DevNotes: "something rather brilliant from RoverDude"

[Tankman101]

Fair enough.

Anyway I'm done, everything that could be discussed from this has been.

[DBowman]

RoverDude - I was wondering if it was possible to use a MM .cfg 'tweak' to make the ModeuleDeployableRadiator orient face on to the sun rather than edge on? maybe a different raycastTransforName? (I've no idea what it is but it sounds like orientation control and maybe there is another named transform that would do face on)

[SAI Peregrinus]

RoverDude - I was wondering if it was possible to use a MM .cfg 'tweak' to make the ModeuleDeployableRadiator orient face on to the sun rather than edge on? maybe a different raycastTransforName? (I've no idea what it is but it sounds like orientation control and maybe there is another named transform that would do face on)

But then they'd heat up from the sun instead of cooling down. Radiators SHOULD be edge-on.

[Kuu Lightwing]

Not cool, RoverDude.

If they were cool they would be bad radiators, so they are hot, not cool.

awesome work dude

[DBowman]

SAI Peregrinus - for sure they would, I was thinking to use the model for another purpose.

[AlexinTokyo]

@DBownman - should be possible; IIRC that's how the Heat Management (not Control) mod's author hacked solar panels into radiators.

[NecroBones]

They are not magical

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, as Arthur C. Clarke said?

[Renegrade]

Also apparently theres enough space in I-Beams to house liquid cooling pipes.

There's enough space in an I-Beam to perform CREW TRANSFER, I don't see what the problem is here~

[NecroBones]

There's enough space in an I-Beam to perform CREW TRANSFER, I don't see what the problem is here~

Apparently the crew is very squishable.

Either that or they can flow through pipes too.

[Mischief]

They are magical - magically delicious.

They are a must have for Jool aerobreaks and ships running nukes for a long burn on heavy loads between worlds. Also for any serious attempt at a sundive.

[Mister Kerman]

Thanks for the awesome looking parts so soon RoverDude! You guys provide a lot of great content. Everybody appreciates SQUAD's hard work, I think; even the complainers.

[justidutch]

For sure the complainers love new parts - new stuff to complain about! Let's just hope they become stay civil...

[pincushionman]

There's enough space in an I-Beam to perform CREW TRANSFER, I don't see what the problem is here~

I was about to say the same thing. I had a craft where - to my surprise - I was able to transfer crew through a probe body, a girder segment, an IR hinge, and a decoupler. In that order. A handwave "it just sucks heat out, we don't want to bother representing the internals" works for me here.

[Kuu Lightwing]

Phew, I-beam... You can transfer kerbals through a KLAW!

[KrazyKrl]

I always took stuff like crew transfers, and fuel transfers (and now heat transfers); as "this action implies an EVA, this function implies internal/external ullage, piping, and pumps." Some abstraction is needed for very low level stuff; needing to manually pipe your fuel tanks by affixing fuel lines around every I-Beam just doesn't add anything to the game.

[AbacusWizard]

I always took stuff like crew transfers, and fuel transfers (and now heat transfers); as "this action implies an EVA, this function implies internal/external ullage, piping, and pumps."

Crew transfer can't be EVA, though, because you can transfer tourists, and tourists aren't allowed outside the ship.

My theory is that kerbals actually have crew teleporters built into every internal seat, but they're very limited teleporters and require physical contact to work.

[Yakuzi]

@RoverDude, do the engine pre-coolers also radiate heat in a similar fashion as your new panels?

[monstah]

I was about to say the same thing. I had a craft where - to my surprise - I was able to transfer crew through a probe body, a girder segment, an IR hinge, and a decoupler. In that order. A handwave "it just sucks heat out, we don't want to bother representing the internals" works for me here.

Phew, I-beam... You can transfer kerbals through a KLAW!

Really, the girder segment is the killer. It doesn't even have any volume.

- - - Updated - - -

On topic, I think the abstraction of cooling tubes, just like RCS tubes, really okay. Makes placement more flexible.

But if someone wants to go hardcore, is it hard to mod so that you drain heat from what's closer?

[Sharpy]

By the way, did anyone notice you can escape the Kerbol system currently?

At least the trajectory says so. Still need to try that for real.

[Laie]

By the way, did anyone notice you can escape the Kerbol system currently?

At least the trajectory says so. Still need to try that for real.

Getting on an escape trajectory has been possible since time immemorial. You can't really leave as there is no other SOI for you to enter, though, so it only means that you will fly away, away, away, and never come back.

There's even contracts to eject asteroids out of the solar system. And, minor nitpick: it's the Sun.

[Candlelight]

I know i am way too late, but still.....RADIATORS!

[Laie]

Hmmm. There is one small thing I don't like about them.

Folded ladders, folded panels, radial chutes: I'd very much prefer if they could be considered to be dragless. Of course, they need to be on the outside of the vessel for us to interact with them. It's pretty difficult to click something that's hidden below the surface. But it doesn't take a huge leap of imagination to pretend that they are flush with the surface and do not create drag or exceptional heat.

Now these radiator things are very much *not* flush with the surface. They stick out quite a bit, and create dramatic mach/reentry effects. In their case, the make-believe will be quite a bit harder.

[Sharpy]

Getting on an escape trajectory has been possible since time immemorial. You can't really leave as there is no other SOI for you to enter, though, so it only means that you will fly away, away, away, and never come back.

There's even contracts to eject asteroids out of the solar system. And, minor nitpick: it's the Sun.

I think I've been extending my trajectory indefinitely and it was still an ellipse, if huge. Now there's an escape trajectory. Unless I'm imagining things.

[DBowman]

@DBownman - should be possible; IIRC that's how the Heat Management (not Control) mod's author hacked solar panels into radiators.

thanks I see that he's specifying some 'suncatcher' transform - I guess the transforms are 'baked' into the .mu. How can one find what transforms are in a model - I dont' know anything about modelling. My next step would be to try some 'random' raycastTransformName=Panel_005 say, then figure out how to 'open' the .mu and see if it's obvious ...but if anyone can tell me off the top of their head that would be great.

[Randazzo]

thanks I see that he's specifying some 'suncatcher' transform - I guess the transforms are 'baked' into the .mu. How can one find what transforms are in a model - I dont' know anything about modelling. My next step would be to try some 'random' raycastTransformName=Panel_005 say, then figure out how to 'open' the .mu and see if it's obvious ...but if anyone can tell me off the top of their head that would be great.

Actually, those radiator panels were always radiator panels, I just borrowed them

I did however use the deployable solar panel module to enable them to track edge-facing the sun, but this didn't really do anything at the time aside from provide some extra visual candy, and I did have to change the model itself to get them to track properly. The new radiator deploy module uses the same sort of tracking, so I was able to just drop the new module in and go.

Suncatcher is an object within the model that has no mesh, a plane which tells the animation what direction to point at the sun. It tracks the local Y+ axis towards the sun, I believe. To answer your original query, you will not be able to make them track differently without changing the orientation of the transform object that is tagged by the module. Having looked at the model (for the large deployable) it appears that every mesh object has the same local orientation, so it wouldn't matter which panel you used, it would still face it's edge to the sun.

Edited June 24, 2015 by Randazzo