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[1.12.x] MissingHistory v1.9.3: Handy parts to complement Making History.


Snark

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What it does

Adds (or updates) various parts that I wish MakingHistory had included, but didn't.

Download from SpaceDock

See the gallery below for a full list of available parts from this mod.  Executive summary:  1.875m stack parts; Making History styled 1.25m fuel tanks; Porkjet parts; some other odds and ends.

thumbnail.png

 


Why would anyone want this?

I love all the new parts in Making History, and all the new design options they open up when I'm building my ships.

However... it just feels like there are a few "holes" where I wish they'd added a bit more. The 1.875m tanks all have a new look, and the 2.5m tanks got reskinned to match... but the 1.25m tanks still have the old textures and look kind of dingy in comparison. Similarly, the new engines are cool, but they have a very different style from the old stock engines, and the contrast can be a bit jarring-- and I'd love to have some new design options at the 1.25m size. It's great to have 1.875m available as a new stack size... except that other than engines and tanks, it's missing pretty much any other stack components, making it a bit awkward to use as anything other than a radial booster. And the lack of a fueled conical adapter from 2.5m to 3.75m is just aggravating to me.

Anyway, this little mod is my attempt to fill some of those gaps. Would love for this to become obsolete if-and-when they release some "real" parts to address these needs, but until then, I'll make do with this.

 


How to install

Unzip the contents of "GameData" to your GameData folder, same as with most mods. (Note, includes ModuleManager.)

Additional optional configs, which you can install if you want them, are in a separate "Optional" folder within the zip file. See below for details.

 


License info

  • The Porkjet parts and config here (everything in the MissingHistory/PorkjetParts folder, when installed), is licensed CC-BY-NC 3.0 by Porkjet / Squad.
  • "Palici" pod model and texture is CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0 by @steedcrugeon
  • "Stowaway" cabin model and texture is CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0 by @JadeOfMaar
  • The gray/orange texture for the 1.25m tanks is CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 by @Jarin
  • Everything else is CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 by @Snark.

 


Gallery

Mk2-B "Palici" command pod

Kindly provided by @steedcrugeonA 1.875m stockalike command pod, with similar stats to Making History's Mk2 command pod... but whose top diameter is 1.25m rather than 0.625m. Design is suitable either for flight operations or as a lander.

Palici.png

(Note: The pod is fully playable, but does not yet have its own custom IVA. As a stopgap, it re-uses the Mk2 pod's IVA, which is playable.  If you don't have Making History installed, the pod is still playable but won't have an IVA.)

 

PPD-7 "Stowaway" Storage Container

Kindly provided by @JadeOfMaarA 1.875m crew cabin that seats three helpless vic-- I mean, astronauts.

Stowaway_small.pngStowaway.png

(Note: The cabin is fully playable, but does not yet have its own custom IVA. As a stopgap, it re-uses the Hitchhiker's IVA.  So don't be surprised when you see an additional, empty seat in there.) ;)

 

1.875m parts

A variety of parts for 1.875m stacks:

  • Probe core
  • Battery
  • Reaction wheel
  • Service bay
  • Cargo storage unit (not shown in picture below)
  • Xenon tank
  • Ore tank
  • SRB

Not new models; these are just standard 1.25m parts that I've tweaked via ModuleManager config.

Here they are, with a Palici command pod for comparison:

Size1p5.png

Note that the battery and reaction wheel are equipped with config to support IndicatorLights, if it happens to be installed.

 

Porkjet's overhauled 1.25m engines

New models for some 1.25m engines:

  • Reliant
  • Swivel

In addition, two new engines are added: the Pug (a "half-Terrier" in terms of thrust and mass) and the Valiant (a "half-Swivel").

 

Atomic engines from Porkjet

Introducing 0.625m and 1.875m nuclear engines, for all your interplanetary needs:

nukes.png

  • "Candle" Radioisotope Rocket: 0.625m nuclear engine. 0.18t, 3 kN, 625s vacuum Isp.
  • BKN-7 "Beacon" Heavy Nuclear Engine: 1.875m nuclear engine. 6.5t, 120 kN, 900s vacuum Isp.

Models and textures taken from @Porkjet's excellent mod Atomic Age, which has, alas, been defunct for many KSP versions. I've tweaked and rebalanced the engine config to suit my tastes.

Many thanks to @JadeOfMaar for kindly creating new rocket plumes for the two engines!

Note: If you're using these new engines, you'll likely be wanting some liquid-fuel-only tanks to go with them.  SimpleFuelSwitch is one way to solve that problem.

 

Optional config tweaks

A separate folder named "Optional" in the zip file provides additional configs that you can install if you want them. These are tweaks to "standard" Making History parts to address certain... peculiarities.

Since these tweaks are changes to the base parts, they can affect compatibility if you share .craft files with others, which is why they're provided here as optional components.

Currently, the only tweak included is a fix for the Cheetah, so that its bottom attachment node isn't dangling down in space practically half a meter below the bottom of the engine (it just bugged me, okay?) Other tweaks may be added in the future.

 

 


FAQ

  • Q: Will this mod work even if I don't have Making History?
  • A: Yes, it will work just fine on stock KSP! A few caveats, though. First, there are certain parts that depend on Making History models, so you won't get those if you don't own the expansion. Also, the various 1.875m components will be a lot less useful to you if you don't have all the 1.875m tanks and engines from Making History. Other than that, though, it'll be fine.
  • Q: Hey, these mostly aren't new models of your own at all, here. It's just some rescaling of stock parts and some config for the free Porkjet models that released a year ago. Isn't that a pretty half-assed way to make a mod?
  • A: Yes.
  • Q: Why don't you produce some actual new models?
  • A: Because I have no artistic talent or modeling skills, and this gets the job done with the time I have available.
  • Q: Hey! Didn't Porkjet release two versions of each engine, one "bare" and one "boat-tail"? Why don't you make these engines do the variant-switching thing between those two, like all those cool new engines in Making History?
  • A: Short answer is "because I couldn't figure out how, in the hour or so I spent tinkering with it." First, the whole "variant switching" thing is brand new to KSP, and I don't have any documentation to go by, so after a certain amount of futile trial-and-error effort, I gave up. Also, it's worth noting that Porkjet modeled these "variants" as separate parts, over a year ago when variant-switching wasn't a thing yet, and I don't know if it's actually physically possible to get them to work together as a single part with variants. If anyone else manages to figure this out, please let me know-- I'm all ears, and I'd happily add it to the mod.
  • Q: What about reskinning the other stock KSP engines?
  • A: Would love to, except that Porkjet only released the engines that you see here, and as I mention above, I have no modeling skills myself.
  • Q: Do the new "Valiant" and "Pug" engines have exactly the same config as what Porkjet released?
  • A: Nearly. I tweaked them in a few minor places where I thought some balance was appropriate, but they're pretty close to Porkjet's config.
  • Q: Hey! Porkjet put a whole bunch of "upgrade" options into the engines, and I don't see any upgrades for anything here. What gives?
  • A: I just deleted the upgrades, and did a bit of balancing on the stats to make up for it. Part upgrades are an interesting idea, but they've always felt like a bit of a second-class citizen to me in KSP-- the stock game doesn't use the feature at all, and it shows. It's always felt a bit "half-finished" and not fully supported. So, I just removed all the upgrade options to keep things simple. Porkjet's original config is available here if you'd like to tinker with it yourself.
  • Q: Hey! Didn't this mod have some Porkjet-reskinned 1.25m tanks in it, before?  Where did they go?
  • A: Yes they did, and they looked really cool. Also we had some really nice gray/orange skins by Jarin. However, KSP 1.5 adds a bunch of alternate skins for the 1.25m tanks and in general makes them better than the old stock ones, and I didn't want MissingHistory to compete. So I just removed them.
 
Edited by Snark
Update to v1.9.3 (KSP 1.12 compatibility)
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May I dare a suggestion? There is no T-6 (62.5cm) structural tube. Of course one can use empty fuel tanks (Oscar-B and Mk0) but I think the whole point of the structural tubes is that you don't have to.

I suspect it's merely a matter of doing some MM Magic but I'm clueless about that, and this seems to be the perfect place for them anyway.

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11 hours ago, Snark said:
  • Q: Hey! Porkjet put a whole bunch of "upgrade" options into the engines, and I don't see any upgrades for anything here. What gives?
  • A: I just deleted the upgrades, and did a bit of balancing on the stats to make up for it. Part upgrades are an interesting idea, but they've always felt like a bit of a second-class citizen to me in KSP-- the stock game doesn't use the feature at all, and it shows. It's always felt a bit "half-finished" and not fully supported. So, I just removed all the upgrade options to keep things simple. Porkjet's original config is available here if you'd like to tinker with it yourself.

I totally get this -- until that concept is more fully fleshed out, "upgrades" are simply installing the newer engine/part that's higher in the tech tree. I like the idea of tweaked variants or updated versions of very specific components, but it's not quite in that sweet spot of usefulness/awesomeness yet. :)

Thanks for putting together this very quick and very welcome mod!

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20 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Part switching PJ’s models is possible, but you need plugins to do it and some finagling in Unity.

I'm not convinced that plugins are necessary anymore.  Maybe they were in 1.3.1, but now that 1.4 is out and has ModulePartVariants, I bet it's possible to do with just config and an appropriate .mu file.  Or files, plural:  to make it clear, ModulePartVariants can definitely handle cases where the models in the part come from more than one .mu.  There are some examples of this in the Making History parts, if you look at their config (e.g. for the Mastodon engine).

However... what's not clear to me is whether the particular .mu files for Porkjet's variants are suitable for combining this way as-is, with only config tweaks needed.  I know basically nothing at all about how ModulePartVariants works, other than what I can deduce from looking at config files and looking at what meshes the .mu files are made of.  Maybe it's perfectly possible, with the right config.  Or maybe making ModulePartVariants work properly requires imposing some constraint on the way the .mu file (or files) are set up, and perhaps these old, pre-Making-History models won't work as-is.

So, basically, I think there are two possibilities here:

  • Possibility #1, it can be done with nothing but config.
  • Possibility #2, some sleight-of-hand with the .mu files will be needed, e.g. importing them into Blender, tinkering with the meshes, re-exporting them via Unity to get something that will work.

I'm pretty sure it's one of the above two.  Note that neither of them requires plugin code.  However, at the moment I don't have the time or energy to figure out which of them it is, or to address it even if I knew.  Figuring out #1 would be a bunch of trial-and-error with the config.  Figuring out #2 would require me to re-learn how to export a Blender part through Unity, which I've done only a couple of times, a couple of years ago, and remember almost nothing about except that I found it confusing and difficult.

So, maybe at some point when I have more time and energy available, but not right this moment.

15 hours ago, Kerbart said:

May I dare a suggestion? There is no T-6 (62.5cm) structural tube. Of course one can use empty fuel tanks (Oscar-B and Mk0) but I think the whole point of the structural tubes is that you don't have to.

I suspect it's merely a matter of doing some MM Magic but I'm clueless about that, and this seems to be the perfect place for them anyway.

That's a great idea!  Would love to do it.  (If nothing else, would save me from having to use stacks of Octagonal Struts for rover bodies.)  However... when I go look at the config, ugh.  They've got custom drag cubes, which are needed for proper aerodynamics.  And those drag cubes are big complicated walls of numbers like this:

DRAG_CUBE
{
	cube = default, 0.7813,0.7782,0.7051, 0.7813,0.7782,0.7051, 1.217,0.9582,0.1003, 1.217,0.9582,0.1003, 0.7813,0.7778,0.7051, 0.7813,0.7778,0.7051, 0,-0.3125,0, 1.25,0.625,1.25
	cube = 0, 0.7813,0.7782,0.7051, 0.7813,0.7782,0.7051, 1.217,0.9582,0.1003, 1.217,0.9582,0.1003, 0.7813,0.7778,0.7051, 0.7813,0.7778,0.7051, 0,-0.3125,0, 1.25,0.625,1.25
	cube = 1, 1.563,0.7779,0.7051, 1.563,0.7779,0.7051, 1.217,0.9582,0.1024, 1.217,0.9582,0.1024, 1.563,0.7777,0.7051, 1.563,0.7777,0.7051, 0,-0.625,0, 1.25,1.25,1.25
	cube = 2, 2.362,0.7719,0.6767, 2.362,0.7719,0.6767, 1.217,0.9582,0.09765, 1.217,0.9582,0.09765, 2.362,0.7717,0.6767, 2.362,0.7717,0.6767, 0,-0.9375,0, 1.25,1.875,1.25
	cube = 3, 3.125,0.7774,0.688, 3.125,0.7774,0.688, 1.217,0.9582,0.09529, 1.217,0.9582,0.09529, 3.125,0.7775,0.688, 3.125,0.7775,0.688, 0,-1.25,0, 1.25,2.5,1.25
	cube = 4, 4.724,0.7711,0.5971, 4.724,0.7711,0.5971, 1.217,0.9582,0.09294, 1.217,0.9582,0.09294, 4.724,0.7712,0.5971, 4.724,0.7712,0.5971, 0,-1.875,0, 1.25,3.75,1.25
}	

...24 numbers per line, and clearly they're dependent on size in some fashion, and I suppose given sufficient time and elbow grease I could deduce how they vary and come up with a set of numbers for a 0.625m tube.  But it would be a big hairy tedious undertaking that I don't have the gumption for, right now.

Of course, if someone else were to figure it all out and save me the trouble, then I'd have to reconsider.  :)

8 hours ago, COL.R.Neville said:

Tried this but it messes up the fuel tanks and engine used in the dawn of space mission. creates an air gap on the flt800 fuel tank and shroud is on all the time on the swivel engine.

Hm.  I tried that mission myself just now, it seemed to work just fine for me.  However... mission play is a brand new feature, wouldn't be surprised if it's got a few bugs in it.  Haven't noticed any problems thus far.

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8 hours ago, COL.R.Neville said:

its the k7b one not the first part. once i removed this everything went back to working fine again. 

Yep, I played that one too, no problem here.

Don't get me wrong, I totally believe that you ran into this bug.  :)  Just that I have no idea where it is or how to fix it, because,

  • I didn't model any of the parts involved, and
  • I can't reproduce the problem myself, and
  • I have no idea whether some other mod interaction may be involved (yours or mine), and
  • for all I know this may be some KSP 1.4 bug or something.

So, I don't really have an answer for you.  If you're having a problem with any of the specific parts provided in this mod, you can always ditch them on a case-by-case basis.  Each part that this mod adds has its own config file (fairly clearly named).  Just delete the relevant .cfg file from the MissingHistory mod folder, and that part will go away and stop bothering you.  :wink:

(To be clear:  this is a fairly low-time, low-effort mod for me, so I don't really have the bandwidth to chase down difficult-to-pinpoint bugs.  Glaringly obvious stuff, I'm happy to put in a quick fix for, but I don't have the time or energy to run down and diagnose anything tricky, here.)

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Just playing around, having a little fun with the new parts.  Here's a cheap little ship that can rescue a kerbal from LKO:

bsjtxIk.png

Hammer, then Valiant engine with 2t LFO tank, then Pug engine with 0.5t LFO tank.  Just 4860 funds, less than 9 tons on the pad.  :)

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1 hour ago, Jarin said:

Any chance of copying the skin-swapping mechanic of the new tanks onto the old 1.5m tanks so we can have a consistent look?

...Not sure what you mean?  When you say "old 1.5m tanks", I assume you mean "old 1.25m tanks".  But about "consistent look" ... consistent with what, exactly?  The new 1.875m tanks, and the newly reskinned 2.5m tanks, all have a crisp "bright white, dark black" look to them, and are nicely consistent with each other, IMO.  The whole reason I changed the 1.25m tanks over to the Porkjet textures is that, in my eyes, that look is consistent with all the other tanks.  The "old" look (i.e. the stock appearance of the 1.25m tanks) appears inconsistent (to me, anyway)-- they don't seem to fit in with anything, anymore.

So, if you're asking "could I make those tanks so that they're switchable between the new Porkjet textures and the old stock textures", then I'm guessing it's probably possible to do... but what's the reason for it?  To my eyes, the old stock textures on 1.25m don't really match anything and I don't want to use them for anything anywhere ever, so enabling them is just "clutter" to me, and I'd actually prefer that they not be switchable.

Of course, I realize that tastes differ :) ... so maybe there are people who like to use the old, original textures once in a while.  I could imagine that such a person would like the switching ability.  Just to be clear, though:  is that, in fact, what you're asking for?  Could you explain your reasons for wanting it, a bit more?

In any case:  since I'd never be using that option for my own gameplay ever, and it would take a fair amount of experimenting and tinkering to get it to work right, it's not something I'd be super inclined to do.  (Though if someone else could figure it out and provide ModuleManager config here, feel free to do so for the benefit of folks like @Jarin who may want to tweak this mod.)  :)

By the way:  Note that if you simply prefer the old look of the 1.25m tanks and want to get rid of that re-skin while keeping the rest of this mod, then that's trivially easy to do.  Just delete the MissingHistory/PorkjetParts/FuelTank folder, and you'll be back to the stock 1.25m tanks.

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Sorry for being unclear. (and yes, I flubbed the size; 1.25m tanks are what I meant. The basic starters) What I meant was if I wanted to use the new black/orange textures for a rocket, I'd like to switch the 1.25m parts to match. Being able to choose between that and white/black is what I'm going for rather than any particular attachment to the stock appearance.

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11 minutes ago, Jarin said:

What I meant was if I wanted to use the new black/orange textures for a rocket, I'd like to switch the 1.25m parts to match.

Nope, sorry.  I'd absolutely love that, myself, but it cannot be done.  That's because no such texture exists for the 1.25m tank.  Porkjet only produced one texture in his re-skin, and as I've commented above, I have zero artistic talent myself, so there's no way for me to add this in a way that wouldn't look like crap.  So, basically, can't be done.

(Unless, of course, there's someone else who, unlike me, actually has artistic talent; and is willing to make this; and can do whatever complicated Unity sorcery is needed to make it workable; and is willing to share it under a CC-BY-NC-SA license; and can serve it up to me on a platter.  In which case I'll welcome it with open arms.)  :)

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Okay, I have exactly ZERO modding experience... but I DO have some background in graphics and texturing (admittedly a good decade out of practice). I'd be willing to at least take a blind stab at trying to adapt the new texture design to the 1.25 models... but no promises about anything. I'd need someone to point me in the right direction to start, too. Is this something that could be shoehorned into photoshop and blender, or do I need specialized software?

(as for licensing, I think my process would just be chucking it in your general direction and saying "here, it's yours now!")

Edited by Jarin
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19 minutes ago, Jarin said:

Okay, I have exactly ZERO modding experience... but I DO have some background in graphics and texturing (admittedly a good decade out of practice). I'd be willing to at least take a blind stab at trying to adapt the new texture design to the 1.25 models... but no promises about anything. I'd need someone to point me in the right direction to start, too. Is this something that could be shoehorned into photoshop and blender, or do I need specialized software?

So, things that would need to happen:

  1. Will need to be able to convert whatever-texture-it-is to .dds format, which is the multi-level-resolution format that KSP parts use.  I think GIMP can handle this, you just need to figure out the care and feeding of the particular export filter.
  2. Will need to understand about UV-mapping and Blender interactions therewith, so you know how to wrap a texture around a model.  (But you can use the existing textures as a guide, so I'm guessing that's not too tricky to figure out.)
  3. Would need to get the texture into Blender and produce a model with the new texture on it.
  4. Having done the work in Blender, will need to use the Unity part tools to get it into Unity, where you can then do further arcane ledgerdemain to produce an actual .mu file that can access both textures (e.g. on separate meshes).

Specialized software isn't the problem-- you'll need GIMP (or other image-editing software), Blender, and Unity, but all of those are freely downloadable.  Rather, expertise is the bottleneck, i.e. knowing precisely the right way to tickle Unity so that it spits out something that's usable and does what's desired.  There's a learning curve there.

I've used Blender myself, but I've never done any texturing or UV-mapping in it.  I have shepherded a Blender-exported model through Unity in order to produce a playable .mu ... but it was once, briefly, a couple of years ago, with a seasoned Unity veteran holding my hand and talking me through the process step by step.  Which means to all practical purposes I have zero useful information for you there, other than a vague memory that I found it really hard and confusing.

Not that I want to discourage you, because I would love to have some gray-and-orange textures to work with.  :)  Just want to make sure you have some idea what you'd be letting yourself in for.

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Okay, that's something to start with anyway. I'll do some research and poking around myself tonight, then see if I can cobble together some marginally-useful questions for the modding-questions subforum. 

My intent here is to copy as much as humanly (kerbally?) possible from the existing models, trying to just get my hands on the current texture image files, edit the color/texture, and put it straight back, hopefully dodging any alignment and mapping issues by not actually changing anything that would affect it. More than that may be beyond me.

 

Edit: Looks like there may be some useful tutorials in that forum already. Once I can sink some time into the project this friday/weekend, I'll have a better idea how feasible this will be. 

- really hoping that the fact that all I'm trying to make is some cylinders with a few bits and bobs on them will make things easier. Not messing with engines or doors or anything fancy...

Edited by Jarin
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