[1.1.3] AntennaRange 1.11.4 - Enforce and Encourage Antenna Diversity

[toadicus]

Disabling probe control when a connection is lost is an option that needs to be enabled. Look in the Space Center scene for a button on whichever Toolbar you prefer (Blizzy78's if you have it, Squad's if you don't); that will pop up a few options to let you customize your experience.

If you've got it turned on and it still isn't working, post a log (Windows: \path\to\KSP_win\KSP_Data\output_log.txt; Linux: ~/.config/unity3d/Squad/Kerbal\ Space\ Program/Player.log; Mac: ~/Library/Logs/Unity/Player.log) to your favorite text paste or upload site and link it to me here or in a PM. I'm happy to take a look.

Note that while I have no interest whatsoever in starting an angry kerfuffle about 64-bit instability, if the answer is "sorry, it's a 64-bit problem" that's as far as I'm going to go. I will absolutely take a look to see if it's something I can fix, first.

[Maars]

MeCripp, absolutely no worries about butting in it's a forum after all, we all stand around, holding our roman robes in our left hands and throw words at each other you know, your first question was on the money and I'm as impatient as a child. re installing the mod did the trick and it works fine now. should have done that before I bothered people. thanks anyway dude, good to know there's plenty of friendly members about!

- - - Updated - - -

and thank you toadicus! sorry, I missed your reply somehow!

[Maars]

EDIT : btw regarding win64 version - I've been playing 0.25 64bit for 9 hours today after enabling a few blocked mods and I have had no crashes, literally none. it runs like a dream with 65 mods installed and no active texture management. my sincere condolences to the people that are having troubles but I for some reason have none. so no whinging here about either mods or the version i'm using

[toadicus]

TBH, I've had a fairly similar experience with the Windows 64-bit client. I used it in 0.24.x (when I was in Windows) and never had any trouble with my mods or anyone else's (maybe a couple crashes over several weeks). But, I did get a few crash reports from the 64-bit client that definitely weren't my fault, and since 64-bit Kerfuffles are in vogue these days, I figured I should just be clear up front.

In general I just play the totally-stable 64-bit client in Linux and get a good chuckle over the whole thing.

[Maars]

Wasn't my 0.24.2 experience, unfortunately. I crashed every 30 mins-1hr without fail but still I plugged on for many dozens of hours, the stubborn fool that I am. alas, for some reason 0.25 works like a charm for me. it coincides with swapping to a new graphics card, funnily enough.... wonder if that actually might have something to do with it, although I might just be speaking sh*t as anything tech related is like mumbo jumbo to me.

In general I just play the totally-stable 64-bit client in Linux and get a good chuckle over the whole thing.

[Mecripp]

toadicus you could add some more sizes on the stock Antenna and dishes, I use a small Communotron 88-88 make for a nice small probe

+PART[commDish]
{
    @name = commDish.5
    @title = Communotron 88-88.5
    @description = The Communotron High-Gain Antenna, model 88-88 allows for long-range, high-speed communication now in .5 size.



    %rescaleFactor = 0.5

    @mass = 0.0125
} 

+PART[longAntenna]
{
    @name = longAntenna2
    @title = Communotron 32c
    @description = The Communotron 32c is a versatile and lightweight antenna, suitable for moderate-range communication, long-range backup communication, eavesdropping on secret government operations.



    %rescaleFactor = 2

    @mass = 0.01
}

[rottielover]

What advice do you have for a guy that has decided that RT is just too much? I'm currently using remote tech but after the umteenth time of me fixing the orbits of my relay sats , my wife leaned over and said "you know this is a game right? And games are supposed to be fun? Why are you getting so upset?"

It dawned on me that "realistic" communications in this game probably are no longer "for me".

By the same token I don't really want to loose all my flights in my current save (just outright removal of RT would rip out the dipole ant part and instantly poof my fleet out of existence).

Has anyone worked up any MMcfg's to allow for a smoother transition from RT to AR? In other words can I rip out the RT DLL file and move on with life?

[Mecripp]

What advice do you have for a guy that has decided that RT is just too much? I'm currently using remote tech but after the umteenth time of me fixing the orbits of my relay sats , my wife leaned over and said "you know this is a game right? And games are supposed to be fun? Why are you getting so upset?"

It dawned on me that "realistic" communications in this game probably are no longer "for me".

By the same token I don't really want to loose all my flights in my current save (just outright removal of RT would rip out the dipole ant part and instantly poof my fleet out of existence).

Has anyone worked up any MMcfg's to allow for a smoother transition from RT to AR? In other words can I rip out the RT DLL file and move on with life?

Just delete all in the RT2 folder but the part folder and, I have a cfg somewhere let me look.

EDIT- And put this in there https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/72893034/AntennaRange2.cfg

EDIT- And here is one that has more mods but, I cut the range from the AntennaRange2 file so this one replace it if you want to try it https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/72893034/AntennaRange3_Half_Range.cfg.zip

EDIT- And BoxSat mod https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/72893034/AntennaRange_BoxSat.cfg(1).zip

Edited December 3, 2014 by Mecripp2

[BudgetHedgehog]

Has anyone worked up any MMcfg's to allow for a smoother transition from RT to AR? In other words can I rip out the RT DLL file and move on with life?

Yep, here:

Here is a cfg to add AntennaRange to this list of parts with RT2 you need to zip up or delete the plugin folder and the cfg's here is a list of some of the mods it covers but, I do think, I need to cut the range on them, I just haven't got around to doing it.

RemoteTech2

Squad

Hyomoto Aerospace

Dmagic

DongFangHong

FASA By Frizzank & APOLLO By DennyTX

NovaPunch

Telemachus

Lionhead

AIES

LLL-Lite

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xv2153q8ybfl1s6/AntennaRange2.cfg

[rottielover]

Omg MeCripp your the best man!

Any chance you could help me whip up some MMcfg's for say HGR? I can't think of any other mods I have that have Ant in them.

[Mecripp]

Omg MeCripp your the best man!

Any chance you could help me whip up some MMcfg's for say HGR? I can't think of any other mods I have that have Ant in them.

If there not in the file already will look in to it

EDIT- Looks like there in the half range one https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/72893034/AntennaRange3_Half_Range.cfg.zip but haven't played with that mod in some time so if names change let me know.

Edited December 3, 2014 by Mecripp2

[toadicus]

MeCripp: Were I to integrate such changes at this point I'd need to change the ranges, also. Antenna gain is proportional to antenna dimensions, so in the first case when you scale the antenna down by 50% you also need to cut down the range or increase the power requirements. In general for dishes, I think gain is proportional to the square of the diameter, so cutting the dish diameter in half is going to cut the gain down to 1/4, so you should either cut the nominal range to 1/4 (nominalRange *= 0.25), increase the power requirements four-fold (packetResourceCost *= 4), cut the data rate (packetSize *= 0.25), or some combination thereof.

Increasing the length of a monopole antenna has a very complicated set of effects, and realistically I think you'd want to multiple by 2.5, not 2, to go from a quarter-wave monopole to a five-eighths-wave monopole. I think this would roughly double the gain, so you could increase the range, decrease the power requirements, or increase the data rate.

Whenever I get back to finishing AR2, it will have a much better system for this sort of thing.

rottielover: That same conclusion about RT is part of why I wrote this mod.

So, I've never tried to switch from RT2 to AntennaRange myself. I know MeCripp has, as have at least a few others. MeCripp maintains a few .cfg files that convert the RT2 parts to AntennaRange transmitters; I'm not 100% sure where the latest version is, but he's posted them several times in this thread, one of which is here. As I understand things, you basically remove the RemoteTech DLL(s), add MeCripp's patch anywhere in GameData, and if you're feeling especially saucy you can go and tear out any RT2 parts not currently on your ships to cut down your load times and memory footprint.

If MeCripp or anyone else has a more refined recommendation, please feel free to contribute.

EDIT: Ninja'd by everyone. Thanks for being awesome, guys!

Edited December 3, 2014 by toadicus
Ninja'd

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

I see that MeCripp has a config for BoxSat, but I've just put one together that uses the range numbers from BoxSat's newer RemoteTech patch (i.e. not the "old_values" config -- range is the same for the dish, about 5x longer for the omnis).

(Modified after learning more about ModuleManager's intricacies and stripped out unnecessary lines.)

{
%MODULE[ModuleDataTransmitter]
{
%name = ModuleLimitedDataTransmitter
nominalRange = 50000000
maxPowerFactor = 8
maxDataFactor = 4
}
}

@PART[Antenna_Tape1]:FOR[AntennaRange]
{
%MODULE[ModuleDataTransmitter]
{
%name = ModuleLimitedDataTransmitter
nominalRange = 12000000
maxPowerFactor = 8
maxDataFactor = 4
}
}

@PART[Antenna_Tape2]:FOR[AntennaRange]
{
%MODULE[ModuleDataTransmitter]
{
%name = ModuleLimitedDataTransmitter
nominalRange = 2500000
maxPowerFactor = 8
maxDataFactor = 4
}
}

@PART[Antenna_HingedDish1]:FOR[AntennaRange]

All rights "reversed", do as you please with it.

Edited December 3, 2014 by Kerbas_ad_astra
Removed "NEEDS[!RemoteTech]".

[Mecripp]

Thanks toadicus wasn't sure about that and when first try'ed ran into a problem with when the patches runs to change the range and stuff for the Stock +part file's did think about it tell now, I know MM run's in a order be not sure if it's # or letters or both any clue, Would need one to run first or just rewrite them all ?

[toadicus]

The pass order is alphabetic, but can also be declared. Patches that lack a pass declaration (:FOR[], :BEFORE[], :AFTER[]) will run during :FOR[Assembly-Csharp] (I think), which is first by definition. You probably want something like this:

+PART[commDish]:AFTER[AntennaRange]
{
    @name = commDishHalf
    @title = Communotron 88-44
    @description = The Communotron High-Gain Antenna, model 88-88 allows for long-range, high-speed communication now half the size for your convenience!

    @TechRequired = advElectrics
    @entryCost = 2300
    @cost = 550

    %rescaleFactor = 0.5

    // Because a dish antenna is largely two-dimensional, we can assume the mass scales by the square of the diameter.
    @mass *= 0.25

    @MODULE[ModuleLimitedDataTransmitter]
    {
        // Splitting the difference; gain scales by the square of the diameter.
        @nominalRange *= 0.5
        @packetResourceCost *= 2
    }
} 

+PART[longAntenna]:AFTER[AntennaRange]
{
    @name = longLongAntenna
    @title = Communotron 32c
    @description = The Communotron 32c is a versatile and lightweight antenna, suitable for moderate-range communication, long-range backup communication, eavesdropping on secret government operations.

    @TechRequired = survivability
    @entryCost = 900
    @cost = 400

    %rescaleFactor = 2.5

    // Because a monopole antenna is largely one-dimensional, we can assume the mass scales linearly with length.
    @mass *= 2.5

    @MODULE[ModuleLimitedDataTransmitter]
    {
        @nominalRange *= 2
    }
}

Did some tech tree balancing for you, too.

Edited December 3, 2014 by toadicus

[Mecripp]

O Brain Fart lol thanks thats what, I was missing.

EDIT- but for what you have on the Communotron 88-44 the part is scaled down but you added to the mass didn't you and range ?

Edited December 3, 2014 by Mecripp2

[rottielover]

Request: Joolian Discovery AE-35 antenna array. BTW, "teach a man to fish" If you could link me a tutorial on how to do these MM files I could try it, then again maybe I should leave it to the experts

[rottielover]

Kerbas_ad_astra Kerbas_ad_astra : I tried this and it doesn't work. I don't see any transmitter module in the part desc. in the VAB. "NEEDS RemoteTech" does that part of the MM file mean that it needs the mod remotetech?

[Mecripp]

Kerbas_ad_astra Kerbas_ad_astra : I tried this and it doesn't work. I don't see any transmitter module in the part desc. in the VAB. "NEEDS RemoteTech" does that part of the MM file mean that it needs the mod remotetech?

It should work he has :NEEDS[!RemoteTech] and this is just a rough cfg for your part need the part name but

@PART[[COLOR="#FF0000"]joolianCommTower[/COLOR]]:FOR[AntennaRange]
{
    %MODULE[ModuleDataTransmitter]
    {
        %name = ModuleLimitedDataTransmitter
        nominalRange = 2500000
        maxPowerFactor = 8
        maxDataFactor = 4
        packetResourceCost = 10.0
        requiredResource = ElectricCharge
    }
}

and is that a AIES part it's in the list or should be.

EDIT- And there is a downside to using ( :FOR and :NEEDS ) if some wrote a cfg that as :NEEDS RT and then you have 1 that as :FOR RT they fight in away then they don't load either one that's why most the time, I won't use them.

EDIT- Make sure you take out all your RT cfg file for all the mods your using thats why they use the :NEEDS and :FOR and BOXSAT don't have that in the CFG so it will still run.

Edited December 3, 2014 by Mecripp2

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

rottielover, the "!" is pronounced "not" (it's also used this way in computer programming), i.e. "Needs not-RemoteTech" -- the patch will only run if RemoteTech is not present. It's not strictly necessary (and neither is the FOR[AntennaRange]), but I prefer to have my patches state what mods they need to be present (or not present) so that they don't run if I've removed a necessary mod (or installed an incompatible one). I didn't know about the fighting issue, so maybe I'll go without in the future.

Since this patch is just for AntennaRange, you could remove the declarations of dependencies and drop the patch in that folder. That way, if you remove AntennaRange, the patches go with it.

[rottielover]

Thanks for the detail, I'll see if I can figure out what went wrong.

Meanwhile... Joolian Discovery AE-35 antenna array - not an AIES part, it's from a new pack called Joolian Discovery that re-creates the Discovery 1 ship from the movie 2001. The part name from the CFG is "joolianCommTower"

[Mecripp]

If you didn't get you can post you cfg and maybe we can help to see what went wrong.

[toadicus]

O Brain Fart lol thanks thats what, I was missing.

EDIT- but for what you have on the Communotron 88-44 the part is scaled down but you added to the mass didn't you and range ?

If you look closely, I'm actually doing math on them: @mass *= 0.25 multiplies the mass by 0.25, which makes it smaller. Same thing applies to the range.

It should work he has :NEEDS[!RemoteTech] and this is just a rough cfg for your part need the part name but

<snip>

and is that a AIES part it's in the list or should be.

EDIT- And there is a downside to using ( :FOR and :NEEDS ) if some wrote a cfg that as :NEEDS RT and then you have 1 that as :FOR RT they fight in away then they don't load either one that's why most the time, I won't use them.

EDIT- Make sure you take out all your RT cfg file for all the mods your using thats why they use the :NEEDS and :FOR and BOXSAT don't have that in the CFG so it will still run.

rottielover, the "!" is pronounced "not" (it's also used this way in computer programming), i.e. "Needs not-RemoteTech" -- the patch will only run if RemoteTech is not present. It's not strictly necessary (and neither is the FOR[AntennaRange]), but I prefer to have my patches state what mods they need to be present (or not present) so that they don't run if I've removed a necessary mod (or installed an incompatible one). I didn't know about the fighting issue, so maybe I'll go without in the future.

Since this patch is just for AntennaRange, you could remove the declarations of dependencies and drop the patch in that folder. That way, if you remove AntennaRange, the patches go with it.

This is tricky because ModuleManager decides whether or not a mod exists via several different ways. A mod named "RemoteTech" exists if:

• A DLL file with an assembly name of RemoteTech exists within GameData, or
  
• A folder named RemoteTech is found in GameData, or
  
• Any ModuleManager patch declares a :FOR[RemoteTech] pass.

Since you're transitioning from RemoteTech to AntennaRange, you may still have the RemoteTech directory in GameData and possibly some MM patches as well, so you will need to remove the :NEEDS[!RemoteTech] anti-dependency from my patches and any others that included it.

I would write that config thus:

@PART[joolianCommTower]:FOR[AntennaRange]
{
    @MODULE[ModuleDataTransmitter]
    {
        @name = ModuleLimitedDataTransmitter
        nominalRange = 35000000000
        maxPowerFactor = 8
        maxDataFactor = 4
    }
}

You don't need to re-declare any of the values that NecroBones already defined. If you want to change them (e.g. if you want the power cost to be higher) you need to use an "@" instruction, e.g. "@packetResourceCost = 20.0" or "@packetResourceCost *= 2". Also, I increased the range you declared substantially; the number you had would have been limited to just a bit past Kerbisynchronous orbit. On the other hand if that's what you wanted, go ahead.

Now it’s time to once again spotlight the community. I can no longer imagine my game without a good dose of ANTENNARANGE, a neat mod that adds a maximum range to your antennae, as well as allowing you to build communication networks and giving you the option to require an active communications link to control a probe. It certainly adds a level of complexity to the game in a way that is as frustrating as it is fun when you suddenly lose the communications link midway during landing your probe on a planet..

Just got a chance to read the dev notes; thanks for the shout out KasperVld!

[Mecripp]

LOL so lost in the math you have ( If you look closely, I'm actually doing math on them: @mass *= 0.25 multiplies the mass by 0.25, which makes it smaller. Same thing applies to the range.)

but the mass of the part is ( mass = 0.025 ) your @mass *= 0.25 multiplies the mass by 0.25 would you @mass -= 0.25 when scaling down ?

EDIT- scratch just did alittle math and lol still don't get how that comes out looking right O to funny.

Edited December 3, 2014 by Mecripp2

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

Toadicus, thanks for the feedback. I've modified my configs accordingly.

Here are a couple more for people using ORIGAMI folding antennas:

@PART[NAU_ORI350Gm]:FOR[AntennaRange]
{
    %MODULE[ModuleDataTransmitter]
    {
        %name = ModuleLimitedDataTransmitter
        nominalRange = 350000000000
        maxPowerFactor = 8
        maxDataFactor = 4
    }
}

@PART[NAU_ORI69Gm]:FOR[AntennaRange]
{
    %MODULE[ModuleDataTransmitter]
    {
        %name = ModuleLimitedDataTransmitter
        nominalRange = 69000000000
        maxPowerFactor = 8
        maxDataFactor = 4
    }
}