Replaced all current folders with it, thankfully yes I did make a backup)

EDIT: Tried it again, completely crashed my Mac (first time that's ever happened) when I launched KSP. Jesus. Wat do?

Edited by cardgame
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@Cardgame: What plugins are you using? If you're using something beyond Lazor System, MechJeb, or Protractor I haven't tested it out. Try running it on a clean install of 0.17 and see if that works. If it works, try adding plugins until it crashes. If you put up a list of plugins, I'll work on my end to find the error.

@sproginator: Have you gone into the SPH and set the control axis for each of the control surfaces? By default, they don't do anything you don't tell them to do so they don't act at cross purposes during flight. If you're trying to fly a plane you already built, it may have slipped your mind. Although if you try to fly a plane that you already built, it might be unstable due to the change in lift models.

Edited by ferram4
Bad phrasing and probably came off as rude by accident.
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I'm using Kreuzung's electric, PowerTech, cart, Bace, Mechjeb, and MMI.

I removed all of these and it still froze on loading StandardctrlSurface, probably because such a part does not exist. I only have a SmallctrlSurface. This is also true of my backup folder, however, which loads without problem.

[](/ajbaffle)

Edited by cardgame
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Look for a part folder named "Aileron." That's what corresponds to StandardctrlSurface. It might be that you have the part.cfg in there from the mod download, without any of the models that I expected to be there from the stock game (I didn't want to make the download larger than it had to be). Try re-downloading 0.17 or using the patcher since it seems like you're missing a part, which would be the source of the problem.

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It looks to me like the advanced canard doesn't work correctly. I set it to do both pitch and yaw, but when I launch the plane it turns in the opposite direction than it should. When I pitch up they pitch down and vice-versa.

Also is there anyway to figure out the life to weight ratio? I'm having a lot of trouble trying to get my space planes to fly again after installing this. They're all quite heavy.

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Mine can fly, but they're all totally uncontrollable. If anyone has a working craft, could they be so kind to post it as an example?

edit: sort of figured it out, still very unstable for jet aircraft but I've made a neat little electric plane.

Edited by cardgame
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@narcilian: Can you post a copy of the plane with that problem? I don't use the advanced canard as much so I want to see what's going on. I've been working on something to figure out L/W, I just keep getting wrong numbers. When you build a plane, keep in mind that you can't fly with a large angle of attack without them stalling.

@cardgame: Use the CoL and CoM markers in the editor. Try selecting the entire plane and pitching it up and down in-editor to see how things change. The CoL might be moving forward due to something stalling.

Here are some examples for v0.4:

http://www./download.php?9m6yy75d8xanif2

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No problem. I takes a bit of practice, you learn bad habits with the default lift model. ;)

As an update for anyone interested, I've started doing some more work on the supersonic calculations. Currently it does linearized supersonic theory, which technically isn't valid below Mach ~1.5. I've got a version of non-linear supersonic flow working, which should be more interesting, since it allows very bad things to happen at high angles of attack.

I've also set up almost all of the rocket parts with the new drag model and it seems to work quite nicely. Delta-v requirements are down, but since drag was eating too much dV before, I think this is alright. Imagine starting the gravity turn at ~200m rather than 5km. :D

So once those are done I'll probably release a new version. Hopefully I can get some more bugs as well. As always, if you have a bug report, please make it as detailed as possible so I can find the source of the problem quickly. The more detail I get, the faster bugs get fixed (and the faster new updates get released).

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Version 0.4.1 is up. It extends the drag fix to rocket parts (dV requirements reduced by ~250-500 m/s depending on profile) and adds a first pass of nonlinear supersonic flow. I don't think it justified an increase to v0.5, but this seems to work well enough that I didn't want to delay a release because my imagination isn't up to it right now.

For anyone who tries out rocketry with this, keep in mind that drag losses are much lower, so you can pitch over lower in the atmosphere and still reach orbit. Also keep in mind that if you go too fast in the lower atmosphere, you might not have enough thrust vectoring or control surfaces to overcome the tendency of your rocket to point into the wind (too many boosters will make this inevitable). Also, if your rocket starts to tumble too much, it will disintegrate. Just saying. ;)

As always, bug reports are welcome.

@Mariner: I'm considering it, but not at this moment, especially since I'm not too much of a fan of 0.5m parts (I don't tend to use them too often and find they just clutter my parts folder).

Edited by ferram4
added paragraph on rocket ascents
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So do nose cones and whatnot actually do stuff now?

I was just about to request that. Would it be possible for a part to detect if it had a nosecone part in front of it, and lower it's drag accordingly? Actually, would it be possible for a part to check for anything​ in front of it, and alter it's drag accordingly?

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I really appreciate the effort you took to improve the flight physics!

However:

Could you please give us an option to hide the 'control' panel or something? It really gets in the way and doesn't save its position.

Also: Do we need to have that cockpit module (forgot what it was) on the ship to have the new physics take effect? If so, please, please change it!

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Hmm...none of my planes work anymore! e.g. My deltawing struggles to get altitude (CoM now well in front of CoL) and my biplanes shoot straight up (CoM well behind of CoL). I presume the CoL and CoM need to be pretty close now?

What's the consensus amongst plane-builders - does this plug-in bring atmospheric flight to another level?

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