OrbitusII

Kaput Hastae (Kerbal of Caput Hastae), the spearhead. I also thought I saw our Orion, but I lost it after a moment...

Hello! This is just my way of letting people on the forums know I am streaming! http://www.twitch.tv/orbitusii/new I don't stream gameplay (yet) due to a pitifully powerful laptop, but I cover news for KSP and Puffin Technologies along with providing some feedback for Squad (if any of the devs watch me ). Come one, come all for science and news!

OnSave and OnLoad can do that to an extent. If you're trying to access an image then just use that image's name and KSP will automatically pull it from PluginData. Sounds are more complicated (due to the new GameData thing) but it's a similar method. I know Snjo figured it out (mostly) so look for that thread in this subforum.

I would recommend taking a look at Cybutek's tutorial series if you have no experience with KSP plugin writing. He uses Visual Studio but you could also use the version of MonoDevelop that comes bundled with Unity3D (in fact I prefer MonoDevelop, not only because VS is Windows-only and I'm on a Mac, but also for the Unity debugger and the coding prompts). If you've used JavaScript then C# isn't too different, but there are some significant differences between the two. Also look at this: http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/ScriptReference/index.html It's got all (or most) of the API for Unity's classes, functions, etc. http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Community_API_Documentation The KSP API documentation is far from complete, but it's got good info that you can use to optimize code a little (we plugin writers should probably work on it some, eh?) Cybutek's Plugin Tutorial Playlist:

From the OP Have fun! The two arms of the launchpad without landing legs fold up to make it (a little) smaller and easier to manage. What I might do is make my own launchpad model for this, like the one germalto posted on page 3. I'll be using KAS to do my connections, just to simplify things.

How about for the sake of KSP lore and RP? I'll be looking out for constellations in the KSP sky now.

I PM'ed him a couple days ago, and he let me know that he's still waiting on the licensing, but if he doesn't hear back by tomorrow then he will most likely do a "debug mode" release, which basically means that there won't be the Kethane-esque resource spawning, making it like what it says in the OP (the smelter has infinite ore).

No worries, once I get an adequate solar heating equation (I just need to test it! ) and finish up testing then my plugin should enable better solar heating. It will also come with all-vessel thermostabilizer systems (which I may limit to each stage eventually) so you can keep the temperature between -15C and 15, 20C, assuming you're not too close to Kerbol. I really like how this project is turning out, it looks amazing! Keep up the good great AMAZINGLY INCREDIBLY MIND-BLOWINGLY AWESOME work! Edit: ok, maybe not so Amazingly Incredibly Mind-blowingly Awesome, but it's still great.

I disagree, as NASA has had some major issues. True, a lot of it is funding, but other more significant problems include things like the Dream Chaser project. That was canceled (in part) by a lack of technological innovation, and Lockheed-Martin figured out and solved the problem within a few months after the program was canceled. A rather foolish reason to give up, if you ask me. I'm more interested in commercial space companies like SpaceX, Bigelow, and Reaction Engines; they are actually innovating and developing better rockets, inflatable modules, and SSTOs. As to the fanboyism in the KSP community, there are bound to be those kinds of people on the forums (such is the curse of a forum) but as a developer you can't just obey the fanboys and vocal minority. This is why I'm frustrated with the "Free Expansions if you Buy Before May 1" decision– it makes people think that they can boss the developers around, and some people might consider the free expansions they get as justification for being "better" or "the elite" of KSP, causing chaos in the community. It would have been much better in the long run if Harv and everyone explained the difference between updates and expansions rather than backing off and giving us free stuff. Still, KSP has a fantastic group of developers and a great community, and I hope it can stay my favorite game community for a long time.

For some reason the Skipper on my launch stages doesn't work too well alone when I'm going up with a TWR of less than 1.2-ish, so I try to get above 1.2 with most rockets.

LV-909 is my top, then the new Skipper, and then the LV-T45 or LV-T30 (it's a tie between those two). Reasons: LV-909 is very efficient and powerful for its size– I took Jeb to Mun, then Minmus, then back home with loads of fuel to spare. Skipper looks AMAZING, plus it's more efficient (albeit less powerful) than the Mainsail, so I'm using it instead of engine clusters for most of my launch stages. LV-T30/T45 are the workhorses of KSP rocketry– powerful and useful beyond words. Pop a few onto some radially-attached fuel tanks et voila! Liquid fuel boosters ready to be asparagus-staged. Much more effective than SRBs IMO, although SRBs certainly have their uses. Nerva's good for interplanetary, although I'm staying within Kerbin's SoI while I work on mods and getting some skills in transfers and dV approximations (I have gotten probes to Eve, Duna, and Laythe, however, plus a voyager-style probe leaving the sun's SoI in ~68 years or so).

KSP will soon have WALL-E joining its slew of Kerbal machinery... Pretty obvious from those adorable mini treads!

Yes. There are no significant changes to the source code so new versions are compatible with older saves unless stated otherwise. Significant code changes will also only occur between major versions (like 0.20.1 to 0.21.0) so have no fear, if it works in 0.20.0, it will 99% assuredly work in 0.20.1.

It's a fairly easy plugin to write and the old one is most likely not going to be updated, so I can probably throw something together for you. In theory you can use the new KAS to make the docking ports dynamically surface-attachable, but it'd require some config editing and testing... Might be worth it though...

Just me thinking out loud here, but I might go with a weekly update thing since it's a lot easier to summarize news for each week rather than random updates every few days... Anyway: -Working on an improved, working equation that models the solar heating accurately. The solar heating thing won't be complete until 0.3, but the powered thermostats (not just coolant systems anymore!) will be ready to go as soon as they finish testing. -Mek is working on a model for the thermostabilizer (I like that name... I'll use that for sure) so once that's finished and I get the code tested it can be released. Should be sometime in the next few days. -The universal animator was having some issues with getting the animations so that it can animate the part, but I think I have those ironed out. Testing will commence today or tomorrow. -I'm also going to finish up the textures for the Quest Joint Airlock for Bobcat's community project. I previously had no intentions of doing so, but WCOLE360 convinced me to finish it. For more info you'll have to check out the official thread. Livestream Update: I haven't done streams the past two weeks for multiple reasons, notably a lack of updates here at PT and also a lack of major news from Squad until this week. I'll be doing one on Friday, 7:30 MDT, like always. Hopefully I'll have the sound issues from the last stream dealt with... Edit: So there's obviously an issue with something in either my code or the KSP plugin loading system, so I'm scrapping the universal animator for now. I'll be doing research (looking at other people's code and finding lots of useful info) to figure out what exactly is going on.

I've recently started showing some significant concern for the little guys, so now I'm making sure that I can get them home and that I kill as few of them as possible. Example: I was testing my Mun lander using probe cores equal in mass to the actual manned crew pods. When I got it in action on Mun with extra fuel (just in case) I still was low on fuel, so I simulated (a.k.a. quicksaved) multiple launch patterns to get them home. I succeeded, and now they're all happy with their families. I've never been good with spaceplanes (maybe I should get Ferram...) so I get some deaths there, and Jeb is Jeb so I'm a little more reckless with him. Once I took him to Mun solo, and I figured I would have enough dV to get to Minmus as well, so I quicksaved and did it; got him there and home safely, first try. The publicity guys tried to convince the public that it was the incredible overall effectiveness of the LV-909 on his lander, but everyone knows that it was actually the fact that Jeb is a BA.

He's part of the administration for my program, but he still does ground tests and the occasional mission to space, notably the shuttle missions which haven't been started yet (still need to get a good design...) Hanbert, Macry, and Duddorf Kerman are my new top three pilots; I think they're all descended from Jeb in some way– bravery levels near the max, although Hanbert's pretty dumb...

Alright, I can try those, thanks.

In simple terms, what I need is just a graph of temperature based on distance from the sun (assuming continual exposure). The purpose of this is to create a better solar heating model than the standard one and so that my heat sinks have a purpose. I can most certainly take reflectivity into account, but the general purpose is to make things colder or hotter based on how close they are to Kerbol (75 km above Kerbol will not be a balmy 15 degrees Celsius). If I can get that working, then reflectivity is trivial. I will indeed use raycasting to test if something is in shadow, so have no fear that I will make it work as well as possible. Surface melting is a nice idea, but somewhat impractical and unnecessary at the moment. What would need to be done is terrain deformation and texture recalculation to make it look somewhat realistic, plus there's the issue of creating water (fairly easy comparatively, but still), so maybe not as a stock thing but plugin writers (not me, sorry) can go ahead and do it.

So a quick bump/update: 0.2 should be out sometime this week or next, all I have to do is figure out a minor issue in the code and then I can release it. Things that it will come with: -powered, all-ship coolant systems (no custom resources, just code ) -a universal animation system (for animating stuff!) -file structure updated for 0.20 All-ship powered coolant systems are pretty self-explanatory, except they regulate heat more than just cool stuff off. One thing I do need to get finished for this is a GUI window for setting the stable temperature, so you can have each vessel running at 0 degrees C or 150 degrees C (I'll most likely impose limitations on this, as you shouldn't be able to cool your ship down to 0 K or overheat your ship and blow it up). The universal animation system, PTanimateUniversal, is more complicated. Basically what it does is compiles all stock animation modules into one and adds some more animation types. The only thing I need to do is make sure I have all of the variables working and implement the context menu thing for the generic animation, then it's done. Not a massive improvement on the stock animators but it should be helpful. As for solar heating, which will give this a purpose, there have been some issues with the heat equation, so Mek and I are doing research and math to figure out what equation will work best. In testing, I didn't take the transformations of the equation into account, so going below 0.75 AU in your orbit would result in a NaN error. This oversight has been taken care of and it's looking a lot better, plus we're getting some more accurate data that makes the model work better.

Swedish Chef moment, anyone? Very unconventional design, I like it!

None at the moment. Until Skykooler can actually get the permissions and licensing stuff figured out then all we can do is wait. It would be good to at least have some sort of pre-release without the resource stuff, as that's just fluff that isn't critical to the actual vessel spawning.

In part, but the GameData folder still handles subfolders such as Plugins and Parts. True, it's not needed, but the categorizing that Cap'n Kalawang provided in the OP still helps people understand what is what. And Ferram doesn't change Unity itself, but rather the systems that the devs have created to operate the game through Unity. I get what you're saying, though, and I agree with your categorizing as well as Kalawang's.

I've been having some issues with FlightCtrlState, specifically I can't get my script to compile because there's no apparent way for me to define a variable (flightControls) as the FlightCtrlState (is there some gameObject I need to find?). I also can't use GetComponent since there is no FlightCtrlState component, yet it requires a reference for me to be able to get the throttle level... Here's the compile error I get: Error CS0120: An object reference is required to access non-static member `FlightCtrlState.mainThrottle' (CS0120) (PuffinTech) Is there any way for me to actually assign FlightCtrlState to a variable? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One way to solve the issue of non-moving attached parts is to add a section to the plugin that moves the joint anchor points to the correct position relative to the pusher plate. Here's the Unity reference for joints in general. All you need to do is a foreach(Joint eachJoint in Joints) and then change the y-position of the joint anchor to be the correct position as the part animates. http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/ScriptReference/Joint.html

From what I got through a PM to Skykooler on May 11, he's just waiting for Majiir to get him licensing info and permission to use the Kethane code for his custom "Ore" resource. Not sure what's happened since then, but I do hope that it's not dead. :/