[1.2.0] Precise Node 1.2.4 - Precisely edit your maneuver nodes

[regex]

Okay! Then here's a thought: In very rare instances I've wanted to move a node by a certain number of hours, not 10x seconds. Or days. I don't actually remember why but I did.

I'd really want to know your use case before trying to figure out where to put the buttons.

KSP.log:

System.TypeLoadException: Could not load type 'RegexKSP.CompatibilityChecker' from assembly 'PreciseNode, Version=0.0.5140.39137, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null'.

All the other symbols fail to load, too. Yet they are sitting there happily (apparently in the right namespace) when I compare the assemblies in dotPeek.

Could you offer some build instructions?

I'm no C#/Unity expert so I can really only suggest that you remove the CompatibilityChecker.cs file from the project and try again. If you're compiling for your own use, it's not needed. If you're planning on refining/adding to the code, it's still not needed (it's really just a KSP version checker the way I use it). If you're going to build and maintain a version to share, you'll want to change the namespace anyway and decide whether to use the CompatibilityChecker.cs for yourself.

[Camacan]

I have the solution. It was a mismatch between the .NET framework version I was building to and the one Unity works on. Apparently Unity is 2.0 while the default for my MonoDevelop is 4.0

Man that's a gotcha: a System.TypeLoadException error doesn't suggest anything like that!

So I can confirm PreciseNode can be built from the supplied source using MonoDevelop. Thank you.

Edited February 19, 2014 by Camacan
Problem solved.

[TMS]

I figured that given that this mod is all about soothing the frustrations of players who are tired of fighting the manoeuvre node/map GUI, I'd ask this question here as it may well be a feature request.

Does anyone else sometimes struggle to even place a manoeuvre node? As in, you can't even get a blue orb to show on your patch line to allow a node placement, thus the PreciseNode GUI never gets the opportunity to show up? Typically the problem occurs when patches overlay each other (usually on interplanetary travel) or when you're at the far end of an incoming hyperbolic trajectory.

Is there a way to place a node without clicking on the patch line (kOS used to allow you to do this with a command)? Even just arbitrarily placing a node 5 minutes ahead of you ready for dragging/editing would be useful.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah, I've had that problem, usually what I do is place a node way out where it's allowed then drag it closer. A lot of time, though, it will just disappear as the game can't handle it for some reason. Placing it on the correct orbit is a pain as well, sometimes you can't zoom in far enough to get the correct orbit to click on. Not sure if it's possible, but an option in the dialog to create a new node five minutes (or whatever) time in the future would be cool. It could eliminate all that messy clicking on orbits entirely.

I haven't played KSP in a while, so maybe that's actually possible? Never tried it.

[John Nowak]

Very nice! A huge improvement, and I can't imagine playing without it.

My only issue is the dating system -- I'm not fond of UT.

[regex]

Is there a way to place a node without clicking on the patch line (kOS used to allow you to do this with a command)? Even just arbitrarily placing a node 5 minutes ahead of you ready for dragging/editing would be useful.

I've had that issue as well and your request is essentially what the Toolbar button will do.

My only issue is the dating system -- I'm not fond of UT.

How else would you do it? UT is like the Unix time of KSP and it works perfectly for our purposes because it is very easy to do math with a single number rather than, say, a date string. PreciseNode also has a clock window for human-readable time.

[John Nowak]

How else would you do it? UT is like the Unix time of KSP and it works perfectly for our purposes because it is very easy to do math with a single number rather than, say, a date string. PreciseNode also has a clock window for human-readable time.

I'd prefer to see a date string, similar to the one in Kerbal Alarm Clock. Not a big deal, though.

[Superfluous J]

I figured that given that this mod is all about soothing the frustrations of players who are tired of fighting the manoeuvre node/map GUI, I'd ask this question here as it may well be a feature request.

Does anyone else sometimes struggle to even place a manoeuvre node? As in, you can't even get a blue orb to show on your patch line to allow a node placement, thus the PreciseNode GUI never gets the opportunity to show up? Typically the problem occurs when patches overlay each other (usually on interplanetary travel) or when you're at the far end of an incoming hyperbolic trajectory.

Is there a way to place a node without clicking on the patch line (kOS used to allow you to do this with a command)? Even just arbitrarily placing a node 5 minutes ahead of you ready for dragging/editing would be useful.

It's weird you ask this question here, in the PreciseNode thread, as this problem is one of the joys (for me) of the mod. Get the node on the line, use the time controls to move it where you want, and then adjust it within the PN gui and you're good. Just don't touch the node with your mouse, or KSP will kindly delete it for you.

[TMS]

I've had that issue as well and your request is essentially what the Toolbar button will do.

Ah, great news. Look forward to seeing how you handle that.

Get the node on the line....

Therein lies the problem.

[Superfluous J]

Get the node on the line...

Therein lies the problem.

I've never ever been in a situation where I couldn't get a node on a line. I've only not been able to get it where I want it on the line.

And Regex, this is the situation where I wanted +/- hour increments. If I want the node to be 10 minutes away but the closest that the game will give me is 10 hours away, I wanted to be able to click "-1 hour" a few times to bring it up to me. I know I can use the seconds, but my brain wants exact hours.

[regex]

And Regex, this is the situation where I wanted +/- hour increments. If I want the node to be 10 minutes away but the closest that the game will give me is 10 hours away, I wanted to be able to click "-1 hour" a few times to bring it up to me. I know I can use the seconds, but my brain wants exact hours.

I can see that, but my biggest issue is space on the GUI. I know there are people playing on large monitors who have real-estate galore, and I do have a 22" widescreen available to me, but 95% of the time I'm playing and working on a 14" laptop screen, and I know there are other people out there doing the same. IMO the PreciseNode window is large enough as-is; adding more buttons and controls just adds more clutter, confusion, and code cruft.

Another line of buttons is probably doable, especially as an option. The Peri/DN/-Orb/+Orb/AN/Apo controls could probably just be made non-optional, then we can toggle coarse time controls and add in +/- minutes, hours, and days, or something. But when removing roughly ten hours is as simple as subtracting 30000 or 40000 from the UT text box, I'm kind of resistant to adding more stuff. I'll consider it.

[John FX]

I'd really want to know your use case before trying to figure out where to put the buttons.

Myself I regularly want to move a node a whole orbit past the current UT (which I have usually just passed whilst fiddling and want to catch the next burn point)

Currently I add a few hundred seconds and manually drag it round the orbit to just behind my craft which sort of defeats the point of the mod.

I would gladly lose the +-1K buttons for that (when do you need to shift exactly 1000 seconds?)

Maybe a better way is if there could be a `units switch` that would switch between seconds, hours, days, and orbits? Then the current 0.1,1,10,100 buttons would still perform similar functions but ones that would be changed by the units button?

I can imagine that the 100 orbits button would not get used much (maybe if the units are orbits the buttons could change to 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 1 or something)

I think, to recap, that I personally would see much more use for a +-1 orbit button combined with the ability to change units on the time adjustment buttons (to allow for people that want to use days as a unit).

this is my case while the topic is on the table.

EDIT : My apologies for not reading your post about including a +- orbit button in the next version

Edited February 20, 2014 by John FX

[diomedea]

Myself I regularly want to move a node a whole orbit past the current UT ...

I would gladly lose the +-1K buttons for that (when do you need to shift exactly 1000 seconds?)

...

Let me second this idea. Sometimes I need to shift one orbit too, though I still find uses for the +/- 1K buttons.

I am a bit puzzled by all of this recent discussion about UT times. Yes, certainly, it would be useful to use *also* a time measure in hours/min/sec. But, it is no big deal (to me) to convert all in UT. In case of a whole orbit shift, I need to convert the orbit period in seconds and add that to the UT for the maneuver.

In the end, all of this is about a more easy way to input your node values. I can do that with the buttons and UT (as already in the mod), with specific points (Apo/Peri/AN/DN and now also +/- one orbit), and could do if other ways are devised.

But sure Regex is right: all of this can make for an overcomplex GUI with this mod. And space for its window is *real estate* on a KSP screen, so better not to enlarge that window any further than it is now.

I don't know how complex this could get, but can't all of these GUI elements be configurable? Some users want UT times, others day/hh:mm.ss; some users like +/- buttons (up to 10K and, let me say, I often find significant a +/- 0.001 that actually doesn't exist, to set my nodes perfectly right) while others want significant points (Peri/Apo/AN/DN and so on). I would like to see, perhaps, a new secondary panel with this mod that allows to use any of the above, and possibly select those for the main panel GUI to show.

[regex]

I've been thinking about this all day and I may have a solution i like and that will hopefully accommodate the majority of users. I'll add a second line of coarse time controls and lock the 1K buttons to Orbit buttons (because that line of controls is pretty specific), and then provide a "sidebar" for the window to handle more controls for those people with the screen real estate to waste. It's going to wait for the KSP 0.24 release, though; I first want to get all the changes already outlined finished and into the wild.

[jfull]

Do you think that this mod will need an update when .23.5 comes out? Its going to make some subtle but significant changes to maneuver nodes.

[Nepos]

Is there a good explanation of training on how to use this. I am confused about things like conic mode, change conic sample.

I tried it last night and I was a bit confused.

Thanks

[kiwiak]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/11322-Different-Conic-drawing-modes

[CaptainKipard]

What will become of this mod when 0.23.5 comes out?

[Nepos]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/11322-Different-Conic-drawing-modes

Thank you very much

[regex]

This mod will probably work fine with 0.23.5 when it comes out. If not I'll just recompile it.

Lately I've not had the energy to write code at home after a long day of doing the same; we're in cram mode for the foreseeable future since losing one experienced guy and taking on a fresh hotshot college grad who, despite being much more book-smart than me, has no experience in The Real World (unfortunately college is pretty bad at preparing you for practical on-the-job programming).

With that in mind, this mod can go to any good home. It's gone a bit further than what I really wanted but the user requests also got some really neat things done and I'm fairly happy with the codebase (although someone who knows more C# tricks could probably clean it up nice). Code is on Github, fork away. If you want this thread, let me know and I'll have a mod handle it.

[Superfluous J]

You mean fortunately, Regex. That's what we older folks call Job Security.

Here's hoping this works with no problems with newer versions. I appreciate the "jump ahead an orbit" that's coming in 0.23.5 but it's a far cry from the usefulness of this mod.

[Jasonden]

Here's hoping this works with no problems with newer versions

Agreed -- I love this mod, and thanks to regex for getting it to this point. This is a 'must-have' mod for me -- seriously, I can't imagine going back to analog maneuver node editing!

[Rockstar04]

This mod will probably work fine with 0.23.5 when it comes out. If not I'll just recompile it.

I just want to thank you for letting everyone know, and opening the door for others to carry on with the mod. It seems like most people just dissapear and leave mods to rot.

[regex]

I just want to thank you for letting everyone know, and opening the door for others to carry on with the mod. It seems like most people just dissapear and leave mods to rot.

No problem, sorry I didn't let anyone know sooner. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't feasible for me to work on it; I've been mulling this over for a few weeks now and it seemed like the right decision.

As stated, I'll recompile it, if needed, for 0.23.5, but I'm done with it past that point.

[Cydonian Monk]

Lately I've not had the energy to write code at home after a long day of doing the same;

People think I'm crazy when I say this, so I'm glad to occasionally hear I'm not the only one. You can only live, eat, drink and sleep code 24hrs a day for so long before you just burn away to ash and become one of those folks that run around wearing a live chicken for a hat and talking in four languages at once.

Echoing the above thanks for your work on this and for opening it up to a hopefully graceful transition to a new maintainer. If I wasn't in the same "crunch time" boat I might consider taking this over. I've read through the code enough.....