[1.12.x] Near Future Technologies (September 6)

[JadeOfMaar]

1 hour ago, Infernx1 said:

Hey, do you happen to have any sort of high thrust engines good for SSTO spaceplanes?

All of the engines from Nertea's MkIV Spaceplane System are in NF Aeronautics. There's also the all new Project Eeloo atomic multimode engine.

[Temeriki]

Hey quick question about the new aeronautics pack.  So im starting a save (1.4.5) and per usual Im ramming together KSPIE, near future, and MKS and sorting out the issues (kspie for tech and electrical, near future for the sexy parts, and mks cause I like to build off world).  Initial ramming was done with no custom configs between them, only one load was done at this time, just wanted to make sure the game was bootable in sandbox.  So one thing I noticed is the new nuclear engines dont seem to have any actual reactor component, but are very mass heavy and have the proper specs to represent a nuclear engine, is this intentional in design or is the reactor/power gen component added with nfe?  These parts look freaking amazing btw, thanks Nertea!

[Streetwind]

14 hours ago, Temeriki said:

or is the reactor/power gen component added with nfe?

Well, strictly speaking it is a feature of Kerbal Atomics, triggering if it detects the presence of NF Electrical (since that is supplying the reactor plugin). Not sure if NF Aeronautics ships a similar patch.

Though I was under the impression that KSPIE throws out all Near Future reactor modules anyway, and replaces them with its own? Or did that get changed at some point? I've never honestly installed KSPIE, so I'm totally not up to date with the development of it. But, if you want KSPIE to support the NF Aeronautics nuclear engines in this manner, then you'll have to ask KSPIE to provide that patch.

[Temeriki]

5 hours ago, Streetwind said:

Well, strictly speaking it is a feature of Kerbal Atomics, triggering if it detects the presence of NF Electrical (since that is supplying the reactor plugin). Not sure if NF Aeronautics ships a similar patch.

Though I was under the impression that KSPIE throws out all Near Future reactor modules anyway, and replaces them with its own? Or did that get changed at some point? I've never honestly installed KSPIE, so I'm totally not up to date with the development of it. But, if you want KSPIE to support the NF Aeronautics nuclear engines in this manner, then you'll have to ask KSPIE to provide that patch.

Thats what I was wondering, without nfe apparently it doesnt patch it over to kspie because theres no reactor component to patch until nfe is installed, im guessing im gonna have to mash nfe into a near future only save, then smash kspie into that.  I understand its on kspie to provide that patch, I usually write my own patch to make them work together better, I just need to know what the intended behavior is first.

[JonathanPerregaux]

Now if only we had Near Future Ladders so we could build proper ingress/egress options for our planes instead of the stock lameness...

[Nertea]

On 9/5/2018 at 8:28 AM, Temeriki said:

Hey quick question about the new aeronautics pack.  So im starting a save (1.4.5) and per usual Im ramming together KSPIE, near future, and MKS and sorting out the issues (kspie for tech and electrical, near future for the sexy parts, and mks cause I like to build off world).  Initial ramming was done with no custom configs between them, only one load was done at this time, just wanted to make sure the game was bootable in sandbox.  So one thing I noticed is the new nuclear engines dont seem to have any actual reactor component, but are very mass heavy and have the proper specs to represent a nuclear engine, is this intentional in design or is the reactor/power gen component added with nfe?  These parts look freaking amazing btw, thanks Nertea!

Yes, I have not yet added any support from NFE into the pack, wanted to stabilize the engines stats first. 

[FirenzeEzio]

 Hello, the LT-POD landing gear in the spacecraft recently seems to have encountered some problems at startup. It is separated from the ground by a layer of air and does not stretch to its original length. I am still looking forward to solving this problem in future updates.

Edited September 8, 2018 by FirenzeEzio

[tsaven]

I'm using NFT nuclear reactors.  Is it possible to refuel them from another ship in the near vicinity, or does the EU container have to be on the same ship (via docking or whatever) as the reactor that is being fueled?

[Streetwind]

Good question. I've never actually tried it across spacecraft.

[Jimbodiah]

If you are docked it doesn't matter where the container is.

[Streetwind]

Well, that is self-evident. He's asking about vessels that are not docked.

[Temeriki]

On 9/7/2018 at 4:51 PM, Nertea said:

Yes, I have not yet added any support from NFE into the pack, wanted to stabilize the engines stats first. 

Thanks Nertea!  These new packs are ahhhhhhmmmmmmmaaaazzzzinnnnnnggggg!  Fyi, rolled a pure Near Future save just to get a feel for the new parts, really like their balance to stock.  Are planning to have any generator function on the nuclear engines in the future?

Edited September 12, 2018 by Temeriki
added fyi

[Messernacht]

Greetings all. Quick query.

 

I recall there being an issue with the nuclear reactors not working so well when you used time acceleration/had ships going in the background powered by them. Specifically, TAC Life Support didn't like it too much, and some of my Kerbals got a little bit chilly (aka turned into Kerbsicles).

 

Was a workaround ever found for this?

[Streetwind]

@Messernacht Power generation does not work in the background in KSP. A vessel needs to be inside your physics bubble for it to produce power (which almost always translates to "you need to be focused on it"). That is stock behavior. All the things where you find exceptions to this rule (including stock mining drills/ISRU) are specifically coded to track their stuff themselves because KSP itself can't.

I don't think NFE reactors or NFS solar panels do anything different from other power sources, so the expected behavior is that they do not work in the background. Workarounds might be found in third-party plugins, though I can't name you one right now.

During time warp, Near Future power sources should produce power just fine, as long as the vessel is focused. The only exception is when you have activated the "auto-shutdown on time warp" feature of a reactor. It defaults to off, though, so you need to consciously choose to change it.

[DStaal]

7 hours ago, Streetwind said:

@Messernacht Power generation does not work in the background in KSP. A vessel needs to be inside your physics bubble for it to produce power (which almost always translates to "you need to be focused on it"). That is stock behavior. All the things where you find exceptions to this rule (including stock mining drills/ISRU) are specifically coded to track their stuff themselves because KSP itself can't. 

Even stock drills and ISRU don't actually work in the background.  They just pretend they do, by doing a catch-up when they're loaded into your physics bubble.

For Messernacht's issue - unless they've completely re-worked the stock mechanics (Kerbalism does this, that I know of), check how large your batteries are.  Catch-up is done in 6-hour chunks, and depending on how things are set up you may need to have enough battery to last out that six hours before the generation fills it again.  However, IIRC the NFE reactors also intentionally shut down somewhat at high timewarp because of bugs in the stock heat system, so I'd avoid max timewarp when relying on them for power.

[Nertea]

1 hour ago, DStaal said:

For Messernacht's issue - unless they've completely re-worked the stock mechanics (Kerbalism does this, that I know of), check how large your batteries are.  Catch-up is done in 6-hour chunks, and depending on how things are set up you may need to have enough battery to last out that six hours before the generation fills it again.  However, IIRC the NFE reactors also intentionally shut down somewhat at high timewarp because of bugs in the stock heat system, so I'd avoid max timewarp when relying on them for power.

Nope this is untrue, unless you turn them off yourself. Only heat mechanics die at high warp, and that's a "feature" of KSP itself.

On 9/15/2018 at 2:35 AM, Messernacht said:

I recall there being an issue with the nuclear reactors not working so well when you used time acceleration/had ships going in the background powered by them. Specifically, TAC Life Support didn't like it too much, and some of my Kerbals got a little bit chilly (aka turned into Kerbsicles).

 As mentioned, none of my stuff actually functions differently in terms of background processing than stock does. Supporting timewarp typically has to be done on the consumer's end. 

On 9/12/2018 at 4:42 PM, Temeriki said:

Thanks Nertea!  These new packs are ahhhhhhmmmmmmmaaaazzzzinnnnnnggggg!  Fyi, rolled a pure Near Future save just to get a feel for the new parts, really like their balance to stock.  Are planning to have any generator function on the nuclear engines in the future?

Yes but it's quite low priority. 

On 9/8/2018 at 3:10 AM, FirenzeEzio said:

 Hello, the LT-POD landing gear in the spacecraft recently seems to have encountered some problems at startup. It is separated from the ground by a layer of air and does not stretch to its original length. I am still looking forward to solving this problem in future updates.

I welcome people fixing this themselves in a PR, I'm done with landing legs. 

On 9/8/2018 at 11:01 AM, tsaven said:

I'm using NFT nuclear reactors.  Is it possible to refuel them from another ship in the near vicinity, or does the EU container have to be on the same ship (via docking or whatever) as the reactor that is being fueled?

It needs to be docked. 

[Tyko]

On 9/12/2018 at 4:42 PM, Temeriki said:

Thanks Nertea!  These new packs are ahhhhhhmmmmmmmaaaazzzzinnnnnnggggg!  Fyi, rolled a pure Near Future save just to get a feel for the new parts, really like their balance to stock.  Are planning to have any generator function on the nuclear engines in the future?

It's pretty straightforward to copy the electric generator code from the RTG and add it to the Engines. From there you can mod it to the power level you desire. This would be a static amount of power, but would get you started.

Edited September 17, 2018 by Tyko

[infantjones]

With Near Future Propulsion, playing on 1.3.1 and the latest 1.3.1 release, none of the thrusters have any sound. They're just silent, no startup nor shutdown sounds either. It's not a big deal but I haven't had the issue before and it's a bit of an annoyance. Couldn't find any other mentions of it, but if anyone knows of a fix or what could be causing it, I'd be thankful!

[Jimbodiah]

There is no sound in space, so seems legit.

[Apaseall]

Is there an issue with ModuleSurfaceFX? I just found a pile of exceptions, null refs I think and I only found one mention of it when I poked around a bit, in nfa-liftfan-10-1. Sorry I dropped the ball on providing a log file. Maybe next time around I can get one and pop it in this post.

[Streetwind]

10 hours ago, infantjones said:

With Near Future Propulsion, playing on 1.3.1 and the latest 1.3.1 release, none of the thrusters have any sound. They're just silent, no startup nor shutdown sounds either. It's not a big deal but I haven't had the issue before and it's a bit of an annoyance. Couldn't find any other mentions of it, but if anyone knows of a fix or what could be causing it, I'd be thankful!

This definitely did not happen when I played on 1.3.1. Please try to confirm this in a fresh KSP install with nothing but Near Future Propulsion and its dependencies installed. If you can, please submit a logfile.

 

3 hours ago, Apaseall said:

Is there an issue with ModuleSurfaceFX? I just found a pile of exceptions, null refs I think and I only found one mention of it when I poked around a bit, in nfa-liftfan-10-1. Sorry I dropped the ball on providing a log file. Maybe next time around I can get one and pop it in this post.

ModuleSurfaceFX is a stock module. It's what creates the dust and smoke effects on the ground when an engine fires close to it. It's highly unusual that a single engine would error out on it. Especially when other engines in the pack have similar settings.

So, for you, the same task as above: please try to confirm it in a fresh installation of KSP with only Near Future Aeronautics and its dependencies installed. If you can, please submit a logfile.

[Apaseall]

I seem to have two of some engines. I presume this is because those engines are in another near future mod that I installed, and this mod. Is there a plan for stripping out the engines that are in this mod from the other mod? I rather like Nerta's work and basically install every mod by them.

[JadeOfMaar]

12 minutes ago, Apaseall said:

I seem to have two of some engines. I presume this is because those engines are in another near future mod that I installed, and this mod. Is there a plan for stripping out the engines that are in this mod from the other mod? I rather like Nerta's work and basically install every mod by them.

NF Aeronautics contains engines, tanks, mounts and intakes from MkIV Spaceplane System. Check MkIV and very likely, delete everything but the MkIV class parts.

[Apaseall]

2 minutes ago, JadeOfMaar said:

NF Aeronautics contains engines, tanks, mounts and intakes from MkIV Spaceplane System. Check MkIV and very likely, delete everything but the MkIV class parts.

That's a whole load of stuff, I had better get on that then right away. I do appreciate that Nerta keeps working on these great mods, rather than just pushing out version compatibility updates. I may tackle it first with a MM patch just to strip out the parts from being displayed, as I think deleting parts via a MM patch does not really do what you might expect, which would be to remove the part and free up memory etc. To do that I would have to stop the part from being loaded in the first place, either by outright deleting the part or merely renaming the .cfg files to something KSP will ignore. Which reminds me, I think I saw KSP trying to do stuff with .txt files, but I am not definite about that. Might have been a sleep deprivation hallucination lol.

[JadeOfMaar]

3 minutes ago, Apaseall said:

I think I saw KSP trying to do stuff with .txt files, but I am not definite about that. Might have been a sleep deprivation hallucination lol.

I'd like to think this is a thing. Lol

Check for a MkIV update. There may be a release where these parts are properly deleted. I don't expect MM to be a valid approach to this as the identical parts are caused by two configs with the same PART {name = x} value. It would be much easier or more worthwhile to sift and delete files (if the presumed MkIV release does not exist).