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

[Sudragon]

Moar Boosters....candles.

[pap1723]

@Shadowmage Thank you for your continued help in answering my questions!

I am now working inside the SSTU_MODEL in order to change the statistics of the Solar Panels, and it is working great! The one thing that I cannot figure out, is how do I change the scale of the 3D model to increase the sizes for the SSTU_MODEL configs?

Thank You!

Pap

[Shadowmage]

4 minutes ago, pap1723 said:

@Shadowmage Thank you for your continued help in answering my questions!

I am now working inside the SSTU_MODEL in order to change the statistics of the Solar Panels, and it is working great! The one thing that I cannot figure out, is how do I change the scale of the 3D model to increase the sizes for the SSTU_MODEL configs?

Thank You!

Pap

Hmm... which model(s) are you trying to adjust, and for use in which parts/modules?  (lots of different stuff going on with them, some quite module/setup specific).

Generally -- you are not intended to.  The models get scaled/positioned by the module that is using them.  The model-definition just says what the unscaled size is, so the module knows how big it needs to scale it for a needed diameter.

However, there are ways to 'fake' it, but would need to know the models/modules/parts/intended use.

[pap1723]

Just now, Shadowmage said:

Hmm... which model(s) are you trying to adjust, and for use in which parts/modules?  (lots of different stuff going on with them, some quite module/setup specific).

Generally -- you are not intended to.  The models get scaled/positioned by the module that is using them.  The model-definition just says what the unscaled size is, so the module knows how big it needs to scale it for a needed diameter.

However, there are ways to 'fake' it, but would need to know the models/modules/parts/intended use.

As an example. I have resized the SSTU-ST-GEN-DSP-ISS to rescaleFactor = 1.83.This gives me very accurate (almost exact) sizes of the ISS Solar Array Wings. I wanted to do the same thing for the SSTU-ST-MST-ISS and I rescaled that to 1.83 as well, but the solar array model ST-MST-ISS stays at the default scale.

[Shadowmage]

9 minutes ago, pap1723 said:

As an example. I have resized the SSTU-ST-GEN-DSP-ISS to rescaleFactor = 1.83.This gives me very accurate (almost exact) sizes of the ISS Solar Array Wings. I wanted to do the same thing for the SSTU-ST-MST-ISS and I rescaled that to 1.83 as well, but the solar array model ST-MST-ISS stays at the default scale.

Ahh, yep, makes sense.  Due to the way that specific part is put together, and that it uses the SSTUModularStationCore, there is an easy solution for this specific part (most SSTU parts ignore 'rescaleFactor' entirely as things are scaled through plugin code; other station-core parts are far more complex).

The three lines in the config 'topDiameter', 'coreDiameter', and 'bottomDiameter' all determine the size of that particular part.  Set those appropriately, and that should be it.  1.875 * 1.83 = 3.43125  (probably round up to 3.5 for compatibility).  All of the adapters/etc will be automatically rescaled appropriately.

	@topDiameter = 3.5
	@coreDiameter = 3.5
	@bottomDiameter = 3.5

 

 

Hmmm... not quite there yet... but getting closer....

[Shadowmage]

Left = Original, Right = New w/recolor support (very close at default colors)

 

From the other side (left=new, right=old), with recolor set to 'black' for body, gold for hatch.

One part down, only like 20 more to go

 

Edit:

Couple more parts done....  Still need to finish the LAS/BPC... but the rest is working.

 

Edited July 29, 2017 by Shadowmage

[Jimbodiah]

drooooll...... 

You made the panels customizable as well?  wowowowowowowowow 

[Shadowmage]

20 hours ago, Jimbodiah said:

drooooll...... 

You made the panels customizable as well?  wowowowowowowowow 

 

Yes, and no.  Yes they can be recolored, but not separately (they use the detail color channel for the support structure).

 

Also.. in continuing with the gold/black/red theme...

 

[Jimbodiah]

You forgot the gold plated engine bell

[mechanicH]

Hey guys i just discovered something, or maybe its been discovered and im just noticing this just now, apparently the TweakEverythingContinued mod has a HUGE conflict with SSTU capsules, throws out a spam of Null...  also has issues with TweakScale as well, but thats been known for a while.  Just an observation. I uninstalled the TweakEverything mod all is normal now.  Mage the Gold looks beautiful, Amazing work. !!!   

[tater]

If things calm down a little, I might mess with this challenge:

I had messed with a DSG using SSTU not that long ago...

Need to change the panels, I think.

[Jasseji]

Hello @Shadowmage, Is there a way to add resizability to parts which dont have it ?

I am playing around with the Service Modules, Specifically Series C but i dont really see where i could add the option to resize it, obviosly tweakscale doesnt work

 

Forget the above - actually my only problem is the side Fairings - what scale should i use if i change the SM's Scale from 3.75m to 2.5m ?

Edited August 2, 2017 by Jasseji

[Shadowmage]

6 hours ago, Jasseji said:

I am playing around with the Service Modules, Specifically Series C but i dont really see where i could add the option to resize it,

The service modules are not intended to be resized or scaled.

[Jasseji]

i actually figured it out

Edited August 2, 2017 by Jasseji

[Jimbodiah]

I just discovered the SRB thrust curve GUI  never knew it was there.

@Jasseji: I have a set of the CM/CMX/BPC/SM that are rescaled, just for some reason my SM blows up (one of the fairings is doing something I think). If you care to share how you did it?

Edited August 2, 2017 by Jimbodiah

[Shadowmage]

32 minutes ago, Jimbodiah said:

I just discovered the SRB thrust curve GUI  never knew it was there.

Hehe, maybe someday I should document all of these features (I even forget some of them exist).

Someday....

 

33 minutes ago, Jimbodiah said:

@Jasseji: I have a set of the CM/CMX/BPC/SM that are rescaled, just for some reason my SM blows up (one of the fairings is doing something I think). If you care to share how you did it?

I don't think the fairings should be causing any explosion issues; they only have colliders when specifically enabled by the user (the 'Colliders' button in the right-click menu).  They should, by default, have no colliders and simply phase through other objects/parts when jettisoned.  This was done/made optional specifically because of explosion-related issues with the fairings;  their placement is a bit too precise considering the sloppy setup that most other parts' colliders have.

But...to aid in your debugging, there is this handy little mod:

It adds a right-click button to the parts to enable rendering a wireframe of any colliders on the part.  I've already used it for a fair bit of debugging on parts as it is quicker than trying to import the .mu model into Blender (at least it is quicker when I actually have access to KSP).

[tater]

https://twitter.com/Astro2fish/status/892837427919769600

 

The forum is not embedding tweets for me. 

 

Click to embiggen.

Edited August 2, 2017 by tater

[Shadowmage]

@tater

My screenshot-framing skills are not quite up to the task (at least not in the 5 free minutes I had), but I thought I would post this up:

Also seem to be missing some of the atmosphere decay effects for the nice golden sunrise/sunset; probably just didn't get SVE/etc setup properly.  Still.... pretty close

Free InternetCookie(tm) ( ) to the first person who can do better than the screenshot in my post.

[tater]

Another aspect might be the altitude. In scaled up systems, things look closer to reality.

Now I have to build a 1.3 rescale and mess with this.

[tater]

The panels rotating in 2 directions always seem to want to be at an angle that makes the image hard for me. I tried in an old build (1.22) with a 3.2 rescale. Not big enough.

[Rodger]

Just a suggestion, but I would really love some different ratio end caps for the spherical tanks, eg to have a 3.75m diameter tank have a truss end cap for 2.5m.

[Shadowmage]

3 hours ago, Rodger said:

Just a suggestion, but I would really love some different ratio end caps for the spherical tanks, eg to have a 3.75m diameter tank have a truss end cap for 2.5m.

Adding more ratios for those models is not something I will be doing in the foreseeable future.  Each new ratio (or perhaps 3-4 models) requires a new AO texture, which adds ~4mb of textures.  That really starts to add up quickly.  It also takes many hours to make up each of those models, more time to setup configs, etc.  Additionally, the ratios are making less and less sense when used with SSTU, as they are only applicable for a specific sizes, and are useless when using non-stock-KSP-sized parts.

TL;DR -- use the procedural fairing parts as adapters; that is one of the major reasons for their existence.

[Shadowmage]

Hmm.. I wonder what this 'Repack Chute' button does?

 

Oh... heh...I guess it does what it says on the tin. 

(currently requires a lvl2 engineer in career mode, but can change to w/e level, or even a per-part config for repair skill needed; perhaps some can be repaired by anyone?)

[RedParadize]

@Shadowmage Your the king! as always.

 

Now, if you could release your tool to everyone it would be awesome. I want to be able to repaint these nuclear reactor with orange stripe before Nertea release his radiation mod. Otherwise Jeb will die from radiation sickness for sure, don't you have any compassion for Jeb?

Edited August 5, 2017 by RedParadize

[blowfish]

9 minutes ago, RedParadize said:

@Shadowmage Your the king! as always.

 

Now, if you could release your tool to everyone it would be awesome. I want to be able to repaint these nuclear reactor with orange stripe before Nertea release his radiation mod. Otherwise Jeb will die from radiation sickness for sure, don't you have any compassion for Jeb?

You need to create color masks for each texture you use and assign the custom shader.  In this specific case Nertea would need to do some extra work to make that functional.