[0.20] RemoteTech: Relay Network – V 0.5.0.1

[Chewy2014]

Dishes don't seem to be working for me. They only go for about 9 Mm, even though they are rated for 50 Mm. Even the one that's 900 Gm doesn't work past 9 Mm. After setting up a bunch of satellites to relay comms I tried to send one to the Mun but it couldn't respond to any other craft, even though it had a clear path to them. I tried it with and without the compatibility pack and that doesn't seem to be the problem. Antennae work fine, but dishes are completely broken. I have pointed them appropriately. Am I missing something, or am I experiencing a bug?

I'm new to mods, so if you need an error report or something please tell me how to find it

[Fyrem]

Chewy, pics please. with the GUI showing.

Otherwise, how could we help you?

the system works, and unless you can show us your ships, how they are configured, and the Gui's showing the Dishes pointing at each other, and an orbital view, so we can see the alignment.......

[Chewy2014]

Nevermind, I figured it out. I didn't realize that you need one dish to receive and one dish to send signals. My network was only working because they had antennae and the other craft were pointing at the antennae.

[elkar]

Is RC antena really suppose to have range of 250 km and not 250 Mm? I keep seeing this "bug" since much earlier versions and it's still there. I mean it's easy to edit it but... is it bug then or is it there for a purpose? because that RC antena is much bigger than Dipole one and the range is 20x shorter.

[Fyrem]

the tiny antenna is working as intended. it is MEANT to be 'a very short range, light antenna AND command unit'. Very short range.

[Mekan1k]

Question- Could you, JDP, make a version of the remotech parts that is... Not remote-tech? So that the animations deploy properly. I play with mechjeb, but all your remotetech parts are... Brilliant in design and concept.

Is there a fix that I could use to make them not require the plugin? or is there a version that makes the remotetech parts like normal probe parts?

[heikkik]

@Mekan1k You could just remove the remotetech parameters from the part.cfg of each part.

[Mekan1k]

@Mekan1k You could just remove the remotetech parameters from the part.cfg of each part.

I tried. Each has a separate segment of the code being, well, that, and I do not know if the animations need the plugin to work.

[JDP]

Question- Could you, JDP, make a version of the remotech parts that is... Not remote-tech? So that the animations deploy properly. I play with mechjeb, but all your remotetech parts are... Brilliant in design and concept.

Is there a fix that I could use to make them not require the plugin? or is there a version that makes the remotetech parts like normal probe parts?

For most of the animations you can substitute the RemoteTech partModule with the standard animation partModule. In some cases you will get a bit of trouble though. My animation modules allow for multiple independent animations that don't interfere with each other. To my knowledge the stock animation module doesn't do that. This is only really relevant when it comes to parts with multiple animations though, which right now is only the AeroProbe body + wing and the MicroSat.

The easiest thing you could do would be to remove any and all moduleRemoteTechSPU in the configs and replace them with standard moduleCommand partModules. That way only the code relevant to animating antennae will be run.

EDIT: Actually, now that I think about it, the antennae depend on the relay network being present too, but this won't cause any unnecessary lag since the network is only updated by vessels that carry a moduleRemoteTechSPU. It will add a couple of kb extra ram usage though.

Whenever the next version of RemoteTech comes out (and I'm afraid that might be some time since I'm in the middle of some intensive thesis work) you'll definetely have to go with the second method, since tracking dishes will need some custom code to actually track their targets (which looks really awesome by the way )

Edited May 18, 2013 by JDP

[Castun]

I'm fairly sure I've hit a bug with RemoteTech, and not really sure if this is something noted elsewhere.

I was deorbiting an old satellite, and once it began to reenter the atmosphere and burn up, the game began to lag worse and worse, until it was taking 10 seconds per frame. Seems to be related to losing contact as dishes are ripped off, as if I retract all dishes before reentry, I maintain a perfectly playable FPS (does not dip below 30FPS by my estimation.)

[JDP]

I'm fairly sure I've hit a bug with RemoteTech, and not really sure if this is something noted elsewhere.

I was deorbiting an old satellite, and once it began to reenter the atmosphere and burn up, the game began to lag worse and worse, until it was taking 10 seconds per frame. Seems to be related to losing contact as dishes are ripped off, as if I retract all dishes before reentry, I maintain a perfectly playable FPS (does not dip below 30FPS by my estimation.)

I believe this is due to a weird behavior when it comes to unloading the dishes once they've been ripped off. If you open the debug console you will probably be spammed by a whole lot of red nullReferenceException messages. The easy fix is to simply explode the parts before they're unloaded. I'll make sure that happens in the next version. This issue is not found in the new shrapnel method coming together with tracking dishes though. Sadly neither the stock antennae or the satDish 9000 has an internal hierarchy compatible with the shrapnel method and they'll have to remain with the legacy method of simply breaking the part off and exploding it.

[durk]

I'm not sure if I misunderstood anything, but I can't control my rockets even when I have crew in them, when I lose signal I can't do anything. Any idea why?

[elkar]

I'm not sure if I misunderstood anything, but I can't control my rockets even when I have crew in them, when I lose signal I can't do anything. Any idea why?

There is a button Local Control which needs to be activated when you have crew there.

[IllicitMedic]

Love this game (been playing 1 week, 1 day) and this mod (1 day), this is a must have for any "realistic" operations. Here is my current, brand new Kerbin network of Comsats. Deciding on if I need a 4th in 300k orbit and will also be launching one or two to the Mun before we land on it.

Thanks for a great feature!

[Frostiken]

So, can anyone tell me what the first number in the antenna range listing is?

[JDP]

So, can anyone tell me what the first number in the antenna range listing is?

the ranges are desplayed as <unpowered range> / <powered range>. Some antennae still have a small range even when unpowered.

[Camacha]

So, can anyone tell me what the first number in the antenna range listing is?

Isn't it the minimum range? Some antennae do not perform well in close range.

[Fyrem]

Isn't it the minimum range? Some antennae do not perform well in close range.

er, no. It is the unpowered range, as JDP (the author of the mod) said.

[Frostiken]

Cool.

Another question - in the next version, would it be possible to allow a third state for antennas and dishes? That state being 'receive only'? I modified all my antennas and dishes to include fairly steep power demands, as well as cloned and biggerfied a few of them to allow more antenna range tiers. While a steep power drain makes sense for a heavy broadcast satellite (you don't want to know what's required to power the bigass dish (which is now like 4x its original size), if I wanted to send a Voyager-style probe, it would be nice to be able to power up the dish to receive commands, but without intent to use it as a transmitter.

This could also fix some silly issues I have where debris with antennas stuck to it are functioning as relay satellites.

At any rate I do suggest a rebalance pass regarding size / weight / power drain for the next version - most of the antennas sip so little power that it almost feels like cheating. You could slap a pile of the Sat 9000s to a Kerbin polar station and never have to worry about comm range again, makes it a bit too easy.

In my version those giant dishes weigh 18T and have a power drain of 2.25 a second. A single one of these dishes requires significant effort and a massive power generating facility to work.

Edited May 21, 2013 by Frostiken

[nikkri]

i am so going to make an orbital satalit nework araund every planet an moon

[Subcidal]

Cool.

Another question - in the next version, would it be possible to allow a third state for antennas and dishes? That state being 'receive only'? I modified all my antennas and dishes to include fairly steep power demands, as well as cloned and biggerfied a few of them to allow more antenna range tiers. While a steep power drain makes sense for a heavy broadcast satellite (you don't want to know what's required to power the bigass dish (which is now like 4x its original size), if I wanted to send a Voyager-style probe, it would be nice to be able to power up the dish to receive commands, but without intent to use it as a transmitter.

This could also fix some silly issues I have where debris with antennas stuck to it are functioning as relay satellites.

At any rate I do suggest a rebalance pass regarding size / weight / power drain for the next version - most of the antennas sip so little power that it almost feels like cheating. You could slap a pile of the Sat 9000s to a Kerbin polar station and never have to worry about comm range again, makes it a bit too easy.

In my version those giant dishes weigh 18T and have a power drain of 2.25 a second. A single one of these dishes requires significant effort and a massive power generating facility to work.

I second this. Transmit / Recieve buttons would be great, with each being tied to their own power usage.

[King Jareth]

Is there any advantage of the smaller 'fixed' dish over the small deployable one? The both have the same max range (50Mm I think) but the fixed dish is pretty heafty to fit to things.

So...could/should the fixed dish be set to 50 billion meters instead? At the minute theres a huge jump from the Mm range to Gm and something in the Bm(?) range bracket could maybe plug a hole.

[Moon Goddess]

Um 50 Billion meters is 50Gm

There isn't a gap between Mm and Gm it's meter, kilometer, megameter, gigameter, terameter

[King Jareth]

Fair enough but I still think the 2 should have different ranges.

Edited May 21, 2013 by King Jareth

[Castun]

I'd also love for dishes and antenna to be able to receive messages. Makes sense that even if the target dish is out of range but still facing the source, you could transmit with a stronger source and still be picked up on the receiving end.