[1.3] The Plugin Workshop - Small plugins of varied function

[brusura]

[quote name='Crzyrndm']I will need a log regarding this issue (a busted config.xml would also be helpful) as I have been unable to replicate any problems with changing the settings

While possible, I don't see why you would need this. The control authority you get from a gimballed engine doesn't depend on your current airspeed or altitude.

On the other hand, I can see uses for varying gimbal by thrust percentage...[/QUOTE]

Too much gimbal makes craft wooble at high speed with sas on

[Crzyrndm]

[quote name='brusura']Too much gimbal makes craft wooble at high speed with sas on[/QUOTE]
Most likely because jet thrust depends on speed which, while it looks the same when it is increasing, is a completely different problem (increasing thrust => increasing control authority). Increasing aerodynamic forces don't have an impact on the torque provided by the engine.

[Ser]

Crzyrndm, Everything seems to be ok, sorry.
That was another mod that must have been spreading bugs all around. Mod errors can affect others in surprisingly ridiculous way. Edited November 24, 2015 by Ser

[brusura]

[quote name='Crzyrndm']Most likely because jet thrust depends on speed which, while it looks the same when it is increasing, is a completely different problem (increasing thrust => increasing control authority). Increasing aerodynamic forces don't have an impact on the torque provided by the engine.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the explanation :) so like you said the problem could be solved with this:?

"On the other hand, I can see uses for varying gimbal by thrust percentage..."

[bgeery]

I love the new SRB Variable Thrust Limiter mod. Such a simple UI addition totally changes the SRBs usefulness. Thanks![URL="https://github.com/Crzyrndm/VariableThrustLimiter/releases"][B][SIZE=4][COLOR=#ff0000][/COLOR][/SIZE][/B][/URL]

[Crzyrndm]

[quote name='brusura']Thanks for the explanation :) so like you said the problem could be solved with this:?[/QUOTE]
Maybe. Do you have a simple craft that exhibits this problem that I could try some things with?

[brusura]

Yep sure!

[url]https://www.dropbox.com/s/ybvbiu0w5y1rg6a/F1-J404.craft?dl=0[/url]

Only 27 of the finest stock parts ;)

[FiiZzioN]

I absolutely love the Variable Thrust Limiter, so brilliant! I've always hated how I couldn't alter their thrust after I got that initial boost that I wanted causing me to hit mach 1.5 at 5 Km... Shortly after that I'd end up with shock heating because you can't change the grain, grain amount, or pattern in stock to hold back from going an absolutely bat-excrements insane speed not 25 - 30 seconds after liftoff. Seriously, this is the type of feature that needs to be implemented into 1.1 whenever it's released. It's not a confusing element, it doesn't conform 100% to realism but it's way better than what we have now, and finally, it just flat out improves gameplay. I mean, why not, it's pretty much always a good decision to add a feature that allows the player even more freedom when designing his / her vehicle.

You should be be quite proud of that little plugin! I've never seen another mod that attempts to reproduce what you've done here.

I'd love to see some more development where, instead of just throttling down via percentage of fuel and the current thrust limiter, to where you could choose your own thrust curve after a given amount of time. Say I want 100% at liftoff, a slow decline of 1% or 2% per second for 10 or 15 seconds, and then after that have a steeper decline. That may not be the optimal thrust curve, but I'm mainly just giving an example.

I'd love to see it implemented, but it's obviously not my plugin, nor is me that has to put the work in to figure out how to accomplish it in game. Anyways, sorry from the rambling! It's just such a great, small mod, but adds so much. 

Thanks, @Crzyrndm!

 

Edited January 4, 2016 by FiiZzioN

[Crzyrndm]

7 hours ago, FiiZzioN said:

I'd love to see some more development where, instead of just throttling down via percentage of fuel and the current thrust limiter, to where you could choose your own thrust curve after a given amount of time. Say I want 100% at liftoff, a slow decline of 1% or 2% per second for 10 or 15 seconds, and then after that have a steeper decline. That may not be the optimal thrust curve, but I'm mainly just giving an example.

First off, thank this guy. it wasn't any idea of mine, I just thought the concept was good (and it was all of 5 minutes to make).
Second, I think a more advanced editor will spoil the plugin. One of its most attractive points is that it takes just one easy to understand input and no time at all to make use of (glance at KER end of stage TWR, set to percentage that gives desired end of stage TWR. Done).

[TaintedLion]

Dynamic deflection is causing all my rockets with controllable surfaces to enter a roll at about 100 m/s with SAS on. I have tested this without DD, and this mod is definitely the cause. It's acting like I'm pressing Q.

[Crzyrndm]

Dynamic Deflection v1.2.0 (the lazy update)
--- Added a new module: ModuleDynamicGimbal - intended for use with the panther and other high gimbal jet engines, it varies the gimbal angle based on the current nominal thrust percentage.

There is all sorts of issues with this since I basically ended up making a copy of the DD module and associated bits and pieces after KSP threw its toys out of the cot and decided it wouldn't load (so the toys got thrown right back...). Hopefully the oddities in the UI is the worst of the copy pasta issues.

Edited February 10, 2016 by Crzyrndm

[Svm420]

@Crzyrndm

I know semi-saturable RWs was never meant to be true to life, but I was curious of the possibility of have a button to despin the rws that would apply the necessary torques to the vessel that could be then cancelled out by say switching on SAS or mechjeb and engaging RCS. I know this isn't a common usage, but was curious if this could even be done. A small bonus of this is it would allow any RCS fuels to be used with Realfuels instead of 1, not sure if multiple are allowed, hardcoded fuel and Isp. I personally play with zero bleed and massively nerf RW strength and love it, and that is why I would want it at all, and it seemed like a more fun/interactive method at the time. Post 1.1 of course Thanks!

[Crzyrndm]

Probably should. Such a tiny change, it'd take more effort to justify not doing it

Post-1.1 of course

[Deimos Rast]

@Crzyrndm Question about the Saturated Reaction wheel mod: Normally (or perhaps it's a feature of TweakableEverything, I don't know), when a reaction wheel has a torque strength of, say, 1.0, in the VAB, 1.0 actually represents the half way point between 0.5 and 2.0, allowing you to tweak it as desired. When I played with this mod previously, the first thing I noticed was that you lose that feature. Is that some how wrapped up in how the torque gets manipulated by this mod or are we just stuck with whatever is in the configs of the particular reaction wheel in question? I'm thinking particularly of reaction wheels that default to "unbalanced" (i.e. 40 x-axis, 20-y-axis) - I'm sure there are good reasons for that, realism and handling and such, but I just hate asymmetry. 

Cheers.

[Crzyrndm]

It's a tweakable everything addition (not stock) hence why it isn't a part of SSRW currently. I was intending to add it at some point in the past, but it would appear I got a little distracted and it never made it. Added to the 1.1 update feature list

[reapersms]

On 2/9/2016 at 3:34 AM, Crzyrndm said:

Dynamic Deflection v1.2.0 (the lazy update)
--- Added a new module: ModuleDynamicGimbal - intended for use with the panther and other high gimbal jet engines, it varies the gimbal angle based on the current nominal thrust percentage.

There is all sorts of issues with this since I basically ended up making a copy of the DD module and associated bits and pieces after KSP threw its toys out of the cot and decided it wouldn't load (so the toys got thrown right back...). Hopefully the oddities in the UI is the worst of the copy pasta issues.

Something inside here is doing Bad Things.

In an RP-0 game, I was trying to build a basic supersonic jet, and anything I built with the avon or the other afterburning engine from the early supersonic tech node would destroy the universe the moment it touched the ground. I see the plane spawn in, drop gently to the ground, and the moment the wheels hit, the screen freezes (thanks to the debug log getting spammed). On the off chance that the UI responds enough to go back to the space center, everything is gone or space, and the only remedy is killing KSP and restarting.

I don't have any of the bits avaliable at the moment, working from memory it was an X1 cockpit, a couple of procedural tanks, B9 proc wings, and some adjustable landing gear bits, plus the engine. I want to say the small engine worked, but I'm not 100% certain about that.

The logs show some NREs from ModuleDynamicGimbal.Update, followed by a ground offset error, and then the view direction being NaN. That NaN rips through all the transforms that touch it, and kerbin collapses into a black hole. Removing DynamicDeflection fixes that problem, but it's somewhat less than ideal, the flight after got ripped apart by some fatfingering on PilotAssistant.

Other things I tried while diagnosing it:

Removed landing gear -- still happens when the fuselage hits the ground

Switching engines -- both of the afterburning engines explode it, don't recall on the small one. X1 engine works, but it's a rocket so it probably doesn't count.

Yanked wings -- still dies

Removing engine -- works

[Crzyrndm]

will investigate, might be an incompatibility with some of the other plugins RO uses

[Crzyrndm]

Dynamic Deflection updated for KSP 1.1, others following as I get to them

EDIT

Add Semi Sat RW, and the SRB thrust limiter to that

Edited April 21, 2016 by Crzyrndm

[Crzyrndm]

All mods should now have 1.1 compatible release versions

[Kowgan]

Thank you so much, Crzyrndm!

[funk]

Thank you for updating.

I have an issue with Variable Thrust Limiter. It is thrusting back no matter what LimiterEnd is set.

I tested it in stock KSP with VTL installed only. For this test I recognized, that MM is missing in the download.

[Crzyrndm]

Yea it isn't specified but MM is required for a number of these (VTL, DD, SSRW, and Thermal Monitor)

Edited April 22, 2016 by Crzyrndm

[funk]

3 hours ago, Crzyrndm said:

Yea it isn't specified but MM is required for a number of these (VTL, DD, SSRW, and Thermal Monitor)

Usually when anyone is using these mods you will have different other mods which come with MM... so just FYI.

I'm not sure if I was clear enough, my main issue is the thrusting of SRBs. I've set LimiterEnd to 100, but the SRB is thrusting back, same for LimiterEnd=0. Am I missing something?

Suggestion: It would be nice to have the possibility to throttle back at a specific moment and for a specific time in future versions. But I'm aware it would address realism only... After a long time I'm playing with FAR again, and my purpose with this mod was to manage maxQ transitions with boosters.

Edited April 22, 2016 by funk

[Crzyrndm]

Ugh, found the issue. Stock thrust limiter is stored as a fraction (0-1) now, not as a percentage (0-100) and I didn't notice...

Fix shortly

[karamazovnew]

I've got to admit, the Variable Thrust Mod is amazing, but it's confusing to work with Mechjeb or Kerbal Engineer. Yes the dV stays the same, but the Burn time and the MaxTWR do not change when you set the LimiterEnd, so glancing at the MaxTWR while you tweak the Thrust setting isn't really perfect, since the Burn time will alter the amount of fuel you have at the end of the stage. Or maybe I'm using it wrong. 

I can't wait for the next SSRW update. Currently, the resource drain doesn't work for me. When I load up any vessel in KCT simulation, the reaction wheels don't provide any torque, so I have to reset my simulation. They do work then, but momentum never decreases and the resources are not used. Everything works fine without resource drain.