How can one get the coordinates of fixed spot on the KSC grounds? [solved]

[Antipodes]

Hello all. I am hoping someone out there can help me with an issue I am having.

I am trying to expand my Walkabout mod to work with relocated KSCs (à la Kopernicus or Galileo). To do so, I need to reliably locate a fixed spot on the KSC grounds. It doesn't matter which spot it is, but I need to be able to get the coordinates of, let's say, the flagpole whether or not Galileo is installed.

I tried using code similar to the following:
 

var Kerbin = Planetarium.fetch.Home;
PQSCity ksc = null;
foreach (var city in Kerbin.pqsController.GetComponentsInChildren<PQSCity>(true))
{
    if (city.name == "KSC")
    {
        ksc = city;
        break;
    }
}
var kscVectorPosition = ksc.transform.position;

var latitude = Kerbin.GetLatitude(kscVectorPosition);
var longitude = Kerbin.GetLongitude(kscVectorPosition);
var altitude = Kerbin.GetAltitude(kscVectorPosition);

When I do this with a plain vanilla install of KSC (v1.2.2), it gives me a point that is in the centre of the crawlway about 1/4 of the way between the VAB and the launchpad.

However, when Galileo is installed (also with v1.2.2), it gives me a point that is near the edge of the R&D buildings.

Is there a way that I can reliably get the coordinates of a point in the KSC?

Edited June 19, 2017 by Antipodes

[Antipodes]

I looked through the API documentation and found the SpaceCenter object. I thought that might help:

var kscVectorPosition =
    ((FlagPoleFacility)SpaceCenter.FindObjectOfType(typeof(FlagPoleFacility)))
    .transform
    .position;
var latitude = Kerbin.GetLatitude(kscVectorPosition);
var longitude = Kerbin.GetLongitude(kscVectorPosition);
var altitude = Kerbin.GetAltitude(kscVectorPosition);

but it was to no avail. In vanilla KSC I get the proper position for the flagpole, but with Galileo I get a position west of the KSC.

[legacy.nl]

Maybe you can store the offset of the flagpole's location relative to the KSC position.

That way flagpole offset + spacenter.position will always point to the flagpole. Unless there are mods out there that move the location of KSC buildings, but I don't think that's even possible.

[Antipodes]

On 2017-6-25 at 9:44 AM, Antipodes said:

I looked through the API documentation and found the SpaceCenter object. I thought that might help:

var kscVectorPosition =
    ((FlagPoleFacility)SpaceCenter.FindObjectOfType(typeof(FlagPoleFacility)))
    .transform
    .position;
var latitude = Kerbin.GetLatitude(kscVectorPosition);
var longitude = Kerbin.GetLongitude(kscVectorPosition);
var altitude = Kerbin.GetAltitude(kscVectorPosition);

but it was to no avail. In vanilla KSC I get the proper position for the flagpole, but with Galileo I get a position west of the KSC.

Ah Ha! I got it! The method I posted above does work. The success was hidden by a bug I introduced while trying to display the results. 

I still don't know why GPP gives me different results for the location of the KSC, but it doesn't matter if I can reliably get the location of the flagpole. 

Now I just have do some validation (I. E ensure the flagpole does not change position as the buildings are upgraded) and I will be ready to work on updating WalkAbout. 

[Antipodes]

On 2017-6-29 at 4:30 AM, legacy.nl said:

Maybe you can store the offset of the flagpole's location relative to the KSC position.

That way flagpole offset + spacenter.position will always point to the flagpole. Unless there are mods out there that move the location of KSC buildings, but I don't think that's even possible.

That is exactly the problem I was running into. Vanilla KSP says the centre of the KSC is somewhere in the crawlway, so the flagpole would be x metres due west. But GPP says the centre of the KSC is in the R&D facility and the flagpole is y meters NWN. So any offsets I stored would give me inconsistent positions relative to the KSC depending on which mods were installed. 

Fortunately, as my previous post shows, I can get the lat/long of the flagpole independently from the position of the KSC so I can base all my calculations on the position of the flagpole and don't have to worry about the KSC having been moved.

I am going to have to check if the KSC has been rotated, lifted, lowered or rescaled, but I already know how to handle those issues.