A bunch of bugs - RSS/KerbalEngineer+ProceduralParts/HeatControl+Ablator

[MatterBeam]

Hello.

I have an RSS install. Sadly (with or without RSS), I have the following bugs:

-Kerbal Engineer + Procedural Parts: If I place an engine under a procedural tank, the dV and TWR are calculated normally. No issues. If a tank is placed radially, there are no problems. If I place two procedural tanks in series, Kerbal Engineer only calculates dV using the fuel from the topmost tank, while using the mass of the entire assembly.

For example, if I have a 100u tank on top of a 500u tank, my dV will appear as only 400m/s. In flight, once I drain the top tank, my dV suddenly increases by 2000m/s.

-Kerbal Engineer + Multiple engines: If I place 3 engines under a fuel tank, dV, initial TWR and final TWR are calculated instantly and correctly. If I place more than 4 engines of any type, the initial TWR is unchanged. However, dV and final TWR flicker by +/- 10% constantly in the VAB. This does not happen in flight.

-Heat Control + Ablators: Ablator depletion in heatshields is very weird. In a 1.0.2 RSS reentry at 7300m/s, ablator would deplete at a rate of about 0.5u/s at 90km, then at increasing rates until I reach lower speeds.

In the current version, any re-entry instantly destroys my craft at an altitude of about 100km. With Heat Control, re-entry is survivable, but weird.

It seems that ablator depletion rate is proportional to the quantity of ablator remaining.

If I have 800 units, I lose up to 18u/s of ablator despite being in very thin atmosphere (90km+s). The heatshield skin heats up incredibly quickly (278K to 1500K in the uppermost 100-85km of the atmosphere) while the part temperature only increases by 10K. I am slowing down at 0.2 gravities.

As I descend in the atmosphere, the skin temperature increases to a maximum of 2300K. HOWEVER, ablator depletion slows down to 1u/s when I have 20u left, down to 0.0.1/s when I have 0.1u left.

When I have 0.1 units left of ablator in the heatshield, I am slowing down at 5g, my heatshield temperature is 2300K and I am travelling at a velocity of 6000m/s through the 30-40km region of the atmosphere.

While it took seconds to deplete the first 2/3 of my heatshield in the thinnest part of the atmosphere, it takes minutes to use up the final 1% of the heatshield in the thickest, hottest part of re-entry?!

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Please tell me what I need to provide as information to fix these bugs.

[Padishar]

For the KER deltaV calculation bugs the best thing would be to start a fresh run of KSP, load a problem craft in the VAB, click the Settings button in the KER window and then click the "Verbose simulation log" button. Once it has popped out, quit KSP and upload your output_log.txt somewhere and post a link to it in the KER thread along with as much detail about your system setup and installed mods as you can manage. The repeat this with the other problem craft. Uploading the craft files may also be necessary though I would need to set up a KSP install with the same mods so hopefully the verbose log files will enable me to spot where the problem is likely to be...

As for the heatshield issue, I guess NathanKell would be the person to ask about that. Not sure really which thread it should go in so hopefully he will see this one...

[smjjames]

Heat Control isn't compatible with 1.0.4, so there will be issues when you use that.

[NathanKell]

In addition, it sounds like you're trying to use RSS alone (without RO). In that case make sure you have 10.1 of RSS, that includes physics tweaks.

[MatterBeam]

For the KER deltaV calculation bugs the best thing would be to start a fresh run of KSP, load a problem craft in the VAB, click the Settings button in the KER window and then click the "Verbose simulation log" button. Once it has popped out, quit KSP and upload your output_log.txt somewhere and post a link to it in the KER thread along with as much detail about your system setup and installed mods as you can manage. The repeat this with the other problem craft. Uploading the craft files may also be necessary though I would need to set up a KSP install with the same mods so hopefully the verbose log files will enable me to spot where the problem is likely to be...

As for the heatshield issue, I guess NathanKell would be the person to ask about that. Not sure really which thread it should go in so hopefully he will see this one...

I'll return, maybe tonight, with the logs.

Heat Control isn't compatible with 1.0.4, so there will be issues when you use that.

Soryy, I meant Real Heat by Nathan Kell.

In addition, it sounds like you're trying to use RSS alone (without RO). In that case make sure you have 10.1 of RSS, that includes physics tweaks.

I initially used the Physics tweaks from RO, but I do have 10.1

[MatterBeam]

Heat Control isn't compatible with 1.0.4, so there will be issues when you use that.

In addition, it sounds like you're trying to use RSS alone (without RO). In that case make sure you have 10.1 of RSS, that includes physics tweaks.

The problem was physics warp.

I sent a re-entry pod on a 140x140km orbit with a parachute and 968units of ablator, then brought it down to a periapse of 40km. The consumption rates and temperatures were quite normal until I tried physics warping through the exceedingly slow 140-90km descent phase.

Temperatures went bonkers. Ablation rate exploded. The skin temperature of the heatshield descended to 4k, and when I left timewarp at around 20 units remaining, my temperature reading was bonkers (oscillating between 4K and 1600K at about 5 times a second). Ablation rates returned to normal, so I had no ablator from 70km altitude onwards.

Despite having no ablator and still travelling at about 6500m/s, I managed to survive re-entry with a 1200K pod and 2800K heatshield.

- - - Updated - - -

For the KER deltaV calculation bugs the best thing would be to start a fresh run of KSP, load a problem craft in the VAB, click the Settings button in the KER window and then click the "Verbose simulation log" button. Once it has popped out, quit KSP and upload your output_log.txt somewhere and post a link to it in the KER thread along with as much detail about your system setup and installed mods as you can manage. The repeat this with the other problem craft. Uploading the craft files may also be necessary though I would need to set up a KSP install with the same mods so hopefully the verbose log files will enable me to spot where the problem is likely to be...

As for the heatshield issue, I guess NathanKell would be the person to ask about that. Not sure really which thread it should go in so hopefully he will see this one...

I could not reproduce this bug in a fresh install (KER+ PP) or in my modded install. It happened again while I was building in the VAB last night however.

I think the problem is high memory consumption. When I reached 3GB and up to 3.6GB, the KER readings became increasingly buggy. Restarting the game and reloading the vessel I was working on solved all problems.