RIAC - Resources in a Can

[Caithloki]

The Resources in a Can or RIAC for short is a mobile, small and compact mining IRSU for small purposes. Able to be stored in very small cargo bays and land on small distant moons (Engines released pending completion.) Even tho it is of small size and stature it will be well suited to supplying roving probes with required fuel for much less then a full mining rig.

 

 It will have center core, that is just a simple attachment point or maybe include a probe core. Then there will be many stack parts, such as on top, a four way small connector for 4 independent solar panels, a stack 4 way solar panel that is static, probe core, small rcs and LF/OX tanks, Sas, reactor, a mini docking port/ decoupler, and a parachute (Probably multiple depending where you plan to go). For the bottom it would be landing legs, and assorted engines each with their own strength to be used for different gravitates.

The main goal of the mod is to have a small stow-able miner that could be pushed by just a ion drive to the planet and then use its own thruster, and be used as a back up and since it will be quite low rate of production. Or as a far off miner to land and start a mining colony well you setup the bigger stuff or to refuel future missions so they can save weight on return feul. 

Each part is contained in a quarter shell with doors that open allowing for safe travel and re-entry through atmo, but I plan to have the doors also act like radiators for the refiner and drill. The refinery will have a bit of storage for fuel in it but the pop up will have a lot more fuel available in it (To be determined at a later date).

Edited January 19, 2017 by Caithloki

[Caithloki]

Made the drill, but couldn't add it to the ablum

[wasml]

I like your idea of having the doors double as radiators.

[Caithloki]

In my original drawings I planned to have extendable panels but the whole door part would be a extended metal part that could act as a heat sink, so It just clicked to have them as radiators.

[Caithloki]

So weird issue I cannot figure out, the models I have for these two parts are different, there is a file for Mu for each and a CFG file for each, but they do share a texture temporarily as a place holder to get everything into the game before I start drawing up specific graphics.

Can someone enlighten me on how to resolve this issue?

EDIT: Nevermind, I was able to resolve it, was an issue with the way I put everything into one folder, I needed to put them each into their own one.

Edited February 27, 2016 by Caithloki

[Caithloki]

So here is the first two parts in game, I think it might be to small , I will try and scale it up to relatively the same size as that tank. it is just in the game, currently with no animations added, I still need figure out the process to do so.

[Caithloki]

Here is the Battery and Refinery in game (Again with placeholder texture since it won't show up in game without it) with the doors functioning and them both serving their purpose, the refinery actually refines.

I will most likely delay the texture creation till I get my drawing tablet after my taxes come back. I do not want to half ass em.

[Caithloki]

Here is the the core, refinery, drill and batteries along with the new tank model. I am going to be working on the textures this week and the configs for the drill and refinery, currently they are just stock configs that are over powered for their purpose.

 

Edited March 6, 2016 by Caithloki

[Joco223]

You can add some AO (Ambient Occlusion)  to the models. I can help you if needed  

[Caithloki]

Id like the help once I get the basic idea down for the textures, I'm still drawing up the ideas.

[Joco223]

Ok, PM if you need any help, idk what program are you using but you have an integrated AO function in Blender. Once you UV map the model, just create a new texture and bake the AO into it and then is use it as an Multiplier layer in Photoshop and put the textures below that layer

Edited March 6, 2016 by Joco223

[Caithloki]

I am using Maya LT and it might have the option for AO, I am used to using the normal Maya which did, but only have about 20 hours in Maya Lt. I still need to find the best option for drawing the textures.

[Caithloki]

Well its been quite awhile since I last did anything with this, I got a tablet for my PC to do textures and kind of completely forgot I was creating this, but found a the files again. So I am reviving it to continue on with it. Here is the drill with the first pass on textures, along with the container and center core done.

Here is those parts, the drill extended and container closed with drill inside. I have been having a few issues opening the old files since I switched back to Student Maya when I was having issues with cash, so I might have to redesign some parts.

Edited January 10, 2017 by Caithloki

[Caithloki]

YES! I found all the old files, so the design will stay pretty much the same.

[Caithloki]

On 3/6/2016 at 0:53 PM, Joco223 said:

Ok, PM if you need any help, idk what program are you using but you have an integrated AO function in Blender. Once you UV map the model, just create a new texture and bake the AO into it and then is use it as an Multiplier layer in Photoshop and put the textures below that layer

Hey man, do you happen to know how to Bake AO into the texture in Maya 2017? I have been trying to do so with little success. If anyone else can assist as well it will be much appreciated. I am yanking my hair out trying to figure this out. 

[Caithloki]

Boom, almost done of the battery pack. Just need to figure out what I am going put on the casing.

[Caithloki]

And the refinery is UVed but not textured yet, been working on this since 230pm so I am taking a break. Also it has an AO applied in Maya just cannot figure out how to pull it into the texture.

Edited January 11, 2017 by Caithloki

[Caithloki]

So I spent a little of time lurking google and posting on the autodesk fourm. I was able to get the AO to work. I still need to do the other parts but here is the container with AO.

For reference here is it without it.

Makes it look a lot less flat.

[Caithloki]

Refinery No AO

Refinery AO and I forgot about the color coding of the tanks. This AO adding was alot easier at college, for some reason my Photoshop is not like EXR files today. 

[Caithloki]

With AO

Without AO, I still do not know what to put on the battery casing, if anyone has an idea feel free to recommend it.

[Caithloki]

Trying to decided for either a inflatable tank or a normal tanks  

They are both the same model, just one is expanded and the other not, if it requires a MM file to do inflatable tank I might just stick with the normal tank. I mostly just want to have enough fuel storage to fill a couple oscarB tanks, since this will mainly be an early form of mining. So you could say land this on IKE or other small moon, have it start mining and producing. Then send a probe with science tools to ike and use the RIAC system to refuel it to sci hop around the planet instead of sending many probes there (albeit with proper planning it would make this idea moot).

[Caithloki]

Landing leg modeled, was going to do a built in one for the core but decided it would be to much work to cut into the core and create it properly.

I like how it turned out but I might have to add another piston later to increase its height

[Caithloki]

Here is a test of the container in KSP without doors or the internal parts, just wanted to try out the core and container, technically I could go about this with just having one container and all the internals separate but they do not have backs just fronts so they would be see through.

[Kombat engineer]

I like the idea of a self contained IRSU rover but why not add better(but late game/expensive) parts that are more efficient,powerful,etc. 

[Caithloki]

2 minutes ago, Kombat engineer said:

I like the idea of a self contained IRSU rover but why not add better(but late game/expensive) parts that are more efficient,powerful,etc. 

That is a possibility later on, currently this would will be my first mod that reaches anything near completion (for the current idea) so I am mainly using these current 4 or 5 parts to figure out the basic rules for modding, figuring out unity for ksp and coding the parts. Afterwards I will be expanding on offered parts in the mod, such as creating smaller or more powerful parts (ie bigger battery for the same size or smaller, more efficient refinery, etc). Once I got these early game part figured out.

I didn't actually think of it as a rover IRSU but now that you mentioned it I think I will make a special core that is flat on one side but has 2-4 slots for the pods, so it would be half cylinder making it easier to make it a rover.