Claw (bug?)

[pandaman]

Has anyone else noticed wacky stuff while using the claw in 1.0.2?

I know there were reports of claw related bugs in earlier versions and I'm not sure if they were fixed or if this is the same or not.

While experimenting with ways of using the resources system i made some simple tanker rovers - fuel tank on a beam, rover wheels, batteries, rtg, probe core and a claw to allow me to 'dock'.

On launching the tanker to the runway it started skipping about like a happy puppy. Once the claw was activated it stopped, deactivating it again did not cause any issues and all seemed to work well thereafter.

Later, after parking one tanker off the runway, on launching a second tanker the first (not active) one went bang and back flipped and started twitching like an injured animal.

Is this similar to the already known claw bug? If not I will try to recreate it and file a proper report.

Cheers

[Bilfr3d]

Try catching a video of the 'bug'. It could just be clipping between something on the vehicle but you can never be sure. I've encountered a few bugs with the claw in the past, but none like this - my bugs were null reference ones.

[pandaman]

Clipping could be a factor actually, as I think I did use the gizmos to adjust positions of stuff.

I will take a look at it and try things to isolate the issue and report properly. Not sure how to get a video but screenshots should be no problem.

[Bilfr3d]

Clipping could be a factor actually, as I think I did use the gizmos to adjust positions of stuff.

I will take a look at it and try things to isolate the issue and report properly. Not sure how to get a video but screenshots should be no problem.

If you've got no issues with installing software to record a video of the issue, than google "Open Broadcaster System" and have a look at that, otherwise screenshots should be fine

[pandaman]

I will give that a go, thanks. If i can get it to work a video will show it far better than stills can.

I am currently running with just KER and KAC installed, I don't think they are affecting things, but you never know, will try both with and without these mods for comparison and report with as much information as I can. May take a few days, but I'll get on to it when I get chance.

Cheers.

[pandaman]

Update

I 'played' for a little while today and couldn't get it to replicate the issue...

until I launched one particular rover...

And your suggestion that it may be part clipping related does seem to be correct as that rover did have the claw clipped slightly. So I changed it and the issue did not reappear.

So it would seem to indicate that clipping the claw can potentially cause a small problem.

I'll experiment a little deeper over the next few days when i get time and update again with my findings.

Cheers.

[pandaman]

Update 13.05.2015

Test results... It appears to occur when a claw is clipped into a probe core.

On my tests I built several rovers with slight differences. Some had a girder clipping through the probe core which showed no noticeable difference to those where no clipping occured.

On the rovers where the claw was clipped into the probe core (OKTO 2 in this case) the rovers all twitched on launch, this ranged from slight jiggling to complete flipping over, with no apparent pattern to how much. In all cases the twitching stopped on arming and/or disarming the claw, though some twitching occurred while the claw was moving between states.

On loading another rover the original could then start twitching as if it had just been launched itself, even though it was not the active vessel, arming it's claw stopped the twitch as before.

I tried to replicate with a couple of very simple rockets, but did not notice the effect with those admittedly very limited tests.

I can provide craft files for the rovers as well as a more detailed word document, if required and some videos (which are very slow due to my out dated PC).

I hope this is of help.

Please advise if you want me to take any further action, or if this issue is covered elsewhere.

Cheers

[Bilfr3d]

By this point it is fairly safe to say that part clipping is causing this "bug" behaviour - as such, not much really needs to be done, as that kind of behaviour is expected from part clipping. You can continue to investigate further if you wish, but from what you're describing, there does not seem much point as it does seem to be a clipping issue.

[pandaman]

That was my conclusion too after the tests.

Thanks for your assistance.

[surge]

FYI, when the claw is armed, it goes into an odd mode where the physics for clipping is mostly disabled. This would be why opening it stops it. Don't know why it doesn't explode when you close it again though, mine usually do!