BetaguyGZT

I'm reworking the above list. Grey's the only one that we want generating anything.

Got some more time tonight, so I'm working on the Compressors. I know that'll make us all happy, and that was a popular feature of BioMass. Here's what I'm up to: - Green Compressor: We're converting BioMass to Kethane Gas, 6.25% efficiency. Requires BioMass, Electric Charge and Water in specific amounts. We're also able to refine Kethane Gas into Kethane, 5% efficiency. It's a liquid, of course; but what one can do with that liquid ... - Grey Compressor: Ahh, the CO2 + Sabatier Processor. What can't one do with that process and the right materials?? This is one piece of the puzzle that'll let that become a reality; but it isn't efficient at its' job (4% efficient for its' listed items). - White Compressor: The mass maker-of-Oxidizers, that's what we'll lovingly call this little gem. Another piece of the puzzle. Uses Electric Charge and Water to break down Oxidizer into Oxygen at a 25% efficiency (since Oxidizer is Liquid Oxygen, or LO) and Hydrogen (at 12.5% efficiency). It can also use Oxygen + CO2 to create MonoPropellant (10% efficient), or straight O2 to create Oxidizer again at a 12.5% efficiency. - Red Compressor: Red's new job is going to be breaking down Liquid Fuel (RP1, basically Enriched Kerosene Fuel) into CO2 at a very rewarding 33% ratio. If used to break down LF + OX together the efficiency improves twofold to 66% when making CO2. It can generate the same; but at a loss. 3.3% efficiency is all they've been able to coax out of it ... - Together, collectively these parts will allow the so-equipped Station or Base to produce any raw resource needed. The Cryogenic Separator will also make its' return, and it will be another system that is "Boss Level". It'll be as heavy as Jeb's pre-flight breakfast; but the rewards for toting it uphill are going to be substantial. Efficiencies are going to be quite improved for the effort, and the CryoSep will be able to perform all of the tasks that were once relegated to the Compressors. Quite a system indeed. So, that's what the itinerary looks like for this evening. Post your comments down below, including any feature requests! [EDIT: Added Hydrogen to White's list]

Sweet, thanks a lot. You'll find the latest build in the usual place, zipped up. [EDIT] Oh, I should point out I can't trigger the animation from the part config. It works fine in Blender.

Oh goodie! Maybe we can figure out the weirdness in the Expand-O-Matic Greenhouse's animation. I still can't get that one to go. Blender's .mu Import isn't showing me the correct references for triggering it.

That screen cap will likely make the front page of KSA Today. Nice going, @Stone Blue!

@Deimos Rast Thanks, I'll look it over carefully. I have some time today, too. @Dux Aquila everyone will have the chance to test. It'll be open for testing once we get the major issues ironed out and it's considered stable enough for general use.

Okay folks. Another status update. Got a lot done tonight, and I think you'll be pleased. - Greenhouses are almost good to go; perhaps some slight balance tweaking necessary. They're fully co-dependant upon each other now. Here's how things break down: The Yellow Greenhouse grows the Food and recycles Air/CO2. You really, really want it running at top efficiency. But it needs help ... The Red Greenhouse produces BioMass and recycles non-liquid Waste into BioMass. You'll need that BioMass, and only the Red Greenhouse (and the Algae Greenhouse) can make it. The Blue Greenhouse produces Nutrients and recycles liquid WasteWater into Nutrients. You'll need the Nutrients to produce Food, and only Blue (and the Algae Greenhouse) can make it. The Algae Greenhouse would seem like a no-brainer! There's a catch ... it's heavy. 35 Tons heavy. The others are muuuuuuch lighter. Sure, it's BOSS, if you can get it uphill .... so to entice you, we've added some "Boss-level" recycling and recovery systems to it. Think the other three Greenhouses working together are good?! Wait till ya get a load of Little Green on the job ... ... overpowered might be just about right to describe it, but it's a good reward for all the effort. Your Space Station will certainly appreciate the new addition. - The "Expand-O-Matic" Greenhouse is very much a "work-in-progress". So is the BioReactor. The problem isn't the systems, it's the meshes. Animations aren't working correctly, and it's giving KSP fits. Lag city, then a CTD kind of fits. @Stone Blue and I are working on it. - The Supply Crates now use Interstellar Fuel Switch for user-selectable goods/sundries/stuff inside of them. (Yes, another dependency; but I can't imagine anyone who isn't using IFS, KIS or TAC Life Support. Chances are if you're interested in BioMass, you're already running three dozen mods; so this low-part, low-mem-impact one isn't going to do much more damage. ) - Speaking of which, BioMass now has a new resource added to it. Tools. 'Cause Space. And yes, I called it "Tools". Jeb might need a Crescent Wrench. We've seen "The Abyss". Bad stuff happens when ya don't have one. - Fixed the starting values of the Water, CO2 and O2 Tanks. Sorry, but we're not 'canisters half-empty'. - Still deciding how best to handle the Station Hubs. I want to give them the "Algae Greenhouse" treatment, but for Kerbals. You folks are gonna love the [snip] ... and the [snip] is going to be so appropriate! You'll ask "how could that model possibly have gone this long and never gotten [snip]"? Yeah ... spoilers. It's a surprise. Thank @Stone Blue when ya see it in action. We're 60% ready, by my own arbitrary estimation. Won't be long now, folks.

I can't seem to find any documentation on B9PartSwitch on the B9 AeroSpace wiki. Bummer. I'd like to use it, as I've got some ideas on making the Greenhouses into a single part and the user then selects which one they want (ala Firespitter part/texture/function selection), but I need the documentation before I can proceed. If it works the way I think it does, then yeah it'd be great and there's a couple more parts besides the Greenhouses I can do that to.

I'll take it under advisement.

Yep, that thought has crossed my mind too (and I actually prefer IFS), but it's another dependency ... Decisions, decisions ... hehe ...

Another status update. Memorial Day has seen the consumption of mass quantities of charred mammal flesh roasted over the flame pit, as well as various salads and the ignition of test article-sized rocket-propelled festive decorations. We have enjoyed it! - Light and Door animations are working again on Greenhouses. - Specific Greenhouse functions are being converted over to new code. The first Greenhouse has already received its' code updates, and it works but needs some tweaking. My testing-partner-in-space is putting it through its' paces. Why would I say that openly? Because this is open-source development, and honesty demands it. - The Air Purification and Waste/Water Recycling technologies that never quite made it into the original BioMass mod will make their debut, courtesy of TAC Life Support (which is now a dependency for BioMass). In fact, these technologies will be almost essential for the Greenhouses to perform to their full potential. - As a break from Greenhouse code, I took a gander at the Station Hubs. Lots of potential there ... if you can get 'em into orbit. Consider a 5x scaled Habitation Hub that holds 16 Kerbals and has a starting mass of 35 tons a challenge. Consider the other one (the white-domed one) a Utility & Storage Hub. They're worth the effort of getting uphill, I'll make sure of that. And yes, I'll fix the attach nodes. I can't be the only one who'd like to get a Clamp-O-Tron Senior on the Airlock-facing side without it disappearing into the mesh ... - I'm considering making the Supply Crates do FSFuelSwitch so that we can adjust what's actually inside of them (Food, Supplies, Water, a combination, etc). I know I'm not the only one who uses KIS. - Same thing with the O2 and Water Canisters. Efficient use of space is what NASA does best, and I know that Kerbals can at least make an effort in that regard. - Biologist (as a Trait) isn't working yet. Still digging into the cause. - We're dropping the "BioMass" intro banner during Game Launch, as well as the UI for Difficulty Settings and Automation. Real-Life does not run on difficulty settings; it either works or it doesn't. Please use Action Groups, or the right-click part menus. I recommend Action Groups Extended by Diazo if you need some user-friendly Action Grouping with an equally user-friendly UI, it's great. I know this will upset some of you; but at this point it's far better to use action groups and "gang up" your modules together at once. Trust me -- Action Groups Extended is the answer to getting over the anxiety of using Action Groups. I can't live without them now, and AGE cured me of it. So, that's the status update for today. We'll check in again when there's more substantial progress.

No worries, @Dux Aquila. Another status update. And it's a good one, folks. I think you'll be pleased. Lots of solid progress this weekend thus far. - The plugin code itself isn't coming along as I'd hoped. That's the only bit of bad news. Despite my truly sincere efforts, it may have to wait until everything else is updated. And believe me when I say that it's not for lack of trying ... I'd fix one thing and get a cascade of exceptions, and crash the plugin then KSP would CTD. So the BioMass UI bits are going to have to wait, there's far more work to be done. - But it's not all bad news. Thanks to the Multiverse around us that I'm really, really crafty with .cfg code ... because I've gone ahead with the "future-proofing" ahead of time that was meant to replace the plugin code and did some "proof-of-concept" stuff. The result? Well, I've got Greenhouse doors opening again. I've got Greenhouses doing their jobs without the BioMass plugin. I have them outputting their intended numbers (as @Roboto coded originally) without the code being messy. The .cfg file sizes are way down, they're running more efficiently, and the overall mod's size is going to be lower. Not a bad problem to have. Gonna keep working till it's ready for a test release. I've got some help with any models that may need fixing, and textures that need converting to .dds.

... aaaaand Visual Studio didn't like something I did. Whoopsie.

Hiya folks, status update: - I've allotted time this weekend to getting the majority of the issues sorted. Yay to time management! - I've had an offer of help getting the models and textures updated to alleviate some of the work while I get the plugin code sorted out. The models still aren't converted, nor are the textures. And yes, they're still CTD/leaking/crashing/causing singularities/thinking they're in a simulated multiverse. - Issues with the plugin code: The TAC-LS modules are incompatible with running instances of TAC Life Support. Yes, you read that correctly. It shouldn't be happening, but if I was running BioMass and TAC Life Support at the same time, only TAC Life Support would work and not BioMass. When I'd delete TAC Life Support (the mod, obviously), and run BioMass, things were okay(-ish) again. Which is to say that BioMass would load again. So there's a decision to make whether to remove the TAC-LS code and have TAC Life Support as a Mod be a dependency. That's okay; TAC-LS needs some love. Barring a redesign of BioMass that does resource math and conversions right in the .cfg files on-demand (the way *I* would do it), it'll have to be done this way. And yes, this problem has made me a bit grumpy. - I'm still unhappy with the BioMass UI. So is KSP. Now's not the time ... Anyway, if all goes well with texture and model conversion/updating, and I actually don't run into any severe issues with getting the plugin sorted over the weekend, we potentially could see a test release of BioMass by Memorial Day on Monday. I'll post linkies to my Github and a changelog when/if there's something to see.

Sorry to hear that. I'm a full-time Student, so progress will be slow until this term is completed (5 weeks). I'll have the rest of the Summer evenings to devote to it, so until then my work will be sporadic.

Thanks for the vote of support! Yep, this first update is perhaps the most important. Lot of work to be done relative to all the changes since KSP 1.0.5. @Roboto and @seanth did a good job, and I'm certainly not going to knock anything they did or decisions they made at all. This was their pride and joy; and it's not my place to "reinvent the reaction wheel". I have my own ideas about how I'd make BioMass if it were me making it from the ground-up; but it is what it is. Some of my ideas I'd want to discuss with them privately later on to get a Go/No-Go before I arbitrarily change/add/remove something in the mod. Make no mistake, friends, @Roboto and @seanth still call the shots on BioMass unless/until I'm told differently. That being said, I'm doing the bulk of the texture conversion work tonight, then get to the model/mesh changes over the course of this week between RL and my Class Schedule. As much time as I can devote to BioMass, I'll do it until it's got a few new stable releases out. Then we'll ramp downward to maintenance mode -- I've got a personal mod of my own that I wanna get busy on.

BioMass Continued (Development Thread) Original Topic | Github (Original Dev Version, KSP 1.0.5) | Release Page (Github) | SpaceDock (coming after non-testing releases are made) (Development restarted! Thanks to @Roboto and @seanth for permission to continue this wonderful mod!) What is BioMass? BioMass is a mod that allows the Player to launch Greenhouses and related equipment for use in Space. These may be used to create a "closed-loop ecosystem" to provide Food, Water, Oxygen, WasteWater, Waste, Carbon Dioxide, Nutrients, and of course, BioMass. Each resource is used in some form or fashion; and it's up to the Player to make use of those resources in creative ways. Theoretically, it should be possible to sustain Crews indefinitely using this ecosystem and some careful management of resources. The more gear that is used for these purposes, the more Kerbals your Station can support in this manner. Changelog: Changelog from original BioMass (still available at https://github.com/VigilanteInc/BioMass): Requirements: - TAC-Life Support (link) - Module Manager (you should have this already) - Interstellar Fuel Switch (link) - Community Resource Pack (you should have this already too) Supports: - KSP Alternate Resource Panel (I even made some extra icons for it, copy the /Icons folder to /TriggerTech/KSPAlternateResourcePanel/Icons in order to add them) - Universal Storage (more/better pods are WIP, but there's two already made for now!) - TweakScale (in fact, it's a good idea to have TS installed ... the models have an issue with scaling in current releases) - Connected Living Space (most of the modules are passable) Download @ Github (Releases can always be found there)! Will update the initial post as necessary. Please forward any issues/complaints/feature requests to this Topic.

It's gonna go a little more slowly before an actual release, mainly because of RL stuff. I'm a full-time College student, and this weekend has been busy with family get-togethers (on both sides) .. I'll get there. I've poked, prodded, backtracked and otherwise violated the BioMass code already, and it's been slow going; but the good news is that it's not throwing nearly as many exceptions as it was when I started. It's primarily the custom UI Stuff that's causing the issues right now code-side, getting the models/meshes reworked and updated to the 1.1 standard (and then applying any small changes that 1.1.2 enforces), then doing the conversion work on the textures to .dds. They're loading as-is, mostly ... but they're leaking memory and/or suffering redraw errors occasionally (causing crashes). So, here's the plan going forward (and I'll likely start a new thread on the Development Forum for this one): BioMass Development Version 0.9.2.3 Changelog: (In-Progress, NYR) - (No new features to be added this time around, folks -- this one's just an update to get it working!) - Update plugin code and refactor to the KSP 1.1.2 Standard - Update all Models/Meshes to KSP 1.1.x Standard - Export all textures to .dds, and try to apply some good standards to reduce BioMass' memory usage as much as possible without sacrificing the mods' features. You'll see as I do stuff this will be a common theme with me -- aggressively clean code and good quality textures that aren't blowing memory out to Jool. People do use, on average, 10~30 mods (or more); so the better we are at applying good habits and even better practices in mods that we are responsible for, the more mods Players can run without lagging out. - Conferring with the original Mod Authors and the Community about how to take BioMass further. If left to my own whims, I'll turn it into something unrecognizable; and perhaps that's not the best way to move forward.

Reading this thread, and finding this fantastic mod, you've helped me in ways you can't (or can, hehe!) imagine. Wonderful, thanks a million.

Looks like you're in good hands. I'll leave ya to it.

I'll go ahead and download the latest on the repository, and get to work. If I need to upload, I'll create a fork on my own repository and sync releases that way. For now, the mod's licence should remain as-is. Only thing I plan to do is get the mod working and up to the 1.1.2 standard for now; any changes I might have ideas for can be discussed later.

I certainly do. Github username BetaguyGZT, same as here. That would be fantastic, I'd love to help out. Thanks for responding! Shall I fork? I'll wait for access, nm. Getting all giddy n stuff, hehe.

No problem. I'm getting my RSS Mods situated now, in fact. I had an idea about simulating a SpaceX-launched Europa and Enceladus Orbiter and Sampler Mission set, so I wanted to see how it would pan out.

Naah, I don't steal thunder. It's not right. I'm completely happy using your version, and how your vision of the mod should be going forward. Forking it would feel too much like the "too many Chiefs, not enough Tribesmen" mentality. If you choose to accept any one (or more than one) of my ideas, you'll let me know and I'll be pleased to help out if you want the help. It's all above-board with me.

If there's currently no maintainer, I'd like to pick it up, update, then continue development. @seanth @Roboto? Are you two still about? [EDIT] Licence: ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. That's gonna be a problem with anyone picking the Mod up to maintain it. Until that's changed, or unless Roboto and Seanth come back, this mod's done.