[WIP] Science Hard Drives: v0.2-alpha

[SirDargon]

[WIP] Science Hard Drives v.0.2-alpha

 

KSP 1.1 completely broke this (and I also thought of better ways of doing things), so I'm having to rewrite it almost from scratch. Please be patient as I work on this. I've been going through some difficult times in my personal life and am spending all the little time I have working on this mod.

 

THIS VERSION IS INCOMPLETE AND STILL IN DEVELOPMENT, AS IS NOT INTENDED TO BE USED IN AN ACTIVE GAME!!!

THE CURRENT PRE-RELEASES ARE ONLY TO SEE HOW THIS IS COMING ALONG!!!

This mod revisits my older ScienceContainers mod for KSP and adds functionality that I originally wanted to add to them. ScienceData is now stored in hard drives that have a limited capacity, require ElectricCharge and time to transfer ScienceData to them. Along with the new PartModule, the mod includes a manager KSPAddon that simplifies the transfer of ScienceData. In its current form, this adds a single science part that has a limited capacity of 500 Mits just for testing purposes for now.

Always delete the entire folder for this mod when you go to update! (When updates start coming in that is)

 

Usage:

When a vessel that contains a Science Hard Drive becomes the active vessel, the Hard Drive Manager window opens up and allows Science Data to be transferred from a part that contains a module using the IScienceContainer interface (including other Science Hard Drives).

 

 

Change Log:

v0.1-alpha:
Initial preview release.

v0.2-alpha
This alpha release has my GUI re-write. Once again, it's not 100% complete, but this update does incorporate most of what I wanted in the GUI. There are some place holder GUI elements in it (blank spot that will later be filled with drive/experiment/general setting depending on what is selected, and the dialog menus used for selecting a drive) that will be later replaced.

 

Features/Updates Required For v1.0 Release:

• Rewrite of all GUI elements to use Unity5's new UI.
• Actually show how much lab data a ScienceData is worth.
• Colour-code buttons or add icons to buttons based on if the item is a ScienceHardDrive, ScienceData, or IScienceContainer
• Fix padding on some buttons
• A transfer queue manager so you can better see the progress of data being transferred (along with being able to cancel transfers)
• A better way of selecting which drive to transfer data to
• General/Experiment/Drive setting (will fill the currently blank area that is there when no ScienceData is selected)
• Replace science containers with hard drives in command modules (capsule, probe cores, science labs, etc.)
• A few extra hard drive parts so that a command modules aren't the only things with hard drives.
• Increase max capacity of hard drives based on tech tree progression
• AppLauncher compatibility
• Better optimization of code and caching of variables
• Persistent settings

Other Planned Features/Updates After v1.0:

• Part highlighting
• Naming of Parts with IScienceContainer modules (for use with priority managers)
• Auto transfer of collected ScienceData based on hard drive priorities with manager page to do so
• Auto running of science experiments
• Ability to prioritize which experiments are auto ran first and under special conditions with manager page to do so
• Blizzy78's Toolbar compatibility
• DMagic's Orbital Science compatibility (if needed, may work with no issues right off the bat)
• Other Science Experiment pack (as other people or I need them) compatibility
• Auto transmit science data with a 100% transmit value (or above a user specified threshold) as it is transferred to a hard drive
• Auto dump science data worth 0 science (or below a user specified threshold) as it is transferred to a hard drive
• Auto reset of experiments with science data worth 0 science (or below a user threshold)
• More parts
• SpaceDock & CKAN
• KSP-AVC
• ...
• Probably more I've forgotten about at this moment
• Give me ideas!

 

Github:

https://github.com/SirDargon/ScienceHardDrives

 

Download Current Version:

KSP 1.0.5

Science Hard Drives v0.2-alpha

 

Download Past Versions:

KSP 1.0.5

Science Hard Drives v0.1-alpha

 

Installation:

(Updating from older version)

Recover any vessels that are using any of these parts

Delete the SirDargon folder in GameData

Merge GameData from the download with GameData in your Kerbal Space Program Directory

Update any saved vessel in the VAB or SPH that used these parts

(New user)

Merge GameData from the download with GameData in your Kerbal Space Program Directory

 

License:

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Edited May 15, 2016 by SirDargon
Mod broken warning

[CobaltWolf]

To be clear - this would mean that a hard drive is required to store ANY date? Or do they just function as a science container part?

[SirDargon]

5 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

To be clear - this would mean that a hard drive is required to store ANY date? Or do they just function as a science container part?

They will function much like the ModuleScienceContainer part modules, and will end up replacing them in parts like the command pods, and science labs. I will be adding this module to probe cores, as well as some standalone parts. While they'll have limited storage capacity, the max possible size will increase as you progress through the tech tree. I'm wanting to have it increase each level (not every node though) on the tech tree.

[Nansuchao]

I was a fan of the older Science Containers, look up for this new version, immediately downloaded and installed in my save. Thanks SirDragon for recreating this!

[SirDargon]

7 minutes ago, Nansuchao said:

I was a fan of the older Science Containers, look up for this new version, immediately downloaded and installed in my save. Thanks SirDragon for recreating this!

O.O I would suggest not adding it to your main save right now! It is far from being ready for real use yet. This is more for people to just see what I'm doing once again.

Once I get a real v1.0 version finished, that's when I'd say it'll be good to go. But, that may take some time as I'm being pretty ambitious about what I want.

Edited February 1, 2016 by SirDargon

[SirDargon]

Update: I've been spending the last few days rewriting the entire Hard Drive Manager GUI. It's still not done, but I'm liking the way it's going. Just FYI, the new GUI is NOT in the current alpha release, but is the primary focus for the next release. I'm planning to have the next alpha out by Monday (if all goes as it's been going).

Edited February 5, 2016 by SirDargon

[SirDargon]

Well, I may be missing my goal date for my next alpha release. I just learned of VesselModules which were added in v1 of KSP (which is after I disappeared), so there has been quite a bit of rewriting being done to use them. This, plus family wanting me to be with them for the Super Bowl (though I had no interest  in it). I am hoping that by Wednesday night I'll have that release. *crosses fingers*

 

[RaendyLeBeau]

wow, great - a real expansion in gameplay - awesome. 

- I found that 'Science Containers' very successful. was fun

 

[Ajes]

Will this awesome mod come to Ckan?  

[SirDargon]

1 hour ago, Ajes said:

Will this awesome mod come to Ckan?  

I plan on adding it to CKAN once I get a full release finished.

[BrutalRIP]

Was just going to give this a whirl but i think i will wait on the update cos this looks great

On 05/02/2016 at 6:28 AM, SirDargon said:

Update: I've been spending the last few days rewriting the entire Hard Drive Manager GUI. It's still not done, but I'm liking the way it's going. Just FYI, the new GUI is NOT in the current alpha release, but is the primary focus for the next release. I'm planning to have the next alpha out by Monday (if all goes as it's been going).

 

[Stone Blue]

Yup... I'm also waiting on the update to give this a whirl...

I've been using Tarsier hardrives, as well as the Modular Computer Package chips for data storage...

[SirDargon]

[Deleted]

My computer double posted...

Edited February 11, 2016 by SirDargon

[SirDargon]

Science Hard Drives: v0.2-alpha is out!

This alpha release has my GUI re-write. Once again, it's not 100% complete, but this update does incorporate most of what I wanted in the GUI. There are some place holder GUI elements in it (blank spot that will later be filled with drive/experiment/general setting depending on what is selected, and the dialog menus used for selecting a drive) that will be later replaced.

I've also updated the original post with info on what exactly I'm wanted to do to this mod before I mark it as out of alpha. If you can think of other this I should add to this mod (which will most likely turn into a suite of science related mods) please let me know.

Finally, I sadly can't upload a picture of the new GUI at this exact moment as my internet it throttled down to the point I can barely get this posted. But once 2AM hits here, I'll be able to get that image up for ya'll.

[DaniDE]

Great to see you back at modding, I am still using your science containers mod up to today and will now explore this new mod. Does this allow me to configure e.g. "collect one-time experiments" = true by default (or generally set it to auto-collect by default) ?

I was always annoyed by having to activate things manually for each flight in the context menu

Thanks

Edited February 11, 2016 by DaniDE

[BrutalRIP]

Google download link is broken

Edit: is there supposed to be a toolbar icon? if there is im not seeing it,the window opens on first loading the vessel but if i close it i cannot reopen the gui(alpha.2)

Edited February 11, 2016 by BrutalRIP

[SirDargon]

7 hours ago, BrutalRIP said:

Google download link is broken

Edit: is there supposed to be a toolbar icon? if there is im not seeing it,the window opens on first loading the vessel but if i close it i cannot reopen the gui(alpha.2)

Thanks for letting me know about the link being broken. Apparently you're not allowed to link to zip files using goo.gl, so I instead have it going to the github release. Currently there is no toolbar icon, but that is on my list of things to do for the v1 release. Currently to reopen the window, you have to have one of my science hard drives on the vessel and right click it and press the "Review Data" button. The windows wasn't suppose to be open if no hard drive was found on the vessel, but I recently changed the code so that it would show anything that implements IScienceDataContainer, not just ScienceHardDrive and forgot to add that check.

[SirDargon]

10 hours ago, DaniDE said:

Great to see you back at modding, I am still using your science containers mod up to today and will now explore this new mod. Does this allow me to configure e.g. "collect one-time experiments" = true by default (or generally set it to auto-collect by default) ?

I was always annoyed by having to activate things manually for each flight in the context menu

Thanks

Currently this mod doesn't auto-collect, though that is a feature I will be adding soon after the v1.0 release.

As for the one time experiments, in the current release, it will ask you every time you move data from one, but I will be adding some global options that you will be able to set to not ask you all the time. Options for ScienceHardDrives and other IScienceContaiers (along with some bug fixes) will be the focus of my next alpha release.

[DaniDE]

24 minutes ago, SirDargon said:

I will be adding some global options that you will be able to set to not ask you all the time. Options for ScienceHardDrives and other IScienceContaiers (along with some bug fixes) will be the focus of my next alpha release.

Awesome! I Iike the way this is going, gonna set it up to run silent in the background doing its job, making you a coffee at the same time while you erratically steer your science ship through a gas giant

 

Thanks

Edited February 11, 2016 by DaniDE

[erbmur]

Somebody please tell me this thread isn't dead...

[SirDargon]

No, it's not dead. Just way behind schedule. I was originally just waiting on 1.1 because of the GUI overhaul. Then job searching became a priority, but as of yesterday I finally got a job again, so work will be starting up again.

[erbmur]

Sweet!  And congratulations on the new job.

[SirDargon]

On 5/5/2016 at 7:14 AM, erbmur said:

Sweet!  And congratulations on the new job.

Thank you. Sadly it's not a career worthy position though, just a simple, part-time retail position. But it's something until I can get myself a software development position somewhere. Just, as a recent college graduate, I have no job experience in my field except for what I've done in college, along with the few personal projects I still have sitting around.

 

Now, about updates for this mod. I don't have a specific time frame I'm expecting to have the next update out because I'm going to be rewriting the entire GUI for the mod to work with the new Unity5 UI, along with the UI elements that I hadn't released yet.

[Jansn67]

Very good luck for this project! (Since Science Alert and Science Containers needs replacements...)

[RaendyLeBeau]

Looks very promising! -  Keep going because ksp need more  science-mods !