TiktaalikDreaming

Damn... When I was updating, I noticed I've disconnected github desktop from my active copy as well, not sure when that happened, but it looks like when I merged the revamp branch and the core. I did have 2, and then the gamedata linked to the revamp, I must have disconnected in prep, merged and never got back around to re-linking. I suspect I stuffed up something in that. But also, it was actually (for half the issue, definitely, and probably the other) wrong in Unity. So, I just don't know what went wrong when.

Oh. How did I never spot that? (Spoiler alert: rotational symmetry is the answer) I'll take a look. Thanks. OK, the control rocket nodes doubled up around 16, with 23 at 16, and then 17-24 being off. Fixed. I'm not entirely clear what was going on with the shell attach nodes. In Unity you can't see more than one transform at a time generally, and each of those were child objects to their own centrally located empty transform. I suspect something with the stacking of transforms, because I changed the hierarchy to better step through them to see what was out of place, and then they weren't out of place. I've had transforms not apply before from Unity, so it may have just been too many stacked layers of transforms. And... imgur isn't currently letting me upload images. Actually, the Beta won't... why was I on the beta? Anyway, in game; It's syncy synced on github, this file is the only one that changed https://github.com/TiktaalikDreaming/Nexus/blob/master/GameData/Nexus/Parts/Tank/NewModel.mu I'll sort out updating the release shortly.

Once I get a few more things done, I'll do a full A-4b flight, but this is a better way of showing the cockpit than static images I feel.

Just checking you mean the surface attached parachutes, ala Not the nose cone with parachute? I've been using the surface attached to test my IVA, and they seem to function well enough. I do note the nose cone chute doesn't have the canopy named as per ksp parts, and in the past I noticed that means the expanded chute size gets used for craft height, but still functions. Anyway, can you try this dev build, and let me know if it fixes it? https://github.com/TiktaalikDreaming/WernhersOldStuff/releases/tag/0.19.200829

I haven't seen the issue. Which version of KSP are you using? Which version of the mod are you using? And do you have anyting that might obviously be messing with chute deployment like realChute? The parachutes have survived OK without much love directed at them in a long time, but mostly because they're kind of a bonus extra that no-one spotted issue with much.

Another dev release, 0.19.200829 on github. Basically just the WIP IVA things. https://github.com/TiktaalikDreaming/WernhersOldStuff/releases/tag/0.19.200829

Colouring in time; I've found some references (photos) of German WWII cockpits with coloured borders on some gauges like shown. The red is the warning levels, white is OK, yellow is usually marking areas the dial shouldn't show (also sometimes just more red, or base colour). I did all the base propellant dials first, as they're all using the same red/white/yellow areas. It's mildly handy to just provide a quick visual guide of "bad things". And has the bonus of adding a bit of colour. Since adding the B&W screen, I've noticed the cockpit has been looking like the whole lot is B&W. It's like that screen leaches out the colour. Oh, yes, Val is quite a bit shorter than Jeb.

The parachute canopy mesh has to be named canopy. The way KSP excludes the deployed parachute height is a piece of spaghetti code that just excludes meshes named "canopy". Doesn't seem to check the module or what the module's been told is the parachute at all.

In the actively cooled (high ISP) mode, I intend it to use a giant radiator I haven't made yet. I've had some abortive attempts, but from memory of the math for this, the required radiator size is 1.3 x unholy. Not quite in the sq km range, but well into being measured in football fields. It is dual mode though. The low ISP high thrust version cools using the LH2 flow (meaning it needs a much higher flow rate, resulting in lower exit temp, and lower ISP, but higher flow rate leading to greater thrust). The radiators are basically held up because (like a clever idiot) I decided I'd try to figure out how to use the DLC robotics systems to extend parts. Without an extending truss, the whole thing gets to be ungodly long to fit the 1.3 unholy radiators.

In prep for Real Fuel compatibility, I'm converting propellant gauges to read either stock or more detailed values. For Stock fuel users, this means there's going to be some duplication in that some gauges will be reading the same value. But seeing stock doesn't have an IVA fuel gauge, I figure I'm still coming out ahead. This means B-Stoff and A-Stoff are joined by their hypergolic disaster cousins, R-Stoff and S-Stoff, plus for the ramjet I think I'm going Diesel, which in German is Diesel. Experiments at the time used mostly propane, as it's gaseous at room temp and thus much easier to get a steady flame, but for a craft you don't want to be a giant balloon, it's a good plan to look for a liquid fuel with half decent density. I also finally remembered to fix the kph to km/h

Well, I have a camera view; Plus a bit of extra re-arranging and tidying up. Added a couple of life support related gauges, O2 (gas) levels, is it exists, and an "as yet does nothing" indicator for "is life support running?". Added missing Z-Stoff gauge which in non-RO will show nothing. And cleared some space (originally for the camera screen) for bonus dials for other propellants

Progress. SAS mode selection is fully operational. The parachute pull lever is added, as is an engine cut off button. So forward dash now looks like; The left looks like; and the right; I was about to declare "I'm done!" with the IVA, but then I remembered I was going to look at doing a periscope type thing. That glass canopy is so close to useless, there's no real way it would ever be flyable using just that. It's basically a sunroof with an exit option. This build is available via https://github.com/TiktaalikDreaming/WernhersOldStuff/releases/tag/0.19.200808 A few more tweaks, some work on the IVA mesh itself, a camera view and so on, and I'll pack it up for Spacedock.

Back to the cockpit of death. I've got SAS controls working for control, but the little red lever still doesn't move to indicate what's been selected. SAS on/off works fine. I've added a throttle, and it has a lever for thrust limiter, but it's using an weighted aggregated summary of engines, and is an indicator only. And the default aka non-RPM cockpit is now the same, but with dials etc replaced by stock ones where they exist. So, the stock navball replaces the AHI etc. The Wernher'sOS props that aren't replaced will sit there looking period correct but not functioning.

I think you'd need something like this https://github.com/TiktaalikDreaming/ModPods/blob/master/Parts/Sz1to2/Fixup.cfg Also, only just noticed I added that on April 1. How appropriate. I did consider adding a second patch to hide the Mk1-3 but decided that's not where I'd like to go with treating users.

To be honest, there was a lot of work arranging hatches and ladders etc to work with, but not interfere with, the old mk1-2 pod when stacked up. And then they changed it. It was very much an "oh for expletives sake" moment for this mod. This also means I can't really just start adding more parts. I need to go back and remodel a bunch of the existing parts. And come up with a scheme where the ladders and hatches and windows all work.

A continuation? There are plans for that far future utopia where I have time to get to it. As far as I know there's no urgent need for updates though.

Just to expand on this while I'm at a keyboard. The A-11 and A-12 were basically calculations on how many A-10 equivalent engines, and how much fuel would be needed for stages under the A-10. Keeping in mind the A-10 engine was far from developed. They had a test stand, but beyond that, very little. To scale up lower stages, they assumed they'd use multiple installations of the same engine, and use similar propellants. The detail of which propellants varies with who's telling the story. They'd worked with a few combos, so Ethanol and Liquid Oxygen was just one option. As they had fairly clear ideas of the look of the A-10, we know roughly how big that engine is. And from the number of engines calculated, plus maximum circle density (there's a foray into the maths of circle packing I don't want to re-live), there's a minimum width of the engine mounts on each of the A-11 and A-12. Which is massively wider than any sketch I've seen. I don't know if they somehow thought they'd be able to have a narrow skinny edition of the A-10 engine, or use part clipping, but it's so different, I think no-one really got to that stage of thinking about it. The A-12 at least was at best, back of napkin calculation grade development. The A-11 *might* have got further, because it's just less absurdly fat. But I suspect they were both "oh yeah, we could add extra stages, they'd need this much thrust and fuel" level of development. So, that infers there just aren't any well thought out sketches/paintings of what it would have looked like. That doesn't invalidate the camo pattern though. Likely, some artist looked at Luftwaffe or similar patterns, and used one of those.

I don't know where I got it from anymore. There are virtually no references to the a-11 or a-12, much of it contradictory. The a-10 has some well defined sketches and data, but the 11 & 12 are basically very vague ideas of what might be needed. So the drawings you do find tend to be aspirational at best. And the colour scheme is likely stolen from some other German WWII paint scheme.

Sorting some layouts and more labeling. I need to decide on what form the SAS controls will be. Probably a chonky black bakelite selector for the setting and a push button for on/off. I'm enjoying my foray into German cockpit translations. The on/off thing at first I didn't quite get, but I think they just used A (Ein) for on, because in German on and off look so similar, Auf v Aus. So there's a lot of things labelled Ein//Aus. And to get confusing, there's some things just labelled Auf. And, they often just didn't seem to label things. I guess that's not a huge hindrance in the craft you fly daily, but is to anyone who might capture it.

Home stretch for the IVA now. I've removed the RealFuels/RO gauges, so it's a stock fueled IVA. Added in electrical charge and Mono. I figure there's very little excuse using this cockpit with Xenon, so left that out. I've started adding labels, levers and switches.

OK, seeing rpm got updated, and I've progressed a bit, I've set the bonus cockpit to requiring only rpm core, all the dials n stuff will be included. It's triggered by a module manager NEEDS statement. For the non-rpm cockpit, I'll use stock dials/gauges as much as they can be (it's kind of limited), then just use my added ones for non-functional decoration. So, no ASET assets; Thanks to JonnyOThan's help, I have a functioning escape lever as well. The stock clock does my head in though

Progress. Still mostly working in my older RO install, until there's an RPM update. So, there may be a tad more propellant gauges than needed for stock; Top row on the right has stock resources (showing nill, due to RO). I also rejigged the panels and so on. That's still a bit of a work in progress.

Another gauge down, and 1.10 broke my artificial horizon. So, over to my RO save stuck in 1.7 land for testing, which doesn't have the ASET packs. So, only my props are showing. So, top, is an artificial horizon, showing pitch and roll, with a verticle bar for slip indicator a bit off to the left. A finer tuned roll indicator at the bottom is basically a fancy spirit level. Left is an altimeter. The coarse reading is working, but I've only numbered the first couple of km, and the rest is black, like what's showing here. Also missing "km". Lower center is the airspeed indicator that goes just a bit past MACH 1. I need to check what they had back then that might cover off higher speeds.

OK, I promise before the next screenshot I'll add a light source in the cockpit. I'm going to step through and do the dials next. They should all just be reskins on the speedo, maybe with a few small changes. But the basic Artificial Horizon in ye olde Luftwaffe style is done now, which is the most different gauge. So far there's 2 instruments half done in vintage style. I'll step through the rest after normal mapping and light mapping the airspeed dial. The artificial horizon will get more detail, it needs a slip and a turn indicator as well. I just needed to test the pitch and roll to make sure it works. And I'll need a switch and lever or two. But I'm headed towards a really dismal, uncoloured cockpit. Yay!

The main requirement for building a Nexus craft is a huge budget of course.