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


blizzy78

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok, this is easily my favorite manuever node editor now. Easy to use and understand.

Just today I launched a 5-vessel Armada to colonize Duna. Using this plus the alexmoon porkchop plots, it was easy to make sure my scout rover arrived first, as well as sending an extra ship that had missed the proper launch window.

The real test will be to see how well I can hit an especially ideal Moho transfer window in a bit over a game year :)

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Ok, this is easily my favorite manuever node editor now. Easy to use and understand.

Just today I launched a 5-vessel Armada to colonize Duna. Using this plus the alexmoon porkchop plots, it was easy to make sure my scout rover arrived first, as well as sending an extra ship that had missed the proper launch window.

The real test will be to see how well I can hit an especially ideal Moho transfer window in a bit over a game year :)

Glad to hear it! I've been concentrating on Moho for most of my recent playing time and it's fairly accurate (did three flights last night, all arriving within a two day span). Remember that long burn times are the bane of accurate maneuvers; bring a little extra delta-V for corrections once you're in Kerbol SOI.

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So we could get alexmoons numbers from the pork chop calculator and plug them into your node editor and all good?

For the most part. Burn times will affect maneuver accuracy so you'll almost always be doing corrections, but this mod is intended to give you the information you need (the node ejection angle) to take advantage of a launch window planner.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Updated to 0.22 and I added some new information: the apoapsis/periapsis of the first node or the periapsis of the next encounter. I need to write some better look-ahead in order to get the information for the current node; right now it only shows for the first node on your flight plan. That won't take too long though, I just wanted to get this out into the wild.

What I am having a hell of a time with is calculating the ejection inclination of a node. I've tried comparing orbit and patch inclinations, running atan2 functions on now and ten seconds from now (and a host of other things), and for the life of me I can't get a decent number. Using inclinations seems to work the best but there is no way to determine whether a maneuver is negative or positive. I suppose I could use the delta-V of the node, but that runs into all sorts of comparison issues where the x or y value is actually what changes the inclination (at high initial inclinations). The search continues.

Anyway, enjoy!

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Why no spaceport?

I'm waiting on the new version.

regex ty for the update. Is there a way to toggle on/off the mod while active , for the sake of screen real estate?

I'll release an update sometime within the next week with a keyboard shortcut to hide the window. I'm thinking it'll initially be bound to "p".

Edited by regex
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Great and usefull plugin, but when i try to drag maneuver to find rough place everything seems to shake and wobble, and I just must create new maneuver in different place or use UT textbox whitch in solar system travels complicate planning rather than help becouse 100 step is too small. My propose to avoid (not resolve) problem is create textbox for bigger numbers than 100 for UT. This will be enough to step by step check roughly a maneuver place in desired resolution.

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Great and usefull plugin, but when i try to drag maneuver to find rough place everything seems to shake and wobble, and I just must create new maneuver in different place

This happened to me even without using the mod, it seems KSP's maneuver nodes are extra twitchy this update.

use UT textbox whitch in solar system travels complicate planning rather than help becouse 100 step is too small. My propose to avoid (not resolve) problem is create textbox for bigger numbers than 100 for UT. This will be enough to step by step check roughly a maneuver place in desired resolution.

You can type in the UT textbox.

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So how do you use this? Select a planet and it draws a node to get you there?

It's just a maneuver node widget. If you're using a launch window planner it allows you to make far more precise maneuvers than you would without the information it provides.

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Regex, could we get a text field in the main display window that shows the current UT and/or Year/Day/Time? Would be really handy for fast forwarding to certain points in the future for optimal departure. It really is one of the best features of MechJeb and pretty much the only thing missing from what you've got here (which is quite lovely, I might add). Given the current date/time and UT I would never have to touch MJ again. :)

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Regex, could we get a text field in the main display window that shows the current UT and/or Year/Day/Time? Would be really handy for fast forwarding to certain points in the future for optimal departure. It really is one of the best features of MechJeb and pretty much the only thing missing from what you've got here (which is quite lovely, I might add). Given the current date/time and UT I would never have to touch MJ again. :)

I think I might do that. That's something I can see wanting now that the SAS is in a better state and I don't need MechJeb anymore. Natually I'll also add a few more information fields, like Ap, Pe, Radar Altitude... That should make it a bit more useful than simply the current time (which is very important by itself). I'm not going to take it beyond a few extra fields for the moment because I'm not exactly sure I want to expand the scope of the mod, but what you're asking for is quite easy to do and fits the spirit of the mod.

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This is one of my favorite mods. Something like this should've been part of the maneuver nodes when they were first introduced.

After using it for awhile, two minor suggestions occurred to me.

Would an option to minimize the window be possible? It would be convenient to reclaim some of KSP's ever-dwindling available screen area.

Next, I love manipulating the maneuver node with the keyboard, but it would be smoother to hold down a key instead of tapping the key over and over again. Just a couple small user-friendliness suggestions.

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Would an option to minimize the window be possible? It would be convenient to reclaim some of KSP's ever-dwindling available screen area.

Next, I love manipulating the maneuver node with the keyboard, but it would be smoother to hold down a key instead of tapping the key over and over again. Just a couple small user-friendliness suggestions.

Next version will include your first request. I'll look into the second, but that may be later. I'll probably tackle that while I'm dealing with the UT text box.

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Can you add a control to change the number of conic patches, in addition to the current choice of the display mode? This is also a parameter that you might want to keep at the default normally to avoid clutter, but increase when planning some maneuvers. :)

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First off: Thank you so much, this is so much closer to what I was looking for than the other maneuver node editors! I especially love the (intuitive) keyboard shortcuts.

Secondly: never mind, was about to ask for the ability hold keys down, but White Owl beat me to it ;)

Lastly: I've tried this out on my Duna-trip in career mode and noticed a problem when adjusting the node via keyboard: It would be nice to have a key to go down a step size instead of only up (with numpad-0), maybe use just a modifier (alt) for it? At this scale I've also noticed that the unit selection for the time of the maneuver node usually needs to be one higher to have a noticeable effect compared to the rest. When I was adjusting the delta-v in all directions in steps of 10, I had to switch to 100 every time I wanted to adjust the node time/position. This is not the case for smaller nodes though, so I don't really have a proposed solution to this... Maybe someone has an idea? Mabye the ability to lock a certain "step size" for time specifically? After all it is the one 'axis' that is not using delta-v as the unit, so it is a bit special...

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