TiktaalikDreaming

"Soon" may have been optimistic. Seems no-one knows how to write config for it. Soonish. I have a much beefier forward and reverse only RCS in test that should be good for docking, provided plenty of fuel. (a test escape vehicle with 24 of them launches itself in the air from sea level using only RCS, then runs out of fuel at about 1km up) And shrinking the existing RCS. - - - Updated - - - Testing RCS - - - Updated - - - RCS Detail

:-( I got mine working to the point of doing the RCS thing with stock gas jet visuals, plus a permanent flame jetting out at right angles from where it should be, no sounds, etc. Seems disconnected from the triggers (eg, running etc), and something wonky going on regarding vector vs thrust Transform. The model_multi_particle section with emission just makes no sense. What are the four sets of two numbers? If it's a vector, shouldn't it be sets of 3? Is it 4 sets for 4 RSC nozzles? I tried replacing the whole section with a prefab_particle, but then nothing happened. :-/ PS: This is the frustrating bit about modding. Usually, when you do find out, it's simple as hell, like the thrust transforms. But finding out what those numbers represent is like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack of forums, when you don't know if that haystack had that needle removed, or never had it in the first place. Thankfully, I have plenty of other things to get frustrated at, so for this, I'm asking, then stopping my head scratching till there's an answer. :-)

Did you ever get a working cfg? Most of this stuff is not explained anywhere I can find (regarding defining effects etc). It'd be nice to have dual fuel RCS have flame instead of gas bursts, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

Just found out about RCSFX module, so the rcs block will probably convert to using that soon (Flames!!). And I think I'll add a two way forward and reverse block with some more juice. That way you'll be able to make small changes with docking mode without having to resort to nuking whatever you're trying to get close to. Which reminds me. Need a "we brake for no-one" bumper sticker flag.

An actual part for the RCS Thruster pack that isn't a Squad part with a slightly changed cfg file. The attachment point is currently not right (forgot to change it), and I'm not 100% sold on the size yet, but it's basically working and no longer a case of me republishing Squad's parts.

Minor update 0.20 Added the bunk rooms for the escape vehicle and a Misc lower spine piece that has some lab functions. Quick test flight.

This is all current release except it has the semi-completed (unreleased) bunk room between the control station and the upper spine fuel tank. Still getting quite a bit of flexing at the junction between the escape vehicle and main accommodations. Something isn't strong enough yet. :-( Maybe making that engineplate/shielding piece 40 tonnes wasn't the best idea ever.

No worries. I was actually adding the pic on the first post while you were writing that. Read your comment just after I saved my post edit with a pic. I'm at work though, so I only have pics I've publicly shared via steam so far. This forum topic pretty much exists because there's no-where on Kerbalstuff to ask questions or post pics.

Test Orbit with updated parts

I'm starting a thread to keep this stuff slightly separated from Nyrath's thread. Releasing parts for the 10m Orion craft from the early 60's. Primarily the upper craft components designed by General Atomics for NASA use, that should work on the USAF Engines (nearly identical to the "for NASA" engine designs). I'm basing my parts on compatibility with Nyrath's Orion drive mod, http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/28428-Orion-aka-Ol-Boom-boom They should (mostly) work as normal spacecraft parts as well, although some parts are probably a teeny bit heavier than is normal. It's that use of inch thick plate steel and almost foot thick plates of depleted uranium shielding and so on that really does it. But apart from an intention to later add internal bomb storage to Nyrath's engine, I'm not messing with the Orion engine itself. Just providing the parts that were originally designed to go along with the drive when General Atomics was trying to sell the idea to NASA/USAF. Download links; Engine parts: http://spacedock.info/mod/149/Orion%20TD%20Edition Upper stages: http://spacedock.info/mod/148/TD%20Industry%27s%20Orion%20bits%2010m For the engine side of things, this is now continued over at

Basic parts almost done. I think a couple more parts and I'll start texturing stuff. Gotta add the escape vehicle bunk room, a workshop/lab/storage/whatever section for the lower spine, and redo the escape rocket fairings (I pretty much destroyed the design redesigning the bottom of the escape vehicle). Then, once all that's textured I'll have another look at the various possible solutions for internal bomb storage. Anyway, test orbiter picture. All in current design parts without thick edges.

I'm getting what seems like the same issue, but the textures are coming from god knows where. In blender, I've removed the material and linked textures, selected all in edit mode, recalculated normals (just to be sure), recreated the UV map, recreated the material, and a base texture, and when I bring it into Unity it still has a mysterious extra Material called "None". I am going all "Rage against the machine" at this stage. Although it's probably something daft I just don't know about. :-/ For what it's worth, it does seem to happen when I grab an object I've already used, and add stuff to it. And it's the new bits that end up without material/rendering. But apart from removing all sign of materials and going through that material, UV unwrap, texture process again, I'm lost at how to remove extraneous textures.

I see what you did there Rulib. I'm aiming at being able to get things working without resorting to tweakscale etc, but yeah, you definitely can make fully working craft out of Nyrath's work, with, or without things like tweakscale. As far as internal pulse unit storage is concerned, I think I just need to work out how I want it to work now. It's a choice between how much the player is forced into reality vs just advising them of realistic limits etc. The internal, "doesn't take space" solution, leaves the system open to player abuse. But other options essentially ignore that there should be some internal storage. I've decided to concentrate on the rest of the mod until that's more sensibly workable, then come back to this.

Well, wasted a couple of days on Pulse Unit loading systems modelling that is unlikely to ever be used. Good Blender practice though. I've been toying with the idea of knocking the top off the existing Orion engine models and then having various internal loadouts of pulse unit yields as separate floors above. I don't really have the tools/skills/knowledge to do that knocking the top off someone else's animated/scripted/tirggered model, so I doubt it will come to anything. What I might do is do a submergable edition of this to sink into the middle of the existing engines (like the bomb stack I've already done), and maybe one to add stack above (the original plans had variable main engine body sizes after all). Anyway, I present (crappy textured) internal bomb loading thingies;

Putting stuff at; https://kerbalstuff.com/mod/586/TD%20Industry%27s%20Orion%20bits%2010m Still pretty early stuff, esp as I don't really have any plain spine pieces in either 3m or 3.2m diameter.

I created just that. A bit larger than a matchbox, but with the top AND bottom stack nodes both at 0.001 units under the top of the object. I set the top surface to show, with a piece of text saying what the yield is, then place them on the six nodes around the centre. Assuming you don't mismatch opposing bomb configurations, it should balance. Here's a set of 20MNx150 stacks, one upside down to show the mesh. Hopefully it helps explain what I mean. :-) So far, I only have the 20MN stack, so no chance of unbalancing. It shows in the bomb selector nicely.

OK. I've spent a bit of time working on proof of concept idea to have the 7.2m crew compartment as a set of 45degree wedges that fit around a central spine. And I think I'm giving up on the idea. It was based on the original plans being for dividing the space into 8ths and then in Kerbal, the idea of being able to mix and match each of those wedges really appealed to me. But I could only get sane attachment points by setting the core's 8 points to node_stack, but then with 10 in total, the piece didn't behave for actual stacking. Change them to attach, and the core behaves, but I can no longer add my external wedges. And I think I've probably wasted enough time on it. Going back to 7.2m diameter cylinders. Probably with more variations. So time to look at things like getting airlocks working and ladders etc. Some messing, a couple of hours, and I have a working airlock (which coincidentally messes up my texture mesh, which was pretty basic anyway for that part). Anyway, current (flyable) mock-up with the little (upside-down) crew hatch that makes me happy. Note: The only 3.2mD part I had for the lower spine was my test centre piece for the wedge plan, which is why it has alternating coloured hatchy type appendages and reminds me a little bit of octopus leg. mmmm octopus...

Dropbox test: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wv54qzsvwt15p66/EnginePlate.7z?dl=0 That's just the engine plate. And the main outside surface is as yet subject to change, but basically OK except the cfg file isn't quite tidied up. Needs a symmetry setting and probably some waffle etc.

Righto, internal bomb supply (conceptually) solved. This idea has been fermenting for a couple of days, so I thought I should give it a go. A bomb magazine part that has a two piece attachment point (ie, an almost identical set of two attachments) that sits at the top of the piece, so you can drop it into another large piece. So I could see ... I was doing, I used an attachment piece 0.02 inside the piece, but it worked like a charm. Especially once the collision mesh ends up below the edge but some visual hint remains above. Going to have to ignore the wedge shape in future though, rotation in KSP doesn't have the detail required.

That sort of thing was my first plan, but then I got distracted with the specs for the real world plans for the 10mPlate Orion to Mars. Once I have parts for the 10m, I'll branch out to systems suitable for 20m, 25m etc. It's pretty much impossible to build things for bigger than about 30m diameter in KSP, so I'd have to stop at the Battleship class. It could be some time before I have parts for all that though. Esp as I want to re-do the Orion engine models for the 20m and up, as they should have a double circle of secondary shockies.

And now with updated texture and model;

I've been working a bit on the escape rockets. My idea is a fuel tank/engine plate that has two diameters. A top diameter matching the upper spine, ie 3m, and then necks in to allow rockets around the neck (much like the Project Orion plans). Due to the lack of teeny rockets, I'm using LEM Ascent rockets and the neck in is both thinner and longer than the original. But it works quite nicely. And in build stage,

Yeah, I'm leaning towards skipping the internal units, or at least leaving that till last.

Well, using some quick scaled up Squad pieces (2.5m to 3m is not a huge difference), plus a 3m to 2.5m adapter, and some very early editions of 7.2m personnel compartments, a vaguely similar to sketch Orion is taking off. Except that it turns out if you add a few tonnes to everything's weight, and your final payload is 250tonnes, 3.5MN pulses don't quite get you off the ground very far. Seeing the 1963 project reckoned only 30tonnes for everything above a 91tonne engine unit, I may need to adjust some component weights. To do next. 3.2m Spine pieces. The lower spine for the 10m Orion should be 3.2m Diameter, with upper spine at 3.0 Rounded caps for the side access tunnels. Actual module interactivity for parts that should have it. Getting off my arse regarding textures that aren't vague murky off-white. If anyone else is interested, I made the following alterations to Nyrath's base Orion. rescale = 1.2 Seems it used to be 1 unit = 1.25m, but it now appears that 1unit = 1m. Increased the mass of the engine to it's official estimated 91tonnes (mentioned in the cfg file even). Adjusted the 3.5MN magazine to 92 units instead of 60. Altered the 6x10xmagazine stack to be 6x10x92 instead of 6x10x10. Can't figure out how to add a supply of pulse units to the engine itself, as it was originally specced for 900 or so internal storage pulse units. In case the 5000 nukes stored above wasn't enough. I haven't rescaled any of the magazines or magazine infrastructure, 'cos lazy, and because things go haywire when I mess with those. :-)