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Kerbal Motorbikes


ColdJ

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Kerbal sized motorbike and sidecar.

UPDATED TO 1.1.0

License: CC-BY-SA 4.0

https://spacedock.info/mod/2881/Kerbal Motorbikes

First off, the wheels, as a few users seem to have trouble understanding how they work. When first loaded into the SPH, the outside face is pointed towards the left of the hangar when looking out the open doors. It attaches on it's inner face. When you attach to a vehicle while looking at it's outer face you will see a mark at the 9 o'clock position that is made to look like a valve stem. You must rotate the wheel,while attached, 90 degrees clockwise, so that the valve mark is now at the top, also referred to as the 12 o'clock position, for it to work when out in the world. If your wheels spin uselessly when in world, then you have not done this. Now for the fun stuff. Provides 2 colours of Kerbal sized motorbikes and their attachable side cars. 2 styles of wheels and micro docking port that you use in pairs to be able to redock the bikes or sidecars to other things. The bikes and sidecars happily redock to each other without the micro docking port but through some quirk they won't redock with standard ports. The blue bike's docking node is on it's right side and pairs with the blue sidecar that has it's port on it's left. The reverse is true for the red bike and sidecar. Both sidecars have toggleable stands that are defaulted to the landing gear button, so that you can undock them and have them stay upright. If by some chance they do get knocked over, the reaction wheels are powerful enough to get them righted. For the size of vehicles these are, the reaction wheels are quite powerful, espescially roll. This is required so that when you turn the bikes the SAS can compensate so that you don't immediately lie over flat on your side. Sometimes after undocking the reaction wheels act a little over sensitive, but if you are gentle and just tap them to get back to the angle you want it is usually no problem. It is best to attach the micro docking port to the side that isn't the bikes docking node. If you pitch back 20 degrees when driving the suspension will hop then bounce, which allows you to do small jumps. You can get serious air and do tricks in the air when riding on Duna. Typing "bike" into the part search will bring up all parts. Enjoy. If you have Mini Moke Versatile and it's Rocket Sounds Enhancement plugin installed, the wheels will have sound. BIKES ARE AUTONOMOUS, SO IF YOUR KERBAL FALLS OFF YOU CAN DRIVE BACK TO THEM.  The very first time you put a sidecar out in the world, please extend and retract the stands twice. It is some game quirk, they are fine from then on.

Added with 1.1.0

Ski floats that when attached allow the motorbike to float and be used like a Sea Doo/ Aqua Bike. Blue for blue, Red for red. The nodes are set so that when used correctly the bikes can jettison them. This is best done on land as it tends to throw the Kerbal and may need a bit of wiggling to get them all the way off. Have successfully reattached in the field using an Engineer. The Skis only work at Kerbin sea level and will lose all thrust about a metre above the water. This doesn't stop you from doing back flips barrel rolls and twists etc.If you attach the "Laythe Booster" then the skis can operate at Laythe sea level. The booster only works on Laythe at sea level. The skis have docking nodes on the outside just like the bikes and you can attach a side car or the skis of a different coloured bike etc that can be undocked and redocked. Have redocked to skied bikes while floating in the water quite easily. The skis have the impellers and intakes built in but require the bikes for power.

Have added a node at rear light of the bike, based on a forum member asking about cargo hold lockdown options, that is set up to accept the Kerbal Attacment System Tow, Hose and Winch as if it was a socket.

While working out how to get the skis to float correctly in the water I realised I could make a speeder bike like in Star Wars. Until I worked out how to limit the height on the skis thrust, I was always ending up flying, not realistic for them but good for a speeder bike. So now I have added a speeder bike as well. The only required addons to it are the "speeder bike flaps" to help the SAS control pitch to stop the nose from trying to go skyward. It may not look it but it is basically a robust flying wing, built tough enough to slide along the ground to take off and land. It is high friction so when you land it stops pretty quickly. It has some glide potential so you can usually finesse it in to land. It has a height limit on Kerbin of roughly 1400 metres sea level and on Laythe of about 2000. It gets slower the higher you go till it looses all TWR. It is best not to touch down above 1300 metres sea level as it would hard to get it moving. 2000 for Laythe. It will get you to the foot of the mountains but not up them. It has nodes for the flaps, an angled 1 at the back as a KAS socket and 1 on the hood to make it easy to attach the docking port for transport.

It has been fun getting them to work well. I hope you like them.

Kerbal_Motorbikes-1637502499.png

GroupDunaGrassUniChariotBikeSide


Edited by ColdJ
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13 minutes ago, SBKerman said:

Hello! Saw these in your posts in the "What did you do today" thread. Thought they looked really nifty. I will have to give them a try.

Having them be autonomous was very handy on Duna. I once landed badly on a very long downwards slope and accidently threw off Jeb. The bike tumbled for 1.6km before I managed to get it to stop. I then had to drive all the way back to pick Jeb back up.

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10 hours ago, shdwlrd said:

Nifty! Now I can add some light weight vehicles to my exploration crafts. Now how do I load & unload them. Are there plans for a stand that can be used to lock them into a cargo bay?

A micro docking port is already included so you can do that. The set up in your cargo bay is up to your imagination. Just remember to reset the control point to the bike or Kerbal after undocking. The sensitivity I have experienced sometimes after undocking seems to be down to the way the game handles control points after you undock a vessel. Example pics. Sorry but I am not co-ordinated enough to get the action shot as the bike reverses out of the cargo bay mid air. Maybe @Stormpilot could do some action shots for me? The base Knook23 that I just added 2 pieces to is available here.

https://kerbalx.com/ColdJ/Knook23

RNFRhDj.pngC0mpziA.png

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1 hour ago, ColdJ said:

A micro docking port is already included so you can do that. The set up in your cargo bay is up to your imagination. Just remember to reset the control point to the bike or Kerbal after undocking. The sensitivity I have experienced sometimes after undocking seems to be down to the way the game handles control points after you undock a vessel.

I was thinking something like the image below. It's small, fits inline with the bike, and you don't have to hide any clipping that may happen with using the side mounted docking port. I usually use the 1.25 (APP) or Mk2 parts for small(ish) explorer planes\helos. So trying to hide parts clipping can be a pain. All you have to do is add a docking port to the nose of the bike and to the top of the stand. 

6ba8de9d-26dc-4876-8c97-e88c179e994a_1.9

This is how they are typically used. But with KSP, some reimagination will have to be done.

s-l1600.jpg

 

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RBThswg.png

1 hour ago, shdwlrd said:

All you have to do is add a docking port to the nose of the bike and to the top of the stand. 

Hi. I don't know if you have ever done any 3d modeling but there are precise collision meshes and the docking point in the model to work out that make this impractical. Also you can only make 1 redockable docking port per part. Believe me I have tried to make it more but the program won't let me. You can have all the undocking you want but not redocking. You want the part fully docked or else it will get ripped apart from G stresses. Some things work in the real world that don't in KSP and some things work in KSP that don't in the real world. I have now done arragements with no clipping that work well. You just have to think through your placement. The microports are surface attachable, so you don't have to stick with node attach if you don't want to. I found out the hard way not to have 2 that can dock to each other on opposite bulkheads, because when you undock 1 from the bulkhead it jumps to the other and the whole craft goes flipping. I am sorry I can't help you with this, but I am sure you can come up with something imaginative. If you do do 3d modeling and think you can make it work, feel free, and if you can I will include it in an update and give you full credit for your part. Oh and what looks like the wheels into the floor up to the rim when building, sits right once loaded into the word.

A0jnyzR.pngYGmo1mq.png4HQOSoC.png

Edited by ColdJ
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7 hours ago, ColdJ said:

Hi. I don't know if you have ever done any 3d modeling but there are precise collision meshes and the docking point in the model to work out that make this impractical. Also you can only make 1 redockable docking port per part. Believe me I have tried to make it more but the program won't let me. You can have all the undocking you want but not redocking. You want the part fully docked or else it will get ripped apart from G stresses. Some things work in the real world that don't in KSP and some things work in KSP that don't in the real world. I have now done arragements with no clipping that work well. You just have to think through your placement. The microports are surface attachable, so you don't have to stick with node attach if you don't want to. I found out the hard way not to have 2 that can dock to each other on opposite bulkheads, because when you undock 1 from the bulkhead it jumps to the other and the whole craft goes flipping. I am sorry I can't help you with this, but I am sure you can come up with something imaginative. If you do do 3d modeling and think you can make it work, feel free, and if you can I will include it in an update and give you full credit for your part. Oh and what looks like the wheels into the floor up to the rim when building, sits right once loaded into the word.

Yeah, it's been awhile since I last played around with adding parts to KSP. I forgot that you have to have a rigid body between different joints to be able to manipulate them. :/ If you can PM me a link for your original model, I can whip something up. (I don't want to play "how can I get this to work" game anymore.)

(Colliders don't need to be that precise. If you look at some of the more complex shaped parts out there, the colliders are greatly simplified and will show outside of the texture layer in your favorite 3d modeling software.) 

Edited by shdwlrd
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5 hours ago, shdwlrd said:

Yeah, it's been awhile since I last played around with adding parts to KSP. I forgot that you have to have a rigid body between different joints to be able to manipulate them. :/ If you can PM me a link for your original model, I can whip something up. (I don't want to play "how can I get this to work" game anymore.)

(Colliders don't need to be that precise. If you look at some of the more complex shaped parts out there, the colliders are greatly simplified and will show outside of the texture layer in your favorite 3d modeling software.) 

Don't know what you mean by "Original model" If you have the mod then you have the models and their configs, just open it in your .mu capable 3d program. I only work in .mu, I use a previous model heirachy as a base then build and subtract what I need on top till I get what I want. As I also mentioned, The docking module used by KSP only allows for redocking 1 node per part, and as I want them to remain capable of redocking to each other I don't want it shifted. It would be better to use or adapt a Kerbal Attachment system piece for the job. I have managed to make a winch that works on their system, though can't get the head to go with the Kerbal. You could probably config the bike with a node behind the seat and the KAS module connected to it that the tow bar connects to, have the tow bar on whichever bulkhead, roof, floor you like. I may look in to it but I have other things I am working on and as you are the one enthusiastic about creating this system I would rather leave it to you to do. Good Luck with your efforts.

Here. I did it quick, this allows the KAS connectors to attach to the bike as if it were a socket, where the rear light is. Just add the following to the 2 bikes .cfg files

This below the other stack nodes.

Spoiler

    node_stack_seat = 0.0, -0.19485, 0.04791, 0.0, -1.0, 0.0, 0

And add this between the last 2 brackets.
 

Spoiler

    MODULE
    {
        name = KASLinkTargetBase

        // AbstractLinkPeer
        linkType = MdStrut
        linkTypeDisplayName = #kasLOC_99003 // #kasLOC_99003 = Pipe-100
        attachNodeName = seat
        allowCoupling = true
    }
    MODULE
    {
        name = KASLinkTargetBase

        // AbstractLinkPeer
        linkType = MdCable
        linkTypeDisplayName = #kasLOC_99004 // #kasLOC_99004 = Cable-35
        attachNodeName = seat
        allowCoupling = true
    }
    MODULE
    {
        name = KASLinkTargetBase

        // AbstractLinkPeer
        linkType = MdHose
        linkTypeDisplayName = #kasLOC_99005 // #kasLOC_99005 = Hose-70
        attachNodeName = seat
        allowCoupling = true
    }

Just use the rigid connector and you can dock the bike to the main craft. Anything else is up to you.

Edited by ColdJ
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49 minutes ago, SBKerman said:

Bringing some bikes along for a bit of exploration.

Sweet. And using 2 of my mods at the same time. Thank you. I have been feeling a bit down, but this has brightened my night.

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On 10/23/2021 at 11:40 AM, ColdJ said:

Don't know what you mean by "Original model"

A file using the native file format from your preferred 3d editor. An .obj or .stl file works too.

On 10/23/2021 at 11:40 AM, ColdJ said:

just open it in your .mu capable 3d program

Not possible, the .mu importer is broken for blender 2.93. (Hence my comment "I don't want to play the which combination of software will work game.") 

Basically, if I'm going to make something for an existing part, I want to do it right. No worries if you don't want to, they are your assets after all. :)

The bikes are fun to use. But there are some phantom forces being applied to the side car if you have to right them. I can't tell if it's the SAS or a weird reaction between the wheel and the stand. All I know you can stop it by turning off the SAS and releasing the wheel brake, allowing it to settle completely before reconnecting to the bike.

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@shdwlrd I use BforArtists2 version 2.7.0 It is the last version capable of using the .mu plugin before the changes to blender stopped compatibility.

https://github.com/Bforartists/Bforartists/releases/tag/v2.7.0

You just install the plugin under the "Testing" category.

And this is the forum page for the plugin that has the link for it.

I work from a previous work and build around the heirachy, just remember to make sure parts have a material assigned (even if it is not your final one) before exporting  as .mu or it won't come back as a 3d model when you import.

3 hours ago, shdwlrd said:

I can't tell if it's the SAS or a weird reaction between the wheel and the stand

It is the SAS. The game changes something when you undock that makes the reaction wheel overly sensitive. If I spawn the models into world by themselves, they are really stable and I can be confident that I can leave a bike standing with SAS on and come back later to find it still standing, or send it cruising across field with no correction input needed, but after undocking you need to correct it alot and the roll input becomes super sensitive. Just one more quirk of the game engine you have to get use to.

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@AtomicTech Hi. I make my mods as stock as possible because I am not a fan of lots of MM patches or relying on plugins. Please let me know what is not working. If nothing has been modified it should work as long as stock parts are working in your game.

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On 10/24/2021 at 9:55 PM, ColdJ said:

It is the SAS. The game changes something when you undock that makes the reaction wheel overly sensitive.

Go figure, the SAS can be super unhelpful at times. I'll just pick them up to right them I guess. 

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51 minutes ago, Beetlecat said:

I clearly don't build enough with cargo plane parts,  but I'm not recognizing this cargo bay/door combo. It's not stock, right?

It's likely a tweakscaled version of a cargo door from MK3 Expansion

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