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[ABANDONED] [WIP] Hanbart-Thompdrin Airbags & Flotation Devices


sumghai

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In parallel with dev work on Fustek Station Parts and maintaining SDHI SMS, I've started yet another project, this time in collaboration with the immensely talented @Starwaster.

This add-on aims to provide a range of airbags and flotation devices for cushioning terrestrial landings or splashdowns, with the following features:

  • Balls, bags, logs and rings for round fuselage diameters of 0.625, 1.25, 2.5 and 3.75m
  • Manual or automatic altitude-based deployment
  • Possibly even inflatable lifeboats for individual or groups of Kerbals

In addition to providing its own set of parts, the plugin can be used to power similar devices included in other add-ons, such as the SDHI SMS heat shield's flotation device.

Starwaster will develop the plugin and corresponding PartModule, while I will be working on models, textures, animations and documentation.

 

To start off, I've tossed together a quick Blender mockup of some of the parts - the balls and logs are designed to be surface-attached via small "blisters", while the rings are a set of logs or bags that can be stack-attached to the bottom of a pod or a lander.
da71bf30-e4a7-11e5-86e6-41d441b00d22.png

Fig 1 - Concept models for airbags and flotation devices.

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Could you make some anti-flotation parts in this pack too?  Parts that are very heavy, yet small enough so that they aren't out of place.  From what I understand, the new buoyancy allows for full ore containers and some structural parts to help sink craft,  but those are large, tedious, and overall impractical.  Parts designed to help sink would open up many underwater worlds.

 

Edit:  Good luck!

Edited by Cornholio
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18 minutes ago, Cornholio said:

Could you make some anti-flotation parts in this pack too?  Parts that are very heavy, yet small enough so that they aren't out of place.  From what I understand, the new buoyancy allows for full ore containers and some structural parts to help sink craft,  but those are large, tedious, and overall impractical.  Parts designed to help sink would open up many underwater worlds.

Unfortunately, that's outside the focus of this add-on, so I won't be pursuing that suggestion.

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45 minutes ago, Cornholio said:

Could you make some anti-flotation parts in this pack too?  Parts that are very heavy, yet small enough so that they aren't out of place.  From what I understand, the new buoyancy allows for full ore containers and some structural parts to help sink craft,  but those are large, tedious, and overall impractical.  Parts designed to help sink would open up many underwater worlds.

 

Edit:  Good luck!

Have you checked out RoverDude's submersible pack? It has ballast parts and ballast tanks...

 

Edited by Starwaster
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Will the airbags in question be bouncy (perhaps using the ancient World Cup Mod plugin?) and crushable? I wonder if a very basic target deformation could be used to make them appear to "squish", kind of like the ball in the gif below (except the deformation wouldn't be as extreme).

fJhtA.gif

One thing I've found difficult with other airbag mods is making a Mars Pathfinder/MER-like landing system, if airbags are in a clustered formation like seen below, they collide with each other (usually ripping themselves off or even destroying the entire craft). The large number of airbags needed also increases part count. I think 1.25m & 2.5m downward-facing airbags, along with a 1x1m square one (to fit the 1x1 Structural Panel, I personally use it as a baseplate for delivering rovers) would make incorporating airbags into landers easier. 

320px-Pathfinder_Air_Bags_-_GPN-2000-000  Notice how the airbags are joined together in sets of six.

So about the floaties, would they always want to be as close to the water as they can (i.e. flipping my capsule upside down when I just have the little uprighting bags), like with the USI airbags?

Edited by hieywiey
Grammatical Changes
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1 hour ago, hieywiey said:

Will the airbags in question be bouncy (perhaps using the ancient World Cup Mod plugin?) and crushable? I wonder if a very basic target deformation could be used to make them appear to "squish", kind of like the ball in the gif below (except the deformation wouldn't be as extreme).

That would be nice, although I'm not sure how doable that is plugin-wise or what modifications are needed to make my models deform appropriately when crushed at any angle.

1 hour ago, hieywiey said:

One thing I've found difficult with other airbag mods is making a Mars Pathfinder/MER-like landing system, if airbags are in a clustered formation like seen below, they collide with each other (usually ripping themselves off or even destroying the entire craft). The large number of airbags needed also increases part count. I think 1.25m & 2.5m downward-facing airbags, along with a 1x1m square one (to fit the 1x1 Structural Panel, I personally use it as a baseplate for delivering rovers) would make incorporating airbags into landers easier. 

With the exception of the "ring" parts, I'm going to avoid pre-made composite parts - the balls are there to provide the flexibility of covering any oddly-shaped payloads.

Also, from what I've heard, moving colliders within the same vessel can safely intersect.

1 hour ago, hieywiey said:

So about the floaties, would they always want to be as close to the water as they can (i.e. flipping my capsule upside down when I just have the little uprighting bags), like with the USI airbags?

Hopefully not like that, no.

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1 hour ago, sumghai said:

That would be nice, although I'm not sure how doable that is plugin-wise or what modifications are needed to make my models deform appropriately when crushed at any angle.

With the exception of the "ring" parts, I'm going to avoid pre-made composite parts - the balls are there to provide the flexibility of covering any oddly-shaped payloads.

Also, from what I've heard, moving colliders within the same vessel can safely intersect.

Hopefully not like that, no.

That's usually true but maybe not always....

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4 hours ago, StevieC said:

Is this slated to allow for a flotation ring that automatically inflates upon contact with water a-la the old SDHI heat-shield's flotation ring?

Short Answer - Yes

Long Answer - The SDHI SMS's built-in flotation ring will be powered by this plugin, but will be modified so that it inflates at a set altitude before splashdown. Automatic inflation upon water contact would be more useful for the lifeboats from this pack.

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15 minutes ago, ThatOneBritishGuy... said:

Any indication on what artstyle the parts will follow? Will they be more stockalike or similar to the Fustek Parts?

I'm aiming for stockalike.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Progress Report, 30 March 2016

I haven't done much specifically for Hanbart-Thompdrin as I've been bouncing between a few other projects, but I took the opportunity to rework the SDHI SMS heatshield airbag model. I'm treating this as a practice run to determine the aesthetics of the HT airbags:

KEoWhQJ.png

Starwaster has also been refining the test plugin, mainly looking at fixing persistence issues.

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  • 1 year later...
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