[WIP] Coatl Aerospace ProbesPlus Dev Thread [Beta] 10/19/2020 (1.8-1.10)

[rasta013]

7 hours ago, akron said:

By the way, has anyone had a chance to test the latest parts out? Any feedback on those?

Good timing.  I just spent all evening undisturbed and had a bunch of the new parts in use.  The Linkor is fantastic.  That has actually proven useful in several different places including one manned Minmus landing...well the ascent/return stage was the Linkor anyway.  The RCS ports are also working out nicely.  Their size makes them very useful in all kinds of small craft where you don't need the higher thrust RCS typically available.  One suggestion on the RCS I would make though, slightly increase the ISP for them.  At 240 that's the low end in relation to every other RCS unit I have.  Most of the ports average around 250-260 and a few large nozzle varieties go as high as 290 but just coming inline with the average would make them even more usable.

[akron]

7 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

Da, I indeed have models of cylindrical probe cores, as well as the Giotto dish, prepared for UV unwrapping. But they are low priority right now.

I have a faint feeling that if enough time passes, you'll throw those at me so you can concentrate on s****n  

27 minutes ago, rasta013 said:

Good timing.  I just spent all evening undisturbed and had a bunch of the new parts in use.  The Linkor is fantastic.  That has actually proven useful in several different places including one manned Minmus landing...well the ascent/return stage was the Linkor anyway.  The RCS ports are also working out nicely.  Their size makes them very useful in all kinds of small craft where you don't need the higher thrust RCS typically available.  One suggestion on the RCS I would make though, slightly increase the ISP for them.  At 240 that's the low end in relation to every other RCS unit I have.  Most of the ports average around 250-260 and a few large nozzle varieties go as high as 290 but just coming inline with the average would make them even more usable.

Ok, good to hear! I will look at the stats for all the rcs and see which make sense to boost up in ISP. The medium-size will get a boost for sure, but I don't want to go too high because it will make the stock ones less desirable. While a lot of players have other mods installed, I have to primarily balance against stock parts. Great feedback, I appreciate your time!

update

Here what I was doing tonight before the crushing exhaustion of today's work day made me fall asleep. Some *insert planet* Express love! I snuck in Barquetta so you guys get an idea of the scale. These new parts feel huge to me

Does this count as 3-days in a row of mod work?

~Cheers

[akron]

I was hoping to get to 4-days in a row of work, but I just could not. Got too busy

The plan is to get back into the mod tonight with a Twitch stream starting a little later, maybe around 7:30-8pm EST. I'll likely be texturing the above parts, maybe shuffling some of the textures around and what-not. Maybe some KSP play time, who knows. Drop by if you can!

~Cheers

[CobaltWolf]

1 minute ago, akron said:

I was hoping to get to 4-days in a row of work, but I just could not. Got too busy

The plan is to get back into the mod tonight with a Twitch stream starting a little later, maybe around 7:30-8pm EST. I'll likely be texturing the above parts, maybe shuffling some of the textures around and what-not. Maybe some KSP play time, who knows. Drop by if you can!

~Cheers

I may stream for a little bit before you then!

[akron]

Just now, CobaltWolf said:

I may stream for a little bit before you then!

Yes! Go for it!

[Stone Blue]

@akron & @CobaltWolf do either of you use FSmesh or FStexture switching at all?

[akron]

1 minute ago, Stone Blue said:

@akron & @CobaltWolf do either of you use FSmesh or FStexture switching at all?

I do not on my mod but I do for other mods, but I am considering using something to that effect for the HTV cargo parts, or B9 part switch

[Stone Blue]

I was just wondering if either of you would be, by chance, maybe setting up the stuff you'll be streaming later using either... I've been asked to write some FS/IFS patches for a mod, and one of the things the dev is thinking about is optimizing the models & textures in the mod...It has over 100 parts, and MANY shared textures... So I'd like to see actual examples of setting up models & textures for use with the switching...

[akron]

3 minutes ago, Stone Blue said:

I was just wondering if either of you would be, by chance, maybe setting up the stuff you'll be streaming later using either... I've been asked to write some FS/IFS patches for a mod, and one of the things the dev is thinking about is optimizing the models & textures in the mod...It has over 100 parts, and MANY shared textures... So I'd like to see actual examples of setting up models & textures for use with the switching...

Drop by the stream, we'll figure it out together!

I will need them eventually anyway!

[Stone Blue]

19 minutes ago, akron said:

Drop by the stream, we'll figure it out together!

I will need them eventually anyway!

Or if you're gonna be using B9 instead... I'd LIKE to try to use patches for BOTH FS/IFS and B9 switching in BioMASS, and the other mods I'm working on...

[VenomousRequiem]

Akron is streaming!

[Deimos Rast]

Watching stream now!

@akron

Did you ever use the RTG decay patches I gave you? Either way, had a brief chat with Nertea and I think he'd rather they stay in NFE. (see here third comment down)

K, back to watching the stream I go.

Edit:

Was good fun.

Edited July 16, 2016 by Deimos Rast

[akron]

Update

This was another long stream that didn't see textures done, but I did organize and move some of the texture parts a bit.It means a lot of UVs will have to be re-done, but it will make the textures better organized in the long run. I still have more to do on that regard, but I have a good start! 

Thank you everyone who came by and hung out for a bit! Please keep the critique and suggestions coming! 

What did get done had nothing to do what was planned . I made updates to the WIP texture of Tatsujin (MAVEN) and I again do not like leaving the foil too exposed and wanted to break up the profile and color a bit. See below what I came up with. More paneling and indents on the sides. Texture is still WIP!

The other item was HTV. I finished more parts for it and did the RCS system for it. The RCS are designed so you can make an HTV-inspired replica and will match stock with single nozzle and be a little more powerful with the dual-nozzle versions.

The idea for HTV is to have a module that you can choose between [Unpressurized cargo (below), Pressurized cargo (With doors), Life support (Snacks, USI, etc.), KIS storage, fuel tank]. Then a half module that can do the same as above minus the cargo. This is capped by a docking port adapter (maybe with batteries or monoprop). Bring your own 1.25m docking port. The payload stack pieces will have built-in solar panels just like the avionics probe core. The solar panels on the Propulsion/Service module are a single pieces.

Let me know what you think

~Cheers

 

 

[Deimos Rast]

Just saying again that I had a good time hanging out for at least 5 hours or so. I'd highly recommend stopping by the stream for a bit, was good fun. I don't want to spoil any announcements, but:

• We talked about foil a lot and he was receptive to my critiques of "too much too much" and....he can comment more on that if he cares to.
• He even gave a sneak peak of the lander pack....conceptually. Sounds like a lot of cool stuff is rattling around akron's head. Very exciting.

[Incursore]

Hello, I love your work!  Is the mod up to date? CKAN say that is out to date.

[DStaal]

A thought: On the solar panels with the light vanes on the end, have you considered giving them a very small reaction wheel capability?  The point of those vanes in real life was attitude control via variable light reflection, so a very weak reaction wheel could duplicate that effect.

[Siege]

31 minutes ago, Incursore said:

Hello, I love your work!  Is the mod up to date? CKAN say that is out to date.

I'm curious about the same. I did an export of my CKAN mods and a fresh re-install to bring some other (manually installed) mods up-to-date. After handling the manual mods, I was shocked my game was hosed because almost all my crafts were missing parts, only to find that Probes Plus wasn't re-installed because it wasn't in the CKAN list.

11 minutes ago, DStaal said:

A thought: On the solar panels with the light vanes on the end, have you considered giving them a very small reaction wheel capability?  The point of those vanes in real life was attitude control via variable light reflection, so a very weak reaction wheel could duplicate that effect.

That, sir, is a fantastic idea!

[VenomousRequiem]

35 minutes ago, Incursore said:

Hello, I love your work!  Is the mod up to date? CKAN say that is out to date.

 

1 minute ago, Siege said:

I'm curious about the same. I did an export of my CKAN mods and a fresh re-install to bring some other (manually installed) mods up-to-date. After handling the manual mods, I was shocked my game was hosed because almost all my crafts were missing parts, only to find that Probes Plus wasn't re-installed because it wasn't in the CKAN list.

CKAN issues should he taken to the CKAN thread. 

[Siege]

2 minutes ago, VenomousRequiem said:

 

CKAN issues should he taken to the CKAN thread. 

Mayhap, then, when trying to educate those of us not in the know, you should perhaps provide a link to said thread, since you would seem to be familiar with it...

[VenomousRequiem]

20 minutes ago, Siege said:

Mayhap, then, when trying to educate those of us not in the know, you should perhaps provide a link to said thread, since you would seem to be familiar with it...

I was on my phone, so this ability wasn't particularly available, my apologies. Here, no need to get snippy.

[akron]

9 hours ago, Deimos Rast said:

Just saying again that I had a good time hanging out for at least 5 hours or so. I'd highly recommend stopping by the stream for a bit, was good fun. I don't want to spoil any announcements, but:

• We talked about foil a lot and he was receptive to my critiques of "too much too much" and....he can comment more on that if he cares to.
• He even gave a sneak peak of the lander pack....conceptually. Sounds like a lot of cool stuff is rattling around akron's head. Very exciting.

Thank you! I do think I have to work on making the streams shorter. To expand on what we talked about:

• We looked at several source images and different designs for the foil and it is very difficult to get something that matches stock parts better while still looking great. If I go for realistic, it is going to look even further away from stock. I will continue to tweak my texture as the mod goes on, but I don't think I can compromise a stock look right now. The simple answer is to provide alternate textures, so I will on that pretty soon.
• The lander/Rover stuff contains a lot of cool parts I can't wait to get to. To stay organized I REALLY want to finish the main mod first. This is one of the reasons why I am a bit hesitant to add some of the probe stuff that you guys suggested. I want to make it clear that just because I say "no" to something now, it doesn't mean "no" forever. I encourage you to convince me why it it has a place in the mod now, before the lander stuff, or we can simply revisit it after the lander pack  

 

1 hour ago, DStaal said:

A thought: On the solar panels with the light vanes on the end, have you considered giving them a very small reaction wheel capability?  The point of those vanes in real life was attitude control via variable light reflection, so a very weak reaction wheel could duplicate that effect.

I thought about this when I made them but I thought the "reaction wheel" module was not the right way to do it. Mostly because of the way the game would recognize the parts for their right-click menu. I was going to come back and see if there was a way to use the reaction wheel module without the reaction wheel torque options. If nobody cares, I will happily add it along with anything else that uses solar wind radiation pressure for attitude control.

1 hour ago, Incursore said:

Hello, I love your work!  Is the mod up to date? CKAN say that is out to date.

Thank you and @Siege for reporting the CKAN issue. Like @VenomousRequiem suggested, would you mind checking with the CKAN team? I do not how they cache the mod. The latest "release" should match what is available on Spacedock and Curse.

~Cheers

Edited July 16, 2016 by akron

[CobaltWolf]

1 minute ago, akron said:

• We looked at several source images and different designs for the foil and it is very difficult to get something that matches stock parts better while still looking great. If I go for realistic, it is going to look even further away from stock. I will continue to tweak my texture as the mod goes on, but I don't think I can compromise a stock look right now. The simple answer is to provide alternate textures, so I will on that pretty soon.

~Cheers

Can you kindly send me some of your exported objects and your PSD file? I want to play with it a bit in Unity and see if I can figure out a more workable solution.

[rasta013]

10 hours ago, akron said:

I thought about this when I made them but I thought the "reaction wheel" module was not the right way to do it. Mostly because of the way the game would recognize the parts for their right-click menu. I was going to come back and see if there was a way to use the reaction wheel module without the reaction wheel torque options. If nobody cares, I will happily add it along with anything else that uses solar wind radiation pressure for attitude control.

Personally, I could care less whether the torque options are there or not simply to get the added attitude control.  I regularly add a couple (or 4 ) CA reaction wheels to my probe builds because I tend to run them on the heavy side with extra experiments.  That added extra control would probably eliminate this setup for me freeing up a bit of space on the probe's layout as well.  If someone is going to tweak the reaction controls then more power to them if they feel the need to take advantage of tweakables rather than good probe design.

[DStaal]

11 hours ago, akron said:

I thought about this when I made them but I thought the "reaction wheel" module was not the right way to do it. Mostly because of the way the game would recognize the parts for their right-click menu. I was going to come back and see if there was a way to use the reaction wheel module without the reaction wheel torque options. If nobody cares, I will happily add it along with anything else that uses solar wind radiation pressure for attitude control

 

I'm sure if we really wanted to we could come up with some convoluted workaround that would be closer to 'realistic', but a reaction wheel works.   

[akron]

1 hour ago, rasta013 said:

Personally, I could care less whether the torque options are there or not simply to get the added attitude control.  I regularly add a couple (or 4 ) CA reaction wheels to my probe builds because I tend to run them on the heavy side with extra experiments.  That added extra control would probably eliminate this setup for me freeing up a bit of space on the probe's layout as well.  If someone is going to tweak the reaction controls then more power to them if they feel the need to take advantage of tweakables rather than good probe design.

The only caveat is that those solar vanes would provide very little control. They would never replace actual reaction wheels.I will play around and find a reasonable and balanced number.