Sr. Docking ports not fully connected

[maddog59]

I have two Sr Docking ports, and as you can see from the picture they're not fully connected. I can change the alignment,  which rotates them, but I can't get them to close the gap. Was this the result of them not being perfectly aligned on all axis' when I brought them together?   I'm not sure if this is a bug or just an issue with how I docked these two ports together, but it's thrown a bit of monkey wrench into my station build. Any suggestions or thoughts would be appreciated.  

[Vanamonde]

The parts' magnetism should bring them into alignment while docking, so the previous angle shouldn't matter. What happens if you undock them? (Save the game first.) If they spring apart, then the game may be thinking some parts are overlapping even though they don't appear to be. 

[modus]

Are they really docked? Because that looks really weird. 

I had something similar in a station where it looked like 2 parts were docked but because the 2 arms I wanted to join up weren't lined up straight they couldn't dock. The magnetism couldn't pull them together, so there was a tiny (but oh so annoying) gap.

So, do you have the option to undock?

[maddog59]

I'll give it a try and let you know, but but both ports have their acquire force set to 200%, and when I put them together originally the game changed camera angle to center of mass like it always does when two ships come together.  

<add'l>

Undocking and redocking the ports appears to fix the appearance. It's just that there's several of them that I'll have to try to redock, and I'm hoping this won't recur. Thanks for the suggestion!

Edited July 24, 2021 by maddog59

[Serenity]

11 hours ago, maddog59 said:

I'll give it a try and let you know, but but both ports have their acquire force set to 200%,

Try lowering that a bit, it might be they magnetize so fast that the game doesn't catch up and do it right.

It also could be that the two vessels you dock have very different masses and a combination of the above.

Edited July 25, 2021 by Serenity

[maddog59]

7 hours ago, Serenity said:

...  it might be they magnetize so fast that the game doesn't catch up and do it right.

It also could be that the two vessels you dock have very different masses and a combination of the above.

An interesting couple of thoughts - I'll definitely keep that in mind. I routinely set my docking ports to full force because I figure it helps to keep everything together in the event of a Kraken attack, or at least when I bump into a station a bit hard and set it to oscillating. But I could always dock them at a lower force, then increase it later on. Thanks!!

Here's the finished product, including the Orbital Utility Vehicle I used to bring each segment into place: 

[modus]

Interesting design!

[Serenity]

Looks like a warp gate  cool cool.

If you are using autostruts in a complicated vessel like that,

especially heavy and root that might also be the cause of docking ports bending.

They are extremely helpful but sometimes hard to deal with.

Edited July 25, 2021 by Serenity

[maddog59]

23 hours ago, Serenity said:

Looks like a warp gate  cool cool.

===>That's kind of what I was going for, though I'm always at war with myself between what's looks good vs. what would be functional. 

If you are using autostruts in a complicated vessel like that, especially heavy and root that might also be the cause of docking ports bending.

===>I didn't know that; I almost always build my ships with autostrut set to heavy for all parts, on the theory that it should make everything  hold together better. I had a lot of trouble early on with my constructs falling apart. 

 

[Serenity]

49 minutes ago, maddog59 said:

I didn't know that; I almost always build my ships with autostrut set to heavy for all parts, on the theory that it should make everything  hold together better. I had a lot of trouble early on with my constructs falling apart. 

 Have you made a pact with the Kraken?

Using all heavy.......no no no haha, i bet thats why its bending like that.

Its better to go full spam grandparent part than heavy or root.

Maybe have one or two heavy, the end goal with autostruts is your vessel to become a grandparent tree branch.

Your program is living on edge for sure if you go all heavy! 

Edited July 26, 2021 by Serenity

[maddog59]

1 hour ago, Serenity said:

 Have you made a pact with the Kraken?

===> LOL My personal motto: "All is at peace in the mortal world ... but not for long!" 

Using all heavy.......no no no haha, i bet thats why its bending like that.

Its better to go full spam grandparent part than heavy or root.

Maybe have one or two heavy, the end goal with autostruts is your vessel to become a grandparent tree branch.

Your program is living on edge for sure if you go all heavy! 

===> Clearly I need to learn more about the whys and wherefores of auto-strutting. I've noticed that when I get close to a station with lots (several hundred) parts (including vehicles docked to it) that the frame rate slows down. I thought that it had to do with the part count, and the resulting load on my GPU, so I've begun to go very minimalist on my ships, but now I'm wondering if it also has something to do with the strut options I've used? Or at least, if the strut options contribute to the problem?

 

[Serenity]

2 hours ago, maddog59 said:

I thought that it had to do with the part count, and the resulting load on my GPU, so I've begun to go very minimalist on my ships, but now I'm wondering if it also has something to do with the strut options I've used? Or at least, if the strut options contribute to the problem?

Autostruts are our magic saviors, they don't add to the part count which is the main reason for CPU maxing out and having low frames.

GPU being close to 100% is not a bad thing, it means its been utilized and even taking some load off your CPU, sometimes its better to increase GPU intensive settings for that reason.

The ''normal'' visual struts do add to the part count so preferably you should mainly use autostruts.

A good trick i learned mainly for bases but also stations is to have more of them with fewer parts and not one big craft.

So for example for bases, inside the physical range its better to have multiple bases than one single base even if they have overall the same part count.

Edited July 26, 2021 by Serenity

[FleshJeb]

On 7/26/2021 at 12:41 PM, Serenity said:

Autostruts are our magic saviors, they don't add to the part count which is the main reason for CPU maxing out and having low frames.

Autostruts DO cause more calculations, because they're adding an additional connection between parts.

Try building a craft with no autostruts that gives you a noticeable performance degradation, and then reload it with everything autostrutted. You WILL see a difference. (A good way to test this is with Editor Extensions, which allows you to turn autostruts on and off for all parts.)

Edited July 28, 2021 by FleshJeb

[Davi SDF]

Since those are the new docking ports, you have to be aware that this could be robotics drift. 

Robotics drift is a bug that happens when you repeatedly load a craft with robotics in it, the craft will slowly get more and more bent. 

However, i dont really know though, i hope this helps!

Edited July 28, 2021 by Davi SDF

[Serenity]

8 hours ago, FleshJeb said:

Autostruts DO cause more calculations, because they're adding an additional connection between parts.

Try building a craft with no autostruts that gives you a noticeable performance degradation, and then reload it with everything autostrutted. You WILL see a difference. (A good way to test this is with Editor Extensions, which allows you to turn autostruts on and off for all parts.)

That's a good point and makes total sense otherwise they wouldn't have any effect on the vessel rigidness.

I wonder if that part of calculations is lighter or heavier than the visual struts.

I might try wherever i can to disable some struts, i do need any cpu improvement i can get.

8 hours ago, Davi SDF said:

However, i dont really know though, i hope this helps!

I forgot about the drift problem, also autostruts don't go through the ports for now, waiting for the next patch to fix that.