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

[JonathanDahlq]

How do I download this? I tried downloading it, putting the "SSTU" folder in GameData and started the game. During loading I always get stuck at SSTU/Parts/ShipCore/General/ProbeCore/SC-GEN-PPC/SSTU-SC-GEN-PPC. Help!

[blowfish]

32 minutes ago, JonathanDahlq said:

How do I download this? I tried downloading it, putting the "SSTU" folder in GameData and started the game. During loading I always get stuck at SSTU/Parts/ShipCore/General/ProbeCore/SC-GEN-PPC/SSTU-SC-GEN-PPC. Help!

The GameData folder in the download also contains ModuleManager and CommunityResourcePack - you also need to install those.

If you have installed those and it's still not working, please read "how to get support" in my signature.  It will tell you how to find and upload KSP's log, which is the only way to figure out what is causing your error.

[JonathanDahlq]

23 minutes ago, blowfish said:

The GameData folder in the download also contains ModuleManager and CommunityResourcePack - you also need to install those.

If you have installed those and it's still not working, please read "how to get support" in my signature.  It will tell you how to find and upload KSP's log, which is the only way to figure out what is causing your error.

Thank you for the quick response! I didn't know ModuleManager were going to be put in there. So, now it works!

[Shadowmage]

12 hours ago, RedParadize said:

@Shadowmage Quick question, is there any equivalent to subtractMass but for cost in SSTUVolumeContainer? Like subtractCost ? 

I have bug to report: If you add a KIS container to SSTUVolumeContainer on a pod. It will set seat KIS volume to 0.

Interesting.  Have added it to the things to investigate; however I won't be able to do anything on it until there is a KIS for 1.2 (as the mod is now fully built for 1.2, there is no going back).

And yes, the source posted on Github pretty much -is- the documentation for the PartModules.  Quite a few are fully commented and should tell you exactly what the variables do.  The rest should be able to be deciphered from the code with a bit of work/reading (if you can read c# that is).

Just note that anything in a PartModule with a [KSPField] tag above it is a config field that can be setup/manipulated through the config file.  Exceptions to this are where it specifically has in the comment 'don't mess with this through config' or in some of the custom-data-classes that I have that load through sub-nodes in the PartModule.  For the custom data classes you kind of have to track down their class definition and look at their constructor to see what fields they load.

 

 

More development progress:

Custom shader compilation setup and working.  Custom shader per-platform-loading code setup and working.  Custom shaders supported through ModelData based TextureSet switching.  Custom shaders added to MFT-A tank texture sets, and working again in-game under 1.2.  So indeed it was just a Unity-version mismatch that prevented the previous ones from working.

Should have a 'shader-testing' release available later this evening.  Will send out links through PM's to those who had volunteered for platform testing.  Please note though that this is for testing of the shaders only -- lots of other stuff is still broken or intentionally disabled.

 

Also:

NathanKell has been -busy- adding quality-of-life-enhancements for mods/modding/modders.  Good stuff.

Also, it looks like the 'stock' definition of 'module-switching' is pretty much like my previous hacky solution -- just functionally disable modules until they are needed.  Disappointing, but at least there is some support for it now for a few stock modules that I previously couldn't use (RCS).

 

Sounds like there will not be an updated ModuleManager for at least a few days.  Also waiting on the stock symmetry-part-with-modified-fuels bug to get fixed.  So probably no 1.2-compatible releases until next week/end.

[StickyScissors]

Always check your staging, folks. Or you might end up like this

-

And here's a first draft of a commonized space station, one i hope to deploy to every body i plan on exploring.

Launched into LKO piece-by-piece on my Pechora-Lavina shuttle system(depicted above), of which has just undergone a major overhaul, it will be built out completely in LKO, than will be pushed to it's final destination by an Alkaid Reusable Nuclear Shuttle.

[RedParadize]

@StickyScissors Noticed you use TCA and a custom made shuttle. I have a easy procedure to lunch SSTU engined shuttle without TCA or anything other than Mechjeb:

 

Build the SSTU shuttle in plane hangar, add a mechjeb control unit at the same angle as the trust direction, it should be oriented to the left of the shuttle.

Deactivate roll activator on both Main and OTS engines, somehow mechjeb don't get that the axis of the engine are not the same as the main craft.

Add cargo, The cargo center of mass should be aligned to the OTS center of trust. Save and go to vertical assembly hangar.

 

Now its time to add the main tanks and SRB. When you add the main tank. Align it as close as possible to the Main engine center of trust, if its slightly offset it should still be okay.

SRB trust curve will vary depending on your tanks size and playload. I have them set to 50% for stuff ranging form 15 to 25t (with my engine balance at least).

 

At lunch, you set control from the mechjeb unit, but you do not activate mechjeb Assent guidance it until you reach 150ms, by default it is mechjeb minimum turning speed. Your shuttle will lift vertically and start turning softly as you activate Assent guidance. keep controling with mechjeb until re-entering atmo.

Profit!

 

[StickyScissors]

Space Station Vucari, revision 2. Also, I'm curious if any of you guys have some reasonable designs/concepts for an orbital construction dock/ore refinery that i could build. I've got plans for everything else, i'm just bad at station design, really.

-

Oh yeah, and then this stuff happened

Side note: Dammit, Gfycat, stop speeding up my videos

[RedParadize]

@StickyScissors I had problem like this when using the new Nertea struss. I was not as bad for me trough...

[Guest]

2 hours ago, StickyScissors said:

Oh yeah, and then this stuff happened...

Looks like somebody let George Clooney on board their station again. 

[Shadowmage]

Bit of preview work on the 'adapter selection gui':

 

Still a bit rough, but it is working as you see it there.  You can press the buttons and it'll change the selected nose.

The boxes on the left will be for either pre-rendered models, or more likely a pre-rendered texture icon, and are actually a button that triggers the change in adapter.  The 'Name' and 'Description' columns can/will have differing text, I'm merely loading the model-data name for both at the moment.  Obviously the formatting/wrap on the mass/cost/volume columns can use a bit more cleanup.

Its already quite nice though; to be able to select at will which adapter instead of hitting the >>> button until you get lucky.  So, pretty sure I'll be going forward with this method for nose and mount selection for MFTs, MUS, SRB (nose-only?), and MST (modular station core) parts.  May even leave the old scroll/list controls code in place and have a config option somewhere to toggle between full gui or simple gui.

The only thing stopping me at the moment is the icon/model rendering.  It is non-trivial to do run-time rendering of a model in a specific area (involves render textures or some camera witchery, and also a lot of object creation/destruction), none of which I have any experience with in Unity.  So what I'm likely going to do is pre-render a series of icon textures (64x? 128x?) for the adapters and render those onto the buttons.  Will be a few MB worth of textures, and a fair amount of work to render them all, but will be easy to code and easy to support.  Will spend a bit more time investigating run-time rendering though as I think it would be the better solution in the long run.

[StickyScissors]

@Shadowmage Well, i just crashed my game harder than ever before.

Had a modular command probe, placed a fuel tank under that, placed the SuperDraco-L engine under that, then tried to adjust tank size(can't remember if diameter or height). The engine vanished, but MJ was still giving DV readouts as normal. I alt-clicked the tank to dupe it for no real reason, just to see what would happen, then the game stuttered, then it froze, then i got some weird C++ error message, and then i finally got the "KSP_64x has crashed" message. The log is spammed with..

Spoiler

Infinity or NaN floating point numbers appear when calculating the transform matrix for a Collider. Scene hierarchy path "SSTU-SC-TANK-MFT-A/SSTU-SC-ENG-SuperDraco-L/SSTU-SC-TANK-MFT-A/model/SSTUModularFuelTankRoot/SSTU/Assets/SC-TANK-A-0-5/SC-TANK-A-0-5/SC-TANK-A-0-5-Collider"
 
(Filename:  Line: 171)

..a few thousand times over.

Even windows went "nuh uh", and wanted to shut this thing down, judging by the "Received abort signal from the operating system" at the end of the log, that is.

-

Edit: seems like this is a one-time issue.

Edit: tried another scenario: Don't merge a different craft and try to take engines from it to use on the current craft. Either the game will crash before you are able to get the engines off the merged-into-the-scene bit, the issue that i described originally will happen. Weird

Edited September 17, 2016 by StickyScissors

[Shadowmage]

Looking much better with some icons in place and a bit of layout cleanup:

Went with pre-rendered icons, at least for now.  Would have been a complete mess trying to render actual game-objects there, and I can get 128 128x icons in ~2mb after .dds compression (we'll see how they look when compressed though... png is shown above).

[SpaceBadger007]

Any chance in adding in some of the titan series rocket engines?

[VenomousRequiem]

Just now, SpaceBadger007 said:

Any chance in adding in some of the titan series rocket engines?

I mean, BDB has Titan parts if you'd like.

[SpaceBadger007]

1 minute ago, VenomousRequiem said:

I mean, BDB has Titan parts if you'd like.

Wow very quick replie thank you!!! I have been considering it and contemplating it but then ill start having too meny parts, ill end up having 2 apollos/saturns (sstu,bdb) 2 gemini/mole (mole/bdb) and double ups on engines like the f-1 and j-2

[VenomousRequiem]

Just now, SpaceBadger007 said:

Wow very quick replie thank you!!! I have been considering it and contemplating it but then ill start having too meny parts, ill end up having 2 apollos/saturns (sstu,bdb) 2 gemini/mole (mole/bdb) and double ups on engines like the f-1 and j-2

I mean... Yeah. BDB can easily be chopped down to just whatever parts you want. Just delete everything in the Bluedog_DB/parts except the Titan folder. If you're interested I can help you over at the BDB thread. I don't want to hijack @Shadowmage's thread.

[Duski]

4 hours ago, Shadowmage said:

Looking much better with some icons in place and a bit of layout cleanup:

Went with pre-rendered icons, at least for now.  Would have been a complete mess trying to render actual game-objects there, and I can get 128 128x icons in ~2mb after .dds compression (we'll see how they look when compressed though... png is shown above).

Ooooo, i'm excited.  

[CobaltWolf]

8 hours ago, VenomousRequiem said:

I mean... Yeah. BDB can easily be chopped down to just whatever parts you want. Just delete everything in the Bluedog_DB/parts except the Titan folder. If you're interested I can help you over at the BDB thread. I don't want to hijack @Shadowmage's thread.

T.T

[officialmugi]

Is it just me or do the SRBs not work with Realism Overhaul? They just say "Burn Time: Infinity" in the VAB.

[tater]

RO is not supported, so there's your problem.

Once 1.2 is officially out and RSS/RO is ready I plan on installing them again. Since SSTU is now pretty much required for me, I'll figure out how to make SSTU work, and post it here, though there may always be people who know what is required.

[Theysen]

27 minutes ago, officialmugi said:

Is it just me or do the SRBs not work with Realism Overhaul? They just say "Burn Time: Infinity" in the VAB.

Please take over your RO questions to the Realism Overhaul thread, @Shadowmage stated in his OP that RO related questions won't get support here.

(And on a side note: SSTU is currently incompatible with RO since RO relies on FAR and @ferram4 didn't have the time to incorporate Shadowmage's fixes for SSTU into FAR yet - and with 1.2 on the horizon it might be worth waiting for it to drop anyway )

 

[StickyScissors]

Draft number 2 of the Common -Fuel- Station. Designed so i could do super quick transfers to other planets (Duna mainly) without having to design/test/launch a much bigger nuclear shuttle. I can Use most of my DV to get to orbit of the target body, refuel there, then use all the fuel again to return home quickly.

Each one of those orange tanks is enough to refuel a nuclear shuttle a little over half way.

-

Refueling mission test. Not liking the "drag fuel to station via nuclear shuttle" way of doing it. I'm probably just gonna end up flinging one of those orange tanks along with a service module (for post-fling maneuvering) at whatever target planet to fuel the stations, it's much quicker and more simplified.

-

Edit: Also, yes, i wanted to share my Vishera launcher collection, now that the design is solidified. Didn't export because the file, being 7000x7000 was gonna take to long to export, and the image is not even done yet. For the fuel flinging, i'll probably use A3 or A5 to fling the mass of fuel i'll need while still being within the bounds of service module weight limits.

Edited September 17, 2016 by StickyScissors

[RedParadize]

@Shadowmage Ihave been digging your code all day. I didn't realise how much workaround you had to do to make SSTU works. I don't know if its funny or sad.

BTW, I am sure that some of your code would be realy helpfull for other modder. As a example UbioWelding cannot currently weild RCS and stuff with multiple animated part. With the way you handle it its possible. 

Edit: OMG, I might have a one part landder!

Edited September 18, 2016 by RedParadize

[RedParadize]

This is a single part:

 

It have toggleable adapter and docking port. Fonctional engine, RCS and Realplume. I managed to get everything working exept the legs... Tomorrow I will add antenna and solar panel.

I built this using SSTUModularStationCore, so I can't stretch it, but I realy wanted the docking port. I made the Alcor capsule a part of the docking port, that way,  I can change the adapter/engine mount the middle. I am pretty bad a config. If I can do this, imagine what the modder around here could do with SSTU module.

 

@Shadowmage Could legs work using a the less buggy ModuleAnimateGeneric or SSTUAnimateControlled module? I noticed that antenna animation is perfectly capable of lifting the DOS-TKS.

 

[Shadowmage]

General update:

Moved all modular parts over to the new stock upgrade system for diameter upgrades.  Fairings, decouplers (ISDC/RBDC/PDC), MUS, MFT, petal adapters, probe core, MSRBs, heat-shield, and welding-docking port all now use the PartUpgrade system.  This means the parts all start at 1.25m in the editor (for now), but I may be adding some additional code to up the size to the max unlocked diameter for new in-editor parts; we'll see.

Did the conversion of the MFT textures yesterday to the format for he new shader.  Actually resulted in a pretty large reduction in memory/size of the textures due to the split off of the Spec map (was able to compress the rest of the textures to DXT1, and thus half-size on disc).  Also compressed the flat colored textures to half-resolution as well, with no noticeable loss of quality in game (spec, norm and AO maps are still full res, which is where most of the detail comes from on these parts).  The gold+orange textures look even better now due to proper colored-specular support.

Moved all of my tank texture sets into the base SSTU install now that they've been sized down a bit.  Will be examining doing the same for the rest of the adapter, mount, nosecone, and SRB textures.  Could result in saving a few dozen MB after all is done, and likely a similar .zip size even with all of the base texture sets included.

@JoseEduardo Any interest in hosting the tank (and shuttle) textures you made in/with the SSTU-Nova pack?  I don't really have any problem including them with SSTU, but I also don't have the original files for those textures and so am unable to update/convert them to the new AO format.

Solar panel textures have been made double-sided and converted to .dds; this added mipmaps for them which greatly cleaned up the aliasing on the panels at larger view distances.  Huge improvement in their looks at distance, but did muddy up the zoomed-in detail a bit; probably a worthwhile tradeoff, and mostly unavoidable with .dds.

Anyone have any objections to the proposed 'adapter-selection' GUI?  Do I need to keep the current GUI-slider/button based system in place at all?  Will be making the GUI based solution the default, but could possibly have a config option somewhere to go back to the slider system. 

Stock resource-copying bug has been fixed in the latest pre-release.  A few other long-standing SSTU/stock bugs have also been fixed in the 1.2 code including the 'must drop a part and pick it up before surface attach', and the 'parts with transparency have odd rendering'.  Overall 1.2 looks like it will be a good update.  Still a lot of work to be done by SQUAD on stock bugs, but I'm feeling much more optimistic about this release than I did 1.0 or 1.1

 

 

11 hours ago, RedParadize said:

This is a single part:

[...snip...]

 

@Shadowmage Could legs work using a the less buggy ModuleAnimateGeneric or SSTUAnimateControlled module? I noticed that antenna animation is perfectly capable of lifting the DOS-TKS.

 

Indeed, can do some pretty crazy stuff with some of these modules.  More goodness yet-to-come with the PartUpgrade handling and some of the new stock module functions such as enabling/disabling converters and RCS modules.

Landing Legs -- not really.  Most of the models do not have any colliders setup for the actual leg portion as they rely on the WheelCollider.  Also the stock models are compiled with WheelColliders in them which will cause you grief if they are not controlled by a PartModule.  The only exceptions would be those landing legs that are specifically built for ModuleAnimateGeneric such as some of the USI parts with integrated legs.