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

[Sepone]

Hi there,

the Near Future Aeronautics mod keeps reminding me that KerbalActuators is not compatible with KSP 1.8.1 (I use NF Aeronautics 1.0.4 for KSP 1.8). I'm aware of the fact that it is not supported by CKAN.

I'm not sure if that is a major problem and if I should use NF Aeronautics with 1.8.1? Can anyone tell me what KerbalActuators is used for, because when I google it I can't find any information about it, therefore I also can't update it manually.

[pt1243]

1 hour ago, Sepone said:

Hi there,

the Near Future Aeronautics mod keeps reminding me that KerbalActuators is not compatible with KSP 1.8.1 (I use NF Aeronautics 1.0.4 for KSP 1.8). I'm aware of the fact that it is not supported by CKAN.

I'm not sure if that is a major problem and if I should use NF Aeronautics with 1.8.1? Can anyone tell me what KerbalActuators is used for, because when I google it I can't find any information about it, therefore I also can't update it manually.

The latest version from this link should work. I'm running on 1.9.1 and everything is working perfectly.

[Nightside]

1 hour ago, Sepone said:

Hi there,

the Near Future Aeronautics mod keeps reminding me that KerbalActuators is not compatible with KSP 1.8.1 (I use NF Aeronautics 1.0.4 for KSP 1.8). I'm aware of the fact that it is not supported by CKAN.

I'm not sure if that is a major problem and if I should use NF Aeronautics with 1.8.1? Can anyone tell me what KerbalActuators is used for, because when I google it I can't find any information about it, therefore I also can't update it manually.

Download Page:

https://github.com/Angel-125/KerbalActuators/releases

 

[Sepone]

24 minutes ago, pt1243 said:

The latest version from this link should work. I'm running on 1.9.1 and everything is working perfectly.

 

24 minutes ago, Nightside said:

Download Page:

https://github.com/Angel-125/KerbalActuators/releases

 

Replaced the WildBlueIndustries folder that comes with NF Aeronautics with the new one from your links and no more compatibility messages. Thanks a lot! 

[sturmhauke]

4 hours ago, Sepone said:

Can anyone tell me what KerbalActuators is used for, because when I google it I can't find any information about it, therefore I also can't update it manually.

As far as I can tell, it's used for animating the doors on the VTOL engines and maybe a couple of other parts.

[Sepone]

5 minutes ago, sturmhauke said:

As far as I can tell, it's used for animating the doors on the VTOL engines and maybe a couple of other parts.

Thanks for your explanation, sturmhauke.

[fragtzack]

Any chance of adding Snacks! mod support to the habitation modules?

[RagingNerd]

how can this mod be 1.9 compatible if b9 part switch is not updated to 1.9

[pt1243]

1 hour ago, RagingNerd said:

how can this mod be 1.9 compatible if b9 part switch is not updated to 1.9

B9 Part Switch is not officially updated yet, but it is working just fine for me in 1.9.1. 

[RagingNerd]

2 hours ago, pt1243 said:

B9 Part Switch is not officially updated yet, but it is working just fine for me in 1.9.1. 

I'll try it ty

[DeadJohn]

I found a Near Future Construction glitch with the hexa-girder and octo-girder parts when they are set to "support" (monoprop and electric). Monoprop works fine but electric seems broken: batteries are uncharged at launch and during staging/docking the battery meter vanishes and will never accept a charge.

I don't know if it's a mod conflict, if I somehow installed incorrectly, or if it's a bug. I've been playing my current 1.8.1 save for quite a while and haven't noticed any other installation issues. Note that the original craft I tried was a complex assembly being used to expand a station, but I can reproduce it with minimal craft such as:

Example 1: A single hexa-girder or octo-girder truss with no other parts. In VAB it properly shows 1200/1200 electric and 200/200 monoprop in the truss. On launch, it sits on the pad reading only 200/200 monprop; the electric charge vanishes.

Example 2: A very simplified version of the craft where I originally found the issue. HECS 2 probe as root, a docking port connected upside down (so the probe is the undocking part), and a hexa-girder set to "support". On launch, the hexa-girder shows 0/1200 electric. After undocking, that turns into 0/0 and the electric bar completely vanishes from the part. Redocking something else to it does not bring back the bar so it's impossible to recharge the battery.

Files

Zipped Player.log: This looks pretty empty so might not have enough info to help; I already quit my save before grabbing this file. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RBA6b77t1O88-eF-IOwU-zTaH8txsvVV/view?usp=sharing

Zipped Player-prev.log: A much larger log from my prior gaming session where I had the problem. https://drive.google.com/file/d/18WVxSDqANmymiQlVuOSenVECvvxo5rd9/view?usp=sharing

Simple craft file, no mod parts other than NFC. On launch both trusses show 0/1200 electric. After decoupling the node the trusses lose their entire electrical component. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RopXhqtoJMd33h1mfgxLUv7uFjDedS0g/view?usp=sharing

Workaround

I first noticed the problem long after I expanded a station with "support" trusses. Open persistent.sfs. Search for the part name, "truss-hex-01" in my case. Look for 2 sections (because I have 2 trusses in my craft) beneath the vessel name. Make a single edit to the maximum electrical storage as highlighted below. Restart the game, jump to the craft from Tracking Station, watch as the trusses refill from the solar panels. Things look okay now.

Spoiler

 

name = truss-hex-01

[other portions snipped for brevity]

                RESOURCE
                {
                    name = MonoPropellant
                    amount = 158.14569391799
                    maxAmount = 200
                    flowState = True
                    isTweakable = True
                    hideFlow = False
                    isVisible = True
                    flowMode = Both
                }
                RESOURCE
                {
                    name = ElectricCharge
                    amount = 0
                    maxAmount = 0 1200
                    flowState = True
                    isTweakable = True
                    hideFlow = False
                    isVisible = True
                    flowMode = Both
                }

 

 

P.S. I found a similar post from 3 years ago, and a few posts later someone else comments that they had the same issue once. No obvious cause. https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/155465-19x-near-future-technologies-19-updates-feb-20/&do=findComment&comment=3062561

Edited March 23, 2020 by DeadJohn
Put code in spoiler to save space

[Nertea]

10 hours ago, DeadJohn said:

I found a Near Future Construction glitch with the hexa-girder and octo-girder parts when they are set to "support" (monoprop and electric). Monoprop works fine but electric seems broken: batteries are uncharged at launch and during staging/docking the battery meter vanishes and will never accept a charge.

I don't know if it's a mod conflict, if I somehow installed incorrectly, or if it's a bug. I've been playing my current 1.8.1 save for quite a while and haven't noticed any other installation issues. Note that the original craft I tried was a complex assembly being used to expand a station, but I can reproduce it with minimal craft such as:

Example 1: A single hexa-girder or octo-girder truss with no other parts. In VAB it properly shows 1200/1200 electric and 200/200 monoprop in the truss. On launch, it sits on the pad reading only 200/200 monprop; the electric charge vanishes.

Example 2: A very simplified version of the craft where I originally found the issue. HECS 2 probe as root, a docking port connected upside down (so the probe is the undocking part), and a hexa-girder set to "support". On launch, the hexa-girder shows 0/1200 electric. After undocking, that turns into 0/0 and the electric bar completely vanishes from the part. Redocking something else to it does not bring back the bar so it's impossible to recharge the battery.

Files

Zipped Player.log: This looks pretty empty so might not have enough info to help; I already quit my save before grabbing this file. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RBA6b77t1O88-eF-IOwU-zTaH8txsvVV/view?usp=sharing

Zipped Player-prev.log: A much larger log from my prior gaming session where I had the problem. https://drive.google.com/file/d/18WVxSDqANmymiQlVuOSenVECvvxo5rd9/view?usp=sharing

Simple craft file, no mod parts other than NFC. On launch both trusses show 0/1200 electric. After decoupling the node the trusses lose their entire electrical component. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RopXhqtoJMd33h1mfgxLUv7uFjDedS0g/view?usp=sharing

Workaround

I first noticed the problem long after I expanded a station with "support" trusses. Open persistent.sfs. Search for the part name, "truss-hex-01" in my case. Look for 2 sections (because I have 2 trusses in my craft) beneath the vessel name. Make a single edit to the maximum electrical storage as highlighted below. Restart the game, jump to the craft from Tracking Station, watch as the trusses refill from the solar panels. Things look okay now.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

name = truss-hex-01

[other portions snipped for brevity]

                RESOURCE
                {
                    name = MonoPropellant
                    amount = 158.14569391799
                    maxAmount = 200
                    flowState = True
                    isTweakable = True
                    hideFlow = False
                    isVisible = True
                    flowMode = Both
                }
                RESOURCE
                {
                    name = ElectricCharge
                    amount = 0
                    maxAmount = 0 1200
                    flowState = True
                    isTweakable = True
                    hideFlow = False
                    isVisible = True
                    flowMode = Both
                }

 

 

P.S. I found a similar post from 3 years ago, and a few posts later someone else comments that they had the same issue once. No obvious cause. https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/155465-19x-near-future-technologies-19-updates-feb-20/&do=findComment&comment=3062561

As you found in your search, this has happened a couple times in the past. However, nobody has been able to get me actual reproduction steps - I've never managed to reproduce this myself. There's nothing in your game's log that indicated anything untoward happened either so it has to be a mod interaction of some obscure type. 

[Nertea]

On 3/22/2020 at 12:37 PM, sturmhauke said:

As far as I can tell, it's used for animating the doors on the VTOL engines and maybe a couple of other parts.

Not quite correct, it is used to run the propellers and lift fans. The animations are from DeployableEngines. 

On 3/21/2020 at 1:04 AM, Avelium said:

Thank you for the info and thank you for your wonderful mods! I'll keep an eye for B9!

This has now been released, see here:

Effectively to make something more reflective, modify the MATERIAL in the currently defined SUBTYPE nodes for the solar panels. You will need to use a FLOAT node that targets the Shininess parameter (this is not the correct parameter name, investigate the Bumped Specular (Mapped) shader in PartTools to get the correct one).

On 3/20/2020 at 3:16 PM, Flightologist said:

Just wan to make sure I'm not the only one, is anyone else having some issues with the IVA in the mk4-1 pod? Like everything just seems really off? I'm running the latest version in 1.8.1 and the appropriate version in 1.5.1 in different builds and they both have this issue. In my old 1.4.5 build, however, it looked fine.

Also that IVA revamp from @zakkpaz looks sick.

This might sound a little frustrated, because it is - I don't know how people expect me to understand issues when they are described with things like 'everything just seems really off'. Please be a little more specific and try to include relevant data, in this case a screenshot would be great. Then I can say 'no this is bad I'll look into it' or 'working as expected' without eating half an hour of my time pulling the current version of the mod, starting the game, doing checks and coming back to ask you more questions. 

 

[Nertea]

Uh so work is continuing on NFLV. I've been very busy at work but what you need to know is that the set of engines that will ship has changed a little. I'm evolving it to a set that adds one sustainer and one booster in each size class from 0.625 to 3.75m. Here's what the state is right now:

Savvy viewers will notice that the old STBE is gone - I made a mistake and modeled the wrong STBE last time. The old one will make a return somewhere - I've modeled and added the correct one: 

In addition the Merlin 1D and Merlin 1D vac are now getting added as 0.625m and 1.25m engines:

I have four more slots to fill - the 0.625/1.875/2.5/3.75m sustainers. Two of these are currently in progress, I'm still identifying candidates for the other two slots (0.625m and 2.5m). If you have an interesting thought for an engine that's the right size and role (and kerolox) to fill these, I'd be happy to hear it.

Edited March 26, 2020 by Nertea

[KSPrynk]

7 minutes ago, Nertea said:

Uh so work is continuing on NFLV. I've been very busy at work but what you need to know is that the set of engines that will ship has changed a little. I'm evolving it to a set that adds one sustainer and one booster in each size class from 0.625 to 3.75m. Here's what the state is right now:

These look beautiful.  What's the current gameplan for Methalox engines?  I thought I read a while back that you were moving the supporting patches to CryoTanks?  Are there going to be Methalox variants in all sizes or still just the two 1.25m and two 2.5m from the legacy conversion patch?

[Nertea]

18 minutes ago, KSPrynk said:

These look beautiful.  What's the current gameplan for Methalox engines?  I thought I read a while back that you were moving the supporting patches to CryoTanks?  Are there going to be Methalox variants in all sizes or still just the two 1.25m and two 2.5m from the legacy conversion patch?

Methalox engines are going away from the mod, they're going to be moved to CryoEngines and expanded in scope with a few more models. Currently we have 4, RS18, Raptor, Raptor Vac and BE-4. I'll add the old STBE to that, at least, and shove in a couple of other upcoming engines. 

[Rodger]

The electron's Rutherford Vacuum could be a nice .625 vac engine? And not sure if you've already done one or not, but an RD-861K could work for 2.5 sustainer?

[EStreetRockets]

For 0.625m engines, the Reaver-1 engine for Firefly Alpha could be an option. Any of the Firefly Aerospace engines would be really cool.

For a 2.5 sustainer engine you could do the RD-191/193/181, the single combustion chamber version of the RD-180, which is generally used as a replacement for the NK-33. I havn't seen anyone make a stockalike version of this.

[DeltaDizzy]

1 hour ago, EStreetRockets said:

For 0.625m engines, the Reaver-1 engine for Firefly Alpha could be an option. Any of the Firefly Aerospace engines would be really cool.

For a 2.5 sustainer engine you could do the RD-191/193/181, the single combustion chamber version of the RD-180, which is generally used as a replacement for the NK-33. I havn't seen anyone make a stockalike version of this.

Isnt 2.5m a bit big? The real RD-191 is 1.45m in diameter and for KSP you usually scale things down.

[KeaKaka]

12 minutes ago, DeltaDizzy said:

Isnt 2.5m a bit big? The real RD-191 is 1.45m in diameter and for KSP you usually scale things down.

The majority of falcon 9 parts are made in the 2.5m size so it makes sense.

[DeltaDizzy]

14 minutes ago, Mountain Parrot said:

The majority of falcon 9 parts are made in the 2.5m size so it makes sense.

The falcon 9 is more than 2.5x wider than the RD-191 (12'2" or 3.7m) and when scaled to KSP size comes out to be 2.31m as opposed to 0.90m for the RD-191.

[EStreetRockets]

1 hour ago, DeltaDizzy said:

Isnt 2.5m a bit big? The real RD-191 is 1.45m in diameter and for KSP you usually scale things down.

I did see this when I suggested it, and I know the scale is off, but I just thought it would be a good engine to have a Nertea version of and no one else has included it in any stockalike mod. Now that you mention it, I would probably want a correctly scaled version instead of a weirdly large version.

[Nertea]

Yeah I'm trying my best to be size-accurate, at least, with these engines. 

11 hours ago, Rodger said:

The electron's Rutherford Vacuum could be a nice .625 vac engine? And not sure if you've already done one or not, but an RD-861K could work for 2.5 sustainer?

Rutherford Vac is the top contender for that slot right now, yeah. Advantage is that you'd also probably get a regular Rutherford out of this, though it would be tiiiiny. RD-861K is a bit small - it's nozzle maps to something in a 1.25m footprint KSP-wise.

3 hours ago, EStreetRockets said:

For 0.625m engines, the Reaver-1 engine for Firefly Alpha could be an option. Any of the Firefly Aerospace engines would be really cool.

For a 2.5 sustainer engine you could do the RD-191/193/181, the single combustion chamber version of the RD-180, which is generally used as a replacement for the NK-33. I havn't seen anyone make a stockalike version of this.

Reaver-1 might also work.. it's a little bit small, but that might be ok. As mentioned, the single-chamber version of those RDs is a little bit small, but I am considering a 2-engine cluster as on Antares as an option. You'd probably get a single

Another option considered is the mythical AJ-800, which is effectively an NK-33 with two turbopumps and a sized up combustion chamber/nozzle. It might fit the footprint nicely. 

[Virtualgenius]

I vote for rutherford that would have a lot of other applications for things as well

 

[billkerbinsky]

3 hours ago, Nertea said:

Rutherford Vac is the top contender for that slot right now, yeah. Advantage is that you'd also probably get a regular Rutherford out of this, though it would be tiiiiny. RD-861K is a bit small - it's nozzle maps to something in a 1.25m footprint KSP-wise.

Electrically pumped like the real-world Rutherford?  (no alternator, burns EC as well as LF+OX, periodically ejects batteries...)