[1.2] Procedural Fairings 3.20 (November 8)

[HoneyFox]

It already does some kind of computation based on the colliders so I don't think that'll be too bad. One thing that would be nice is a shortcut for altering the extra room around the payload. I gather there is a parameter for the tolerance, could we hold down a key and move the mouse to reduce this like alteringa p-wing?

I guess this would be easy to implement, just some handling of user input with same way of how P-Wing acquires the part that is mouse-hovered.

[m1919]

This looks great! Are you planning to expand this concept to interstage fairings? It would be great to be able to create custom breakaway panels like those on the Saturn V S-IVB etc.

[Greenvalv]

OMG, this is brilliant... the OP wins the internets. Now I can get rid of all these fairing parts that barely fit my payloads.

[HoY]

After playing with this for a couple hours today I must say I still like the look of the KW fairings instead, as long as the payload fits in it. This one seems to make the fairing quite a but larger than I had hoped but its still much better than havin no shroud

[Kroden]

This looks great! Are you planning to expand this concept to interstage fairings? It would be great to be able to create custom breakaway panels like those on the Saturn V S-IVB etc.

^^ This

Would really like to see fairings that aren't just nose cones. Especially if I could cover all the ginormous tanks that make up a stage sometimes.

[Zaeo]

Edited:

Interstage Fairings vote +1.

Now...Another interesting thought, Procedural struts within the fairing...Wobbly tops ftl!

Can't wait to see what you do!

Edited July 10, 2013 by Zaeo

[HoY]

You guys are all asking the same exact question. Re-read the OP, he said its a planned feature

On another note, I remember one time I saw the inside of a car door that had been made with recycled metal, and there was what appeared to be the remnants of a coke can logo kinda stretched across the paneling. It still doesn't make sense to me to this day, as the door was made of steel not aluminum, however after looking closely at the fairing and seeing its made from recycled materials I think it would be a little funny if it could randomly have some left over bits of what the metal used to be before it was repurposed.

Edited July 10, 2013 by HoY

[taniwha]

HoY: while modern cans are generally aluminum, they were mostly steel up until about the mid 80s.

[HoY]

That would explain it, this was back around 90 or 91, and still sticks out in my memory lol

[KhaosCorp]

Got a 120ton 'satellite' you need to launch?!?

NO PROBLEM!!

We got a fairing for that now!

Love this mod

[Hawkstorm]

@e-dog

Okie so when can we expect procedural fuel tanks where you can select the fuel and it increases the bigger the tank??? heh

Slap in some de-couplers and basically everyone can go home. ROFL

Everyone would basically be able to construct their rockets with very few parts indeed if you expand the concept, as well as getting shut of wobbly rockets for good.

You may not know it but you've probably come up with a way to eliminate many of this games problems, I predict you might be a next Dev candidate.

But seriously if you can get fuel tanks, interstage stuff working like this and make it so people can paint their parts your a god, because you've come up with the best way to create and build parts and designs in game no joke.

The dev team should be taking a very active interest in this concept if they have any brains, because if their smart they would see your basically creating the next generation of the editor and how the user designs their rockets, that's both very powerful and easy to use for the user and saves massive amount of system resources, not to mention getting rid of the rubber rocket problem.

Seriously no small thing your doin here.

Just think a little bigger and widen your concept.

Edited July 10, 2013 by Hawkstorm

[el_coyoto]

Wow, can't wait to get home and try this.

Fantastic idea e-dog, this is EXACTLY the fairing mod I was waiting for.

You are a genius!

[daithiocoinnigh]

I get the idea. It would need another part (a thin ring or something) to set the upper limit for the fairings.

First off this is a great mod, thank you for your hard work.

If you wanted to do the above could you use the same parts, by reversing the parts? Like this...

[MK3424]

First off this is a great mod, thank you for your hard work.

If you wanted to do the above could you use the same parts, by reversing the parts? Like this...

Meh, a small ring will suffice.

[Milkshakefiend]

Just tried this on the launch of the last section of my Mun space station. Worked flawlessly. I have now decided that EVERYTHING needs to be faired. You, sir, can have all my beans.

[Guest]

There seems to be a bit too much rotational force exerted on separation, particularly on long fairings. I had a backup antenna get smashed off last night because of this. Not sure what needs to be done to remedy the behaviour, but I thought you'd like to know about it.

[Zaran]

Since the 1.1 update I have had more "Sudden Unexpected Explosions" due to the fairings separating and then spinning into the payload than in the 1.0 release, seems odd but I cannot 100% replicate the failures they just happen, then after a flight restart sometimes work fine other times just blow up again.

Update/Edit:

So I put my part tester hat on and got to work figuring out how to prevent the fairings from blowing up my payloads. I started fiddeling with the config files and came up with some good numbers that have netted 10 perfect missions in a row. In the config files you can change the ejectionDv and ejectionNoseDv values. The ejectionDv value seems to push away while the nose value seems to create roll in the part so using these settings gave me some clearance before the part span around and hit the payload:

  
ejectionDv = 25
ejectionNoseDv = 15

I didn't test these with a non "standard" shaped payload (I used a space station core as my test payload) so you may want to play around yourself with the values to see what works for you.

Edited July 10, 2013 by Zaran

[e-dog]

There seems to be a bit too much rotational force exerted on separation, particularly on long fairings. I had a backup antenna get smashed off last night because of this. Not sure what needs to be done to remedy the behaviour, but I thought you'd like to know about it.

Since the 1.1 update I have had more "Sudden Unexpected Explosions" due to the fairings separating and then spinning into the payload than in the 1.0 release, seems odd but I cannot 100% replicate the failures they just happen, then after a flight restart sometimes work fine other times just blow up again.

Update/Edit:

So I put my part tester hat on and got to work figuring out how to prevent the fairings from blowing up my payloads. I started fiddeling with the config files and came up with some good numbers that have netted 10 perfect missions in a row. In the config files you can change the ejectionDv and ejectionNoseDv values. The ejectionDv value seems to push away while the nose value seems to create roll in the part so using these settings gave me some clearance before the part span around and hit the payload:

  
ejectionDv = 25
ejectionNoseDv = 15

I didn't test these with a non "standard" shaped payload (I used a space station core as my test payload) so you may want to play around yourself with the values to see what works for you.

I'm going to dump "ejectionNoseDv" in the next version and replace it with ejection torque, so that all parts (regardless of the length) will have the same rotation. Increasing "ejectionDv" might help to avoid collisions too, even if it's somewhat violent.

There's also an idea of disabling jettisoned fairing colliders for a few seconds that will likely eliminate all collision accidents, but it feels like cheating

[e-dog]

Also note that side fairings allow surface-attaching at the cylindrical middle section, so you can add sepatrons or whatever to help with moving them away.

[Steambirds]

How do I get this to work? I have had a lot of trouble downloading this, if anybody could post some images helping me that'd be great!

[sidfu]

imo when they separate should go more staight outward than spinning. problem with way it is now if u dont eject them when u first get to orbit alt u run the risk of when u seprate them they will fly forward hitting your payload.

[Guest]

Also note that side fairings allow surface-attaching at the cylindrical middle section, so you can add sepatrons or whatever to help with moving them away.

I did not realise this! I'll be sure to experiment with it tonight. Thank you for the hint!

[whatisthisidonteven]

Oh boy

If you put two fairing bases, one upside down on top of something and another one the right way up underneath something, when you put the fairing sides on both of them the fairings grow rapidly until the game crashes. If you hit launch before it crashes then you can get some massive fairings

[Steambirds]

I'm not sure if anybody read my post, but I'd like some images explaining how to install this.

[xomm]

Installed with KSPMM, but I'm not seeing the parts in the Aerodynamics drawer. Looked in the ZIP and I'm not seeing a Parts folder either. I just downloaded it via SpacePort. Am I missing something?