lo-fi

For future reference, this works perfectly: //C# Vector3 roverForward = this.vessel.GetTransform().rotation * new Vector3(0,1,0); //y is forward direction for SPH built craft Vector3 travelVector = this.vessel.GetSrfVelocity(); float travelDirection = Vector3.Dot(roverForward, travelVector); I never thought I'd find an actual use for dot products Thanks again!

Please post away Having slight trouble deciphering what you mean in that last sketch about what works or doesn't, though?

Thanks guys. Two methods to try - I'll let you know how I get on

Evening. I'm trying to work out how to get the speed of a rover, though signed negative to indicate when it's travelling backwards. Is there an available method to do this that I've missed? I've just spent and hour hunting through the stuff that comes up in the VS inspector for this.vessel., but come up blank so far. Thanks, as ever

Hmmmmm. I'll bung it on the idea pile For the moment I'd suggest making a rack steering arrangement like I did on my kethane rig with a gantry rail, and I'll add an option in the upcoming update to disable the torque based steering on the track units. Should work a treat. Reminds me of a Thunderbirds rover they used in the episode where the road laying machine ran into trouble blasting through a mountain btw

Brilliant. Open source modding the whole process, not just the code!

I'm pretty sure I know where its supposed to be in the hierarchy, though looking at the config I doubt it really matters where you choose to place it.

Be great to have you aboard

Thanks for posting that pic, I've not seen that version before. One interesting thing I note is it has no object called steering, which is called in the current part.cfg for the small bay. I assume this was an early C7 post and the steering was an afterthought in the later version.

That's brilliant Got some updates in the works which tidy quite a few things up on the tracks and the repulsors have had a major overhaul.

I'll cover the constrainFX modules on Thursday, they're not hard to use. As you say, entirely cosmetic. They're useful when parenting is too simple: you want an object to inherit movement but not rotation, for example. In the case of BahamutoD's lander leg, the layers are definitely needed. If you miss the WheelCollidersIgnore layer on a convex collider that the wheel raycast intersects you find it treats it like it's hitting the ground and the suspension bounces about all over the place. That's about all there is to it, really.

Yeah, get the info out if you've got it! Spanner and I have been posting what we can in his wheel thread. Thanks, I'll take a look. The layers can be funny. I've had wheelcolliders completely refuse to function if set to the wheelColliders layer (I still don't know what it actually does). WheelCollidersIgnore is usually essential on convex colliders in the part or really strange things happen, but it depends how things are placed. For landing gear where none of the other convex colliders are intersected by the raycast you'll probably fine if you ignore the layers completely.

I've not tried Lack's rover, I have to admit. The stock tanksteer pulls to the right something horrible, which is why I wrote my plugin from the ground up - it did my head in - and was quite careful to avoid such silliness. Though re-reading your post it sounds like you're having to attach them in an odd fashion and there is an issue with how it's detecting which side the tracks are on. This is the hard part about creating stuff for KSP: You never know how it's going to be used and it's almost impossible to cover all the bases. I'm pretty sure that's what's going on and I doubt a re-install will help. I do have an idea for an alternative side detection method, though the current one never gave me any issues so I left it be. By 'mounted to the bottom', do you mean you have to rotate the tracks a lot to make them face the right direction?

Not something I've come across in testing... Post some screen grabs of your design?

That's.... beautiful! Thanks for sharing And thanks! Really glad people are enjoying the parts. You'll notice the track units are labelled 'medium'

Its a monster, isn't it! Hell of a job to get that thing going, there is a lot of work still to do.

I've manage multiple colliders just fine in lots of wheels so far, I don't see why landing gear should be much different. I'd be happy to use your model to demo and fire back a rigged unity project. Send me over a link? The swing bar suspension in your main gear is a challenge, though. That will take some serious thinking to make work. Yes, I do mean August! The year is going far too fast... I'll update in a moment

Yeah, doesn't look to hard having poked around in the stock part.cfg. I've learned you can tell almost all you need to know from the configs once you understand how they interact with the code modules. Squad have done a fine job, even if it's largely (publicly) undocumented.

None of that should be a problem. Gorgeous model, btw! Shout me when you've chopped it up, looks prefect for setting up a demo Though this looks like it ought to be a tutorial in its own right. Lots to cover rigging it up: animations, look-at constraints, suspension...

Thanks for the detailed report! The steering authority is set up to fade as speed builds or it got a bit unstable. They are not definitive values, though. If you look in the .cfg, you'll find: steeringCurve { key = 0 100 0 0 key = 10 75 0 0 key = 25 25 0 0 } The first number in each key is speed, the second is the torque applied and affects steering response. The code interpolates between values. If you'd like to play around and suggest some values, please do! Absolutely. The power draw is proportional to the torque. I'll be applying to my wheels too, it's a great idea. The whole thing is an iterative process, I keep learning something new when I make new parts that I can transfer back to previous efforts. All seems so easy now! Hehe. You should see some of the saves in my dev game! Carnage, I tell you... Carnage. And please do post some video or screen grabs!

Rover wheels primarily, but I know you're keen to get to grips with landing gear. I'm going to see what I can figure out during the week, so hopefully I'll have enough to get your started. Let me know if there's a specific aspect you'd like covered - I'd be happy to help. or if you've got a model you'd like rigged, send me a link and I'll use that for my experimentation! I'd only be working with a dummy model otherwise, so might as well get something useful done if I can. Great, good to have you aboard

Date set. All welcome, hope you can join.

Ah, got ya. That bugs me too. Without getting too technical, there are reasons you can't update the settings in-flight (Unity limitations). I keep hacking at it, but I haven't come up with anything satisfactory yet, which is why there are no in-flight controls. See previous discussion in the thread for more info. I forget most people aren't necessarily clued up on how suspension works - I guess I ought to do a tutorial. The spring rate is how strong the spring is. Too weak and it will bottom out, too strong and you won't get any compression. Damping is how resistant the suspension is to movement. Too little and it will bounce about like the thing is on jelly, too much and it doesn't react very quickly. I'd suggest if you're struggling for ground clearance with the rocko tanks you've probably got the spring setting way too low and it's bottoming out!

I've just released my version to alpha - link in the thread in my sig. Will see what I can do about porting some of the existing parts from the original mod at some point. Thanks again for opening this up.

Alpha 1.2 just went live. Please remember they are experimental, textures are temporary and please be prepared to give detailed bug reports if you're going to download at this stage! See OP for KerbalStuff download link.