Mother Development Thread

[Iago]

This is awesome! Will there be some kind of ISRU parts as well?

[panarchist]

1 hour ago, Bonus Eventus said:

LFO, Xenon, Monoprop will all be included, but I'll be using interstellar fuel switch to change tank setups using module manager. So, if you use real fuels or tac life support, my module manager patch will detect those mods and adjust the tank setups (that's the theory anyway).

So really what I'm wondering is what's lacking for people in terms of tanks and fuel types that are under represented? 

Will you be using the Community Resource Pack definitions?  Personally, I'd like to see Liquid Hydrogen and Liquid Oxygen, since so many mods out there are using them - it makes this compatible with things like Universal Storage, KSP Interstellar, and parts of UKS.  I mean, you can't chase compatibility with everything, but there's so many people using those 3 mods, or mods like TAC-LS, to justify at least LOx and LHyd.

I mean, a mothership isn't likely to be using Universal Storage unless they've been size-tweaked, but it would potentially be carrying / refueling smaller craft which do.  I'm sure I'm not the only person out there who would want to build space carriers.

2 hours ago, Bonus Eventus said:

Awesome craft! Thanks for your interest

Thanks!  It's pretty huge, so I'm using Kerbodyne Plus RCS quads to turn it.  Speaking of which, those work so great for large ships, it'll be great if you're bundling them into this mod.  Also, count me as a +1 for a Hermes-style centrifuge.  That and the DarkSide Technologies centrifuges are my favorite styles (as you can see from the ones on that craft I posted).  Anyway, I really like the styling of the Kerbodyne Plus parts, so that's another reason I'm looking forward to what you do with this mod.

[Kerenatus]

Karbonite and Karborundum? Argon? Hydrogen?

[Bonus Eventus]

On 6/10/2016 at 10:17 AM, panarchist said:

Will you be using the Community Resource Pack definitions?  Personally, I'd like to see Liquid Hydrogen and Liquid Oxygen, since so many mods out there are using them - it makes this compatible with things like Universal Storage, KSP Interstellar, and parts of UKS.  I mean, you can't chase compatibility with everything, but there's so many people using those 3 mods, or mods like TAC-LS, to justify at least LOx and LHyd.

I mean, a mothership isn't likely to be using Universal Storage unless they've been size-tweaked, but it would potentially be carrying / refueling smaller craft which do.  I'm sure I'm not the only person out there who would want to build space carriers.

Thanks!  It's pretty huge, so I'm using Kerbodyne Plus RCS quads to turn it.  Speaking of which, those work so great for large ships, it'll be great if you're bundling them into this mod.  Also, count me as a +1 for a Hermes-style centrifuge.  That and the DarkSide Technologies centrifuges are my favorite styles (as you can see from the ones on that craft I posted).  Anyway, I really like the styling of the Kerbodyne Plus parts, so that's another reason I'm looking forward to what you do with this mod.

I plan to support community resources and fuels that are specific to interstellar extended.

However, I want to titrate the fuel types to what is most wanted/needed. Especially for the first dev release of Mother.

For instance, I believe dirt is a community resource definition, but I doubt it's in high demand.

Quote

This is awesome! Will there be some kind of ISRU parts as well?

@Iago we'll see, probably

Edited June 11, 2016 by Bonus Eventus

[Siphonophore]

Well, about the issue about the resources, and for making self-sustaining motherships/mobile space stations, I think a giant fuel scoop would be very useful for those problems. So basically you should make a giant fuel scoop which unfurls like an umbrella, a translucent hexagon-patterned membrane held in shape by a thin but really strong frame, and can be changed to vacuum up xenon gas, argon gas, or LH2 as the ship it's attached to travels across space. If RealFuels is installed the scoop will siphon up different resources and transport them to their respective containers in any fuel tank on the ship it is added to.

@Bonus Eventus Also, I found this awesome video of a generation ship concept on YouTube that utilizes artificial gravity - this might be incredibly useful for part ideas.

I think some HUGE asteroid mining utilities would be very cool too - like giant cone-shaped drills on robotic arms and converters and whatnot  

On 6/10/2016 at 10:17 AM, panarchist said:

Also, count me as a +1 for a Hermes-style centrifuge.  That and the DarkSide Technologies centrifuges are my favorite styles (as you can see from the ones on that craft I posted).  Anyway, I really like the styling of the Kerbodyne Plus parts, so that's another reason I'm looking forward to what you do with this mod.

I totally agree with a Hermes-style centrifuge - but I think the truss segments should be replaced with hydraulic, expandable transfer pipes supported with internal frames. AND the windows should be fairly small and not gigantic, as the centrifuge's integrity would drop, making it more susceptible to impact from asteroids and one of the windows potentially shattering and the atmosphere leaking out of small cracks.

[Table]

What are you working on currently Bonus?

[Bonus Eventus]

On 6/13/2016 at 0:02 PM, Table said:

What are you working on currently Bonus?

That will be a surprise

[Bonus Eventus]

Tonight I finally got the basics of the second version of ModuleCentrifuge working. This version, ModuleMutipartCentrifuge, aids the creation of custom flyweels that can rotate any stack node attached part not named "top" or "bottom". Surprise!

 

[Kerenatus]

Sweet!

[Siphonophore]

3 hours ago, Bonus Eventus said:

Tonight I finally got the basics of the second version of ModuleCentrifuge working. This version, ModuleMutipartCentrifuge, aids the creation of custom flyweels that can rotate any stack node attached part not named "top" or "bottom". Surprise!

 

Really wonderful work as always! I can already sense the potential for this plugin, plus I think you might be able to make a centrifuge like the one in that video of the Bussard ramjet generation ship video  Btw, did you like it?

[Table]

Incredible job Bonus!

[RedParadize]

that look realy nice. 

Does it rotate in timewarp? 

Does it create torque?

Does the attached part are subject to physic?

Can I have it ? (Just for testing purpose, I promise I will complain and be realy anoying if it doesn't work exacly as I expect it to work)

[Bonus Eventus]

Just now, RedParadize said:

that look realy nice. 

Does it rotate in timewarp? 

Does it create torque?

Does the attached part are subject to physic?

Can I have it ? (Just for testing purpose, I promise I will complain and be realy anoying if it doesn't work exacly as I expect it to work)

Thanks! 

Timewarp = yes! uses Timewarp.delatTime to iterate rotations.

Torque = no, rigid bodies are not rotating, just the meshrenderers and colliders.

Physics =  sort of, most forces will still effect the parts, just not torque through the centrifuge.

Can you have it, yes eventually, it's barely working right now :/

33 minutes ago, Table said:

Incredible job Bonus!

thanks man!

 

18 hours ago, Kerenatus said:

Sweet!

glad you think so

 

I've been refactoring the code, and was able to simplify the parenting, increasing performance significantly, However, this is an extremely hacky way to do this and it breaks many types of parts at the moment like docking ports,radiators and solar panels. Also the more parts being rotated, the more lag is generated. I'm trying to see if there's a better way, at the moment, that won't break the attached parts so easily.

[RedParadize]

I hope you will overcome these limitation. It would be cool to have a capsule docked to the ring or to build ring it orbit, KAS maybe? Anyway, if its not the case thats all fine. Great works!

 

For the lol, could you do a video with this spinning at creasy RPM ?

Edited June 16, 2016 by RedParadize

[Bonus Eventus]

Had a bit of a breakthrough today, realized that I could change the attachJoint configurable joint angular Y motion to "free" and remove all spring influence to allow freedom of rotation along the y axis of the centrifuge part. After that I can parent a physics hinge joint to the rigidbody game object (this is the rigid body owned by the attached part) that's connected to the default attachJoint, and then set this hinge joint's connected body to the centrifuge part rigidbody (all this results in is reversing the ownership for the hinge joint in relation to the default configurable joint).

What does this mean? Well it means, that if I rotate the root game object in the centrifuge part hierarchy,it will transfer torque to the rigidbody that's attached to it.  All parts that are attached to other parts are attached via joints to those parts rigid bodies. Rigid bodies are what make parts physical objects and therefore have their physical properties simulated by PhysX. By rotating the rigid body of the centrifuge, instead of parenting attach parts to the centrifuge, it allows the centrifuge to rotate all the parts that are attached to its stack nodes.

[Table]

When 1.1 comes out, are you going to add more engines?

[Bonus Eventus]

Made many tests over the weekend that all ended in hilariously powerful explosions, that launched the centrifuge (parts of it anyway) into orbit! The basic idea seemed to work when I mocked it up in unity. I have a feeling that I'm ignorant about how KSP transfers physics between rigid bodies. My guess is that there's some sort of update function that's changing physics forces in the background, so when I add a rigid body at runtime and give it certain perams, it doesn't get updated with the default rigid bodies.

One of the things I've learned recently regarding rigid bodies is, rigid bodies inherit the colliders of their children, unless those children have rigid bodies. So, if you have a rigid body parent with no collider, but it has a child game object that does have a collider, then that collider auto assigns a connection to that parent rigid body. But, what happens when you add a rigid body to that child game object with the collider? if the parent rigid body is not connected to the new child rigid body, then they'll not act as normal parented objects. The parent object will fall through the world (no collider) and the child game object with new rigid body and collider will land on the ground passing through the parent. Rigid bodies are physically simulated so they don't respect game object hierarchy when it comes to translation and rotation.

So far, the only version of the MultiPartCentrifuge that kind of worked was the version that involved parenting mesh objects. The problem is that it doesn't move the rigid bodies of the parts, just their colliders and meshes. Since parent child relationships of parts all happen through rigidbodies and joints, this quickly turns into a lot of overhead, especially if you add many parts to your centrifuge setup.

The more I work on it the more I feel like this is just fighting the overall design of KSP. I think it will require a much deeper knowledge of Unity, KSP, and C# to accomplish this.

So, for that reason, I'm going to put this aside for now and focus on ModuleCentrifugeAnimated and get back to modeling.

17 hours ago, Table said:

When 1.1 comes out, are you going to add more engines?

I haven't thought about it. I'm mostly focused on the spacecraft spine system, command pods, and tanks. The first version will be 0.1 by the way

[Table]

Any progress updates?

[Siphonophore]

Decided on a centrifuge design?

Oh, and why don't you try going here to find more good centrifuge designs?

http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/artificialgrav.php

Edited June 27, 2016 by Siphonophore

[Table]

I think Bonus is working on something right now guys, and I think he knows about the Projectrho page already

[Bonus Eventus]

I've been working on the design here, and there. I got side-tracked by some really great books, so my modding time eroded a bit. I'll try to post some concept art soon.

[Siphonophore]

On 7/6/2016 at 10:56 AM, Bonus Eventus said:

I've been working on the design here, and there. I got side-tracked by some really great books, so my modding time eroded a bit. I'll try to post some concept art soon.

Nice to know that you're still working on the mod! BUT, what I'd suggest for the centrifuge's design is one similar to the "HOPE" centrifuge with a counter-rotating, 8-tooth gear-shaped flywheel section (most credible) or maybe an initially compact, solid ring that furls into shape via elaborate hydraulics. (think Hermes; but with hydraulic, expandable pipes replacing the truss) I'd also really suggest for the smaller Spacecraft Spine trusses to have crew transfer tubes on the inside ^^;

Edited July 8, 2016 by Siphonophore

[Table]

It's been almost a month since an update.

[Bonus Eventus]

Updates slowed due to a back injury. I pulled one of my erectors when doing jefferson curls. Couldn't sit upright for about a month. Luckily I have a standing desk at work. Unfortunately, I do not have a standing desk at home. I'm working on some models right now, post images as soon as possible.

 

[theJesuit]

On 03/08/2016 at 11:51 AM, Bonus Eventus said:

Updates slowed due to a back injury. I pulled one of my erectors when doing jefferson curls. Couldn't sit upright for about a month. Luckily I have a standing desk at work. Unfortunately, I do not have a standing desk at home. I'm working on some models right now, post images as soon as possible.

 

Sorry to hear about your injury!  I hope you feel 100% soon!

Would you be interested in sharing the way in which you could make the internals rotate with the model with people who create IR hubs (I'm thinking specifically Angel-125 of Wild Blue Industries)?

Peace.