Mouse's project thread. Spinny things, pulsejets, EmDrive and, other odds and ends.

[SpaceMouse]

Greetings all. After MAAAAAAANY tutorials I'm starting a development thread! I've been out of 3D modeling for a while, and I've never been great at textures (GIMP tutorials are next on the list) but, I've got a new mesh in KSP now! I Started with something simple. I made a solar 'race' car mostly inspired by the number of projects done by various universities. There'd be a picture here but, I've apparently not posted enough to be able to do that yet. (Perhaps a mod can fix this?)
I'm having a annoying simple issue with adding a solar panel module into the .cfg file. WHen it loads into the game it behaves like it's orbiting slightly, although i'm sitting on the ground.

I've made a wheel or it, but i'm having issues understanding the parent part layout for it to load right. Pretty sure I've got something wrong or missing something in Blender/Unity.

Onto future plans!
As i have a slight obsession with centrifuges, I plan on making a fairly conventional one in the 3.25M size, and as discussed in another thread a expanding one with a internal centrifuge.

EDIT*
Alpha on Spacedock:
http://spacedock.info/mod/764/SpaceMouse's very alpha parts pack

Edited October 16, 2016 by SpaceMouse

[SpaceMouse]

Having issues with exporting things in unity. I've figured out how to animate my habitat, but i cannot get it to export consistently in Unity. I'm getting a empty .mu file. I was having this issue earlier and i got it to export correctly a few times so i'm sure i'm doing something wrong but not sure what. Also still having the issue with my part naming hierarchy not reading in the game for the wheel. Could anyone give me some help?

[SpaceMouse]

Ok, I made a Imgur account so i can upload pictures. Forewarning, Texturing is really not one of my better skills.

 

The support structure will get some improovements, i stuck a rather basic texture on it. Fun fact: This centrifuge fits nearly perfectly behind the new 1.1 inflatable heat shield.

 

Stacked the regular centrifuge on top of the new planetary one for a scale reference.

Earlier model next to Roverdude's and PorkJet's for reference.

Comments? Opinions?

Edited April 5, 2016 by SpaceMouse
derp.

[SpaceMouse]

Added a radial Gyroscope for controling big things (*cough* Orion Drive). Exported a bit bigger than i expected. It has been scaled down to about 2/3 this size.

noone has any opinions or comments? I'm thinking i might add a greenhouse, and might try doing some square orbital parts, just to break the trend of cylindrical everything.

Was also wondering about Electric thrusters. Not standard Xeon mind you, but using electrical power to boost the efficency of a fairly standard rocket. Googling though tells me of no such concepts, Although i can't imagine it would be too complex, given that nuclear thermal rockets use a reactor to heat exaust gasses, couldn't the same thing be done with a fairly standard LF/O setup?

Edited April 17, 2016 by SpaceMouse

[wasml]

I see you made the thing round - I've always wondered how stock SAS, being a pancake,  could give me control in the x, y AND z axis.

A bit of constructive criticism (from someone not very good at making models[so grain of salt and all]) - The edges are rather visible - I'm thinking a higher poly model would help. I know I have a tendency to be overly frugal with the tris and am trying to break myself of that.

The electric boosters - you got me thinking (and I'm way out of my area of expertise here) but if you look at how much energy an ion drive imparts I believe it gives a small amount of energy to a tiny amount of propellant for long periods of time. The LFO type engine releases a lot of energy in a lot of propellant for short periods of time. So if you add the energy contribution of an ion type engine to the LFO engine over the short period of a LFO burn the contribution would be negligible.

That said this is a game and if you think it would be neat - go for it!

[SpaceMouse]

12 hours ago, wasml said:

I see you made the thing round - I've always wondered how stock SAS, being a pancake,  could give me control in the x, y AND z axis.

A bit of constructive criticism (from someone not very good at making models[so grain of salt and all]) - The edges are rather visible - I'm thinking a higher poly model would help. I know I have a tendency to be overly frugal with the tris and am trying to break myself of that.

The electric boosters - you got me thinking (and I'm way out of my area of expertise here) but if you look at how much energy an ion drive imparts I believe it gives a small amount of energy to a tiny amount of propellant for long periods of time. The LFO type engine releases a lot of energy in a lot of propellant for short periods of time. So if you add the energy contribution of an ion type engine to the LFO engine over the short period of a LFO burn the contribution would be negligible.

That said this is a game and if you think it would be neat - go for it!

As far as i'm aware, utilizing a torque effect doesn't require a normal gyroscope layout. I assume there would be a spinning wheel for control of each axis. I'm considering doing a inline one with that larger layout. Reaction wheels for each axis and probably a few RCS tanks in the gaps for good measure.

I noticed the semi-low polyness is rather obvious. It's probably not helped by my texture thats pretty much just a gradient. It's a bit less obvious at the smaller scale. The goal was to keep the poly count low to make rendering easier. I may change it.

I'd like to keep any thrusters semi realistic. It just strikes me as a easy way to boost efficency since pretty much every ship is going to have surplus power anyway. It does seem it would probably be negligible though. Any opinions on the centerfuge's?

 

 

Working on a fuel tank i think people will like.

Edited April 14, 2016 by SpaceMouse

[SpaceMouse]

Everyone part clips in KSP. Even some of the Squad planes part clip. What if i told you You don't NEED to anymore?
Textures are borrowed from my gyro. They will change. I'm probably gonna switch to stock textures.



Look at all that room thats NOT taken up by clipped fuel tanks and free to use!

There will be at least one (or two) more part i haven't done yet for this. i sized the tank to fit one 1.25 engine in back, there's enough room for a .625 on both sides of it. I'll probably do a bulge version that fits two 1.25 for some actual useful lifting power.

Probably worth noting the cockpit isn't mine. I am referring to the radial fuel tanks.

Edited April 15, 2016 by SpaceMouse

[Seeker89]

20 hours ago, SpaceMouse said:

Everyone part clips in KSP. Even some of the Squad planes part clip. What if i told you You don't NEED to anymore?
Textures are borrowed from my gyro. They will change. I'm probably gonna switch to stock textures.



Look at all that room thats NOT taken up by clipped fuel tanks and free to use!

There will be at least one (or two) more part i haven't done yet for this. i sized the tank to fit one 1.25 engine in back, there's enough room for a .625 on both sides of it. I'll probably do a bulge version that fits two 1.25 for some actual useful lifting power.

is that a front opening cockpit?

[SpaceMouse]

It is, It's from a different mod though. I was toying with the idea of making a spaceplane-y one.

[SpaceMouse]

Testing the new dual 1.25M engine mount. On a SSTO that was totally capable of reaching orbit and not a mere minute or two from rapid unplanned disassembly.
Now refrencing Squad's mk3 tank textures.



Yup, I build a better cargo plane than a SSTO. You could drive straight on and then straight off of this one. I think i'm going to need to boost the geometry on the engine adapter.

[SpaceMouse]

Yaaay! Stupidly-inefficent pulsejets! Flat shading issue on my models has since been corrected. Helps if i change the setting in Blender. Derp.


This 'rover' hit 180m/s before it decided it was a airplane.

I made a gargantuan one. Because the previous one didn't drink the contents of two mk1 liquid-fuel tanks in 5 minutes.


It's mostly intended to be a ultra-cheap 1st stage (air breathing) engine for light rockets.

The textures should be upped in res. They look less than great.

Edited September 23, 2017 by SpaceMouse

[Seeker89]

Looking good. 

[SpaceMouse]

Figured out how to do thrust 'nozzles' properly. Currently using Squad flame. Still haven't figured out emmisives yet. Pulsejets are in desperate need of emmisives.
Also, tweaked support structure to better show 'intake'.


Aaaaand here's the super-futuristic Fission Fragement thruster for the Interstellar extended mod behind Roverdude's reactor for semi-accurate picture. My part modding goes everywhere. lol

Edited April 27, 2016 by SpaceMouse

[SpaceMouse]

Wee, I got inspired today by looking at the O'Neil cylender mod, and a old video on youtube of simulating gravity in a ring in orbit. So i built one. It was about 550 parts, and very wobbly. That's not right.


Now you can put your own rovers in space for about 50 parts! (Not counting the ones required to get it there.)


Collider Is very shoddy. Don't bump Kerbals into it. bad things happen. Must fix.

The upper support structure was kinda meant as a bumper for keeping rovers (Or kerbals) in while it's moving. Also a great place to mount lights.

It is not all one part. I designed the part as 1/8th of a ring so, if you choose you can put it in orbit the correct way. Instead of just hyperediting it.

[BigFatStupidHead]

These models are coming along nicely. Keep up the good work!

[SpaceMouse]

Still making things!

Very much like the useful-ness of a front opening cargo-bay but wanted to do it differently from Lack's one. Didn't like sticking the normal one on backwards. Didn't look aerodynamically sound.
Might be TOO pointy though.


Made my own! Also, got the normal thing right finally, conforming tanks updated too.
Has a odd animation bug though.

Now that I mostly seem to have a idea what I'm doing, I think I'll clean things up and do a alpha release.

Edited May 16, 2016 by SpaceMouse

[BigFatStupidHead]

Hee hee. I expected it to open up all Moon-Raker. Instead it's a flip-top! Looks nice though; not too pointy at all.

[SpaceMouse]

8 hours ago, BigFatStupidHead said:

Hee hee. I expected it to open up all Moon-Raker. Instead it's a flip-top! Looks nice though; not too pointy at all.

Hmmm. I'm unfamiliar with moon raker and Google's not showing me anything to useful so,  not sure what you mean. Originally i was gonna have it split in half when it opened but i decided to stick with the system pretty much every other front hatch uses.

Edited May 16, 2016 by SpaceMouse

[BigFatStupidHead]

The James Bond movie, Moonraker. (Extraneous hyphenation was misleading and incorrect.) At least, I'm pretty sure it was Moonraker.

Edited May 16, 2016 by BigFatStupidHead

[SpaceMouse]

Added a ramp last night and fixed the animation issue. Will probably make the front pointier and marginally shorter. It apparently has more drag right now than the one it's intended to replace. Heh. 

[SpaceMouse]

Uploaded a REAAAAAAAAAALLLY early alpha on spacedock. See first post.

[SpaceMouse]

I assume this part will need no introduction.

I had to cheat a teensy bit to get it to require no fuel but, it's suitably weak to compensate.

Edited September 22, 2016 by SpaceMouse

[Benji13]

That ring centrifuge looks sweet . Do you think you would be able to make a mk2 xenon tank? As far as I can tell there are no other mods that have a mk2 xenon tank and it would be great for those long haul interplanetary SSTO's. Or as a ring around a giant mothership. All those cool things.

[SpaceMouse]

On 9/30/2016 at 9:07 PM, Benji13 said:

That ring centrifuge looks sweet . Do you think you would be able to make a mk2 xenon tank? As far as I can tell there are no other mods that have a mk2 xenon tank and it would be great for those long haul interplanetary SSTO's. Or as a ring around a giant mothership. All those cool things.

Interesting you mention a Xenon tank. To follow up the EM i was thinking about doing a stock-textured Xenon cluster, with a larger tank to go with it. Mk2 would be a bit of a niche tank and i think SuicidalInsanity has one in his mk2 expansion already. I know he has a xenon thruster.

Also, adding a Xenon tank to a vanilla part is stupidly easy. I think Interstellar fuel switch has a few configs available.

Edited October 3, 2016 by SpaceMouse

[Benji13]

5 hours ago, SpaceMouse said:

Interesting you mention a Xenon tank. To follow up the EM i was thinking about doing a stock-textured Xenon cluster, with a larger tank to go with it. Mk2 would be a bit of a niche tank and i think SuicidalInsanity has one in his mk2 expansion already. I know he has a xenon thruster.

Also, adding a Xenon tank to a vanilla part is stupidly easy. I think Interstellar fuel switch has a few configs available.

I checked the mk2 expansion but it doesn't have a tank either. No one does. It would be really cool if someone did though. I'd do it my self but I can't make textures for ****.