How to make science experiments take resources?

[Brent Kerman]

I am making some science parts and I want to make them use resources to operate. For example: Rodent Research, uses five rodents. How can I do that?

[wasml]

First you need to add the resource with a config file - see the GameData\Squad\Resources\ResourcesGeneric.cfg for format. I think you'll need to define where it's found - see Ore.cfg in the same directory. Then you'll need a way to acquire and store the resource - I'm guessing you would create a part with a ModuleResourceHarvester (see stock drills) and another part to store it. The last step would be to use run an experiment that requires the resource - I'm not sure if stock modules can do this - and if they can they probably consume the resources(rodents). May require a custom plugin - especially if you don't want to consume the resource, just require it be present. Good luck with this!

Edited August 6, 2016 by wasml

[Brent Kerman]

11 hours ago, wasml said:

First you need to add the resource with a config file - see the GameData\Squad\Resources\ResourcesGeneric.cfg for format. I think you'll need to define where it's found - see Ore.cfg in the same directory. Then you'll need a way to acquire and store the resource - I'm guessing you would create a part with a ModuleResourceHarvester (see stock drills) and another part to store it. The last step would be to use run an experiment that requires the resource - I'm not sure if stock modules can do this - and if they can they probably consume the resources(rodents). May require a custom plugin - especially if you don't want to consume the resource, just require it be present. Good luck with this!

I did the first parts already ( Make resource, store it ) , and the MPL uses electric to process science, so I think I could make my experiment use resources but I am not sure what coding I need to do.

[wasml]

I've never played with ModuleScienceLab or ModuleScienceConverter before - my only suggestion would be to look at the API for those modules and experiment. Don't know if you've seen this site - has the API classes broken out - though it appears it's KSP 1.1.2