Romfarer

Thanks for the suggestion i will put this on my to-do list. The best way to stabilize the vessel in hover mode is to use Lazor Guided Flight -> Retrograde.

I have already implemented this and it is coming in the next version. Anything else you would like?

It is entirely possible to do this atm. I'm doing something similiar with the tractor beams i got on lazor system. All you'd have to do would be to change the lazor into a rope model. I'd just define some points along the rope and add a bezier curve of cylinder meshes between them. Then it's just a matter of mimicing physics for the points you have defined. i.e. moving them towards the direction of gravity and simulate elastic movement.

Oh dear. Does this happen often? Anyways. Missile update. While i was fixing the ui for this new module system i got an idea for a new homing algorithm. It is scary accurate.

Here is a little preview of what is coming in the next version: Lazor controlled devices. I'm adding an option to add 3rd party devices to Lazor System. The control system is handled through a number of Part Modules that can be attached to aimable devices. The system will then detect any part that has these modules attached to them, and will start sending messages to the part. As an example i made this Lazor Missile. If you load up this missile without lazor system it will go straight forward. But with lazor system, the missile will either follow the direction of the lazor, or the current target of the system. So if you want to make, for example, a bigger missile, all you have to do is make it work like a regular missile, add the part module and update its variables and the system will take care of adding torque to make it go where it wants to. This makes the code for the missile real simple and i will add it as a template so you can expand on it.

I am making the missile thing mainly as an example mod other modders can use as a template to make parts that can be controlled by LazorSystem. It will not be part of the LazorSystem package, it will work if you don't have LazorSystem installed, but it will work better if you use it on a vessel that has LazorSystem. That is the general idea. I'm a little surpriced how easy and quick it was to make these missiles the stand alone missile code is only a couple lines. The code to integrate it with LazorSystem is going to be a whole lot longer though. Ok for now i have planned the following types of aimable parts that can be connected. 1. Parts that can only be aimed. I.e. a attachable camera. 2. Parts that are attached to the vessel and can aim and activate. I.e. Tosh sunbeam. 3. Parts that disconnect and thrust in some direction given by the lazor system, i.e. missiles Can you (anyone) think of any other modes of operation for these parts? And can you give an example of a type 3 part that goes better with the theme of the game than a missile? I guess type 2 would need an example as well....

I'm working on something that will make it possible to connect aimable parts to LazorSystem. I have plans to have a few different types of aimables too so i'm making example parts atm. So if i get it to work, the first part will be a lazor guided missile. I guess i could make a camera as well.

The lazor guided flight system only affects the active vessel. So if you activate the follow target function it won't have any effect on attached rockets. The closest you can get to guided missiles is by using remote control on a missile that takes off from the launch pad. But again i have to stress that the system was not designed for this at all and albeit it is possible to do this stuff, it is not easy. I know i have said that lazor system is not a weapon system, but i see there is a lot of interest for this stuff. So i have decided to make some lazor guided hellfire missiles which will also be the prototype for the system i and Tosh were discussing months ago. The one where other modders can make and attach aimable devices to lazor system. So i was thinking to make the missile out of one solid part with an attachment point on top where you can place a color crystal which will determine what type of missile it is, right now i have two ideas, hellfire and err...rocket to take atmospheric readings. You will place it on one of the standard plane decouplers and once activated it will fire away following the direction of the lead lazor, the target of the system or in the direction it is originally aimed, all depending on the type of missile.

Yes. Use the KPS (Kerbal Positioning System) it comes with all configurations of LazorSystem.

What is the best way to add persistance to parts? 1. custom structure in PluginData: I use this when i want to store global settings 2. public virtual void onFlightStateSave(Dictionary<string, KSPParseable> partDataCollection); :Internal per/vessel data? 3. PartModules. :per/vessel data, modifiable by the user? I guess the real question here is whether method 3 is eventually going to replace method 2?

The Lazor has a tiny sphere on it

LazorSystem news: The world suddenly becomes green and weird lines with letters attached to them appear.

Pro tip: add a crapload of green lazors to your vessels, then engage LIDAR and set it to random = disco

This is a feature in the current version btw.

At least when you discover a kethane location you can add it to the Kerbal Positioning System so you can find your way back.

It might be that you had way too much force set on your tractor beam. It will apply force in both directions. Are you able to gain thrust if you aim the tractor beams at the ground and apply max negative force to it? The next version corrects all of this so you are able to set how much force you wish the system to put out. When orbiting the mun you are also traveling at hundreds of meter per second, i doubt anyone in the star trek universe would recommend flying at 500m/s and pulling an object off the ground with max force =p. With the range adjustments it is only the range that will be affected. 2500 meter is still quite far. I have never seen a star trek episode where they tractor something that is out of the visible range anyways ;-) And as always, the more lazors you put on the vessel, the more force you can put out, to the point where the lifting potential is ridiculous. If you can build a vessel to support that kind of force remains to be seen. Ideally you should approach your vessel and lock on when you are within a couple hundred meters max. Then set the distance you want and press Lock. The system will then (depending on the distance set) usually apply maximum force to get the target to the desired distance as fast as possible. With the old version this would result in the following. I hover at 100m. Set distance to 30m and press lock. Then my target would get to 30m and swing around my vessel like a jojo. This is because the lift system can only apply force in the lifting direction and thus, any angular displacement from the gravitational vector cause speed in a perpendicular direction. This is a feature. It is possible to construct your lifter to limit this effect somewhat. Hint: Force is applied between the target and the induvidual lazor origin points.

Right now the range of all tractor beam systems is 50km. I plan to adjust this range to something like 1000-2500 meter effective range and up to 5000-10000 meter with diminishing effect. As you have noticed there is not diminishing effect on the tractor beam now and this is likely the cause of what you experienced. However it does sound a little strange that you were pulled out of your orbit. Exactly what happened? And secondly was the command pod detached so you lifted only the empty command pod and what was the mass of your lifter? I have only tested this with my hovercraft lifter which use two tractor beam systems (configure that in the config panel) One for hovering and one for lifting. So with my secondary tractor beam system i will just target the vessel i want to lift, move on top of it and press the lift button then set the distance. Of course i have the new version with the up and down buttons that make lifting control a lot easier. ;-)

I will do this eventually. But if someone who use lazor system want to do this, i will put it up in the op. Anyone want to make a video tutorial? Good suggestion, i will add this to the target cam display. Any other values you want added while im at it? It's not that much of a long shot actually. Either MMI has to supply some interfaces i can use to get the kethane location information. Or i have to supply them with something so they can use my scanner, which i'd have to make first. But doesn't kethane have scanners already?

Thanks for the report. The fix for this issue will be available in the next version. And speaking of the next version, i still havent decided on what will be the main feature next time. I have planned some updates to the systems like a new controller to set the pitch of airplanes, some visual aids to show horizontal speed and vessel axes with lazor vision and some new up/down buttons which will make it easier to set the altitude/distance with tractor beams. So if you have ideas, now would be a good time to share.

There won't be any dedicated missile system but it will be possible to configure the system to do this. Some "ground targeting" features will come to the kps system and follow target will eventually come to the remote control system. I'm going to add some scaling functions to the target cam. And you can't change the target cam's fov yet, but i might just add that as well. Thanks for the link, quite informative. ;-) however, the issue here is not so much the algorithms. It is a matter of what i'ts reasonably possible to do with the tools at hand. I could be wrong but i think CG programs in shaders is limited to surface shaders as i described in a post earlier. It might also be the case that i can't even add matrix operations in shaderlab without the CG extension. You can do this with the red lazors -> lazor guided flight system. It has a follow target function which will keep your rocket pointed at the target. Airplanes have a different flight system. I guess you have been using the lidar system. This is a short range target finding system. It will send out lazor beams and add anything it hits to the target list. If you just want to target vessels, it is best to use blue lazors -> tracking station linkup. This will show all vessels in your game on the target list. And from there you can target/track/fly and destroy them.

You need magenta (red + blue) colored lazors to spawn the Tractor Beam system which is used for this. Then just point the lazors at the ground, hit the hover button and set the altitude.

It might be possible to do this, at least to make the sonar camera. For edge detection it's not going to be that easy. I will need to program it in CG and i'm pretty sure that is only available on surface shaders which have to be compiled separately and put in the unity resource directory. There is a lot of really cool stuff that could be done in mods if we could figure out how to install such custom surface shaders.

Fov can easily be set in a .cfg file. Filters on the other hand are written in shaderlab so unless it is something really simple (like color settings) it won't be possible. Alternatively they could be hardcoded and referenced from the .cfg. The filters are also purely post processing filters so it is difficult to make anything useful.

The target cam uses a different technique to display the camera, one that makes easy to add filters. But i'll have a look at it again and if i can make it work on the main camera, it should work when you switch on one of his cameras as well. When the window dies like that it is because of an exception and then i really need to see the output.log. But in any case i will try to reproduce this bug. You can also activate mouse mode with the "1" key. I have never heard about any issues with it before, but see if it works with the hotkey. Also, if this happened in the same session your window died, then it is directly related to that and the only way to fix it is to fix the window dieing bug.

I am aware that a some of the lazors are overpowered atm. specifically in regardws to the the afterburner and the tractor beams. These and all subsystems of the Lazor will will receive proper balancing in due time. For now my focus in completely on functionality. To make sure that the subsystems will have the effect they are designed to. I appreciate that you report the overpowerndness of the system and i take note of everything reported. That seid i really would like to stress that, at the moment, functionality bug reports are more helpful. Such as exceptions or crashes. Admitteldy i have yet to receive reports in that category but reports on how to improve the system are always helpful. In the next update i will NERF the tractor beam and the afterburner, not to decrease their power, but to make sure that: 1. planes will not be able to enter orbit with afterburner and 2. tractor beams will not be a free engine to reach orbit. Afterburner is a system that is designed to deliver increased thrust at the cost of increased fuel consumption, and the tractor beams are designed for short range use.