[1.8.0-1.12.5] AtmosphereAutopilot 1.6.1

[Boris-Barboris]

Just now, RobinVerhulstZ said:

I'm having issues when trying to land:the plane just dives straight into the surface when flying close to it...

Some visualisable example would be a good start for investigation.

[BRAAAP_STUTUTU]

12 minutes ago, Boris-Barboris said:

Some visualisable example would be a good start for investigation.

Ehh,i'll get some tommorrow,i'm unable to record any right now.

[Boris-Barboris]

9 minutes ago, RobinVerhulstZ said:

Ehh,i'll get some tommorrow,i'm unable to record any right now.

In case you'll fail to reproduce - it's OK, AA is inconsistent, sometimes it will crash you for no reason but will not do it when you want it to. Such is the price for ambition.

Edited December 8, 2016 by Boris-Barboris

[SovietToaster]

2 hours ago, Boris-Barboris said:

In case you'll fail to reproduce - it's OK, AA is inconsistent, sometimes it will crash you for no reason but will not do it when you want it to. Such is the price for ambition.

I've noticed that at least for me, it does it more often at low altitude and with a canard layout

[BRAAAP_STUTUTU]

Okay i got some footage,though not 100% consistent...

 

 

[Boris-Barboris]

@RobinVerhulstZ Good job. Starting at 1:17 - the next 5 seconds (and all the next crashes), canards become inversed for some reason. Can you share the log file and the craft file? Will I need mods other than KAX to fly it?

Edited December 9, 2016 by Boris-Barboris

[BRAAAP_STUTUTU]

9 minutes ago, Boris-Barboris said:

@RobinVerhulstZ Good job. Starting at 1:17 - the next 5 seconds (and all the next crashes), canards become inversed for some reason. Can you share the log file and the craft file? Will I need mods other than KAX to fly it?

Well the log files would probably be hard to make anything out of unless you know exactly what to search for or how to exclude things,it is spammed with errors of the sun is not a valid body (due to GPP) i think you'd need either KAX,airplane plus or both. but i'll try to get some logs.

EDIT:i think you'll only need airplane+,the prop doesn't seem to be from KAX.

EDIT2:Ehh how do i send you the files...?

Edited December 9, 2016 by RobinVerhulstZ

[Boris-Barboris]

1 hour ago, RobinVerhulstZ said:

EDIT2:Ehh how do i send you the files...?

http://pastebin.com/index.php

or some cloud storage like dropbox\whatever.

[BRAAAP_STUTUTU]

4 minutes ago, Boris-Barboris said:

http://pastebin.com/index.php

or some cloud storage like dropbox\whatever.

okay :https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwIq33npfViIS0ljYlFhOUFDdk0/view?usp=sharing     --- craft file

and   https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwIq33npfViIYzVPNXR0ZzFhdVU/view?usp=sharing   --- output.log.

 

[Boris-Barboris]

@RobinVerhulstZ got the fix, will roll out at the evening. KSP patch shenanigans.

[Boris-Barboris]

https://github.com/Boris-Barboris/AtmosphereAutopilot/releases/tag/v1.5.9
Changelog:

• Version 1.2.1+ control surface module compatibility.
• CruiseFlight autopilot GUI tweaks by CraigCottingham. You can now enter waypoint coordinates in text form.
   

@EpicSpaceTroll139 you had the same bug.

Edited December 10, 2016 by Boris-Barboris

[JonDahm]

I just want to say that I love this mod. I feel like with some control mods I really have to fight them to get them to work for me, but this just works right out of the box. I haven't tried anything too complicated with it, but for what I have tried it's worked flawlessly. Thank you so much for this mod!

[Morse]

The SpeedSetpoint is broken again for NeoGUI. My guess is that it happened when you introduced DelayedFloat, and now it takes precedence on anything else.

Are you really extra sure you want to hold on to this SpeedSetpoint structure? Why do you like it so much? It didn't make any sense back then, but now it really doesn't make any sense. It complicates things enormously, and I don't see a single benefit.

Also, I have a question about the thrust balancer. What is the situation with it right now? I'm thinking about an interesting procedure: surgically remove the logic from the exhumated corpse of TCA 2.3.0.2 (the last version before it turned into... whatever it is now) and put it as a new top-level controller (VTOLController, or something). What do you think about it?

[Boris-Barboris]

@Morse 
1). Value setter of DelayedFieldFloat goes right through all delaying logic. Also, Craig changed something in Speed controls modes indexing, that could be the cause of the problem.

2). I don't really see any alternatives. Single structure, holds abstract speed, easy to extend with new units, what's not to like? Complicates, but a little bit, no need for drama. There wouldn't be any need for it if people would be okay with just meters per second, but western piloting traditions are bound to knots and feet, and some people want mach...

3). Hidden from plain sight in flight model UI, for me to bother less with bug reports on feature i don't really want to maintain. It should work though, and is integrated in other modules natively, wich will become major concern with imported TCA algorithms. What logic do you imagine to put in said autopilot? What use cases?

Edited December 24, 2016 by Boris-Barboris

[Morse]

One use case, actually: vtol liftoff and landing. Right now I use both TCA and AA. First, I enable TCA and SAS, give full throttle to VTOL engines, ascend to several hundred meters. Then, I enable forward engines and switch on AA. After I gain substantial speed, I switch off VTOL engines and SAS. During the landing I do pretty much the same thing, but in reverse. I have two problems with this procedure. First, the SAS. I constantly forget to switch it on/off. TCA doesn't work without it, AA doesn't work with it. Second - AA on/off. If I leave it on during the liftoff/landing, it tries to turn the craft nose-first in the direction of my heading - nose up in case of lift-off and nose down when landing. This doesn't end well So the main idea behind VTOLController would be "try to keep the craft leveled, no matter where its speed vector is pointing". Or simply "liftoff and landing without SAS"

[Boris-Barboris]

@Morse sounds okay. If you wish to continue (meself is of little help during uni session), could you try making it a separate dll, "plug-in" style? Good chance to test architecture. Loading looks like this: https://github.com/Boris-Barboris/AtmosphereAutopilot/blob/master/AtmosphereAutopilot/AtmosphereAutopilot.cs#L132

Edited December 24, 2016 by Boris-Barboris

[Morse]

Hm, are you going to move your own core modules into the separate dlls? Anyway, ok, sounds fun, I'll look into it.

[Boris-Barboris]

8 minutes ago, Morse said:

Hm, are you going to move your own core modules into the separate dlls? Anyway, ok, sounds fun, I'll look into it.

No, stuff that is there now is bare minimum, and should stay inside.

[Kerbal01]

Cruise Director mode doesnt work, locks out flight controls and causes plane to crash @Boris-Barboris

[Boris-Barboris]

@DarthVader more info needed.

[Kerbal01]

set heading to 315, did nothing. WASD set the altitude to a absurd value and did nothing to roll. Plane kept flying straight and eventually crashed

 

[Boris-Barboris]

@DarthVader An example screenshot\gif\video would help. Logs are very helpful too.

[ebigunso]

I just looked at your video in the OP.

WOW. Just amazing stuff. I'm sure to try it out now.

If software can do such amazing things, who knows what actual modern fighters are capable of doing... They must have much more advanced software to handle things.

[incrediblekarma]

On 12/27/2016 at 0:23 PM, DarthVader said:

set heading to 315, did nothing. WASD set the altitude to a absurd value and did nothing to roll. Plane kept flying straight and eventually crashed

 

Did you disable SAS before you turned on the master switch? I couldn't figure out why cruise director wasn't working for me, and after a little toying around with it realized it doesn't work correctly unless you ensure SAS is off before you activate it. Only speed control worked with SAS on. 

I was always in the habit of having SAS on for takeoff stability so it took me a while to realize what was going on. With this mod, enabling fly by wire provides plenty of control authority to forego turning on SAS for takeoff.

 

Boris, thank you for your hard work. Mod works beautifully.

 

Update: Having now gotten a chance to play around with this even further I wanted to add a little more in case anyone is skimming deciding if this is worth the trouble or not.

Absolutely.

I've always loved flight simulators. And I love KSP. The only disappointing thing about KSP was messing with planes was such a hassle that aside from trying to build SSTOs for the satisfaction of doing it and the short time in the atmosphere, I never messed with planes because they just weren't fun in KSP. I could fly around the KSC fine, but if I wanted to send a kerbal to the poles or the other side of the planet it meant I was either going to set aside at least a real time hour to babysit a plane, which isn't fun, or (more often) I was just going to send them up on a sub-orbital trajectory and recover them from their destination. Mechjeb could ensure I could walk away without worrying about a slow descent into the ground, but if I tried to warp time it would loose its mind with over corrections.

Using this mod, I was just able to throw a cargo plane up with a rover. Set the timewarp to max, and make some dinner while I waited for it to zoom 1.2+Mm to the other side of the planet where I had a blast making some attempts landing on fumes in the badlands to carry out my gravimetric measurements contract. Once I was done, I loaded the rover back up got to altitude, and time warped the cruise back to KSC for another dramatic landing where I ran off the runway into the water because I forgot to assign reverse thrust to an action group. Jeb decided since all that was lost were the underwing engines that it was good enough landing for him.

I can promise my Kerbals are going to be doing a lot more science on kerbin saving the space program money using planes, because it's finally fun to do so. I get to do all the fun parts of the flight, and I can time warp away the tedious hour-plus long cruise there or back. This is the first time I've ever worried about fuel on a plane that wasn't wizzing around the KSC with the afterburners going. And for all my hours in KSP, I finally have new stuff to figure out like what altitude and speed gains me the most efficiency for a flight on the other side of the planet with various planes.

I may finally put a sea plane together and go check out that huge impact crater like I've always meant to do. Since I'm finally confident in coming down on the water without a sudden control surface jolt splitting the plane to pieces.

The mod looks complicated on the surface, but the documentation is fairly through and the only thing that tripped me up was leaving SAS on when I was first trying it out as I mentioned above.

Great mod. If you like flying or want a break from orbital mechanics, I can't recommend this enough.

Edited January 5, 2017 by incrediblekarma
add detail

[TheRagingIrishman]

@Boris-Barboris sorry if this has already been asked, but would it be possible for you to make it so SAS got turned off automagically when AA was activated?