PolecatEZ

As for a space exploration thing, heavy tracks have a lot of potential for basically gluing your collectively mobile butt to a low gravity planet. This means the potential for a decent ground speed without the usual need for a roll-over recovery system. Yes there are other ways to achieve this, but, well, rule of cool. Think mining vehicle from the Armageddon movie - completely unrealistic in the implementation, but still cool. Also, think Jawa Sand Crawler...massive yet still mobile. Stick an entire ground base on the back of a heavy crawler and, well, do your thing. Also, military style mods are getting better and more prolific...tanks are neat. Anyways, your argument could be applied to any mod here basically that involves parts. Really all the "depth" in the game is provided by the base game and a few extension mods.

FSanimate says it can support multiple animations...right now I have a standard drop ramp in a tail section at a 45 degree angle. Its not pretty but functional. I could convert the ramp to a pair of doors opening sideways (I assume that's what you mean by clamshell) and have a deployable ramp as a separate animation. There's probably about 1.5m-2m of overhang you could play with, but the IR gantries can extend further out if I remember. I'd need to model in a flat central block also, as the ramp section's ceiling is sloped for some reason. Mind you that's morphed out of just the adapter piece. If I start borrowing from the HL pieces we could probably get nicer things...but...WINGS. I love the 6m x 4m deck clearance (with a perfectly flat floor), it can actually carry something useful. Must finish wings first, then cockpits...I'll get back to that.

I always saw Snjo's stuff as a sort of "sample showcase" of his programming work and that he was really expecting other modders to exploit all the unlocked potential. B9 is just plain art but there are some overall issues with the pack. - It was originally conceived for people that wanted to build BIGGER space planes. Most of the staple parts, like the cockpits, landing gear, and wings are way over-sized for everyday use and stand apart from the stock parts. (One of my goals) - The styling is so good it severely clashes with the stock parts (and other popular mods that logically go together, such as FS or R3/4 boat parts) in cases where the sizes are compatible. (Another goal) - There are some key "staple parts" still missing from the pack and they're difficult to style match with anything else - parachutes, retractable ladders, basic rocket parts, etc. (and another goal) - Catalog bloat is extreme for things you end up rarely using. There have been a lot of advances since the pack was released that can reduce that even more. Bac9 did a pass at it once or twice at the then current tech level and made a lot of improvements, but thanks to Mr. Snjo, there's now a lot more to be done to whittle it down. (above my pay grade except where there is low hanging fruit) - Originally it was a resource hog, and this may still stick in people's minds. Currently its footprint is relatively small but there's still room to eek out a little more efficiency. (not really an issue now) In trying to address some of these, I may end up making things worse...there's just so many fun original toys you can come up with when you start seeing the parts as "modeling clay" instead of mere building blocks. Its so damned hard to focus on one thing because just staring at a single part you get a million more ideas. For example, I got side-tracked last night and spent an hour turning the HL-MK4 adapter into a full set of cargo bays and loading ramps (CargoTech pack later?). Other issues can't really be addressed in the scope of an expansion pack, the original creator can address them at his leisure. Squad also needs to get on the ball with catalog organization, which would go a long ways toward helping out. They have the stats in there for subcategories, but so far haven't used them.

The thread is here somewhere. It did a few things with Firespitter and B9, namely a few B9 re-textures of Firespitter basic parts, as well as a giant "anti-wonk" module manager file that did a few things to clean up the B9 catalog...it deleted redundant parts and added texture switching so you could still have them, and modular fuel system was tweaked for KSPI and added to FS and B9 parts. Since I figured out how to Blender a bit, I kind of let it drop as remaking meshes using existing textures is far more space efficient than making new textures on existing UV maps for people to load up. For some odd reason, the modular fuels mod isn't very popular, though its potential is amazing especially combined with Stretchy Tanks and/or FStextureSwitcher.

Its completely separate except for the community fix files. I honestly didn't think people were using the Xover Pack. As I go along with this one, Xover-type stuff is starting to creep in, like the use of some additional textures. FSmeshSwitch now can give us not just different textures on a fuel tank, but entirely different styles of fuel tank (within the same collider). Anyways, downloaded Porkjets stuff last night to take a look and then promptly scrapped all my basic wings. He and I somehow settled on identical parameters (3.75 x 1.875 x 0.15 base), so mine would have been quite redundant. Wings are getting another re-design to Squad parameters (3.5-ish x 1.75-ish x 0.17), though I'll probably knock down the thickness to be compatible, and sharp tapered edges are getting beveled. meshSwitch also allows some additional features, like toggling heat shields on or off on the entire bottom of the wing. I spent most of the night on cockpits though. Mk1 replacement is re-done, still very boring but it looks decent. Mk2 1.25m Tandem Inline has been re-done, looks a lot smoother. Mk2 1.25m Single Inline wasn't touched yet...on the to-do for today. Mk1 Tandem is looking great, internals were finished also. Mk13 SBS cab wasn't touched, but does need some work on ladder/hatch placement. Mk25 Attack chopper externals re-done. Even with smoothing groups it still has a triangle gash across one windshield I can't get rid of. Internals are close enough for government work. Also started work on an A-7 style Mk1 cockpit with the gaping intake under it...looks vaguely like a Basking shark's head. I may need to do some custom texture work to enhance the effect. The last 3 have custom internals that need prop placement and then I can push those out. They'll probably be pretty sparse, but anyone with Unity is free to open them back up and decorate them as they want.

Finals are done, but starting next week I'm on a 3-week intensive research project - which means in reality I'll spend 3 hours making a poster with glitter glue and probably get an A. So, we'll see if this is a real coursework or Mickey Mouse...if the later I'll probably rapidly knock out a few things. Damn Snjo for releasing new stuff to play with, I already have about 10 good uses for his new meshSwitcher (now that I figured out what it actually does)...and some even involve cockpits (searchlight rack...or no searchlight rack...). Anyways, I'll do a full release of wings real soon. I figured out the edge tapers are just too long. I'll bump cockpits up the priority scale, but they'll probably trickle out a bit at a time that way. If anyone is serious about helping, it would help a lot to do prop placement.

*update 4* Ok, got it all fingered out. Now just to find a cool use for it. Starting all the way in Blender, you need to make sure no "_" are ever used.

I think I love you. The meshswitch was on my "dream" list. And the FSwing fix will keep people from being too confused. If you can add a variable to increase wing width with your leading edge code, I'll give you my first born. Basically, this means my B9 work was just re-prioritized. Now I can de-bloat the catalog fully...3 versions of the same S2W tank become one... ---------- or not... Please tell me where I went wrong here:

Paste this into the config and see if it helps anything: MODULE { name = FARControllableSurface b_2 = 4.8 //distance from wing root to tip; semi-span MAC = 2.0 //Mean Aerodynamic Chord (Length front to back) e = 0.9 //Oswald's Efficiency, 0-1, increases drag from lift nonSideAttach = 0 //0 for canard-like / normal wing pieces, 1 for ctrlsurfaces attached to the back of other wing parts TaperRatio = 0.44 //Ratio of tip chord to root chord generally < 1, must be > 0 MidChordSweep = 46.5 //How to change for swing wing? maxdeflect = 20 //Default maximum deflection value; only used by FARControlableSurface controlSurfacePivot = 1, 0, 0; //Local vector that obj_ctrlSrf pivots about; defaults to 1, 0, 0 (right) ctrlSurfFrac = 0.11 } I was hoping someone else would mess with the FAR stuff, as I honestly have very little idea of the nuances of a FAR config. Parsing through FS documentation several versions out of date and trying to match it to the source code is hard enough. Snoj has added a lot of toys since his last instruction manual, you just need to find them ------ Reading the FAR documentation, it looks like I'll need to re-label some things in Unity to get it to work, I don't see any support for relabeling, and also tie the lift surface back to the actual swing wing. Swing wing flying - not for noobs.

Here's what I have. I didn't update the configs, just played with the textures, so our versions match as far as behavior. Setting it up - I defined a custom string to say "Toggle Swing Wing", but an FS bug ignores that and still calls it a leading edge. Set this to an action group. As you can see, lift center is just fine in my setup. I have no other lift surfaces on the craft. Surprisingly, it took off just fine without the swing wings out. One thing to note, having the ailerons on the wing means that the aileron lift surface moves with the swing. This can put your average CoL forward of the CoM if you aren't careful (and cause some awesome aerobatics). This is the same issue they faced in reality when they were developing variable geometry. In my own models, I tied the main lift transform to a fixed point to avoid this partially, but the little added lift from the ailerons does move when the wing retracts/extends. Do you happen to be using FAR? This might cause your lift issues.

Did you set up the sweep as an action group in the SPH? The FS plugin doesn't have contextual triggers on the part for this (another item for the laundry list). You either tell the .cfg to set for "auto" or you do it manually with an action group. If you only use it for take-off/landing, you can tie it to the landing gear group, otherwise use a numbered group. The wings do generate a decent amount of lift, its just FS lift code, meaning near zero lift at 0 degree AoA. If you notice in Snoj's one example of this, his sabre wings are set at a 1-5 degree angle to the body to get around this. All his other wings use the stock lift code for the main part, so this doesn't apply. You can also try making sure your ***-end sits lower than your nose so the wings are at a natural upward angle on take-off. I'll experiment with angling the lift transform in Unity and see if that helps, though it creates funny angles on the lift arrow in the VAB.

Changing the .tga to a transparent-layered .png works decently as a workaround, just need to brush up on my photoshopping skills more until this gets fixed.

Need MOAR Firespitter! Srsly. Firespitter.

Is there any way to set exceptions for alpha-layered textures? I'm running ATM (basic) 3.x along with this to test. The only issue I found is with the the internal windshields for the B9 cockpits. They use a dusty transparent texture and the game now loads them as solid. This also makes me suspect other shader applications may be missing. I'll see if I can photoshop the transparency into the original texture and maybe that could be a workaround.

Small request...I was trying to figure out a way to do procedural racing stripes and decals for my aircraft. Any chance you could put a fixed-ratio planar piece for decals (a square and 2:3 rectangle) into the next build? I tried to do variable racing stripes with an infinitely thin Pwing, but that plugin managed to crash my game, and the source for this only has 3d roundy bits that I could see.

You should be able to just not install FAR plugin and the additional modules will be ignored. They will throw some errors that most people can't see, but they still function just fine and it won't hurt your game. FAR values are an override to stock values that should also be present.

There's two perfectly good SABRE engines (complete with intakes and precooler) in the B9 pack...and you can pretty much piece together the rest of the craft with existing B9 parts. There is a community fix file that was included with the first alpha so the engines work well again, and I think there's another thread for that.

I'll give a list of textures also that I use. Of the B9 pack, there's maybe a handful that I cherry pick from, and I'm tightening down on that quite a bit. The rotortech pack now, for example, uses about 12 different textures, and with my remakes I'm down to about 7. With the Wingtech pack, I'm doing an either/or type of thing where with texture switcher you can switch from mine to B9 regular and back, or you could delete one or the other and it will pick up the one that is still there. Short answer, you're perfectly safe to delete any models or .cfgs you don't like to clean up your catalog, from basically any folder in GameData. I'm not using any MODEL mashing for my work, its re-exporting full meshes. My issue is that I can't really nail down a good alternative. I do so much skewing with the model meshes that any patterned textures turn out crap in the game, so I'm back to plain colors that need to still match other B9 parts. Basically, any color you want so long as its black...or white.

The S2 and S2W series will get a lot of love, but later. I have some nice prototypes already but my masochism is focusing on tuning the swing wings at the moment. I don't think Snoj quite had them in mind when he did the code, as there are some parameters missing that would make things easier. As it stands, there are enough other variables to massage to get the right effect, I just have to trial and error them. If anyone wants to help, I'll throw up a file with 3 of my biggest problem children and you can take a look at the configs and see what I'm doing wrong. They're mostly flyable in this state, just that flying with the wings out they tend to drop straight out of the sky without any power, which ironically gives them a longer take-off and landing requirement. The X-29 swept wing (not swing) has the wing tip canards that actually make it fly like the real thing...nearly uncontrollable without computer help. Here's the file, fellow masochists are welcome to try them out and let me know if you got anything that works better by tuning the configs. Again, this is just a test packet, these are not the final versions of these wings, and this represents about 20% of what will be in the Wingtech pack when its finished. Tuners apply HERE. I'd like input on: Relative sizes, attach points, stats, and any FSwing or FSlift tuning to make it better. Most graphical glitches have already been corrected, I just haven't gone through and re-exported yet. ---- One neat STOL landing trick I found was to put out the swing wings, drop to about 100m at full power, then cut the engines. The plane practically falls to a gentle landing right on the spot. Take-offs are another story though, but I think it might be the way Snoj does his lift code (his Sabre has the same issue if you mount the wings perfectly level).

I was going to module manager FAR in later (or let some other kindly person do it). Some parts use the exact stock names/.cfg's so any existing mods to them will effect them also.

That's one reason for the delay on next release. Right now I'm focusing on just wings and all wing-related things. - Wings were re-sized and re-Blendered, 3.5m standard (3.5/1.75/0.875). About 5-6 variations of rectangular and 5-6 delta wings. - Most wings have top/bottom attach nodes, so you can centerline mount them OR mount things directly to them via node attach. Biplanes are easy now, as are VTOL's with underwing jet engines. - Center of lift was moved to the wing's center instead of inside edge. Shouldn't effect smaller craft, but larger ones will see some performance differences the wider the wings get. - Rougher texture and bumpmap were made for the 4 textures used, FSswitch gives you a choice to make them shiny B9 also. Overall texture usage was made more efficient. - "Stockalike" winglets and canards. - 3 elevators, with standardized widths. - 2 stand-alone flaps to place on your wings. - 2 stand-alone leading edge extenders, works well on both delta and straight wing front edges. - 2 "swing wings", F-14 style and F-35 style. Models have been re-worked, still trying to get an aileron working on the F-14 wing. - 2 "folding wings", A-7 style and F/A-18 style. - F-15 style winglet (tail rudder) - Straight wing, WW2 style, fully articulated with bells and whistles. - Swept wing, easily works forwards or backwards, uses built-in wingtip canards so works either direction, may make 2 sizes for this. - New Squad knockout method: Its called "I give you a list, you erase what you want." Basically I'm about 90% done. Just have a few more to export from Unity, 3 more models to nail down, and some config files to write. I've broken this project into several "sets" - this one will be "D12Wingtech" and deal with wing related things. D12Aerotech will have the rotors re-done as well as some cockpits, engines, and intakes. D12Navaltech will come after which will have a fully modular naval ship building system (anything from a small destroyer to large ACC, in S2Wide smoothness and coloration). Spacetech will be #4 - S2 and S2W capabilities will be expanded.

Ok, got it to work, but I had to reload the game from scratch to get it to set. For anyone else's future reference: I made a dummy blank_NRM texture (64x64 plain blue) in its own assets folder. I have my own SquareWings texture, modified with some noise and coloring modifications (not important really) I made a bumpy SqareWings_NRM texture of the above. I have Tavarius/Bac9's square wings model000 texture sitting in its proper folder. In Unity, set it for Specular/Bumped. Reduced shininess to nothing. In the little tab also set Specular color to pitch black. This was using my SquareWings and SquareWings_NRM. Exported to the Expansion folder. Don't forget to click on the NRM texture in Unity and say its a Normal, but don't let it otherwise modify it. And put this in my .cfg for the wing. Now I can switch back and forth between roughed up wings and shiny smoothness in game. Reloading assets in the game won't let you tweak it, to test it you need to completely reload the game unlike with just regular texture switching. I may go back and remake my own normal, as the end effect isn't that dramatic, but the concept is there.

So would this write the alpha channel changes into the .mbm file and not the .mu? Sorry, dumb question...so the alpha value is set on the texture?

I'm on gen 3 of my B9 parts expansion and I hit on a little snag. For the wings pack, I've basically taken 4 of the base textures I used on all wings and made my own recolored versions of them. I made them roughed up with a bit of matting and noise, a little darkening, added some blue, and also made my own NRMs for them. They finally look pretty good. What I would like to do is let them be FSTextureSwitched with B9's original flat and shiny things. This, however, requires I go from KSP/diffuse/bumped (just called "KSP/bumped") to KSP/specular/bumped shader to get it to look right. How do I switch out the shaders along with the texture? I see where I can switch out a normal map also with FSTexture switch, but nothing about how to change the shader values. He mentions a "specular map" in the documentation, but I don't see a KSP shader that would apply in this situation. I guess part 2 is: can I add additional texture layers as child objects in Unity and will it work correctly?

Ok, after 2 tries the model itself is still a hot mess, but the concept works. Apparently tying lift transforms to parts that rotate laterally is a big fat no no, but later experiments flew less like a methed-out brick. Also, making the tail and wings as a single part doesn't work too well either, FSWing can only handle one iteration of an elevator. Anyways, I'll put off a release for another week, but better stuff will come.