Kerbodyne Plus Development Thread

[Bonus Eventus]

What started out as a bug fix for the lights in the large truss modules, ended up as a complete overhaul. The new system is the T404 family of structural trusses. Since many of the parts needed to be remade I updated the textures as well.

Prior to the redesign, I considered these modular trusses as a way to make large docking bays, instead of think of them as their own system — similar to mk1. I think this will open up some new gameplay opportunities, which until now, weren't available with Kerbodyne Plus — like making tunnel like structures that you can fly through.

[Bonus Eventus]

Updated the k303 tank. Carries the same amount of fuel as before but is slightly lighter and shorter ( by 1M). 

 

Added a new part. T404 Stability Assist. part is 1.25M high, takes quite a bit of charge, and provides 300 torque for your super big bad whatervers.

 

Lastly I added three more additions to the T404 fam. A half size module, a full size module ( with larger side openings), and a 3.75M to T404 adapter.

 

Edit: Started work on a large LOX booster last night. Still working the design out. Thinking of including a decoupler. This basically replaces the behemoth testing booster, with something that is less of a cheat, but makes launching these parts a little easier, if you have the funds

Edited January 4, 2016 by Bonus Eventus

[Siphonophore]

On 1/4/2016 at 10:33 AM, Bonus Eventus said:

Updated the k303 tank. Carries the same amount of fuel as before but is slightly lighter and shorter ( by 1M). 

 

Added a new part. T404 Stability Assist. part is 1.25M high, takes quite a bit of charge, and provides 300 torque for your super big bad whatervers.

 

Lastly I added three more additions to the T404 fam. A half size module, a full size module ( with larger side openings), and a 3.75M to T404 adapter.

 

Edit: Started work on a large LOX booster last night. Still working the design out. Thinking of including a decoupler. This basically replaces the behemoth testing booster, with something that is less of a cheat, but makes launching these parts a little easier, if you have the funds

@Bonus Eventus Oh, very nice!  But I think you should move it into Command and Control and maybe add like an integrated battery into the T404 SAS module, that might make it more useful  

As for the inflatable centrifuge I suggested earlier, it could be like Porkjet's inflatable parts and have a size of 2.5m and a radius of 10m when fully deployed. Keep that in mind, alright?

MOAR SUGGESTIONS:

A 3.75m quad nuclear engine

Giant flat T404 cockpit with a 2.5m attachment node at the front, with four windows with toggleable lights and integrated RCS thrusters

Huge retractable ISS-like solar arrays

Spherical radial LFO tanks

T404 service bay

Edited January 6, 2016 by AJTheMighty

[Bonus Eventus]

As far as I got last night. Still tweaking some of the uvs and messing around with different texture effects. My intent is to make a booster similar in function to the Spacex proposed Raptor full flow staged engine. Since I couldn't find any reference for that engine design, (I think the only part that's been fabricated is the combustion chamber) I based the design on the Merlin 1D. The two pipes in the front are fairly prominent on the 1D, but I'm wondering if I shouldn't push the design by changing their scale.

 

EDIT: Had some free time this afternoon, and here's the result.

I may work on the tank texture a little bit more, but I'm calling the engine done. I plan to give the engine a small degree of gimbal. It's a trade off given that it's twice as powerful as the most powerful stock engine. It's purpose is to be used for asparagus staging just like the Raptor launch system. BTW I think I was right about the pipes, it helps give it the right girth, plus fit in with the Kerbal scale of things.

 

EDIT 2: Started playing with the heating effects. Looks ok I guess, I dunno, feels like its missing something.

 

EDIT 3: Oh yeah, textures...haha I'm out of it  (The last picture was just a quick indirect light bake in modo)

 

EDIT 4: Space!!!  Everything worked out of the gate! That very rarely happens, so awesome  I might make a custom particle system for the exhaust.

Edited January 7, 2016 by Bonus Eventus
updated info +++

[Bonus Eventus]

Beginnings of a T404 service module

 

 

Edited January 9, 2016 by Bonus Eventus

[Siphonophore]

On 1/9/2016 at 6:51 PM, Bonus Eventus said:

Beginnings of a T404 service module

 

 

yay you took my idea!

 

so how are the T404 cockpit and the 3.75m quad nuke engine coming along?

[Bonus Eventus]

On 1/10/2016 at 11:18 PM, AJTheMighty said:

yay you took my idea!

 

so how are the T404 cockpit and the 3.75m quad nuke engine coming along?

Well I sorta planned on doing it all along. Here's another coincidence...

Took me a while to figure out the animation for the solar wings, ISS style. The folding of the wings was easy, the hard part was getting the truss to retract in time with the folding, sigh...

Still have to optimize it. The truss is made of 40 seperate cubes. Which is just to many. Lots of empty container items so the file swelled to 2.4mb. I'll be testing it in ksp tonight. I'll see how it goes before I judge it too harshly. BTW, the wingspan is similar to the ISS, just 64% the size (kerbal scale). So, it comes out to 20m long by 9.375m wide.

[Siphonophore]

19 minutes ago, Bonus Eventus said:

Well I sorta planned on doing it all along. Here's another coincidence...

Took me a while to figure out the animation for the solar wings, ISS style. The folding of the wings was easy, the hard part was getting the truss to retract in time with the folding, sigh...

Still have to optimize it. The truss is made of 40 seperate cubes. Which is just to many. Lots of empty container items so the file swelled to 2.4mb. I'll be testing it in ksp tonight. I'll see how it goes before I judge it too harshly. BTW, the wingspan is similar to the ISS, just 64% the size (kerbal scale). So, it comes out to 20m long by 9.375m wide.

@Bonus Eventus Nice work on that puppy!

Maybe you could make the truss into one extra long cube and texture it similar to the ISS truss, and that solar panel could maybe be fairly realistic so maybe it'd be black on one side and golden on the back?

I changed my mind about the 3.75m quad nuke engine, there's a quad plasma engine in the mod already, I think you can rework it into a T404 nuclear engine

Also any progress on the flat T404 cockpit? I think it could have a periscope at the front for a crewmember to look out of since the view might be a bit restricted

Edited January 12, 2016 by AJTheMighty

[Bonus Eventus]

6 minutes ago, AJTheMighty said:

@Bonus Eventus Nice work on that puppy!

Maybe you could like use one extra long prism and texture it similar to the ISS truss, and that solar panel could maybe be fairly realistic so maybe it'd be black on one side and golden on the back?

I changed my mind about the 3.75m quad nuke engine, there's a quad plasma engine in the mod already so maybe you could rework it into a T404 nuclear engine? 

Also any progress on the flat T404 cockpit? I think it could have a periscope at the front for a crewmember to look out of since the view might be a bit restricted

The model isn't textured yet. Also the Alpha Gimbal (the big cylinder) and the housing for the solar wings have yet to be modeled. The major problem was making sure I had the right balance between the amount of detail in the animation and mesh count/poly count. However I actually modeled the part fairly accurately to the ISS panels. I plan on making the animation fairly slow so you feel the scale.

[Siphonophore]

On 1/12/2016 at 7:49 PM, Bonus Eventus said:

The model isn't textured yet. Also the Alpha Gimbal (the big cylinder) and the housing for the solar wings have yet to be modeled. The major problem was making sure I had the right balance between the amount of detail in the animation and mesh count/poly count. However I actually modeled the part fairly accurately to the ISS panels. I plan on making the animation fairly slow so you feel the scale.

 

The slow animation of the solar arrays is actually a very good idea as they're huge and the scale is vital for immersion and here's two more suggestions I thought'd be particularly useful:

Again, inflatable Porkjet-style centrifuge (think this: http://i.imgur.com/nbpGH9Y.jpg)

T404 Airlock (sort of a mix between ISS's Quest and Kibo)

Edited January 13, 2016 by AJTheMighty

[Bonus Eventus]

 

Took some time, but I think it was worth it in the end. Spent a stupid amount of time getting the solar panel setup in unity right. For any other modders having difficulty with solar panels, the trick to them is actually simple. In the VAB, the X axis is pointing towards the outside. Y is the ceiling, and z is the left wall (when facing outside). Squad's gigantor solar panels are placed so that the apparent axis of rotation for the solar panel pivot is X. However, the pivot rotational axis must be along Y. The Z axis represents the sun's rays. So, the pivot should be an empty game object that is oriented so that z is where the sun will be and y is where you want the solar panel to rotate. Now, you can just parent your part to the pivot. Also, the raycastTransform should be oriented the same way and be the direct child of the pivot object. It represents the surface of the panels when flattened. It does not need to be animated, and it doesn't need to be anything more than an empty game object. So another way to put it would be that if you want your part to be rotating on some arbitrary point like facing left in the VAB, then don't have your origin aligned to the world but rather to the sun and the rotation of your pivot.

 

PS: I did get the part working in KSP  It blows up so very prettily! 

[Siphonophore]

6 hours ago, Bonus Eventus said:

 

Took some time, but I think it was worth it in the end. Spent a stupid amount of time getting the solar panel setup in unity right. For any other modders having difficulty with solar panels, the trick to them is actually simple. In the VAB, the X axis is pointing towards the outside. Y is the ceiling, and z is the left wall (when facing outside). Squad's gigantor solar panels are placed so that the apparent axis of rotation for the solar panel pivot is X. However, the pivot rotational axis must be along Y. The Z axis represents the sun's rays. So, the pivot should be an empty game object that is oriented so that z is where the sun will be and y is where you want the solar panel to rotate. Now, you can just parent your part to the pivot. Also, the raycastTransform should be oriented the same way and be the direct child of the pivot object. It represents the surface of the panels when flattened. It does not need to be animated, and it doesn't need to be anything more than an empty game object. So another way to put it would be that if you want your part to be rotating on some arbitrary point like facing left in the VAB, then don't have your origin aligned to the world but rather to the sun and the rotation of your pivot.

 

PS: I did get the part working in KSP  It blows up so very prettily! 

SO HUGE AND BEAUTIFUL 

This mod is making ENORMOUS progress. Btw do you think you could use this name for the solar panel? "Leviathan XXXXL Solar Array Wing" I seriously cant thank you enough for existalizing one of my suggestions for this epic mod. I hope it'll ascend to a huge amounts of download on KerbalStuff or Curseforge

I can't wait for the beta release of this mod. Also, what do you mean by blowing up? Expanding or going Kerbal? Maybe you could release it by probaly this weekend or next Tuesday?

Edited January 13, 2016 by AJTheMighty

[Bonus Eventus]

 

1 hour ago, AJTheMighty said:

SO HUGE AND BEAUTIFUL 

This mod is making ENORMOUS progress. Btw do you think you could use this name for the solar panel? "Leviathan XXXXL Solar Array Wing" I seriously cant thank you enough for existalizing one of my suggestions for this epic mod. I hope it'll ascend to a huge amounts of download on KerbalStuff or Curseforge

I can't wait for the beta release of this mod. Also, what do you mean by blowing up? Expanding or going Kerbal? Maybe you could release it by probaly this weekend or next Tuesday?

I meant crashing a rocket with the Leviathan solar panel attached so I could see how destructable it was

[Siphonophore]

5 hours ago, Bonus Eventus said:

 

I meant crashing a rocket with the Leviathan solar panel attached so I could see how destructable it was

Oh ok! I'm such an idiot 

So any progress on the T404 porkalike (that means Porkjet-like) inflatable Centrifuge? I also think you could rework that great big cargo bay back at the beginning page into a T404 cargo bay with individual toggleable doors for maximum utility and also I think you could make a giant T404 cupola cockpit too in addition to the flat T404 cockpit

EDIT: Could you show me a sample spacecraft with the Leviathan solar panels in-game just to see how big it is plus a Kerbal for scale?

Edited January 13, 2016 by AJTheMighty

[Bonus Eventus]

5 hours ago, AJTheMighty said:

Oh ok! I'm such an idiot 

So any progress on the T404 porkalike (that means Porkjet-like) inflatable Centrifuge? I also think you could rework that great big cargo bay back at the beginning page into a T404 cargo bay with individual toggleable doors for maximum utility and also I think you could make a giant T404 cupola cockpit too in addition to the flat T404 cockpit

EDIT: Could you show me a sample spacecraft with the Leviathan solar panels in-game just to see how big it is plus a Kerbal for scale?

Pics will be coming soon. As to the centrifuge, I have two problems with the idea.

 

1) One of the stated goals of Kerbodyne Plus, is to avoid mod dependencies. So, no firespitter plugin dependencies. There is an experimental module named moduleMotor I believe that might be able to make a spinning part with the ability to attach other parts to it. Otherwise I could try making a one off part with no surface attachments. It would just spin for fun I guess.  

2) Kerbodyne Plus is not a tac/ life support mod, but there are plenty of other mods for that including Porkjet's, which is a great mod BTW. I would rather support mods that do what they do well.

 

From the beginning Kerbodyne Plus was and is an end-game parts pack. I don't plan on doing any custom plugin work myself or depend on other plugins. 

To elaborate further as to what end-game means: To me, it means you reached the end of the tech tree, now what? You have a ton of money, what do you spend it on? So, I'm trying to supply prizes for your enjoyment/luxury. If you have the money and the tech, you can for instance launch 500 tons with a handful of parts. All of the parts I've designed have some kind of real world equivalent behind them. To unify the pack and to just keep limits on just how hacky/cheaty the parts will be. For instance, there was a launch system designed by the Russians called Seadragon, which was a rocket so big it would be launched underwater. it was insanely expensive, but would have been capable of launching 200 tons into LEO.  There were even some rocket designs that could conceivably launch 1000 tons into LEO, but again insanely hard to build and expensive. 

Also, as much as possible I hope to unlock gameplay that you just can't do without combining parts together and upping the scale. LIke making LKO  ship docks out of 4 parts.

So, the focus thus far has been on large structural parts, deepspace infrastructure, and, now, launch systems and large crew cabins.

 

Now, about that T404 cockpit. I've been playing around with the idea for 6 months. I'm still not sure what it should be. The design is becoming clearer now that T404 is a bulkhead profile. There's no NASA equivalent for deep space cockpits. Not anything real anyways. I like the fact that deep space designs do not have to be aerodynamic. We can have any shape that we want, so flying bricks are OK. But the downside is that the design space is huge! I know what it shouldn't be.  It shouldn't be like a star trek main bridge. It needs to be more realistic than that to fit with the visual style of Kerbodyne Plus that has been established. So, no millenium falcons. But, there's the Hermes from The Martian. There's also the Venture Star from Avatar. What I'm trying to say is, I can't make up my damn mind! Haha

So, I may give up on it for now. There's plenty of other parts that need work before the first release candidate. That would allow people to play with it and help me get a sense of where things should go from here. 

Here is a list of parts that still need love. The ones with an * (asterisk) may not make it in the first release. 

• T404 Service Module
• T404 Cargo Bay*
• T404 LFO Tank
• T404 Mono Prop Tank
• T404 Battery Bank
• T404 Nrax Converter (I know I said I was done, but this form factor makes more sense)
• T404 Decoupler
• T404 quad 2.5 coupler
• T404 quad 3.75 coupler
• T404 tri 3.75 coupler
• T404 bicoupler
• T404 Data Server (this is a huge store for science experiments with auto science lab)*
• T404 2nd Stage Engine
• T404 3rd Stage Engine
• T303 Structural fuselage 3.75 M high 3.75 M bulkhead profile
• T303 Structural fuselage 7.5 M high M bulkhead profile
• T202 Structural Truss Family ( a smaller variant on the T404, T202 is mainly structural pieces )*
• XL RCS Thrusters
• XL landing legs

That's quite a lot to do! So I best get cracking:)

Edited January 14, 2016 by Bonus Eventus
Spelling :(

[Siphonophore]

Quote

Pics will be coming soon. As to the centrifuge, I have two problems with the idea.

 

1) One of the stated goals of Kerbodyne Plus, is to avoid mod dependencies. So, no firespitter plugin dependencies. There is an experimental module named moduleMotor I believe that might be able to make a spinning part with the ability to attach other parts to it. Otherwise I could try making a one off part with no surface attachments. It would just spin for fun I guess.  

2) Kerbodyne Plus is not a tac/ life support mod, but there are plenty of other mods for that including Porkjet's, which is a great mod BTW. I would rather support mods that do what they do well.

 

From the beginning Kerbodyne Plus was and is an end-game parts pack. I don't plan on doing any custom plugin work myself or depend on other plugins. 

To elaborate further as to what end-game means: To me, it means you reached the end of the tech tree, now what? You have a ton of money, what do you spend it on? So, I'm trying to supply prizes for your enjoyment/luxury. If you have the money and the tech, you can for instance launch 500 tons with a handful of parts. All of the parts I've designed have some kind of real world equivalent behind them. To unify the pack and to just keep limits on just how hacky/cheaty the parts will be. For instance, there was a launch system designed by the Russians called Seadragon, which was a rocket so big it would be launched underwater. it was insanely expensive, but would have been capable of launching 200 tons into LEO.  There were even some rocket designs that could conceivably launch 1000 tons into LEO, but again insanely hard to build and expensive. 

Also, as much as possible I hope to unlock gameplay that you just can't do without combining parts together and upping the scale. LIke making LKO  ship docks out of 4 parts.

So, the focus thus far has been on large structural parts, deepspace infrastructure, and, now, launch systems and large crew cabins.

 

Now, about that T404 cockpit. I've been playing around with the idea for 6 months. I'm still not sure what it should be. The design is becoming clearer now that T404 is a bulkhead profile. There's no NASA equivalent for deep space cockpits. Not anything real anyways. I like the fact that deep space designs do not have to be aerodynamic. We can have any shape that we want, so flying bricks are OK. But the downside is that the design space is huge! I know what it shouldn't be.  It shouldn't be like a star trek main bridge. It needs to be more realistic than that to fit with the visual style of Kerbodyne Plus that has been established. So, no millenium falcons. But, there's the Hermes from The Martian. There's also the Venture Star from Avatar. What I'm trying to say is, I can't make up my damn mind! Haha

So, I may give up on it for now. There's plenty of other parts that need work before the first release candidate. That would allow people to play with it and help me get a sense of where things should go from here. 

Here is a list of parts that still need love. The ones with an * (asterisk) may not make it in the first release. 

• T404 Service Module
• T404 Cargo Bay*
• T404 LFO Tank
• T404 Mono Prop Tank
• T404 Battery Bank
• T404 Nrax Converter (I know I said I was done, but this form factor makes more sense)
• T404 Decoupler
• T404 quad 2.5 coupler
• T404 quad 3.75 coupler
• T404 tri 3.75 coupler
• T404 bicoupler
• T404 Data Server (this is a huge store for science experiments with auto science lab)*
• T404 2nd Stage Engine
• T404 34d Stage Engine
• T303 Structural fuselage 3.75 M high 3.75 M bulkhead profile
• T303 Structural fuselage 7.5 M high M bulkhead profile
• T202 Structural Truss Family ( a smaller variant on the T404, T202 is mainly structural pieces )*
• XL RCS Thrusters
• XL landing legs

That's quite a lot to do! So I best get cracking:)

@Bonus Eventus Darn, thats a lot of parts

I really hope the T404 Data Server makes it in, it looks like it'd be hugely useful for titanic spaceships. And I think you should definitely abandon the T404 cockpit and centrifuge, they'd take too much time to make.

Oh and here's my idea for the XL landing legs, they'd look like they'd take a lot of pressure/impact, and their general appearence would scream "ME GIANT SPACECRAFT! ME STOMPY!"

[Bonus Eventus]

29 minutes ago, AJTheMighty said:

@Bonus Eventus Darn, thats a lot of parts

I really hope the T404 Data Server makes it in, it looks like it'd be hugely useful for titanic spaceships. And I think you should definitely abandon the T404 cockpit and centrifuge, they'd take too much time to make.

Oh and here's my idea for the XL landing legs, they'd look like they'd take a lot of pressure/impact, and their general appearence would scream "ME GIANT SPACECRAFT! ME STOMPY!"

 

I'm thinking Ares 4 MAV from The Martian. And thanks for all the input and encouragement man

Edited January 14, 2016 by Bonus Eventus

[Jimbodiah]

AJ, seems every post you are asking for a centrifuge wheel .  You do realize there are a few mods out there that already have these, right? USI mks, Hermes and habitat pack just to name 3.

[Siphonophore]

On 1/14/2016 at 6:26 PM, Bonus Eventus said:

 

I'm thinking Ares 4 MAV from The Martian. And thanks for all the input and encouragement man

Oh you're welcome! Btw got any pics of the Leviathan solar panels in-game? (with EVA Kerbal for scale?)

Maybe the solar panels could be used on either a titanic space station or a mothership I dont know, but try and see what you can do  

Also I think the landing legs could have integrated lights for easy landing in dark areas and maybe a huge, HUGE impact tolerance, and I think you COULD make the design of the XL Landing gear look like a mix between the MAV landing legs, Apollo Lunar Module gear and the SpaceX booster landing legs. The giant plasma engines should each have the stock ion engine fx too for better immersion

And also did you come up with a description for the Leviathan solar panels and did you pick the name I suggested?

I think it's time to release a 1.0.5 beta pre-release. I wanna test out the new parts, and you should also update the KerbalStuff download once it's release.

Edited January 15, 2016 by AJTheMighty

[Bonus Eventus]

 

Just started roughing this in. I think the animation will look really good when its done. Thinking of adding a little more detail.

[Siphonophore]

4 minutes ago, Bonus Eventus said:

 

Just started roughing this in. I think the animation will look really good when its done. Thinking of adding a little more detail.

Looks great man, I so do agree that its animation will look awesome when done. I think you could add lots of pistons to it and some yellow/black stripes on the edges of the pads

Edited January 15, 2016 by AJTheMighty

[Bonus Eventus]

1 hour ago, AJTheMighty said:

Oh you're welcome! Btw got any pics of the Leviathan solar panels in-game? (with EVA Kerbal for scale?)

Maybe the solar panels could be used on either a titanic space station or a mothership I dont know, but try and see what you can do  

Also I think the landing legs could have integrated lights for easy landing in dark areas and maybe a huge, HUGE impact tolerance, and I think you COULD make the design of the XL Landing gear look like a mix between the MAV landing legs, Apollo Lunar Module gear and the SpaceX booster landing legs. The giant plasma engines should each have the stock ion engine fx too for better immersion

And also did you come up with a description for the Leviathan solar panels and did you pick the name I suggested?

I think it's time to release a 1.0.5 beta pre-release. I wanna test out the new parts, and you should also update the KerbalStuff download once it's release.

Changed the airlock to be a little more stock-a-like. Also added ladders. Made some very minor changes to the solar panel textures (probably can't tell). 

Edited January 15, 2016 by Bonus Eventus

[Siphonophore]

10 hours ago, Bonus Eventus said:

Changed the airlock to be a little more stock-a-like. Also added ladders. Made some very minor changes to the solar panel textures (probably can't tell). 

Those are soooooo huge

Like I said, you could release a beta release pretty soon

 

[Bonus Eventus]

These landing legs came out pretty darn good :0

Edited January 17, 2016 by Bonus Eventus

[DangerouslyDave]

Those landing legs are fantastic! The lights are a great touch, too. I'd love to see these in action during a night descent.