PolecatEZ

Not one planned until tomorrow...but at this point, no telling what will be in it.

Folding wings is very cool, but the only issue with them is that they still function fully with the animation up or down...unless I move the FSlift transform to mid-wing and child it to the folding part...or...keep the lift transform and still child it...then don't even attempt to fly it with wings folded. I'm trying to keep everything future-FAR compatible, but maybe there's a workaround there. Flight profile for the current swing wing is already wonky enough, I just need to figure out the values I need to tweak. I'm already almost finished with the model for the F-14 style - a bit more complex as it will also include ailerons and flaps. The guide lines on the HW21 texture help a lot though. Banging my head for 3 hours+ getting every rotational axis correct in Unity is the fun part. I guess the ship building kit can wait, as all I have left are about 100 attach nodes to properly place and rotate. Wanted: Tweaking assistant. Must be able to hit Alt-F12 and "Reload all" until his fingers bleed. What's the general feeling on the current wing sizes? They're about 20% smaller than Squad sizes currently, but I can just do a blanket re-scale when I go back for them. I may be able to make a few of them "folding," but the limitation on that is you couldn't attach anything to the part that moves (no pylons, landing gear, ailerons). Does anyone know if childing an attach transform node to a moving part will work? My previous experiments were kind of explody.

I got a little distracted...someone asked for a simple forward swept mini-HW21. I don't do simple. Its not an animation, it actually functions with FSleadingedge code so it works like its supposed to...you can toggle it or it will auto deploy as necessary. This is just a concept test, and I'm actually shocked it works. The design is a bit wonky, but that will be fixed and I'll try to do an F-14 style also later.

Again, specifics. The upper/lower rotor should be rotating counter to each other with about 3 rpm difference. Make sure you have the latest Firespitter plugin installed, the one that comes with B9 is out-dated and that could be the cause. As for tilt everywhere, there's no actual torque rotation with any of the VTOL engines, its simply not a function in the game. Tail rotors (like from the FS pack) still function to help steer, but they aren't necessary for chopper control. Just throw some SAS on your chopper and lock it down. That will be addressed in future releases. There's a few concept videos on youtube for WhisperCraft that shows a smooth transition in flight. The big issue is that I can't turn the wing lift on or off, its always on (and providing angular drag) even when the rotors are engaged. Basically to have a good VTOL flight profile, you either need to be going very slow, or supplement the thrust with a jet engine or 3 (like in the concept videos). When I get better at engines, I'll try to do the standard box housing (jets and intakes) that goes under it. In the meantime, I have a different sort of surprise coming soon. Also, Mk27 cockpit variants are coming along nicely, though you need to be a masochist to do prop placement. Next release, hopefully in a day or two (term papers finished, now no motivation for side projects that only solid procrastination can provide): * Wholly different method for Squad parts knockout. Hopefully plays nicer with Aggressive version of ATM. * Variant pack (concepts) for S2W body...not what you think. * Mk25 cockpit variants...attack chopper and cab versions. I may make RPM a dependency for the cockpit props. I've also started toying with ASET props, but they really bit into my frame rate, especially mixed with Vessel Viewer. * Original sounds and some tweaks for the chopper blades. On the horizon: * Skillful integration will be looked at, not sure if I need to do anything specific though. * Wings will be re-textured with new Blendering skills, possible rescaling up about 20% in area for the larger ones. * Adapter replacements (maybe I can bribe my kids to do those - easy but tedious). * More crap to put on pylons - science modules, communications, ScanSat, MechJeb, etc modules. * Standard fuel tank replacements...working on a good variety of styles, at least as far as B9 textures will let me go. * Mk1 and 2 cockpit replacements. IF YOU HAVE ANY ISSUES WITH ANY PARTS...please be specific. Saying simply "doesn't work" or "looks dumb" isn't particularly helpful. I'm happy to correct any issues you find, but I need to know what they are.

Unless you use the Daisho, not in this current build. If you can get one rotor to sit flipped upside down on another, you could add in a reverse thrust MODULE to the part config and maybe do it that way. I can put it on the laundry list for later to maybe specifically design one that way. The Daisho I got working by using FSrotor for one of the transforms, and FSprop for the other. I had to set them as slightly different speeds because they could get synced up and then look really bad at high speeds. Loving it In that last pic, where did that nosecone thing come from? Need more info. The only way they wouldn't work is if you don't have firespitter plugin, which is a dependency for both this pack and B9.

Its a little of both. Rescaling and bending certain parts means smoothing groups become very broken in some cases, in others Blender just looks wonky when it translates to 2d. For that reason, I've pulled most of the cockpits until I can re-do them. I've already completely re-done the ones based on the Mk25 and they'll be up soon (done 2 of 3 term papers also). I haven't gotten a Mk1 replacement I'm really happy with yet though (after about 5 different tries). Wings will also be completely re-done later, but the alpha concept is set.

I was going hand ID my laundry list for that stuff after he releases his next boat parts edition, I'll leave him alone for now. Stats are copied from FS, B9, and/or Squad and kept mostly intact (sometimes with heavy modification), so anything that ID does to basic stats should work just fine.

I'd say just try the D12 Supplemental version then, should be no conflicts at all as they're just simple parts that way. Also, are you using ATM Aggressive or ATM Basic? I think I'm just going to go back to the drawing board with how knockouts work, but there really aren't any great solutions. The safest one is just to give a list of folders for the user and say "Erase what you can."

Yes you can, but since there's still a lot more to add later you can hold off for now.

Just try basic ATM version for now with a clean install if you can. Near as I can figure, once its broke its BROKE. I reinstalled (total wipe) KSP. Added in Kethane, RPM, Scansat, Vesselview, B9, Firespitter, and Mechjeb all at once. Good load. Added in D12 Knockout pack, overwriting everything. Good load. Added in ATM (Basic). Did the normal delay thing, then good load. Copied over it with ATM (Aggressive) and added the custom config. All loaded fine. There might be something to breaking saves if a load is bad, as when I was troubleshooting I literally removed everything in GameData and the game loaded fine when it was totally empty, but was still broken the second I added anything back in to the empty GameData folder. I was hunting everywhere for some kind of cache file I might have missed because nothing made sense, but didn't think to delete the save game folder (doh!).

There's two versions of ATM, basic and aggressive. Basic works fine without any additional configs for my pack, and for aggressive version I have a hotfix up on my thread that looks like its working fine. I went through this whole mess myself and did a lot of tweaking with the way I do the knockouts, but installing basic version seemed to fix everything. Today I wrote a custom config for my pack which seems to fix aggressive version of ATM also.

Hotfix for those using Squad Knockout version with Aggressive Active Texture Management. Basic ATM users shouldn't need this but it doesn't hurt. Just tested fine for me, let me know if this doesn't work for you. Throw this in your Boulder/ActiveTextureManagerConfigs folder (might also work anywhere): https://www.dropbox.com/s/l0is4rbbh3r9fzj/D12Knockout.cfg I'll integrate this into the next build also.

Which ATM are you using? This sounds like the issue I was wrestling with yesterday for hours and thought I fixed it (basically had to wipe out the entire game and reinstall it, I literally pulled every sub-subfolder one at a time until GameData was blank). When I re-installed, I used just the basic version of ATM and it worked, so I thought the issue was fixed. I'll take a look at the config comparisons between the two and try to figure out what its doing differently. ---- Hotfix posted in my own thread. I'll tweak it later but it makes everything work.

Are you running basic or aggressive version of ATM? I'm running basic ATM with Squad Knockout version and everything functions fine, it just hangs for a few seconds before the loading bar starts and then flies through it. ---- Just did a clean install and re-tested the upload. It loads just fine with ATM "Basic" version on my Win7 machine. It will hang on a random .dll plugin right at the beginning of the load for about 20 seconds, then the loading flies. This means for aggressive I should just need to write an exception file and include it in the next download. ---------- Update 2: If anyone wants to try a quick fix, go into your Boulder folder and go to the Squad .cfg. Erase the line with the reference to winglet2 and see if that does anything.

The configs are just empty parts that were used for SquadKO, no references to anything. I'm using basic texture management version and not having any issues. I'll download and test the aggressive version and see what I can do to make my own exception file if needed. My theory is that ATM (Aggressive) is actually trying to rebuild every tiny mock .tga that's referenced by every part in the pack and just needs an exception .cfgt setup, which looks straightforward enough. I did have the "freezing issue" on the first load with basic, but it passed in about 30 seconds and then flew through the loading bar. Since then I only have that issue if I update anything in the GameData during testing parts. Something like this was mentioned in the update description for ATM.

Its got a bad texture assignment, its already fixed for next release.

2 versions for testing: If you downloaded the previous version, simply overwrite it. D12 Squad Knockout Version - This will replace select squad parts, including all wings, Mk2 fuselage and adapter, and the inline RCS tank (maybe a few others). This will also give you all other parts. All previously saved craft should load just fine, you may need to tweak them in the SPH though as wing dimensions changed slightly. Inline parts have identical node placement to the originals so you shouldn't need to tear too much apart otherwise. D12 Supplemental Version - Simply gives you all Squad replacements as ****X files without killing Squad parts, they're just added to the catalog. Also includes new parts. To install either, just unzip and overwrite exactly the GameData folder. Should be compatible with anything that uses mod manager to identify a PART file. As always, use the latest Firespitter plugin and B9 pack. Any version of Mod Manager is also helpful for the fixes. If you want sounds, you need to keep also the Firespitter sounds folder intact for now. Special thanks to Taverius, Bac9, and Snoj for making these possible. Cockpits will probably come next week, as I'm just going to scrap them and re-make with new Blender Fu skills (dragon style!). Then internals, and also making sure RasterProp cooperates with any Squad replacements I do. I'll keep an eye here for the next hour or so for hotfixing if necessary, after that I'm going dark for a few days.

I know about the transparent dome thing, and have zero idea how to fix it. It looks great in blender , but when I export it to Unity the bottom disappears. I've tried a few tricks (flipping normals backward and forward, even re-drawing the entire bottom) and gave up after 3 re-import attempts. If you want to test with that rotor, please let me know if the center of lift for it is too far backwards or forwards. There's no way to toggle it off in rotor mode either (I toyed with putting a pair of lift surfaces on the wings) with FS current iteration. There's a laundry list I'm putting together for Snoj until I learn to code myself. I'm also shocked nobody found the wobble yet...the animation didn't quite center it on the rotation center even though it looks fine in Blender No, this won't be a new B9 home, just an expansion meant to add new stuff. If Taverius or Bac9 make parts themselves later with similar functionality I'll be happy to pull mine (and go treasure hunting for new modeling clay). Ok, will work now to squish the remaining bugs with the wing set and get an update out...then 3 term papers in 48 hours...then cockpits... That's two different issues. I was having all kinds of problems originally with using MODEL to switch out textures, but that was solved with re-ordering stuff and leaving in the dummy textures of at least 32x32 size (it may be overkill in some cases, but its safe). The loading issue happens when I try to kill Squad parts with an overwrite. Completely blank "Part.cfg" is bad (fixed by putting just "PART {}" in the file), and having the wrong number of model00x textures in the folder with the part is also bad if it didn't match what the model.mu was calling for. The wing connector with 2 reduced model textures works to over-write most parts with the least memory hit, but models with 1 or 3 or more model00x textures to overwrite need a more specialized approach. Ideally people would just erase them, but that requires a seek and destroy .bat script that doesn't work with other operating systems.

I did that because I was testing putting them under things and it was creating balance issues - center of mass way above center of thrust was clumsy. I can definitely tone that back down though. FS rotors have theirs about .3m above the rotor or right on the top cap for taller ones, and that's how the other ones were set. So Buzz Rotor wishlist so far: - MOAR! tilt transform directions (if FS Plugin can handle it) - Electro switching - Second attach node (side with mirroring 0, 0, 1) - Lower thrust transform - probably dead center. - Housing wing, I'll try to make compatible with the rest of the set. As for sounds, I'm borrowing FireSpitter sounds for now, so if you have FS installed they should work. I have some of my own picked out, but 2 issues - I don't have a sound editing program yet or the brains to mess with it if I find one. They also take as much RAM as a 1024x1024 texture each. They will be in the full release.

For the Buzz Rotor, a few things are planned or are already done but just need some unity packaging: - 4x6m Delta wing with center ring mount (a few failures sitting in my bin, will revisit before full release though). For now they do fit nice and flat under or inside most wings. If you don't want them to clip use a cubic strut to off set them. - Switching to electric power, will use the FScoolant trick above. - Custom sounds. - They're chopper rotors, I think fuel consumption is already way too efficient One neat trick for electric rotors is to hook up a fusion generator from the interstellar mod...little rotors run on delicious uranium then. As for inverted controls, I'm not even sure what its supposed to look like. I do know that you can simply rotate them on the center axis in the SPH and get the gimbaling going any which way you want. The only thing they don't do well is mount in anything more than pairs, such as 45 degree angles (quad mounting in X shape or star mounts from the rear - trying to lift a rocket with 6 of them is fail). You can mount them, using the short steel bars, as far out as you feel like. I had 6 going in a parallel wing that way. Maybe I could add a few more thrust transforms and see if that would do the trick. They were templated off of Snoj's rotors in Unity and so far as I can tell they do what they're supposed to, and my test craft fly beautifully. Maybe you could explain it differently and I'll see what I can tweak. All command pods are undergoing re-beautification at the moment, but unfortunately now it conflicts with finals week at uni. I'll push the wings and other Squad replacement odds and ends out tomorrow, as I finally solved all the issues with those (6 hours of my life I'll never get back). For Porkworks stuff, I'll say this originally started out as a texturing project (see other project if you can find it), but basically that just adds a lot of RAM usage so I went this route instead. Included in the next release are B9 replacements for the two Mk2 fuselage parts from Squad. It would basically be easier to make my own versions of things like passenger cabins for Mk2 rather than try to re-texture his stuff. One thing I wish I could do is duplicate the "feel" of his wings, as they look thin but still feel very solid. The scope of this project is limited though to direct use of B9 textures unless there is absolutely no other way to do something. For the guy that asked for S2-Wide loading ramp, I've got some mock ups done but the issue is that for it to be useful I'd need to make also a floor inset for the cargo bay (or replace the bays with alternate versions) so we'd have a perfectly flat surface to run on. In testing, any rover I took up the ramp basically blew tires or flipped out, even if they looked like they should be straddling the "maintenance pit."

Yes it will. I have an alpha pack for testing, but when I decided to delete my Squad folder and reinstall just that, I got a weird bug that locks up the game when it loads (on Squad models). I've spent the last 4 hours troubleshooting and still haven't found the issue. I literally pulled my entire gamedata folder, one sub-subfolder at a time, and the problem persisted until I pulled my very last Squad props folder. I started putting folders back one at a time and it choked on the Squad folder (only). No idea at all what's up, it seems to be a bug with the latest Squad version off Steam near as I can figure. Anyways, I know my original supplemental parts work just fine, there's just issues with the Squad replacements. It chokes on one of parts permanently and damages the Squad parts (eh?) I just need to figure out which one - that's my theory... Get the goodies here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/o0s5vkncxiqbae9/D12earlyAlpha.zip This contains about 5 new engines, drop tanks, Mk1 Cargo Bay, 1 new cockpit, and a rollup fix file from the community for B9 fixes (but does not include engine fixes yet until I declare them safe). Does not include any Squad replacement parts (wings, adapters) until I safety check them. --------------- Update: All parts are safe, I think the method I was using to knock out the replaced Squad parts wasn't playing well with either RPM, the latest 2.0.3 Module manager, or Active Texture Management. I'll troubleshoot a bit more and do a fuller release later. ----- Update 2: For everyone developer's future reference, exporting a 4x4 .mbm from Unity is bad, mmmkay? If you want to knock out a part: - Find a 13kb sized .mbm from somewhere, make copies of it, use it to exactly replace the model00x textures in the folder. No more, no less. This will hang the loading in odd places if done wrong. - Do not completely erase the part.cfg file. Put in it just "PART {}". A completely blank .cfg will hang the system immediately on load. - I'll do some further experimenting. I really wanted to avoid batch files again, as it wasn't user friendly when I used it before with the texture reduction pack.

I knew that was an issue, I just had no idea exactly how to call it so trying to look up how to fix it was fail. But now I know. You are now also responsible for a release delay while I apply this to some models

I started experiments with docking ports already. The stock shielded one will get an extender of 2-3 meters and will be surface mounted...still probably squared though. The stock inline I've already almost completed, there will be a 2m 1.25 cargo bay with the first release, and I'm putting together the animation for a 1.5m long inline docking port based on that. I may also make a 3rd one with the nosecone idea, maybe flip the entire top of the cone down...or spread it like a giant claw. I'll throw that other one on the list of adapters. Adapters are easy to make and look good, they're just very tedious work. ***general update*** I've finally muscled my way through all stock wings and ailerons, and I'm fairly happy with the results. I'll definitely revisit them later and retexture, but for now they look decent. The whole system builds like a giant puzzle, and after much cursing at Unity, the ailerons and canards actually rotate correctly in all situations. Next steps are to re-export all the rotors/engines, odds and ends, and the cockpits that don't require custom internals (about half) and do an alpha release hopefully in the next 5-6 hours. 2 versions are planned: Squad Knockout - Replaces select stock parts, and adds additional non-stock parts. Supplemental - Adds different versions of stock parts to the catalog (doesn't replace anything) and adds additional non-stock parts. The only requirements will be the original B9 download, module manager, and you should probably update your FireSpitter plugin. Some engine sounds are borrowed from Firespitter for now, so if you have full Firespitter installed you'll get everything sounding good, if not some parts will be silent. I have basic sound files for what I want, I just need to find a good sound editor to trim down the files before I include them. There's no need to re-release B9 or include any actual files from B9 on my part. This is meant as an expansion, so when B9 is updated everything should work just fine.

Yep, finally got it to work. It was frustrating because I remember doing it a long time ago for consolidating the Squad internals into a single folder (and chopping out about 2/3 the memory hit...may do that again). The trick is the ordering. I went back through and realized everywhere it worked was because I put the textures that I wanted to use somehow in alphabetical order first, either by folder or naming convention, so when it processed the config the texture it wanted was already in memory. To make sure, I made an "Xpansion" folder inside the B9_Aerospace folder to place everything (loads after all else in B9), and all is smooth. You don't even need the dummy files. The system also doesn't deal well with texture names with "_" in them, but B9 only has 2 or 3 of those and I can use FS to get around that. There will be a specific sub-folder for all Squad replacements, and I'll have 2 separate downloads for that. The Knockout version will replace, the Supplement version will just add to. I'll include a 3x3 structural wing per your request, as I had it made but the new joint strengthening made it mostly unnecessary. I kept the bigger wings at perfect 1.5m x 3m incremental scale (with only squared-off bounding boxes right inside the flat parts) so you can puzzle piece them together into any shape you want and they should still look ok. These aren't simple resizes, I actually went back in Blender for them. They may be a little off if you load them as a replacement into an existing save game, but the aircraft will still function, you'll just need to adjust them a little in the VAB. Two reasons, when I placed them in 2D to take pictures, they may get warped a little strangely by Blender. Also, some of them are just early models that were made when I had never touched a 3D modeling program before. I actually don't expect people to use every model, just keep the ones that appeal to you and delete the others. I tried to make a part for every niche I could think without over-spamming (I have a lot of failures and stuff that just didn't fit in my unity folders), but everyone has different ideas of what niches need filled.

Beta Release candidate 1 - D12 Aerotech! The D12 Aerotech Expansion for B9 Without further ado, included are: * 6 basic wing sizes (covers 3 rectangular and 4 delta shapes) - 6 Alternate models for each * Swept wing with 7 alternate models and larger "swept" wing set for more fun. * Full set of configurable canards and winglets (2 catalog parts). * 3 basic control surface sizes with 9 Alternate models for each. * 8 New Cockpits, 2 sets of custom internals. All have internals and are functional. Some have alternate model meshes. Includes 0.625m escape pod. * Folding wing set with 3 alternates. * Two Swing Wing sets - X-02 and F-14 version. * Intakes in B9 style to replace stock intakes, along with Mk1 Bicoupler intake with alternate meshes, lateral mount resize for F15 style * B52/58 Style Engine * 4 Rotor types - Dual Rotor, Heavy Lifter, Futuristic Buzzer, and Whispercraft * Fully configurable Turbo-prop engine * B9 Quality replacements for Stock Mk2 parts * 1.25m x 1m Fuel tank with alternate models, 1.25 x 2m cargo bay. * Flotation system (single catalog part) * Drop Tanks in 2 sizes with alternate shapes (fuel configurations coming soon). * Stock nosecones, small adapter, and tail replacements with 7-10 alternate models each. * Missile Construction System - Single missile with 6000 combinations (requires Romfarer.dll - sold separately). * FAR friendly on select parts (FAR sold separately). All this for about 15 MB in RAM load and HD space, and a net 15 catalog entries (if you knock out Squad replacements). You must have: The very latest Firespitter plugin release (included under license) and, of course, B9 Aerospace installed. DOWNLOAD Note: I will be updating this download periodically until B9's next version release, then it will go to Curse. Report all bugs and suggestions in this thread. If you don't like something, explain a bit and suggest alternatives. As always, RTFM (included) before reporting a bug or "feature." Still to come: 1. VTOL converting Jet Engine and Prop 2. Firespitter procedural rotors and propeller integration. 3. Configurable fuels in various things. 4. Full Skillful integration. 5. Landing gear gaps will be filled. Released under the same license as B9 Aerospace. -NC SA- All texturing is adapted from Bac9's B9 Aerospace pack. All meshes loosely adapted from the same. Special thank you to Snjo and his continuing work on Firespitter, without which this wouldn't be possible.