Hattivat

Very nice textures, lemme give you a bump

I replied in the other thread. I agree there need to be more tutorials, and I've been thinking of producing some (albeit not for RP-0, those should be made by people who have more experience with it than I do), but I'm afraid at least in the short run other things are higher priority.

The trick for sounding rockets is that the faster they go, the stabler they are. For that reason you want to have a "kick stage" with high TWR (probably solid-fueled) as your first stage to get it going. Fins do help, but only once you have some speed. Also, don't make them too large. Basically you want to construct something like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAC_Corporal or this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerobee (notice both of them have solid boosters as first stages) ^That is, BTW, the cool thing about RO - that you can simply google a real-life solution to your problem and apply that, instead of learning silly game-specific concepts like "asparagus staging". Another suggestion for the future, since many people seem not to realize this at first - you can rotate the rocket as a whole and then attach it to a launch clamp to fire it at some different biome (like this, but more vertical: http://media.militaryphotos.net/photos/albums/album291/abf.sized.jpg ) And yes, RO does have a pretty steep learning curve, but it does get easier once you get used to everything. Once you get used to real-life engineering problems (like not having the ability to throttle or not having magically strong reaction wheels) it becomes easier to play RO than it is to play RSS with stock-scale parts, for the very simple reason that real-life engines have far better performance than stock ones. For me constructing a rocket to launch a satellite into a geostationary orbit is already completely routine. What never gets easy is landing on Mars, but then so is the case in real life

It should be the same, 35 786 km above the surface. The source of your confusion could be that you have "display Kerbin time" (6hr days) enabled instead of "display Earth time". It's in the stock KSP settings, many people forget to change that setting.

Are you using RP-0? If not, you should, stock career is unsupported. If yes, then the answer is sounding rockets - forget about orbits, just get it high up, take measurements and transmit them.

I'm glad it helped. MJ calculates the delta-v correctly, and I'd assume so does KER. They are calculating how much fuel you will have left in your "core" stage after booster separation, and display that as a "second" stage, so yes, you add them together. Also, as Felger said, you need a little more delta-v to make it to orbit. I'd say 9300 m/s is reasonable minimum, but this being your first attempt, I'd recommend getting 9500 m/s to account for possible mistakes.

Just checked, I can confirm it also happens to me even with 8k textures.

Venus - oh man, I don't know, perhaps the inside of some very rusty pressure cooker? It's seriously a tough one, your best bet is probably some volcanic landscape, but of the darker hue (e.g. http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/212/2/f/volcanic_landscape_04_by_fuguestock-d4287n4.jpg ) plus a colour filter and/or atmosphere shader in a sickening shade of yellow, as illustrated here http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/slidesets/venus/images/03.gif You could also try some rocky, dark-coloured desert with a colour filter/atmo shader. Titan - some desert with mountains and lots of medium-sized rocks (Atacama? the less-photogenic parts of Sahara?), plus a colour filter and/or atmospheric shader (the latter obviously preferable if at all possible). The only picture we have from the surface shows stones strewn across what is supposedly very fine and soft sand. Edit: Supposedly there are actual full-size sand dunes on large parts of Titan, so we have a better example - deserts of Namibia: http://phys.org/news/2014-12-explanation-titan-dune-puzzle.html http://www.phototravels.net/namibia/ndv2/namib-desert-air-v-19.3.jpg

Mars - Atacama desert: http://www.hdwallpapersinn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/atacama_desert_in_bolivia..jpg Plus pretty much any desert-like environment in the Arctic, like the Devon Island: http://www.marsonearth.org/images/2006/HMP-2006.Aerial.HMPRS.large.jpg Possibly also immediate surroundings of volcanoes in places like Hawaii or Indonesia, e.g.: http://www.malamamaunakea.org/uploads/images/slides/Makanaka_2012-12-13.JPG

Hello! To me your problem sounds most likely to be related to Remote Tech. Do you have it installed and if so, did you also install the config file for Remote Tech to add tracking stations near the RSS launch sites? ( you can find it here https://www.dropbox.com/s/ohqv9r9mwng2500/RemoteTech_RSS_Settings.zip?dl=1 )

I'm liking the new Europa texture's texture, but colour-wise I think it needs more orange dirt (supposed to be sulphur compounds)

And so does Ariane 5

You are welcome, but please don't overdo it, obviously nothing on Earth can be a 100% match of what Europa looks like, and these pictures are just for inspiration. I'm by no means an expert on the matter but based on what is known about Europa (that its surface is pretty much 100% solid ice, and relatively smooth) and the pictures I have seen, I'd search for inspiration in pictures of glaciers and frozen seas, hence the pictures I've linked above. What is certain in any case is that craters and large mountains are a no-no, while ridges are a yes, as are in all likelihood geysers. Here is a nice set of pictures of Europa: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/slideshow/Strangely-serene-Europa-98398/photo-7192774.php Also: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?Category=Planets&IM_ID=16645 And some more pictures of Earth ice for inspiration: http://www.gdargaud.net/Antarctica/FromAir/FlyingAboveSeaIce2.jpg http://robertscribbler.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/jakobshavnisbrae-16.jpg

Sure, I can understand that. In any case, I use the up-to-date version and it works fine. Custom Biomes has been part of the package for quite a while now (ever since late 23.5 I think), and it never gave me problems, though obviously it doesn't mean it couldn't give it to you. It's hard to help you without screenshots or output logs, but I guess I can give you a few pointers based on what I know: 1. It's pointless to try it without the DDSLoader, as all of the default texture packs are in the DDS format now. 2. If you are on a Mac, stick with 4k textures, Macs are known to have problems handling 8k ones. 3. Please note that (as the OP clearly states) you should have your RSS textures in a separate folder, and NOT inside the RealSolarSystem folder as was the case in previous versions. I hope that helps. If it doesn't, I think you will have to find your output_log.txt in your KSP_Data folder, upload it to some file-sharing website and post it here so that NathanKell can take a closer look. Cheers, Hattivat

will use links then: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/11/29/1354188215125/Greenland-ice-sheet-melti-006.jpg http://www.tertium.co.uk/katie/guardian.jpg http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/iceland-vatnajokull-glacier-royalty-free-image/104186911 http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/ice-surface-skalafelllsjokull-glacier-tongue-iceland-southeast-area-35390033.jpg http://bea.blog.is/users/ac/bea/img/img_0224.jpg basically the look of the fairly boring, unglamorous 90% of the glacier that people rarely photograph, choosing to concentrate on the small bluish part at its very front instead.

"But Europa's surface is not at all like anything in the inner solar system. It is exceedingly smooth: few features more than a few hundred meters high have been seen. The prominent markings seem to be only albedo features with very low relief. There are very few craters on Europa; only three craters larger than 5 km in diameter have been found. This would seem to indicate a young and active surface." So it's nothing like that picture above, I'd imagine to be more like this: Except without the mountains in the background.

By "something else" you mean the DDSLoader? That is to allow KSP to load .dds image files, which reduces the memory footprint and thus helps avoid crashes. Same with the textures loading after in-game loads - no, they are not loaded prior to that, and that is to avoid memory usage "peaks" and thus avoid out-of-memory crashes. Your imgur picture appears not to work, but let me guess - does your KSC appear to be in a hole in the ground? That would be because you failed to read the instructions in the OP and download one of the texture packs. Or because you elected not to install the DDSLoader, which would render the KSP unable to load the proper textures. Also, if I were you I'd reconsider my tone, NathanKell is doing this voluntarily in his free time and you are not paying him to do it. I will leave the question of what you can do with that "ASAP" of yours to your imagination.

I'm afraid this is a RAM issue with 99% probability. However, just to make sure, please upload your output log to dropbox, google drive or some similar website and share it here. And yes, you do have an output log, even if there is no crash. KSP always produces one, but it keeps it in the KSP_Data folder if there is no crash. It's called output_log.txt. There is certainly no way to play Realism Overhaul with smaller planets, as it was created specifically to make playing with large planets possible. You can however play stock-sized game with selected realism-increasing mods, that's what I used to do before switching to full-size RSS. You will probably want to install Ferram Aerospace Research, Deadly Reentry, Real Chutes and TAC Life Support, perhaps also Remote Tech if you like the concept, plus one of the alternative RSS configs, as per ZaPPPa's suggestion. Add Real Fuels + Stockalike Engine Configs if you pick one of the larger sizes (x6.4, for example), otherwise it's unnecessary (and possibly overpowered).

9.4 km/s delta-v is right, and still works. A velocity of 7300 m/s at 130 km on the other hand is something I have never seen. Ever since I first launched RO back in 0.23 the orbital velocity in low Earth orbit has always been almost 8 km/s. Perhaps you were not switching from surface velocity to orbital velocity in the past? 7300 would be about right for surface velocity.

In real life it was an even more horrible idea than in KSP. Reusable my ***, "the average cost per flight was about US$1.5 billion" - that is 50% more than a Saturn V launch (inflation-adjusted, of course), for one fifth of the payload.

Recent versions of Mechjeb have the wonderful option of "limit angle of attack". Use it, it should significantly reduce the number of launches ending with your rocket flipping. The main stage of Ariane 5 indeed has low TWR, which means that it "turns" horizontal much faster than is usual. To compensate for that, make your SRB-powered phase more vertical than usual. Please also note that although "half-way through" is too early, there is nothing wrong with hitting your Ap before reaching orbital velocity - Ariane 5s aiming for GTO do it all the time. I would advise against trying to recreate the moment it starts to pitch, real-life rockets tend to do that as soon as they clear the tower, but start with a very, very slight angle, which is pretty much impossible to recreate in KSP, as neither the stock SAS nor Mechjeb are precise enough.

Yay, thanks!

Ho ho ho, if you were good this year, I have one for you: http://i.imgur.com/SqdzxzF.png (all thanks go to Metaphor, who is the author; he also made an even more detailed one, but I can't seem to find a link)

Yes, provided by Real Fuels. It's called "exterior radiator fin" or something to that effect and comes in unassuming white. Edit: Do not forget that it will take quite a few of these, plus an ungodly amount of electricity, to keep the fuel refrigerated.

Thank you for your work, and for the good news, Bobcat!