nli2work

http://i.imgur.com/bztvByy.jpg

Legacy system still works pretty well in Unity 5 for most things, you can definitely use it for 99% of things you might want to animate on a KSP part. The only exception being the material properties bug, the properties are grayed out; though you might be able to add key frames, but they won't animate when you enter play mode. It has been a long standing issue since Unity 4.2.3 and Unity has stated they are not going to fix it as the Legacy animation system is "no longer being supported". We can hope an updated PartTools will be available after 1.0 is released, and Squad can turn their attention to Unity 5 for KSP.

it's definitely looks better than built-in UV packing in max... but Steam makes me pull my pistol out and shoot puppies and kittens.

MBMUtilities is a collection of stand alone apps that converts MBM to PNG or TGA; as well as TGA or PNG back to MBM. I think it works by drag/drop MBM onto the appropriate EXE file in windows explorer. MBMtoPNG is a Unity script that converts MBM to PNG. Processes individual images, or a folder location (including sub folders). To convert back to MBM you'll have to use MBMUtilities or PartTools for small volume texture editing MBMUtilities will suffice. But for part creation I think MBMtoPNG is more useful. certainly doesn't hurt to have both.

Biggest upside of using 4.2.2 is emissive animation for glowing bits on engines, lights, etc. newer versions of Unity require Animator+Animation Controller to key material properties where KSP and PartTools 0.23 only supports the legacy animation system using Animation component. Aside from that, there're no serious drawbacks in using Unity 5. the x64 editor should be great if you are editing IVAs with large amount of props. Some very old scripts may be problematic and Unity might complain about outdated code, but they will probably still work.

good point. this tool is what you want http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/47068; it's a Unity script that will convert MBM to PNGs; you can convert individual files or process the entire gamedata folder. PNGs have same file name and are placed in the same location as original MBM.

You won't be able to do emissive animations easily in Unity versions higher than 4.2.2. Unity 4 is also a much smaller download than Unity 5. v4.2.2 is about 880mb; Unity5 is 1.2gb KSP 1.0 is days away.... so with any luck, an updated PartTools is in the pipelines for modders in the near future, as Squad will most likely have to update it for internal use.

yeah I think you're right on that one. rotates around the Part's X, not the ctrl_surface's local X

the module was (0.24/0.25) hard coded to rotate the ctrl_surface object around it's local +X axis. base_object isn't required AFAIK. The module had been revamped for 0.9 and I'm not very familiar with it. Below is the module and possible parameters as of 0.9. ModuleControlSurface () { deflectionLiftCoeff = 1.5f [B]transformName[/B] = ctrl_surface //the object that will act as rudder/aileron/elevator etc. ctrlSurfaceRange = 15f ctrlSurfaceArea = 0.5f actuatorSpeed = 25f //response speed dragCoeff = //not sure what the default value is, maybe it uses value from elsewhere in the config file. }

which version of Unity are you using? if you want to share the unity assets I'll take a look at it

just one of the many mysteries of game developing I guess. shouldn't be using Animator + Animation Controller with KSP. They are new in Unity4 and isn't supported by KSP.

not even in output_log.txt?

yes there is, in the thread linked above.

No, not in any reasonable way you might use FSmeshSwitch. I suggest reading Firespitter's module documentation at snjo.github.io. I can get MJ production and consumption to work as one might expect (I don't know your original intent in design so I can't say for certain). You just need to adjust the production and consumption rates for the generator and engine modules. Radiator only consumes "Cooling" resource for some reason when it is supposed to produce "Cooling" I don't know why. It maybe good to lower the production and consumption rates by an order of magnitude or two. Sometimes KSP behaves odd with large numbers.

regarding FSmeshSwitch: it's because the MU doesn't contain any of the objects you list in the config file. FSmeshSwitch doesn't switch between MUs, only what's inside of MU. You need to export a proper MU file with objects (mesh filter/renderer components are required) that you reference in the MODULE. regarding ModuleGenerator it appears your MJ container is full to begin with, so no MJ is produced and no UF4 is consumed. it also appears the MJ generation rate is incredibly fast, 2000/sec, at that rate the part is full immediately after launch, and so appears to not produce any MJ. UF4 consumption rate is incredibly slow, so slow that you wouldn't notice any change unless on high time warp. I don't know why Cooling is being consumed constantly, is that by design? Also it would be a good idea to change the part/object/file names so they don't contain any periods other than the one separating the 3-letter extension from file name. spaces should be replaced with underscore or removed.

any transform that is a child of the PartTools Scripts object can be used in a part module, assuming it has the correct object name needed by a part module. No need to split objects with same name into separate branches, except smoke trail transform apparently (I never used multiple smoke trails so don't know first hand). Other than animation and for your own organizational preferences, hierarchy doesn't benefit from being tree-like structure.

don't need to redo the animation, just reverse the order of your keyframes. If I had to guess, "Mirror keyframes" is the thing you want in blender. http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Animation/Editors/Graph/Editing you can export only the animation and apply the reversed animation to the existing asset in Unity, assuming all the object names and hierarchy order remained the same as before.

few ways you can do this. you can let Unity generate a convex mesh collider by adding mesh collider component to the object. Unity will attempt to match the shape with the least # of triangles. if not possible, you will get a warning saying the collision mesh has more than 255 triangles. you can import a simplified convex mesh with your model, add mesh collider component to it, you should see green mesh matching the mesh of what you imported for collision mesh. after that, remove mesh filter and mesh renderer components. material(s) you applied in blender doesn't matter. collision meshes don't have any rendering components and are always invisible. you can assign any mesh, to the mesh collider component in the same way you assign a mesh to a mesh filter component. if convex, the mesh will have to be 255 triangles or less.

gimbal or not, you can attach as many as you want. Smoke trail can eat up all your FPS if you are not careful however, I would use it sparingly. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/87101

make sure the props and internal mesh are all exported on proper layers, same process as exporting a part. the IVA tool only records rotation/position/scale of the objects to a text file, and doesn't change anything in the objects themselves. internal space uses different orientation than parts and it's very frustrating to figure out for the first time. more here http://imgur.com/a/Vd2Zn#13

been meaning to take it up into my toolset. Looks more a little more intuitive than Quixel Suite. But I won't have time to for a while though. It'll really shine if/when KSP finally uses some shaders newer than SM2.0. The pricetag makes it a little less accessible. the previous version of dDo/nDo is available now for free.

PartTools does work in Unity 5. But it will not export many newer Unity 4/5 features like MechAnim; Shuriken Particles; Realtime GI. I recommend 4.2.2 for KSP modding. Versions newer than 4.2.2 cannot animate material properties using the legacy animation system (by design).

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/94638 Video tutorials Engine Part 1 & Part 2 I recommend you use Unity 4.2.2 for KSP modding.

You don't need to break it up into multiple parts, just need several colliders in one part to approxinate the curve. 3~4 should be plenty for what you have in the picture.

you can share the unity project if all else fails. thin box colliders generally aren't a problem.