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Bonus Eventus

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  1. Bonus Eventus
  2. Bonus Eventus
  3. Bonus Eventus
    Thanks a bunch Spanner, I'll give this a try later tonight. Edit: That script worked a treat. By lowering the drag coefficient and surface area by 50 percent gave a massive improvement from the original. I'll have to do some micro tweaks but this is definitely the solution. Thanks again.
  4. Bonus Eventus
    Refining the this large adapter connecting the hex truss sections to the docking bays. Transforming so many hard surface members from the hexagonal shape at the front to the octagonal shape at the rear proved more difficult than I originally thought it would. Most parts of the model attach at strange angles. I'm still not happy with some elements, so I will still have a bit more to refine before it's complete. In the interest of expediency, both RPM and KSPIE support won't be included in the Beta release. This is mostly because I want to take my time and do it right. I don't have as much time to work on Mother these days, so I need to be more prudent—building up features release by release instead. Here's a peek at my todo list before Beta release: Modeling and texturing remaining IVAs (4 in total). Finish modeling type a and b docking bays Texture structural trusses and docking bays. Finish modeling/texturing Greenhouse Module. Finish modeling/texturing docking ports. Finish modeling/texturing fuel tanks. Create docking bay lights. Create folding or roll out radiators. Create storage containers for rocket parts. Create Hangar Module. Create Manufacturing Module. Create stack decouplers of various bulkhead profiles. Create various structural adapters for different bulkhead profiles. Create 6m fairing. Create drone cores of various bulkhead profiles. Redesign DA-42 heat shield. Create heat shield landing legs. Create plasma engine. Create plasma engine thrust plate.
  5. Bonus Eventus
    Yeah, I should have said auto drag cube instead of procedural. I'm talking about the drag cube assigned automatically by KSP, which as you said ends up in the database. I guess I could make the drag cube define something much smaller or supper thin. I'll keep messing with it.
  6. Bonus Eventus
    I'm making some really big truss segments, but the procedural drag cube treats each part like it's clad in plastic. When falling through the atmosphere, it basically drifts down like a feather. I could just make the parts super heavy, but they're supposed to be made of lightweight materials. Anyone had a similar problem in the past? I could use the help
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  8. Bonus Eventus
    I just finished modeling and animating the juno style solar wing. Each panel is 2.5m wide. Working on the texture now. Reference image:
  9. Bonus Eventus
    WIP of the hexagon truss to docking bay type C adapter
  10. Bonus Eventus
    Here are two of the type C docking bays combined. I optimized the geometry, now each docking bay is only a little over 5k (as opposed to 8k before). Added resource feed lines. Wondering if I should add a crew tunnel for connected living spaces.
  11. Bonus Eventus
    Here's a quick exploration of the type C docking bay. This version would integrate nicely with the hard edge style trusses. That's why I was asking before if people prefer the rounder version.
  12. Bonus Eventus
    So, I think I've figured out a solution for shipyards and docking bays. First, some history: When I started this mod I had some idea of what I wanted in a docking bay. But, later I became convinced that it would look dumb to launch something this gigantic (15m diameter). I tried to address this problem by using animated structures that would collapse or expand, changing the form factor. Unfortunately this lead to ugly, and complicated designs, none of which I liked. I agonized over this for a couple of months until recently I took another look at those early designs. I suddenly realized I had become tunneled on the form factor and deployment of these parts, forgetting about the goals of the mod in general. So, here is the current solution. Manufacturing Module: A 7.5m part that expands to 21m. Includes a crew cabin and multiple nodes for docking ports or other attachments. This is like a massive hollow superstructure that ships or parts can be spawned inside of. (requires Extra Planetary Launchpads) Hangar: This is a large enclosure for storing vehicles. Not sure how big it will be, but big. (requires Hangar mod) Resource Containers: Various containers for rocket parts, ore, etc. (requires Extra Planetary Launchpads) Docking Bays: Type A: Large rectangular structure that can hold multiple docking ports. Includes crew cabin. Type B: Larger half octagon structure that can hold multiple docking ports. Includes crew cabin. Type C: Huge octagonal hollow space frame. Includes multiple attachment nodes. Meant to be used with compatible snap on panels. On a slightly unrelated note I'm considering restyling the trusses. I want to know what everyone thinks. Is rounder better?
  13. Bonus Eventus
    @Shadowmage great job man, this is awesome
  14. Bonus Eventus
    that's likely
  15. Bonus Eventus
    Orbital Shipyards Over the past month I have started the task of designing the structural components meant to build shipyards. These are by far the hardest parts I've had to design for KSP. Why is it so hard? Well it has to do with competing interests. In the real world orbital shipyards will be assembled piece by piece in orbit like the ISS (or at least until we can 3d print large components in space). They also tend to be big, if they're going to be useful. In KSP this would mean creating multiple components with attached docking ports and then doing tedious orbital docking and alignment. To create the kind of shipyards I have in mind would take 100s of parts (if one were to assemble it that way). So, I'd like to merge some of those parts for better performance. But that's tricky business. Technically I could just make the shipyard one single monolithic part. Problem with that is it would barely fit in the VAB, you wouldn't have room to build anything else. Hangar extender would then be mandatory. Also, it would feel extremely unrealistic to launch the thing. Oh and another issue is that in general the more unique a part is, the less useful it is (or the less modular it will be). Personally I like it when parts can be used to make things they weren't intended to make. I try not to make single purpose parts. Certain things like command pods and engines are unavoidably single purpose, but I feel like structural parts should be multipurpose. I'm only now starting to mock things up in 3d, so hopefully I'll have some pics to share soon.
  16. Bonus Eventus
    Second pass on the basic truss design. I have a few more tweaks I need to make, like some cross beams, etc. I'm working on an octagon version as well as some expansion parts. Progress is happening slowly but surely.
  17. Bonus Eventus
    here's a look at the hexagon truss and addapter
  18. Bonus Eventus
    This is a preview of a basic 2m x 6m truss. I'll be working on the cross-feed and crew traversable version next. The gray circular ring is an optional adapter.
  19. Bonus Eventus
    Sorry of the delay, was sick all week. Should have an update tomorrow.
  20. Bonus Eventus
    sorry dudes, been busy. updates coming soon.
  21. Bonus Eventus
    I started working on the IVA for the centrifuge today. Originally I had thought that the hull should be as compact as possible, because I wanted it to fit into a 6M formfactor when retracted. I also thought that a smaller form factor made sense since I imagined crew would mostly sleep and exercise here. However, I didn't consider the fact that the crew won't be flying around, they'll be walking. So, the width of the floor matters, and since the profile of the hull is circular that doesn't leave much room for a foot path. I tested scaling up the external model 150%. It seems to hold up pretty well. I'll have to make some additional texture adjustments for the hatches, because the scale is way off, but other than that it looks ok. The final is still compact enough to fit into a 10m fairing, which I was planning to make anyways. The diameter of the centrifuge is now almost 50M and just barely fits in the vab when deployed, haha. In the end this will make for a much cooler IVA. The part is pretty expensive to render, being that the exterior is over 25000 tris and the animation is pretty complex having about 70 bones for the hull. Because it's so expensive, I want to pack in more utility than I was originally planning. I'm thinking that I should have different facilities/modules for the hull, like an exercise room, sleeping quarters, bathrooms, storage, labs, a galley, a lounge, etc. Please let me know if you think I'm missing anything. I like making IVAs, so I'm really looking forward to making an awesome interior the centrifuge. Some references:
  22. Bonus Eventus
    Was having some trouble importing the animation initially, apparently this was do to the use of directional constraints on many of the mesh items. I learned that Unity's default keyframe reduction can reduce the accuracy of directional constraints causing the meshes to be out of alignment. Normally this isn't a big deal, because you can just turn keyframe reduction off. In my case this wasn't an option do to the fact that I have about 50 or so constraints animating many different animation channels. My solution was to lower the accuracy threshold to 0. The this keeps a lot of the keyframes but still removes a ton of needless keyframes that result from baking the animation in Modo. Thankfully the animation seems to play really well in ksp. This actually took me quite a while to figure out, since I had been convinced the problems with the animation were do to the Modo FBX exporter. Anyways the hard part is over. I need to add some code to ModuleCentrifuge to add rotation to the counter torque rings. I also want to add a custom ksp field for deploy animation speed so I can fine-tune animation playback.
  23. Bonus Eventus
    Texturing is now complete-ish. I may add one or two more things. Here's a shot of it in its retracted state. I'll post a video soon showing the animation in ksp.
  24. Bonus Eventus
    Centrifuge preview is up on patreon, see it here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/30m-centrifuge-13532877 UPDATE: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texture-update-13537323
  25. Bonus Eventus
    Just for clarity, I'm no longer developing Kerbodyne Plus. However there's a good reason for this. This was my first mod and consequently I learned a lot at a rapid pace. This caused an imbalance in development where I was stuck constantly redesigning past mistakes. I also had no idea where I was going with the mod when I started. So, lack of clear goals plus disparity in skill made for a difficult development cycle. That's why I decided to start over with Mother. Mother is everything I think Kerbodyne Plus should have been. It has clear goals, ( make interplanetary motherships ) it supports popular mods via module manager (like KSP-IE, Kerbalism, Community Resource Pack, KIS, KAS, RPM, and more), and has improved textures and models. Here's a little preview: The newly completed size 6 fuel tanks. M1D Vacuum and M1D SL "Meteor" raptor-like size 0 engines. Heat effects of M1D SL M1D SLs arranged in an ITS 42 engine layout. (the ITS thrust plate is still in development, but will be coming soon). DA-42 3M command pod. Seats 7. IVA is complete. RPM hasn't been added yet. ISS style modules. IVAs in progress. 30M centrifuge concept. Currently 60% complete. Mother's beta release will be coming soon. Check out the development thread to find out more:
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