parts [1.10.x] SDHI Service Module System (V4.0.4 / 11 October 2020)

[sumghai]

Sumghai, I'll run it through a test run as soon as you merge the pull request.

Starwaster's pull requests have been merged!

I'll update the OP with additional info regarding AnimatedDecouplers new features (although more thorough testing will be needed before V2.5 can be officially released).

Let the fuh-USE be lit!

[sharpspoonful]

Starwaster's pull requests have been merged!

I'll update the OP with additional info regarding AnimatedDecouplers new features (although more thorough testing will be needed before V2.5 can be officially released).

Cool, I'm running it as we speak, and I'll post with results in a moment. Having to reinstall KSP due to bugs on saved file...

Edited May 30, 2015 by sharpspoonful

[sharpspoonful]

Cool, I'm running it as we speak, and I'll post with results in a moment. Having to reinstall KSP due to bugs on saved file...

Sorry for the double post, just doing it to bump the thread and get some eyes on from others.

To the point though; it works, but I'm noticing oddities.

• I see drag on take-off with all fairings on, notably from the edges of the fairings.
  
• Fuel consumption is infinite on my main stage, though that could be a mod incompatibility on my end. (I was too impatient to make a clean KSP install)
  
• The ablator shielding tens to rock to the side of the parachutes main chute attachment point when reentering, as can be seen in the pictures.
  
• The decouplers work perfectly.
  
• The bump map error is still there
  

To confirm these I'll need to do a clean install, but I'm pressed for time right now.

Pictures:

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Edited May 31, 2015 by sharpspoonful

[sumghai]

I see drag on take-off with all fairings on, notably from the edges of the fairings.

This is with the side fairings, correct?

I think I can fix that by extending the colliders a wee bit, since they were a bit short originally.

[Starwaster]

Sorry for the double post, just doing it to bump the thread and get some eyes on from others.

To the point though; it works, but I'm noticing oddities.

• I see drag on take-off with all fairings on, notably from the edges of the fairings.
  

What counts is whether or not items under the fairing take drag. Are you saying that you're seeing that or... what? (the fairing itself as well as the boost cover should be subject to drag. Though the location of the drag itself could be an issue.... that could be fixed by offsetting the center of mass)

• Fuel consumption is infinite on my main stage, though that could be a mod incompatibility on my end. (I was too impatient to make a clean KSP install)
  

Sounds like an issue with another mod.

• The ablator shielding tens to rock to the side of the parachutes main chute attachment point when reentering, as can be seen in the pictures.

I don't think that's because of the chute....

Sumghai, is the heat shield's origin exactly centered on the X and Z axis? That's the only thing I can think that would cause that. There's no danger of flipping and it's offset exactly 15 degrees. I saw it but I didn't pay much attention because frankly a little offset on a pod like that helps lifting reentries.

[sumghai]

Pushed a commit with a tweak to the SM side fairing colliders, so that they are the same height as the fairing visual mesh.

• The ablator shielding tens to rock to the side of the parachutes main chute attachment point when reentering, as can be seen in the pictures
  

I don't think that's because of the chute....

Sumghai, is the heat shield's origin exactly centered on the X and Z axis? That's the only thing I can think that would cause that. There's no danger of flipping and it's offset exactly 15 degrees. I saw it but I didn't pay much attention because frankly a little offset on a pod like that helps lifting reentries.

Yep, the heatshield is exactly centered on the X and Z axes. The Y axis isn't, and I can't remember why I made it that way in the first place:

[sharpspoonful]

Sorry guys, I'm at a friend's show right now, so I can't play test anything atm. I'll try again tomorrow with fresh installs on a clean KSP install.

Edit: sumghai, it seemed that the fairings were causing the drag, but like I said, I'll need to double check tomorrow.

Edited May 31, 2015 by sharpspoonful

[Starwaster]

Sorry guys, I'm at a friend's show right now, so I can't play test anything atm. I'll try again tomorrow with fresh installs on a clean KSP install.

Edit: sumghai, it seemed that the fairings were causing the drag, but like I said, I'll need to double check tomorrow.

You do understand that fairings themselves have drag....?

[Bomoo]

Oh boy! Time to get my testing pants on.

- - - Updated - - -

Okay so I grabbed the Animated Decouplers plugin off the link from the first post. Was that the right place? It says the last update was 10 months ago, on the github. Is there some other place I should be grabbing it that I totally missed?

First testing the launch abort system, I'm noticing several things:

Firstly, I'm seeing drag on the Mk1-2 capsule both after LES activation and in-flight, so the drag occlusion appears to be misbehaving. This may or may not be due to my downloading an outdated Animated Decouplers version.

Secondly, I'm experiencing an issue with detaching the pod cover after LES activation. The actions appear to be ordered such that the Decouple action will fire before the Activate Engine action, making the cover just sit there on top of the pod. I'm not sure why this is only coming up now, but it was never a problem before. To clarify, I'm binding the pod cover's Decouple + Activate Engine to an action group.

[sharpspoonful]

Oh boy! Time to get my testing pants on.

- - - Updated - - -

Okay so I grabbed the Animated Decouplers plugin off the link from the first post. Was that the right place? It says the last update was 10 months ago, on the github. Is there some other place I should be grabbing it that I totally missed?

First testing the launch abort system, I'm noticing several things:

Firstly, I'm seeing drag on the Mk1-2 capsule both after LES activation and in-flight, so the drag occlusion appears to be misbehaving. This may or may not be due to my downloading an outdated Animated Decouplers version.

Secondly, I'm experiencing an issue with detaching the pod cover after LES activation. The actions appear to be ordered such that the Decouple action will fire before the Activate Engine action, making the cover just sit there on top of the pod. I'm not sure why this is only coming up now, but it was never a problem before.

That's what I was trying to point out. Thank you for wording it a lot better than I was able to last night.

Also, use this link: https://github.com/Starwaster/AnimatedDecouplers

Sorry, and @sumghai it seems that the fairings were not separating at the same time, and required to be staged twice to have the fairings be completely separated. The boost cover does not fire their separation motors on stagings, unless selected in the RMB menu, and won't allow the LES tower to fire either.

Edited May 31, 2015 by sharpspoonful

[sumghai]

Sorry, and @sumghai it seems that the fairings were not separating at the same time, and required to be staged twice to have the fairings be completely separated. The boost cover does not fire their separation motors on stagings, unless selected in the RMB menu, and won't allow the LES tower to fire either.

Those don't sound good

If I understand correctly, it's as if the stock decoupler module (which AnimatedDecouplers extends) disables everything else on a given part / vessel portion as soon as it is decoupled, right?

The reason I had separation motors in the boost cover is because by itself, the decoupler does not provide enough ejection force. I did try increasing the decoupler force, but the kick was often strong enough to destroy the parachute-equipped docking ports.

What sort of modifications to my parts might be needed to get things working again?

[Bomoo]

Those don't sound good

If I understand correctly, it's as if the stock decoupler module (which AnimatedDecouplers extends) disables everything else on a given part / vessel portion as soon as it is decoupled, right?

The reason I had separation motors in the boost cover is because by itself, the decoupler does not provide enough ejection force. I did try increasing the decoupler force, but the kick was often strong enough to destroy the parachute-equipped docking ports.

What sort of modifications to my parts might be needed to get things working again?

I think what's happening is what sometimes happens with drop tanks, where the decouple action will fire before separatrons/parachutes, and fail to activate any of them. If you right click Activate Engine, and then Decouple, it works normally, but activating them simultaneously via action group or staging appears to trigger Decouple first, and then fail on Activate Engine because no probe core. Will do some testing.

- - - Updated - - -

Ha, well that was an easy fix. I simply moved

	MODULE
	{
	    name = ModuleAnimatedDecoupler
	    ejectionForce = 0 //200
	    explosiveNodeID = bottom
	}

behind

	MODULE
    {
    	name = ModuleEngines
    	thrustVectorTransformName = thrustTransform
    	throttleLocked = True
    	exhaustDamage = true
    	ignitionThreshold = 0.1
    	minThrust = 0
    	maxThrust = 18
    	heatProduction = 100
    	useEngineResponseTime = True
    	engineAccelerationSpeed = 10.0
    	allowShutdown = False
    	fxOffset = 0, 0, 0.02
    	PROPELLANT
    	{
    		name = SolidFuel
            	ratio = 1.0
    		DrawGauge = True
    	}
    	atmosphereCurve
     	{
       		key = 0 100
      		key = 1 100
     	}

    }

    RESOURCE
    {
     name = SolidFuel
     amount = 8
     maxAmount = 8
    }

and it appears to work just fine with my action group. Will test for staging.

- - - Updated - - -

Staging decouple appears to work fine except the icon's changed to an engine instead of a decoupler. Will see if I get around that.

[sumghai]

Thanks for the heads-up, Bomoo - I'll push an edit to GitHub in a moment.

I also recall that staging icons can be manually specified, although I'll have to check.

[Bomoo]

Thanks for the heads-up, Bomoo - I'll push an edit to GitHub in a moment.

I also recall that staging icons can be manually specified, although I'll have to check.

Yes, I think so as well. I'm about to try it with

stagingIcon = DECOUPLER_HOR

added after the maxtemp definition.

Edit: Well, not quite the right one. That gives it the icon for radial decuoplers, not stack decouplers. Maybe DECOUPLER_VER? But I'm not sure that's valid. We'll find out!

- - - Updated - - -

Some weirdness with staging...

Activating the pod cover stage leaves an empty stage that I have to hit Spacebar once again to get past. Likewise, the SM cover halves detach one at a time and leave the same empty stage that I have to hit Spacebar once again to dismiss.

Edit2: Well, neither DECOUPLER_VER nor DECOUPLER_STA are valid definitions. If you can find a full list of what the different staging icons are defined as, you could set it to whatever you like. Otherwise, with an invalid definition, it doesn't appear in the staging UI at all.

- - - Updated - - -

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/CFG_File_Documentation#Standard_Part_Parameters

I guess the stack decoupler staging icon isn't known. Considering how dependant on modding KSP is, you'd think Squid would document this stuff and make it freely available.

- - - Updated - - -

Sorry for spamming so much, but this is kinda the last idea I've got in this direction. Is it possible that the animated decoupler plugin somehow makes the decoupler module have a higher priority than the others? I recall the pod cover detaching just fine, and simultaneously activating its little engines, before this last test update as well as prior to this as far back as I can remember. As far as I can tell, in those earlier versions, the decouple module was ahead of the engine module in the cfg and it didn't raise any issues with simultaneous activation.

Edited May 31, 2015 by Bomoo

[Exposure]

It's DECOUPLER_VERT for the vertical decoupler staging icon.

[sharpspoonful]

Yes, I think so as well. I'm about to try it with

stagingIcon = DECOUPLER_HOR

added after the maxtemp definition.

Edit: Well, not quite the right one. That gives it the icon for radial decuoplers, not stack decouplers. Maybe DECOUPLER_VER? But I'm not sure that's valid. We'll find out!

- - - Updated - - -

Some weirdness with staging...

Activating the pod cover stage leaves an empty stage that I have to hit Spacebar once again to get past. Likewise, the SM cover halves detach one at a time and leave the same empty stage that I have to hit Spacebar once again to dismiss.

Edit2: Well, neither DECOUPLER_VER nor DECOUPLER_STA are valid definitions. If you can find a full list of what the different staging icons are defined as, you could set it to whatever you like. Otherwise, with an invalid definition, it doesn't appear in the staging UI at all.

- - - Updated - - -

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/CFG_File_Documentation#Standard_Part_Parameters

I guess the stack decoupler staging icon isn't known. Considering how dependant on modding KSP is, you'd think Squid would document this stuff and make it freely available.

- - - Updated - - -

Sorry for spamming so much, but this is kinda the last idea I've got in this direction. Is it possible that the animated decoupler plugin somehow makes the decoupler module have a higher priority than the others? I recall the pod cover detaching just fine, and simultaneously activating its little engines, before this last test update as well as prior to this as far back as I can remember. As far as I can tell, in those earlier versions, the decouple module was ahead of the engine module in the cfg and it didn't raise any issues with simultaneous activation.

Not spamming at all! Quite helpful for Sumghai, and it's definitely teaching me some new stuff to keep an eye out for.

- - - Updated - - -

How do you add the change for the decoupler staging icon?

Edited June 1, 2015 by sharpspoonful

[Bomoo]

It's DECOUPLER_VERT for the vertical decoupler staging icon.

Thanks, I'll try that.

- - - Updated - - -

How do you add the change for the decoupler staging icon?

add

	stagingIcon = DECOUPLER_VERT

after the maxTemp definition, assuming Senor Exposure is correct about it being a valid definition. Will test shortly. I suspect you could throw it down anywhere, but that's where I've seen it in stock cfgs, so.

Edit: It works! Thanks, Exposure.

Edited June 1, 2015 by Bomoo

[techstepman]

hey guys! I found some kind of bug. the docking port with the parachutes combined with any craft will call the kraken. im only using that docking pot for now ingame and all my launches had terrible failures around 6000 and 7000 m. the camera drifts away from the center of the rocket and the rocket simply loses any control.it easier to deal with when in cockpit but still it hard to handle.i removed all other mods and tried it out on vanilla. it happened there too only that there all crafts showed a speed of 174 m/s while still on the pad and engines shut down. if I launch the craft it will continue indefinitely flying into outer space with nothing stopping it. it took me hours to figure out that it was the docking ports fault and many hours to replicate the bug again and again.

have any ideas what could possibly cause this? its a really crazy bug.

keep up the great work!i love this mod!

spent all night on this...im going to sleep now. today after dinner I'll try to replicate the bug a few times and i'll try to write something more specific about it.

Edited June 1, 2015 by techstepman

[Starwaster]

Just to make sure everyone understands, but you need the very latest version (which I just pushed yesterday) of Animated Decouplers. If it says it's ten months old then you're in the wrong place!

This link will display all releases past and present. The very latest is at the top and is labeled with white text on green tag next to it.

https://github.com/Starwaster/AnimatedDecouplers/releases

Can't miss it!

hey guys! I found some kind of bug. the docking port with the parachutes combined with any craft will call the kraken. im only using that docking pot for now ingame and all my launches had terrible failures around 6000 and 7000 m. the camera drifts away from the center of the rocket and the rocket simply loses any control.it easier to deal with when in cockpit but still it hard to handle.i removed all other mods and tried it out on vanilla. it happened there too only that there all crafts showed a speed of 174 m/s while still on the pad and engines shut down. if I launch the craft it will continue indefinitely flying into outer space with nothing stopping it. it took me hours to figure out that it was the docking ports fault and many hours to replicate the bug again and again.

have any ideas what could possibly cause this? its a really crazy bug.

keep up the great work!i love this mod!

spent all night on this...im going to sleep now. today after dinner I'll try to replicate the bug a few times and i'll try to write something more specific about it.

Make sure that all dependency mods are updated. And then try duplicating with a freshly constructed craft. Do not load an existing craft file, create it from scratch.

It sounds similar to a problem that has happened in the past with Real Chute but could be triggered by other things too. But if it is Real Chute then that craft (both in the world and craft files) are corrupted.

Edited June 1, 2015 by Starwaster

[sumghai]

Thanks for the heads-up, Bomoo. I'll update the GitHub repo later today or tomorrow.

hey guys! I found some kind of bug. the docking port with the parachutes combined with any craft will call the kraken. im only using that docking pot for now ingame and all my launches had terrible failures around 6000 and 7000 m. the camera drifts away from the center of the rocket and the rocket simply loses any control.it easier to deal with when in cockpit but still it hard to handle.i removed all other mods and tried it out on vanilla. it happened there too only that there all crafts showed a speed of 174 m/s while still on the pad and engines shut down. if I launch the craft it will continue indefinitely flying into outer space with nothing stopping it. it took me hours to figure out that it was the docking ports fault and many hours to replicate the bug again and again.

have any ideas what could possibly cause this? its a really crazy bug.

keep up the great work!i love this mod!

spent all night on this...im going to sleep now. today after dinner I'll try to replicate the bug a few times and i'll try to write something more specific about it.

That sounds like an (common) issue with the RealChutes plugin. Please refer to the RealChutes thread.

[Starwaster]

Thanks for the heads-up, Bomoo. I'll update the GitHub repo later today or tomorrow.

That sounds like an (common) issue with the RealChutes plugin. Please refer to the RealChutes thread.

If I'm understanding Bomoo's proposal, it involves moving the AnimatedDecoupler module in the part file? That will require that the ModuleCargoBay be updated. DeployModuleIndex will have to be changed with the new location of the AnimatedDecoupler. And it can affect existing craft in the world. KSP will try to detect and correct the problem but I don't know how robust it is in handling module order changes.

[Bomoo]

If I'm understanding Bomoo's proposal, it involves moving the AnimatedDecoupler module in the part file? That will require that the ModuleCargoBay be updated. DeployModuleIndex will have to be changed with the new location of the AnimatedDecoupler. And it can affect existing craft in the world. KSP will try to detect and correct the problem but I don't know how robust it is in handling module order changes.

Dang, I had no idea it would be so problematic. Yes, literally all I did was cut and paste the module in question within the part config file.

[sumghai]

@Starwaster: Hmm, I suspected as much. I'll hold off on my changes, to see if there's another way to solve this problem.

[Hoddd9000]

Sorry if I'm being an idiot, but where do I find the GitHub development download mentioned at the top of the post?

[Bomoo]

Sorry if I'm being an idiot, but where do I find the GitHub development download mentioned at the top of the post?

https://github.com/sumghai/SDHI_ServiceModuleSystem

and you'll need this as well

https://github.com/Starwaster/AnimatedDecouplers/releases

- - - Updated - - -

Okay, performed my LES/staging tests with the correct version of AnimatedDecouplers - no discernible difference with regard to failure to simultaneously trigger Decouple+Activate Engine on pod cover in both staging and action group activation. Same with regard to drag occlusion (not seeing it).

Built a "fresh" test craft to be sure.

Also I think there might be something wrong with the SDHI heat shield. It's showing as completely pitch black in-game. Here I am pointing it directly at the sun to be positive it's not just shadows or my eyes playing tricks.