[WIP] North American Rockwell Mars Excursion Module

[TiktaalikDreaming]

Update, I'm pushing out 0.22, mostly because I've completely lost track of where the published version of this mod is at.  It's from April.  I don't remember having weird nodes back then, but that's damned close to a year ago.  There's mission module bits (unfinished) and so on, plus probably some tidy up.  And that collider fixup for the interstage, which was probably worth the update on it's own.

[Quoniam Kerman]

My bad, I must have mixed up the versions.

My 1.4.5 KSP has a NAR MEM dating from January 2019 whereas the 1.6.1 that I probably have downloaded back when the 1.5.1 was around (but I never touched it) dates from March 2018. What I could do is replace the docking port files of the 1.6.1 by those, more recent from the 1.4.5 GameData folder. But that would also mean checking my MEM build for de offsetting the said parts.

So I guess the error is on my part. I probably thought that I'd copy the last download into the 1.6.1 folder but I obvioulsy forgot.

The decoupler collider is indeed a breakthrough.

Edited March 13, 2019 by Quoniam Kerman

[TiktaalikDreaming]

I've had a bit of a think, and well, this does annoy me a bit;

I'd been working on the assumption the female port would go on the MEM, ala;

And hadn't really looked at how the male port looked after changing around the top of the craft.  I'm testing out a revised base for the Male Docking node, which basically just steals the base off the female, so the look doesn't change a lot based on which way around you prefer your docking nodes.

This also gives a decent sized base to have an aerodynamic cover attached, so I'll probably redo the shrouded docking node using the base of this new male port.  "probably" meaning "gotta add it in to unity and make sure the rigging is working, cos it's in blender already;

 

 

[Quoniam Kerman]

That was lacking on the male port indeed. Is it a shroud I see?

Edited March 13, 2019 by Quoniam Kerman

[TiktaalikDreaming]

14 minutes ago, Quoniam Kerman said:

My bad, I must have mixed up the versions.

My 1.4.5 KSP has a NAR MEM dating from January 2019 whereas the 1.6.1 that I probably have downloaded back when the 1.5.1 was around (but I never touched it) dates from March 2018. What I could do is replace the docking port files of the 1.6.1 by those, more recent from the 1.4.5 GameData folder. But that would also mean checking my MEM build for de offsetting the said parts.

So I guess the error is on my part. I probably thought that I'd copy the last download into the 1.6.1 folder but I obvioulsy forgot.

The decoupler collider is indeed a breakthrough.

There was also some folder restructuring around that time. The part identifiers should stay the same, so saved craft should be ok, but it's harder to just switch parts between versions without being fairly careful.

Re decoupler. That was definitely a what moment.

[TiktaalikDreaming]

OK, I have a shrouded docking node in game, not fully textured, but I've at least removed the bits of texture that didn't match.

Animation in blender;

 

Part in-game;

 

 

I have been thinking though, that of all the parts I could be using the new "reflective" shader for, an Apollo docking node probe would be where it's at.  So, this mod may need to migrate to the new Unity with the new PartTools.  

[TiktaalikDreaming]

Github now has a patched up set of docking nodes.  But not as a release yet, as I still have a small gap showing between it and the top cap.  But I'm out of time for now to fix that.

I moved the project from Unity 5 to Unity 2017, upgraded the Part Tools and assigned the new shader to the bits that should be shiney.  I can't ever seem to get a good non-gloss look out of the new shader, even with outright black in the specular map, so I'll just be using the new shader for small touches here and there.  If Squad can get that a bit more generic though, it could be the shader to take over all other shaders.  Needs a roughness and so on though.  

You can just see the small gap at the bottom of the docking node there, with some of the greenish top of the parachute frame showing through.

I've also moved all the docking nodes, drogue and probe, into one folder, as they share the same textures.  Seems silly to go to the trouble of texture atlasing and then make copies of the texture.  So, if grabbing the nodes off non-release github files, you'd be best served by deleting all the existing MEM docking ports, then grabbing the docking ports folder from github.

And the way they fail to function as docking nodes seems to be a downside too. 

 

Edited March 17, 2019 by TiktaalikDreaming
Update:nodes don't work

[TiktaalikDreaming]

Shiney new docking ports now part of a 0.23 release.  Tested.  My issue with the function was a Unity-ism.  I'd modeled both the male and female nodes in one blender file, and just deleted the meshes etc I didn't need for each part.  That involved flipping one of the nodes, in this case the female node.  Somehow, even though all the node positions and meshes were flipped, the part itself was basically upside down, with its stack/docking nodes flipped.  I only worked it out when trying to dock (and failing) I noticed there was an "undock" option in the right click menu.  And that resulted in the base of the docking node unhooking from the parent craft, and immediately docking with the other craft.  Was a bit of an insight into "something's upside down".

Anyway, Sorted.  Flipped the model in blender, rebuilt the part in unity, re-exported and it all works as expected, even the "coarse alignment" of the probe and drogue.

With the new shader.

 

[nebuchadnezzar]

I love the work you've done on this mod. Thank you for creating an excellent mod!

[Tibozeboss]

Bump! any news?

[TiktaalikDreaming]

On 4/28/2020 at 8:24 AM, Tibozeboss said:

Bump! any news?

My recent efforts have been focused on the nexus LV. That said, because I've been working from home, long hours, when I log off work, the last thing I want to do is be in the room with the computer. So I basically haven't touched modding or ksp since the virus.

next up for this mod though would be the interplanetary mission module.which is basically a tube, but it's a tube with a tonne of iva work

[Tibozeboss]

Take your time man :') The Virus had the opposite effect on me, allowing me to play KSP for the first time in months

[TiktaalikDreaming]

13 minutes ago, Tibozeboss said:

Take your time man :') The Virus had the opposite effect on me, allowing me to play KSP for the first time in months

That's kind of what I expected out of the working from home.  But somehow I've ended up with less spare time, plus the deep desire to be nowhere near my PC (that bit could have been predicted really).  I'm slowly getting over the psychological aspects, and even spent some time texturing my "last before release" part for the Nexus on the weekend.  Back at it, I remembered the other reason I stopped was I hate rigging up legs/wheels in KSP.  It's sooo finicky.

[Raptor22]

This mod was working just fine in KSP 1.12.2, however suddenly the parts have all been rescaled to be way larger than they should be, breaking all of the craft I've made so far with the parts. I see that there's some configs with rescale lines (looks like a value of 1.068? This seems to be a bit larger than that, though) in them, but I don't think that I've messed with any of that. I don't have Realism Overhaul or anything like that. Can anyone help me to diagnose this problem? I would upload my KSP.log, however it's quite a large file and would take ages to upload, so I'd rather hold off on that until needed to not waste time uploading and waste drive space. I did recently update Tweakscale, however none of the parts are tweakscale-able, so it's not like I inadvertently tweakscaled the parts.

[TiktaalikDreaming]

On 11/29/2021 at 10:16 AM, Raptor22 said:

This mod was working just fine in KSP 1.12.2, however suddenly the parts have all been rescaled to be way larger than they should be, breaking all of the craft I've made so far with the parts. I see that there's some configs with rescale lines (looks like a value of 1.068? This seems to be a bit larger than that, though) in them, but I don't think that I've messed with any of that. I don't have Realism Overhaul or anything like that. Can anyone help me to diagnose this problem? I would upload my KSP.log, however it's quite a large file and would take ages to upload, so I'd rather hold off on that until needed to not waste time uploading and waste drive space. I did recently update Tweakscale, however none of the parts are tweakscale-able, so it's not like I inadvertently tweakscaled the parts.

I'd be interested to know if this is universal.  I haven't started KSP in a while.  But it would seem likely related to my work flow.

I model the parts in full, non-kerbal scale.  And then use the rescale options in the cfg files for the parts to drop to kerbal scale.  So, realism overhaul parts get "rescale = 1.0".  If they changed something with the scaling, or if there's a mod installed that triggers the "if then" type module manager rescaling, then you'd get oversized parts.  And possibly inconsistent ones

[linuxgurugamer]

On 11/28/2021 at 7:16 PM, Raptor22 said:

This mod was working just fine in KSP 1.12.2, however suddenly the parts have all been rescaled to be way larger than they should be, breaking all of the craft I've made so far with the parts. I see that there's some configs with rescale lines (looks like a value of 1.068? This seems to be a bit larger than that, though) in them, but I don't think that I've messed with any of that. I don't have Realism Overhaul or anything like that. Can anyone help me to diagnose this problem? I would upload my KSP.log, however it's quite a large file and would take ages to upload, so I'd rather hold off on that until needed to not waste time uploading and waste drive space. I did recently update Tweakscale, however none of the parts are tweakscale-able, so it's not like I inadvertently tweakscaled the parts.

Try it in a clean new install, sounds like something installed is interfering with it.  You can also remove tweakscale and see what happens

[Lisias]

17 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Try it in a clean new install, sounds like something installed is interfering with it.  You can also remove tweakscale and see what happens

If the parts doesn't have TweakScale support, it would not make difference - TweakScale only affects parts that have TweakScale patched on them.

Additionally, removing TweakScale from KSP will screw up all crafts that have parts scaled on a savegame, and this is not recoverable.

If you will try to remove TweakScale (and to tell you the true, any other Add'On), do not load any valuable savegame - it will be irremediably mangled beyound hope of recovering.

[linuxgurugamer]

1 hour ago, Lisias said:

If the parts doesn't have TweakScale support, it would not make difference - TweakScale only affects parts that have TweakScale patched on them.

Additionally, removing TweakScale from KSP will screw up all crafts that have parts scaled on a savegame, and this is not recoverable.

If you will try to remove TweakScale (and to tell you the true, any other Add'On), do not load any valuable savegame - it will be irremediably mangled beyound hope of recovering.

True, make a copy of the save to test that.

I only suggested it because it seems it was the only change he made.  I understand about TW support, but who knows what patches are in his game

[Lisias]

38 minutes ago, linuxgurugamer said:

True, make a copy of the save to test that.

I only suggested it because it seems it was the only change he made.  I understand about TW support, but who knows what patches are in his game

Acknowledge and I understood, but but the devil is in the detail - the user is reporting something inside a savegame, and since he uses TweakScale, is reasonable to assume there're TweakScale crafts flying around on the savegame. We ask him to remove TS to do a test on that savegame, he will do it - and by then we just ruined his savegame.

People asking for help are usually prone to follow instructions without second guesses - I once blowed up a CRT while tinkering with a scandoubler because the dude helping me on the diagnosing was using a LCD monitor on the other side of the cablemodem, and one of the thingies he asked me to check overloaded something on the CRT internals and *poof* (LCDs with analog input don't fry when you abuse the scan frequency, CRTs do). And I know these thingies (had blew one as a kid and learned), it was obvious what was going to happen. But yet I blindly followed what he was asking…  

 

On 11/28/2021 at 9:16 PM, Raptor22 said:

This mod was working just fine in KSP 1.12.2, however suddenly the parts have all been rescaled to be way larger than they should be, breaking all of the craft I've made so far with the parts. I see that there's some configs with rescale lines (looks like a value of 1.068? This seems to be a bit larger than that, though) in them, but I don't think that I've messed with any of that. I don't have Realism Overhaul or anything like that. Can anyone help me to diagnose this problem? I would upload my KSP.log, however it's quite a large file and would take ages to upload, so I'd rather hold off on that until needed to not waste time uploading and waste drive space. I did recently update Tweakscale, however none of the parts are tweakscale-able, so it's not like I inadvertently tweakscaled the parts.

Hi, I was opening KSP anyway when I saw your post, and so I added this add'on on my clean (+ TS) testbed to see if I can easily reproduce it. And I found I didn't understand how to make this craft… In a way or another, I removed TweakScale from my test bed and tried again, and the parts apparently have the same size as before.

This is what I think you did above, but on my "clean" KSP 1.12.3 with TweakScale (and KSP Recall - that also doesn't plays any role on the problem, because only Refunding is available on 1.12.x):

Spoiler

Perhaps the problem is not exactly the size, but the attachment nodes of the shields?

In a way or another, I know how to read the KSP.log so yeah, please zip the thing (delete the ModuleManager cache and fire up KSP first, so we will have the whole full patching process documented on it) and post on dropbox or something (or even on a comment on this issue) and I will check it! Now that I know the name of the parts of this add'on, I can track them down on the log and see who is patching who.

Send me also the ModuleManager ConfigCache! This thing will also help on finding what's happening, because whatever was done on these parts, will be there (unless the problem is happening only at runtime , when - boy - this so will be a hard nut to crack!)

[TiktaalikDreaming]

OK, it still links up;

and now that I've panic rushed off to test that, I've reviewed the original image.  You'd think after decades doing problem solving I'd know to come to my own conclusions.

I'm pretty sure the pieces are just put together wrong.  I'm going to do up an exploded thingy with the mod that does that (that I can't remember the name of).  The parts are very fussy about where everything goes.  It's not your regular KSP lego set.

[TiktaalikDreaming]

Kronal VV gets confused as well.  Not surprising.

OK, steam craft file; https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2683312355

 

[ninthninja05]

Is this vehicle compatible in size with the Saturn V from Bluedog Design Bureau? 

[TiktaalikDreaming]

On 2/10/2022 at 6:27 AM, ninthninja05 said:

Is this vehicle compatible in size with the Saturn V from Bluedog Design Bureau? 

It uses the same scaling, and the docking ports should be interchangeable.  Or were a year or two back.

[Garuda]

Could you provide some updated craft files? I have no clue where half of these parts are supposed to go.

[Garuda]

On 4/8/2022 at 9:37 PM, Garuda said:

Could you provide some updated craft files? I have no clue where half of these parts are supposed to go.

Never mind, figured it out
Is the MEM supposed to move sideways out of the fairing brace or is it just supposed to thrust away from the docking port? it seems like the bracing should be jettisoned, because there's not enough clearance for the MEM to back up. 
Also, do you plan on updating the textures? The three separate colors of the pod, aeroshell and base clash with each other