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

[Duski]

9 hours ago, Shadowmage said:

Well, it sort of helps.

It tells me that your game is not loading the model definition files for some reason.  Are you sure that you have the latest version of ModuleManager (2.7.1)?  I use Module-Manager callbacks to load and cache the model datas, so if MM is not loading properly then nothing else will either.

Sadly that log file appears to be missing the first 1/2 of the file, which contains all of the details regarding ModuleManager patches, OS, assembly errors, what ModelData entries were loaded, etc.  Do you have a complete log file that could be uploaded that contains the first portion of the log as well?

 

Edit:  One other possibility is it could be that the custom shaders are not setup properly for the OS/rendering in use -- again though, I would need the rest of the log file to know if that is the problem.

 

I that might've been because it was only the output_log file, i'll try the KSP log file instead.

Here it is. Hope this helps. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2KhGWTQNhbNS3o3WEFKNEpnMlU/view?usp=sharing

And yes, my MM is running on 2.7.1.

Edited October 29, 2016 by Duski

[Pappystein]

3 hours ago, Jimbodiah said:

I have a weird thing happening, have not checked on a sstu-only save yet, but maybe someone has seen something similar:

 

When it comes to KSP I don't have enough log-fu to make heads or tails of it.  However I have to ask, Are you useing KJR?   I think I have traced my phantom force glitches at certain altitudes and or speeds to that.  I am not ready to post a bug report yet because I have only made one flight since removing KJR.   But the Phantom Forces (enough to yaw a 100 ton SSTO 90 degrees off the flight path in an instant,) did not appear on my last flight, I mean aside from the always present lazily listing to the left my flying craft seem to do under time-warp with  SAS on.

[cxg2827]

 

@Pappystein I was ready to PM you for your paypal, but the rabbit ear antenna part got me questioning that so I did some searching. I managed to use the right keywords to get some better information on the trusses. It seems like the longerons are not telescoping, but hinged per the following document:

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20120008187.pdf

The helix part seems correct, but the deployment is a bit simpler based on this photo of another FAST truss:

It appears that if the truss were to be constrained to vertical deployment, and the base were rotated like a turn table, the longerons would rotate at the elbows, and translate the truss portion vertically until they snap in place. The PDF goes into more depth if you can look past the ANSYS finite analysis.

 

5 hours ago, Pappystein said:

The Truss is made up of Helix shaped parts that interlock and when folded down lie both above and below but inside and outside of each other. ... The Guide rails compact down like an old fashion (1970s old fashion) rabbit ear telescoping antenna.  The Helical chain parts are Connected to the Solar array on the inside,  The Telescoping Guide rails are attached via cables on sliding rings, to the outside of the Panel.     A Motive force is applied to the telescoping guide rails (not certain WHAT this force is but it could even be some form of intert gas or a worm gear and electric motor given how minute the opposing forces can be.)  The guide rails extend pushing the end cap out that is also attached to all the above parts.  the Central truss starts to follow and like a lego block locks in place when properly extended.

Though if you can get some pictures showing your description correct, I'll still spot you for a beer 

[Jimbodiah]

@Pappystein yes I am using KJR ofcourse! ;). I have no issues with flights, just this exploding on the station I am aproaching, but I will remove it just in case.

[JoseEduardo]

40 minutes ago, Pappystein said:

When it comes to KSP I don't have enough log-fu to make heads or tails of it.  However I have to ask, Are you useing KJR?   I think I have traced my phantom force glitches at certain altitudes and or speeds to that.  I am not ready to post a bug report yet because I have only made one flight since removing KJR.   But the Phantom Forces (enough to yaw a 100 ton SSTO 90 degrees off the flight path in an instant,) did not appear on my last flight, I mean aside from the always present lazily listing to the left my flying craft seem to do under time-warp with  SAS on.

 

19 minutes ago, Jimbodiah said:

@Pappystein yes I am using KJR ofcourse! ;). I have no issues with flights, just this exploding on the station I am aproaching, but I will remove it just in case.

wait, what? when was KJR updated to 1.2? O.o

[Duski]

42 minutes ago, JoseEduardo said:

 

wait, what? when was KJR updated to 1.2? O.o

Yep it was, I started my downloading of all my updated mods for 1.2, the day later it was updated! Don't think it made a difference however, I believe it still worked for me even though it was the version supported for 1.1.3.

[Jimbodiah]

There was also a dev build on github for a week or so.

[JoseEduardo]

ok, now all that is left is KSC switcher and RSS to be updated and I'm ready to play again

[Jimbodiah]

Mage, is there a reason why the TechTree nodes of certain parts are altered in the TechTree.cfg file over the ones defined in the part.cfg files?

ie. the RS25 is defined at heavierRocketry, but is later changed to advHeavyRocketry in TechTree.cfg along with some other parts.
 

@PART[SSTU-SC-ENG-RS-25]:NEEDS[!CommunityTechTree]
{
    @TechRequired = advHeavyRocketry
}

 

I see what you did there... It looks like you inserted and extra node in the tree and then moved certain parts around outside of their own cfg files.

Edited October 29, 2016 by Jimbodiah

[Pappystein]

18 hours ago, cxg2827 said:

 

@Pappystein I was ready to PM you for your paypal, but the rabbit ear antenna part got me questioning that so I did some searching. I managed to use the right keywords to get some better information on the trusses. It seems like the longerons are not telescoping, but hinged per the following document:

 

There is no reason to Paypal me for the Free beer as it seems the FAST mast is actually rectangular and not circular in profile.  I have seen a Circular expanding structure demonstrated at college years ago for an alternative to the scissor lift style of lift truck (for working inside a building.)   I extrapolated from there. 

The Circular style had Hydraulic rams (3x) mounted low in the Helical stack and attached to the Chassis, As each ram moved it would alter the speed of deployment.   It was deemed less reliable than a standard Scissor lift on the rectangular chassis.  The Helical/round lift would be best used on a small lift truck (with a working platform less than a 1.5m^2 at earth Ground level.   Standard Scissor lift trucks are ~1.25m x 2.5m platforms.

 

[Duski]

Should I try the previous version and see if the parts are visible?

[Pappystein]

8 hours ago, Duski said:

Should I try the previous version and see if the parts are visible?

That will not work... completely.  

SSTU uses model switching which is code written specifically for each version of KSP by @Shadowmage.  Using a 1.1.3 Version on a 1.2 game would cause issues. 

 

What Build id number is your current installation?

[Duski]

2 hours ago, Pappystein said:

That will not work... completely.  

SSTU uses model switching which is code written specifically for each version of KSP by @Shadowmage.  Using a 1.1.3 Version on a 1.2 game would cause issues. 

 

What Build id number is your current installation?

0.5.33.127 if I know what you're talking about.

[SebastianPahlsson]

Any idea how to turn off boil off? Can't seem to get it cooled down with electric charge.

 

[tater]

1 minute ago, SebastianPahlsson said:

Any idea how to turn off boil off? Can't seem to get it cooled down with electric charge.

It's a known issue, and shadowmage has it marked as a bug on github. 

[Jimbodiah]

@SebastianPahlsson, remove the file under the /Data directory.

[Pappystein]

5 hours ago, Duski said:

0.5.33.127 if I know what you're talking about.

@Duski

Sorry, I was referring to the GAME build ID,  It is in the bottom right of the start screen when the menu is up.   I had a problem back when 1.0.5 came out where I somehow had an "in-correct" build ID.   It caused issues with the dlls like SSTU uses.

Also what OS is your computer?

[Duski]

6 hours ago, Pappystein said:

@Duski

Sorry, I was referring to the GAME build ID,  It is in the bottom right of the start screen when the menu is up.   I had a problem back when 1.0.5 came out where I somehow had an "in-correct" build ID.   It caused issues with the dlls like SSTU uses.

Also what OS is your computer?

I'm on Windows 10 Pro, and the game build ID i'm pretty sure is 1.2.0 (WindowsPlayerx64) or something similar to that.

Edited October 30, 2016 by Duski

[SpaceBadger007]

Now unless I have gone blind, but with the latest build in 1.2, I cant increase the diameter of the tanks. http://imgur.com/a/TrlpR

[tater]

1 hour ago, SpaceBadger007 said:

Now unless I have gone blind, but with the latest build in 1.2, I cant increase the diameter of the tanks. http://imgur.com/a/TrlpR

If you are in sandbox, you need to check the box under difficulty levels to apply all updates, as SSTU uses the new update functionality, and the KSP default is (wrongly) to not apply all updates in Sandbox.

[Theysen]

2 hours ago, tater said:

  If you are in sandbox, you need to check the box under difficulty levels to apply all updates, as SSTU uses the new update functionality, and the KSP default is (wrongly) to not apply all updates in Sandbox.

@Shadowmage you should somehow sticky this in the OP or wherever but since most people don't read that maybe change the download folder name ?

[Duski]

Hurray! Finished my missing part visuals by installing the first SSTU version recompiled for 1.2 then installed the next.  Now to start tinkering around with some new inventions.  

[tater]

I had hoped to test SSTU some more over the weekend, but we had a neighborhood Halloween party, and the weekend got away from me. Better luck next time  .

[Jimbodiah]

That is weird Duski, as I always remove the entire sstu folder and then copy the new one, no issues here with missing parts.

[Shadowmage]

On Friday, October 28, 2016 at 5:36 PM, Jimbodiah said:

I have a weird thing happening, have not checked on a sstu-only save yet, but maybe someone has seen something similar:

Twice now I have had a part blow up on an approaching station while I was doing a burn to slow down from a rendevouz. First time two materials bays (SSTU-SC-GEN-RMB) exploded simultaneously and the second time an engine of a previously docked ship (SSTU-SC-ENG-LMAE). I was doing the burn 100-300m away from the station in question, but with engines (also sstu) pointing towards the station. The station was within the 2.2km render zone, but just coming into the final focus; the object you near always pauses for a split second a few hundred meters out (don't know exactly, but looks like between 500-1000m away).

Weird right?

Logs included:  KSP and output

I quit the game a few minutes later after finishing docking and checking what exploded but can not find anything relevant in the logs. At the end of the log I do see Stage Recovery throwing a few nullrefs as well which is caused by a previous stage re-entering and SR trying to recover it, but this happened on every launch I made today it seems and is not happening at the time I noticed the exploding parts. I've docked with the same station about 10 times so it seems to be randomly happening. Just now I removed StageRecovery and KerbalAlarmClock (also giving some nullrefs) to see if ti happens again without these two tampering, but as all the parts that exploded were SSTU parts and not any of the other mods... I don't know.

 

Hmm... I haven't seen anything like that in my testing, however my testing has been rather limited.  Will keep an eye out for similar occurrences and see if I can spot any problems like that.

 

On Friday, October 28, 2016 at 5:58 PM, Duski said:

I that might've been because it was only the output_log file, i'll try the KSP log file instead.

Here it is. Hope this helps. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2KhGWTQNhbNS3o3WEFKNEpnMlU/view?usp=sharing

And yes, my MM is running on 2.7.1.

Interesting.... from the log it looks like there was a duplicate SSTU_MODEL defined somewhere in your install which was causing it to error out and not finish loading the rest of the models (which would then show up blank in-game or cause other errors).  Likely related to an install/setup error.

Have added a bit of additional debugging and error-handling to the model-loading code -- it will now log the duplicate entry as an error, skip loading the duplicate, and continue with loading the rest of the models.

Glad you got the problem figured out though.

 

On Saturday, October 29, 2016 at 3:04 PM, Jimbodiah said:

Mage, is there a reason why the TechTree nodes of certain parts are altered in the TechTree.cfg file over the ones defined in the part.cfg files?

ie. the RS25 is defined at heavierRocketry, but is later changed to advHeavyRocketry in TechTree.cfg along with some other parts.
 

@PART[SSTU-SC-ENG-RS-25]:NEEDS[!CommunityTechTree]
{
    @TechRequired = advHeavyRocketry
}

 

I see what you did there... It looks like you inserted and extra node in the tree and then moved certain parts around outside of their own cfg files.

Yep, pretty much.  The actual files point to a valid stock config node, and then I patch in the creation of an extra tech-node and update the part configs to that new node.  Intended to be an 'easy-to-remove' solution in case someone was using a custom tech-tree/etc.

 

23 hours ago, SebastianPahlsson said:

Any idea how to turn off boil off? Can't seem to get it cooled down with electric charge.

 

1.)  An 'enable-boiloff' config option will be available with the next release.  With it you can enable/disable boiloff entirely or adjust its amount/effect.

2.)  Apparently there is a bug with the boiloff where it will sometimes still lose resources even though EC is present and tanks are set for ZBO.  Have not yet tracked down the source of this error, but should hopefully have it fixed up for the next release.

 

7 hours ago, Theysen said:

@Shadowmage you should somehow sticky this in the OP or wherever but since most people don't read that maybe change the download folder name ?

Yea, seems that I probably should put a sticky up there.  May also just add some code that defaults that setting to 'on'.  Probably will wait for 1.2.1 either way to see if it gets fixed up in stock code.

 

20 minutes ago, tater said:

I had hoped to test SSTU some more over the weekend, but we had a neighborhood Halloween party, and the weekend got away from me. Better luck next time  .

LoL, I know the feeling.  I had intended to work on SSTU a bit over the weekend, but instead spent most of my free time finishing up the pre-winter yardwork (final mow, bit of weed removal, put away all the hoses and other non-winter-proof gear).

 

 

In general news -- will likely (hopefully) be posting an updated release sometime during this week.  Have a few more bits to finish up on the HAB parts (mostly config related stuff), and a few more bugs to investigate (boiloff...).  Aiming to get the HAB parts finished as far as initial config and basic balance go, leaving only the centrifuge parts left to do (which will be renamed to ST-CFG-XXX).

As soon as all of the models and initial configs are complete the work can start on comprehensive balance work, including configs for USI-LS and MKS compatibility.  Haven't yet investigated the 1.2 changes to MKS or USI-LS other than to see that they were quite massive.  I'll be working on putting together a balance spreadsheet for all of these parts and hopefully post it up on google-docs/etc for easy viewing and feedback (sadly will require two completely separate sets of balance data... one for stock, and one with LS/MKS included... the differences are just too massive for a single data set to work).

 

Also -- sounds like Lo-fi got the joint-based wheel stuff figured out and working in KSP... so that is one huge step closer to having working wheels again.  Will certainly be taking some time off after I finish the StationCore parts to work on helping to finish the wheel code (and fix up the SC-E parts).