Jump to content

[1.2.2] Forgotten Real Engines (FRE)


Zarbizaure

Recommended Posts

On 5/16/2016 at 0:24 PM, Zarbizaure said:

About the "procedural mounts" idea:

I really have no idea from where to start, and my C# knowledge is poor. Maybe somebody more talentuous could give me some advice?

The idea would be:

  • A first slider which scale the whole mount (like Tweakscale does)
  • A second slider which choose the engine scheme (like SSTU: single, twice, threeRadial, threeLinear...). This means two things:
    • Mesh would have to be switched. How it is possible to do this in KSP? Will all the meshes be loaded and only one displayed (with an animation) or it is possible to change the active mesh of a part?
    • Nodes would have to be modified too.
  • A third slider which will adjust the bottom node height (the node connected to the lower part of the rocket).
  • A toggle for the decoupler.
  • A fairing generator. Maybe it's possible to use procedural fairings?

I say all this as an end user rather than a developer, so my knowledge is rather limited, but I can probably start you on the path.

For mesh switching, you have a few options: Firespitter, Interstellar or B9. Chronologically, it seems to move in that order too, as currently people seem to be just on the cusp of adopting B9 (of bac9 fame) as the new standard, but the others are still widely supported. I can't tell you much about how they work under the hood, but I do know that Firespitter's at least has pretty good documentation (which means a lot, at least to me), but the developer I believe has left ksp and it's being maintained in his absence. Interstellar you see a lot with fuel switching, but it also does mesh switching; it is very actively developed by Freethinker, however mod authors seem to be moving away from it in favor of B9PartSwitch (I forget the exact title of the mod, but that's close). bac9 of B9 aerospace created a new partswitch/animation/fuelswitch mod and I know at least Nertea converted all of his mods over to it recently (from Interstellar), so it probably has its merits, but I don't know much about it.

There is a procedural fairings mod, but I don't think it works the way you'd like it to (I didn't care for it). Still, something to consider maybe. I believe it's by e.dog.

There is one part from Home Grown Rockets by OrionKermin, the Heavy LES that is like a normal LES but has a fairing attached to it to allow you to cover the capsule below the LES, but that's procedural shroud, not a mount. Only thing I can think of, but probably not what you want.

A good mod pack to check out might be Cryo Engines by Nertea, as it has some mesh switching and some tankbutt toggles. However, for all of the options you want as outlined in your post, you'll only find that in SSTU labs as you said.

Cheers, and good luck (and nice engines)

:)

----edit-----

I may have completely misread your question; you want to develop a plugin? I need to not post before morning coffee:P

 

Edited by Deimos Rast
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Deimos Rast Yes the idea was indeed to develop a plugin - to create a procedural mount mod;

But maybe I can use plugins from somebody else - or check how similar plugins are written. So what you told me is fine, I may check these mods later :wink: I've already took a look at how SSTU and procedural parts work but these are really complex mods; understanding something with my poor coding knowledge is almost impossible. This involve learning C# so I will stay a bit more on FRE engines right now - there are still a few engines that I really want to create, and I didn't wrote something in C# for almost 2 years...

Anyway, if anybody is interested in this idea, and has a good talent for coding but is too lazy to modelize stuff, I would be happy for a partnership-mod!

Still a big thank for your answer :) 

Edited by Zarbizaure
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rutherfords 90% done! Still a bit of work on heat animations and configs to create... I'm going to sleep now, you could expect an update tomorrow!

Edited by Zarbizaure
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Almost done with Rutherdford engines. Also, two question:

  • Since it is powered by brushless motors, it should not have an ignition limit, right? The only limit is the battery...
  • How could we replicate the way these motors work? Supposing they are really powerfull brushless motors, they should have a power input of 2kW per engine = 4kW total; It would be cool to see the engine conuming these 4kW from an integrated battery! However I have no idea where to place an electrical consuption during thrust. Maybe @NathanKell knows how to do that?
Edited by Zarbizaure
Link to comment
Share on other sites

0.6.0.0 - KSP 1.1.2

  • NEW PART: Rutherford engine!
  • NEW PART: Rutherford Vacuum engine!
  • Warning : These engines are still WIP and stats may change in the near future.

Also, as mentionned above, a bit of help for these configs would be nice :) 

Pics are coming :wink:

Edited by Zarbizaure
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Zarbizaure said:

0.6.0.0 - KSP 1.1.2

  • NEW PART: Rutherford engine!
  • NEW PART: Rutherford Vacuum engine!
  • Warning : These engines are still WIP and stats may change in the near future.

Also, as mentionned above, a bit of help for these configs would be nice :) 

Well, that was quick...

for me, at least.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just added a bunch of random pipes, copy/pasted them and it was fine. You could always remove more pipes than I did, but the original desing has a lot.

Edited by Zarbizaure
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did you had good sources about early Viking engines costs? 45K and 30K for unlocking looks really high compared to other engines of similar purpose from USA and USSR. Engines themselves are also noticeably more expensive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@SoTOP No, I don't have good sources for the entry cost. If you think they need to be changed (and if you have a better source) you could always do a pull request on the RP-0 github fork.

The cost of most of the engines is probably not completely accurate but it should be relatively good. I will see if I could improve the Viking pricing because they were done earlier and I hadn't good sources at this time. You would have to wait for an RP-0 update though...

However, if you unlock one of the Viking engine, the others should be much less expensive; I added an entry cost substractor depending on which engine you unlocked.

I checked and their pricing isn't bad; yet the entry cost is indeed too high. I don't have any good sources, what would be a correct value for you?

Edited by Zarbizaure
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
Just now, Zarbizaure said:

that's not that bad! Honestly it's hard to do better than this :P The mount looks a bit huge but I suppose it is that wide because of the 1.25m stock size? (or 2.5m maybe?)

My HLV-I is 1.875m in diameter.

Regarding mount size, I'm making the rough shape of the mount based on an H-I orthographic cutout drawing from NASDA:
32Eoykt.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@JoseEduardo Sorry for my late answer! Yeah these are interesting engines :) Not for now though...I'll pass my final exams then model the KARI korean engines, and my not, brasilian then... :wink: Plus the pdf document has some really interesting 3D drawing, I won't have to guess-estimate how the pumps are this time!

Edited by Zarbizaure
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Excellent mod and +9999 for RP-0 implementation, makes playing a ESA based campaign a lot better :) Keep it coming :)

 

One thing I came across is that as soon as you decouple the Vega booster stages, the engine nozzles turn blue. - Any idea what's causing this?

Edited by Theysen
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Theysen thanks a lot :-) the blue engine after decoupling is a known issue...I have absolutely no idea what is causing it xP I tried changing my emissive curve multiple time, but it didn't work...Perhaps it's because I create these glowing effect in Unity 4 and not 5, the current version used by the KSP dev (but which lacks of good emissive animation tool).

Any other modder encoutered an issue like this one?

Edited by Zarbizaure
Link to comment
Share on other sites

another company that developp tiny rocket to launch cubesat (like rocket lab). Fun fact is, they also use the "FRE"(-R1) abbreviation, for "Firefly Rocket Engine Research 1". It may worth some part modelling!

http://www.fireflyspace.com

And guess what...they're developping a tiny aerospike engine! And pressure-fed! Wow, that's would be insanely cool in RO!

Edited by Zarbizaure
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...