Weird maneuver node behavior

[maddog59]

I'm trying to get a ship out of Kerbin orbit, but the moment I start to create a maneuver node, the widget appears on the orbit as usual, 1) the dV indicator shows "10000 m/s", even with no inputs made, 2) the maneuver point on the nav ball appears under the center point and stays there as the orientation of the ship shifts, and 3) as I add input to the widget, the indicator continues to show "10000 m/s" even though the the conics behave normally in map view, showing a changing orbit. I've restarted the game (v1.12) a couple of times without any change to this behavior on this one ship. I've never seen anything like this so I'm stumped. I have other ships in the game that all behave normally. This game is almost entirely stock - the only mods are things like MJ2 and Astrogator. 

Any suggestions on how I can resolve this will be appreciated. 

[HebaruSan]

That sounds like the kind of thing where there might be some important exceptions in the log.

 

[splashboom]

I had weird behavior for crafts that drained the battery completely (and then recharged) because some options got turned off without warning. Check all the buttons in the craft's menu for anything out of place. This sort of thing should also be in the log ^.

[maddog59]

@HebaruSan That thread you pointed me to says I need to upload the player.log file, but I can't find one anywhere in my KSP folder or sub-folders. I have three .log files dated for the time I exited the game, immediately after this problem started: ksp.log, kerbalengineer.log, and modulemanager.log, but no player.log. Is the reference to 'player' an old one? 

Also, what would I search for in the log file to see if there are any exceptions?

@splashboom I'm afraid I'm not sure what you mean by check all of the craft's buttons. Can you clarify? There's plenty of resources available and there's nothing really unusual about the craft. In fact, it's pretty simple, relatively few parts with just one offset. I was able to get it into orbit without any issues or weirdness. 

One item that MAY have a bearing on the problem ... this was the last of four vehicles that were in orbit, waiting to go to Duna. I used the new KSP alarm function to set alarms for the four departure burns for each of them, then used the 'switch' button in the  alarm function to move from one vehicle to the other. The third vehicle was still burning when the alarm for the fourth (the problem vehicle) was triggered, and I deleted that alarm, finished the burn for the third vehicle, then switched to the fourth. That's when the problem appeared. 

[splashboom]

When accessing crafts from alarms it happened to me that I ended up in the wrong one - they were also named identically, but should not matter. For the craft buttons I mean all the toggles in the control module of the craft ..

[maddog59]

44 minutes ago, splashboom said:

When accessing crafts from alarms it happened to me that I ended up in the wrong one - they were also named identically, but should not matter. For the craft buttons I mean all the toggles in the control module of the craft ..

Sorry, still not sure I'm following ... but I did check to be sure the control point was correct, and nothing else looked out of the ordinary.  It launched normally,  using MJ2 for ascent guidance (nothing unusual there), and I made some orbital adjustments manually and everything looked right as rain and worked as it should. I'd switched back and forth between it and other vehicles several times in the course of the campaign.

I have a feeling something weird happened when using the alarm function. I may have to just load the Kerbal Alarm Clock mod and use that in the future. 

I'll probably just try to launch a new version of this problem child and see if the same thing happens, without using the alarm function. I'll save off a copy of the game file first though, in case it's of use for trouble-shooting later.

Edited January 13, 2022 by maddog59

[Scarecrow71]

2 hours ago, maddog59 said:

I have three .log files dated for the time I exited the game, immediately after this problem started: ksp.log,

This is probably the one that would be of most use, but you can upload all 3 to make things easier on us to help!

[maddog59]

@Scarecrow71 I've uploaded to Dropbox a zip file with the .log files, along with the .craft file for the beast in question, and images of the problem and the vehicle itself, and my system info (DxDiag.txt). I'm using Windows 10, btw.

In addition to the persistent.sfs, I included three quick save game files, in case seeing the progression is helpful. They're dated and in sequence (20220112.01, .02, .03). 

Please let me know if I need to provide any additional info, or if I need to submit this somewhere else. Thanks for your help!

[maddog59]

A few more data points (or observations) of the problem:

I put a copy of the vehicle ("Duna Lab") into Kerbin orbit and sent it on to Duna, and everything looked normal. I was able to perform a couple of course corrections on it and the other vehicles. I used the KSP alarm function to create several alarms for the various vehicles at each point, but only used the "Warp to Next Maneuver" in the Staging widget (sorry, I don't know the name of each of the widgets). I didn't use the KSP alarm function for anything other than to keep track of which vehicle to work with next. I switched between vehicles using the Map view. 

Then the problem recurred with Duna Lab - the next maneuver node is in more than 157 days, for 985 m/s dV, but the NavBall is showing "10000.0 m/s" and "Node in T+1 hr 95m 20s".  Even though the mission clock is continuing to tick, the Node clock and the Start Burn clocks aren't counting down. All stages show "0 m/s", even though there's plenty of fuel and full probe control. 

[HebaruSan]

20 hours ago, maddog59 said:

the dV indicator shows "10000 m/s", even with no inputs made

18 hours ago, HebaruSan said:

That sounds like the kind of thing where there might be some important exceptions in the log.

3 hours ago, maddog59 said:

@Scarecrow71 I've uploaded to Dropbox a zip file with the .log files

I'd say the 5,032 identical null reference exceptions mentioning "NavBallBurnVector" are most likely related:

[EXC 18:17:46.465] NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
	KSP.UI.Screens.Flight.NavBallBurnVector.LateUpdate () (at <cd473063d3a2482f8d93d388d0c95035>:0)
	UnityEngine.DebugLogHandler:LogException(Exception, Object)
	ModuleManager.UnityLogHandle.InterceptLogHandler:LogException(Exception, Object)
	UnityEngine.Debug:CallOverridenDebugHandler(Exception, Object)

As for what to do about them, they seem to be thrown by stock code, so my guess is that another problem prevents some stock code from finishing its initialization. There are some other ERR and LOG messages that could conceivably be related:

[ERR 18:16:16.896] <color=orange><b>[KSPSteamController]:</b> Failed to initialize Steam API!</color>
[ERR 18:17:17.611] [Agent]: Is missing its 'title' value
[ERR 18:17:22.836] [RPMShaderLoader]: Unable to register with ModuleManager for database reloads
[ERR 18:17:45.877] [ModulePartVariants] Drag cube named 0 not found for multiple drag cubes for part Decoupler.4 !
[LOG 18:17:45.934] FXModuleAnimateThrottle: Could not find animation mainsailEmissive in part's animation components. Check the animationName and model file
[ERR 18:17:45.935] [ModulePartVariants] Drag cube named 0 not found for multiple drag cubes for part Decoupler.4 !
[LOG 18:17:45.938] FXModuleAnimateThrottle: Could not find animation mainsailEmissive in part's animation components. Check the animationName and model file
[LOG 18:17:45.940] FXModuleAnimateThrottle: Could not find animation mainsailEmissive in part's animation components. Check the animationName and model file
[LOG 18:17:45.942] FXModuleAnimateThrottle: Could not find animation mainsailEmissive in part's animation components. Check the animationName and model file

Of those, the one about RPMShaderLoader looks the most suspicious to me since it mentions a problem with Module Manager, which also appears in the main exception's stack trace. The first thing I'd try is uninstalling RasterPropMonitor (in your JSI folder).

[HebaruSan]

Other things to try for investigative purposes:

• Collapse the nav ball and re-expand it, on the off chance that this will re-initialize some of the related code
• Toggle the "Show Extended Burn Indicator" setting to see if that makes a difference

For each of those, it would be good to know whether the log file still contains so many EXC lines about NavBallBurnVector.

[Scarecrow71]

20 minutes ago, HebaruSan said:

Other things to try for investigative purposes:

• Collapse the nav ball and re-expand it, on the off chance that this will re-initialize some of the related code
• Toggle the "Show Extended Burn Indicator" setting to see if that makes a difference

For each of those, it would be good to know whether the log file still contains so many EXC lines about NavBallBurnVector.

It is interesting that the staging on the left side all shows 0 m/s of dV, even though the graphics show the craft has liquid fuel.  I wonder if there is a setting in MJ or in the dV button that is turned on or something that is causing this?  Perhaps a check of the debug menu to make sure Infinite Propellant isn't somehow turned on?

[maddog59]

Thank you both so much for taking a look at this and your suggestions. I'll have to give them a try in a separate game session. In the meantime, I eyeballed things and took it slow and was able to get the beast into orbit and down on the ground within 2km of my Duna base, so I'm taking the win. It was way over-fueled, so I knew I had plenty of dV to play with.

@Scarecrow71 I don't think this had anything to do with an MJ setting. None of my other ships in the same game had this problem. And I've heard of the 'infinite propellant' cheat, but don't know where it is. Is it possible it would be on for a single ship? Or does it apply game-wide? Regardless, I don't think it was on, as I definitely saw the fuel resources dropping as I did each burn.  Unless that happens with the IP cheat active? 

Thanks again!

[Scarecrow71]

1 hour ago, maddog59 said:

And I've heard of the 'infinite propellant' cheat, but don't know where it is. Is it possible it would be on for a single ship? Or does it apply game-wide?

It is found by pressing CTRL+ALT+F12, and then clicking on Cheats.  It would be game-widez but I've seen some weird stuff happen before.  Also, it can't hurt to check the Mj settings.  Again I've seen weird stuff happen in this game.