[WIP] Infernal Robotics - Next

[ZodiusInfuser]

PMed you some comments

Sun tracking is not a new feature request. IIRC it's been suggested for all the time that IR has existing, going back to Sirkut's days. I believe the decision at those times was that it should not be a part of IR and instead should either be a separate module or kOS script that controls servos using the API calls. So if you do want to do it then I would suggest separate module, maybe even on a dedicated "sun tracker" part. We can discuss the specifics privately though.

[kcs123]

Maybe to use more general option, "track target" instead of just Sun ? Each movable part could have one of two options enabled. Track target Yaw and Track target Pitch. In such case, target can be anything, other ship or planet. Can be useful for landing legs to track exact center of celestial body you want to land, for example. BD Armory fans might find it useful as well. My 2 cents on topic, since you already mention it here. Not super urgent request for such feature.

[nmc]

@ZodiusInfuser I like the hex hub! And for multiple attachments like that I use ReCoupler

[ZodiusInfuser]

1 hour ago, nmc said:

@ZodiusInfuser I like the hex hub! And for multiple attachments like that I use ReCoupler

Oh cool! I didn't know that mod existed.

5 hours ago, kcs123 said:

Maybe to use more general option, "track target" instead of just Sun ? Each movable part could have one of two options enabled. Track target Yaw and Track target Pitch. In such case, target can be anything, other ship or planet. Can be useful for landing legs to track exact center of celestial body you want to land, for example. BD Armory fans might find it useful as well. My 2 cents on topic, since you already mention it here. Not super urgent request for such feature.

Other ship tracking would be particularly useful for having comms dishes aim at the other satellites in a network (even though the game doesn't require it).

[Horus]

Hi fellas.

I've checked the recent version 3.0.2. Cannot believe I'm enjoying this awesome mod again.

I don't really get the idea behind the part - Utilitron - Docker. Can you please explain its' purpose? Also, this part does not have size variants - can they be added later?

[ZodiusInfuser]

8 minutes ago, Horus said:

I don't really get the idea behind the part - Utilitron - Docker. Can you please explain its' purpose? Also, this part does not have size variants - can they be added later?

Literally because putting a Clamp-O-Tron Jr on IR parts looked ugly and I didn't like that :P. No other reason. It's functionally identical to the Jr and in fact uses the same model for the docking port part.

As for size variants, its missing them because I believe that would prevent it from docking with other Clamp-O-Tron Jr's but if that's not the case i'll happily add the large variants.

[Rudolf Meier]

15 hours ago, ZodiusInfuser said:

As for size variants, its missing them because I believe that would prevent it from docking with other Clamp-O-Tron Jr's but if that's not the case i'll happily add the large variants.

Yes, sizing docking ports (Clamp-O-Tron) doesn't work. That's why we cannot do that. But we are working on something else anyway for "the docking question" ...

[Horus]

Btw. is the IR Sequencer abandoned?

[ZodiusInfuser]

1 hour ago, Horus said:

Btw. is the IR Sequencer abandoned?

Not explicitly but the current maintainer @Valren_Starlord has not been heard from in a while and Rudolf is not in a position to take it over. Also, with the DLC release and the KAL sequencer being somewhat competent for most player's uses the IR Sequencer will need a bit of a re-think going forward.

[Horus]

20 hours ago, ZodiusInfuser said:

Not explicitly but the current maintainer @Valren_Starlord has not been heard from in a while and Rudolf is not in a position to take it over. Also, with the DLC release and the KAL sequencer being somewhat competent for most player's uses the IR Sequencer will need a bit of a re-think going forward.

The stock robotics is kind of... lite edition of IR. IR is still the best and more robust.

[ZodiusInfuser]

1 minute ago, Horus said:

The stock robotics is kind of... lite edition of IR. IR is still the best and more robust.

Oh the parts themselves are for sure. It's just the KAL is good for creating animations, which seems to be enough for most players. This is why the latest IR Next pre-release supports it, so you get the best of both worlds until such time as the IR Sequencer is revisited. I personally envisaged the IR Sequencer being more like a visual version of kOS akin to the drag-and-drop programming language Scratch, but achieving that is an awful lot of work.

[Horus]

2 hours ago, ZodiusInfuser said:

Oh the parts themselves are for sure. It's just the KAL is good for creating animations, which seems to be enough for most players. This is why the latest IR Next pre-release supports it, so you get the best of both worlds until such time as the IR Sequencer is revisited. I personally envisaged the IR Sequencer being more like a visual version of kOS akin to the drag-and-drop programming language Scratch, but achieving that is an awful lot of work.

It's true that KAL Track Editor is good in some points. But I personally don't like some of them though.

For instance, I don't like that all Track Editor items share the same playback length. It's not really convenient in some cases.

 

[Rudolf Meier]

And all this KAL-stuff is not "robotics", it is just "animation" in my eyes.

[ZodiusInfuser]

Following up on the structural hub stuff from the other week, I think I have created a complete collection of Hex Hubs.

I have a question though. Do you want to be able to surface attach these parts to others or have them purely be node attach? The reason I ask is because I plan to use the stock variant system for them and it has a bug (or missing feature) where when changing variants it won't change the surface attachment point. This means I have have to separate some of the parts out based on the surface attach height (all those in the bottom right), in addition to separating by the number of nodes. I imagine using the B9MeshSwitch would avoid this issue but after discussion with Rudolf it was agreed that IR should have no hard dependencies on other mods.

Also, usual question of too many / not enough? I started imagining bridges and other A-frame structures being made with them so the variant count snowballed a bit  

[mrstoned]

Perhaps a compromise, a surface attached adaptor with a single stacknode?

Similar to the Radial Surface Attachment from stock?

Edited July 3, 2019 by mrstoned

[Beetlecat]

On 6/30/2019 at 11:21 AM, Rudolf Meier said:

And all this KAL-stuff is not "robotics", it is just "animation" in my eyes.

The KAL / sequencer is just part of it. All robotic parts can also be actuator keys or axis, and move to set limits, etc. BG robotics added a whole lot of functionality right out of the gate.

[Rudolf Meier]

1 hour ago, Beetlecat said:

... BG robotics added a whole lot of functionality right out of the gate.

... that has been in IR already for a long time

[Beetlecat]

15 minutes ago, Rudolf Meier said:

... that has been in IR already for a long time

Well, sure -- I was understanding you to imply that the KAL Controllers were the extent of the new BG robotics controls. Probably not what you meant.  

I do wonder if the KAL bits / editors themselves could be embellished to provide more control like IR Sequencer has/had. I totally agree that it's currently somewhat limited in scope.

[Masoneus]

Where can I find the latest DL please?

[ZodiusInfuser]

21 hours ago, Masoneus said:

Where can I find the latest DL please?

https://github.com/meirumeiru/InfernalRobotics/releases/tag/v3.0.2

[ZodiusInfuser]

On an unrelated point, had inspiration for a large magnet attachment today.

It's been on my to-do list for a while now but couldn't get a design I was happy with until now. This has a 1.25m diameter so intended for more industrial uses than the existing Utilitron - Grabber. Now to a serious matter, what name should I give it? Ideally it should end with er/ar/or like the rest of the Utilitron parts. Attractor maybe?

[WhyAmILikeThis]

So I have a problem that I think arises somewhere between the chair and the keyboard, but I've looked extensively and cannot find an answer so I thought I'd ask.

I recently installed IR Next on an existing game I've been playing in 1.3.1 (went all the way back to make sure I had the right IR build). I built sort of a standard robot arm to test it out to make sure I had the mechanics of all the parts right, and it worked beautifully in the VAB. But when I launch the craft, all the actuators behave as if they're pushing against an immovable force, binding up, clipping through each other when I attempt to move them, joints and connections coming apart, eventually leading to explosions and mayhem. It's comical to watch, as phantom forces always are, but not particularly useful. I checked to make sure autostruts weren't enabled, set limits to make sure the parts weren't clipped through each other for some reason, turned collisions off, but nothing seems to work. I'm sure it's probably something I'm doing wrong, but any advice would be deeply appreciated.

Edited July 7, 2019 by WhyAmILikeThis
Specifying game version

[kcs123]

4 hours ago, WhyAmILikeThis said:

I recently installed IR Next on an existing game I've been playing in 1.3.1 ....

What version of KJR you are using ? And for both, KJR next and IR next it is stated:
[ works with KSP 1.4 and later ]

With exception of latest IR pre-release that works with:  [ works with KSP 1.7.2 and later ]

[Rudolf Meier]

7 hours ago, WhyAmILikeThis said:

...

And beside the possible incompatibility with the KSP version it is also possible to see such behaviour if you didn't first remove the folders of KJR before installing the new one. We had situations in the past when users ended up with 2 KJR dlls installed. This then showed similar problems.

[Popuma]

i cant make anything that doesnt fall apart becouse physics in normal ksp parts physics act diffrently original infernal robotics didnt have this problem so is there anything that could be done?

if i stack any parts of this mod theystart to wobble unlike ksp parts

Edited July 7, 2019 by Popuma