Procedural engines?

[imaspacestation]

I know procedural parts mod has a procedural SRB, but is there one like that for LF engines? Being able to design my own engine's thrust and isp would be the final part missing in my KSP experience.

Edited July 2, 2015 by imaspacestation

[Kibble]

It would be pretty complex, but totally worth it! You could choose different fuels, engine cycles, regenerative or ablative cooling, and stuff!

[clivman]

The developer of procedural parts said he didn't want to, but I feel it would be very useful

[HoloYolo]

*cough* Tweakscale *cough*

[Dres]

*cough* Tweakscale *cough*

The Problem is, Tweakscale doesn't let you change thrust specifically, fuel type, etc. Plus it has problems scaling engines (Thrust scales Linearly, but Volume, and by extension, Mass, scale exponentially. m=d*V, V is a Cubic measurement.) You end up with super powerful Tiny Rockets, and relatively weak Massive Rockets.

Edited July 1, 2015 by Dres

[imaspacestation]

Since there doesn't seem to be any such mod currently available, I would like to change this into a request.

Pretty please, anyone? *puppy eyes*

[Borogove]

I'm thinking about implementing this as a command line program that would just generate the engine part according to your specs. Could easily support stock monoprop, biprop, and NTR, plus some basic realfuels options (kerolox, hydrolox, UDMH/NTO).

You'd choose fuel type, vac thrust, and sea level or vac optimization, and it would determine size, weight, cost, etc from that and build the part with its config file. Sound useful?

[Sauron]

To make a more gamey suggestion, consider the following options to tweak (without getting into combustion cycles, etc):

Bell: Varies shape depending on what it's optimized for. This is probably one of the easier things to code for in KSP

Thrust: Modifies size of bell

Piping, turbomachinery, etc: several cosmetic options plus a first-stage (no bottom node) option to save a bit of weight and a compact option (slightly lower TWR to save space)

This would basically cover stack engines pretty well since there's just a bit of mesh switching and only 2 truly tweakable parameters.

[Kibble]

Bell: Varies shape depending on what it's optimized for. This is probably one of the easier things to code for in KSP

Thrust: Modifies size of bell

Piping, turbomachinery, etc: several cosmetic options plus a first-stage (no bottom node) option to save a bit of weight and a compact option (slightly lower TWR to save space)

That's not actually how rocket engines work! The three important values are combustion chamber volume, nozzle throat area (at the top of the bell), and nozzle exit area. The ratio of chamber volume to throat area is fixed, and depends on what fuel mixture you are using - increasing thrust means scaling up the chamber volume and throat proportionally. The ratio of throat area to exit area determines the efficiency at a chosen ambient pressure - usually between 1 atm (sea level), and 0 atm (vac). The shape (curve) of the bell is pretty much always the same, and it is made that way to balance out mach shock waves in the propellant flow.

I would say tweakable options should be fuel (determines alot of stuff, including throat area for a given chamber volume), thrust (makes chamber bigger), and expansion ratio (makes the bell bigger). Also combustion and cooling cycles would be super awesome, there should at the very least be pressure fed vs. gas generator turbopump fed.

[Chrozayis]

I have thought about doing this, unfortunately my experience is with Java not C# or whatever KSP mods are written in, it would be a huge project and I think you you might need an external editor to generate models if you wanted the engine to be in one piece, however somebody could also make tweakable stackable combustion chambers, pumps and bells, that might actually work pretty well.

[hanhan658]

After i read this topic a few days ago i am working on ''Procedural LF Engines'' mod that is surface attachable, it doesnt require nodes. Just attach it to any surfaces. Works best with randomily sized procedural fuel tanks!