Probe Communication Loss Mod Request

[Brent Kerman]

I looked all over and can not find a mod that does this. When a probe loses contact with KSC (Comnet) you can still see the craft, what is going on, etc. I would like if when a probe lost signal the screen would go something like this:

Or this:

All Informational UI hid, sound off, F3 doesn't work (Maybe), Only working thing really would be time warp and Back to space center.

Is this possible?

Edited May 3, 2017 by Brent Kerman

[Benjamin Kerman]

Might be able to, Ill take a look at the KSP API documentation after school today. 

EDIT: If anyone wants to check it out, here is the official SQUAD documentation: https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/api/index.html

Edited May 2, 2017 by Benjamin Kerman

[JadeOfMaar]

5 hours ago, Brent Kerman said:

I looked all over and can not find a mod that does this.

You want that error image to fill your screen? ...Why? Such an obtrusive notification that your probe is useless sounds silly. (To put it lightly.)

[Brent Kerman]

1 minute ago, JadeOfMaar said:

You want that error image to fill your screen? ...Why? Such an obtrusive notification that your probe is useless sounds silly. (To put it lightly.)

Yes, I do. In stock KSP I can still see what happens when I have no communication. If I can't control it because its behind the Mun for example, neither should I be able to get signal like camera, altimeter, status, fuel, etc., etc.

[Crimeo]

 

3 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

You want that error image to fill your screen? ...Why? Such an obtrusive notification that your probe is useless sounds silly. (To put it lightly.)

Because you're getting magical information for free. It's not really that obtrusive, because obviously, you wouldn't hang out on that screen for an hour, you'd leave immediately because there's nothing to do, it's just not letting you "cheat" in terms of realism via omniscience.

 

@OP: 

Quote

time warp

Is pretty unlikely to work well / would be a ton of extra work, because you'd have to override every single body's default altitude restrictions (otherwise you'd be gaining info about altitude based on when the warp slows or speeds down or up). 

Since there's nothing to do there anyway, I'd suggest just disabling time warp as a better option.

Edited May 3, 2017 by Crimeo

[Brent Kerman]

11 hours ago, Crimeo said:

@OP: 

Is pretty unlikely to work well / would be a ton of extra work, because you'd have to override every single body's default altitude restrictions (otherwise you'd be gaining info about altitude based on when the warp slows or speeds down or up). 

Since there's nothing to do there anyway, I'd suggest just disabling time warp as a better option.

Do you really want to wait for a real half hour for your probe to come around? And as for altitude, you have map mode "predictions". Maybe have a time warp to Acquisition of Signal. One thing though is scripted burns, time warp would shut off and you would know something happened.

[Crimeo]

4 hours ago, Brent Kerman said:

Do you really want to wait for a real half hour for your probe to come around? And as for altitude, you have map mode "predictions". Maybe have a time warp to Acquisition of Signal. One thing though is scripted burns, time warp would shut off and you would know something happened.

I wouldn't wait half an hour, I'd just go to the tracking station.

If you actually intend to stay on the normal screen for ANY reason, including scripted burns, this becomes a terrible mod for you. Why subject yourself to bleeding eyes? It mqkes sense outside of the context of kos/rt/etc only IMO

[Brent Kerman]

Well, I love that moment when you get AOS and realize that all went as planned, that YES! moment(See any video of mission control when the get AOS after a big event like Juno orbit insertion.). Then there are those times when you realize that AOS was supposed to be ten minutes ago, something went very wrong during reentry(Lock the doors).

What I do now is have a piece of grey construction paper taped to the top of my monitor (with a hole at the signal/clock/time warp) that I flip down when I have no signal.(I also shut sound off.) It's very unhandy, especially when switching to a 'dead' vessel.

That is why I want a LOS mod. And anybody who goes searching for the time warp altitudes at N body probably doesn't get the 'spirit' of the mod. 

As for the eyes, I get your point, maybe just grey static?

EDIT: Before someone asks, I do a lot of scripted burns behind planets. Luck seems to have it 75% of my orbital entry burns at other planets are on the other side. Early on at each planet, before I have a com network setup, I have to script burns with KOS and/or Mechjeb.

Edited May 3, 2017 by Brent Kerman

[Brent Kerman]

I know it can be done with high G's: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/113341-122-g-effects-blackouts-redouts-g-locs-v041-2017-feb-04/& , so I assume it could be done with Loss of Signal. Can you give some input on how to do that here, @Ser?

[Crimeo]

Gray static is better, but still super boring to look at.

Have you seen the mod probe control room? IIRC it doesn't do anything special whenbit loses connection, but it DOES definitely turn off every screen if you run out  EC. If you ask the current developer about doing the same for lost connection, it may be doable.

Warp by the way I just realized you could make not matter by just turning off UI with F2, so you don't get the notifications or see it top left.

[Brent Kerman]

1 minute ago, Crimeo said:

Gray static is better, but still super boring to look at.

Have you seen the mod probe control room? IIRC it doesn't do anything special whenbit loses connection, but it DOES definitely turn off every screen if you run out  EC. If you ask the current developer about doing the same for lost connection, it may be doable.

Warp by the way I just realized you could make not matter by just turning off UI with F2, so you don't get the notifications or see it top left.

The point is that you don't see anything. Have you seen real mission controls during no communication situations?

I do use probe control room some, will talk to dev about signal loss.

F2 is great idea, combine that happening automatically and no signal screen and you would get no info at all. Err....Sound. It can probably be muted.

[Ser]

13 hours ago, Brent Kerman said:

I know it can be done with high G's: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/113341-122-g-effects-blackouts-redouts-g-locs-v041-2017-feb-04/& , so I assume it could be done with Loss of Signal. Can you give some input on how to do that here, @Ser?

That's not hard at all. I guess you can determine whether a vessel has a connection by checking Vessel.ControlLevel values.

As for visuals, There are two approaches used by G-effects. The first one is to show an overlay texture over the screen. This is done by overriding the MonoBehaviour's method OnGUI() and executing

if (I_Really_need_to_draw_that) {
	GUI.DrawTexture(new Rect(0, 0, Screen.width, Screen.height), texture);
}

where you can use any texture you like. The "I_Really_need_to_draw_that" variable is set in OnUpdate() method depending on current flight conditions. That's acceptable to display a static image as overlay but in your case it's better to generate something like random noise texture on the fly, and that could hit performance.

So the second and more advanced approach is to use a post processing shader in MonoBehaviour like that:

void OnRenderImage(RenderTexture source, RenderTexture dest) {
				Graphics.Blit(source, dest, material);
}

where material contains your shader and is loaded from a bundle created in Unity. It is more effective as shaders are executed by GPU leaving the poor overloaded by single-threaded calculations CPU alone and thus saving FPS. If my memory serves me, the CameraTools or HullcamVDS mods had a shader that creates noise effect on a camera. I guess if you use it without transparency you'll get the desired effect.

But I must warn you that in KSP post processing shaders have a side effect of cancelling each other, i.e. if you use your shader on top of HullCam's, one of them would not be visible and I couldn't figure out how to control which one, so it's seems to be unpredictable.

Control locks:

They are set with

InputLockManager.SetControlLock(ControlTypes.ALL_SHIP_CONTROLS, "Your lock name");

And additionally I had to add the following check to make sure no mod that directly affects the controls will cheat the lock (e.g. Analog Control mod):

private void applyControlLock() {
			if (InputLockManager.GetControlLock("Your lock name") != ControlTypes.None) {
				FlightGlobals.ActiveVessel.ctrlState.NeutralizeStick();
			}
}

 

As for muting sounds, it is possible too. You can find all AudioListeners in the scene (actually, there will be only one) and mute them one by one:

listeners = MonoBehaviour.FindObjectsOfType(typeof(AudioListener));

 

May be I'd do that myself but I'm very short of spare time now.

[Brent Kerman]

What programming language is that in?

[Ser]

7 minutes ago, Brent Kerman said:

What programming language is that in?

С# + Unity, the basic language to create plugins for KSP.

[Brent Kerman]

Ok, I know a little C++, have to look up C#.

[Ser]

2 minutes ago, Brent Kerman said:

Ok, I know a little C++, have to look up C#.

It's not very hard. I'm a Java developer basically. This might be helpful: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/forum/29-plugin-development-help-and-support/