Horizon Aeronautics - Development Thread

[NoMrBond]

Yeppers, splitting the thrust between the bells worked. Now the smaller RD-8 engines will stop spawning particles when the fuel runs out

Thanks for the help, all!

That worked ?! Woohoo!

If only I could have some good ideas for my own stuff

[stubbles]

If only I could have some good ideas for my own stuff

Bah! Your project is looking great

A few shots of all the particleFX on it's maiden "keosynch" orbit launch. Any feedback/suggestions? I was thinking about making the smaller RD-8 engines on the second stage be a tint of blue instead of orange, to add some contrast. I also tweaked the emissive maps a bit, to get some underglow on the engines.

*edit*

Mission was successful. 14.85ton payload delivered to keosynch orbit 2868km, with about 100 units of fuel to spare.

Might be able to do an initial release of the rocket on Sunday.

Edited February 28, 2014 by stubbles

[Guest]

Wow. Looks awesome. One of the best kerolox effects I've ever seen. Really looking forward to the release, if you ever needed a tester/research guy, PM me.

Also, does the Block D has it's RCS/ullage motors?

[stubbles]

does the Block D has it's RCS/ullage motors?

Oh, nope! Hah, I didn't know it had any. I'll be sure to add them on. Thanks!

Edited March 1, 2014 by stubbles

[SkyHook]

Oh, nope! Hah, I didn't know it had any. I'll be sure to add them on. Thanks!

I think a tint of blue is always welcome in my book

Oh, and I second that tester thing. I can test FAR compatibility as well.

[BLUAV8R]

Oh, and I second that tester thing. I can test FAR compatibility as well.

Same here, i can also test DeadlyReentry also as i know some parts (speciffically engines) have issues with it

[stubbles]

All assembled in her final form. These are the extended fairings for the large payloads. I also added a mission flag as well as the RCS thrusters on the Block-DM 3rd stage. I'll probably send out a version of this to a few of you tomorrow, for testing. Still some config tuning to do.

[Guest]

Oh, nope! Hah, I didn't know it had any. I'll be sure to add them on. Thanks!

Here's how they looked: http://www.buran-energia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Musee/MAI/SNC16397.JPG

They were separate parts, I think it was possible to jettison them (or at least the ullage motors). They controlled Block D's roll and orientation during coast phase.

[a__gun]

Any chance of getting some plainer textures included when this does get a release - not a fan of flags/names all over my rockets

[stubbles]

I think it was possible to jettison them.

I'll probably just keep them attached. Less hassle and less unique parts to deal with. At least they are there now, thanks for the heads up!

Any chance of getting some plainer textures included when this does get a release - not a fan of flags/names all over my rockets

Sure thing, I can release a clean version with it (boooooring ;p). You'll just have to manually delete/rename the MBM files for it.

SkyHook, here's the blue tint I added in:

[WhatsThisButtonDo]

WARRRRGALARGL , WANT NOW!!

What he said, only with more GALARGL.

I could be talked into testing.

[SkyHook]

Blue tint is awesome!

[Boamere]

What he said, only with more GALARGL.

I could be talked into testing.

Wait until tommorrow! he said he might release it on sunday 0-0

[stubbles]

Sent out several beta links to testers, should hopefully get some good feedback. Still hoping to release tomorrow, but might go a few more days, pending any major issues with FAR, etc.

Thanks for the feedback everything, it's really helped!

[a__gun]

...release tomorrow...

Eeeeeeeeeee!

[stubbles]

Haha yeah not too sure now. I got a good amount of feedback from the testers today, it will probably take all of tomorrow to fix it. Looks like Monday at the earliest.

Quick Q for you fellow modders, about fairings. I'm having some issues getting them to eject the way I want. Is there something more to them? My nodes are like this in Unity:

And the decoupler script looks like this:

// DECOUPLER
MODULE
{
    name = ModuleAnchoredDecoupler
    anchorName = anchor
    ejectionForce = 1000
	explosiveNodeID = top
}

I've also tried setting them as radial decoupler, stack decoupler, etc but they all don't do what I want, which is to blow their anchors and peel away from the nose. All I get is a puff of smoke in the middle of the mesh (nowhere near those nodes) and the fairings just fall off. Even with an insane ejection force of 1000, nothing seems to happen, so I know I'm doing something wrong here. Do the nodes need Z-directional orientation like thrusttransforms or something? Do they blow +Z or -Z? Kinda lost here.

Edited March 2, 2014 by stubbles

[Guest]

Well, I'm afraid that won't work. What you need is to set up small, very short-duration solid thrusters at the anchors, and put the node either at the bottom or at the top (if send me the beta, I can show you how it should look). What you're doing is setting it up as a radial decoupler, which by the way decouples the top node. Also, you've got two nodes with the same ID, which probably isn't good, either. Anyway, a part can only be attached by one node at a time, even if the other nodes overlap, they won't connect.

[Greywind]

Would looking at KW's fairings help?

MODULE

{

name = ModuleAnchoredDecoupler

anchorName = anchor

ejectionForce = -200

explosiveNodeID = bottom

}

Though that may only apply to their method of attaching fairings, I don't know how yours are set up stubbles.

[stubbles]

The "TOP" nodes aren't attach nodes. The attach node for the fairings is a single node in the center bottom of the mesh. I looked at those KW fairings, Greywind, but just using those settings doesn't work - there's something about how the model itself is setup, which is what I'm getting wrong. I'll have to try using those tiny rocket burns, like Dragon pointed out, I suppose.

[Greywind]

Hmm, fair enough. Perhaps the way AIES is done then? They do have tiny separation motors if i remember correctly. Though I have the utmost faith in your ability to make it work.

[stubbles]

Yeah I need to try a few things, it's pretty aggravating

Documentation is sparse and spread out a lot. The forum search is also insanely awful, haha.

On another note, does anyone know why parts wouldn't be able to get activated by action groups or right-click action menus? My fairings for instance, will not detach if I right click on them in space and choose "detach"

[BLUAV8R]

On another note, does anyone know why parts wouldn't be able to get activated by action groups or right-click action menus? My fairings for instance, will not detach if I right click on them in space and choose "detach"

During testing I was looking into that some more after i sent you my reviews and notes but haven't been able to find anything unfortunately

And I just sent you a fixed link with the sounds on dropbox Hope you were able to fix the RD-171 sound to your liking!

Keep it cool

[stubbles]

What you need is to set up small, very short-duration solid thrusters at the anchors, and put the node either at the bottom or at the top

So what do you mean by anchors and top nodes? The fairings right now only have the bottom node, which attaches to the BlockDM stage. The "top" nodes I made in Unity I was trying to get to work as explosive nodes, but that didn't work, or I simply don't know how to set those up.

I can get the fairings to blow off better now, but not from the top - they blow out from the center of the fairing. How on earth do I control this? I'm going nuts here, haha.

This kinda thing drives me mad.

MODULE

{

name = ModuleAnchoredDecoupler

anchorName = anchor <--- what in the holy hell is this? Is it node_stack_anchor? node_attach_anchor? node_srf_anchor? No documentation

ejectionForce = 100

explosiveNodeID = bottom <--- same as above. What node type is this? Is it directional based and if so, which axis? Again, no documentation

}

Edited March 2, 2014 by stubbles

[NoMrBond]

I guess [anchor] is a transform in Unity like thrustTransform? Unfortunately this isn't a type of part I've made yet so I'm not sure

Best bet might be to go on IRC to #KSPModders and see if anyone is online with experience with the [ModuleAnchoredDecoupler]

[blackheart612]

explosiveNodeID = bottom <--- same as above. What node type is this? Is it directional based and if so, which axis? Again, no documentation

}

Afaik, that's where the explosive nodes go, if you are asking how it works, what I understand is...

If you have node_stack_bottom and you set it to bottom, it will separate that node when you decouple, same as top.

Hence KW rocketry has it set to bottom (which is in the bottom side to attach the nose fairings mainly) and that is where the explosive nodes are when it decouples.

So what I know is it's noe_stack_bottom, node_stack_top and srf for surface(radial).