electronicfox

Dilithium Crystals = Hack Gravity

Voyager used unbalanced mods, it doesnt count.

If thats what you mean by a long set, then yes, I will be making a set based on the scale of the proof-of-concept piece. There will be more tracks after the initial release pack too, I just want to see the reactions and possible bugs that may ensue before making more.

In the current plan there wont be any (very) long sets, but there will be some longer than those shown in recent images/videos, some designed for small rovers, some for larger machines and more.

Do you happen to have a Dell Inspirion? My laptop has this exact hardware and I have no lag outside complex craft flights. Some things that may make a difference: Overheating, my laptop will stutter to a crawl when it gets hot in KSP, allow some airflow to the underside (I prop mine up on books for a while), and full HDD, ensure you have a decent amount of space in your hard drive.

I can assure you all that we are in the final phases before the first pack is released, at this moment I am modelling the new sets.

Pretty sure squad already posted this link on Facebook

what can you expect, when Jeb is the pilot?

More video than picture, but its still awesome.

Because I know many of you would want to see this, I made a special little something, with a positively explosive ending!

alternatively I can see a rocker bogie setup working if you'd use the loose bearings from the damned robotics mod, a few trusses/girders and stock rover wheels.

the suspension system looks like it'd work alright, but we haven't really implemented the kind of steering for normal wheels. It's not an absolute no though.

ah there we have it then. I'll come up with a design or two that will allow upside-down travel for folks that want flipable rovers, almost unstoppable so long as all rover parts are within the side-on silhouette of the track parts.

I didn't really start on this believing it couldnt be done, with persistence and some skill, anything is possible in a game. If squad for any reason decide to implement this into stock then so be it (so long as credits are given to Endlesswaves and myself of course).

I commented about the face normals already, above the video.

I dont think they work upside down, Ill need to ask EndlessWaves if it would even be possible for them to work as such.

An update: Animated tracks are now working and looking good. Notes before watching the video: -suspension is not yet set up on these tracks. -Due to derpment on my end, I exported the model with the face normals on the tracks inverted, and the wheels not rigged properly, so ignore those hiccups in this video, it is purely a test for the texture animation. -You can see the level of customisation available with the tracks in the hotkey menu during the video.

The suspension stiffness is dependant on the load. With only a command pod atop it, this particular set is very stiff.

It's good to know there was a good demand for these all I wanted to begin with was a small tracked rover, but now it's time to track ALL THE THINGS! I can see these on large mining rigs when resource mining comes out.

The proof-of-concept piece will be replaced by better models, but I will likely keep a large set or two in the pack, as well as some probe-sized tracks.

There hasn't been any sound assigned to the tracks, so it may be the whooshy windy noise that occurs when you gather speed you're hearing. they are currently electrically driven and can be side mounted (the set in the video is a whole single part, but the newer ones are two parts)

By the way, if anyone has any particular track designs they'd want made for the pack, just let me know here.

The collider setup is actually fairly simple, no more complex than a set of regular wheels. The tracks dont actually move at all, but rather bend with the movement of the wheels. A texture will then be animated over the tracks to give the illusion of movement.

Right now it would mostly be getting the textures for the tracks animated, and getting the suspension bars working, beyond that it would be making some final models and ditching the test pieces altogether. This has been worked on since about January, but I have been pretty busy with work till now so progress went a little slowly, but Endlesswaves kept up the coding and made most of this possible. Before the forums were nuked there was a thread where we discussed the theories on making tracks work properly (maybe they still exist somewhere in googles chache).

We are still undergoing some tests with the tracks, but for the most part all the functions are there. As with all other modders here, I will be using the soonTM ability. The tracks will be ready soon.