[1.9-1.10] Throttle Controlled Avionics

[Mandella]

28 minutes ago, DStaal said:

If I may, this might suit you:

 

Good old linuxgurugamer! Is there any mod he can't resurrect!?

Thanks for the link, I used to use this very mod, nice to see it updated. Sadly, it still does not function in jetpack mode -- the Kerbals have to walk.

But back to allista's mod -- even without being able to remotely control Kerbals, just having the ability to give TCA commands to other ships without shifting focus is going to be great for any of us who base build or just like to sit comfortably in a mother ship and boss everybody else around.

[kcs123]

22 hours ago, allista said:

Just don't engage TimeWarp when remotely controlled vessels are in flight 

Never intended, time warp can have very undesired influence on delta time used for PIDs in craft controls.

 

[allista]

Version 3.5.0 for Kerbal Space Program 1.3.1

Released on 2017-11-09

• Major overhaul of orbital autopilots:
  • Deorbit autopilot performs simulation of atmospheric flight and main deceleration to determine approximate landing trajectory. Achieves much more precise landings using chutes/brakes alone; and saves fuel in powered landing.
    • Atmospheric trajectory is drawn in magenta in Map View
    • Deceleration trajectory is drawn in green in Map View
  • Rendezvous autopilot employs 2D gradient-descent minimization to search for optimal rendezvous trajectory in several modes:
    • Min.DeltaV - always prioritize the lowest total dV of the rendezvous (including deceleration)
    • Fast Transfer - prefers smaller total transfer times (including time before maneuver), if it does not cost too much dV
    • Manual - you can choose between calculated transfers yourself
• Full reimplementation of attitude control:
  • Attitude control uses three separate PID cascades with gain scheduling to independently control the three rotational axes. This allows for much better control over a wider range of different engines, faster and more accurate action, and eliminates some long-standing auto-oscillation bugs.
• Remote control of TCA-equipped vessels:
  • Now you can control nearby vessels equipped with TCA without actually switching to them. The control is not full, i.e. keyboard and mouse still belong to the active vessel; but TCA interface in this mode sends commands directly to the selected vessel. This, of course, only works on loaded vessels in comm-range, and only if you have Squadron Control Module installed.
• Default vessel configs:
  • Now in VAB and SPH, separately, you can save TCA configuration of a vessel to be the default for newly created vessels. This includes state of TCA Modules and functions, so !do not forget to activate newly bought modules! or you'll miss it in flight. I'm working on automation of that process.
• Numerous fixes and improvements in:
  • Navigation/Land
  • Navigation/Jump To
  • Orbital/To Orbit
  • Orbital/Match Velocity,Brake Near
  • Smart Engines
• Interface changes:
  • Removed "Set" buttons of numerical entry fields. To set entered value push Enter or Keypad/Enter.
  • Rendezvous, Deorbit, Jump To, Orbital/Land autopilots use the Setup-then-Execute approach, so pressing, sya, "Land" button does not start landing immediately. All setup controls are now located inside appropriate tabs and are opened when you press the autopilot's main button.
• Much, much more in commit messages...

 Download 

Or from GitHub

Edited November 10, 2017 by allista

[Beetlecat]

Hooray! Congrats @allista on the new releases! I can't wait to play with the new 3.5 features.

[linuxgurugamer]

@allista

Could you update the OP?

[Mandella]

This is great! Looking forward to trying the new features out as soon as I can upgrade to 1.3.1. Yes, I'm one of those guys waiting for mods to catch up -- upgrading KSP to even a new minor release is always an all afternoon affair, especially as I run RSS...

[Geschosskopf]

On 11/9/2017 at 3:19 PM, allista said:

Version 3.5.0 for Kerbal Space Program 1.3.1

Yay!  I've been really needing TCA in 1.3.1  

EDIT:  HOWEVER, Spacedock is down and the Github link still points to 3.4, not 3.5

Edited November 10, 2017 by Geschosskopf

[allista]

51 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

Yay!  I've been really needing TCA in 1.3.1  

EDIT:  HOWEVER, Spacedock is down and the Github link still points to 3.4, not 3.5

Here you go:

https://github.com/allista/ThrottleControlledAvionics/releases/tag/v3.5.0

[Geschosskopf]

Just now, allista said:

Here you go:

https://github.com/allista/ThrottleControlledAvionics/releases/tag/v3.5.0

Many thanks!

[jrodriguez]

@allistafirst of all. Amazing work with the last release. After reading the changelog I'm quite excited lol. 

I was wondering if the last release is still compatible with KSP 1.3?

[allista]

48 minutes ago, jrodriguez said:

@allistafirst of all. Amazing work with the last release. After reading the changelog I'm quite excited lol. 

I was wondering if the last release is still compatible with KSP 1.3?

Unfortunately not: KSP code has changed quite a bit between 1.3 and 1.3.1 and the changes make things incompatible.

[jrodriguez]

7 minutes ago, allista said:

Unfortunately not: KSP code has changed quite a bit between 1.3 and 1.3.1 and the changes make things incompatible.

Would it be possible to create a release for KSP 1.3? At the moment KSP 1.3.1 has some critical bugs (like the landing gear/ physics ease bug) 

Edited November 11, 2017 by jrodriguez

[allista]

8 minutes ago, jrodriguez said:

Would it be possible to create a release for KSP 1.3? At the moment KSP 1.3.1 has some critical bugs (like the landing gear/ physics ease bug) 

Possible, yes, but not by me, I'm afraid... I do have some things to attend to right now 

*also, some changes had to be made in AT_Utils which affect other mods, so I would have to release the bundle...

[jrodriguez]

7 minutes ago, allista said:

Possible, yes, but not by me, I'm afraid... I do have some things to attend to right now 

*also, some changes had to be made in AT_Utils which affect other mods, so I would have to release the bundle...

Of course! A baby release requires a lot of maintenance time . Congratulations! 

It is fine I will try to recompile everything for KSP 1.3 and I will send you a PM if I encounter some problems. 

Thanks

[allista]

37 minutes ago, jrodriguez said:

Of course! A baby release requires a lot of maintenance time . Congratulations! 

It is fine I will try to recompile everything for KSP 1.3 and I will send you a PM if I encounter some problems. 

Thanks

One of the main changes (for TCA) is how CelestialBody.GetRelSurfacePosition works: in 1.3.1 they changed reference frame from world to CB.

Take a look at this commit:

https://github.com/allista/AT_Utils/commit/f09a620e7ed98d97a526e23d7d774b8788584218

Edited November 11, 2017 by allista

[DStaal]

4 hours ago, allista said:

Unfortunately not: KSP code has changed quite a bit between 1.3 and 1.3.1 and the changes make things incompatible.

Given this is the case, can I ask you to change the KSP-AVC file to mention that?  (I believe that's possible.)

Currently KSP-AVC will suggest you upgrade to 3.5.0 when you're in KSP 1.3.

[allista]

7 minutes ago, DStaal said:

Given this is the case, can I ask you to change the KSP-AVC file to mention that?  (I believe that's possible.)

Currently KSP-AVC will suggest you upgrade to 3.5.0 when you're in KSP 1.3.

This is the current .version file:

{ 
    "NAME":"ThrottleControlledAvionics",
    "URL":"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/allista/ThrottleControlledAvionics/master/GameData/ThrottleControlledAvionics/ThrottleControlledAvionics.version",
    "DOWNLOAD":"http://spacedock.info/mod/198/Throttle%20Controlled%20Avionics",
    "CHANGE_LOG_URL":"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/allista/ThrottleControlledAvionics/master/ChanegLog.md",
    "VERSION":
     {
         "MAJOR":3,
         "MINOR":5,
         "PATCH":0,
         "BUILD":0
     },
    "KSP_VERSION_MIN":
     {
         "MAJOR":1,
         "MINOR":3,
         "PATCH":1
     },
    "KSP_VERSION_MAX":
     {
         "MAJOR":1,
         "MINOR":3,
         "PATCH":1
     }
}

 

[DStaal]

Then I don't know what's going on.  Thanks for thinking about it anyway.   

[allista]

1 minute ago, DStaal said:

Then I don't know what's going on.  Thanks for thinking about it anyway.   

Neither do I, but thanks for your vigilance

[0something0]

I installed TCA into my save yesterday and it was working fine, even though the UI was all messed up, but the features I needed at the moment, flying VTOLs, was working correctly. However, when I reloaded the game, the Hover feature simply did not do anything. I tested the mod with only the necessary dependencies and it worked though. And no, I don't know where the logs are: the game crashed due to an unrelated reason, probably due to a lack of memory on my potato, but I'm pretty sure it only has the logs leading up to the moment of the crash. 

https://imgur.com/a/jq1jq broken(?) UI

https://imgur.com/a/IV6qU Mod folder

[allista]

1 hour ago, 0something0 said:

I installed TCA into my save yesterday and it was working fine, even though the UI was all messed up, but the features I needed at the moment, flying VTOLs, was working correctly. However, when I reloaded the game, the Hover feature simply did not do anything. I tested the mod with only the necessary dependencies and it worked though. And no, I don't know where the logs are: the game crashed due to an unrelated reason, probably due to a lack of memory on my potato, but I'm pretty sure it only has the logs leading up to the moment of the crash. 

https://imgur.com/a/jq1jq broken(?) UI

https://imgur.com/a/IV6qU Mod folder

Nothing wrong with the UI, you just need to drag the floating controls by the small green dots near them to arrange them as you like the first time.

Your installation arrears to be correct.

As for the other difficulties, I strongly suggest you to read the manual (look at the top of the OP). TCA is pretty complex piece of software; there's no way of using it without some learning first.

[0something0]

I did use TCA a while back and even until yesterda, it worked like a charm. Perhaps irs the modded parts that aren't playing well.

[Freds]

I think i found an incompatibility with Astronomer's Visual Pack: The Follow terrain option in the vertical speed control doesn't work if the astronomers is installed: If i enable Follow Terrain, TCA always think that the selected altitude is below terrain, detect an Obstacle on the Course and then fly up forever, until Follow Terrain is disabled. With Follow Terrain disabled, TCA works correctly. 

English is not my primary language, so i recorded 3 videos that explain the problem.

Video 1: Astronomer + TCA with Follow Terrain:
https://youtu.be/YsBff4XvnI8

Video 2: Astronomer + TCA Without Follow Terrain:
https://youtu.be/8CDalcGb7_c

Video 3: TCA without Astronomer :
https://youtu.be/Mu169v2CAgw

I isolated the problem with the clean install add/remove mod method: When i remove the Astronomer Visual Pack + Astronomer's Visual Pack 4K Textures, TCA works. When i install, TCA breaks
Other mods have no effect on TCA.

All mods was installed from CKAN.

 

[allista]

8 hours ago, 0something0 said:

I did use TCA a while back and even until yesterda, it worked like a charm. Perhaps irs the modded parts that aren't playing well.

What you describe looked more like incorrect use than a bug, but since you're an experienced user, please, try to test things a little to isolate the issue, then describe the steps to reproduce it. Otherwise I have no means to help.

3 hours ago, Freds said:

I think i found an incompatibility with Astronomer's Visual Pack: The Follow terrain option in the vertical speed control doesn't work if the astronomers is installed: If i enable Follow Terrain, TCA always think that the selected altitude is below terrain, detect an Obstacle on the Course and then fly up forever, until Follow Terrain is disabled. With Follow Terrain disabled, TCA works correctly. 

English is not my primary language, so i recorded 3 videos that explain the problem.

Video 1: Astronomer + TCA with Follow Terrain:
https://youtu.be/YsBff4XvnI8

Video 2: Astronomer + TCA Without Follow Terrain:
https://youtu.be/8CDalcGb7_c

Video 3: TCA without Astronomer :
https://youtu.be/Mu169v2CAgw

I isolated the problem with the clean install add/remove mod method: When i remove the Astronomer Visual Pack + Astronomer's Visual Pack 4K Textures, TCA works. When i install, TCA breaks
Other mods have no effect on TCA.

All mods was installed from CKAN.

 

Thank you for through investigation! I'll take a look inside AVP code and try to find the cause.

https://github.com/allista/ThrottleControlledAvionics/issues/46

Edited November 14, 2017 by allista

[kerbalfreak]

I simply love this mod!

I've made a ion hover for Minmus, but I have some questions. Here a pic of it:

The central engine has low thrust, but high Isp. The other 4 has higher thrust and lower Isp.

Is possible to set it to only start using the 4 higher thrust engines when the central reaches 100% throttle? I set the central one to "unbalanced thrust", and the other 4 to "maneuver only", it works, but isn't exactly what i'm looking for.

Another thing, it seems very conservative when cruising or stopping, taking much more time than needed. The throttle only stays at 50% and it inclines much less than it could. I changed some configs in the profiles, but didn't made much difference. Is something else I could try? Now I'm taking full manual control, or setting MechJeb to land when I want to stop.

Thanks for the awesome mod!

Edited November 16, 2017 by kerbalfreak