[WIP][1.8.x] SSTULabs - Low Part Count Solutions (Orbiters, Landers, Lifters) - Dev Thread [11-18-18]

[Shadowmage]

19 minutes ago, GoldForest said:

*Sighs* The mod is broken thanks to build 1224.

Noted;  I'll do a recompile and publish another test release tomorrow (with a few other fixes).  Resource stuff not quite ready yet; probably for this weekends' release.

[GoldForest]

9 minutes ago, Shadowmage said:

Noted;  I'll do a recompile and publish another test release tomorrow (with a few other fixes).  Resource stuff not quite ready yet; probably for this weekends' release.

Can't wait, love your mod.

Also, would you be okay with me making some craft and posting them here?

[RedParadize]

So glad I didn't update!

[Jimbodiah]

1.1 is a test version. If you want to play the game then don't install 1.1 and stick with 1.0.5 which has a stable SSTU release. The 1.1 is only for testing and helping Mage, not to play your normal game.

Edited April 19, 2016 by Jimbodiah
zpeling

[GoldForest]

Just now, Jimbodiah said:

1.1 is a test version. If you want to play the game then don't install 1.1 and stick with 1.0.5 which has a stbale SSTU release. The 1.1 is only for testing and helping Mage, not to play your normal game.

I know. I am testing it out.

[Jimbodiah]

PS; There is a craft repository for SSTU here: 

 

[Shadowmage]

 

38 minutes ago, Jimbodiah said:

1.1 is a test version. If you want to play the game then don't install 1.1 and stick with 1.0.5 which has a stbale SSTU release. The 1.1 is only for testing and helping Mage, not to play your normal game.

 

12 hours ago, GoldForest said:

Can't wait, love your mod.

Also, would you be okay with me making some craft and posting them here?

 

Pretty much what Jimbodiah said;  it is too early to start posting 1.1 crafts, especially considering that I've already stated there will be breaking changes to resource-holding parts in the next week (which is nearly all of them), which would mean your craft files will break as well and would need to be redone.  (this is why I have never posted any official craft files; I do not have time to remake them for every/other update).

If you would like to contribute 1.05 craft, Jimbodiah has started up a nice thread to keep them all organized; feel free to post up any 1.05 craft files there

 

Working towards getting the 1.1 versions to be 'stable' here in a few weeks.  Still have a few more enhancements/changes to make, a few more parts to re-add and/or fix, and of course still need to do a balance pass over everything.

 

[GoldForest]

19 minutes ago, Shadowmage said:

 

 

 

Pretty much what Jimbodiah said;  it is too early to start posting 1.1 crafts, especially considering that I've already stated there will be breaking changes to resource-holding parts in the next week (which is nearly all of them), which would mean your craft files will break as well and would need to be redone.  (this is why I have never posted any official craft files; I do not have time to remake them for every/other update).

If you would like to contribute 1.05 craft, Jimbodiah has started up a nice thread to keep them all organized; feel free to post up any 1.05 craft files there

 

Working towards getting the 1.1 versions to be 'stable' here in a few weeks.  Still have a few more enhancements/changes to make, a few more parts to re-add and/or fix, and of course still need to do a balance pass over everything.

 

I know, I meant could I help make official craft after the official update drops.

Also, do you plan on adding the Ariane v Vulcan engine?

[Shadowmage]

4 minutes ago, GoldForest said:

I know, I meant could I help make official craft after the official update drops.

Also, do you plan on adding the Ariane v Vulcan engine?

List of engines that I -might- do:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1spJ-M3PJhFfzmbS6p8NZOjsCL3Sq290JSul0keFg7Iw/edit#gid=392634788

It is not final (more may be added), but also no guarantee that I'll do every engine on that list.  Mostly that list is for gathering and comparing of stats so that I can see -if- I need to do an engine (does it fill a unique performance slot?).

So, in the end, it will come down to if that engine is needed or not.  If it is too similar to existing engines stat-wise (or if there is not enough details/images/schematics available) then I will likely not be doing it (as stated before I'm not doing all this to enable you guys to build replicas;  I'm doing this to enable low-part-count lego-rockets for KSP career mode).

 

And... short preview of a very early incarnation of a custom wheel collider replacement solution that I'm working on (almost working well enough to use in-game...):

 

Vehicle is created from three rigidbodies; a central body, and the two side wings, joined together by 'fixed joints'.

Basic suspension works, very basic torque based wheel motor input, very simple rolling and sideways friction model.  The motor torque is quite anemic for this test case, but of course is configurable.  The left/right 'sway' to the body when turning is an emergent property of how the forces are being applied; if you turn left, the vehicle will roll appropriately to the side (as much the suspension allows for its current configuration).  Same with torque from motor input; if the torque is applied to the rear wheels you can watch the front of the vehicle lift up a bit as torque is applied.  Quite pleased with the results so far (and its only like ~20 lines of code!).  And so much more generically applicable than the u5 WC's; you can rotate, orient, move... whatever you want on these components.  Want colliders on the roof of the vehicle?  NO problem (can't do that with u5 WCs!).  Want some angled colliders for the front end, motorcycle style?  Again, no problem (and again, you can't do that with the u5 WCs).

If there are any game-physics experts out there that felt like lending a hand though, would be much appreciated.  Only a 'bit' over my head with this one, though I'm sure I can (with effort) learn the concepts needed to understand the rest of the physics and get it all working.  Mostly I need to figure out how to calculate the forward and sideways friction in a way that... works a bit better.

So far... is working loads better than the u5 wheel collider.  Notice the lack of objects jumping, jittering, or flying around?  Yep, so did I
For reference I can replace my custom WC on that 'vehicle' with the u5 ones, and as long as I have those rigidbodies jointed onto the side it will -always- jump, jitter, or be launched into space (regardless of mass/spring/damper settings).  Something about those RBs and joints is -not- playing nicely with the stock wheel colliders.  And as KSP extensively uses jointed rigidbodies.... that kind of stuff just won't cut it.  Seriously don't understand how these things ever made it into u5 distribution in the state they are in.

The suspension end of things is simple enough to work out reliably, and will probably start integrating that end of things into KSP soon.  The friction model... well... entire books are written on that subject... so I'm going to have to do some research and reading to figure out the best way to handle it.

There is no doubt that this custom solution will be slightly less performant than the stock u5-wcs (unless they are terrible under the hood as well).  Though, they shouldn't be too much worse than the standard for KSP, as they are only using a single raycast to drive the entire simulation (raycast determines hit depth, which determines spring force, which determines the 'down force' exterted by the wheels, which determines the friction to be applied), and only applying forces once per physics frame (per wheel); with existing KSP wheels you -still- have to do the raycast -after- the WC has already done its internal updates (which likely includes some raycasts in the c++/native/physx side of the code).  So who knows, it might end up being about even in the end as long as I can keep all the other calculations optimized.

[Shadowmage]

Updated 1.1 testing release is available:

https://github.com/shadowmage45/SSTULabs/releases/tag/0.4.31-pre2

Several fixes, a few updates... mostly just recompiled against KSP 1.1 retail .dll's.  Also finished up some of these:

(All but H-1 should now have emissives...)

[blowfish]

Uhh, @Shadowmage, perhaps you forgot to push the changes in 0.4.31-pre2 to Github?

[Shadowmage]

7 minutes ago, blowfish said:

Uhh, @Shadowmage, perhaps you forgot to push the changes in 0.4.31-pre2 to Github?

LoL, yep... still have the window sitting open waiting to push.... will be updated momentarily.

[blowfish]

Just wanted to note a stock issue that seems to be affecting SSTU disproportionately so that no one reports it as SSTU by mistake: Viewing a highlighted part through a transparent mesh (i.e. fairing) may cause the part to become invisible (the part behind the fairing, for as long as it is highlighted).  SSTU is heavily affected because so many things have transparent mesh fairings.  Bug report here.

[tater]

Cool, I'll get to test again tonight. 

[Shadowmage]

57 minutes ago, blowfish said:

Just wanted to note a stock issue that seems to be affecting SSTU disproportionately so that no one reports it as SSTU by mistake: Viewing a highlighted part through a transparent mesh (i.e. fairing) may cause the part to become invisible (the part behind the fairing, for as long as it is highlighted).  SSTU is heavily affected because so many things have transparent mesh fairings.  Bug report here.

Thanks for the heads up, probably a good thing I added the transparency toggles   (and also good that it is only in the editor).

 

On that note, blowfish spotted another bug that crept into this release regarding mount/nosecone positioning that I'm working on sorting out currently.

Unfortunately this is right in the middle of the swap-over to the new resource container system, so the next release will have breaking changes regarding the MFT and MUS fuel tanks.  Hopefully will be available here in an hour or so.

[Shadowmage]

Updated testing release is available - WARNING - contains breaking changes to fuel tanks (other parts will have these changes later this week; command pods,etc)

https://github.com/shadowmage45/SSTULabs/releases/tag/0.4.31-pre3

Fix up the mount bug on MFTs, and swap over to the new resource system for MFT and MUS tanks.  See Changelog for full details.

New resource system is very much WIP and likely has some... issues...  but seemed to be working well enough during my limited testing (change/launch/revert/load/save).  Nor is it fully implemented as far as the container modifier types (though some have differing stats/modifiers, they have not been balanced or really tested); boiloff is not yet implemented either.

 

[Jimbodiah]

SSTU featured on the KSP fb page

 

https://www.facebook.com/kerbalspaceprogram/?fref=nf

[Shadowmage]

49 minutes ago, Jimbodiah said:

SSTU featured on the KSP fb page

 

https://www.facebook.com/kerbalspaceprogram/?fref=nf

LoL, nice.  Complete with bugs and everything

At least there is no mention of SSTU that I saw; really not ready for the publicity yet with the mod in its current state.

Can anyone confirm/duplicate the bug that is present there in the recent releases?  (If so, please open a bug report so that I can look into fixing it)

[Jimbodiah]

WTF?!  Was 1.1 just officialy released? Steam updated my game despite having it set to opt out of betas.

[CobaltWolf]

7 minutes ago, Jimbodiah said:

WTF?!  Was 1.1 just officialy released? Steam updated my game despite having it set to opt out of betas.

 

It was released yesterday.

[Shadowmage]

7 minutes ago, Jimbodiah said:

WTF?!  Was 1.1 just officialy released? Steam updated my game despite having it set to opt out of betas.

Well, not 'just'... but yesterday afternoon, yes

 

On that note I expect there will be a 1.1.1, 1.1.2, and 1.1.3 before too long (still some pretty...strange... issues in stock that need sorting out).

[Jimbodiah]

AAAAARRRRRGHHHHH

[V8jester]

42 minutes ago, Jimbodiah said:

AAAAARRRRRGHHHHH

Yup.... Squad broke Jim.......

[Shadowmage]

1 hour ago, Jimbodiah said:

AAAAARRRRRGHHHHH

All is not completely lost;

I believe Steam will let you downgrade to the 'last stable version'... which at this point in time should be 1.05

Right click on KSP in steam, check properties/options/whatever it is called; on the 'betas' tab, select to opt-in to the 'last stable release'.

Disclaimer:  Never tried this myself...

[blowfish]

Also, I'd recommend not modding the Steam install.  Copy the Kerbal Space Program folder out of Steam and then mod it.  That guarantees that Steam won't update it under you and break a bunch of stuff.