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[1.0.4] SteamGauges V1.7.2 - 27 July '15


Trueborn

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Toolbar is still required, although no longer included in Steamgauges distributions. Did you have toolbar installed diomeda?

No, was on a clean new KSP 1.0, no toolbar. I may not have understood correctly toolbar still being required, the OP to me sounds to mean Steamgauges being compatible with toolbar, but missed to notice that still being a dependency.

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Hmm, yeah, that blurb at the end is quite old now I guess. I stopped including toolbar in the download because the versions weren't synched up together, but at the very least I'll provide a link on the front page.

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1.7.0 is working well for me so far as I can tell, except I'm not able to get the HUD to appear. It's a clean install with just steam gauges, common toolbar, advanced resources thing, and kerbal engineer. I don't know if it's a problem with it, or if I'm just doing something wrong. I love the steam gauges by the way, they're super useful.

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I'll bet its the new tech tree. The HUD wasn't previously available until Advanced Electronics was researched, which might not exist anymore. I'm on a trip right now, but I'll look into it when I get back.

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Tested in 1.0.2, works like a charm despite compatibility warning!

Now that reentry heating is stock, maybe it's time to have an OAT/TAT indicator?

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I made a little art/concept... PNG texture for the gauge and example of working gauge...

temp_gauge.png

The needle indicates the temperature of the hottest part in the craft, with the beginning of the green arc being 250ºK and the top of the red arc being the explosion temperature for said hottest piece.

The OAT gauge indicates the temperature of the capsule/probe core/eva Kerbal

The ablator led bar indicates the remaining amount of ablator resource in increments of 10%...

temp_gauge_at_work.png

In the above image, the craft is experiencing high but tolerable temperatures during a reentry... Between 60 and 70% ablator remaining.

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I was thinking of that as well, but was torn between single hottest part and maybe the three hottest parts (three needles on a round temperature gauge). I hadn't thought of putting in ablative material though, that's a nice touch. Those textures look really nice, though I would implement it a little differently. You only need one set of digits, and I would make the colors a part of the background and just cover up the lights with the gray texture as needed. The screws were a nice touch.

The only problem is identifying which part is hot. I do know how to get the part name for whichever part is in question, but I'm not sure how I would like to display it without just writing it out in text, which seems anti-steam gauge. Possibly a rocket outline where the hot things turn red when hot, but there is so much variation in designs it could be awkward.

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Well there is a mod that displays little temperature bars over pieces, but it is frankly annoying... I don't see the need for identifying wich piece is the hottest, because:

A: Unpowered, ballistic reentry: There's nothing you can do about it, just wait it out and hope your heatshield can take it. If something blows up, it was poor design or a bad retro burn resulting in a dangerous reentry profile.

B: Unpowered, lifting reentry: Your nosecone and leading edge wings are the hottest parts! Upon noticing that temperatures start creeping up towards dangerous zones, increase your AoA as much as possible to bleed off speed in the upper atmosphere.

C: Powered atmospheric flight: Your nosecone and engine inlets are the hottest parts. Increase angle of attack, reduce power, or both!

Of course, this is a sandbox, so there are lots of possible situations so you can't expect to be able to account for every possible design and situation, but, summing things up:

You don't actually need to know wich part is the hottest one. If temperatures are nearing the yellow arc, use your brains, and keep them from going up :) The actual proceddure for doing so will vary between various crafts and situations...

Edited by ap0r
I as gremmar mixteik
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So i did a little simplification on that concept, and some modifications because i liked what you said...

simplified_temp_gauge.png

simplified_temp_gauge_at_work.png

In this ocasion the gauge shows a jet without ablator cruising fast but not dangerously so.

Changelog:

Reduced amount digit tapes to 1.

Darkened digit background.

Eliminated simple, large window for digit visualization and replaced it with a set of windows, makes it look like this is less of a 2d image and more of a real gauge.

Eliminated redundant red, green and yellow LED's.

Replaced ablator bar transparency with background of a fully lit bar, to be darkened as necessary by overimposing of the dark texture over unlit LED's.

Lenghtened needle to get closer to the arc.

Placed screws in a more symmetrical location.

Created icon for toolbar.

temp.png

Edited by ap0r
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Um, the source code for v1.7.0 isn't available. And did you really hard code the tech requirement for the HUD?

Edit: OK I think I found it. Is it the SteamGaugesTest file?

Edited by Thorbane
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Um, the source code for v1.7.0 isn't available. And did you really hard code the tech requirement for the HUD?

Edit: OK I think I found it. Is it the SteamGaugesTest file?

That's because it was a test release, not an actual release. I'm working on the temperature gauge, so I'll include the source code in the next upload. And yes, yes I did. Honestly, I'm considering taking out the tech requirement, but then again I'm not sure if I like the HUD available right from the get-go. Maybe I'll put it in the config file instead. Source code for previous versions are available from the alt download location (see first post).

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It should definitely be in the config file if you keep it, not everyone plays with the stock tree, and being able to turn the requirement off entirely from the config would be nice as well.

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Hey! Glad to see you used my art :D

I've tested it, and ran crash-free.

I've used another temperature mod and the readings were consistent across wide ranges of velocities and altitudes.

There seems to be an alignment mistake of sorts, where part of the temperature counter is transparent and you can see the background behind the gauge. Probably just a matter of alignment.

Sin_t_tulo.jpg

The ablator indicator seems to always indicate full, because the OFF (gray) LED's are being drawn behind the background somehow.

Sin_t_tulo.jpg

Also, on the steamgauges menu there are no options to set size.

Overall, very good Beta release and no critical bugs (game-killing ones.)... and i'm pleased that you liked my ideas! Let's see what other people have to say!

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I loved this mod ever since Scott Manley introduced many of us too its existence, so much so that it has made me finally sign-up and post of these here forums. That temperature gage being developed looks like a great edition, on that note I just wanted to reaffirm does this mod work properly with 1.0.2 and is it still being updated?

Also ever since I started using this mod I've wanted to see these gauges in IVA mode (I'd imagine like many other users have), now I'm aware of the difficulty involved in changing IVA cockpits and I'm not suggesting this (unless it has already been done that is).

However as a user of RasterProp Monitor I've always wondered if anyone had considered adding the ability of this mod to integrate with it, and allow a form of customisable clustering of these gauges on RasterProp's IVA cockpit monitors. That way the integration of IVA changes is handed off essentially to RasterProp, while improving overall functionality along the way an example being the Docking Port Alignment Indicator mod.

This seems to me to be an easier way to add IVA functionally without the compatibility work required to maintain custom IVA cockpit changes, but I'm not yet a KSP modder (maybe one day if time/ideas allow) so I might be completely wrong about this.

Edited by Ziggsta
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Version 1.7.0d

Fixed the alignment error, ablation gauge now works, you can resize the gauge (currently at the cost of the rendezvous gauge, which I doubt anyone uses), and the HUD technology is now in the config file. It should be set to the first tech, so should be available at all times, but I might change it back for the release. Feedback?

Ziggsta, I've been asked about IVA several times, and besides not being a modeler, modding all the cockpits out there would be super painful. Using RPM is a possibility that I haven't really looked into. I'm sure it would be possible to replicate the gauges in RPM, but I don't know how customizable they would be. I would also be worried that you would really only be able to fit one per page and still have them legible.

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Thanks for the response and again an awesome mod, Legibility with RPM I'd imagine would come down to the games display resolution primarily. Customisation and the ability to cluster more then one per display in RPM would be nice if legibility at a typical 1080p HD+ resolution would allow it.

Again just an idea I know many times in IVA with RPM I think to myself how much I miss your gauges and how I have all these displays under utilised even one gauge per display would be a great edition, if your willing to investigate it.

Feedback for your changes the I remember using your rendezvous gauge extensively when I was teaching myself how to do one the first time manually (without automation such as MechJeb), so I'd miss it but many other mods provide this info its true. On the tech tree how deep it was it previously? I think I remember having to unlock it but my last use was months ago.

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It used to be available when "Electronics" was researched. Poll for the couple people still reading this: how many are using the RZ gauge, and how many need independent control of gauge scale? If I condense all the size sliders into one that will free up a lot of room in the advanced settings menu.

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I both use the rendezvous gauge for the distance and closure velocities (never really understood how the cross works) and like to have separate sizes (for example for reduced electrical and fuel gauges). Maybe to get real estate back you can replace the sliders with percentage textboxes or a set of increase/decrease buttons? After all, it is not very often that you change the settings!

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OK, I confess, the RV gauge is one I rarely ever used (possibly the least used together with the compass).

I always use the scale control for the HUD, and used to change the size with the old Radar Altimeter gauge. No changes with any of the current analog gauges, but if I had to, I would see fit they all stay the same size (therefore, just one size control for all those analog gauges, but a different size control for the HUD please).

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