mediumchris

Have you got a link to the plugin? No luck searching for it and I'd like to take a look.

Heh. I think the pilot was riding a thermal. Now on the list Interesting video, I would have thought that kind of sound would drive people mad, but I definitely like the audio feedback thing. I think beeps would be cool for both docking and the altimeter. Also, if you play without music on, the soundtrack to doing something awesome is often nothing. Beeps will add drama

Just posted an update that fixes some minor issues.

For the time being I seriously doubt it - I'm enjoying the analog style combined with the physically impossible things you can get away with in software, as well the possibility of creating instruments that make some sense in KSP but don't exist in real life. And it would be quite a big job, these short iterations have been really useful. That said, who knows where this stuff will go. How would that MFD need to change for a space craft (keep in mind I can barely decipher it)?

That's a cool idea, if I do anything on warnings I'll keep it in mind.

Due to popular demand I've added a little configuration panel as a kind of temporary measure. I'm not super happy with it and the texture is getting pretty tweaked in-game but it's temporary. Oh and thanks for all the positive feedback, when you work on something even for a few hours you can't tell whether it's any good anymore. Wow. It doesn't pay well but I have a "Chief Main Person in Charge of Compliments" position opening up soon...

That's exactly right, my prototype in Unity had the artifacting in compressed DXT and not other formats, but I found the odd texture sizes also had something to do with it. It's that and I need to tweak the scale calculation around zero, that slipped through the cracks when I first did it.

Another way to think about it would be Space Park Distance Control, right? Can you give me an example set of altitudes (and what you'd be doing at each if possible)? There'd be a similar but less urgent need for takeoff I imagine, altitudes for turns and throttle adjustments.

Could you hook me up with a stock parts example craft so I can make sure I understand the issue properly?

You mean you'd prefer they were stuck together? I'm toying with the idea of trays/racks/stacks which group instruments together and can be collapsed individually. Assuming I make more gizmos I'm not sure whether people will want to be able to position each one individually etc. I can probably do better stuff if I don't provide per-instrument configuration. Anyone else have feedback on this (assuming more instruments)?

That should be doable, I've put it on the potential feature list.

Well you guys found the two biggest rough edges (F2 fix is the render queue item in the TODO list). Fixing them is up next before looking at other instruments Hey thanks. I'm trying out this whole "release early, release often" thing, hence me putting stuff out with the issues mentioned above. It also means I'm just putting it out as I change it for now, so totally input your input in this thread.

Ok, so radio altimeter added, please take a look. There are issues and I've done only basic testing but it seems useful so far. Thanks

Ok, so you guys want a shouty female altimeter called Mervina that is prone to panicking? Coming right up. Seriously though, I will start with the altimeter and move on to a surface velocity instrument. I'm processing an idea for one that should address some of the issues mentioned. If you're all serious about warnings maybe I'll do some warning sounds and lights that are some compromise between ridiculous and useful. If things are still looking good after that I'll take some rough edges off (remembering window positions, configuration options etc.). Anyways, I definitely got the constructive feedback I came for, which is motivating. Thanks all.

Cool, I'll take a look at the altimeter. Any recommendations on calibration, i.e. red, orange, green zones type of thing? Say < 10m, < 100m, < 1000m? Also, for these types of numbers I like the linear style gauge so it won't necessarily be conventional. Unfortunately I'm going to stick with little floating windows for now, hacking the builtin stuff is far beyond the scope of this exercise. Whether that means you need to get baking or not is up to you

Haha, thanks dudes I know about the existing VSI and in general I wouldn't want to be creating redundant stuff unless it held some obvious benefit. Here the idea is that you can see whether you're "in the zone" just by looking for the colour under the needle. By radar altimeter you mean height above terrain? That's exactly the kind of thing I want to put in there.

Bucky's Instruments is a fledgling package of instruments for the budding space craft pilot who wants to know more about the situation of their vessel, yet isn't necessarily that interested in numbers. Main features: Quite shiny Diverse set of two instruments Low cost Calming regions of colour intuitively convey critical information at the speed of light Very precise while it matters Download Instruments-v0.0.4-KSP_0.20.zip Thanks for all the feedback, keep it coming. Installation Unzip into the GameData directory inside your Kerbal Space Program installation. It is a good idea to remove a previous version of the plugin first by deleting the contents of the "Bucky" directory, keeping "Bucky/PluginData" if you want to retain your current settings. Change Log Version 0.0.4 Fixed VSI behaviour around zero Added smoothing to both gauges The altimeter still jumps occasionally but I'm guessing this is due to seams or changes in geometry on the surface Version 0.0.3 Added manual instrument visiblity toggle Version 0.0.2 Fixed UI hiding issue Window positions are now saved when game state is saved Version 0.0.1 Added radio altimeter Version 0.0.0 Initial implementation with VSI Planned Features Automatic instrument visibility Potential Features Part to be used as reference point (if accuracy from centre of mass is an issue) Resource gauges Drag/thrust/gravity gauges Science part readouts 2D surface velocity and speed Altitude warnings/alarms (lights and sounds) AP/PE time and altitude Numeric displays Trim indicator (reset button/controls?) Magnified navball region of interest Situation lights (atmosphere specifically) Known Issues Texture artifacting Artifacting appears to be due to DXT 5 compression being applied to textures. Since this might be trivial to fix in future versions of KSP a workaround is low priority.