Nertea

KSP 1.12.x Kerbal Atomics [1.3.4] Last Updated August 18, 2024 This part pack is designed to provide some new nuclear thermal rockets for your spaceship-building pleasure. There are eight new engines, one in the 3.75m size class, four in the 2.5m size class, two in the 1.25m size class and one in the 0.625m size class. They are fuelled with LiquidHydrogen, and in some cases can use Oxidizer to boost their thrust at the cost of specific impulse. Liquid Hydrogen is less dense than liquid fuel, so for the same Delta-V, you will need more tank volume. To store your liquid hydrogen fuels, I've provided ModuleManager/B9PartSwitch configs that allow you to change the contents of stock tanks between LF/O, LH2/O, LF, O and LH2. These should work with most mod tanks, but no promises. However, Liquid Hydrogen is very temperamental and without the proper storage it will slowly evaporate ("boil off"). Therefore, I provide special cryogenic tanks bundled with the mod, that use a small amount of Electric Charge to stop the evaporation. This mod is designed to synergize well with Cryogenic Engines, and with the various Near Future Technologies mods I make. It is also fully integrated into the Community Tech Tree. Full Screenshot Gallery Frequently Asked Questions Q: RealFuels support? A: Talk to RealFuels people, not my issue. Q: Oxidizer isn't LOX, it's something else! A: You are completely free to do whatever you like and change it Q: How do I stop the engines from using LH2 and use LF instead? A: Install the NTRsUseLF patch in the Extras folder. Q: Why can't I refuel the Emancipator? A: It's a cheaty engine. It has a disadvantage. If you want to refuel it, you need to download NF Electrical and install the high complexity reactor integration patch. Licensing All code and cfgs are distributed under the MIT License All art assets (textures, models, animations) are distributed under an All Rights Reserved License. All bundled mods are distributed under their own licenses. Download Mirrors Primary (SpaceDock) Secondary (CurseForge) Tertiary (GitHub) Issue Tracking and Source If you appreciate this project, please consider contributing to my caffeine addiction! I really appreciate it, and also helps justify this time sink to my wife , which results directly in more models.

This is a MAJOR update. I don't expect everything you build to be fully compatible (though no part names have changed so your stuff will be safe). The biggest change is the implementation of a soft boiloff mechanic. Liquid Hydrogen will now slowly evaporate from most tanks. This is slowish, but will cut into your fuel reserves on long trips. Plan accordingly, or... use the new insulated tanks (gold foil tanks). These tanks use a stream of ElectricCharge to stop the boiloff. As a penalty they are a bit more costly and have a slightly worse mass ratio. However, the non-insulated lifter tanks have better mass ratios than they used to. CryoEngines 0.2.0 Deprecated BDAnimationModules Bundled a new plugin, DeployableEngines, which does the things that BDAnimationModules did Added situation masks to contract parameters Fuel tanks containing LiquidHydrogen are now split into lifting tanks and insulated tanks Lifting tanks are all standard stock fuel tanks Lifting tanks have good mass ratios, but LiquidHydrogen contained in them boils away over time Insulated tanks are the large gold foil tanks that used to be in NF Propulsion Insulated tanks have poor mass ratios, but consume ElectricCharge to stop the LiquidHydrogen from evaporating Changes to the base masses, mix ratios and capacities of LiquidHydrogen tanks

@Starbuckminsterfullerton, @Psycho_zs, both are cool FX things to have! I'm planning on releasing tomorrow barring any major bugs. The enhanced reactor support with an NFE patch is going to take longer so is planned for 0.1.1 (I need to do development and testing of new code).

It's pretty obvious that the dev copy is indeed a dev copy. In fact, it's so dev that "CryoStuff" will never exist as a real mod, it's two mods, CryoEngines and KerbalAtomics, that just happen to interdepend so much that they are packaged for testing. So if something accidentally gets bundled in my "package up before work" time, it's probably not going to be in those. I try to check the forums every day, but may not post and certainly may not make a test release. That's a pretty nice ship. Good find on the capture parameter, I'll remember to look into that again when fixing NF construction. Found a number more things to add - situation masks for CryoEngines, CTT support for CryoTanks/KerbalAtomics, move some patches from CryoEngines into CryoTanks, clear out EngineLight from KerbalAtomics... surface FX for KerbalAtomics... lots of stuff.

Maybe last test version? Increased LH2 tank cfg masses New version of fuel switch patch Finalized art for Neptune (specular, normals, emissives, ddses) Shrouds for all NTRs

I claim insufficient coffee. renderrrrrrs fJUG3

@Fraz86, that table you posted, that's total masses, not dry masses, right? Just asking because you mention adjusting in the cfg, where dry masses are specified.

Yes that's correct. They fold and can therefore minimize cross sectional solar orientation, which helps minimize solar heat interception as well.

Probably looks like the easiest case scenario is to run the reactors as simple generators, unless NFE is installed, where they will take on the properties of NFE reactors. That will also cause them to act more like "real" NTR reactors, ie you'll have to warm them up before getting optimal thrust and stuff, and will be able to run them at very low power to extend core life and generate energy off the generator portion. Will have to work on that code a bit, but most of it is in NFE as well. I'm not going to "officially" release it, but it's always available for people to use given the friendly license requirements. Cheers, thanks. If it just looks orange, your normal maps aren't loading. What graphics settings are you using?

That is actually a known issue listed in the OP. I didn't manage to scare up any prop sounds that I liked before release. I've added it as a git issue, you can track the progress there.

Version X4 Increased LH2 tank base capacities in accordance with above New version of fuel switch patch in accordance with above Finalized art for Stubber (specular, normals, emissives, ddses) More art for Neptune (not done yet though :() Matched 1.25m engine LH2 FX colours to 2.5m FX Reduced all LH2/OX NTR Isps to 500-530s range from 600-650s Ported Chelyabinsk to DeployableEngines (now no longer ship BDAnimationModules with this) Fixed missing sounds on everything (man i need to get some new sounds...) Fixed incorrect DeployableEngines dll Todo: Trimodal reactor generators use up uranium? Open to discussion Shrouds for all! Finish Neptune art ??? (what have I missed to release these versions of mods)

@Fraz86I think I forgot a few things. Hazard of putting a build together right before work, some things didn't propagate right...

Looks like I did not ship the correct version of the plugin. It will be fixed in tomorrow morning's release. As I understand it, you can make it so slow that it's effectively lossless, it's just pretty heavy. Check out the DRA5.0 architecture. Good, I suppose. This doesn't happen with any other engines though? Yes, lifters don't need a ZBO tank, that's kinda the point... For orbital use, you pay a mass penalty, the default one in the tanks plus the weight of the generation equipment (10 Ec/s for a large 3.75m tank is a bit of an ouch, given that most stock panels generate 2 Ec/s). I can't make the mass penalty too bad because the scales in the stock system are not large enough to make the nukes sensical, and stock KSP's stupid nuke Isp to fuel density ratio has spoiled 90% of players to expect magic NTR performance. I'm not sure you fully comprehend just how different conceptually the idea of losing your hard earned DV works from stock, too. It's a large departure, and someone picking up CryoEngines for the first time will likely initially be quite confused when their fuel evaporates! Their first question will be how to stop it, and if they can't, some people will just give up on the mod. I don't want that. My goal in all my mods is,as stated a few times in my thread, to bring in relatively simple challenges that are eminently solveable given the systems I give people, and hopefully solveable in a way that mirrors the solutions that space entities would need to take in real life. You want the best chemical fuel? You have to pay a mass and power generation penalty. Sure, it isn't realistic completely. Neither are 1000x thrust multiplied ion engines :P. But if you play my mod, and enjoy it, maybe you'll be interested enough to dive into those concepts further, and head to @NathanKell's projects :P. Think of NFT as a gateway drug to realism concepts :P.

Pretty unlikely. CryoEngines is done until next cycle. Are you suuuure? I tested this this morning with no problems.... Yes it does, because adding OX adds lots of fuel mass. When you switch to LH2/OX mode, it's like adding another few tons of LH2. Its denser. Without adding more fuel volume you'll always increase DV in this case.

Does that at all mean that custom FX is possible now?

It's not too tough. Just create a few bones or dummy objects to act as them. Parent the ones you want to use to link to the gimballed mesh to the GimbalBone. Then, split off the parts you want to deform (typically just the pipes) and skin them as you would any kind of human/organic/deformable mesh in your modeler. Unity should import that mesh as a SkinnedMesh, and voila, deforming pipes! I'm not sure what your modeler is so I can't be much more specific, as 95% of the work is done in there. Nice texture work btw

Test X3 Liberator art completion: normal maps, heat animation, FX pass No shroud yet (haven't decided on design) Poseidon art completion: normal maps, heat animation, FX pass No shroud yet (haven't decided on design) Completed art is now ddsed (won't load as white anymore) Added placeholder (kinda ok, kinda not) 1.25m NTR plumes Added WIP Stubber NTR Initial start balance vales for NTRs added in (please take a look) Newest balance fixes to CryoTanks fuel switch patches Few tweaks to boiloff code for speed and useability Fixed a bug where having no boilable fuel on a CryoTank would cause weird things to happen Fixed empty CryoTanks evaporating fuel elsewhere on the ship UI improvements for CryoTanks Switched from BDAnimationModules to custom DeployableEngines code for Liberator and Poseidon's deployable engines, fixing many problems (source is in the usual place). Note CryoEngines still use the old method, I'll move them over if there are no problems. Now taking balance notes on the 4 new NTRs (and the LVN for comparison). Here's the conceptual list: LV-N is entry-level 1.25m, can only use LH2, has no gimbaling. Mass reverted to 2.5t though and heating reduced. Neptune is advanced 1.25m, can use LH2 or LH2Ox for more thrust (less Isp). All specs slightly better than LV-N, weighs a bit more, higher cost. Also generates passive power (next test update will have this consume uranium) Stubber is specialized 1.25m, can use LH2 or LH2Ox. Lower footprint, better atmo Isp, but lower vac isp than LV-N Poseidon is initial 2.5m, can use LH2, LH2Ox. Should be about 4 Neptunes. Also generates passive power (next test update will have this consume uranium) Liberator is advanced 2.5m, can only use LH2 though. Generates much heat. Highest Isp, thrust.

Maybe hold off on that. I wrote my own extendable nozzle module to get around some other peculiarities of BDAnimationModules, will be test released tomorrow morning (~10 hours from now). This may fix some problems. @Starbuckminsterfullerton, I can't repro the pipes disappearing. It's probably because they're a skinned mesh, and KSP hates those randomly... maybe the next version will fix it (I rexported)?

Is this a new thing? Or was this an old cryoengines bug?

Yeh. They both probably need to be closer in ratios to stock tanks. Maybe 5% and 10% penalties or even lower. I think I fixed it, but it's weird that it wasn't showing up in the old version.

The list is pretty much my signature! https://www.dropbox.com/s/by2red6a3lnkpbj/CryoStuff_X2.zip?dl=0 Here's a new test of cryostuff. Fixes/changes: Converted all cryo engines to 15:1 fuel ratio Fixed a number of bugs in boiloff module, including better UI, Ec usage tracking. Catchup is also enabled now Added in WIP 1.25m nuclear engine for testing Changes to the fuel switching patch. My own thoughts - it's getting better. NTRs are still weird though. The really poor LH2 dry mass ratios are being quite annoying and I might need to rethink that. Try toggling the LH2/LANTR modes on them with the various tank types and see what I mean. It's weird when DV goes up when decreasing Isp (in LANTR mode), even though this makes sense when looking at fuel masses.

I've discovered that I don't particularly care about perfectionism in this respect so uh, as the kids these days say, whatevs. I did spend all that effort matching the model footprints to stock tanks so might as well use that. What would you do then for default size? LH2 amount = total stock equivalent tank units* 5 (the approximate volume conversion)? That would mean for a J64 sized LH2 tank, there would be 48,000 LH2 (6400 total LFO)?

All of my stuff is permissively licensed, and typically modular enough that anyone can use it. For this plugin it's very simple and easy: MODULE { name = SimpleBoiloff FuelName = LqdHydrogen // in % per hr BoiloffRate = 0.06 // in Ec per 1000 units per second CoolingCost = 0.10 } You put the name of the fuel to be boiled in FuelName. Multiple fuels are not supported at the moment, but several SimpleBoiloff modules can exist on a part with no problems. BoiloffRate is specified in % per hour, so with a rate of 0.06, 0.06% of a fuel tank will boil off every hour. If a fuel has no CoolingCost specified, it will always boil off, but if CoolingCost is specified, it will use EC to insulate itself and avoid boiloff. EC cost is specified per 1000 units, so if a CoolingCost of 0.5 is specified and a tank has 10 000 units of fuel, it will cost 5 EC/s to insulate.

@Fraz86 I'll be testing those changes, they look promising but I'll have to see how it plays out with NTRs and ZBO tanks. @blowfish, not sure I like that. As a player I would be confused if suddenly a fuel that I 'understood' was evaporating (particularly if it is only when it is in a tank with LH2), vs a new fuel type that can be considered an unknown quantity. That being said the boiloff plugin is pretty configurable and could probably do separate boiloff rates easily. I also finished up the modeling, unwrapping and blocking out of the texture for the 1.25m trimodal NTR. I'm pretty pleased with it as the plumbing is totally rad. That just leaves 2 planned engine models (and texture work on the 2 trimodals) before I complete the model-related goals.

Sierra, we're discussing a baseline same ISP comparison. Cryoengine ISP is usually significantly more.