[KSP 1.3] InfiniteDice ICE -Engines, Transmissions, for Atmospheric Vehicles

[InfiniteDice]

1.3 Update is available on Curse.

Latest update video here...

***

Release 1.3 - Wheels are gone for now, I've added a module so you can use any wheel with ICE vehicle engines. Simply add the following to any wheel cfg:

MODULE
{
    name = IDWheelMotor
}

IMPORTANT: After placing any wheel that has this module in the hangar simply disable the wheel 'motor' and enable the ICE 'driven wheel' this will allow the wheel to get power from the ICE engine/transmission combination.

***

Added • Support for KSP 1.2.2 to 1.3 - Removed custom wheels, added a module so people can use ICE vehicle engines with stock/mod wheels as needed.

Added for 1.0.5 - Updated dll, adjusted engine output to conform with KSP's new lift/drag model.

Added for 1.0.3 - Updated dll support, fixed bug - no thrust for air-cooled engines.

Added for 0.90 - Updated dll support.

Added for 0.25 - Some re-balancing to heat-up rates.

Added for 0.24.2 - Naval Landing Gear - other bug fixes.

Added for 0.23.5 - Vehicle Engine - Vehicle Transmission - Vehicle Wheels : AT and Performance - New Liquid Cooling Radiator - Liquid Cooled DB605k

Newly added for .23! - tweaks in the hangar! - basic per-engine throttle - other optimizations.

Here is the beginnings of the USER GUIDE!

AVAILABLE ON CURSE HERE

ALTERNATE SITE (not updated yet).

READ THE README FILE... This update has taken much longer than I planned due to the loss of someone very close to me, I ask those of you who use ICE and understand how it functions to answer basic questions in my stead, I'll be grateful. Any serious issues I'll try to patch.

Hope you enjoy!

 

The Basics:

1) add the engine to your favorite plane. (it needs air intakes and fuel just like a stock engine).

2) on the runway a) apply brake throttle up about 20% c) right click engine and click auto-start

3) if you're lucky it starts and runs! keep idle steady till the temperature reads over 60c

4) prop pitch can be changed between: forward (1) reverse (-1) and neutral (0) - yes I realize it's a fixed pitch prop on the model, but this is for user convenience!

5) take off and fly as normal!

The not so Basics:

Wear and Tear! - before every new flight with the same aircraft, have an intelligent Kerbal inspect the engine for issues. If something seems damaged he can perform a job to fix it. The longer the engine runs - the more worn out it will become, and as it does it produces less power.

note: some jobs require the Oil station, or the Repair station.

Over-Revving! - If the engine turns red while operating, it's over-revving. Back off on the throttle a bit. This usually happens while diving. Prolonged over-revving will likely result in oil failure, then excessive oil pressure and then finally a broken engine! treat her like a lady!

Release 1.1 Engine: (perfect match-up for Snjo's new WW1 bi-plane)

WW1 bentley BR1 - 9cyl radial engine - tune it in the hangar!

WW1 engine now added for the German plane! this is a 9cyl rotary, but the model has it as a radial for now I will change it!

Release 1.2 Engines:

WW2 based DB605 k variant (k for Kerbal you know!) this is a two-stage supercharged high power liquid cooled engine, fly like the wind!

4Cyl Vehicle engine - really just the beginnings - you need an engine, a liquid cooling radiator, transmission and wheels to use this on your vehicle, slap it all on something and tune it up however you like.

Release 1.3 - Wheels are gone for now, I've added a module so you can use any wheel with ICE vehicle engines. Simply add the following to any wheel cfg:

MODULE
{
    name = IDWheelMotor
}

IMPORTANT: After placing any wheel that has this module in the hangar simply disable the wheel 'motor' and enable the ICE 'driven wheel' this will allow the wheel to get power from the ICE engine/transmission combination.

Other Engines?:

This module was written to work easily with Snjo's Firespitter engines, as an example here is the CFG file to run his Lancaster Bomber engine. Just add it into the Lancaster engine directory alongside the original config, this way you can choose original or ICE!

 

The Advanced:

The module allows for multi-engine aircraft to maintain a somewhat stable flight - even if only one engine is running.

Want to make an engine behave differently? Just change the CFG! Want to change engine sounds, power, anything? it's all there.

Additionally:

There is a portable generator included... start it up to re-charge any nearby vessels! 40m range. - there is a version of the generator that is an ICE vehicle engine, use that to power a vehicle, it's water cooled so you'll need the liquid radiator or it will overheat immediately.

Whats in ICE's future?

Naval diesel engines never made it in yet for boatparts, this is likely next!

http://pastebin.com/gkHV5VyD for the Source - Updated June 25st 2015

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

Edited May 29, 2017 by InfiniteDice

[astropapi1]

I saw this on your Youtube channel. Looks great.

I'll download it once 0.23 is out.

[InfiniteDice]

.23 will break it but I'll fix it that day most likely

[123nick]

nice mod infitedice! i bet this will be extremely immersive! slightly off topic, but its being developed by you so i guess its acceptable: how are the guns going? ready for release yet?

[InfiniteDice]

Guns n' Bombs are progressing daily! That one will be released after boatparts has been updated for .23. Can't get any more specific.... but get ready to be very happy!

[XanderTek]

Neat! Is it possible to turn off the wear and tear in the cfg? I think regular engine maintenance might be a bit too much realism for my tastes

[InfiniteDice]

Neat! Is it possible to turn off the wear and tear in the cfg? I think regular engine maintenance might be a bit too much realism for my tastes

No.. not in release 1.

I wouldn't worry about it too much, for most flights it's fine! If you plan on flying for hours you might need to clean out the airfilter and clean up the electrical contacts, just try not to over-rev it too much it causes oil damage.

[colmo]

Interesting, especially the land vehicle developments.

Any thoughts on a helicopter engine? As if they aren't hard enough already...

[InfiniteDice]

I've posted the cfg to run the Firespitter Lancaster engine in the opening post! Just add it into the Lancaster engine directory. It's more powerful than the WW1 engine of course sporting a two-stage supercharger!

Enjoy!

[Krosulhah]

So many great things by you! Do you even eat!?

[kujuman]

Pretty neat. I'm not sure what "Average Thrust Position" does, but based on skimming the code, it looks like you simulate the engine cylinder by cylinder? (So force is applied only on ticks during which the cylinder actually fires?) Am I correct in thinking that "Average Thrust Position" is meant to apply a steady force, rather than be bumpy? If so:

It might be worthwhile to have the draw of resources to be smoothed out the same way, as it's pretty jumpy at the moment.

Assuming that I am correctly understanding how the code functions, I think a "better" solution would be to have the power derived from prop RPM and pitch position with RPM being affected by the engine, so that RPM will increase when a cylinder fires and RPM decreases due to "power loss". I think I understand enough of what the code is doing to realize that this is a potentially major overhaul, but having power be based on RPM allows other options, like residual power after engine failure, providing incentive to windmill a failed engine etc.

Enough complaining...

I really like that this allows me to have propellers which are not wayyy too powerful, so I can make a Tri-Motor

[7499275]

Will definatly be watching this! I think this is an amazing idea and I might use this instead of FS engines now! can't wait to see whats in R2! Thanks dice!

[JeffreyCor]

I love it! Going to be putting this along with some airframe stuff at startup in the tech tree to do some airplane flights to get my initial science on Kerbal Starting with prop airplanes, perfect!

I would think the engines should produce some amount of electric charge though alternators though, even if a small amount.

[Snjo]

InfiniteDice, you know how I was telling you that Service interval prop I made is totally useless? Well, with this engine, it would actually make sense! Except I guess the service interval is more like an hour than 200

[InfiniteDice]

Pretty neat. I'm not sure what "Average Thrust Position" does, but based on skimming the code, it looks like you simulate the engine cylinder by cylinder?It might be worthwhile to have the draw of resources to be smoothed out the same way, as it's pretty jumpy at the moment. RPM will increase when a cylinder fires and RPM decreases due to "power loss". I think I understand enough of what the code is doing to realize that this is a potentially major overhaul, but having power be based on RPM allows other options, like residual power after engine failure, providing incentive to windmill a failed engine etc.

Kujuman, Nice pic! I'm glad you like it.

I'll try to answer your items here. Average thrust position is what allows you to fly with one engine on the wing and the other two engines off (in your tri-plane, fokker or ford? hehe). Without it, you'd spin around and have a bad day.

I agree the resource display is choppy, but don't worry the usage rate is good. I plan on fixing this.

About prop RPM. I know what you're saying here. I agree but I didn't want it too technical. Again my goal was to make something more engaging and slightly more realistic. I felt this was a good compromise.

There is some residual power, it doesn't flat-line the power output between each firing. I had issues with jumpy power so I added code to smooth the delivery out. Incentive to windmill can also be that with an ICE engine if you notice an oil leak, you'll want to shut it off before it runs out, seizing or total engine destruction can take place. It's best to shut one down and get back to base and have a QUALIFIED mechanic fix it.

Check out the Guide I just posted on the thread opener, it should help a bit

Thanks for the comments!

Edited December 15, 2013 by InfiniteDice

[InfiniteDice]

I love it! Going to be putting this along with some airframe stuff at startup in the tech tree to do some airplane flights to get my initial science on Kerbal Starting with prop airplanes, perfect!

I would think the engines should produce some amount of electric charge though alternators though, even if a small amount.

The engine should be producing electric charge. It is throttle based on these old generators! So sitting on the runway put her prop pitch to neutral (0) and rev her up!

[Madrias]

I love how this makes you feel more like a pilot and less like you're playing a flight sim. It took me a while to actually figure out why I was having difficulty starting one of my planes (had directly swapped in the beautiful sounding rotary in place of one of the ones Snjo made, which sounds wonderful in different ways), until I realized, I don't have an air intake! By Jeb I felt stupid!

I also love that you can't just go bang on the throttle and rip the thing off the runway. You have to treat the engine nice or it stalls and you have to restart it. Mash the throttle in the air, it stalls and needs restarting. Throttle down too far, it stalls and needs restarting. Push it too hard and it tells you it hurts (would rather have a sound change over the engine glowing, myself, but that's just me...), push it further and you might break it.

And no, I didn't destroy a radial for my testing, I strapped a generator to a little cart I made and revved it until it puked. I love the oil smoke when you push the engine so hard that it's melting down. A nice touch, that.

[JeffreyCor]

Ahh, yes it does just a small amount. The aviation lights were drawing more than the engine was putting out even just below turning the engine red. Just have to remember to fly dark to charge it up.

[InfiniteDice]

Ahh, yes it does just a small amount. The aviation lights were drawing more than the engine was putting out even just below turning the engine red. Just have to remember to fly dark to charge it up.

For the next update I'll check the generator code and perhaps bump up the base rate a bit. Thanks for the note.

[Madrias]

Having a lot of fun with this mod! Built an interesting little plane designed to make the most out of the nice little engines.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

I do, however, have one minor thing to lightly complain about: After 52 minutes of mid-high altitude flight (roughly 4-8000 meters up), I had all 3 engines stop running. All three with a clogged air filter. Is there a way to easily change how quickly the decay rate occurs on that?

Edited December 15, 2013 by Madrias

[Camacha]

I do, however, have one minor thing to lightly complain about: After 52 minutes of mid-high altitude flight (roughly 4-8000 meters up), I had all 3 engines stop running. All three with a clogged air filter. Is there a way to easily change how quickly the decay rate occurs on that?

That would be something in real life

[InfiniteDice]

Having a lot of fun with this mod! After 52 minutes of mid-high altitude flight (roughly 4-8000 meters up), I had all 3 engines stop running. All three with a clogged air filter. Is there a way to easily change how quickly the decay rate occurs on that?

Madras, thanks for the feedback, I altered the variable that affects the filter degradation. You should find now that it lasts at least 2.5 times longer under ideal conditions. I also slightly bumped up the charge rate on the generator.

Get the updated dll on the thread opener, then just delete the old dll. Any damage already done will need to be fixed by the best man you have.

Another note on Mechanics everyone: The best mechanics will be kerbals with the lowest Stupidity rating.

Edited December 15, 2013 by InfiniteDice

[Hellbrand]

I have the sudden urge to put this into ALL engines, fire spitter, B9, EVERYTHING I don't know why but I just love the idea of having to make actual infrastructure

[mushroomman]

I have the sudden urge to put this into ALL engines, fire spitter, B9, EVERYTHING I don't know why but I just love the idea of having to make actual infrastructure

Yes. I'm sure this could be fairly easy to adapt to function as a wear-tear system for all parts in the game. Oh how I would love that.

[InfiniteDice]

Just a nighttime landing at the KSC. Nice and easy now, nice and easy!