[1.8.1] Docking Port Alignment Indicator (Version 6.8.5 - Updated 12/14/19)

[AlmostDifferent]

So far it works fine for me in v0.25. With latest Toolbar and ModuleManager, of course.

[Griswel]

Anyone want to venture an explanation for a Newb installing this for the first time? Just look for Toolbar and ModuleManager and DL all three?

I've watched Scott Manley use this and I'm not looking forward to trying to build and use a spacelab without it.

[Alshain]

Anyone want to venture an explanation for a Newb installing this for the first time? Just look for Toolbar and ModuleManager and DL all three?

I've watched Scott Manley use this and I'm not looking forward to trying to build and use a spacelab without it.

It's pretty straight forward really.

• The orange circle represents your target's direction (more accurately the opposite direction), regardless of alignment.
  
• The orange line represents your rotation in relation to the target, centering that is optional but building space stations where everything faces the right direction asymmetrically, this may be important. When designing, make sure your docking ports are facing the same way. The little "window" on the front should be "up". The yellow arrow on the back points down.
  
• The yellow circle is your standard prograde/retrograde marker which represents your direction of travel in relation to the target. If it's a retrograde marker your moving away from the target. If you center it on the cross hairs, it means your not moving left, right, up, or down in relation to the target. (Doesn't mean you aren't moving forward or backward)
  
• The green/red lines represent your alignment with the target. You will want to get them on the cross hairs to be straight in line with the target. If they are red, you are behind the target so back up.
  
• DST is your distance to the center of mass of the target
  
• CDST is the distance between your docking port and the target's docking port
  
• CVEL is the speed you are traveling in relation to the target.
  

As far as the order of things goes:

1. Set your control from here on the docking port and your target on the docking port.
   
2. Align the orange circle with the crosshairs so your docking port is facing the same-opposite direction as the target.
   
3. Rotate the target if desired so the orange line is at the desired position.
   
4. If you're behind the target (red lines) then translate backward. Be careful not to back into something, in some cases you may have to move away to get around pieces of your space station.
   
5. While maintaining the orange circle on the crosshairs, translate left, right, up and down toward so the prograde/retrograde moves toward the green lines. As the lines approach the center, slow down by translating away from the line.
   
6. Once all is aligned, translate forward to dock.
   

Before docking you should have the orange circle, the yellow circle and the green lines all on the crosshair.

For best results use RCS Build Aid to ensure your designs do not have induced translation rotation, that makes life difficult. The orange circle will drift while translating if you have induced rotation, so while translating into position you have to keep correcting the direction.

As you get more experienced, you will be able to combine these steps (i.e. you can back up and move your alignment toward the target at the same time if your careful not to bump the target.)

Edited October 13, 2014 by Alshain

[Griswel]

It's pretty straight forward really.

• The orange circle represents your target's direction (more accurately the opposite direction), regardless of alignment.
  
• The orange line represents your rotation in relation to the target, centering that is optional but building space stations where everything faces the right direction asymmetrically, this may be important. When designing, make sure your docking ports are facing the same way. The little "window" on the front should be "up". The yellow arrow on the back points down.
  
• The yellow circle is your standard prograde/retrograde marker which represents your direction of travel in relation to the target. If it's a retrograde marker your moving away from the target. If you center it on the cross hairs, it means your not moving left, right, up, or down in relation to the target. (Doesn't mean you aren't moving forward or backward)
  
• The green/red lines represent your alignment with the target. You will want to get them on the cross hairs to be straight in line with the target. If they are red, you are behind the target so back up.
  
• DST is your distance to the center of mass of the target
  
• CDST is the distance between your docking port and the target's docking port
  
• CVEL is the speed you are traveling in relation to the target.
  

As far as the order of things goes:

1. Set your control from here on the docking port and your target on the docking port.
   
2. Align the orange circle with the crosshairs so your docking port is facing the same-opposite direction as the target.
   
3. Rotate the target if desired so the orange line is at the desired position.
   
4. If you're behind the target (red lines) then translate backward. Be careful not to back into something, in some cases you may have to move away to get around pieces of your space station.
   
5. While maintaining the orange circle on the crosshairs, translate left, right, up and down toward so the prograde/retrograde moves toward the green lines. As the lines approach the center, slow down by translating away from the line.
   
6. Once all is aligned, translate forward to dock.
   

Before docking you should have the orange circle, the yellow circle and the green lines all on the crosshair.

For best results use RCS Build Aid to ensure your designs do not have induced translation rotation, that makes life difficult. The orange circle will drift while translating if you have induced rotation, so while translating into position you have to keep correcting the direction.

As you get more experienced, you will be able to combine these steps (i.e. you can back up and move your alignment toward the target at the same time if your careful not to bump the target.)

Thank you.

[Mystique]

...

As you get more experienced, you will be able to combine these steps (i.e. you can back up and move your alignment toward the target at the same time if your careful not to bump the target.)

And just in case someone is using MechJeb - there is useful button in SmartASS like PAR- which will keep your docking ports aligned automatically, while you can focus on all other maneuvers. It's not needed for ships with perfectly positions RCS ports, but save some headache in case they are not, so you won't have to switch to rotation while in docking mode to align your ports.

[goldenpeach]

So far it works fine for me in v0.25. With latest Toolbar and ModuleManager, of course.

Not for me unfortunately

I guess I will just wait for the recompilation!

Anyway, I discovered how this plugin was making the docking funnier and easier by being forced to dock without this mod. This one of the mod I will alway keep in my Gamedata folder.

EDIT: forget what I said, I just downloaded the wrong mod(that explain why I thought it wasn't working!)

(however, my last sentence of my post before the edit(the one in smaller case) is still true)

Edited October 15, 2014 by goldenpeach

[Zerro]

What's the word on updating this mod to v0.25?

[Master Tao]

Is it not working for you? It seems to be working for everyone else.

[Dr. Death]

This mod should get a RPM version, it would be great.

[Smegghed]

This mod should get a RPM version, it would be great.

Oh man, I never really even though about that. I second this, it would be amazing.

[Justin Kerbice]

For what it's worth, it's work fine for me too (updated 0.25 with a bunch of mods).

It's a great addition for manual docking (especially dumbed designed stuff that's MJ can't handle , like engine put 90° to the DP), thanks Navyfish.

Regarding the tutorial given in 1st post, I didn't say chasing camera is "essential", it is even better in free mode, as long as you can "mentally handle" direction of movements that's didn't match directly the camera (the same as we do with EVA, which is a good "docking school" ). It also allow to see the RCS thrusters' burst, so you are sure to move forward and not backward for example !

Edited November 1, 2014 by Justin Kerbice

[karamazovnew]

This mod should get a RPM version, it would be great.

I just came in here to request the same thing

[Alshain]

This mod should get a RPM version, it would be great.

I just came in here to request the same thing

The issue has been discussed but there is the problem that KSP in the past did not allow you to "Control From Here" from anything but the cockpit while flying IVA. So there was no way for DPAI to work. However there was some reworking in 0.25 to get the new markers on the IVA navball, not sure if that would allow it or not.

[NavyFish]

It's been a few months since I posted, so I suppose we're due for an "I'm not dead yet" and "neither is this mod" post.

Here's a bit of truth sauce, though: I haven't played KSP since July (.23.5). The KSP bug has bitten recently, though, and I'm finally getting back to playing. Which is probably good news for the development of this plugin.

A bit of a tangent, but I'm curious: Does anyone else feel overly 'OCD' about their mods? For example, before I play some KSP (particularly if it's been awhile), I scrub through my list of mods, checking for updates. Inevitably I'll find some new mods that have come out and will download those. By the end of it, however, it seems like I've spent more time checking out mods than actually playing the damn game! (It's not jsut KSP: Obvlivion and other TES games suffered the same fate - more time was given to their installation directory than to their game worlds!). I can't be the only one who does this.. can I?

That having been said, I figured I'd post my unofficial list of mods I use (plus a few at the end that I use either on a per-game basis, such as B9, or mods that look interesting but aren't yet installed): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PlA86mvkk8MRD_VaDGLE140UfGRBkOmx8FJy4tI6P2M/edit?usp=sharing

Ok, back on point:

I'm not going to make any statements about when I'll work on the next version of DPAI, because I'm not particularly good at keeping such promises. I do realize, however, that the mod isn't in a great place (IMO) right now:

-The "auto target" feature is poorly implemented.

-I'm not using the stock application launcher (toolbar).

-There may or may not be some bugs (the 64 bit version seems particularly bad, although those might be Unity bugs, not my own).

-Raster Prop Monitor integration is (and has been for some time) a highly-requested feature

-Detailed (optional) numerical and visual read-outs (i.e. angles, velocities) would be lovely, and will be easier now that I've written a custom text engine for the plugin

-KSP AVC-Online integration isn't implemented

-The code base is a MESS (think one big class with maybe a couple helper classes... yuck)

-The code is not posted to github and thus 3rd party contributions are difficult

That's just the big stuff. There are a few smaller features or tweaks I'd like to implement, as well, not to mention exploring the whole concept of using the DPAI to target an asteroid or vessel's CoM for use with the grappler. Is that a list of features for the next version? Doubtful, though it's a good sense of where I'd like to take the plugin. I think the next biggest step, after fixing the 'auto targeting' concept, is to post this project to github, in the event that other folks would like to contribute to the mod (if you're a modder and would like to work on this plugin, let me know). I'm a bit surprised (pleasantly) that this mod remains on the first page of 'most popular' KSP mods on Curse, so I guess that's a sign that people find it useful. Needless to say that does generate a sense of obligation to the project and the community (hence the occasional "I'm not dead yet" post).

You all rock. Thanks for using this mod and following its development.

Navy

Edited November 11, 2014 by NavyFish

[jrandom]

This mod is the only reason I was able to pull off this RealSolarSystem docking, as the docking ports now require a high degree of precision before they'll lock together. I am glad to see you're still around!

[hakan]

A bit of a tangent, but I'm curious: Does anyone else feel overly 'OCD' about their mods? For example, before I play some KSP (particularly if it's been awhile), I scrub through my list of mods, checking for updates. Inevitably I'll find some new mods that have come out and will download those. By the end of it, however, it seems like I've spent more time checking out mods than actually playing the damn game! (It's not jsut KSP: Obvlivion and other TES games suffered the same fate - more time was given to their installation directory than to their game worlds!). I can't be the only one who does this.. can I?

Overly OCD? Is it possible to be overly OCD about mods?

Honestly, I am planning to launch a few more rockets since about three weeks or so, but following all the postings about my favourite mods, following the CKAN efforts and writing auto-installer for said mods, and, and, and... Just sucks all my free time...

But one of those days, I'll have a system which can auto-install and auto-update itself! YES SIR, I WILL!!!!

[madlemur]

A bit of a tangent, but I'm curious: Does anyone else feel overly 'OCD' about their mods? For example, before I play some KSP (particularly if it's been awhile), I scrub through my list of mods, checking for updates. Inevitably I'll find some new mods that have come out and will download those. By the end of it, however, it seems like I've spent more time checking out mods than actually playing the damn game! (It's not jsut KSP: Obvlivion and other TES games suffered the same fate - more time was given to their installation directory than to their game worlds!). I can't be the only one who does this.. can I?

Let me put it this way: Back in the day, I cancelled my WoW subscription when I realized I was only logging in to the game to test whatever add-on I was futzing with, and I was no longer playing the content.

With KSP, I've started quite a few careers, but then I start getting all OCD ADHD with the add-ons, and I break my current save and have to start over...

[jrandom]

If I'm between missions, I'm a bit OCD about a subset of the mods I use (important behavioral mods like FAR, DRE, AJE, etc...), along with any major bugfixes in parts and utility mods. If I'm in the middle of designing a mission, I'll only update mods if it's a serious bugfix that won't break my existing mission design.

[MisterFister]

I'm a bit surprised (pleasantly) that this mod remains on the first page of 'most popular' KSP mods on Curse, so I guess that's a sign that people find it useful.

Dude, this is absolutely, without a doubt, one of the mods I categorically refuse to play without. How can anyone hope to assemble a correct-looking space station without the rotation indicator on your mod? NavBall alightment indicators don't provide anywhere near the precision needed to cater to my OCD tendencies.

Speaking of OCD, any thoughts on perhaps hosting this plugin on KerbalStuff? I think that's vastly a better repository for the end-user, especially with update tracking.

And thanks for the great mod!

[asdfCYBER]

I'm not going to make any statements about when I'll work on the next version of DPAI, because I'm not particularly good at keeping such promises. I do realize, however, that the mod isn't in a great place (IMO) right now:

-The "auto target" feature is poorly implemented.

-I'm not using the stock application launcher (toolbar).

-There may or may not be some bugs (the 64 bit version seems particularly bad, although those might be Unity bugs, not my own).

-Raster Prop Monitor integration is (and has been for some time) a highly-requested feature

-Detailed (optional) numerical and visual read-outs (i.e. angles, velocities) would be lovely, and will be easier now that I've written a custom text engine for the plugin

-KSP AVC-Online integration isn't implemented

-The code base is a MESS (think one big class with maybe a couple helper classes... yuck)

-The code is not posted to github and thus 3rd party contributions are difficult

I think the ModuleManager dll packed with the download should be updated

Edited November 22, 2014 by ExtremeTrader

[caipi]

A bit of a tangent, but I'm curious: Does anyone else feel overly 'OCD' about their mods? For example, before I play some KSP (particularly if it's been awhile), I scrub through my list of mods, checking for updates. Inevitably I'll find some new mods that have come out and will download those. By the end of it, however, it seems like I've spent more time checking out mods than actually playing the damn game

All I'm currently doing is check the add-on release forum and curse every day or second day, look for new updates and mods, read the patch notes (if available), test the mod and then I go on and play something else

I am currently just waiting for .9/the beta to come out and to restart the DMP multiplayer mod on my server again.

It's good to see that you are still around and plan to update your mod and the list looks nice! I really like it and it makes docking so much more fun and quicker.

Keep it up!

[MisterFister]

A bit of a tangent, but I'm curious: Does anyone else feel overly 'OCD' about their mods? For example, before I play some KSP (particularly if it's been awhile), I scrub through my list of mods, checking for updates. Inevitably I'll find some new mods that have come out and will download those. By the end of it, however, it seems like I've spent more time checking out mods than actually playing the damn game!

It's not just you. I bookmark all of the mods I hope to use or keep track of, which is a substantial amount -- perhaps 180-ish or so. I sort them first by repository (I favor KerbalStuff over CurseForge because of its interface and mod-author-driven model, and I prefer CurseFoorge over forum-only / github / dropbox hosting because at least with CF I can sign up for mod updates by email.)

Each repository has its own bookmark folder. Within all three of those folders (KerbalStuff, CF, and Forum / other) I divide links into subfolders by mod genre / purpose: Appearance (eye-candy mods -- EVE, Chatterer KerbinSide...); Behavior (TweakScale, Fine Print, FAR); Career (DangIt!, DMP, Kethane, RT2); Info (PreciseNode, Haystack, Notes, Trajectories, NavyFish's Docking Alignment Indicator); Parts (B9, Firespitter, LLL, KW); and WIP (pre-releases that may not yet be evolved enough to justify using them but seem promising, such as Kerbal Weather Systems, PlanetShine, etc.)

I download all of the zipfiles to a folder structure that mirrors my bookmark structure. Periodically, I do this from top to bottom, especially when coming back into the game after a hiatus period such as recently; otherwise, I just keep track of my email updates from KS / CF, and periodically check my Forum mods for updates. Once I have my zipfiles sorted, I convert all non-zip files (the occasional .rar, for example) into zipfiles for my own personal convenience, and I insert dummy .txt files into each GameData subfolder within those zipfiles. The dummy .txt files are named after the mod, which I use as tracers. That way, I can keep track of how many mods write or overwrite to a particular GameData subfolder (for example, lots of mods use firespitter.dll.) This allows me to make sure I have the latest .dll's for all mods, and it also makes it easier to uninstall individual mods -- before deleting a GameData subfolder, I look at the .txt files within it, and if there are multiple copies, I note those mods to reinstall / recopy, so that uninstalling any particular mod doesn't result in disabling others that I may wish to keep.

All of the above allows me to sort and prioritize mods based on intended career savefile use and, potentially, memory footprint.

[Miro Beero]

I can't quite figure out something about this mod.

Once I rotate the ship so the little thingy-ma-bober is 90 degrees on the top in the middle of the screen, and I also have the big target in the middle of the crosshairs.

How do I know if I push the "J" key with monopropellant, if I will be flying left or right?

Before I got a docking port, I use to make sure I rotate my ship relative to the orbital body and make sure that the sky matches the sky.

I find myself with the docking port flying by constantly as I cant seem to figure out which way to 'push' with JKLI buttons.

I hope this makes sense.

[razark]

How do I know if I push the "J" key with monopropellant, if I will be flying left or right?

I find myself with the docking port flying by constantly as I cant seem to figure out which way to 'push' with JKLI buttons.

Go slow and watch what happens. Press a button, see which thrusters fire. Press a button, see what your ship does.

[Miro Beero]

Go slow and watch what happens. Press a button, see which thrusters fire. Press a button, see what your ship does.

I can dock without the docking port mod. Is the docking port suppose to align you properly so that J goes left and L goes right ?

Or that's still manually like I have been doing.

I "Know" I can click the letter J and see what happens and click L and see what happens. I thought the Mod got rid of all that and it just showed you which way thrust.