MAD - Aerospace Parts (v0.6.1) KSP 1.8+

[Slamnam]

On 5/8/2017 at 5:21 AM, Overland said:

How about mark 3 size? With a mark 1 size cockpit?

Ala mark 1 B52 or B47

I give you... the Budget B-47!

 

[Citizen247]

On 10/05/2017 at 3:00 PM, Daniel Prates said:

I too think this is the way to go, in order to produce a lot of cockpit choices. Radial cockpits, which you  simply put over fuselages or fuel tanks. Much of the pilot remains hidden inside the fuselage anyway, with only the glazing protuding above the fuselage line.

The STRIKER mod has three of those parts, one looking like a bf-109, which I am assuming was much easier to do part than a full-fuselage part. 

What the game needs is some more optional bubbles, windows and turrets, just for the cosmetics of it. Many 1940s planes could be emulated if such parts were available, even if they did not have the crew capacity. Think, for instance, if you razorback had an alternative 'glazed' looks to it, specially the drop-looking ones. You know those dorsal observation windows the PBY Catalina had? If your razorback had a glazed version, they could imitate those somewhat. Same thing goes for turrets and bubbles. We have so many aerodinamic nose cones, why not a glazed nose cone, to look like a bombardier station? 

 

5

Yeah, as far as I know stryker is the only mod to do so. I thought it was a genius idea and I still don't understand why no one else has done it.

Bubble canopies are a good idea. It's definitely worth considering for the to do list. I definitely want to have a few WW2 bomber style glass noses/cockpits.

In other news, I really am still working on this, I'm just snowed under with other commitments at the moment. Those are mostly coming to a close though. I'm hoping to be able to upload an update this weekend.

Edited May 11, 2017 by Citizen247

[Citizen247]

So... Finally as promised an update! 

New parts:

Spine size adaptors, long and short

Spine airbrakes in 0.9375m and 0.625m sizes

and Surface mounted ladders. I'll be adding more as time goes on.

At the moment there is a long and short version. I plan on adding ladders to attach to different sized fuselages and flat sections.

 

Finally, if you have ModuleManager installed the "options" folder contains a config file that will add fuel tanks to some of the spine parts:

It's on by default. If you don't want it delete the file from the options folder. In future I will probably do this by a plugin, like firespitter or similar alternative.

<Download>

[Rhedd]

Epic!

Love the simple-yet-super-useful ladder idea!

[Beetlecat]

Those are some splendid additions! The airbrake is dreamy! Thank you.

[qzgy]

Those parts make me so happy!

Although I usually play stock, I may make a modded game with these parts...

Can I request a swiss cheese style airbrake and also a surface mounted version of those mini-airbrakes?

Edited May 14, 2017 by qzgy

[Slamnam]

Hey, an airbrake that isn't obnoxiously long!

[Citizen247]

4 hours ago, qzgy said:

Can I request a swiss cheese style airbrake and also a surface mounted version of those mini-airbrakes?

 

Surface-attached airbrakes are firmly on my to-do list. I definitely want to produce some in the style of Mig15/F86 Sabre airbrakes. The "swiss-cheese" style dive brakes are something I'd like to do, but it depends on a few factors. Doing it with geometry could well create an extremely "heavy part" with lots of polys while doing it using transparent textures will probably look awful. It's something I'll look into though.

[Slamnam]

Yeah high polygon count. KISS i say.

[Citizen247]

So, I've been doing some testing for modular cockpits.

All looks good in overlay mode:

Unfortunately when you go into IVA:

So KSP only renders the IVA you're currently in. So modular cockpits are going to take a custom code plugin, to force KSP to render visible IVAs.

I think the code itself would be fairly straight forward. However since it would be more than just parts, I'm thinking that it might be better to make another mod focused on Modular cockpits alone.

[Rath]

On 5/15/2017 at 4:28 AM, Citizen247 said:

So, I've been doing some testing for modular cockpits.

All looks good in overlay mode:

Unfortunately when you go into IVA:

So KSP only renders the IVA you're currently in. So modular cockpits are going to take a custom code plugin, to force KSP to render visible IVAs.

I think the code itself would be fairly straight forward. However since it would be more than just parts, I'm thinking that it might be better to make another mod focused on Modular cockpits alone.

please do make a modular cockpit mod.  Also, could you make a mid section cockpit that fits the chines on both the front and the back?  Like the Vindicator, but without the back glass part， just right into the razorback part again.  There was another british ww2 plane that had it but I forget the name right now.  And perhaps a glass back so you can make a vindicator cockpit out of it too?

Edited May 16, 2017 by Rath

[steedcrugeon]

On ‎14‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 9:28 PM, Citizen247 said:

So, I've been doing some testing for modular cockpits.

- {snip} -

I think the code itself would be fairly straight forward. However since it would be more than just parts, I'm thinking that it might be better to make another mod focused on Modular cockpits alone.

I would be exceptionally interested in this code you are thinking of, It would be very beneficial to an IVA heaving Mod I'm working on. Alas my programming skills limit me (basically because I have zero skills) to reading and never implementing. But have you had a look over at @pizzaoverhead's FreeIVA mod? its still in early days too but he's already got the IVA's to all spawn in,, irrespective of which part you are in (it does some other cool stuff as well).

[Citizen247]

7 hours ago, Rath said:

Also, could you make a mid section cockpit that fits the chines on both the front and the back?

 

If you're asking for what I think you're asking for... This is basically one of the parts that would make up modular cockpits.

3 hours ago, steedcrugeon said:

I would be exceptionally interested in this code you are thinking of, It would be very beneficial to an IVA heaving Mod I'm working on. Alas my programming skills limit me (basically because I have zero skills) to reading and never implementing. But have you had a look over at @pizzaoverhead's FreeIVA mod? its still in early days too but he's already got the IVA's to all spawn in,, irrespective of which part you are in (it does some other cool stuff as well).

 

I've looked at that. The code for IVA rendering is fairly straight forward from what I can see. He appears to just check every IVA attached to the craft to see if it's in the field of view and if it is, it is added to the render queue. I'd be looking to do something similar, but limiting it in some way, perhaps to only IVA's in the same cockpit or that are adjoining.

[pizzaoverhead]

2 hours ago, Citizen247 said:

If you're asking for what I think you're asking for... This is basically one of the parts that would make up modular cockpits.

I've looked at that. The code for IVA rendering is fairly straight forward from what I can see. He appears to just check every IVA attached to the craft to see if it's in the field of view and if it is, it is added to the render queue. I'd be looking to do something similar, but limiting it in some way, perhaps to only IVA's in the same cockpit or that are adjoining.

It's pretty simple as you saw. You don't even have to do it by field of view: You could create your IVA code as a PartModule and only show IVAs in connected parts that also have the module. There are fields to get the current IVA kerbal, their current part, and what parts are connected to that part. If you want to improve the performance on long/complex vessels, you can hide the props in far away parts. The only thing to be aware of with showing IVAs is that they're visible through vessels when seen from the outside. For example if you're in a ball turret in a B-17, and look forwards through the glass, you'll see the cockpit IVA through the underside of the aircraft. This normally isn't a problem in aircraft, as their IVAs are generally in-line, but it gets fun in space stations. There's likely some shader/render queue trickery to get around this, but I haven't come across it yet.

[Citizen247]

4 hours ago, pizzaoverhead said:

It's pretty simple as you saw. You don't even have to do it by field of view: You could create your IVA code as a PartModule and only show IVAs in connected parts that also have the module. There are fields to get the current IVA kerbal, their current part, and what parts are connected to that part. If you want to improve the performance on long/complex vessels, you can hide the props in far away parts. The only thing to be aware of with showing IVAs is that they're visible through vessels when seen from the outside. For example if you're in a ball turret in a B-17, and look forwards through the glass, you'll see the cockpit IVA through the underside of the aircraft. This normally isn't a problem in aircraft, as their IVAs are generally in-line, but it gets fun in space stations. There's likely some shader/render queue trickery to get around this, but I haven't come across it yet.

 

 

A custom part module was what I was thinking of. I've got things a little easier than you do, in so much as I only care about parts designed to have their IVA's combined, which opens up various avenues for optimisation. I can add "open" and "closed" nodes for instance, so only if IVA parts are attached by open nodes can you see them. IVA's attached through "closed" nodes could be culled from the render list. That would hopefully cut out the problem of visibility you mention.

Could the Z-Masks help at all? Though I suppose you'd need custom masks that don't block the open ends.

Edited May 16, 2017 by Citizen247

[unclepirog]

@Citizen247 Recently discovered this excellent mod, it's awesome!

I've tried to make an AJE support MM-path, and everything is worked well, except one issue with inlets direction. Inlets with visually proper orientation just won't work, but rotated ones working just fine.

Here is the pic of test craft. Four 0.625 intakes (1-4) with their performance. Their orientation: 1 - 90 deg.up (air goes into spine back-surface), 2 - normal, 3 - 90 deg sideways, 4 - 180 deg flipped

Here is MM patch (just test copy of core AJE intake config):

@PART[MoS_SpineIntakeSml]:FOR[AJE]
{
    @MODULE[ModuleResourceIntake]
    {
        @name = AJEInlet
        Area = 0.4
        #@AJE_TPR_CURVE_DEFAULTS/PilotTube/TPRCurve {}
       
        inletTitle = #$@AJE_TPR_CURVE_DEFAULTS/PilotTube/title$
        inletDescription = #$@AJE_TPR_CURVE_DEFAULTS/PilotTube/description$
    }
}
 
@PART[MoS_SpineIntakeMid]:FOR[AJE]
{
    @MODULE[ModuleResourceIntake]
    {
        @name = AJEInlet
        Area = 0.25
        #@AJE_TPR_CURVE_DEFAULTS/PilotTube/TPRCurve {}
       
        inletTitle = #$@AJE_TPR_CURVE_DEFAULTS/PilotTube/title$
        inletDescription = #$@AJE_TPR_CURVE_DEFAULTS/PilotTube/description$
    }
}
 
@PART[MoS_NoseIntake1]:FOR[AJE]
{
    @MODULE[ModuleResourceIntake]
    {
        @name = AJEInlet
        Area = 0.15
        #@AJE_TPR_CURVE_DEFAULTS/PilotTube/TPRCurve {}
       
        inletTitle = #$@AJE_TPR_CURVE_DEFAULTS/PilotTube/title$
        inletDescription = #$@AJE_TPR_CURVE_DEFAULTS/PilotTube/description$
    }
}

Can this be caused by some misalignment of 'intakeTransformName' transform z-axis gizmo in Unity? Or am I wrong and this issue should be resolved by some more deep config tweaking? If necessary, I'll gladly will do more tests or some test parts w.Unity. 

Anyways, thank for your work on this parts! They are great!

Edited May 16, 2017 by unclepirog

[Citizen247]

3 hours ago, unclepirog said:

@Citizen247 Recently discovered this excellent mod, it's awesome!

I've tried to make an AJE support MM-path, and everything is worked well, except one issue with inlets direction. Inlets with visually proper orientation just won't work, but rotated ones working just fine.

Here is the pic of test craft. Four 0.625 intakes (1-4) with their performance. Their orientation: 1 - 90 deg.up (air goes into spine back-surface), 2 - normal, 3 - 90 deg sideways, 4 - 180 deg flipped

Anyways, thank for your work on this parts! They are great!

 

Thanks :). Yes, it's caused by the intake transform "pointing" in the wrong direction. Stock KSP doesn't care, but AJE models airflow direction. I've come up against this myself when writing AJE configs for modded intakes. I wasn't planning on checking any of this until writing AJE configs myself sometime down the line. It's a simple and easy fix though, I'll edit the parts and get the mod reuploaded ASAP.

[Citizen247]

I've checked the parts and the 0.625m air intakes do have their intake transform misaligned. I've reset the intake transform and recompiled the part. I've checked the other intakes and they should all be ok.

Update is up now.

[unclepirog]

7 hours ago, Citizen247 said:

I've checked the parts and the 0.625m air intakes do have their intake transform misaligned. I've reset the intake transform and recompiled the part. I've checked the other intakes and they should all be ok.

Update is up now.

That was fast!

[Reiver]

Incredible. Simply incredible.

Any plans to allow us to hook these things to Mk2 fuselages? I can see a Mk1 centre with razorback parts (especially intakes) on each side looking pretty dang sweet!

[Citizen247]

On 2017-5-24 at 0:56 PM, Reiver said:

Incredible. Simply incredible.

Any plans to allow us to hook these things to Mk2 fuselages? I can see a Mk1 centre with razorback parts (especially intakes) on each side looking pretty dang sweet!

Thanks.

I'm not sure what you mean? Do you mean spines designed to fit on the side of Mk2 fuselage?

 

 

[Citizen247]

Updated and tested with KSP version 1.3.0.

[Salvator]

Wow, i can hardly stress enough, how great this mod is! I would just point out one thing: the tandem cockpit, either bubble or razoback is not actually tandem, as tandem means "one behind the other", while here the kerbals sit side by side

And since you're (at least a bit) open to suggestions, i would have one: I miss a mod with a two seater tandem (i mean actually tandem ) cockpit, where the rear seat is higher, than the front. Like some attack helicopters do.

[SchwinnTropius]

Awesome work. I have some ideas, if you'll take them:

I think what @Reiver was asking about is razorback sections attached to the back of (example) the Mk2 Inline Cockpit. I second that idea, regardless of whether that was what Reiver was asking or not.

I see your intent on a Modular Cockpit setup for the future, but I had an idea for flushly linking multiple cockpits together: using the "greenhouse" cockpit as the base, stretch the glass so that it is the length of the cockpit,make a razorback attach node on the front and back on the glass, and make windshield parts to attach to those nodes. Images to help explain this in the spoiler below:

Spoiler

Finally, found Testy McTester Face:

Spoiler

 

Edited June 7, 2017 by SchwinnTropius
better embed pics

[Sebforce116]

Seeing how far this mod has come, only one thing to say...

This is amazing though, I love it