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[1.8.1-1.12.x] Modular Launch Pads v2.7.0: Launch clamps evolved: Real-style launch bases and towers [04 July 2024]


AlphaMensae

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4 hours ago, kspbutitscursed said:

this is for 2.8? and SLS fro 2.9?

This is the last major addition for 2.8.  Then I'll (eventually) start work on v3.0, which will be a huge remake of most of the parts.

SLS might show up by the time Artemis 3 launches :D 

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First arm done, the simplest, not sure what it was for, but seems to hook to some kind of vent on the bottom of the interstage (1.875m cylinder shown as a stand-in for the Atlas I/II). Also not at the proper place on the tower. The arm folds downward as the "retraction". All three arms on this tower retract in different directions; of the other two main arms, one swings left and the other swings right.

Ov8HCSW.png

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1 hour ago, AlphaMensae said:

First arm done, the simplest, not sure what it was for, but seems to hook to some kind of vent on the bottom of the interstage (1.875m cylinder shown as a stand-in for the Atlas I/II). Also not at the proper place on the tower. The arm folds downward as the "retraction". All three arms on this tower retract in different directions; of the other two main arms, one swings left and the other swings right.

<snip>

Just a quick question, will the arms extend straight out 90° from the tower or will they be at 45°? (as they were irl as far as I can tell)

Thought I'd jump in on this while the tower's still in its early stages

AC-103_1big.jpg

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3 hours ago, KeaKaka said:

Just a quick question, will the arms extend straight out 90° from the tower or will they be at 45°? (as they were irl as far as I can tell)

Thought I'd jump in on this while the tower's still in its early stages

AC-103_1big.jpg

these are the wind damper also seen on 36A tower Pre-Atlas II era

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14 hours ago, KeaKaka said:

Just a quick question, will the arms extend straight out 90° from the tower or will they be at 45°? (as they were irl as far as I can tell)

Thought I'd jump in on this while the tower's still in its early stages

Not sure if they were angled that much, they don't look that angled from straight-on side views. Maybe a little angle depending on what I find.

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Ok, the arms are definitely angled, but I can't figure out how much without knowing where the tower is located  in relation to the launch mount. Haven't found a direct front or rear image showing them, it's all side views or angled views. Until then I'll make a judgement call pick an angle that's not too severe.

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2 hours ago, AlphaMensae said:

Ok, the arms are definitely angled, but I can't figure out how much without knowing where the tower is located  in relation to the launch mount. Haven't found a direct front or rear image showing them, it's all side views or angled views. Until then I'll make a judgement call pick an angle that's not too severe.

wait is there a new tower?

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5 minutes ago, Jebs Piloting Skills said:

wait is there a new tower?

I'm making the Atlas I/II (and I think the Atlas III as well) umbilical tower and the custom arms for it.  It's the companion to the earlier Atlas-Centaur SLV-3 tower.

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1 minute ago, AlphaMensae said:

I'm making the Atlas I/II (and I think the Atlas III as well) umbilical tower and the custom arms for it.  It's the companion to the earlier Atlas-Centaur SLV-3 tower.

i dont think i ever got that one, lemme go check my version

i think i had something like 1.5

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18 minutes ago, Jebs Piloting Skills said:

i dont think i ever got that one, lemme go check my version

i think i had something like 1.5

Both of these Atlas-Centaur towers are for the upcoming v2.8 of MLP, though everything that has been completed is available on the GitHub master branch.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've been busy, on and off, for the past 10 days making what has to be the most complex swing arm yet for Modular Launch Pads, what I'm calling the Atlas I/II Swing Arm 2. This was mostly due to making the piping more natural looking by using curved elbows to bend the pipes, rather than just clipping pipes together at right angles. I have a ready-made mesh for just that, a quarter-section of a 12-segment torus, which allows for 90°, 60° and 30° bends. As long as I keep track of how much I rotate things, I can align the pipes together perfectly.

This arm has a lot of complicated piping, most of which I didn't fully understand so I simplified things for the sake of my sanity :D That and just taking some guesses while trying to keep the overall layout true. I've also settled on a 24° angle for the wind damper arm (which is complete and already in Unity), and 10° for Arm 2.

Anyways, some very WIP screenshots from Wings3D, showing a partial arm in its placement position (ther missing parts will be just duplicates of the existing ones). The vertical height will most likely end up being different one I get the arm in game and see where it goes on the BDB Atlas II. The I-beams and pipes are already UV-mapped and textured, I just have to UV map the other structural bits, which won't be hard at all as they are just simple blocks. Wings3D can auto-UV the whole mess and I'll just dump the lot into an area of the texture.

6305ov2.png

KX0hbEz.png

n1y0mOU.png

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6 hours ago, NortherlyRose said:

I don't know if it's intentional, or a conflict, or something, but for some reason many of the parts won't show up in any game mode except sandbox, like the N1 Tower, a few of the Modular series and the old static Saturn/Shuttle Pads

In Science or Career mode, most of them will need to be unlocked first. There is a column of custom tree nodes on the left side of the stock tree, CTT and UnKerballed Start. I do not know what other tech tree mods that radically change the stock/CTT layout or alter the start node do with the MLP parts. I do know that RP-1 puts them all in the starting node.

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15 hours ago, AlphaMensae said:

In Science or Career mode, most of them will need to be unlocked first. There is a column of custom tree nodes on the left side of the stock tree, CTT and UnKerballed Start. I do not know what other tech tree mods that radically change the stock/CTT layout or alter the start node do with the MLP parts. I do know that RP-1 puts them all in the starting node.

It seems like LRTR (Less Real Than Realism) Doesn't have them and many parts are scattered in the tree, ig I would have to wait for LRTR to update or summin

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10 hours ago, NortherlyRose said:

It seems like LRTR (Less Real Than Realism) Doesn't have them and many parts are scattered in the tree, ig I would have to wait for LRTR to update or summin

Ok, yeah, LRTR uses the RP-1 tree, and the the RP-1 for RO puts all the MLP parts into the starting node. The LRTR version (could be using an older RP-1) may change that.

If LRTR doesn't remove the MLP custom nodes, then they may still be present, just buried somewhere in the LRTR tree. UnKerballedStart shifted the whole tree to the left by a large amount, and the MLP nodes were still there but largely covered up by a bunch of tree icons and lines. I had to shift the MLP node icon column way to the left to compensate..

Otherwise this is an LRTR issue.

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Final arm (Arm 1) for the Atlas I/II Tower  has been modeled in standard form in Wings3D. The umbilicals attached to the flared base section of the 4m Atlas V fairing that was also used with the Atlas I and II, so that's the standard form, but I'll also add an option for a straight type fairing or a tank. Just need to make the umbilical end connectors horizontal (they are already separate meshes) and at the same distance.

This was more complicated than Arm 2, as it has all kinds of curvy pipes and I couldn't really tells what was going on in the images I have, so I kinda gave up and made something that fit my model while sort of resembling the actual arm. :D 

dnyz8Ei.png

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