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The Mega only managed 10 FPS with a wireframe ball. The Due happily does 12.5 with a filled in ball and 20 with a wireframe. I'm cheating slightly with the filling, but it's hardly noticeable. I'm filling the triangles next to the equator on every frame, and I let the others lag. I also thought I'd try a full openGL 3D-rendered ball on a Raspberry Pi-3, but only got around 4 FPS on a very low-res ball.

The struct packing indeed fixed it. The FPS limit is all about how fast the CPU can get pixels to the LCD. As I recall @stibbons uses an LCD controller that does drawing primitives without CPU intervention. On the Due the 3D calculations only take about 8 ms. I've stripped out all FP calculations already. The rest of the time it is shifting pixels. I'm currently drawing a wireframe at 12 FPS and filling it at 3 FPS. The result is only slightly weird. I'm also toying with only updating one half of the wireframe every frame - a weird kind of 3d interlacing, if you will. That should (effectively) double the FPS. As it is the trig functions are merely table lookups. Cacheing values between point calculations would merely mean that you now get the value from a different memory location - no change in speed.

Thanks! That would explain it. I'll give it a try tonight. Initial testing shows that I might be able to fill the wireframe with the Due and still get more than 10 FPS.

I've converted my TFT navball from a Mega2560 to an Arduino Due. It is significantly faster, but I cannot get it to connect to KSP. I've tried both the ports without success. The LEDs on the programming port start flashing when I launch a vessel, but the Due sees no connection. Am I screwed? Is it back to the Mega? Anyone with any ideas?

I've been meaning to build a KSP simpit for a long time, but the first thing I wanted was a navball. What is a simpit without a navball? So I made one. This is a cheap 3.2" TFT LCD arduino mega shield display at 320x480 colour. I can get about 10 frames per second and that seems usable. I still need to modify the plugin to add node information, but this looks like a start. The latency is also not too bad. Here's a video clip of the navball in operation :KSP LCD Navball The code is all on github: github.com/mmoller2k/tft_navball Enjoy and thanks for the plugin.

Can someone see what I'm doing wrong? I'm running 1.2.1 in Ubuntu. I extracted KSPSerialIO_018_5.zip to ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Kerbal Space Program/GameData/KSPSerialIO I edited ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Kerbal Space Program/GameData/KSPSerialIO/PluginData/KSPSerialIO/config.xml and changed "COM1" to "/dev/ttyACM0" I compiled and installed KSPIODemo15.zip onto an Arduino Mega, with an LED on pin 5. My craft is a Mk1 command pod. When I launch this, the LED should turn on. It doesn't. What am I doing wrong? What else can I check? The log shows: [LOG 22:03:43.176] KSPSerialIO: Version 0.18.5 [LOG 22:03:43.177] KSPSerialIO: Getting serial ports... [LOG 22:03:43.177] KSPSerialIO: Output packet size: 200/255 [LOG 22:03:43.179] KSPSerialIO: Dude do you even win32 serial port?? [LOG 22:03:43.179] [AddonLoader]: Instantiating addon 'KSPSerialIO' from assembly 'KSPSerialIO' and then [LOG 22:04:13.426] [AddonLoader]: Instantiating addon 'SettingsNStuff' from assembly 'KSPSerialIO' [LOG 22:04:13.426] KSPSerialIO: Loading settings... [LOG 22:04:13.426] KSPSerialIO: Default Port = /dev/ttyACM0 [LOG 22:04:13.426] KSPSerialIO: Refreshrate = 0.2 [LOG 22:04:13.426] KSPSerialIO: BaudRate = 38400 [LOG 22:04:13.426] KSPSerialIO: Handshake Delay = 3000 [LOG 22:04:13.426] KSPSerialIO: Handshake Disable = 0 [LOG 22:04:13.426] KSPSerialIO: Pitch Enable = 2 [LOG 22:04:13.426] KSPSerialIO: Roll Enable = 2 [LOG 22:04:13.426] KSPSerialIO: Yaw Enable = 2 [LOG 22:04:13.426] KSPSerialIO: Translate X Enable = 2 [LOG 22:04:13.426] KSPSerialIO: Translate Y Enable = 2 [LOG 22:04:13.426] KSPSerialIO: Translate Z Enable = 2 [LOG 22:04:13.426] KSPSerialIO: Wheel Steering Enable = 2 [LOG 22:04:13.426] KSPSerialIO: Throttle Enable = 2 [LOG 22:04:13.426] KSPSerialIO: Wheel Throttle Enable = 2 [LOG 22:04:13.426] KSPSerialIO: SAS Tol = 0.05

I'm glad to see that this is still developing. I've been wanting to build something like this for a while, but always thought it needed a navball. I've got an Arduino Mega 2560 drawing a nice navball on a 3.2" TFT LCD in under 80ms. I can orient the ball using the heading, pitch and roll values, but I would like to be able to show nodes as well (prograde, retrograde, target, maneuver node, etc). To even have a chance of calculating the orbit nodes, I will need the longitude of the ascending node and the argument of periapsis added to the output. I'm not sure how to handle maneuver nodes and target direction, but one thing at a time.

The landing gear clips slightly into the ground, which causes the whole gear to explode the instant my plane leaves the ground. In a desperate attempt to get my planes in the air I edited the cfg files. In all cases I doubled the suspensionDistance, stiffened the damperRatio and gave the suspensionOffset a slight negative value. I can at least take of and land again. Slipping sideways is still a problem, but it seems manageable. This is v 1.1.1, and here is the changed bit of GearSmall.cfg. The other cfgs follow the same pattern: MODULE { name = ModuleWheelSuspension baseModuleIndex = 0 suspensionTransformName = SuspensionPivot //suspensionDistance = 0.12 //suspensionOffset = 0.0 //targetPosition = 0.0 //springRatio = 12 //damperRatio = 2.0 suspensionDistance = 0.24 suspensionOffset = -0.02 targetPosition = 0.0 springRatio = 12 damperRatio = 5.0 }

As a long-time 64-bit Linux player I must say that 1.1 is by var the _least_ stable version of KSP I've ever played. The game crashes often when I stage or edit the staging in flight. And the wheels are insane - like they're made of tissue paper or something. Yesterday I tried to land a 20 ton tanker on Minmus (where it weighs 1 ton - that's 250kg per wheel). I'd touch down on the Great flats at less than 1m/s and the wheels exploded. I eventually got it down by putting it down on the solar panels and gingerly rolling it onto its wheels for g. sake! Then I found that the wheels exploded if I went faster than 2m/s or activated warp on a mirror flat plain. It took me _forever_ to drive 3km. Besides that I'm having a blast. I quite enjoy figuring ways around issues like this. Every mission is an Apollo 11. However, I do hope that the wheels get fixed soon. Also did anyone notice that the offset tool goes bananas with the tier 1 undercarriage (not the nose wheel)? You just can't get those things into position!

Thanks! That made my day. Funniest thing I've heard this month. If it wasn't for the fact that KSP worked in Linux I would never even have started playing KSP. I'm of the opinion that if software doesn't run in Linux then it's not worth bothering with.

Fuel. Always fuel. I just hate using disposable craft for tourist missions, so always wait until I can SSTO them. In a tourist mission in my most recent career mode game I designed a monster MK3 plane with a lander in the cargo bay. I took six tourists on a jaunt to the Mun, and Minmus and back, landing the pilot and three tourists on both moons. I had to refuel at Minmus, but my mining operation there was still very new and I had no way to get the fuel up from the surface. My passengers had to orbit Minmus for weeks while they waited for a fuel lifter to arrive from Kerbin. When I eventually got them home, after re-entry, I ended up gliding about 80km out from the runway with no fuel at all and found that the plane was unflyable with empty tanks. Always make sure your plane can still fly when the tanks are empty before you leave on a month-long journey. Luckily I still had lots of RCS fuel left and was just able to keep the nose up if I kept burning RCS. All the way to the runway it became apparent that it would be a close thing with the RCS fuel. It ran out as I was doing the final landing flare, causing the nose to dip sharply, landing the entire MK3 plane (and lander) on the single nose wheel. Somehow the plane bounced twice before coming to a halt with no damage at all. The bone-dry MK3 plane sitting on the runway after a month long journey was indeed something to behold. It is because of moments like these that I play KSP. My planes only get names when they complete their second mission successfully, so this successful (barely) MK3 tourist plane will remain forever nameless.

I'm just getting into the late mid-game, but I remember quite enjoying those early suborbital missions. I stuck some basic jets on a srb and made a single-stage suborbital craft. It goes straight up and comes straight down again, landing close to the KSC for 97% recovery. It cost peanuts to operate and did a fair amount of science too. It was great for tourist hops and for the various equipment testing missions. I waited until I had a fully recoverable space-plane before doing the orbital tourist/testing missions. My current design can lift 6 kerbals and two small (or one large) satellites into LKO. I've lost count of the missions I've flown this way, and by now I'm nailing the un-powered runway landings every time. It's amazing how far you can take an octo core with a single Oscar-B tank and a 48-7s spark engine once it's in LKO. These can be launched three at a time.

Stick an aerospike in the 1.25 bay to make it stackable.

I can understand pilots eating the experiments, but surely engineers will only have a taste.

Wow! Thanks Squad. Brilliant. And again wow!

Oh stop your whining. Wait for 1.1 if you have to. The recent tweaks is the aerodynamic model really isn't such a huge deal. If it affected your planes that much they probably weren't that good to begin with.

Rockets are too easy. Planes are much more fun, especially with the recent aero tweaks I can go back and make them even better. Granted: I still don't get the efficiency I get with large rockets, but I have loads more fun trying.

Has anyone noticed that space planes fly _way_ better of you give it a bit of warp. Suddenly air intakes work a whole lot better. This is an old bug that still hasn't been fixed. Does it make me bad person if I exploit this bug?

Yeah. It just feels wrong to decline a kerbal in need. I'm a softy that way. Also Squad: Wow! Thanks. I'm having loads of fun. I'm going to continue filling my space hotel and see if I can make a record or something.

In 0.90 career mode I always gave rescue missions priority - but then in an entire career I might get called to save only three or four kerbals. Now in 1.0 I'm doing little else. I'm halfway through the tech tree and already I rescued 15 kerbals, with three more waiting is orbit. I've not even yet tarred my runway, but the astronaut complex is the only building that's fully upgraded. My missions consists of launching an empty lander can and bringing it back full. Should I tell the stranded kerbals to go to hell, or what? Is there a career mode contract fix for 1.0 yet?

No. Got it from Squad's shop.

Thank you. I see the mod key is now Left-Alt for some reason. Maybe I'll just leave it like that and see if I get used to it. It's not like I'm going back to playing 0.90 ;-) Edit: Neither Left-Alt nor Right-Alt works correctly as the Modifier key. Changed it back to Right-Shift as XenonBlade described.

The right-shift no longer functions as the mod key. My keyboard has no windoze keys. Is there a workaround? Please help!

Completing a project like this is always very rewarding, but if working on it is not bringing you joy then let it be. The project isn't going anywhere and you don't have a deadline to finish it. Take what you've learned from this project so far and do something else. Something that interests you right now. When the time is right you'll know what to do with ROTK.

I've already taken the week off - even before the announcement. Here in South Africa the 27th is a public holiday. It was when Nelson Mandela was released. And then Friday is Workers' day (1 May) which is also a public holiday. I'm looking forward to a week long KSP holiday.