TiktaalikDreaming

Upgrading from the KOOSE pod's "worst upholstery pattern ever" (yes, that's the google search that resulted in that), the (newly renamed) Emergency Lifeboat for Kerbanauts has some lovely 80's bus seat upholstery. I'd show an in game shot with less normal pixelization, but there's always a kerbal in the way. like Anyway, there's some untextured inside space, particularly what the kerbal would see. So, not yet done. I also haven't forgotten the pack is a stretched cube with zero detail or texture.

So far, this is just an inventory item for KIS. I will also make a version as an external chair, but I'm not sure how that will deploy yet

No need for transparent pods. It's a backpack.

A bit more work. I'm still not getting my normals from Unity into the game quite right, so it still (IMHO) looks a lot better in the unity editor than in game. But it's not looking quite as bad in game now; I think part of the issue is I'm at the edge of what a normal map can achieve, it's really the sort of thing that should be mesh, at least the base "puffiness", with maybe the wrinkles etc as normals etc. There's still a bit of work on the interior to go. I can't pretend no-one will look at it when it's open. This version available here https://github.com/TiktaalikDreaming/KOOSE/releases/tag/1.2.2

Sneaking a few minutes at a time, the thing is slowly getting a normal map (angles specifically chosen to avoid looking at bits without normals); If I thought I could get away with making it look more like a beach ball, I would. Also, this Unity project (I have several) is in a weird state of affairs, and seems to have all the negatives ever available, but is missing all the goodies from updated part tools. So, I'll be breaking it later, so I can have normals that aren't either completely broken or faint and lame. Unity clearly thinks my maps are OK (views above are in the Unity editor) but the export to mu and texture maps is doing some weird things. I blame trying to mash some of an old part tools into a newer one to try to get plume editing working on the koose pod.

Is also been pointed out that I should have called it ELK instead of k-ifying moose directly. I am thinking of some name changes at the display level. Not the internal part names though, don't want to break anyone's save game for the sake of cleaning up naming. And of course I need at least two names now.

OK, secret squirrel business. The chute unit and heat shield only exist as separate parts because that's how you have to do them in ksp. The heat shield so the whole craft isn't acting like it's covered evenly in ablator, and the chute always hangs from the centre of the chute part. I could have done an off centre dock I suppose, but the CoM being the same point as the chute attaches leads to silliness. I tried. But balancing the CoM after I moved the chute to a different part was a nightmare. So in the end I moved the CoM of the chute unit to outside the part, in the centre line of the craft. Instant balance. Physics be damned

Now I'm wondering if there's big enough variations allowed by the part variant module for this. And I can't remember how much space I had on the texture sheet.

Mesh details for the "pod" done. On the victim's left, from the top down, is a flare, chaff mortar and SOFAR device. On the right is a battery and beacon. Classic MOOSE shape still in play, although there's now a "feature" on each side. And the front won't close off with a zip. Seriously, who seals a craft v re-entry with a zip?

Part variants here I come! Bacon bits or sour cream?

Crap, likes are back! Came here to say I'm now tempted to make this look a lot like a baked potato now.

OK, basic shape done. Until I change it. I'll be adding details like survival kits and so on, and then doing the UV and texturing. I need to autoloc the text fields and probably do a bit more tweaking, but so long as you're OK with a bit ugly, it's ready to roll. I won't be pushing this version to spacedock yet, but it's available through my github repo, https://github.com/TiktaalikDreaming/KOOSE/releases/tag/1.2.0

Yep, I've seen that. A very similar idea, and neatly gets around the directional stability by not having any direction that makes any difference. When I last checked it did have half a tonne of ablator on it, which seemed a bit extreme. I meant to have a look, back when I first did the KOOSE mod's first iteration, but I'd never touched anything KIS or KAS and was scared off thinking it might be tricky. And the same for looking at external seats. I'd never really managed to use them in game, even when they changed them so you could occupy them during VAB times. It's just things I never used. That the external command seat and inventory items were both near perfect ideas to build a MOOSE style thing with never got past the "I don't know how those work" threshold, until recently re-viewing the KOOSE. And I attribute that to wondering if I could do up a KOOSE t-shirt, because I bought Scott Manley's MOOSE t-shirt. I just recently did the "why don't I just try it" thing. External seats are pretty easy. KOOSE items aren't particularly tricky either. But it's all new to me. I'm not sure just yet which part attributes carry over to an inventory item, even though it uses the PART module.

Well, I was thinking of breaking the river up into engine and forward cab, different rear cabs, trays etc. Not sure yet, but I'd like to be at least able to do the 3 standard wheel bases.

If you scroll to the bottom of the wiki article, the original nasa source document is linked as well (it has a lot more than just the moose in it though). But, the functions for this are an inventory item that expands to a heat shield. The other moose functions are covered by standard kerbanauts' space suit. Rcs, and parachute. Later I'll do an external seat version which will need RCS as well. The last few days I've just been struggling to see if I can achieve directional dynamic stability with the aerodynamics. That's standard for reentry capsules. But, due to the way inventory works in kis, it looks like I can't do this for this version. I will confirm this with some basic brutal tests later, but so far shifting things a bit doesn't shift any centres (mass, lift, drag) from the Kerbal centre. These restrictions should all go away with an external seat version as those follow regular craft behaviour.

Thanks. It's heading slowly towards the top of the pile of mods to get back to. At the least I'd like to add ksp Wheel patches. Trying to sort out ksp silliness with wheels for this mod was how I stumbled on to the KSP wheel threads initiall, aand I've never taken that back and fixed these wheels. But also I want to look at whether I can make transparent windows and use the external command seat modules so the Kerbals are right there. And I want to make it modular. Because there's more defender body types than you can count.

Well, to be fair, I don't know how KIS inventory items work either. It does *seem* to behave like a single physics object (the kerbal) though, based off turning on the show aero forces UI option and so on. And that matches the behaviour in game, ie, it's easy to rotate, even in situations where the aero forces would be extreme. At the moment, I'm just looking at abusing the capabilities of someone else's code. I will likely do an external chair version, which would be all regular parts, with known systems for controlling stability and so on. It will need it's own rcs type arrangement, as you can't use the kerbal maneuvering system while seated. But that's not non-cannon for the MOOSE. I'd still skip the chute and force players to Gagarin it by exiting the chair after safe speeds are achieved. I'm going back and MOOSE-ifying the EVA KOOSE though. Before it gets too finished. We'll see how that behaves. I should also check what sort of pixel density is typical of equipable inventory items. I'm assuming more detail per m than craft parts.

Probably best to take this off this thread, but I've considered other vehicles, but they don't keep the pun going. More defender variants are far more likely.

I think the issue is going to be that the part can have it's CoM and CoL etc moved about, but in game there's just a kerbal and some graphics added. The physics is all applied through the kerbal centre. So, messing around with the inventory item, isn't helping. At least, that's what seems to be happening. It's basically acting as a point mass with a drag and lift force also acting on that single point. Again, this is because I can't shift the centres for the kerbal. And the inventory appears to not alter that.

Yeah, I was tempted to have a look at the external command seat module for this. And I may still do a version for that. I think I'm about to give up attempting dynamic stability, as it looks like the inventory isn't a separate entity in the physics. The aero forces for example just have one instance. So there's not going to be any torque to swing it around. I suspect the mass will be the same. Which ruins my excuse for balloon animals. But frees me up to just do something that looks like the MOOSE. Anyway, as the shaped balloon re-entry stabilization system is going away, screenshot before it's gone;

Extending the "craft" a bit forward so it mostly covers the body of the kerbanaut made it very slightly better. Basically what the original design was; but, it a very very truncated cone. For testing, I basically aim at a gentle re-entry, then time warp, then start a spin using rcs, and then cut off control. With the new version with the shroud going forward of the kerbanaut a bit (still not covering the helm etc) it managed to stop spinning just after the re-entry effects. Trying with balloon animals next

It doesn't work, the CoM for a kerbal part is just the root of the part in unity. The same root used by kis to attach. There is a cfg stanza to move it though, but as noted that's for parts, not sure if it works on inventory. Hell, I'm not sure the CoM isn't just the Kerbal still. But I can change the aero . And it is supposed to be inflatable, and thus relatively light

I've played around with things a bit. The part centre is used as the attach point for kis as far as I can tell, so the CoM is fixed without playing with the config options and I'm not sure they work for inventory items. The shield doesn't have a trailing cone shape to keep it pointed blunt end first. But the kerbanaut's built in rcs works fine. And it is plenty to keep it pointed right during reentry. But. It would be nice to have dynamic stability. I'm going to experiment getting the various shapes they played around with. At the moment it's really a truncated version of the classic moose. Failing that, balloon animals.

Yep, that's the MOOSE, which the KOOSE is based off. The first koose I made, the main part of this mod, couldn't really do it quite as minimally as it should. But using KIS and KSP's new personal parachutes, it looks like I can do a "proper" KOOSE now. I'm on a bus right now, but I'll pop up more pics soon. It's most definitely one of those moose designs now. Although they didn't have the very useful balloon animals for aerodynamic stability. It's just not right <thumps table>! Something needs to be done about this lack of likes.

I'll shortly be adding a second KOOSE. This is closer to the original MOOSE concept, and I'm not sure why I never tried before. But, an inventory item for Kerbal Inventory System, using the jetpack slot, that equips as an inflatable heat shield. Initial tests have shown that it works quite well. You don't loose access to the kerbanaut maneuvering unit thrusters when it's deployed, so re-entry burn is sorted. Kerbanauts come with their own chute these days (if unlocked, but realistically, you should need to unlock personal chutes before using personal inflatable re-entry shields), so that becomes usable once you unequip the heat shield. One issue I've had with the backpack style koose is directional stability. I'm not sure how it's handling CoM, but while re-entering there's no sense that it can keep the shield in front. So, I'm experimenting with adding inflatable drag devices to pull the koose around so it's headin shield first.