Adding a seat to IVA newbie modding from scratch

[theJesuit]

Hi modding gurus,

Inspired in part by MacLuky and the undersized MHdlc LEM, I  want to add a seat in to the stock MK1 and Mk2 Landercan IVAs - as it has been proven that there is plenty of space! Yes I can add a seat via crew capacity - but I want to see the little green lasses and laddies properly.  I'm also not interested in additional props like ASET.

I have installed Unity, and part tools, added a passenger seat prop, or a pilot seat from the props and 'wrote' the .mu file.  Changing the part's CFG for number of seats and for Internal model  doesn't seem to work as no IVA shows up?

I'm assuming it isn't as simple as this what I assumed.

Do I need to be working with both the part and the internal in the same scene?  As I've only been loading in the internal.   Do I need to include texture files as well?

Or do I need to add the seat to the internal in blender and then export to unity?

Kinda really starting from scratch here sorry.  I've seen that there are a few hour plus videos.  I don't have much time, like 30 mins a day to do any 'work' or gameplay, so pointing me at the best tutorial for this would be appreciated if that would be more beneficial. Thank you!

Peace.

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

Hi adding this extra seat is going to take a little more than dragging the models into the IVA , but it's not extra tough, although having worked out the how to , it's not extra easy either

  You'll not be able to do this to an existing IVA as such and have it show.  You'll need to export the IVA you wish to add the seat to,  duplicate the parts and fitting layout , Add in your extra seat . seat Transforms, eye transforms etc if you want full use, as these have to be baked into the mu, as that's what the internal cfg is looking for in a section like this

MODULE
	{
		name = InternalSeat
		seatTransformName = seat1
		portraitCameraName = Cam1
		allowCrewHelmet = false
	}
	MODULE
	{
		name = InternalCameraSwitch
		colliderTransformName = driverglass
		cameraTransformName = EyeTransform1
	}

All those named items are unity game objects baked into the mu,  and if it doesn't find them there it'll throw errors .

  When you add things to a spawned by part tools IVA  the only items you can add with any success are prop items, those not being individual remote models. All the important seat  eye and cm transforms are already baked into that spawned iva.

A thought occurred while writing this,  a possible way around all this messing around would be to create a seat part complete with all the required transforms,  run it through unity , create a prop cfg for it , have part tools spawn it, and then maybe it would perhaps work, can't say, but done a lot of IVA's the normal way   You wouldnt get the window and eye transforms right BUT you' have a good chance with the seat and cam transform

Something i've found useful over the years

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2eb6w9ggjd27add/kerbonaut-for-camera-positioning.dae?dl=0

Note that with this fella when he's placed on a seat , the seat transform needs to be at around the same height as his feet in order not to hover above the seat

[theJesuit]

Thanks @SpannerMonkey(smce).

So the 'normal way' to add to an existing IVA is to put .mu file into blender (there are instructions somewhere for this i know) 3d model/ manipule the objects which includes actual seat, the .seat transforms which is where the kerbal will appear? and .eye transform camera position? for iva and I guess a camera spot to view the kerbal in flight view?

Then put back into unity for export as a .mu file for a win.

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

 

1 hour ago, theJesuit said:

So the 'normal way

Well NORMALLY,  (for me) it's done at the time the pod is created, so from the raw model file, which gives you a unity scene you can rearrange and re export to your desires.  Aside from exporting the IVA mu and re sorting all the transforms ( as i find they're  rotated wrong by the exporter local rotations become global rotations )  colliders and textures and then back to unity i cant see any other way to get the result you want. 

Not saying among all the modders here we don't all have sneaky little tricks,  and there may yet be a way to do it, that i haven't thought of,  One thing you learn about modding  KSP is that there are many ways to get to the same end point