A couple questions about surfaceFX and drag cubes

[little square dot]

Howdy.

First off, I seem to be unable to add surfaceFX that are linked to throttle. I'm sitting on the launch pad with engines deactivated and the throttle at zero, yet the thing's belching smoke like nobody's bidness. **edit: I've just tested all of my engine welds, and they all do this.

Secondly, I was wondering if someone could advise as to how to create a drag cube for my centrifuge that makes it challenging to launch to orbit, but not impossible. Essentially I'd like my absurdly unrealistic drag cube as realistic as possible without eliminating all possibility of getting it aloft. It's about 12m in diameter I believe.

Edited May 11, 2015 by little square dot

[little square dot]

Also, my welded capsules are sinking in the water, which they certainly didn't do pre-1.0. The altimeter should read -283, but I'm guessing it's ticking back into the positives because parts aren't really supposed to sink.

I'm having a heck of a time converting my parts to 1.02...evidently it's a whole lot less weld-friendly. Any help would be appreciated.

*edit: What the eff? Parachuting underwater? It appears as though my welded parts break KSP's physics... which really sucks considering that I've spent well over 1000 hours on the damn things.

Edited May 11, 2015 by little square dot

[little square dot]

Ignore the surfaceFX problem...I had a sneaky non-engine module reference near the top of the .cfgs, so the indexing was off by 1.

...but I still can't get my capsules to float or my parachutes to create more drag.

I don't suppose creating drag-y-er parachutes boils down to overriding default drag cube in the .cfg? I've increased fullyDeployedDrag, increased dragModifier, and even tried scaling up the models, but I'm not seeing a noticeable change in performance.

Although I'm somewhat frightened by drag cubes, I'm thinking I'm probably going to have to dust off the ol' learning cap and figure 'em out.

Edited May 11, 2015 by little square dot

[little square dot]

Evidently PartDatabase.cfg needs deleting after changes to chute values, so figuring out buoyancy is the last of my major issues.

(Don't mind me...I'm just going to talk to myself until this is sorted.)

[MatterBeam]

Have you tried testing these parts in FAR? It uses its own drag-calculation method and might have the behaviour you're looking for.

PS: What's a welded part?

[Captain Sierra]

Have you tried testing these parts in FAR? It uses its own drag-calculation method and might have the behaviour you're looking for.

PS: What's a welded part?

Welded part is a series of stock parts stitched together via MODEL{} nodes in a config file to create a single part with the appearance of many stock parts. Via MODEL{} you can position, rotate, stretch and scale stock parts to your heart's content.

In regards to FAR, FAR might be a good testing ground to quickly gauge what he should be aiming for, but that brings him no closer to getting it to work under stock aero.

@little square dot, I dunno enough about how the drag cubes work to give sound advice. When you do get it, however, I would be much curious so I can apply similar properties to my welded meteoroid shield.