Christronomy

I'm finally back under way on this project! Obviously I didn't get it finished in time for the 50th anniversary, but hopefully it won't be too much longer. Starting a new job meant turning in my old laptop and getting a new one, so getting all of my software, files, and references squared away was an epic pain. In any case, I've started Swing Arm 4!

@Michael Smith I'll tell you what, once I'm done with this thing, I'll upload it to Sketchfab as well so you can explore at will. Do bear in mind that this is a bit simplified for the sake of being runnable in KSP. Excuses time! I just moved to a new city and started a new job, so I've been a little less than dedicated to the tower over the last few weeks. I promise I will resume the very instant I am able. It would be awesome to get it released in time for the 50th anniversary!

Swing Arm 7 (S-IVB Forward) is done! This was super difficult and may have turned out too high-poly. I'll have to probably cut down on the piping and/or cable runs a little. Swing Arm 4 remains. Only one of us shall triumph.

Just about finished Swing Arm 5! Just 4 and 7 remain and then I can release this thing.

Alright, after endless frustration with the propellant piping on side 3 of the LUT, I found and requested admission into the LUT Yahoo Group and they were kind enough to oblige. Their data is a treasure trove! This is my intermediately detailed take on the LOX valve complex on level 30' of the LUT. This ran to Swing Arm 1 and supplied and vented LOX to the S-IC stage. All at only 2,150 polys!

Swing Arm 8 (Service Module). I'd class this one as moderate difficulty. Swing Arm 5 (S-II Forward) is probably also moderate difficulty. After that, it's just 4 (S-II Intermediate) and 7 (S-IVB Forward), which both look hard as all get out and like they're basically infested with greebles. I think those two will finally kill me. Loss of blood from eyeballs, most likely.

And Swing Arm 3 (S-II Aft). Thus concludes the easy ones, as it were.

Just a quick update to prove I'm not dead yet. I have completed and animated Swing Arm 2 (S-IC Forward). Also included Swing Arm 1 (S-IC Intertank) in an image since I foolishly did not last time. If anyone reads this and happens to know where on Earth I can find some information on adding particle effects to KSP, I'd be very grateful.

@darkerdadorito Thanks! Yes, I have made extensive use of the drawings from that site and am forever in their debt for their excellent collection. @johnkeale The interiors were some of the most difficult parts for which to find reference. I have only the technical drawings and a couple of tiny-res photos of the interior of the MLP from the shuttle era. Immensely frustrating trying to extrapolate details! @Dan Neely So I have come to the propellant piping as I am very near completion of this thing and I finally found a decent reference! I somehow missed the CALL-OUT.txt file accompanying the images here and thus could never figure out what everything was supposed to be in those drawings. They show the propellant supply/drain pipes path to the swing arms pretty clearly. Couple that with Figure 8-5 from the Saturn V Flight Manual and a few hundred thousand feverishly downloaded photos of varying quality and you get a decent idea of what they did! Also useful are the photos of the disassembly of ML1 here from the Library of Congress and during the ASTP here from apollosaturn.com (note that many of the ECS pipes were removed prior the latter photos being taken). In those, you can actually sort of tell where the propellant pipe to swing arm 1 goes! Sort of! Thanks again to everyone who has shown an interest - I know I've been AWOL for a while and I apologize for that. That old cliche of life getting in the way, etc. I have made progress! I have populated the levels with various large, boxy pieces of equipment, some of which I can identify and some of which I certainly can not. I have attempted to put a priority on level 320 for detail work since it's the one that connects to the crew access arm. I have run the propellant pipes as best as I could discern from the limited available imagery. I have completed swing arm 1 and have subsequently lost a great deal of time trying to figure out how to do particle effects for KSP (I have them set up in Unity, but I have no clue what to do in the config to get them to fire) so it could have sweet GOX FX at retraction. If all else fails, I'll bake the animation into the swing-arm and just live with the fact that re-attaching the swing arm will cause a whole bunch of GOX to get sucked back into the pipes! And a version without that, of course. My remaining TODO list items prior to release are as follows: Swing Arms: // Add Guenther Kermandt - Animate? Complete arms 2-5 and 7-8 0-80 Complete water pipes / quench stuff 100-360: Complete water pipes / quench stuff 200 - 300: Add swing arm walkway supports 300 - Bottom of umbMount z-fighting its support 320: Add escape lines? Car (9-seater)? 380: Crane 25 TON 10 TON sign Finally, a quick whinge about the poly count. I have sacrificed much to keep this thing plausible for use in a game, but damn if this isn't one of the most complicated structures I've ever seen. It works fine on my computer running a GTX970M, but that might be a little above the specs available to many KSP players. After I release the first draft of this, I'll do some texture baking and remodeling to also deliver a much simpler alternative tower for people who don't require ALL THE DETAILS.

This is just incredible. Definitely motivating me to work on finishing my LUT! I do have one question - have you given any thought to modeling and/or texturing the insulated F-1 they used at launch time?

Oy, tell me about it. Finding references has been absolutely monstrous. I refuse to believe that nobody took extremely detailed photos of these things all throughout the program, so I must conclude that they're sitting in a NASA warehouse somewhere (or, if history is any indication, they were destroyed due to improper storage. Florida humidity is already legendary - combine it with sea air and nothing lasts long there). I've been half tempted to make a trip down to Canaveral and demand to be let into the photo archives. They'd say no, but I could at least say I tried. To answer your question, I am not quite sure of the routing of the Side 3 propellant lines. I know on what levels they turn toward the vehicle and vaguely where they come out and interface with the swing arms, but the rest is a bit of guesswork. I'll let you know if I do find anything, though! As for the ECS lines on Side 2, there are a fair few photos of the LUT from below where you can see that they all more or less follow the same route hanging from the ceiling, but then you have to find photos showing Side 4 from below so you can see how they connect to the swing arms. Those are a good bit easier to figure out than the propellant lines for sure. Here's a good photo of Side 4 from below: And another useful one where you can see the ECS routing pretty well: Best of luck on your build!

I created it in real scale, then made another version wherein I shrunk it down to stock and made alterations so it could fit FASA (I had to raise the 320' level crew access walkway and reposition swing arm 9). In short, I have real scale, stock scale for FASA, and I also plan to make one that is stock scale for Bluedog Design Bureau.

I just checked it out and I have to say that is some tremendous work you've done. I'd be delighted to see them together! Is yours true to scale or stock-alike (5m S-1C and S-II; 3.75m S-IVb; 2m CSM)?

Just updated the OP to include links to some preliminary videos. The Apollo Astronaut Pad Experience Demo of currently implemented features Feedback is appreciated!

I tried to figure out how to do that for quite a while, but I couldn't manage to do it. I have him included in the crew access arm white room 3D model itself: Rigged in 3DS Max and textured in PS.

Thanks! I actually just changed the Kerbal mechanic's texture maps and modeled the cap and headset to fit him. He's meant to be Guenter Wendt, NASA's pad leader during most of the Space Race. In Unity I have him labeled "Guenter Kermandt." I plan to give him some idle animations in the final release.

Hello all! Just wanted to share a project I've been working on for entirely too long. I started out wanting to create a more generic launch platform for general use in KSP, but quickly snowballed into an attempted recreation of the Apollo Mobile Launcher and Launch Umbilical Tower. I remember seeing the outstanding documentary For All Mankind when I was a kid and absolutely -loving- the shot from the elevator of the tower going up and seeing the behemoth Saturn V squatting right in front of the camera. Further review informed me that this elevator was actually located on the Mobile Service Structure (MSS), but I was nonetheless inspired to attempt to recreate the launch-day experience of an Apollo astronaut. So far I have created the launch platform (with some interior, even), the ground support structures, the LUT itself, the hammerhead crane, the damper arm, and swing arms 9 and 6 - all with animations. As stated earlier, I wanted the user to be able to experience the actual route taken by the astronauts on launch-day, so I have included functionality to take the ground-to-pad elevator, walk down the mobile launcher corridor to the elevator room, ride the elevator to tower level 320', then traverse the walkway and crew access arm to the Saturn V command module. The screenshots included here are adapted for the FASA Saturn V. I'm trying to gauge community interest in this thing in an attempt to motivate myself to finish it. Here are some videos of the project: The Apollo Astronaut Pad Experience Demo of currently implemented features TODO: Swing Arms: Lights? Complete arms 1-5 and 7-8 Mobile Launcher: Add Blast Shield Tether Tie-Downs 0' - 80': Add equipment boxes, etc. Complete water pipes / quench stuff 100' - 360': Add equipment boxes, etc. Complete water pipes / quench stuff Complete Propellant pipes 200' - 300': Add swing arm walkway supports 300 - Bottom of umbMount z-fighting its support 320': Add escape lines? Car (9-seater)? 380': Crane 25 TON 10 TON sign

Accidentally posted in wrong forum - I apologize!

@HaArLiNsH I will certainly look into it! The strange pink image accompanying the suits is a Normal Map which is used to simulate more complex geometry and finer detail on low-polygon game models, in case you didn't already know! Appreciate the feedback as well. I'll try an even more simplified version of them and see if it still retains the likeness. Thanks!

Went ahead and did the rest of them in the cartoon-ier style. Feedback would be appreciated!

Alright, I've made a couple of test "Kerbal-ier" versions of Yuri and Valentina to see if they're any less likely to uncanny everyone's valley. 1. Kerbal-ier Yuri Gagarin 2. Realistic Yuri Gagarin 3. Kerbal-ier Valentina Tereshkova 4. Realistic Valentina Tereshkova Second, here's Scott Manley with his simplified self. If anyone wants to try them for themselves, they should be in the second imgur album in the OP. Thoughts/Preferences?

Well, she took a bit longer than I thought, but Valentina's ready! I'm afraid I have no idea how to remove her ponytail in-game with only a texture map and her enviable beehive is somewhat squashed against her head given that I haven't made a dedicated 3D model for it. I could make the model, but importing to Unity is not something I've done in a mod before, so I'd need time or assistance. Sally Ride is up next! @sAssIn, I like the Ripley idea! Alien would be a little less than possible as they don't have eyes and Kerbals very much do. That's not even mentioning the mouths. @Sherrif, I tried thinking of something clever like Buzz Lightman or Buzz Keryear, but neither of those really flow. I guess all we can do is call the Kerpollo 11 fellow Edwin. @Ultimate Steve, I'll happily take Mr. Manley down if he so desires, but I'm afraid I haven't a clue how to get in touch with him. @theonegalen, I'll add them to the list!

Thanks for the feedback everyone! @helaeon, I can honestly say I never expected to see the term "uncanny valley" used in reference to a Kerbal. This amuses me more than I can say. I do like the idea of the simplified/cartoon-ier versions for people who enjoy sleeping ever again - I'll give it a go this weekend! @Deimos Rast, it was certainly tricky adapting the giant eyes, wide mouths, and non-noses, but it was fun and I'm glad it worked! @Andem, does uncanny valley count as realism? Or is there a "Disturbingly Close to Realism Overhaul" mod I don't know about? @kBob, Sally Ride is second on my to-do list after Valentina Tereshkova. Gonna try to get them done this weekend! @njmksr, unfortunately, they are likely to be all you see in your dreams evermore. Leading world psychologists, in their desperation for anything to dull the horror, recommend warm milk before bed as the best bet to stave off the eternally wide-eyed stares and low-poly grins, but they know as well as anyone that there is nothing anyone can do. Only now does man truly know fear. More to come as free-time does or does not permit!

Someone on the Facebook group requested Buzz Lightyear, so I've duly obliged. The body UV map was really tricky to work with, so the suit isn't perfect, but it looks good at a reasonable distance! Not sure how Imgur albums work on forums, but hopefully the one in the OP will update to include these.

Appreciate the feedback! I actually first started down this road for a "Jeb turned the graphics up too high" joke image: I thought the result was pretty funny and I was curious to see if I could get recognition of well-known people out of textures alone. I'm encouraged to see that it worked at least for you! I also toyed with the idea of doing a bunch of the astro/cosmonaut faces in a more Kerbal-y, cartoon-y style. I may yet give that a try and see if the uncanny valley manages to even out some. Thanks again!