[0.90] Procedural Airships [1.3] dec 20th 2014

[RadarManFromTheMoon]

Procedural Airships

A ProceduralParts Expansion

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This is a release-thread. Intended for updates, announcements and support. If you are interested in ongoing development, dev-builds or planned features, you might want to visit the development-thread.

current Version: 1.3

release date: December 20th. 2014

Changelog

Features

• Envelope and ballonet simulation. Including two lifting gas options.
  
• Supports FAR and NEAR
  
• In-Game tutorial
  
• Ballast tanks
  
• Center of Buoyancy Marker in Editor (activates with CoL marker)
  

Installation

1. Install ProceduralParts. This is absolutely mandatory.
   
2. Delete previously installed ProceduralAirships installations.
   
3. Copy the contents of the GameData folder, provided with this package, into your KSPs GameData folder.
   
4. Copy the contents of the Ships folder, provided with this package, into your KSPs Ships folder.
   
5. Copy the contents of the saves folder, provided with this package, into your KSPs saves folder if you want to use the tutorials.
   

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DOWNLOAD

SOURCE

LICENSE

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Mod recommendations

• Ferram Aerospace Research - I highly recommend this. Feels much more "floaty".
  
• Firespitter and/or KAX - for prop engines
  
• RCS Build Aid does not only aid in RCS thruster placement. It is also a great tool for airship engineers. Does your airship experience weird forces causing it to spin around uncontrollably? RCS Build Aid helps.
  
• Kerbal attachment System (KAS) contains anchors to keep your airship in place.
  
• Hangar Extender - break the boundaries of your SPH to build huge hindenburg-like airships
  

Edited December 20, 2014 by RadarManFromTheMoon
1.3 release

[Azimech]

Interesting!

[Azimech]

Quite a concept you have here!

Yeah I expanded your parts list a bit. Hope ye don't mind.

Edited November 4, 2014 by Azimech

[RadarManFromTheMoon]

Now THATS a sight to behold! How does it fly?

[Azimech]

I dunno, it blows up when I launch so some parts do fly off I could take care of that but ...

It was more of a proposal for an expanded parts list, I lost my interest in airships a long time ago.

But, your mod is the ultimate answer to every previous airship mod!

When is the submarine version coming out?

[RadarManFromTheMoon]

I dunno, it blows up when I launch so some parts do fly off I could take care of that but ...

It was more of a proposal for an expanded parts list, I lost my interest in airships a long time ago.

But, your mod is the ultimate answer to every previous airship mod!

When is the submarine version coming out?

Yeah, thats intended. One need to take care that the envelopes pressure doesnt get too high or low. You arent interested, but for everyone who is: There is a tutorial included that explains how the ballonets can be used to control buoyancy and pressure. I think it's a good starting point. Also there are two airships included (one for stock/NEAR and one for FAR). I will see if I get to create a building tutorial soon.

Submarines? I don't know. I'm focusing on airships because there are quite a few features I still really want to implement and I'm not really that interested in these underwater deathtraps.

But maybe in the future.

Edited November 4, 2014 by RadarManFromTheMoon

[Immashift]

Submarines? I don't know. I'm focusing on airships because there are quite a few features I still really want to implement and I'm not really that interested in these underwater deathtraps.

But maybe in the future.

Promising mod! Any chance of seeing a possible future features list? I love my hooligan labs airships, and this May or may not end up replacing it if it goes a particular way. retractable ones are my favorite there, perhaps that can be done with yours in the future.

Now off to make an enormous airship and somehow get it to Eve without falling apart.

[RadarManFromTheMoon]

Promising mod! Any chance of seeing a possible future features list? I love my hooligan labs airships, and this May or may not end up replacing it if it goes a particular way. retractable ones are my favorite there, perhaps that can be done with yours in the future.

Now off to make an enormous airship and somehow get it to Eve without falling apart.

I totally agree that retractable envelopes would be a cool feature. I'm not sure if it can be done with a reasonable amount of effort though. PA uses Procedural Parts for it's shape generation and I highly doubt that it supports changes in shape while in flight. I will see if I can find a solution, but ATM I would say if procedurallity is not so important to you and you really need to retract your envelopes. For example to bring them to other planets you might be better off with HL. Or just use both.

The "future plans"-list is a good idea. I think I will add that soon.

[Azimech]

Edited November 4, 2014 by Azimech

[Fox62]

What.. Can that thing fly?!

[RadarManFromTheMoon]

http://i.imgur.com/DsgnV2s.png

http://i.imgur.com/fJ4KvsR.png

Wow, looks great. These ellipsoid parts are really interesting. You create them by changing the scaling right? Good idea, but I think it might mess up the volume calculations. I will totally do some research to see if I can implement something like that though.

[Azimech]

A last one. Was wobbly until I switched off gravity. All I wanted was 1 picture.

Yes, you can rescale any way you like. I usually do 1, 1, 3.

Maybe ... if I feel like it, I'll build a "real" Galactica out of it.

[Immashift]

I totally agree that retractable envelopes would be a cool feature. I'm not sure if it can be done with a reasonable amount of effort though. PA uses Procedural Parts for it's shape generation and I highly doubt that it supports changes in shape while in flight. I will see if I can find a solution, but ATM I would say if procedurallity is not so important to you and you really need to retract your envelopes. For example to bring them to other planets you might be better off with HL. Or just use both.

The "future plans"-list is a good idea. I think I will add that soon.

Yep was just a thought. I know HL worked for quite a while building his own plugin for inflation/deflation and that may be slightly out of your project scope. In any case I look forward to keeping tabs here to see what you do.

@azimech.... Dear god. I _may_ have underestimated what this mod could already do. That thing is epic looking.

Hmm. I think I'm gonna combine this with those massive B9 HX parts. Perhaps I can fill those parts with airship parts and make a giant floating ship or something

[NWDogg]

This looks like an absolute blast. Question though: this mod does allow for more, well, reasonably-sized ships right? I think the huge stuff is cool for pics, but I find it entirely pointless in game, for my tastes anyway. It's the reason I've uninstalled B9 after 2 days, even their smaller stuff is just too bulky to be of any real use to me. In any case, can smaller balloons and zeppelins be built, or is there some air-density-curve-thing I don't understand limiting the ships to large sizes?

If smaller ships are indeed possible, then this is one I'm gonna jump into immediately. Perhaps I'll start out with a Baumgartner-esque spacedive, and work my way up to a Karbonite drilling zeppelin or something. The possibilities are endless...especially since my space program has trouble getting even useless light planes off the ground . Thanks a ton, much appreciated work!

[RadarManFromTheMoon]

This looks like an absolute blast. Question though: this mod does allow for more, well, reasonably-sized ships right? I think the huge stuff is cool for pics, but I find it entirely pointless in game, for my tastes anyway. It's the reason I've uninstalled B9 after 2 days, even their smaller stuff is just too bulky to be of any real use to me. In any case, can smaller balloons and zeppelins be built, or is there some air-density-curve-thing I don't understand limiting the ships to large sizes?

If smaller ships are indeed possible, then this is one I'm gonna jump into immediately. Perhaps I'll start out with a Baumgartner-esque spacedive, and work my way up to a Karbonite drilling zeppelin or something. The possibilities are endless...especially since my space program has trouble getting even useless light planes off the ground . Thanks a ton, much appreciated work!

Depends on what you are trying to do. Up in the athmosphere, air pressure decreases quickly so the lifting gas will need more room to expand. The higher you wanna go, the bigger you want to build.

However if you want them to be smaller you can always go to the settings and change the buoyancy. You can set it from 1 (realistic) up to 15 (15 times more than realistic). Default is 5.

Here is the airship from the op, standing on the vab for scale.

[FreeThinker]

Very nice for exploration, especially in combination with Kerbin Science Initiative - 140+ Biomes for Kerbin

Now the REAL question is, can we get it to different planets than Kerbin? It would be realy usefull it would could somehow deflate it, and inflate when desired

Edited November 5, 2014 by FreeThinker

[Immashift]

Very nice for exploration, especially in combination with Kerbin Science Initiative - 140+ Biomes for Kerbin

Now the REAL question is, can we get it to different planets than Kerbin? It would be realy usefull it would could somehow deflate it, and inflate when desired

I think for now you may be limited to sticking a fairing around it if it fits, or trying to fly it fully inflated. Airships with variable size currently only exist in the hooligan labs mod as far as I know at this point. Perhaps if enough people want it this one will get it too. One of the really cool things about airships is flight without fuel use, especially when you strap on some electric propellers, send it to Eve and can muck around the surface without spending a drop of fuel.

[FreeThinker]

I think for now you may be limited to sticking a fairing around it if it fits, or trying to fly it fully inflated. Airships with variable size currently only exist in the hooligan labs mod as far as I know at this point. Perhaps if enough people want it this one will get it too. One of the really cool things about airships is flight without fuel use, especially when you strap on some electric propellers, send it to Eve and can muck around the surface without spending a drop of fuel.

Exactly. They also have great potential as cargo lifters, transporting mining equipment, and resources from site to site.

Edited November 5, 2014 by FreeThinker

[RadarManFromTheMoon]

Very nice for exploration, especially in combination with Kerbin Science Initiative - 140+ Biomes for Kerbin

Now the REAL question is, can we get it to different planets than Kerbin? It would be realy usefull it would could somehow deflate it, and inflate when desired

I don't think that you can get them into outer space. The vacuum will make them pop, and they are way too big anyway. But you could use extraplanetary launchpads or use the deployable envelopes from hooligan Labs.

edit: Another thing you could do is deactivating pressure damage in the settings.

[FreeThinker]

Alright, last evening I had a blast playing around with a modified version of the tutorial airship (increased size and length, added solar panels, electric propellers and research lab). RCS balancer proved to be absolutely indespensible to make it fly straight.

Anyway, I like to play with maximum realism (FAR, AJE, Firespitter, DR) and therefore set Lift to 1. One thing that bugs me is the speed at which I can generate lift inside my airship, it's almost instantanious. I would like the option to lower this to a speed more realistic.

Another thing I noticed, is that you use exotic names for filling the basic airship, called Combustrogen and Liftium. Why didn't you call them by their real names (Hydrogen and Helium)?

Regarding the flamability of Combustrogen, I had hoped it would create a huge fireball when crashing it. I was a bit disapointed to see it doesn't seem more combustable compaired to a regular parts.

Edited November 6, 2014 by FreeThinker

[FreeThinker]

I don't think that you can get them into outer space. The vacuum will make them pop, and they are way too big anyway. But you could use extraplanetary launchpads or use the deployable envelopes from hooligan Labs.

edit: Another thing you could do is deactivating pressure damage in the settings.

I hoped I could get around the overpressure issue by releasing all gas when entering space.

However launching them into space from Kerbin seems too difficult with FAR. A FAR better option would be to build it at the space station and push it to EVE.

Assuming I would be able to get to EVE, now the question would be If would be able to survive reentry into EVE atmosphere (with Deadly Reentry installed).

I guess I don't need any parasutes, the airship is bulky enough to slow down on it's own

Edited November 6, 2014 by FreeThinker

[RadarManFromTheMoon]

Alright, last evening I had a blast playing around with a modified version of the tutorial airship (increased size and length, added solar panels, electric propellers and lab). RCS balancer is absolutely indespensible to make it fly straight.

Anyway, I like to play with maximum realism (FAR, AJE, Firespitter, DR) and therefore set Lift to 1. One thing that bugs me is the speed at which I can generate lift inside my airship, it's almost instantanious. I would like the option to lower this to a speed more realistic.

Another thing I noticed, is that you use exotic names for filling the basic airship, called Combustrogen and Liftium. Why didn't you call them by their real names (Hydrogen and Helium)?

Regarding the flamability of Combustrogen, I had hoped it would create a huge fireball when crashing it. I was a bit disapointed to see it doesn't seem more combustable campaired to a regular parts.

I think rcs balancer just dont takes the envelopes lift into account. Try to keep the center of buoyancy as close to the center of mass as possible. You can see where your center of buoyancy is by activating the col marker in the sph. It is the grey marker. Also possible that you gone to fast. FAR adds a lot of drag.

If you mean that the ballonets inflate/deflate too fast: Yep that could need some balancing indeed.

A more fiery explosion would be really nice. I just havent found out how to do it Lifting gas names might change in the future.

[FreeThinker]

A more fiery explosion would be really nice. I just havent found out how to do it Lifting gas names might change in the future.

A combustable airship is essentaily a realy big fire bomb, so why not see how it's done in BDArmory or Bombs

Edited November 6, 2014 by FreeThinker

[Spacepetscompany]

I think for now you may be limited to sticking a fairing around it if it fits, or trying to fly it fully inflated. Airships with variable size currently only exist in the hooligan labs mod as far as I know at this point. Perhaps if enough people want it this one will get it too. One of the really cool things about airships is flight without fuel use, especially when you strap on some electric propellers, send it to Eve and can muck around the surface without spending a drop of fuel.

Oh please! We NEED on demand inflation/deflation!

[RadarManFromTheMoon]

• Feature: Compatibility with KSP version 0.90
  
• Feature: Compatibility with FAR 0.14.5+
  
• Feature: Editor UI
  
• Feature: Save button for preferences window
  
• Bugfix: Removed some semicolons in the cfgs which were not only unnecessary, but also prevented the cost calculation from working as intended