totm dec 2023 [WIP] [1.12.x] MOARdV's Avionics Systems - MAS Interactive IVA! (v1.3.7, 7 April 2023)

[snakeru]

1 hour ago, Trainzack said:

I want to make sure that the IVA can be used during ascent, as I imagine some people will use it like that. I am, however, in the process of re-configuring it so that those props have less prominence. 

Oh, yeah - some people definitely will. Some even will do that in the atmosphere, without parachutes and planned abort sequence.

But I don't think that IVAs should differ from each other only by layout of props. Some IVAs are for ascent, some for descent and some for orbit. What belongs to one does not necessarily has to be in another and should be missing from a third. 

 

 

[MOARdV]

10 hours ago, Trainzack said:

Also, how do I make the cabin lights dial functional?

Cabin lights often require a custom control, since it has to know the name of the transforms that lights were attached to in the model.  Although what I should do is modify it so the generic switch MAS_swRotary_GenericIntLight so it will control every interior light, and you don't need a specific name.  I'll get the code changes in place to support that this week, and try to get the next update out this weekend.

[Bottle Rocketeer 500]

8 hours ago, MOARdV said:

Cabin lights often require a custom control, since it has to know the name of the transforms that lights were attached to in the model.  Although what I should do is modify it so the generic switch MAS_swRotary_GenericIntLight so it will control every interior light, and you don't need a specific name.  I'll get the code changes in place to support that this week, and try to get the next update out this weekend.

@MOARdV Will you still be able to have different switches control different lights like before?

[MOARdV]

14 hours ago, Bottle Rocketeer 500 said:

@MOARdV Will you still be able to have different switches control different lights like before?

Yes.  I'm changing the Generic IntLight switch to control all lights (and making it possible to create other props that control all lights).  There will be a separate switch that controls only the "Point light" interior lights, which is what the generic switch previously did.

[Trainzack]

I made a little more progress on the cupola. If anyone wants to try it out, you can download it here. Let me know if anything feels wrong or missing about this IVA (or if you encounter any bugs). My goal is for this to be good enough to be included with MAS as a stock config file. I intend to make most of the panels look a bit better once I've got the positioning down.

[MOARdV]

MAS v0.93.1 is now live on  GitHub.  This release was primarily intended to be a bug fix, but there are a number of new features in there, too (partially for this  )

[Max-Ksp]

Hi all ! 

I need help to dock with another vessel. 

I have radar, FDAI, ARRT, X-pointer. 

I don't find the vector of my relative speed with the target 

Really Thanks! 

[MOARdV]

6 hours ago, Max-Ksp said:

I have radar, FDAI, ARRT, X-pointer. 

Set X-Pointer to DIST.  That is your X / Y distance relative to the target (you want to point at the target for this to be accurate).  Set ARRT to RANGE.  It shows distance to target and relative speed.  Set FDAI to Target +.  That shows you the direction towards the target.

Usually, what I do is get close (50m - 100m) to the target and get my speed close to 0 (ARRT / RANGE RATE = 0).  Set SAS to Stability Assist.  Set control mode to PRECISE.  RCS ON (of course).

Rotate towards the target (both FDAI needles = 0).  Use X-Pointer to translate until the X is centered.  Keep adjusting the vessel to point at the target.  When both the FDAI and the X-Pointer are centered, switch X-Pointer to VEL and zero your X/Y translation.  Start your approach (slowly).  Set the reference part to DOCK (MAS_tggl_ReferencePart_T1_G1_D, for example).  Switch to Target - FDAI mode.  This is docking port alignment.  If your target is the docking port, and your reference part is a docking port, the FDAI now shows you the roll, pitch, and yaw needed to align the docking port.  Or, if you use MechJeb, select SASS TGT Parallel -, and it will take care of alignment while you practice translation.

Align with the docking port.  From here until docking, you will be switching X-Pointer between VEL and DIST, and possibly switching FDAI between Target + / Target - / R.Vel +.  When docking alignment on the FDAI is zero, and VEL and DIST on the X-pointer are zero, you are perfectly aligned for docking.

Usually, I close distance while aligning, since there is some drift between vessels due to slighly different orbits.  In that way, my vessel is very close to the dock when I get everything centered, and I can translate forward and complete the maneuver.  It takes practice.  I have some documentation online at GitHub about the instruments, although I need to add some more pictures and maybe show examples of how to use the instruments for docking.

[Max-Ksp]

Thanks for this tutorial !

You work on the apollo ship duo (RA-01 in wiki ? )

 

[Flightologist]

@snakeru@Stone Blue Thanks for the help... 

I don't know what I did but I somehow got it all to work

[MOARdV]

2 hours ago, Max-Ksp said:

You work on the apollo ship duo (RA-01 in wiki ? )

I worked on an Apollo Command Module (RA-01) that uses the FASA Apollo CM modified to work with BDB.  It will not work with stock KSP.  The player must install the Bluedog Design Bureau mod to use that mod.  I am also working on a modern Apollo CM (GA-02), but it is not ready to go to space.

[MOARdV]

Avionics Systems v0.93.2 is now available on GitHub.  This release fixes a couple of bugs, adds some more functions for IVA immersion, and adds more props (including a new family of MFDs which are still under development).  I plan to release a separate mod sometime this weekend (hopefully today) to showcase some of the MAS features in a more complex IVA.

[Max-Ksp]

6 hours ago, MOARdV said:

Avionics Systems v0.93.2 is now available on GitHub.  This release fixes a couple of bugs, adds some more functions for IVA immersion, and adds more props (including a new family of MFDs which are still under development).  I plan to release a separate mod sometime this weekend (hopefully today) to showcase some of the MAS features in a more complex IVA.

Very Nice !

I wait impatiently 

[MOARdV]

Avionics Systems v0.94.0 is now on GitHub.  For players, the main feature is that the MAS Attitude Pilot and MAS Maneuver Pilot are much better behaved.  For prop makers, there are still more functions available (well over 900, now), including more functionality for Science.

[ElonsMusk]

Hey MDV I appreciate what you've been doing to keep IVA gameplay alive. I'm struggling to get 1.6 working properly. Am I to ignore RPM from now on entirely? Does installing both cause conflicts? Anyway thank you, friend. God speed.

[Stone Blue]

1 hour ago, ElonsMusk said:

Hey MDV I appreciate what you've been doing to keep IVA gameplay alive. I'm struggling to get 1.6 working properly. Am I to ignore RPM from now on entirely? Does installing both cause conflicts? Anyway thank you, friend. God speed.

Hopefully MOARdV will correct me if I'm giving incorrect information, but no, you can still use both RPM and MAS together. I guess MOARdV was smart enuff to have the forethought to develop MAS so it does not conflict with RPM.

Older, pre-MAS RPM IVAs obviously require RPM... MAS IVAs require MAS... however there are many that use both ... Whether one or the other, or both are required for a given IVA, should be clearly stated in that IVA's first post on its thread.

Being able to use both together is good, and allows full featured IVAs until MAS is fully developed, and able to completely replace RPM... It allows IVA creators to keep their IVAs updated and working, while they can slowly be converted over to phase out RPM during MAS' development. It gives IVA makers the opportunity to work on conversion little by little, rather than an all-out, all-at-once rewrite....and all the while have a working IVA every step of the way.

Now to your issue... are you running 1.6.0, or 1.6.1? Are you trying to install both RPM and MAS? (this would depend on what IVAs you are trying to use).
Do you have all the updated dependencies installed for RPM and/or MAS?

Edited February 5, 2019 by Stone Blue

[ElonsMusk]

23 minutes ago, Stone Blue said:

... are you running 1.6.0, or 1.6.1? Are you trying to install both RPM and MAS? (this would depend on what IVAs you are trying to use).
Do you have all the updated dependencies installed for RPM and/or MAS?

1.6.1 - I believe I've narrowed it down to the individual IVA part not knowing where to look for config files. Interestingly, I think it was caused by using an old version of Nav Utilities not developed by MDV. Using his version has at least brought on proper IVA config for Blue Dog, Near Future, etc. which is good enough for now!

Thank you for clarifying for me. I assumed this to be the case. Essentially unity treats the IVA items as the same? So you could implement ASET props, MDV props, etc and they end up in the final config? I'm still new to IVA editing... Thanks though!! (:

[Stone Blue]

14 minutes ago, ElonsMusk said:

 Interestingly, I think it was caused by using an old version of Nav Utilities not developed by MDV.

Ahhh.. yeah, IIRC, NavUtilities *is* supported by RPM, tho I dont remember if there was a NU cfg required, that was included with RPM, or NU itself...

I cant remember if NU is supported by MAS yet, tho...
 

17 minutes ago, ElonsMusk said:

Thank you for clarifying for me. I assumed this to be the case. Essentially unity treats the IVA items as the same? So you could implement ASET props, MDV props, etc and they end up in the final config? I'm still new to IVA editing... Thanks though!! (:

Yes... you can add whatever props you want into one IVA, for whatever IVA props are installed in your GameData, and yes, Unity will add them all to one cfg.

One caveat, tho, IIRC, you have to make sure the proper modules are included in the final cfg, ie MASFlightComputer and or RasterPropMonitorComputer, and i dont remember if unity adds those automagically or not

Also, you can make different versions or variants of an IVA. ie an all analog IVA, and an all digital one... You would have to write a patch(es) for anything more than a "base" IVA, that would have to manually be added, or "turned on" by the user. As far as I know, IVAs "variants" cant be switched between in stock KSP, other than activating/de-activating MM patches for them.
@Electrocutor supposedly has a plugin (KSPF) that *can* do this... but i still havent gotten a chance to dig into how it works.

[MOARdV]

4 hours ago, ElonsMusk said:

Does installing both cause conflicts?

As @Stone Blue said, installing both is supported.  The only situation I can think of that would be a problem is if there are MAS and RPM IVAs for the same part - then it becomes a question of which MM patch takes priority, since stock KSP doesn't support IVAs as a part variant.

 

2 hours ago, Stone Blue said:

@Electrocutor supposedly has a plugin (KSPF) that *can* do this... but i still havent gotten a chance to dig into how it works.

I really need to track down this functionality.  If it's easy to implement, I may do it myself so that MAS can support multiple IVAs in the same part.  If it's not, then maybe I need to work on some MM patches that will let me support KSPF when it's installed.

[Montieth]

Besides MechJeb and Scansat, what are the other functions that dovetail with the new IVA systems you're developing?


Also, what's the external mount camera of choice?

Edited February 8, 2019 by Montieth

[theonegalen]

On 2/5/2019 at 4:42 PM, MOARdV said:

I really need to track down this functionality.  If it's easy to implement, I may do it myself so that MAS can support multiple IVAs in the same part.  If it's not, then maybe I need to work on some MM patches that will let me support KSPF when it's installed.

If it does turn out to be easy to implement, would you consider looking into extending the upgrade system so that you can upgrade ivas, or upgrade parts to have additional variants? I haven't been able to think of a good way to keep ivas tied to the tech tree. Anyway, if it doesn't work out, we do always have KSPF, assuming a Electrocutor hasn't disappeared for good.

[MOARdV]

8 hours ago, Montieth said:

Besides MechJeb and Scansat, what are the other functions that dovetail with the new IVA systems you're developing?

MAS supports FAR, RealChute, Advanced Jet Engines, some of the WBI plugin suite, and Chatterer as well.

8 hours ago, Montieth said:

Also, what's the external mount camera of choice?

MAS includes MM patches for some / most of the Hullcam VDS parts, and the ASET external camera found in the advanced IVA portion of the ALCOR lander.

8 hours ago, theonegalen said:

If it does turn out to be easy to implement, would you consider looking into extending the upgrade system so that you can upgrade ivas, or upgrade parts to have additional variants? I haven't been able to think of a good way to keep ivas tied to the tech tree. Anyway, if it doesn't work out, we do always have KSPF, assuming a Electrocutor hasn't disappeared for good.

I think using the upgrade system to unlock variants would be a good approach.  It would be nice being able to switch back and forth between variants, at least from an IVA development perspective.

[Damon]

I'm currently making my IVA for my crew dragon pod. And I only need around 3 screens to show various stuff. Probably the most common is fuel, gimbal and a monitor to show the docking. What's my best approach to this? I noticed the fuelmonitor but I wished there were more types of that.

[MOARdV]

19 hours ago, damonvv said:

I'm currently making my IVA for my crew dragon pod. And I only need around 3 screens to show various stuff. Probably the most common is fuel, gimbal and a monitor to show the docking. What's my best approach to this? I noticed the fuelmonitor but I wished there were more types of that.

Three screens as in 3 props, or three screens as in, you only need 3 pages in the MFD?  If you only want 3 pages on the MFD, that's going to require configuring an entire MFD, which isn't hard, but there's a fair amount to it.  If you only need 3 props, then you could use 3 of the MFD2 props, or 2 MFD2 props and a kOS terminal (since it has a few pages that aren't duplicated in MFD2).  Or 2 IFMS MFD props and a IFMS Terminal prop, although I'm still developing them (launch and basic orbit info are available, along with maneuver node management).

MFD2 has resource pages (including the option to configure some gauges to track specific resources), and it has a docking page that provides a camera view.  Gimbal deflection is probably the only thing those pages are missing.

[Electrocutor]

On 2/5/2019 at 4:42 PM, MOARdV said:

As @Stone Blue said, installing both is supported.  The only situation I can think of that would be a problem is if there are MAS and RPM IVAs for the same part - then it becomes a question of which MM patch takes priority, since stock KSP doesn't support IVAs as a part variant.

 

I really need to track down this functionality.  If it's easy to implement, I may do it myself so that MAS can support multiple IVAs in the same part.  If it's not, then maybe I need to work on some MM patches that will let me support KSPF when it's installed.

If you look at the source to KSPF, it's pretty simple.

        [KSPField(isPersistant = true)]
        public string InternalModel = null;

        public override void OnLoad(ConfigNode node)
        {
            this.part.partInfo = new AvailablePart(this.part.partInfo);

            SetInternalModel();
        }

        private void SetInternalModel()
        {
            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(this.InternalModel))
            { return; }

            ConfigNode oConfig = new ConfigNode("INTERNAL");
            oConfig.AddValue("name", this.InternalModel);

            this.part.partInfo.internalConfig = oConfig;
        }

The PartInfo is usually a single object shared across any part instances that are made from the same part; in this case, I just copy it and create a PartInfo for every part instance, so it can be different for every instance, and store/load the values from fields.