[1.3.1] ScienceAlert 1.9.1: Experiment availability feedback (10.feb.18)

[DennyTX]

New, it's well forgotten old. I have not played a career in KSP  much over a year, and having recently undertaken, I faced that a very useful mod by  xEvilReeperx are outdated and has not been updated for a long time. I wrote to the author and he gave me permission to adapt it to the new version, and here it are.  Sure, i need feedback  about how it work from community.

When is is it time for science?  

Who knows! The game provides no feedback when you've crossed a biome barrier, a new crew report is available or when you've forgotten to run a goo experiment. Wouldn't it be cool to stop guessing?

(c) xEvilReeperx

What it does:

      

Features:

• Audio and visual cue when science is available
• Configurable science filters for experiments
• Configurable option to stop warp when an experiment becomes available
• science threshold to ignore low value reports
• Optional SCANsat integration

Dependences:  Toolbar  (do not forget to do button visible )

---

Installation & Usage

Download the plugin and extract in your KSP directory like any mod.

Actual use in-game is simple. When the button is lit, at least one experiment onboard matches your criteria. If the flask is animating, then a new experiment just became available (animation will stop when you have viewed the new experiment list). There are lots of per-experiment settings to choose from.

• left-click - to open the list of currently available experiments,
• right-click - opens the options menu,
   

SCANsat support

• Enable SCANsat integration in the additional options menu
• With this option enabled, you will only receive biome-associated alerts if you have mapped that portion of the planet's surface
• Non-biome specific alerts will still occur as normal

Known Bugs:

• if you transmit science report(s) using a transmitter's action menu, the reports queued for it won't be taken into account until transmission is complete
• [not a bug] Available experiments and report values may suddenly change when going on EVA. This is because your Kerbal may be in a different "situation" -- for example, sitting on the pad might trigger an EVA alert for LaunchPad but you go on EVA and the alert stops. This is because the game considers the Kerbal to be "flying" while holding onto a ladder while in the air. 

source github

       

DOWNLOAD SPACEDOCK   

DOWNLOAD CURSEFORGE   

Edited February 11, 2018 by DennyTX

[Tex_NL]

I've ALWAYS preferred ScienceAlert over [x] Science. Very happy to see it brought up to date.

Downloading now. Will install tomorrow.

Edit: Well. I WANTED to download .... but the provided link points to https://spacedock.info/mod/1015 Which is EngineIgnitor. It should point to https://spacedock.info/mod/1690

Edited February 10, 2018 by Tex_NL

[DennyTX]

21 minutes ago, Tex_NL said:

****... but the provided link points to https://spacedock.info/mod/1015 Which is EngineIgnitor. It should point to https://spacedock.info/mod/1690

after years i still do not understand how the forum engine works.. i have changed all links while writing, adding some tables, but tables has dissapeared, and  links didnot been saved after changing. the only way i have found -  remove old link from pic, save, enter to edit mode again and insert new one link.

PS: seems like link  has been fixed.

Edited February 10, 2018 by DennyTX

[Tex_NL]

I found a few things you might want to look into:

1. Good to see you have Toolbar support. It's purely because I recognized the ScieneAlert sound that I knew it was correctly installed. Before I added ScienceAlert to my toolbar it was NOT visible. And I can not seem to find any setting NOT to use toolbar if I wanted to.
2. Right clicking the flask gives me the options menu. If I want to I can move this window to a more convenient location on my screen. Left clicking the flask gives me the science window. This window can NOT be moved.
3. This is more a cosmetic wish rather than a flaw. While the option to make the grey KSP skin partially transparent helps a lot. An option to use the black unity skin would be even nicer.

Edited February 11, 2018 by Tex_NL

[linuxgurugamer]

@DennyTX Take a look at ToolbarController, will provide a bit more flexibility for you and players:

 

@DennyTX

You need to update the Spacedock entry about the requirement for Toolbar to be installed as well

[DennyTX]

45 minutes ago, Tex_NL said:

2. Right clicking the flask gives me the options menu. If I want to I can move this window to a more convenient location on my screen. Left clicking the flask gives me the science window. This window can NOT be moved.

fixed

 

[Starslinger999]

THE GODS HAVE ANSWERED OUR PRAYERS, AND THIS MOD HAS FINALLY BEEN REVIVED!!!!!!!  

[UnanimousCoward]

First, thank you so much for reviving this. I had been using [x] science for this, but it caused lags whenever the "here and now" window was open. This mod has no lag at all.

Second, maybe it's just in my (heavily modded) game, but in career mode, the Science Alert window lets me take surface samples before upgrading the R&D centre. I've managed to restrain myself from taking advantage of this so far.

Thanks again.

[DennyTX]

1 hour ago, UnanimousCoward said:

I had been using [x] science for this, but it caused lags whenever the "here and now" window was open.

the same thingies here. because of this i have decided to restore ScienceAlert.
[x] science are great and wonderfull, but ... jedem das seine ;).

I count ScienceAlert's minimalism are usefull.

[Ptklopes]

thank you sooooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Theysen]

First of all, thanks for this awesome but small tool to come back!

 

Two small issues I found:

- the FlightScene lags for a good couple of seconds after starting the flight, then it reverts to normal performance. I still need to verify it's ScienceAlert but it was indeed the only mod I have isntalled for sole purpose of testing. I'll get to you back about this

- is it correct it doesn't restrict the career mode to building levels? I can immediately collect Surface Samples and EVA without having the according levels on the Spaceport upgrades.

 

Cheers!

[eberkain]

2 hours ago, Theysen said:

- the FlightScene lags for a good couple of seconds after starting the flight, then it reverts to normal performance. I still need to verify it's ScienceAlert but it was indeed the only mod I have isntalled for sole purpose of testing. I'll get to you back about this

It is definitely this mod.  When loading to the pad I get a good 5 seconds of 15ish FPS and then it jumps back to 60.   Also seems to do the same thing when changing SOI. 

Edited February 19, 2018 by eberkain

[DennyTX]

6 hours ago, eberkain said:

It is definitely this mod.  When loading to the pad I get a good 5 seconds of 15ish FPS and then it jumps back to 60.   Also seems to do the same thing when changing SOI. 

hmm... cant reproduce. may be because "the miracle of engineering thought" pc installed on the table, and i  see no any noticeable lag.  mod just creates lists of available biomes and experiments while onStart, calculates values.  Are there any lag while regular game, or only on load and SOI changes

8 hours ago, Theysen said:

- is it correct it doesn't restrict the career mode to building levels? I can immediately collect Surface Samples and EVA without having the according levels on the Spaceport upgrades.

yup,  according to my logic - this should be so.  but i thinking about restrictions.

[Theysen]

9 minutes ago, DennyTX said:

hmm... cant reproduce. may be because "the miracle of engineering thought" pc installed on the table, and i  see no any noticeable lag.  mod just creates lists of available biomes and experiments while onStart, calculates values.  Are there any lag while regular game, or only on load and SOI changes

yup,  according to my logic - this should be so.  but i thinking about restrictions.

Yes exactly what my thought is that something happens on load / SOI change. Does it regenerate a list everytime? It lasts ~15-20 seconds as reported by @eberkain and then works as expected.

 

I personally don't care about stock career and restrictions, just asking for people who might want to ask in the future.

[eberkain]

@DennyTX If its creating lists on startup it could simply be overload.   I have OPM which would add alot of biomes and several mods that add experiments.  DMagic Orbital Science, Cacteye Telescopes, SCANsat, Surface Experiment Package, Science Revisited, IFI Life Support, may be others

 

[UnanimousCoward]

I have the same issue as well. 15 seconds or so of slowdown when the flight scene loads. It doesn't seem to happen in sandbox mode, only in career mode.

Output log is HERE, if you want to look at it. First the log has a new sandbox game where the flight scene gets loaded, then I loaded my early career save. Warning: I've got a ton of mods, so it's a hefty file. I understand if you can't be bothered with it. TweakScale seems to chuck a few thousand NullRefs all by itself, but apparently they're harmless, and anyway I have the same issue when TweakScale isn't installed.

Honestly, it isn't a big issue for me. I can totally live with a few seconds of slowdown if I get to use ScienceAlert again.

[Basher515]

Would also confirm that it heavily lags the game during the flight stage on career mode for a few seconds. Hoping to get a fix for this..

[DannyX]

Hello, sorry to say but this mod also causes me lag and my game to become unplayable.  In career mode, when switching to the launchpad with this mod activated causes my FPS to drop from 40 fps to 10 fps and sometimes crashing.  Disabling the mod returns normal gameplay.  Enabling causes issues to resurface.  I have provided a link to crash info and mod list.  Hopefully this will help.  My computer specs are:

Intel i7 920 @ 2.67 ghz

Geforce GTX 970

12gb ddr3 ram 

Crash info here:  https://drive.google.com/open?id=1TSdiHPq49OYT8dlxhC-Fm5NLxdzf7rR4 

 

[Framnk]

Hi, like many other mods ScienceAlert was impacted by the 1.4 changes.  Have you happened to look what it would take to update it to be 1.4 compatible?  From what I've seen in testing the audible alerts still function however due to the toolbar changes the icons doesn't work nor does clicking on the icon to bring up the available science when it is detected.

[Tyko]

Thanks for updating this. Is there a way to use it without blizzy's toolbar? 

 

[aat]

I'm afraid this mod needs *another* take over from *another* modder.. the OP couldn't fix the lag issue nor update to 1.4.1. On GitHub someone already found and fixed the lag issue and submitted a pull request, but the OP is not replying

[leatherneck6017]

3 hours ago, aat said:

I'm afraid this mod needs *another* take over from *another* modder.. the OP couldn't fix the lag issue nor update to 1.4.1. On GitHub someone already found and fixed the lag issue and submitted a pull request, but the OP is not replying

Yes, it's too bad it keeps dying. I prefer this quite a bit over [x] Science. Thanks for pointing out the PR on GitHub. I had already done my own personal recompile to use this with 1.4.1, so I grabbed the new code and voila, lag is gone! Now if I could only figure out how to get the profiles to save their configs... 

[UnanimousCoward]

Praise be to jefftimlin over on Github for the fix. (Now, if somebody could just get this mod to respect the limitations imposed by non-upgraded facilities, it would be perfect.)

2 hours ago, leatherneck6017 said:

Now if I could only figure out how to get the profiles to save their configs... 

I had the same issue myself where saving the default profile didn't work. The only solution I found was to save my changes into a new profile and manually replace the default profile after exiting the game.

[leatherneck6017]

6 hours ago, UnanimousCoward said:

I had the same issue myself where saving the default profile didn't work. The only solution I found was to save my changes into a new profile and manually replace the default profile after exiting the game.

Interesting, so you created your own "profiles.cfg" file that you store somewhere outside the ScienceNow folder?

[UnanimousCoward]

15 minutes ago, leatherneck6017 said:

Interesting, so you created your own "profiles.cfg" file that you store somewhere outside the ScienceNow folder?

No, I couldn't get it to overwrite the default profile properly, so I saved the profile under a different name using the ScienceAlert GUI.

ScienceAlert saves all the profiles in profiles.cfg. I quit out of the game, then manually replaced the contents of the "default" profile part of profiles.cfg with the content of the profile that I saved.

Laborious perhaps, and there may be a smarter way of doing it, but it works for me and saves me having to tell it to load a different profile every time I play.