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

[Jimbodiah]

Yep Someone suggested the last version option. But no doubt when the next patch will come out I will be stuck with 1.1 anyway. So I copied the directory and made a .rar for future use.

 

My 1.0.5 now has the new probe core and heatshield though, and they seem to work.

 

Edited April 20, 2016 by Jimbodiah

[V8jester]

2 hours ago, blowfish said:

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.

Hey can you do this with any Steam game? Play it independent of Steam entirely?

[GoldForest]

8 minutes ago, V8jester said:

Hey can you do this with any Steam game? Play it independent of Steam entirely?

I believe most games on steam can be taken out of the steam directory and placed in another location, though, don't quote me on that.

 

[blowfish]

11 minutes ago, V8jester said:

Hey can you do this with any Steam game? Play it independent of Steam entirely?

I'm not sure.  I know that KSP's steam integration doesn't rely on it being in a specific steam-relative path but I'm not sure about other games.

[V8jester]

4 minutes ago, GoldForest said:

I believe most games on steam can be taken out of the steam directory and placed in another location, though, don't quote me on that.

 

 

3 minutes ago, blowfish said:

I'm not sure.  I know that KSP's steam integration doesn't rely on it being in a specific steam-relative path but I'm not sure about other games.

Cool I'll Have to try that with a couple of my steam games.... Steam bugs the "poopie" outa me. I dunno I just can't bring myself to like it.

[GoldForest]

Just now, V8jester said:

 

Cool I'll Have to try that with a couple of my steam games.... Steam bugs the "poopie" outa me. I dunno I just can't bring myself to like it.

Don't remove any games with steam workshop integration, as this could break all the mods/maps/etc you have downloaded.

[blowfish]

@V8jester Keep in mind that moving KSP out of the Steam directory doesn't cause it to stop talking to Steam.  You can try to purge all the Steam-related parts but it results in a couple of log exceptions because it's built against those libraries.

But anyway, way off topic.

[V8jester]

1 minute ago, blowfish said:

@V8jester Keep in mind that moving KSP out of the Steam directory doesn't cause it to stop talking to Steam.  You can try to purge all the Steam-related parts but it results in a couple of log exceptions because it's built against those libraries.

But anyway, way off topic.

Agreed - But Thank you just the same 

[Shadowmage]

Updated testing release is available -- WARNING - may break fuel tanks again

https://github.com/shadowmage45/SSTULabs/releases/tag/0.4.31-pre4

More fixes and updates, moving along with the volume container functionality and model-switch integration.  Will likely start adding back in the parts that use it shortly (LC-POD's).

[GoldForest]

Anyone else having trouble getting the Soyuz parts to line up?

[GoldForest]

I love this mod, because it lets me do stuff like this.

Yes my friends. That is a Saturn V, boosted by two Falcon Heavies. It's so Kerbal, Jebediah approves!

Also, I think I found a bug. Two actually. When I got into map view, I can't push ship view to get back to the ship, I have to repress map view to get to the ship. Also, the fairings for engines reset to normal size when you right click on them after you've set the fairing bottom width. Does anyone else have these problems or is it just me? If it's just me I'll tinker around a little to find what's causing it, if it is not me, I will go ahead and submit a bug report.

Edited April 21, 2016 by GoldForest

[Shadowmage]

8 hours ago, GoldForest said:

Anyone else having trouble getting the Soyuz parts to line up?

In what fashion are they not lining up? -- vertically, mount sizes, other?

Note that you need to use the V.Scale adjust for the main tank to get it the right height.  And the main tank should be at 1.4375m diameter (yeah its kind of a strange size... but so is the real thing...).

[GoldForest]

Just now, Shadowmage said:

In what fashion are they not lining up? -- vertically, mount sizes, other?

Note that you need to use the V.Scale adjust for the main tank to get it the right height.  And the main tank should be at 1.4375m diameter (yeah its kind of a strange size... but so is the real thing...).

Width wise. The third stage tank under the pod fits perfectly at 1.8etc, but then I go to attach the central first stage tank and it's too wide when I put on the soyuz nose mount.

[Shadowmage]

1 minute ago, GoldForest said:

Width wise. The third stage tank under the pod fits perfectly at 1.8etc, but then I go to attach the central first stage tank and it's too wide when I put on the soyuz nose mount.

Yep, you need to set the core tank to 1.4375m diameter; this will make it line up with the RD-108A mount, and will make the nose-adapter have a 1.875m top mount size at that scale.

[GoldForest]

11 minutes ago, Shadowmage said:

Yep, you need to set the core tank to 1.4375m diameter; this will make it line up with the RD-108A mount, and will make the nose-adapter have a 1.875m top mount size at that scale.

I'll try it out. Also, what scaleing system are you using for your craft? Are you using the 64% scaling?

[Jimbodiah]

@GoldForest That looks cool. I'm making something similar for Kerbin365 rescale to get enough dV for a Mun mission. Moar boosters!!!  Saturn V got it all wrong; asparagus is where it's at!  

[GoldForest]

2 minutes ago, Jimbodiah said:

@GoldForest That looks cool. I'm making something similar for Kerbin365 rescale to get enough dV for a Mun mission. Moar boosters!!!  Saturn V got it all wrong; asparagus is where it's at!  

Saturn V was actually supposed to receive moar boosters.

Check these out. Those enough boosters for you? Answer: Good enough, but could be moar!

[Shadowmage]

Just now, GoldForest said:

I'll try it out. Also, what scaleing system are you using for your craft? Are you using the 64% scaling?

Yes, or as close as can be done for a given stack size.  Engines are all ~64% of real size (and thrust).  I think the Soyuz parts come in at like 69%, but that was to get them to line up with the 1.875m stack size.

I also use 64%^2 for scaling of engine thrusts AND for scaling of the ShipCore series part masses (0.64 * 0.64 = 0.4096).  This gives a consistent and realistic TWR for these parts when assembled in a scale fashion (granted that I've fudged the volume scaling for those parts and am instead using a scaled mass to determine propellant capacity).

[GoldForest]

13 minutes ago, Shadowmage said:

Yes, or as close as can be done for a given stack size.  Engines are all ~64% of real size (and thrust).  I think the Soyuz parts come in at like 69%, but that was to get them to line up with the 1.875m stack size.

I also use 64%^2 for scaling of engine thrusts AND for scaling of the ShipCore series part masses (0.64 * 0.64 = 0.4096).  This gives a consistent and realistic TWR for these parts when assembled in a scale fashion (granted that I've fudged the volume scaling for those parts and am instead using a scaled mass to determine propellant capacity).

That worked, but you have to mess with the bar and not the arrows to get the size. Any chance you could implement arrows to make it go to the smaller sizes between 1.25 and 1.875 so it is a littler easier?

[Shadowmage]

12 minutes ago, GoldForest said:

That worked, but you have to mess with the bar and not the arrows to get the size. Any chance you could implement arrows to make it go to the smaller sizes between 1.25 and 1.875 so it is a littler easier?

Nope, the sole reason the slider exists is for those 'fine' adjustments.  Not sure how much easier it can get than clicking on a slider.  I sure wouldn't want to have to click the button 20 times to increment between diameters if I used a smaller increment =\ 

[Shadowmage]

4 hours ago, GoldForest said:

[...]

Also, I think I found a bug. Two actually. When I got into map view, I can't push ship view to get back to the ship, I have to repress map view to get to the ship. Also, the fairings for engines reset to normal size when you right click on them after you've set the fairing bottom width. Does anyone else have these problems or is it just me? If it's just me I'll tinker around a little to find what's causing it, if it is not me, I will go ahead and submit a bug report.

Re: Map view -- I don't do anything regarding keybindings etc;  can you confirm that the problem does or does not exist in a stock install / using stock parts?

Re: Fairing -- known issue.  The bug is actually that fairings can be enabled on many mounts where they should be permanently disabled (e.g. the NONE mount should not have fairings enabled at all).

[RedParadize]

Quick question:

The MUS tanks RCS power displayed in the context menu, is it per truster, per direction or overall?

[Hoddd9000]

Holy flipping friolies, this pack looks copiously amazing. Going to try it once 1.1 decides to run properly on my PC.

[RedParadize]

It is insanely good yes.

[Shadowmage]

2 hours ago, RedParadize said:

Quick question:

The MUS tanks RCS power displayed in the context menu, is it per truster, per direction or overall?

Per nozzle / thrust transform.  Multiply it by the # of nozzles facing in a particular direction to derive the thrust for that input axis; e.g. for ullage there are 8 nozzles for z+ thrust, so the thrust will be 8x whatever is listed on the GUI.

 

General Development Update:

You know whats scary?  Trying to do research on rocket engines.... and your own engine renders keep showing up on google searches.  Creepy stuff.  Sadly, it never helps me locate the info that I'm actually looking for (e.g. was searching for Merlin rocket engine dimensions; keep finding untextured renders of RL10, RS-68, F-1, J-2....).  ( https://www.google.com/search?q=spacex+falcon+engine+layouts&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=sb&biw=1920&bih=912&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi2w5jMmKDMAhVjr4MKHewYAhQQ_AUIBigB )

 

Current near-future plans, mostly in-currently-planned-order:

• Finish up the WIP projects -- modelswitch, volumecontainer, boiloff?
• Adjust all resource-containing parts to use the new volume container, add patches for other specific mods  (e.g. add storage to command pods for LS stuff)
• Re-add Lander-Core pods.  Maybe even finish up the textures for the LC2-IVA since it is done geometry wise.
• Balance pass on costs, mass, tech-tree placement; initial cleanup for usability in career mode.
• Some minor tech-tree re-arrangement of a few stock parts; yes the stock progression bugs the ____ out of me in some regards... so I'm going to 'fix' it.
• Initial public 'stable' release.  Most parts and plugins are getting to the point where I cannot see needing any more broad/breaking changes to them.  This will entail opening up a new thread in the 'Add-On Releases' section of the forums, and I'll start working on branched development (stable+bugfixes, dev)
• Merlin rocket engines - would like to have these finished and added in for the initial 'public' release, but they might come as part of the first post-release update.
• Modular Cargo Bay module and parts (multiple geometry variants).  Not sure if/when these will be done.... but I can certainly see some uses for them.
• More MFT variants -- cryo fuels, spherical, semi-octagonal containers, radial-tanks.  Not sure if/when these will be done.... but I can certainly see some uses for them.
• Take a break and play some KSP     This is actually a -very- important step... as it will allow me to mull over what other parts/series that I will need to do, as well as give me some personal experience regarding the general balance.  Haven't sat down and tried to actually -play- since like 1.02 or so; so I'm a bit out-of-touch regarding using my own parts in-game.

 

 

Re: Merlin engines

Anyone have some hard-data on their dimensions?  Schematics, diagrams, blueprints?

After several -hours- of searching, the -only- mention of diameter that I can find is a single reference here: http://spaceflight101.com/spacerockets/falcon-9-v1-1-f9r/  Which gives me an -approximate- diameter for an M1D at ~1m.  I cannot locate a single schematic, diagram, or 3-view drawing.... nothing usable as a detailed reference for any of the Merlin variants.  Lots of pictures; a few renders of other peoples models... but no info on the actual engines....

Notably I need schematics of the bell curves/profiles and some precise dimensions (cm precision or greater, prefer mm precision) for A/B, C, CV, D, and DV versions.  I can find schematics and diagrams for their conference center buildings/launch complex... but nothing on the actual engines   I might be able to fake a lot of it from the images (though I loathe doing so)... but I need at least some precise dimensions for each of the engines.

 

....

Edited April 21, 2016 by Shadowmage