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[1.0.x] [V1.9f] Kerbal Foundries wheels, anti-grav repulsors and tracks


lo-fi

What to work on next?  

1,282 members have voted

  1. 1. What to work on next?

    • More wheels
      123
    • More tracks
      453
    • Rover bodies
      241
    • Landing gear
      137
    • Landing legs
      108
    • Something completely different
      193


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Thanks for the input on the steering, guys. Plenty to think about!

The tracks certainly seem to be popular and there are plenty of ideas knocking about. I have some ideas to further improve the dynamics and the animation, which I'm going to play around with while I finish writing the wheel module.

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You forgot to share a video on this, it's far more awesome than you made out :D

And here's the academic paper: http://web.mit.edu/mobility/publications/IROS08_1351_MS.pdf

Edit: This came up as a related video:

Edited by ZodiusInfuser
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Far too many awesome things :D Thanks for the vid, it is indeed far cooler than the picture makes out! I have an idea for rotating actual track segments around a path, which would make that possible, though I'm not sure if I can actually pull it off, or if the stuff I need will even import into Unity and KSP. Might be a step too far, but the only way to find out is try :D

Aren't these just the coolest things!

Edited by lo-fi
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Hi love these little videos, had the good fortune to attend a trade test in Sweden for a small wheeled loader that used wheels very similar to the Mecanum wheel units, maneuverable barely sums them up, even loaded with half a tonne of tree it could dance like it was on ice, but control was uber positive with no horrible drifting around or dead spots, can definitely see a place for these in KSP. and those paddle tracks look like someone figured out how to extrude faces modelling app style.

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Hi love these little videos, had the good fortune to attend a trade test in Sweden for a small wheeled loader that used wheels very similar to the Mecanum wheel units, maneuverable barely sums them up, even loaded with half a tonne of tree it could dance like it was on ice, but control was uber positive with no horrible drifting around or dead spots, can definitely see a place for these in KSP.

Not as awesome, but I too have had similar enjoyment from mecanum wheels. We had 3 Kuka Youbots delivered to the research lab I work at over a month ago and I pretty much spent all morning driving one around. They're what inspired me to start modelling such wheels for the IR Rework :D, as I have a rough idea of how lo-fi's code could handle them (or approximate them at least)

_bddf973652184a0c86ff2e4b062ed72e

and those paddle tracks look like someone figured out how to extrude faces modelling app style.

Ha! Yea they do a bit :P

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Hello. I would like to ask you a question: Whether such opportunity, how izmeney proportions of wheels and caterpillars is planned? For example: opportunity to do them wider or narrower, is more or less and so on?

I apologize for the translation - I am not strong in English.

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Hello. I would like to ask you a question: Whether such opportunity, how izmeney proportions of wheels and caterpillars is planned? For example: opportunity to do them wider or narrower, is more or less and so on?

I apologize for the translation - I am not strong in English.

you mean tweakable dimensions? length of the track, width, suspension travel and so on

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I think you mean procedural parts? If so, I'm afraid not, at least for the forseeable future. Procedurals would be really cool, but so far beyond my scope at the moment I'm not even going to look into it just yet. Full TweakScale support for more of the parts is planned, though and more designs are on the way.

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Far too many awesome things :D Thanks for the vid, it is indeed far cooler than the picture makes out! I have an idea for rotating actual track segments around a path, which would make that possible, though I'm not sure if I can actually pull it off, or if the stuff I need will even import into Unity and KSP. Might be a step too far, but the only way to find out is try :D

Aren't these just the coolest things!

Those are kinda cool. My initial thought was that there's a lot of sliding going on here which, in my opinion, means we're wasting a lot of energy. I have to admit, however, they are extremely maneuverable.

Not as awesome, but I too have had similar enjoyment from mecanum wheels. We had 3 Kuka Youbots delivered to the research lab I work at over a month ago and I pretty much spent all morning driving one around. They're what inspired me to start modelling such wheels for the IR Rework :D, as I have a rough idea of how lo-fi's code could handle them (or approximate them at least)

https://www.cubbyusercontent.com/pl/IRMecanumWheel.png/_bddf973652184a0c86ff2e4b062ed72e

Ha! Yea they do a bit :P

Now that would be awesome to see in KSP.

You forgot to share a video on this, it's far more awesome than you made out :D

http://youtu.be/BTp2UAaihaI

And here's the academic paper: http://web.mit.edu/mobility/publications/IROS08_1351_MS.pdf

Edit: This came up as a related video:

My thoughts on that related video are that it looks, from a few steps back from my screen and a bit of blurry-eye syndrome (just woke up really), that someone made a floating track set by pasting a bunch of phone books on end to the track surface and called it an innovation. That Omniball thingie looks pretty sweet though, however I worry a little when I see it jiggle while moving sideways. Seems to me there's a bit of a bug in that part of the handling that needs to be addressed for precision movement.

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Well subject to some benchmarking I think the mecanum wheels may be possible shortly.

I'm still in the middle of my code overhaul, though I just nailed the last piece of the puzzle I need to make rotation and movement axis configurable in the config rather than hard coded into the plugin. My landing gear module now functions perfectly, though it lacks support for turning the landing lights on just yet. This will come once I've worked that out for the repulsor effects. Yet another situation where one thing feeds into the others :)

The wheel module is almost done too. When that's complete I'll call an end to this phase, convert all the parts to use it and release for testing.

While I've been busy coding I've come up with many cool ideas for more parts too. Never enough time!

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Hi,

I prefer Helical Drives, but as long as it works it could be called furry tom tom and i wouldn't care.

Tested on the cat with good results, I expect you know about the strange pulsing or pausing depending how you look at it, of the units, and it's early days for the new tech, but it does what i want, loads of drag though, may need to be housed in a bay for my purposes, but here they are pulling 36Mton out of the water and pushing it back again and as a reference speed on/in water for 8 drives and 36tonnes 17ms, damn fine job yet again. cheers

Where did you get that nifty barge parts from?

Ive used the flat bed from LLL previously for making trucks n utilietie rovers.

/Rikard

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Hi folks. Those tracks and wheels are really great! Anti-gravs are nice too, just not my thing, I'm a dedicated RSS+RO player.

I'd like to ask you: do you know any mod with nice rover bodies that i could use with tracks from this mod?

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Thank you, appreciate people taking the time to drop by :)

If there are parts you don't use, feel free to just delete the folders. There are no dependencies, so you won't break anything by doing so - just remember to keep the plugin directory! You may have done so already, but I thought it was worth mentioning. I'll update the OP now I think about it.

The wheels will get even better in the next update now I've got the centre of gravity to the right place, rather than where it attaches to the craft. Was a silly error due to me misunderstanding the way KSP works it out!

I'm developing some rover bodies because there seems to be a bit of a gap there at the moment. RoverDude make some cool bits that fit in KAS containers, though they're a bit small for most of my part and there are plenty of things that look like truck bodies and stuff which isn't really my thing either. I hope what I've got in mind will fill the gap nicely, I just need to get some time to get on with the modelling!

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I surprise no one already tried some Kraken-Drive thing like this:

rqGMJqG.png

That's doesn't work very well (two sets of surface repulsors which push against each other), height 4 or 4.5 are ok, below, nothing, above: boom boom :). This is not strictly speaking a kraken-drive thing but I'm sure some people could get something better than just with stock landing legs.

I'm developing some rover bodies because there seems to be a bit of a gap there at the moment. RoverDude make some cool bits that fit in KAS containers, though they're a bit small for most of my part and there are plenty of things that look like truck bodies and stuff which isn't really my thing either. I hope what I've got in mind will fill the gap nicely, I just need to get some time to get on with the modelling!

There is my Rover 'N' Others parts, the next set, Y, have 8 and 16m long part, this last one looks even huge compared to the JB64 fuel tank. But they both looks "wheel" with your LargeWheels. T-2 and T-3 are good also to make mobile launch platforms (with EPL or even stock with a simple decoupler and something above it)

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Hi, I see you've considered fixed wheels and rotating tyres, thought I'd drag something out from under the tarp , without the repulsors its a wild thing virtually uncontrollable, with a nasty habit of rolling over when braking , with the repulsors it is very controllable and stupidly fast, definitely a wheel concept to be pursued, works well with smooth steering , makes for a very smooth ride. Not really that difficult to set up unity wise either.

rhveLpP.png?1

I see the unity repulsor setup has changed considerably since the initial development versions(still got them btw) must have a go at the new style hierarchy . I did discover that I actually prefer the type that included the arm suspension, from a spanner standpoint it just seems like thats how it would be.

Any further updates on the helical drives? quite happy to test the water use features prior to any release

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I hadn't realised you'd released you rover components, Justin!

That's cool, Spanner! I have a related design in mind, I think a centreless wheel would be pretty cool. Helicals need models making properly :) It won't take long, but I've got my hands so full doing this plugin re-write, time is seriously short. Unless it's something you fancy having a go at? I'll be in touch with some insights into CoG stuff anyway, it really needs to go in your wheel info thread. So many things to do, I could make a full time job of this!

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Hey, I could definitely take a look at them to see if it's something that I can do, and do them any justice be happy to.. I'll extract one of the ones I've got and check it out, unless you'd like to supply a link. Pm me with details of requirements so as not to clog thread. closing down for today sooooooooo tired.

l8r kerbs

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Hope you grab a good nights sleep buddy. I know I've lost far too much of it messing around with KSP stuff!

Wicked :) Look for an email from GitHub, everything is in there. PM any questions, but it's actually pretty straighforward when you're not dealing with closed source undocumented modules. A quick glance at the corresponding .cfg and you'll see what's what straight away, I'm sure. I was pretty much going to use the ZIL for inspiration creating the body and drive connections fore and aft, though maybe not quite so much of the ramp as it's a little hard to model with the colliders. I'm sure you'll come up with something cool, though.

Oh, you might need some pointers for how to rig for the mirror plugin if you design an asymmetrical body. It's fairly self explanatory, though. Enjoy!

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Amazing mod, love the repulsors, exactly what I have wanted! May I suggest more "rover" bodies (also usable with repulsor of course) for 1 kerbal to get around? And of course 2+ and unmanned ones as well, think what you saw in Prometheus. Would love an antigrav "bike" to roam around on the Mun with :P KSP is severely lacking in those! :) Thanks again for this wonderful mod.

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