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[Most 1.12.x] Near Future Technologies (August 26)


Nertea

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So @Nertea I get off work a little early today and decide to check the status of Kopernicus, maybe a few of my other favorite mods and settle in to play on my 1.73 install for a little while - perfectly content for Kopernicus to take as long as needed and not even remotely tempted to display the horribly bad manners of bugging the devs about the status.  Then, I find a whole new suite of Nertea level sexy parts which will require me to play on a boring stock size Kerbol system this evening.  Damn it, I was this close to a manned "kerbbed?" landing on JNSQ Duna and now. . .

Well, now I guess I'll squash the urge to bug busy devs and go build and test fly probes in a 1.81 sandbox game so I can import the craft files when everything else catches up.  Amazing work as always, your skill and attention to detail never fail to impress the hell out of me.

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1 hour ago, Rik said:

So @Nertea I get off work a little early today and decide to check the status of Kopernicus, maybe a few of my other favorite mods and settle in to play on my 1.73 install for a little while - perfectly content for Kopernicus to take as long as needed and not even remotely tempted to display the horribly bad manners of bugging the devs about the status.  Then, I find a whole new suite of Nertea level sexy parts which will require me to play on a boring stock size Kerbol system this evening.  Damn it, I was this close to a manned "kerbbed?" landing on JNSQ Duna and now. . .

Well, now I guess I'll squash the urge to bug busy devs and go build and test fly probes in a 1.81 sandbox game so I can import the craft files when everything else catches up.  Amazing work as always, your skill and attention to detail never fail to impress the hell out of me.

 

On 1/16/2020 at 9:56 AM, Maurox said:

LTL, FTP here

Is it just me, or are the normal maps on some of the solar panels borked? I don't have any screenshots ATM, but I am pretty sure on some of the panels, the light-shadow maps aren't properly mirrored - anyone else noticed that?

EDIT: I was just checking your screenshots and Copernicus and Nautilus are the two main offenders IIRC - specifically, the problem is with the strut/main axis going out from the connection point. Next time I will be in the game I will provide SS if necessary, sorry for being a little vague.

EDIT2: Here is the screenshot of what I was talking about
Copernicus was fine after all, it was only the Nautilus which had the problem. However, something else I've noticed is that KS-AR 1x3 acts a little strange when you retract it - if it is at the default angle (solar panels facing up), then there is no problem, but if it's rotated, especially by a large degree, then it rotates and folds at the same time, making the animation look really weird near the end. Not sure about the rest of panels, as I haven't tested them all against this. Love all of your work, and I hope this was helpful.

Hey, thanks for the feedback! Couple things:

1. Your initial instincts are correct, all the normal maps in the mod have some issues. They're not inverted but they have some strange filtering artifact going on. They will all need to be reexported and recompressed. However... it should not cause that thing in your screenshot, which I definitely can't reproduce in unity at least.

2. All of the panels will rotate and fold at the same time - nothing I can really do about that. I am not at a computer that can test this, but I assume by weird you mean that the door clips with the rotation or something.

I'll work on getting the normals fixed for the next update. 

On 1/13/2020 at 5:06 PM, Virtualgenius said:

@Nertea does the RA-002- Micro Relay antenna have an animation I cant seem to see it do anything

Umm, it was going to but I scrapped it. I could create it again, what are people's thoughts?

1 hour ago, Rik said:

So @Nertea I get off work a little early today and decide to check the status of Kopernicus, maybe a few of my other favorite mods and settle in to play on my 1.73 install for a little while - perfectly content for Kopernicus to take as long as needed and not even remotely tempted to display the horribly bad manners of bugging the devs about the status.  Then, I find a whole new suite of Nertea level sexy parts which will require me to play on a boring stock size Kerbol system this evening.  Damn it, I was this close to a manned "kerbbed?" landing on JNSQ Duna and now. . .

Well, now I guess I'll squash the urge to bug busy devs and go build and test fly probes in a 1.81 sandbox game so I can import the craft files when everything else catches up.  Amazing work as always, your skill and attention to detail never fail to impress the hell out of me.

Lol I would like Kop to update too. There is a 1.7.3 branch of NFeX on my github you can get the dll from if you must, but I'm not going to propagate updates and fixes into that branch any longer.

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8 hours ago, Nertea said:

Hey, thanks for the feedback! Couple things:

1. Your initial instincts are correct, all the normal maps in the mod have some issues. They're not inverted but they have some strange filtering artifact going on. They will all need to be reexported and recompressed. However... it should not cause that thing in your screenshot, which I definitely can't reproduce in unity at least.

2. All of the panels will rotate and fold at the same time - nothing I can really do about that. I am not at a computer that can test this, but I assume by weird you mean that the door clips with the rotation or something.

I'll work on getting the normals fixed for the next update. 

1. Would posting my modlist or log help?

2. What I mean is that near the end, the animation looks like the whole panel is being swung around, and it feels like it should either clip through the box/doors or just break altogether due to mass being thrown around. Thought It would be possible to make it first rotate to proper orientation, and only then fold, but if you say it can't be done...

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Hi @Nertea,

I'm putting the NF Exploration into the Simplex and Tetrix TechTrees currently and have a quick question... and a bug/typo! 

When the reflector in their descriptions say <<1m>>, what does that mean?  Does it mean it multiplies it by a million, or by some other factor as both giant and huge reflectors say the same in their descriptions.

Also,

    #LOC_NFEX_nfex-antenna-reflector-giant-1_description = An advanced dish reflector made up of fourteen individual array modules. Useless without a feeer antenna.

Should read feeding.

Thanks for all the heavy work that you do!

 

Peace.

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Is it possible to integrate new antennae from NearFutureExploration with RemoteTech2? Looks like those two mods don't really like each other - a massive NRE spam in console log when some antennas are picked in VAB.

Edited by Horus
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@Nertea, FYI, I added an Issue on the NFeX GitHub regarding PLTO core orientation and placement of labels relative to the orientation of the new probe cores.  These are cosmetic issues, but I think they cause some confusion in trying to figure out, at a glance, which way a probe core is oriented, both in the VAB and in flight. 

Great job jumping on probe craft; they've needed some love for a while now.

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@Nertea, another request on NFeX: the indicator line for the antenna feed-to-reflection defaults to "on".  Even after turning it off, adding another antenna brings it back up again, adding clutter to the VAB.  Can we get a global Toggle so the indicator stays in the last state (on or off) until that state is deliberately changed by the user?  I've added a separate Issue on GitHub.

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3 hours ago, KSPrynk said:

@Nertea, FYI, I added an Issue on the NFeX GitHub regarding PLTO core orientation and placement of labels relative to the orientation of the new probe cores.  These are cosmetic issues, but I think they cause some confusion in trying to figure out, at a glance, which way a probe core is oriented, both in the VAB and in flight. 

Great job jumping on probe craft; they've needed some love for a while now.

Changing this will break all existing vehicles though. People won't like that. 

3 hours ago, KSPrynk said:

@Nertea, another request on NFeX: the indicator line for the antenna feed-to-reflection defaults to "on".  Even after turning it off, adding another antenna brings it back up again, adding clutter to the VAB.  Can we get a global Toggle so the indicator stays in the last state (on or off) until that state is deliberately changed by the user?  I've added a separate Issue on GitHub.

Meh, maybe. I don't really want to work on this mod now so... we'll see. 

Edited by Nertea
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On 1/18/2020 at 3:09 PM, Horus said:

Is it possible to integrate new antennae from NearFutureExploration with RemoteTech2? Looks like those two mods don't really like each other - a massive NRE spam in console log when some antennas are picked in VAB.

Please submit a compatibility patch and I will integrate it. 

On 1/18/2020 at 1:27 AM, theJesuit said:

Hi @Nertea,

I'm putting the NF Exploration into the Simplex and Tetrix TechTrees currently and have a quick question... and a bug/typo! 

When the reflector in their descriptions say <<1m>>, what does that mean?  Does it mean it multiplies it by a million, or by some other factor as both giant and huge reflectors say the same in their descriptions.

Also,

    #LOC_NFEX_nfex-antenna-reflector-giant-1_description = An advanced dish reflector made up of fourteen individual array modules. Useless without a feeer antenna.

Should read feeding.

Thanks for all the heavy work that you do!

 

Peace.

It's a bug - it will be fixed in the next version. 

On 1/18/2020 at 12:29 AM, Maurox said:

1. Would posting my modlist or log help?

2. What I mean is that near the end, the animation looks like the whole panel is being swung around, and it feels like it should either clip through the box/doors or just break altogether due to mass being thrown around. Thought It would be possible to make it first rotate to proper orientation, and only then fold, but if you say it can't be done...

1. Probably not. Wait for the next version (eta unknown) and see if the changes fix it. 

2. I'll look at it

Edited by Nertea
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I think I found a bug with Near Future Exploration. With it installed the antennas that are patched to work with the reflector system no longer have their range boosted by the antenna range boost difficulty setting. Normally this isn't a big problem but with a planet pack like JNSQ it means almost all the antennas become useless beyond Kerbin's SOI.

I'm using the 1.7.3 build, I don't have a 1.8 install handy to test on at the moment so my apologies if this is a 1.7 specific bug.

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1 hour ago, CDSlice said:

I think I found a bug with Near Future Exploration. With it installed the antennas that are patched to work with the reflector system no longer have their range boosted by the antenna range boost difficulty setting. Normally this isn't a big problem but with a planet pack like JNSQ it means almost all the antennas become useless beyond Kerbin's SOI.

I'm using the 1.7.3 build, I don't have a 1.8 install handy to test on at the moment so my apologies if this is a 1.7 specific bug.

I just tried to reproduce this in 1.8 and couldn't. I tried, as steps:

  1. Make a probe with the smallest reflector and the relayfeeder
  2. Teleport probe to Eve, deploy reflector
  3. Scale the antenna range to 1.0x, check that it's not connected (not connected)
  4. scale the antenna range to 100x, check that it's connected (should be connected)

This was successful. I also tested teleporting a second, basic probe with a single tiny antenna to near eve to test relaying and things were also ok at 100x range.

Can anyone else reproduce this?

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@Nertea @CDSlice Just tested on a 1.81 build with the same results as Nertea,, no connection with the default range but as soon as I boost the value in difficulty I get a connection to Kerbin.  This was a new sandbox with no other probes or relays in orbit anywhere.  First attempt failed but that was because I didn't have the feeder aligned properly 'cause sometimes I'm just not as bright as I think I am, the red line not turning green probably should have been my first clue.

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18 hours ago, Nertea said:

Please submit a compatibility patch and I will integrate it. 

Honestly, I have no idea what should be done exactly.

The problem I tried to describe earlier is that when I have both RT2 and NFX installed - some antennas spam NRE when being picked in VAB and used later in flight:

[EXC 23:10:26.523] NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
	NearFutureExploration.ModuleAntennaFeed.TestLOSAll (NearFutureExploration.ModuleDeployableReflector& targetReflector) (at <674e7ceace814edc8162c68718264bea>:0)
	NearFutureExploration.ModuleAntennaFeed.FixedUpdate () (at <674e7ceace814edc8162c68718264bea>:0)
	UnityEngine.DebugLogHandler:LogException(Exception, Object)
	ModuleManager.UnityLogHandle.InterceptLogHandler:LogException(Exception, Object)
	UnityEngine.Debug:CallOverridenDebugHandler(Exception, Object)

The problematic antennas are:

Communotron 16
Communotron 88-88
Communotron DTS-J1
Communotron HG-61
RA-100 Relay Antenna
RA-15 Relay Antenna
RA-2 Relay Antenna

Looks like those antennas have both RT2 and NFX configs applied to.

https://imgur.com/btoTtsi

 

Also, while NFX relies on stock comm network, RT2 mod overrides it and uses its own comm network system. Therefore, awesome NFX antennas are useless for RT2 and vice versa.

And I'm really interested in mixing the RT2 experience with awesome reflectors idea from NFX. Is it possible to implement?

 

A minor issue is a warning when a NFX antenna is picked in VAB:

WARNING: Vector3 entry is not formatted properly! Proper format for Vector3 is x,y,z

 

!NB:

I have the following mods installed:

RT2 (v1.9.5)
NF eXploration (v1.0.2)
ReStock
ReStock Plus

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On 1/21/2020 at 1:03 PM, Horus said:

And I'm really interested in mixing the RT2 experience with awesome reflectors idea from NFX. Is it possible to implement?

 

You'd have to ask RT2 dev about that. I'll do some deconflicting to make them fight less but that is out of scope.

Another item: please vote in this poll: apparently its important to have the probe tag facing the way as stock? This can be changed but will break all existing craft due to rotations. 

https://strawpoll.com/8f986524

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@Nertea This is just a thought: If you want to fix the orientation without breaking all existing crafts, then you could just hide the currently existing affected cores and make them legacy parts and clone the corrected parts as a v2 or v1.2 or something similar, with the possibility to completely remove the legacy parts with an update for KSP 1.9 or KSP2. They'd still be using the same assets, so it shouldn't really clutter KSP, should it?

Or if it's purely a cosmetic issue (sorry, I don't actually know the issue at hand since I'm currently half way through my current KSP run and am not keen on adding more mods midway of my game - I'll probably give NFEx a go with my next playthrough - huge fan of your mods/your work though, including the NF mods), couldn't you just turn the images so that they match? Disregard that suggestion if it doesn't apply.

/edit: And yes, I do have a bad conscience about not having tried your latest mod yet! I can imagine that it's always quite a lot of work to create it and even more work and commitment to maintain it. So not having tried it yet feels like not honoring your work... Same goes for lots of other mods as well. Or even parts in mods where I use the mod but rarely or never get to use a specific part despite wanting to.

Edited by caipi
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11 hours ago, caipi said:

@Nertea This is just a thought: If you want to fix the orientation without breaking all existing crafts, then you could just hide the currently existing affected cores and make them legacy parts and clone the corrected parts as a v2 or v1.2 or something similar, with the possibility to completely remove the legacy parts with an update for KSP 1.9 or KSP2. They'd still be using the same assets, so it shouldn't really clutter KSP, should it?

Or if it's purely a cosmetic issue (sorry, I don't actually know the issue at hand since I'm currently half way through my current KSP run and am not keen on adding more mods midway of my game - I'll probably give NFEx a go with my next playthrough - huge fan of your mods/your work though, including the NF mods), couldn't you just turn the images so that they match? Disregard that suggestion if it doesn't apply.

/edit: And yes, I do have a bad conscience about not having tried your latest mod yet! I can imagine that it's always quite a lot of work to create it and even more work and commitment to maintain it. So not having tried it yet feels like not honoring your work... Same goes for lots of other mods as well. Or even parts in mods where I use the mod but rarely or never get to use a specific part despite wanting to.

I'm not sure it's worth doing the legacy thing as the mod is so new. In most cases it won't be too bad as the probes are symmetric, it's just one or two that will be a mess.

Seems like democracy says I should reorient them anyways. 

Thanks for the compliments too :) .

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Well, in the background I will continue to work towards that rotational fix. Maybe this weekend.

I'll keep socializing the changes that are happening with NFLV for its next update. In discussions with stakeholders I have decided that this will be one of those 100% breaking, new-part-names-required changes.

5 Metre Parts

There will be a complex ballet of MM patches to deal with 5m parts. Specifically this is because MH, Restock, Restock+ and NFLV have similar scope here. The appropriate scenarios when you install NFLV in your installation are

  • You have none of these mods: NFLV provides many 5m parts for you and you are happy, but confused as to why these beautiful new tanks don't match stock. And you wonder why the Mainsail is shiny. 
  • You have Restock/Restock+ but no MH: NFLV will append itself to the Restock+ 5m parts (adding additional variants, for example) and add non-conflicting new 5m parts. NFLV's overlapping 5m parts are hidden. You are an upstanding citizen and you are happy about it. 
  • You have MH but no Restock: your MH 5m parts get repainted as NFLV 5m parts, and NFLV adds its non-conflicting new 5m parts. NFLV's overlapping parts are hidden. You are happy, but there is a nagging thought in the back of your mind that something is missing. You place a Wolfhound on an NFLV tank and you black out and wake up alone in an empty, harvested corn field. There is nothing visible for miles.
  • You have MH and Restock/Restock+: your MH 5m parts get repainted by Restock, NFLV adds non-conflicting new 5m parts. NFLV's overlapping parts are hidden. Everything is fine, but you carefully avoid the MH service modules in the part list. They give you the shivers.

This should all be transparent to the user, with the end goal of having only 1 set of 5m parts show up in the VAB, and a prioritized, logical way of selecting what base part is selected. What this does mean is that NFLV will only be updated after the Restock 5m parts update (which is logical because there is a lot of work left before an NFLV release happens). 

In apology there will be a number of new and improved parts for the 5m set in future NFLV versions, particularly better engine adapters. Also all the new stuff will not look like raw sewage.

7.5 Metre Parts

There should be nothing fancy going on here. Again going to be all artistically redone, probably with new adapters, and I'll probably finally get to those cargo parts. 

New Engines

Currently NFLV adds some engines. These are 'kinda better' LFO engines that are based on methalox engines. There is an optional patch which enables the me. Current thinking is that this will no longer be the case - all methalox engines will be purged from the mod and not really replaced. Current thinking is that they'll move over to CryoEngines and get first class LCH4/O support. And maybe more engines. Bit up in the air but be warned that this move is coming. There will be soft deprecation, so it'll be okay.

The new LFO engines that I showed earlier will come into play. These are mostly booster type engines so fit well with the Launch Vehicles theme. There are currently.

  • 1.25m, based on the AR-1
  • 1.875m, based on the RS-84
  • 2.5m, based on the Space Transportation Booster Engine
  • 3.75m, based on a cluster of AR-1 engines

There may also be 1 or two more. They'll have like... cool effects. I dunno man.

BUT MAYBE THERE SHOULD BE PICTURES. And maybe less coffee. 

Capture.PNG

ix nay on the latter

oof.PNG

In order to keep up with high quality new Squad engines I will also be shipping emissive textures

Capture.PNG

That's all for now folks. Stay tuned for next time when I haven't had a multi-espresso-pot-day.

 

Please note, all of this will of course be derailed by dealing with the 1.9 release, a process similar to undergoing a colonoscopy (yayyyyyyy) so there's that. 

Edited by Nertea
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1 hour ago, Nertea said:
  • You have none of these mods: NFLV provides many 5m parts for you and you are happy, but confused as to why these beautiful new tanks don't match stock. And you wonder why the Mainsail is shiny. 
  • You have Restock/Restock+ but no MH: NFLV will append itself to the Restock+ 5m parts (adding additional variants, for example) and add non-conflicting new 5m parts. NFLV's overlapping 5m parts are hidden. You are an upstanding citizen and you are happy about it. 
  • You have MH but no Restock: your MH 5m parts get repainted as NFLV 5m parts, and NFLV adds its non-conflicting new 5m parts. NFLV's overlapping parts are hidden. You are happy, but there is a nagging thought in the back of your mind that something is missing. You place a Wolfhound on an NFLV tank and you black out and wake up alone in an empty, harvested corn field. There is nothing visible for miles.
  • You have MH and Restock/Restock+: your MH 5m parts get repainted by Restock, NFLV adds non-conflicting new 5m parts. NFLV's overlapping parts are hidden. Everything is fine, but you carefully avoid the MH service modules in the part list. They give you the shivers.

stahp I can't :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

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8 hours ago, Nertea said:

black out and wake up alone in an empty, harvested corn field. There is nothing visible for miles.

so THAT is what happened! explains allot!

8 hours ago, Nertea said:

optional patch which enables the me

@PART[Nertea]:NEEDS[Nertea]:FOR[NearFutureLaunchVehicles]
{
	@MODULE[me]
	{
		moduleEnabled = true
		requiresJebsCoffee = true
	}
}

how's this?

Edited by zer0Kerbal
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