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[0.20] RemoteTech: Relay Network – V 0.5.0.1

JDP

By JDP
in KSP1 Mod Releases

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johnsonwax

johnsonwax

Posted
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Do you mean you're getting rid of the golden dish, JDP? I'm actually quite fond of that one.

As am I.

The upside with the new one is that you can use it as a jail for misbehaving kerbalnauts. Jebediah the oyster.

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gabmaia

gabmaia

Posted
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Ok, ive been playtesting a while and here is my feedback:

-I know you can add hiatuses by making 0% throttle burns, but a "wait" button would be nice

-I think that the computer button should toggle it, not always open another window

-The "x" button on the queue is a little confuse...

-maybe a parameter for "execute when altitude/true altitude is" (would be nice for landings)

-Would a function for "import maneuver node" be too cheaty?

Thats it so far, sorry if some of those things are already been worked on :P

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Dappa

Dappa

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A quick dev update:[...]

The novel thing to this dish is the fairing that protects it during ascent. The fairing is an actual component of the dish model itself, much like the fairings found on stock engines.

I like the dish itself, but I think you should ditch the fairing, there are a number of other mods that already take care of fairings.

With this fairing built in, I see three possibilities:

1. You build a small sat with only this big dish, and it looks good.

2. You build a bigger satellite, which needs another fairing to go over this fairing. A fairing over a fairing? That's weird.

3. You launch your satellites without fairings, and this fairing looks out of place.

So in reality, the fairing only works for case #1. But this is never going top happen anyway, because any vessel with a large large dish usually has more antennas and/or dishes. That's why I think this antenna shouldn't have a built in fairing.

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Lexif

Lexif

Posted
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I agree with Dappa. Also, would you really build a dish like this? Wouldn't you save the weight of the support beam structure if the clamshell is build the other way around?

I must say I would really miss the golden dish, it looked just right on Voyager-type probes.

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JDP

JDP

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The latest model TDRS has two fabric taco dishes

<snip>

(the original TDRS's had something similar to stock orange umbrella dishes)

I've seen the "taco" folding mechanism around before and agree on the immense coolness of it. I've just always stayed clear of trying to implement it, since it would require an armature animation.

Maybe I'll do a bit of experimentations and see if I can get it to look proper within Unity without needing too many bones per vertex and cumbersome collider workarounds. That's always been an issue for me when working with armature animations and Unity.

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Kimberly

Kimberly

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Ok, ive been playtesting a while and here is my feedback:

-I know you can add hiatuses by making 0% throttle burns, but a "wait" button would be nice

You can set an artificial delay on the queue window, to make a command execute only after X seconds have passed.

-maybe a parameter for "execute when altitude/true altitude is" (would be nice for landings)

-Would a function for "import maneuver node" be too cheaty?

You'll be able to program arbitrary "if X, do Y" routines, but it's still being worked on. As for maneuver nodes, what do you mean by "import maneuver node"? You can already tell the craft to orient towards a maneuver node, though I think the function doesn't work yet.

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gabmaia

gabmaia

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About the delay thing: i saw the artificial delay box, but couldn't figure it out

The "if x then y" system sounds amazing, really looking forward to it!!

And by import manoeuvre node I mean, if you set a manoeuvre node for a 30s burn, 60 seconds from now, the function will create a corresponding entry in the queue.

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The Lone Wolfling

The Lone Wolfling

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I like the dish itself, but I think you should ditch the fairing, there are a number of other mods that already take care of fairings. [snip] That's why I think this antenna shouldn't have a built in fairing.

Agreed.

The fairings look cool, but that's about it. They don't really end up serving a purpose - in stock they don't do anything and with FAR you pretty much need a fairing mod anyways.

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chrischambers

chrischambers

Posted
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has anyone else had issues with the Command module, on your craft, that it provents any control of the craft.

the reason I ask is that I had build a very basic Satitlight and wih no Remote Tech Command Center / Module and I was able to lift off and flight it into space.

I then tried the same same craft, but the only differant is that I added a Command Center / Module and I wasn't able to do anything,

I even tried tried the craft with MechJeb, thinking it might have beem me, but again I wasn't able to take off.

so, if there a problem or a conflite that I am not aware off.

I am using KSP the Latest version of KSP and the Same version of Remote Tech from the First Page.

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johnsonwax

johnsonwax

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So in reality, the fairing only works for case #1. But this is never going top happen anyway, because any vessel with a large large dish usually has more antennas and/or dishes. That's why I think this antenna shouldn't have a built in fairing.

This is a good point. The way that RT currently works (and I don't think this is changing in RT2) and the way that we tend to play the game is that when you need the big interplanetary dish, you usually need one out away from Kerbin, but it won't be a dedicated satellite - the cost of getting things out there usually means it'll be hanging on a station or some multipurpose vessel, and you need multiple ones around Kerbin to target your various planets.

A compromise might be to make it so it's compatible with procedural fairings for people that want to add it (it is mighty cool), but optional in other cases. I very much like the unit overall, but I can see a mandatory fairing being a bit of a nuisance for many cases.

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JDP

JDP

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what about an inflatable dish?

An inflatable dish would probably need to be done with a scale animation. The problem with scale animations is that they tend to fall into the uncanny valley and look just wrong. Take the inflatable habitats on the old HOME module for example. To me their inflate animations look terrible. And if Bobcat couldn't make scale animations work, I certainly wont be able to.

On another note. I did a small test on a "taco" style dish:

Of course this is just a quick mockup using a very low-poly dish model.

For a full-sized dish, it's going to be hell to properly group and weight each vertex. Which I'll have to do by hand. Just this low-poly model had 64 vertices that needed proper weighting.

But it is doable, and possibly even with using only 8 bones per dish (16 might be needed for a more detailed folding animation). Another great thing I've found out is that Its now possible to animate the rig directly in Unity. That's going to make it much much easier to set up the part with a proper hierarchy.

With this realization, I might be scrapping the clamshell design and going for a single or twin taco design (am I the only one getting hungry for seafood and/or mexican food from all this talk?).

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JDP

JDP

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What are you doing all the animations in?

I prefer to do all animations within Unity, utilizing transform hierarchy to attain complex and precise animations using simple position and rotation animations. The level of hierarchy control you have within unity also allows me to make sure animations don't conflict with programmatic transform modifications like tracking dishes or the advanced thrust vectoring fins on the AeroProbe.

In the case above, I simply threw together a quick animation in blender to show the rig in action. I'm right now testing how rigs work within Unity, but don't expect any dev videos of it until I've made a proper part to animate. As I said above, it's going to take quite some work to get the rig working correctly. For it to look right, I'll need some very precise vertex weighting. And of course I'll need to model the part first. That can take a bit of time too, since I do most of my modeling in Rhinoceros (a NURBS modeling program especially well suited for making mechanical models). Here's the steps I go through whenever I make a part:

  1. Model part in Rhino.
    • Convert model from NURBS to mesh within Rhino and export to .obj

[*]Import into blender.

  • Refine and tweak mesh.
  • Generate UV maps.
  • Apply edge split and export to .fbx or directly through .blend

[*]Import into Unity

  • recalculate normals.
  • Setup transform hierarchy.
  • Make animation(s).
  • make texture(s) and setup material(s).

[*]Export to .mu and test in-game.

[*]???

[*]Profit.

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xZise

xZise

Posted
Posted

Okay, I tried to test RT2 I'm wondering if there is a list what is working or not. Of course (as it was mentioned earlier) I could simply open bug reports, but I'm not sure if this it what you want. Maybe it's a feature which isn't implemented yet. Also does the new RT2 work differently but where to ask?

About the new satellite dish: Is the fairing fixed to this? If so, shouldn't be possible to have a separate faring base and faring.

Fabian

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