[1.0.5] Mk2.5 Spaceplane Parts

[RaginCaucasian]

This is a parts pack of 2.5m spaceplane parts with a flat bottom, possessing a bit of aerodynamic lift. I am going to be updating this mod sporadically, and I would appreciate any comments, critiques, etc. I would especially like to know people's thoughts on the balance of the mass and lift.

As of 5/12/17, I have changed the license for this mod to MIT

 

Download:

Note: updating to 1.3 renames/replaces many of the parts.

Spacedock: http://spacedock.info/mod/194/Mk2.5%20Spaceplane%20Parts

Curse: http://kerbal.curseforge.com/projects/mk-2-5-spaceplane-parts-flat-bottom-spaceplanes

Part List:

Spoiler

Parts:

• Cockpit
• Structural Fuselage
  • Large: LFO, LF, Structural
  • Medium: LFO, LF, Monoprop, Structural
  • Small: Probe Core, Monoprop, Structural
• Cargo Bay
• Crew Cabin
• Mk. 2.5 - 2.5m (round) Adapter
• Nosecone (x-37b style)

Coming Soon(ish):

• Unique cockpit and cabin IVA, once I learn how to do internals

Community Suggestions:

• Engine Mounting Plate
• Mk. 2.5 - Mk. 3 Adapter
• Mk.2 to Mk. 2.5 Adapter
• 1.25m to Mk 2.5 Adapter
• Cargo Ramp

Check out this video from Kottabos!

If you're interested in using the Mk2.5 Specification, you can use this drawing:

Spoiler

Changelog:

Spoiler

1.3.0 - 3/05/16

• New fuselage system parts
• updated & consolidated textures
• new cockpit mesh

1.2.3 - 2/19/16

• Added nosecone and flat-to-round adapter
• fixed some typos

1.2.2 - 2/15/16

• added placeholder IVA from the Mk. 3 cockpit
• fixed drone core title text

1.2.1 - 2/11/16

• changed cargo bay texture

1.2.0 - 2/10/16

• added cargo bay part

1.1 - 2/08/16

• Added drone core and monopropellant tank parts

Edited May 12, 2017 by RaginCaucasian
hiatus notice

[Mecripp]

By chance any good X-37 parts in the making ?

[Kartoffelkuchen]

Looks nice!

[RaginCaucasian]

4 hours ago, MeCripp said:

By chance any good X-37 parts in the making ?

I may also make a nosecone/drone core, but for now I'm going to keep the scope of the mod to fuselage parts. There are already some good aero surfaces mods.

[JooJcat]

Does the cockpit have unique IVA ?

[RaginCaucasian]

16 hours ago, JooJcat said:

Does the cockpit have unique IVA ?

Not yet. That's on my to-do list after the cargo bay.

[legoclone09]

Awesome! May I suggest an engine mounting plate like the Mk3 Parts have? Maybe call it Mk2.5?

[TrainEngie]

It's looking great!

 

May I suggest monoprop tanks?

[Jens1970]

Can't you use the current cockpit's IVA? They are nearly identical afteral right?

[Joco223]

@RaginCaucasian Nice mod!  I'm also trying to make some mods for KSP but how do you get such nice textures? I can never make good looking textures

[Alastronaut]

Looking forward to downloading this when I get home! Any chance we could get wings that are black on the bottom to match the TPS on these parts? 

[RaginCaucasian]

22 hours ago, Jens1970 said:

Can't you use the current cockpit's IVA? They are nearly identical afteral right?

I guess I could use the mk2 to start with. They might not match up exactly with the window pattern, but it's a start. I still want to try making an IVA for it myself, eventually.

[RaginCaucasian]

20 hours ago, Joco223 said:

@RaginCaucasian Nice mod!  I'm also trying to make some mods for KSP but how do you get such nice textures? I can never make good looking textures

The textures are done in photoshop, at 2056x2056 resolution. Believe me, out of all the effort I put into the mod, creating the textures was by far the most difficult. I must have put in 10-20 hours over all the iterations of the textures.

Step one involved looking at a lot of references from stock parts & spaceplane images I found online. I wanted to get a minimum level of detail over the entire model - the tiles naturally have a lot of variation, so I had to match that elsewhere on the parts. Stock parts have all sorts of lines, panels, scoring, etc. that add some really nice detail. I tried to do the same anywhere I had any huge blank spaces. I usually use the paintbrush to add some colors that are very slightly different to the base. There are also some filters that can add noise.

Next comes the strategy in unwrapping the model. I tried to make sure that any surfaces in the model that would have a similar texture would be overlapped on the UV map. This means that I could make the most of the texture real estate.

I also experimented with different texture file formats when writing the part from Unity. I heard that MBM was better than TGA, but I actually had the best results just preserving my PNG's.

22 hours ago, Jens1970 said:

Can't you use the current cockpit's IVA? They are nearly identical afteral right?

Yeah, I could use the Mk2 as a placeholder, I guess. I'd still like to create my own IVA eventuallly.

20 hours ago, Alastronaut said:

Looking forward to downloading this when I get home! Any chance we could get wings that are black on the bottom to match the TPS on these parts? 

I mentioned this above, but I think I'm going to stick to fuselage components for now, because there are already some great aero surface mods. I'd suggest B9 procedural wings.

[Alastronaut]

Alright, thanks! Great mod!

[Rho-Mu 34]

Great mod indeed, Mk 2.5 definitely has potential.

So how about wider cargo bay variant? That would be useful for payloads that do not justify usage of MK3, but still clipping through mk2 bays, like some satellites and rovers. I'd also suggest considering MK2.5 to 1.25 bi- and\or tricoupler at some point.

Good luck with development, RaginCaucasian!

 

[legoclone09]

Awesome job on the cargo bay? Are there plans to have this on CKAN as well?

[scullyl]

This is really good! Good job  if you want, I think a crew module would be a good addition to this mod- that way there can be crew shuttles. 

[Rory Yammomoto]

Finally, a size of shuttle that looks right on the side of 3 3/4 metre parts! One issue, though. There is no specific GameData foldser to put it correctly into the Game data folder. Where and how do I install?

 

 

Edited February 13, 2016 by Rory Yammomoto
Looked funny

[Probus]

Love it!  Sweet, sweet, sweet.  I was getting frustrated with the Mk2 cargo bays.  This will help some.  Downloading now.

One thing about CKAN though.  I think you need to put all your parts in a "Flat Bottom Spaceplane Parts" directory inside a "GameData" directory in order for CKAN to work properly.

Good luck!

[politas]

1 hour ago, Probus said:

Love it!  Sweet, sweet, sweet.  I was getting frustrated with the Mk2 cargo bays.  This will help some.  Downloading now.

One thing about CKAN though.  I think you need to put all your parts in a "Flat Bottom Spaceplane Parts" directory inside a "GameData" directory in order for CKAN to work properly.

Good luck!

Putting all the parts into a lower level directory would make for much more reliable CKAN installs. I could add install instructions to create a folder and put all the individual part folders into it, but any new parts would not be handled automatically. You don't really need a "GameData" directory below that, though it would make it clearer for users.

[RaginCaucasian]

19 hours ago, legoclone09 said:

Are there plans to have this on CKAN as well?

 

2 hours ago, Probus said:

 I think you need to put all your parts in a "Flat Bottom Spaceplane Parts" directory inside a "GameData" directory in order for CKAN to work properly.

Good luck!

 

3 hours ago, Rory Yammomoto said:

There is no specific GameData foldser to put it correctly into the Game data folder. Where and how do I install?

 

 

 

43 minutes ago, politas said:

Putting all the parts into a lower level directory would make for much more reliable CKAN installs.

 

Yeah, I've updated the mod file structure so that (hopefully) it'll work on ckan. Thanks for the advice!

[Deadpan110]

Kottabos sent me here!

Spoiler

 

 

[Probus]

Just now, Deadpan110 said:

Kottabos sent me here!

Me too

[TheEpicSquared]

Great! By any chance a mk2.5 - mk3 adapter? As for the balance between centre lift and mass, I think it's spot on. Also, are you planning on making engines and wings or are you just going to keep it to body sections? Again great mod

[RaginCaucasian]

So I guess after all that work setting up CKAN to grab the mod from KerbalStuff, I'm gonna have to figure out another way to set that up.