[1.0.5][unmaintained] kappa-ray — irradiate your Kerbals

[soundnfury]

0.3.3 released - minor bugfixes and rebuilt against KSP 1.0.5.

Updated download link in the OP.

[soundnfury]

It seems that this mod is almost ready for prime time.

Would you consider adding it to Kerbalstuff and CKAN?

CKAN pull request now submitted!

[ThatOneBritishGuy...]

You might want to take a look at these threads:

Thread 1

Thread 2

Though they died a while back there were some good ideas floating around back when it was a thing. Also, the code might interest you.

[Elick320]

Is this mod compatible with OPM and/or other worlds?

[soundnfury]

On 21/11/2015 at 4:00 AM, Elick320 said:

Is this mod compatible with OPM and/or other worlds?

It's compatible in principle, but you will need a .cfg file to define the radiation environments around the added worlds. In 0.3.3 there's an example config for Real Solar System, but it's incomplete, only covering the Earth, Sun and Moon. Moreover, the stock bodies are also configured in this way, so that file (kapparay_Squad_planets.cfg) can also be used as an example.

Because of the way the game reads config files, it should be possible for mods like OPM to include the relevant .cfg files in their own packages if they decide to implement kappa-ray support.

Documentation (because everyone loves Documentation)

The config required consists of KappaRayEnvironment nodes, which require four values: name, vanAllen, directSolar and galactic. The name is used to match up environments to the CelestialBody they apply to; the other three define the models used for the three energy levels of kappa rays. The models consist of a model name followed by a list of parameters, and generally give kappa ray flux as a function of altitude; the models are:

• Corona strength scale: exponential decrease, flux = strength * e^{-altitude/scale} * current solar activity level. (Yes, these params are backwards compared to all the other models. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.)
• VanAllen scale [strength]: generic Van Allen model, peaks at a flux of strength (default 1.0) at an altitude scale above the equator; at higher latitudes both the peak flux and the altitude at which it occurs are lower. Also, if you're inside an atmosphere that will block some of the rads.
• DirectSolar scale [strength]: generic Direct Solar model, to be used in conjunction with the generic Van Allen model and ideally the same scale value. Reduction of direct solar flux is roughly proportional to how much of the Van Allen belts you're inside. Again, reduced by atmDensity.
• Galactic scale: generic Galactic Cosmic Ray model, flux = e^{scale/altitude} - atmDensity. Typically uses a scale 10 or 20 times bigger than the VanAllen and DirectSolar models.
• ScaledDS scale add divide: equals (DirectSolar(scale) + add) / divide.
• ScaledG scale add divide: equals (Galactic(scale) + add) / divide.
• DS+G dsScale dsStrength gScale gStrength: equals DirectSolar(dsScale, dsStrength) + Galactic(gScale) * gStrength.
• Surface scale [strength]: used for radioactive bodies; flux = strength * e^{-altitude/scale}. Basically like the Corona model but not affected by solar activity level.
• Fixed flux: Use the given flux value everywhere within this body's SOI.

Also note that the directSolar flux will be scaled by current solar activity level, and the galactic flux will be multiplied by 0.05.
For moons it's usually best to fix all three values at whatever their parent body's values are at the moon's orbital radius, unless the moon is big enough to have an atmosphere and/or magnetic field. Terrestrial planets probably want to use the three generic models (the scale for VanAllen and DirectSolar will probably be about equal to the planet's radius), while gas giants may be terrifying, like Jool, or may be a well-shielded enclave of tranquillity, depending on taste.

Any body for which no environment is defined will default to vanAllen = Fixed 0, directSolar = Fixed 1, galactic = Fixed 1.

If any modder wants to give their planet or moon a radiation environment that doesn't match any of these models, feel free to PM or ask me on IRC.

Edited January 10, 2016 by soundnfury
Format fix for forum fuffle

[soundnfury]

0.3.4 released - improved RSS support by adding KREs for the inner planets, and fixed a few bugs.

Updated download link in the OP.

[Buster Charlie]

Any chance to include non shadow shielded radiation from nuclear rocket engines like nerve or the project orion mod? 

[soundnfury]

2 hours ago, Buster Charlie said:

Any chance to include non shadow shielded radiation from nuclear rocket engines like nerve or the project orion mod? 

Not quite sure what you mean by "non shadow shielded" - parts will always shield stuff on one side of them from radiation coming from the other side.

Radiation from nuclear engines is already supported, and implemented for the stock LV-N.  Pull requests adding MM patches for other nuclear engines are welcomed!

Orion-style nuclear pulse engines are a more complicated situation: Kappa-Ray has API hooks for other mods to call, but you will have to badger the authors of those other mods to actually use those hooks.

[Buster Charlie]

Well I'll have to try your mod and see how it treats the nuclear rocket (am at work and just saw it today and didn't see mention of engines) but what I was referring  to is when active these engines shouldn't irradiate anything in the "shadow" of their footprint,  so unless a ship  has them mounted tractor style it shouldn't be a hazard, however it would be a hazard to kerb also on eva, or another ship or station  when docking.

[soundnfury]

I'm hereby declaring this mod unmaintained / end-of-lifed, for the following reasons:

• There are some serious issues with the design, particularly around the APIs for other mods to interoperate - which require those other mods to hard reference kappa-ray.  I don't know how to do this properly in C# / KSP.
• The raycasting is hideously expensive particularly at high time warps.
• Game-balancing this mod has proven to be a chrome-plated revolving pain in the posterior.
• I never did figure out how to handle vessels in the background.
• Other modders who apparently know what they are doing are now making Radiation mods (Nertea's is one, I think Kerbalism is another).
• I found that I didn't actually enjoy playing with radiation, at least not with the gameplay effects it has in kappa-ray (where instadeath can happen at any time if you're unlucky enough).  The aforementioned other mods seem to have better ideas.
• I don't have enough time to give all my projects the love they deserve.

Consequently, kappa-ray has been removed from the tip of the KPU repo (it didn't actually make sense for it to share a repo with KPU anyway, but never mind...); the final version of kappa-ray (for anyone wishing to steal ideas or, masochistically, take over maintenance of kappa-ray) is here.