[1.12.5] Bluedog Design Bureau - Stockalike Saturn, Apollo, and more! (v1.14.0 "металл" 30/Sep/2024)

[Leszek]

Trying this mod out for the first time instead of OMSK, Bloeting, SELV.

So far I like it very much.

Sorry if it has been brought up already, 44 pages is a bit to catch up on.  One point,the Mercury capsule has two sets of engines on it.  Posigrade engines that circularize and retrograde engines for deorbit.  The Bloeting capsule has only the retro's and not enough fuel for them to function as both.

Note the red nozzles of the posigrade engines:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mercury#/media/File:McDonnellMercuryCapsule1.jpg

Now I am not sure what your vision is exactly and strictly speaking I can just continue to put reverse ullage motors on the Atlas so as to de-orbit the booster after circularization.  I am just floating the idea that the thruster pack should have more DV.  What do you think?

[VenomousRequiem]

4 minutes ago, Leszek said:

Trying this mod out for the first time instead of OMSK, Bloeting, SELV.

So far I like it very much.

Sorry if it has been brought up already, 44 pages is a bit to catch up on.  One point,the Mercury capsule has two sets of engines on it.  Posigrade engines that circularize and retrograde engines for deorbit.  The Bloeting capsule has only the retro's and not enough fuel for them to function as both.

Note the red nozzles of the posigrade engines:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mercury#/media/File:McDonnellMercuryCapsule1.jpg

Now I am not sure what your vision is exactly and strictly speaking I can just continue to put reverse ullage motors on the Atlas so as to de-orbit the booster after circularization.  I am just floating the idea that the thruster pack should have more DV.  What do you think?

Of course, I guess the only purpose is to de-orbit which it should have more than enough DV for, but look at those little engines!! They're so cute! 

@CobaltWolf, can we keep them? Please?? 

[TonyC]

I was wondering if I could exchange FASA for Bluedog Design. FASA to me is a godsend for an expansion of parts and science instruments (and early tech big engines and rockets, but it really isn't stock-ish, which is okay, but stock feels a bit better to me. I also noticed the tank volumes are very strange in FASA. Some huge tanks contain half the volume for a similarily sized stock tank.

Should I exchange ?

[Sgt.Shutesie]

That is all up to you, I don't control your mods folder. If I did, BDB would be in it.

[CobaltWolf]

12 hours ago, Leszek said:

Trying this mod out for the first time instead of OMSK, Bloeting, SELV.

So far I like it very much.

Sorry if it has been brought up already, 44 pages is a bit to catch up on.  One point,the Mercury capsule has two sets of engines on it.  Posigrade engines that circularize and retrograde engines for deorbit.  The Bloeting capsule has only the retro's and not enough fuel for them to function as both.

Note the red nozzles of the posigrade engines:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mercury#/media/File:McDonnellMercuryCapsule1.jpg

Now I am not sure what your vision is exactly and strictly speaking I can just continue to put reverse ullage motors on the Atlas so as to de-orbit the booster after circularization.  I am just floating the idea that the thruster pack should have more DV.  What do you think?

12 hours ago, VenomousRequiem said:

Of course, I guess the only purpose is to de-orbit which it should have more than enough DV for, but look at those little engines!! They're so cute! 

@CobaltWolf, can we keep them? Please?? 

I dunno. We've already crossed the line into non-replica territory, pretty far in fact judging by the fact that the Shepherd only has one nozzle. Despite that there are probably baby SRBs somewhere in the upcoming parts that could be used for such things.

10 hours ago, MegaUZI said:

I was wondering if I could exchange FASA for Bluedog Design. FASA to me is a godsend for an expansion of parts and science instruments (and early tech big engines and rockets, but it really isn't stock-ish, which is okay, but stock feels a bit better to me. I also noticed the tank volumes are very strange in FASA. Some huge tanks contain half the volume for a similarily sized stock tank.

Should I exchange ?

We cover most of the same stuff as FASA - indeed, FASA is a primary inspiration for this mod. You do get early big rockets - full size 1.25m rockets at the first rocketry node, 1.5 and 1.875m rockets at the second one. Because BDB doesn't exclusively used stock sizes and instead makes use of new intermediate sizes, the scaling of the parts is more accurate in most regards. Atlas and Titan are 1.875m in diameter, for example, which matches KSP's 0.625 or 0.64 scale (depending on who you ask, I round to whatever is more convenient for a given part). All the tanks are balanced to have the same fuel/mass/volume ratio as stock parts.
On the other hand, because BDB in its current state includes so many parts, it is a good deal more confusing than FASA. And the update I just began working on is set to double the number, which exacerbates the problem. We also don't have things like Saturn and Apollo yet, though they are planned. I'm saving them a bit, partially because I like to disappoint people that make requests and partially because I want to give my skills more time to develop before I start to tackle something so big, that way I hopefully won't have to redo it.
So that's more or less a run down of the difference between BDB and FASA. BDB is scaled more accurately, is more stockalike in art style and balance, does not yet include later programs like Apollo, but does include a greater variety of parts for earlier US rockets.

Why do I feel like this thread always blows up every time I try to force myself into taking a couple days off?

EDIT: Hey guys, one more dev release before the update! I realized I had forgotten to do the compatibility configs for this update, which have been redone by @Jso. @VenomousRequiem included some new RP configs that got lost in the confusion of trying to finish the Titan parts. The cameras and ion trap now have full sciencedef configs thanks to @drekerb42. Let me know if there are any issues - I plan on releasing on Thursday if all goes well!

EDIT2: The mass of the Crius nose probe core has been nerfed (buffed?) to 0.33t from 0.05t. I accidentally let it stay too light. If there are any more issues with part masses please let me know. The recent balance pass focused on the fuel tanks and engines, and did not affect the other parts such as probe cores.

EDIT3: Yikes! Looks like I was lazy when it came to taking screenshots of the Titan launches... I'll have to take some. But going back through the screenshots from the last month of the thread, there have been some great screenshots taken! I've started assembling them into an album to be shared once the update is released.

Edited January 26, 2016 by CobaltWolf

[Sgt.Shutesie]

Dooooood! Dude Dude Dude Dude Dude! We need to have this!

Edited January 27, 2016 by Sgt.Shutesie
Moar Images

[VenomousRequiem]

@Sgt.Shutesie Seconded!

[CobaltWolf]

So, update/news. My current plan is still to stream tomorrow, starting at the usual time. The first order of business will be to push out the release of 0.09. Obviously for those of you that have been playing the dev releases, this doesn't change much except the compatibility is all fixed for Tweakscale and Remotetech. Then we'll continue on with modeling the Gemini/MOL stuff.

Complicating that is the fact that this school quarter is suddenly kicking my butt. I am pretty behind on all my projects and I'm trying to force myself to prioritize at least until midterms. Dev is probably only going to take place once or twice a week for the time being. My focus for the update has been shifting towards the Gemini/MOL stuff along with other 'payload' (i.e. non LV) aspects of the update, rather than the original focus which was Juno/Redstone/Diamant. I will try and keep the release schedule to one update per month, even if that means splitting updates up. This isn't an issue as each update usually has several unrelated chunks of content, so I'm not leaving anything half finished by doing so.

Specifically, in terms of tomorrow I'm trying to get equipment and a reservation to do some greenscreen shooting for my compositing class. I have no idea when that would start or end. I suppose just check in on the thread around the normal time.

Plans for the Gemini/MOL stuff (we need a name for this part family or project or initiative or whatever) have grown. I've decided to make two groups of parts to create two canon spacecraft - one is the 2 man capsule with the straight 1.5m CSM and solar panel wings, and will have a crew can to add 2 (3?) more Kerbals. The other is based on Big G, with the expanded crew cabin to bring the total diameter to 1.875m (2.5m?) with the funky rear docking port. There will also be parts for 1.875m canon Gemini, because at this point I might as well.
I've said before that my goal in this project, rather than just having MOL be a boring cylinder that travels behind Gemini, is to have it be an American equivalent to @Beale's Salyut station parts, with similar roles and sizes. To that end, the 1.5m canon craft would be the equivalent to Soyuz in terms of performance, and the Big G would be comparable to TKS, including having cargo bays and docking at the rear.

For now, my primary goal is to get more or less a finalized list of all the parts for the stations and spacecrafts. Suggestions for useful station modules that you'd like to see would be appreciated. The primary goal of the upcoming stream would be to sketch the remaining parts out roughly in Maya to figure out sizing and how everything goes together.

(Also, @Beale while I have you tagged, what are the dimensions assumed for a Kerbal in a crew can? So I can decide how many should fit in a given pod)

EDIT: Also, the OP has been more or less updated. Perhaps I should try and add some nice graphics to spice it up.

Edited January 27, 2016 by CobaltWolf

[Beale]

1 hour ago, CobaltWolf said:

@Beale while I have you tagged, what are the dimensions assumed for a Kerbal in a crew can? So I can decide how many should fit in a given pod)

Tricky to answer exactly, but roughly.

0.45m x 0.45m base, 0.8m tall (Possible a little taller).

This means you can "comfortably" get two Kerbals inside a 1.25m cylinder.

There will always be minor clipping when seating in such small spaces. But, with good placement of Kerbals (and cameras) you probably will not be able to see it!

With 1.5m cylinder, you can just barely squeeze three seats!

 

Edited January 27, 2016 by Beale

[CobaltWolf]

13 minutes ago, Beale said:

Tricky to answer exactly, but roughly.

0.45m x 0.45m base, 0.8m tall.

This means you can "comfortably" get two Kerbals inside a 1.25m cylinder.

1.5m cylinder, you can just barely squeeze three seats!

 

I suppose I'll let the 1.5m crew can carry 3 kerbals then. It's not as if they need room for controls and such. Of course, if anyone objects I'd love to hear it.

Out of curiosity I crunched some numbers after converting the textures to DDS for the 0.09 update.

The mod takes up approx 30mb on disk. However, according to GCMonitor it currently uses 135mb of RAM. I don't know if that is good or bad but it's certainly higher than I would have liked. That was calculated by starting up the game (in DX9) with BDB installed, writing down the ram usage on the title scree (~2403mb) and then uninstalling it and restarting the game (~2268mb). With that said, counting up the number of part cfgs gives us a part count of 146 parts for the 0.09 release of the mod - not too bad if I do say so! Considering the next release of the mod is set to add another hundred or so parts, I believe that would make us one of, if not the biggest KSP mods ever? That does not even include parts for Saturn/Apollo, which are planned for an even later update!

Edited January 27, 2016 by CobaltWolf

[Beale]

28 minutes ago, CobaltWolf said:

I crunched some numbers after converting the textures to DDS for the 0.09 update.

The mod takes up approx 30mb on disk. However, according to GCMonitor it currently uses 135mb of RAM. 

What type of DDS have you converted to (DXT1, DXT3, DXT5), if you remember?
I noticed some of your textures have an unused alpha channel, but I'm not sure if this would affect the file size that much (You should definitely get some specular maps on these parts by the way! I'll love you forever for that).

I admit I snoop through your textures quite a lot, and they are already very well sized, I do not know how much you can shrink things (like you say, there are a lot of parts  )

Edited January 27, 2016 by Beale

[CobaltWolf]

20 minutes ago, Beale said:

What type of DDS have you converted to (DXT1, DXT3, DXT5), if you remember?
I noticed some of your textures have an unused alpha channel, but I'm not sure if this would affect the file size that much (You should definitely get some specular maps on these parts by the way! I'll love you forever for that).

I admit I snoop through your textures quite a lot, and they are already very well sized, I do not know how much you can shrink things (like you say, there are a lot of parts  )

I use DDS4KSP. I looked and don't see an option to remove alpha channels - you're correct, they're not needed for any of the textures except the Explorer textures. I feel like I've let myself use 1024 texture maps lately, rather than create 512 texture maps as needed. I'd like to revert to that, as there is less wasted with that method. Often you can achieve acceptable results with 2 or 3 512 maps rather than a single 1024.

I don't know anything about spec maps in KSP. I'm very hesitant to include more textures to the mod. I know that people are excited for 64bit KSP, but frankly that solution seems like a bandaid to me. I'd only start if Squad included an actual asset loader that meant everything wasn't loaded into the RAM on startup. Many people play on laptops with 6 or less gb of ram, and I don't want to exclude them by being wasteful.

[Beale]

22 minutes ago, CobaltWolf said:

I don't know anything about spec maps in KSP. I'm very hesitant to include more textures to the mod. I know that people are excited for 64bit KSP, but frankly that solution seems like a bandaid to me. I'd only start if Squad included an actual asset loader that meant everything wasn't loaded into the RAM on startup. Many people play on laptops with 6 or less gb of ram, and I don't want to exclude them by being wasteful.

The beauty of a specular map is that it doesn't require the extra file (well I am sure you already know this because of your study), but only an alpha channel.

So, it is not much of a size increase for extra detail and more metallic looking parts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But, it is still an increase in memory footprint - opposite of the direction you want to go.

But I'm rambling.

 

 

Totally agree, KSP needs a dynamic asset loader.

Good luck on compressing things  

Edited January 27, 2016 by Beale

[CobaltWolf]

1 minute ago, Beale said:

The beauty of a specular map is that it doesn't require the extra file (well I am sure you already know this because of your study), but only an alpha channel.
So, it is not much of a size increase for extra detail and more metallic looking parts.
But, it is still an increase in memory footprint - opposite of the direction you want to go.
But I'm rambling.
Good luck on compressing things  

Perhaps. I am definitely waiting for KSP 1.1 though before I start thinking about shaders. I'd rather figure it out once rather than twice.

[davidy12]

Why'd you get rid of Procedural fairings?

Edited January 28, 2016 by davidy12

[CobaltWolf]

11 minutes ago, davidy12 said:

Why'd you get rid of Procedural fairings?

I chose not to include them in this release because they weren't ready yet.

EDIT: They can still be used if you want, just copy the PF folder from one of the more recent dev releases.

Edited January 28, 2016 by CobaltWolf

[Jso]

Could we get surface attach enabled on the Agena A engine. It's begging for solar panels to hang off of it.

Maybe the "SSR-625 Stack Decoupler" should be called the "SSR-1250 Stack Decoupler", since it's a 1.25 meter part.

[Jso]

Some screenshots. A Titan III/Transtage carrying a communications satellite to Keosynchronous orbit. Mods used: Harder solar system X3, Vens stock revamp, Real fuels, Real plume, Procedural fairings, Remotetech, and of course Bluedog. Exhaust damage on the second stage engine is disabled for the hot staging to work.

 

[CobaltWolf]

Friendly neighborhood wolf reminding you that the stream will commence at approximately 6 PM EST, beginning with the official release of BDB v0.09.

[DiscoSlelge]

17 minutes ago, CobaltWolf said:

Friendly neighborhood wolf reminding you that the stream will commence at approximately 6 PM EST, beginning with the official release of BDB v0.09.

Already waiting for you :3

[Sgt.Shutesie]

Can you get me a list of payload capacity of the different rockets and variants, I know its a lot to ask, but I would be able to get you "beta" craft files to ship out with the new release. I made a dropbox, when they are completely corrected, they will be on KerbalX.

[CobaltWolf]

Bluedog Design Bureau 0.09 - Prometheus has been released! Download on KerbalStuff.

Screenshot gallery, including screenshots from @Sgt.Shutesie, @Jso and probably some other people. :S

Changelog:

Spoiler

0.09 (Prometheus)
-All launcher parts were rebalanced with help from Jso and Araym
-Added Titan 1, 2, 4 first stages
-Added Titan 1, 2, 4 second stages
-Added Titan SRMs (various flavors)
-Added Titan Transtage
-Added Delta 2 first stage
-Added GEM strap on SRBs (3 flavors)
-Added Delta-K second stage
-Edited textures for most of the rocket parts
-Thor parts were completely redone
-Atlas V textures were redone on a larger texture sheet, improving the resolution
-Centaur interstages were redone **IMPORTANT** they now connect to a hidden node just below the top rim of the centaur mounting plate
-Added camera parts - film, self developing film, and pure digital
-Added three new science parts - a folding magnetometer, a hydrometer, and an IR spectrometer
-Added Ranger probe core and a new 100 EC battery

I am also streaming work on the next update, on my Twitch channel.

[VenomousRequiem]

Good GOD I've been playing a lot in RO.

Anyways, hurray for updates!! Has anyone else noticed how much better @CobaltWolf and I have gotten at this? This mod has been a pretty good platform to practice my skills... Thank you Cobalt, for this wonderful opportunity, and for a good friendship thus far!

And thanks to everyone who helps out, too! All you little buggers on the thread.

I'll be quite now... Sorry for getting emotional.  

Edited January 28, 2016 by VenomousRequiem

[RYU AZUKU99]

Two things. Anybody have a link for the craft that you can make with this mod? And all of the engines have absolutely no engine effects whatsoever. Any fixes?

Edited January 29, 2016 by RYU AZUKU99

[VenomousRequiem]

31 minutes ago, RYU AZUKU99 said:

Two things. Anybody have a link for the craft that you can make with this mod? And all of the engines have absolutely no engine effects whatsoever. Any fixes?

I kind of feel like this has happened to someone else... are you using RealPlumes?