LostOblivion

I'll try hehe.

I figured as much. Are there any good guides that show how to bake a specular map into the alpha of a diffuse image?

I made this DER/MSL-lookalike for showcasing my small heat shield pack for DRE. Although I initially named it as an analog to the Mars Exploration Rover (Spirit and Opportunity), it actually functions more similarly to the Mars Science Laboratory and Curiosity since it uses a jettisoned rover and sky crane instead of a hoisted one with air bags. It's available as part of my mod (Ships folder). You'll need my mod and the brilliant Procedural Fairings mod by e-dog for it to work. https://github.com/LostOblivion/OblivionAerospace/releases/tag/v0.1.1 I'll just reuse the imgur album from my mod, which shows it. Edit: Focus on the functionality of an aeroshell with jetted heat shield + skycrane + rover than on actual rover similarity. Edit 2: The craft has changed a bit since the pictures were taken.

Great guide! One off-topic question though: are there any tools to "bake" white/black specular image maps into the alpha channel on diffuse textures, to work with Unity? I'm not very proficient at Photoshop. I use Fireworks, which I find a little simpler.

Nice pictures! Let me know how the shield worked for you. :-) I'm a little unsure how much the shields should take, though. I mostly tested them with the Mk 1-2 pod for the 2.5m one, and equivalently up/down-scaled for the 1.25m and 3.75m ones, leaving them at around 50 % ablation for reentry from the Mun, but with the (realistically sized) example craft I just made the heat shield is way too tough, leaving the ablation at over 95 % when done reentering. And that's on Kerbin, Duna would almost be neglible. Should I find the nerf-bat?

Hehe thanks! I'll look into it. I polished and added the example craft for you guys. I haven't made a release yet, but the craft file is on GitHub. I released v0.1.1 with the example craft. You need my mod and e-dog's excellent PF mod to use it. Duna Exploration Rover: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LostOblivion/OblivionAerospace/master/OblivionAerospace/Ships/VAB/Duna%20Exploration%20Rover.craft Made an operator's guide (also in the craft file description): 1. Reentry. 2. Wait for reentry heat to dissipate. 3. Deploy parachute and wait until fully deployed. 4. Jettison heat shield. 5. Detach sky crane from aeroshell and immediately throttle up to neutralise downward acceleration. 6. Set parking brakes and adjust throttle to gently touch down. 7. Immediately after touch down, without throttling down, detach rover from sky crane and see it fly away into oblivion. Edit: I guess it would make more sense to call it Duna Science Laboratory since it features a jetted rover instead of a hoisted one, although you could actually make a true Mars Exploration Rover-lookalike with the KAS mod and some proper winches! Challenge accepted? I want to see! Edit: Bumped to v0.1.1 with the example craft.

Haha, guys, use your creativity! I'll post the craft file in a bit for you all.

Thanks for the feedback, guys. @biohazard: Replacements? What's wrong with them? @kenbob: I can add it to the next release.

It's an interstage fairing adapter up-side-down fitted between the fuel tank and parachute with a base diameter of 0.625m and top diameter of 2.5m (heat shield). The heat shield is my first contribution to the community, so I hope you like it.

The aeroshell (top part) is the Procedural Fairings mod by e-dog. This mod is only the heat shield part. I should parhaps change the front page image.

A small parts package of heat shields that also works with the Deadly Reentry (DR) plugin by Starwaster! Download: Get v0.1.5 from GitHub! or download from Curse Project on GitHub Historical releases on GitHub Latest alpha build Licensed under ModuleManager is Features: Currently features the Conical Heat Shield inspired by the sphere-cone heat shield on the Mars Science Laboratory. Comes in three sizes: 1.25m, 2.5m, and 3.75m. Works great with Ferram Aerospace Research (FAR) by ferram4, in that sphere-cone shaped heat shields offer greater control (by lift) over blunt ones. Comes with an auto-shroud adapter that meets flush with the shield. It works just like the stock heat shields. Just add something to the heat shield's bottom node (like a decoupler) and the shroud/adapter will appear! Supports the Deadly Reentry plugin by Starwaster, based on the works by NathanKell, ialdabaoth (who is awesome), and r4m0n. Unlike the heat shields in DR, the Conical Heat Shield does not have an omni-decoupler. Instead, it has a single decoupler on the top attachment point (yellow/black ring), allowing for more custom designs. Known issues: Stock KSP has an issue with rescaleFactor on root parts. Since this mod uses rescaleFactor, you should avoid using these shields as the root part on your vessel. Future: More heat shields based on real-life ones, like a Galileo-style reflective heat shield. I've been playing with the idea of a giant heat shield with a "hatch" at the center, allowing for engines to fire through it once the hatch is open, allowing for a more realistic spaceship design with g-forces pointing the same direction during both burns and aerobraking (like the one in BBC's documentary Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets). I have plans on making all heat shields tweakable in size, like the brilliant Procedural Fairings mod by e-dog. Future plans for this mod. Thanks to... ialdabaoth and r4m0n, for creating the excellent Deadly Reentry mod, and to NathanKell and Starwaster for extending upon and maintaining it. Reentry would be boring without it! ferram4, for creating Ferram Aerospace Research, which really makes the KSP experience for me! Squad, for making such a great game! (And now finally stock heating!) Hattivat, for testing. License is CC BY-SA (click icon above or see included file for details). Installation Install by merging the `GameData` folder in the zip with the `GameData` folder in your KSP install. I highly recommend Deadly Reentry for more realistic re-entry and heating. I also recommend trying out Rareden's really good-looking heat shields parts mod in his thread over here. Changelog v0.1.5 Maintenance release to support KSP 1.0.4. Tweaked heat shield configurations to reflect changes in stock heat model. v0.1.4 Maintenance release to have the heat shields support stock heating. Does not support DRE until Starwaster releases a version compatible with KSP 1.0 in a few days. Not backwards compatible with previous versions of this mod (if you really, really need this, send me a message on the forums and I'll help you fix your save so it magically works with the new version ). Command Pod Heat Shield still in the works, but textures are WIP, so I moved it to v0.2.0 (alpha for it shortly). Oh, and the mod is using ModuleManager now. v0.1.3 Corrected the bottom node size of all three heat shields and tweaked some reentry parameters. Many thanks to Hattivat for testing and pointing this out. v0.1.2 Added an auto-shroud to the Conical Heat Shield. It works like an engine shroud. Just add something to the heat shield's bottom node (like a decoupler) and the shroud/adapter will appear! v0.1.1 Added the Duna Exploration Rover example craft using the Conical Heat Shield for reentry. (You'll need the Procedural Fairings mod by e-dog.) v0.1.0 Initial release. Added the Conical Heat Shield.

Thanks for reply.

Ah, ok. My sats are all across the solar system, so getting kerbals to them is unfeasable, but they all have their antennae extended. I guess I can make sure the rest of them will work with RT before I install it. Anything else I have to do? I heard of relays...

Is it feasable to start using Remote Tech quite a bit into my existing career? Does this mean I will lose complete control over my existing satellites?

Great addon! I am often using your mod in combination with alexmoon's calculator for ballistic transfers, but have a question, and found no where else to ask it. When using alexmoon's tool it states the maneuver delta-V for prograde and normal given a perfect equatorial orbit, however, isn't this wasting some delta-V on making the plane change? It would save some fuel to launch from KSC into, say, the required 8.3 % ejection inclination, making sure it goes though the point of required ejection angle, and only burning prograde? I've tried doing this, but I really have to eyeball the angles and guess when to launch. Is there any mod that figures this out, or is it kinda hard to do? Edit: You have to eyeball when KSC "travels" though the required ejection angle for your to-be orbit.

Seconded. I do not want DPAI to pop up until I've selected a docking port as target. I know selecting far away docking ports manually is hard, but targeting should be left for other mods, IMO. I liked it better before this functionality was added. Request: Add lateral and longitudinal range markers to the cross, like cdst.

Great, thanks! :-)

I'm making an SSTO lander for Duna. On Kerbin 1 atm it has a terminal velocity (according to FAR) of around 105… and around 200 on Kerbin 0.2 atm (Duna equiv). (Quite low, in other words.) Most places, I see people stating you need around 1500 to 2000 dV to get back into orbit after a landing on Duna. My question is, how much does FAR change this assumption? Will my very badly aerodynamic lander need more or less dV to get into orbit with FAR?

Does this work with 0.24.x and Texture Replacer? I notice it still says 0.23.5 in the OP.

*Facepalm* I always thought he ment that it only worked with 2.1.5 and that I had to replace 2.2.x with that one. Duh... I second this. The best would be if you either leave this functionality to other mods, such as targetron (scope creep), or update the "KSP target" once switching ports in DPAI.

Love the mod. I use it for disabling the RCS on different stages in the editor. I'm having a bug though, related to this mod, KW Rocketry, and procedural fairings. Whenever I load in a subassembly with a Vesta engine that is then put on the top node of a PF interstage fairing, the engine spews out smoke and flames in the editor. This mod seems to trigger it. Could you look into it? Btw. Update the version in the OP from 1.3.1 to 1.4.

Are the engine bells gimballing on the KW Rocketry engines?

Ah, thanks, I'll just wait for an update to this brilliant mod then.

So this won't essentially work with other mods...

Does this work with 0.24.2 and MM 2.2.0?