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[WIP] Coatl Aerospace ProbesPlus Dev Thread [Beta] 10/19/2020 (1.8-1.10)


akron

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1 hour ago, sslaptnhablhat said:

With the Surveyor revamp, will you be adding the shorter omni-antenna and the mounting strut for the TV camera?

I wasn't planning on it, but do I need to look at those? 

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Just now, akron said:

I wasn't planning on it, but do I need to look at those? 

Of course only if it isn't too much work, because to be honest, it's a pain trying to position the TV camera which in real life was mounted on a prominent truss sticking out of the body. The omni-antenna isn't too important, though it is a little awkward to position.

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45 minutes ago, sslaptnhablhat said:

Of course only if it isn't too much work, because to be honest, it's a pain trying to position the TV camera which in real life was mounted on a prominent truss sticking out of the body. The omni-antenna isn't too important, though it is a little awkward to position.

I don't think I will do the second omni. The camera base is probably best modeled into the chassis. I will revisit that one.

This Surveyor revamp is a minor one anyway, just enough to get the additional texture maps working. I feel Surveyor could be improved in other ways and will likely come back to it. Most models I am doing now are ending up with far more detail than I did at first even if the textures aren't up to top quality. This means that most if not all part sets before Cassini will likely need a serious re-do.

It's hard to stay on task because I seriously do want to re-do some parts but I have to trudge on through Mariner-Viking parts. Thus far the M9 Propulsion Module has been a bit frustrating to work on, thus the slow progress.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 2/20/2019 at 12:30 PM, bobjonesisthebest:D said:

dang it why dont you give us links for the craft files!

Craft files are available for download on the first post of the thread, why don't you check there

2 hours ago, redmonddkgamer said:

Could you add some more spacecraft to the craft file download? Especially Juno.

I could have sworn Juno was already in there. I will check and update. What other craft files do you think are needed?

Edited by akron
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Hi all,

I posted somethign a little while ago in the SCANSat thread, but it was suggested I try here instead.  I'm using the ProbesPlus! alternative parts for the SCANSat scanners, and have noticed that purchasing these from R&D does not unlock the relevant SCANSat contracts (you have to purchase the original SCANSat scanner of the relevant quality to unlock each contract).  How do you guys all get round this?  I've been cheating myself the funds to unlock the SCANSat version of the scanner, and then using the ProbesPlus! version on my craft.  I'm able to complete the contracts just fine with the alternative part, I just can't obtain the contract in the first place without "wasting" funds unlocking both versions of the scanner.

Thanks

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10 hours ago, eatU4myT said:

Hi all,

I posted somethign a little while ago in the SCANSat thread, but it was suggested I try here instead.  I'm using the ProbesPlus! alternative parts for the SCANSat scanners, and have noticed that purchasing these from R&D does not unlock the relevant SCANSat contracts (you have to purchase the original SCANSat scanner of the relevant quality to unlock each contract).  How do you guys all get round this?  I've been cheating myself the funds to unlock the SCANSat version of the scanner, and then using the ProbesPlus! version on my craft.  I'm able to complete the contracts just fine with the alternative part, I just can't obtain the contract in the first place without "wasting" funds unlocking both versions of the scanner.

Thanks

I could have sworn we had a MM patch for contracts and techtree but I could be wrong. I will check

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@akron It's been a while, if you don't mind I'd love to see the progress you've made with the Mariner-derived parts.

EDIT: Also, if I'm perfectly honest, the Pioneer 10-11 parts still look good, I wouldn't worry about revamping much other than Voyager and Venera for the time being, and even so, I'd rather see new parts than revamps of old parts.

Edited by golkaidakhaana
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10 minutes ago, sslaptnhablhat said:

@akron It's been a while, if you don't mind I'd love to see the progress you've made with the Mariner-derived parts.

Fair enough!

That Mariner 9 engine has been killing me! I've been going back and forth with the engine details and the thermal cover as I wanted it to be toggled on/off but it is proving to be more trouble than it's worth. Maybe.

I have two issues, the HGA mounting structure and the solar panels clipping into the cover. They actually are supposed to latch to each other at the top and at that angle, I can't get anything to fit correctly. I'm obviously missing something or have incorrect diameters for one or more of the propellant tanks.

DzfsPrT.jpg

 

 

I've also been touching up other older parts that are far from being up to par, particularly SRB motors. I've been debating just starting over on those as fixing them is taking just too much time. I'm referring to these:

D9b37SN.jpg

Voyager's Propulsion module (TE-M-364-4), Standalone Star37E (Also a TE-M-364-4), Surveyor's Retromotor (TE-M-364-2), and IUE's Star24C Kick motor

The problem with those is that they are all STAR solid motors and I have different designs and fairings for all. They're mismatched when are supposed to be pretty much the same bloody thing. However, fixing Voyager's PM means that I also have to update the PM truss adapter, which means I should update the bus, which means I should update the HGA, which means that I should also...

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5 minutes ago, akron said:

That Mariner 9 engine has been killing me! I've been going back and forth with the engine details and the thermal cover as I wanted it to be toggled on/off but it is proving to be more trouble than it's worth. Maybe.

I have two issues, the HGA mounting structure and the solar panels clipping into the cover. They actually are supposed to latch to each other at the top and at that angle, I can't get anything to fit correctly. I'm obviously missing something or have incorrect diameters for one or more of the propellant tanks.

The M9 parts look pretty good so far, just persevere and don't worry so much about getting the dimensions of the engine 100% perfect, I promise you nobody will notice!

8 minutes ago, akron said:

I've also been touching up other older parts that are far from being up to par, particularly SRB motors. I've been debating just starting over on those as fixing them is taking just too much time.

The problem with those is that they are all STAR solid motors and I have different designs and fairings for all. They're mismatched when are supposed to be pretty much the same bloody thing. However, fixing Voyager's PM means that I also have to update the PM truss adapter, which means I should update the bus, which means I should update the HGA, which means that I should also...

BDB's recent update includes a set of Star SRMs (including a Star-37BV that fits perfeclty beneath the Surveyor bus), so again, perhaps you shouldn't worry about this so much either.

Maybe it's because I'm pretty bummed out that all my favourite mods are undergoing revamps as opposed to new part additions, I'd much prefer to see a fresh, interesting, brand-new set of Mariner and Viking parts than revamps of old parts, and I'm sure other people will agree (I mean, have you ever seen dedicated Viking parts in KSP?).

Anyway, I apollogise for my little critique of your beautiful mod, and of course I don't mind if you do decide to revamp the old parts after the Mariner/Viking update has been released, I always enjoy new content, especially by such a skilled modder as yourself.

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6 hours ago, akron said:

Fair enough!

That Mariner 9 engine has been killing me! I've been going back and forth with the engine details and the thermal cover as I wanted it to be toggled on/off but it is proving to be more trouble than it's worth. Maybe.

I have two issues, the HGA mounting structure and the solar panels clipping into the cover. They actually are supposed to latch to each other at the top and at that angle, I can't get anything to fit correctly. I'm obviously missing something or have incorrect diameters for one or more of the propellant tanks.

I've also been touching up other older parts that are far from being up to par, particularly SRB motors. I've been debating just starting over on those as fixing them is taking just too much time. I'm referring to these:

Voyager's Propulsion module (TE-M-364-4), Standalone Star37E (Also a TE-M-364-4), Surveyor's Retromotor (TE-M-364-2), and IUE's Star24C Kick motor

The problem with those is that they are all STAR solid motors and I have different designs and fairings for all. They're mismatched when are supposed to be pretty much the same bloody thing. However, fixing Voyager's PM means that I also have to update the PM truss adapter, which means I should update the bus, which means I should update the HGA, which means that I should also...

Hmm, I think the simple fix for Mariner 9 is to just scaled down the fuel tanks, yeah. and I think the HGA attaches to the side via some struts, if that helps?

Your STAR interstages are so much cooler than mine... Really sucks that they aren't all the same size. If I remember from my work on them, it's because 0.625m is too big for the STAR-37 series diameter?

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4 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

Hmm, I think the simple fix for Mariner 9 is to just scaled down the fuel tanks, yeah. and I think the HGA attaches to the side via some struts, if that helps?

Your STAR interstages are so much cooler than mine... Really sucks that they aren't all the same size. If I remember from my work on them, it's because 0.625m is too big for the STAR-37 series diameter?

Thank you! You gave me a new idea for how to deal with the tanks. I'll try it later and report back.

Yeah the size problems spawned from my inability to stick to my scope of work. When I started the mod, I was doing parts by standard KSP sizes. For example, the Voyager bus is normalized to a 1.25m diameter even though it's not exactly that when scaled to KSP. Barquetta is 0.625m I think, and Quetzal 0.9375m or whatever.

I eventually realized that probes really don't need to adhere to "standard" KSP sizes as much as launch vehicles do so all my parts started getting made in a KSP rescale of whatever the real-life size was regardless of whether or not it was a standard KSP size. You'll find that the Mariner buses are like 1.31m or something like that. This makes them better looking proportionally, but eventually I caught up to the size mismatch.

Surveyor is the one who threw it all off. Surveyor uses a Star 37 as well, so technically it needs to be the same diameter as the Voyager PM, but doing that would mean Surveyor has to be rescaled entirely as it would turn out too small in relation to the SRB. Sigh.

I really wanted all of those to share art style and scale which may also mean they can share texture space. Maybe you don't mind letting me look at your PSD for your Star solid motors. I need to change my design process anyway to start matching the stock style you guys are going with.

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4 minutes ago, akron said:

I really wanted all of those to share art style and scale which may also mean they can share texture space. Maybe you don't mind letting me look at your PSD for your Star solid motors. I need to change my design process anyway to start matching the stock style you guys are going with.

Text me tonight if I forget, you can straight up steal parts of the texture if you'd like.

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  • 3 weeks later...
5 hours ago, MaverickSawyer said:

Is that normal, or have I found a bug?

He he, it is totally normal. :D 

 

To quote NASA's Cassini website:

Quote

The main engine was used for spacecraft velocity and trajectory correction changes. To be on the safe side, there were two identical main engines: One was in use and the other was a backup.

Since the engines are redundant backups, I wanted to have only one firing at a time in my KSP version.

Another fun fact is that the RD-4 that powers Cassini is the same that was used in the 4-direction RCS thrusters on the Apollo CSM :)

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By the way, quick update:

I am trying to get Dev streams started back up to have a set schedule that I can work on the mod and take feedback from you guys directly. I can hopefully start back up this week, I will post up here to let you know. I may do random Twitch LP or mod streams to test things out beforehand.

~cheers!

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1 hour ago, Barzon Kerman said:

sounds great! What time do you think you might do them?

Usually evenings around 7pm-ish Eastern Standard Time, which I know is very late for you guys over there on the other side of the pond. I can look into earlier times on the weekends

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Well, I made a patch to add compatibility with CommunityResourcePack and ScanSat for the scanners available in this mod. 

//Resource types:  
//	0 = Crustal		(Stuff you dig up)
//	1 = Oceanic	(Stuff in the oceans)
//	2 = Atmospheric	(Stuff in the air, varies with pressure)
//	3 = Interplanetary	(Stuff you find between planets)
//*********************************************************
//The ":FOR[CoatlAerospace]" and "%MODULE[ModuleResourceScanner]" are applied to avoid conflict with the SCANsat patch.

//CA-GRS Gamma Ray Spectrometer
@PART[ca_GRS]:FOR[CoatlAerospace]:NEEDS[CommunityResourcePack]
{
	MODULE
	{
		name = ModuleResourceScanner
		ScannerType = 0
		ResourceName = Water
		MaxAbundanceAltitude = 95000
		RequiresUnlock = false
	}
	MODULE
	{
		name = ModuleResourceScanner
		ScannerType = 0
		ResourceName = Uraninite
		MaxAbundanceAltitude = 32500
		RequiresUnlock = false
	}
	MODULE
	{
		name = ModuleResourceScanner
		ScannerType = 0
		ResourceName = Hydrates
		MaxAbundanceAltitude = 35000
		RequiresUnlock = false
	}
}

//CA-LUV Ultraviolet Spectrometer|CAE-SC-VIS Vorona Imaging System
@PART[cca_LUV|ca_vor_camera]:FOR[CoatlAerospace]:NEEDS[CommunityResourcePack]
{
	MODULE
	{
		name = ModuleResourceScanner
		ScannerType = 0
		ResourceName = Substrate
		MaxAbundanceAltitude = 55000
		RequiresUnlock = false
	}
	MODULE
	{
		name = ModuleResourceScanner
		ScannerType = 0
		ResourceName = Minerals
		MaxAbundanceAltitude = 72500
		RequiresUnlock = false
	}
}

//CA-SCB01 Torekka Science Boom
@PART[ca_sciBoom]:FOR[CoatlAerospace]:NEEDS[CommunityResourcePack]
{
	MODULE
	{
		name = ModuleResourceScanner
		ScannerType = 0
		ResourceName = Ore
		MaxAbundanceAltitude = 107000
		RequiresUnlock = false
	}
	MODULE
	{
		name = ModuleResourceScanner
		ScannerType = 0
		ResourceName = Substrate
		MaxAbundanceAltitude = 55000
		RequiresUnlock = false
	}
	MODULE
	{
		name = ModuleResourceScanner
		ScannerType = 0
		ResourceName = Minerals
		MaxAbundanceAltitude = 72500
		RequiresUnlock = false
	}
}

//CA-ROTFL Orbital Telescope
@PART[ca_telescope_a]:FOR[CoatlAerospace]:NEEDS[CommunityResourcePack]
{
	MODULE
	{
		name = ModuleResourceScanner
		ScannerType = 0
		ResourceName = Water
		MaxAbundanceAltitude = 120800
		RequiresUnlock = false
	}
	MODULE
	{
		name = ModuleResourceScanner
		ScannerType = 0
		ResourceName = Dirt
		MaxAbundanceAltitude = 48000
		RequiresUnlock = false
	}
	MODULE
	{
		name = ModuleResourceScanner
		ScannerType = 0
		ResourceName = Silicates
		MaxAbundanceAltitude = 78000
		RequiresUnlock = false
	}
}

//CA-MG100 Magnetometer Boom|CA-MER-MAG300 Magnetometer Boom
@PART[ca_magneto2|mer_mag]:FOR[CoatlAerospace]:NEEDS[CommunityResourcePack]
{
	MODULE
	{
		name = ModuleResourceScanner
		ScannerType = 0
		ResourceName = MetallicOre
		MaxAbundanceAltitude = 48000
		RequiresUnlock = false
	}
	MODULE
	{
		name = ModuleResourceScanner
		ScannerType = 0
		ResourceName = RareMetals
		MaxAbundanceAltitude = 42000
		RequiresUnlock = false
	}
}

//************************** SCANsat ********************************
//CA-GRS Gamma Ray Spectrometer
@PART[ca_GRS]:AFTER[CoatlAerospace]:NEEDS[SCANsat,CommunityResourcePack]
{
	//Water, Uraninite, hydrates
	@description ^= :$: Can also interface with SCANsat equipment to function as a water scanner.:

	MODULE
	{
		name = ModuleSCANresourceScanner
		scanName = Gamma ray scan
		sensorType = 1057800	//2^13+2^10+2^20
		fov = 2
		min_alt = 12000
		max_alt = 115000
		best_alt = 90000
		RESOURCE
		{
			name = ElectricCharge
			rate = 0.128
		}
	}	
	MODULE
	{
		name = SCANresourceDisplay
		sensorType = 8192
		ResourceName = Water
	}
}

//CA-LUV Ultraviolet Spectrometer|CAE-SC-VIS Vorona Imaging System
@PART[ca_LUV|ca_vor_camera]:AFTER[CoatlAerospace]:NEEDS[SCANsat,CommunityResourcePack]
{
	//Substrate, Minerals
	@description ^= :$: Can also interface with SCANsat equipment to function as a minerals scanner.:

	MODULE
	{
		name = ModuleSCANresourceScanner
		scanName = Ultraviolet scanner
		sensorType = 98304	//2^15+2^16
		fov = 2
		min_alt = 25000
		max_alt = 172500
		best_alt = 72500
		RESOURCE
		{
			name = ElectricCharge
			rate = 0.25
		}
	}
	
	MODULE
	{
		name = SCANresourceDisplay
		sensorType = 65536
		ResourceName = Substrate
	}
}

//CA-SCB01 Torekka Science Boom
@PART[ca_sciBoom]:AFTER[CoatlAerospace]:NEEDS[SCANsat,CommunityResourcePack]
{
	//Ore, Substrate, Minerals
	@description ^= :$: Can also interface with SCANsat equipment to function as an ore scanner.:

	MODULE
	{
		name = ModuleSCANresourceScanner
		scanName = Ore and minerals scan
		sensorType = 98560	//2^8 + 2^15+2^16
		fov = 3.9
		min_alt = 25000
		max_alt = 172500
		best_alt = 72500
		RESOURCE
		{
			name = ElectricCharge
			rate = 0.35
		}
	}
	
	MODULE
	{
		name = SCANresourceDisplay
		sensorType = 256
		ResourceName = Ore
	}
}

//CA-ROTFL Orbital Telescope
@PART[ca_telescope_a]:AFTER[CoatlAerospace]:NEEDS[SCANsat,CommunityResourcePack]
{
	//Water, Dirt, Silicates
	@description ^= :$: Can also interface with SCANsat equipment to function as a water scanner.:

	MODULE
	{
		name = ModuleSCANresourceScanner
		scanName = Orbital scan
		sensorType = 524288	//2^19
		fov = 3.6
		min_alt = 3000
		max_alt = 150000
		best_alt = 75000
		RESOURCE
		{
			name = ElectricCharge
			rate = 0.46
		}
	}
}

//CA-MG100 Magnetometer Boom|CA-MER-MAG300 Magnetometer Boom
@PART[ca_magneto2|mer_mag]:AFTER[CoatlAerospace]:NEEDS[SCANsat,CommunityResourcePack]
{
	//MetallicOre, RareMetals
	@description ^= :$: Can also interface with SCANsat equipment to function as a metal scanner.:

	MODULE
	{
		name = ModuleSCANresourceScanner
		scanName = Magnetic field scan
		sensorType = 4194560	//2^8+2^22
		fov = 2
		min_alt = 0
		max_alt = 45000
		best_alt = 25000
		RESOURCE
		{
			name = ElectricCharge
			rate = 0.15
		}
	}
	
	MODULE
	{
		name = SCANresourceDisplay
		sensorType = 256
		ResourceName = Ore
	}
}

 

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6 hours ago, Marcelo Silveira said:

Well, I made a patch to add compatibility with CommunityResourcePack and ScanSat for the scanners available in this mod. 

Awesome! I appreciate that! Do you mind if I include it as part of the mod's download?

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