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Tokamak Industries Refurbished Parts - Dev thread


Tokamak

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logo_wider_banner_by_maekern-dagry5a.png

7JMGnJG.png

 

My basic spiel:

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A couple of weeks ago I found myself saddened by all of the orphaned/abandoned mods that have really cool parts which are no longer usable in recent versions of KSP, and seeing post after post of "Will anyone update this? Please?", and I noticed that a lot of them were under permissive licenses or even in the public domain. I decided to start mucking about with .cfg files, seeing if I could give them new life. I wasn't going to do any modelling or anything, just a bit of config tweaking.

Well... one thing led to another, and I found myself learning Unity and Blender, which I had sworn I wasn't going to tackle. Whoops. XD

After getting a lot of excellent help in this thread from some very helpful and patient folks, I'm making progress. I went from just trying to make a tweak here and there to doing some semi-original designing, mostly just to learn more. I've got a pile of old parts that I plan to "refurbish" and re-release, and I'm feeling more and more like I may be able to actually pull it off. Don't worry, I'm tracking licenses and authors carefully. I've gotten permission to use a few assets not in CC from the original authors, and even when they ARE CC or similar licensed, I've sought permission anyway, to be polite. Anything I release will be thoroughly documented in that respect.

I have a lot of parts on my to-do list, as well as some totally original work, but I figure I may as well release what I have so far. If nothing else, it will be good to hear feedback about bugs, balance issues, and other problems as early as possible. I've already learned so much that the work I did two weeks ago seems very bleh to me now, and I'm sure what I'm doing now will also seem bleh later.

Once again it is not my intention to EVER take credit for anyone else's work, but I want to take parts that are incomplete, don't interact usefully with mods, or just generally need some effort to download and get working, and make them easily accessible to everyone. Regardless of license, if you see any of your work here that you would rather I not include, please tell me and I will immediately take appropriate action

 

Go here for release thread: 

Here is my GitHub, with source assets and other things:

https://github.com/maekern/Tokamak-Refurbished-Parts

 

 

I AM ALWAYS LOOKING FOR FEEDBACK

 

 

 

 

 

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Here is what I am currently working on. I'd love thoughts and feedback

Here is a NASA concept art from the Lunox proposal in the 90s:

z4Bl4Mnh.jpg

 

This is the seed of what I am working on. I'm currently using a few stock textures on the outside, and a number in the IVA, though I'm hoping to move away from those as time goes by, at least in some cases.

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Obviously it still needs some work.

The nubs are meant to be hard points. They will have attachment nodes, and some more versatile mounting parts that are meant to attach to them, allowing easy attachment of wheels, engines, et cetera.

I know that normally with spacecraft "down" is "back", but based on the exterior concept art, I imagine this being used as a rover, base core, or belly-lander, so I have arranged the decks accordingly.

There are a couple of assets not by me in here, like the table and grating from Porkjet's habs. Anything that makes it into release will be thoroughly documented and credited. Also, obviously the seats are stock.

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I am deliberately going for a cluttered, eclectic look, as if it were put together out of pieces from various manufacturers.

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The control panel needs to be fleshed out with more widgets, and I will remove the fire warning placeholders.

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I'm working on building up a collection of controls and displays that are my own work that I can use. This guy is a kerbalization of the Apollo Entry Monitoring System, seen here:

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I'm using images owned by other people as references, but still making the controls/displays from scratch, so I'm not just ganking other people's work.

I would love suggestions of other distinctive looking controls or displays to recreate.

gf8ZR8X.jpg

The lower deck is meant to look even more utilitarian and cluttered

PeAQTGj.jpg

bdPs0nD.jpg

 

 

Obviously one major thing missing is the front cockpit. currently it is just a cupola window and a seat. I imagine your Kerbals would prefer to be able to actually steer the thing. XD

I'm kind of dreading trying to make actual control systems myself, and wondering how much it would be reasonable to just re-use from existing internals.

 

Since the theme of my mod is used and refurbished parts cobbled together from various sources (even the original parts I'm working on) I'm trying to give it a "bits from everywhere" feeling, which includes decals and labels in various languages. One of the things I'd like to make sure I get right is having a Russian version of the Tokamak Industries logo. I can just look up "industries" or "company" in a Russian dictionary, but that sort of thing almost always does not work how you think it does. 

For a comparison, since I know some Japanese I was able to do a bit of poking around and come up with "トカマク 株式会社" or "Tokamaku kabushikigaisha". 株式会社 refers to a type of company similar to an LCC in the US, so a lot of Japanese companies call themselves "Name 株式会社" the way we would say "Name Corporation" or "Name LLC" or the like.

@-MadMan- suggested "Компания Токамак ", so that's what I'm going to use.

I'm also trying to have things like warning decals be in various languages, and I'd certainly welcome any suggestions so I don't say (or find on google image search) anything stupid. Or at least, anything that I didn't MEAN to be stupid. Among other things, it's hard to trust image searches of stock warning labels, because half of them are fake/joke ones. 

 

Examples of the general sort of thing I am doing:

blender___d__kerbal_my_modding_ksp_unity

 

Oh, you can't really see it in these pictures, but the logo decal on one side of the hull has Japanese, and the other has Russian

logo_wide_russian_by_maekern-daguff4.png

Edited by Tokamak
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30 minutes ago, CobaltWolf said:

What is the function of the real device it is based on?

It's a distiller for water recycling.

I'm unsure if it would be kosher for me to finish this beast by just pulling a pilot's console out of a stock IVA. Also unsure if I want to, but MAN IVAs are a lot of work

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52 minutes ago, davidy12 said:

@Tokamak: OMFG!!! I didn't even know this existed!!! (Both YOU and the concept).


May I ask, after this can you try and make an inflateable centrifuge? I haven't seen IVAs this great since the base mod by Nils227

I haven't been more than a lurker for very long, so you haven't missed me for long. Thanks for the compliment! :D

I actually hope to rescue/refurbish the classic porkjet inflatable centrifuge in the not too distant future. I just need to take the next step and learn to deal with animations in the Blender->Unity->KSP tool chain. I only started learning to do this stuff less than two months ago, so I haven't gotten there yet. Though I'm getting enough encouragement that I am determined to keep learning.

Edited to add: I LOVE @Nils277's planetary base stuff, so that is flattering! I should really take a close look at his IVAs to see what I can learn.

Edited by Tokamak
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20 hours ago, Tokamak said:

I haven't been more than a lurker for very long, so you haven't missed me for long. Thanks for the compliment! :D

I actually hope to rescue/refurbish the classic porkjet inflatable centrifuge in the not too distant future. I just need to take the next step and learn to deal with animations in the Blender->Unity->KSP tool chain. I only started learning to do this stuff less than two months ago, so I haven't gotten there yet. Though I'm getting enough encouragement that I am determined to keep learning.

Edited to add: I LOVE @Nils277's planetary base stuff, so that is flattering! I should really take a close look at his IVAs to see what I can learn.

 
 

Agreed. Tokamak, I can guarantee you, this is some of the best IVAs I've seen since the base mods.


STILL @Tokamak: My advice KEEP IT STOCKALIKE. 

Edited by davidy12
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Does anyone know a good spot to look for info about lighting? I've got my new part's IVA mostly done, and in KSP, but it is super bright inside, even without any lights added. I've been googling around a bit, and continue to do so, but there are so many super old and outdated results that it's a bit hard to sort out something that will help.

Just now, davidy12 said:

Agreed. Tokamak, I can guarantee you, this is some of the best IVAs I've seen since the base mods.

 

I appreciate the comparison, and will do my best to keep making work people enjoy! :)

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Does anyone know what is happening here? In blender and in game, I have this annoying shading issue, where the faring's shading does not match the rest of the part. They are using the same material, and the same part of the texture map. That dark shadow isn't baked on. I'm sure I'm missing something...

Blender 9 11 2016 12 16 16 PM.png by maekern

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19 minutes ago, Tokamak said:

Does anyone know what is happening here? In blender and in game, I have this annoying shading issue, where the faring's shading does not match the rest of the part. They are using the same material, and the same part of the texture map. That dark shadow isn't baked on. I'm sure I'm missing something...

Whats going on here is the sharp sudden edges are using smooth shading. What I do is first I select a mesh in object mode then go over to modifiers (picture of a wrench in the properties window) and select the edge split option . It should look much better immediately.

P.S. At no point do you need to apply the modifier.

Edited by passinglurker
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Everyone and their dog wants the Porkjet inflatable centrifuge back. I do too. Unfortunately, while I'm sure @Porkjet's original files are just as well made as the rest of his modelling, the actual .mu model we have access to currently has some issues in KSP 1.x. As far as I can tell they are related to some colliders that got totally borked somewhere along the line.

There are a bunch of 1-dimensional meshes (vertices with a variety of z values, but all on x =0, y = 0) a couple of which are like 30 metres outside of the part itself. I don't know PRECISELY why the KSP physics engine freaks out when this part is loaded in flight, but that seems to be a candidate. @Starwaster's working with it did pin the problem down to wonky drag cubes being generated. It'd be easy to fix that with the original model file, if the problem is even there at all. I'd guess it was a part tools thing, or just a slightly corrupted file.

Unfortunately, importing the .mu back into Blender seems to muck up the animations in a way that is well above my pay-grade, such that when I use Blender to fix the colliders, and try to re-export it into KSP, the game cannot load the model. It gives a pile of errors that seem to be to do with the animation. 

I may just strip out the basic mesh and redo the all of the animation elements, but in order to learn I'm also just making a similar thing from scratch. I'm changing the design slightly to make it fold up slightly smaller while still seeming like a plausible variation of the original Nautilus centrifuge that Porkjet's is based on. Namely, giving it two purely structural braces that can fold out of the way a bit, and having the entrance tube be part of the inflatable structure rather than a rigid body, so it can more effectively fold out of the way.

 

Since it's not an exact replica of the real design, people might ALSO want that as well. See above.

 

TL/DR = I'm making an inflatable centrifuge. Here is my super super early demo

 

As always, feedback is appreciated.

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48 minutes ago, Tokamak said:

....

I may just strip out the basic mesh and redo the all of the animation elements, but in order to learn I'm also just making a similar thing from scratch. I'm changing the design slightly to make it fold up slightly smaller while still seeming like a plausible variation of the original Nautilus centrifuge that Porkjet's is based on. Namely, giving it two purely structural braces that can fold out of the way a bit, and having the entrance tube be part of the inflatable structure rather than a rigid body, so it can more effectively fold out of the way.

Since it's not an exact replica of the real design, ...

TL/DR = I'm making an inflatable centrifuge. Here is my super super early demoAs always, feedback is appreciated.

Awesome!  I applaud your commitment to extending yourself :) and it will fold up smaller?  Sounds great!  I'm always a fan of parts that fit within 2.5m fairings!

It would make less work for yourself to make the inflatable the same dimensions as the porkjet original as then you can reuse his IVA.

Look forward to where you go with it!  Peace.

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@Tokamak basically those are degenerate polygons and they are always trouble. 

Have problems with CSG? Check for polys with edge issues with edges where 2 or more points overlap or multiple polys with multiple overlapping edges. 

I've even seen people warn new modelers off of CSG (in any modeler software) because few people understand how to troubleshoot for such issues. (Actually it's easy and CSG isn't scary at all)

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27 minutes ago, theJesuit said:

Awesome!  I applaud your commitment to extending yourself :) and it will fold up smaller?  Sounds great!  I'm always a fan of parts that fit within 2.5m fairings!

It would make less work for yourself to make the inflatable the same dimensions as the porkjet original as then you can reuse his IVA.

Look forward to where you go with it!  Peace.

A bit smaller, yeah. I cant' remember what the maximum size limit is for a 2.5m fairing, but currently the retracted torus has a diameter of about 2.7m, and the very outermost tip of the braces extends to about 1.7m from the center. I am going to see if I can get it a bit more compact and still make mechanical sense. 

However, it also looks flimsier than the Nautilus based Porkjet one, so I still plan to either fix or recreate that as well.

Edit: fixed numbers. My scale was derped

 

Either way, I am in fact basing the torus size on the Porkjet one for just that reason :)

15 minutes ago, Starwaster said:

@Tokamak basically those are degenerate polygons and they are always trouble. 

Have problems with CSG? Check for polys with edge issues with edges where 2 or more points overlap or multiple polys with multiple overlapping edges. 

I've even seen people warn new modelers off of CSG (in any modeler software) because few people understand how to troubleshoot for such issues. (Actually it's easy and CSG isn't scary at all)

I'm not familiar with that term. Is it this?

I'm not having problems with degenerates in my models. I've learned how to avoid, find, and fix those. It's just that the porkjet model has some of those from the start, at least the current version I have access to. Removing them is easy, but for reasons I'm not clear on, reconverting the part with parttools makes a broken .mu.

Edited by Tokamak
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2 minutes ago, Starwaster said:

Right, that's what CSG is. Every 3D modeling program has it even if they call it something else. 

Ah, I see. I've been doing a bit of that, though usually in the end I apply the modifiers and simplify the mesh a bit.

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  • 2 weeks later...

There have been no updates for a bit since I've spent the past week or two crash-coursing in 3d modelling and animation. As a result of which, I present this to you:

 

Yup, I've gotten the model and animation for the @Porkjet inflatable centrifuge working.

Obviously there are some texture issues right now, but those will be dealt with before release. However, after cleaning up the broken coliders from the .mu file and dicking around with the animations, it works! The animations were what was being a problem, so I ended up learning to animate. It turns out when you go from Blender(I assume) to Unity, to .mu, back to Blender, into Unity again, and finally into .mu AGAIN, the exact formatting of the animations can get lost in translation, so I needed to fix that up so part tools could handle it.

 

Also, it will be released with the IVA.

 

kerbal_space_program_9_27_2016_10_50_29_

 

Things left to do on the centrifuge:

* Fix textures on the struts

* Get the bump map in place

* Update the .cfg for KSP 1.x, and add support for life support mods

 

Obviously my release will be CC-BY, so anyone else can also take it and do what they want with it. I'll also make my source files available.

I also intend to release my own similar but redesigned centrifuge. It deviates a bit from the Nautilus design, but also folds up a bit smaller.

Edited by Tokamak
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2 hours ago, Tokamak said:

There have been no updates for a bit since I've spent the past week or two crash-coursing in 3d modelling and animation. As a result of which, I present this to you:

...

Yup, I've gotten the model and animation for the @Porkjet inflatable centrifuge working.

Obviously there are some texture issues right now, but those will be dealt with before release. However, after cleaning up the broken coliders from the .mu file and dicking around with the animations, it works! The animations were what was being a problem, so I ended up learning to animate. It turns out when you go from Blender(I assume) to Unity, to .mu, back to Blender, into Unity again, and finally into .mu AGAIN, the exact formatting of the animations can get lost in translation, so I needed to fix that up so part tools could handle it.

Also, it will be released with the IVA.

Things left to do on the centrifuge:

* Fix textures on the struts

* Get the bump map in place

* Update the .cfg for KSP 1.x, and add support for life support mods

 

I also intend to release my own similar but redesigned centrifuge. It deviates a bit from the Nautilus design, but also folds up a bit smaller.

So, so, so many yays.

Is the animation dependant on additional mods?

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2 hours ago, SpaceBadger007 said:

Just wondering, I cant deflate the porkjet parts in the hanger, as soon as I grab it, it inflates and when I rightclick on it there is no deflate option, is that ment to be?

Do you have USI tools installed?

 

5 minutes ago, theJesuit said:

So, so, so many yays.

Is the animation dependant on additional mods?

Yup. USI Tools.

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