[1.8.1-1.12.x] Modular Launch Pads v2.8.0: Launch clamps evolved: Real-style launch bases and towers [24 December 2024]

[AlphaMensae]

24 minutes ago, KnedlikMCPE said:

Well, the milkstool itself is okay, but i can't get clamps.

It uses the the separate hold-downs.  There is a Saturn IB-specific type, which is designed to go under the fins, but some others can work as well.  Also, the Saturn IB has to sit higher than expected (engine nozzles don't go below the deck too much or not at all) so the fins will clear the deck.

[AlphaMensae]

To all:

I found the cause of the animation reset when staging the retraction of the Saturn Tower Swing Arm - BDB type: In the animation module for Animated Decouplers, the layer was still 2, a remnant of the failed experiment I had done with different layer numbers for the manual and AD animations. Somehow this change remained in the .cfg I used for the v2 Saturn BDB arm.  Changing the layer back to 1 fixes it 

The fixed .cfg is now on the Github, but all that needs to be done is to open up the Saturn-Tower-Swing-Arm_BDB.cfg and go to the last module, which is for Animated Decouplers, and change "layer = 2" to "layer = 1":

MODULE
{
    name = ModuleAnimatedDecoupler
    ejectionForce = 0
    staged = true
    explosiveNodeID = top
    animationName = SaturnBDBArmRetractCopy
    waitForAnimation = false 
    layer = 2
}

I'm still going to rebuild the arms, as I want to combine the two types into one part and make other model changes.

[AlphaMensae]

Latest addition to the v2 Soyuz Launch Base: the large fuel arm, though I think it's a service arm for the spacecraft inside the fairing, raised upward after the gantry arms are retracted. But I'm calling it the large fuel arm anyway, LOL.

The arm is off by default, and doesn't have switchable heights, but the umbilical at the top can be moved in and out, and up and down (telescoping support truss), with the two deploy limit sliders that follow the on/off switcher.

[TK-313]

On 7/12/2019 at 3:20 AM, AlphaMensae said:

Latest addition to the v2 Soyuz Launch Base: the large fuel arm, though I think it's a service arm for the spacecraft inside the fairing, raised upward after the gantry arms are retracted. But I'm calling it the large fuel arm anyway, LOL.

Wonderful!

P.S. In Russian it's called "cable and fuel mast" or, most times, just "cable mast" for short. And yeah, it's for the spacecraft and the upper stage (block E, the one below the fairing, if anyone's curious).

P.P.S. Will there be the smaller arm, too? The one that hides in the gap in the taller one's base, reaching to just the top of the rocket's second stage - the "bulb" tank, like on this photo:

Edited July 13, 2019 by TK-313

[AlphaMensae]

1 hour ago, TK-313 said:

Wonderful!

P.S. In Russian it's called "cable and fuel mast" or, most times, just "cable mast" for short. And yeah, it's for the spacecraft and the upper stage (block E, the one below the fairing, if anyone's curious).

P.P.S. Will there be the smaller arm, too? The one that hides in the gap in the taller one's base, reaching to just the top of the rocket's second stage - the "bulb" tank, like on this photo:

 

 

Thanks for the additional detail!  I think I will still call it the "large fuel arm", so it's clear what it is, and to complement and separate it from the small fuel arm, which will be present as well.  I'm working on the small one now, and am reusing the angled truss mesh I had made for it (after doing a lot of fixup first), but with added straight sections at the base for additional height options.

[AlphaMensae]

Ok, I sort of already forgot the exact reasons I didn't make the clamp arm top "pads" (as I refer to them) have the yellow outside with the holes, and the railings green (or gray-drab)...maybe I got confused with the gantry platforms, or didn't want to go that detailed.  However, since they do look like that in all the images I've looked at, I went ahead and revised the appearance.  Also corrected the auto-scaling when the arms are moved inward; had to scale the Y axis as well. 

So, a little demo of the arm positions deploy adjustment (goes from 3.75m tank to 1.25m):

 

[AlphaMensae]

The v2 Soyuz Launch Base (the integrated version) is now on the Github!

 

The integrated large and small fuel arms have a limited range of umbilical adjustment via the deploy limit sliders, and there are only 3 height options for the small arm (again over a limited range).

I should be able to add an additional height option or two (maybe three) to the gantry arms.

The separate versions of those arms (to be done next) will have more adjustment range.

[rogerwang86]

Soyuz's launch pad can't attach to current tantares' soyuz part. Would you fix that?(by the way, those new parts you work on so cool)

[AlphaMensae]

15 minutes ago, rogerwang86 said:

Soyuz's launch pad can't attach to current tantares' soyuz part. Would you fix that?(by the way, those new parts you work on so cool)

Yeah, I discovered that the part names changed in the latest TantaresLV....I've been using an older version as it was already made.

I'll have new patches once I figure out which part to add the nodes to .

[AlphaMensae]

Added the separate version of the Soyuz Base small fuel arm to the Github, plus made some tweaks to integrated arm to match the separate one, as well as .cfg tweaks to the base itself.  The aux (auxiliary) nodes are now off by default.

This attaches to one of the aux nodes , and has three more height options, and the umbilical is now full-length for all heights, and can be adjusted horizontally via deploy limit slider.

[rogerwang86]

18 hours ago, AlphaMensae said:

Yeah, I discovered that the part names changed in the latest TantaresLV....I've been using an older version as it was already made.

I'll have new patches once I figure out which part to add the nodes to .

I wrote the code for new part(I chose [tantares_lv_fuel_tank_s1_4] to add a new node)That is not difficult thing. But every time I launch soyuz in game, one booster always detach from main rocket  somehow when rocket separate from launch pad.(I launch rocket from Woomerang Launch Site.)

[AlphaMensae]

Separate single arm version of the new Soyuz Launch Base clamp arm is now on the github. This version of the clamp arm surface attaches like all the other hold-downs, so it can be used with all launch bases, plates and stands.

 

[AlphaMensae]

I also just uploaded a revised small fuel arm, I had forgot to move the colliders for the mount: they were still in the original position, which was nowhere near the centered position of the separate arm.  

@rogerwang86 Sounds like a decoupler in the wrong stage.

[AlphaMensae]

Also, I might have uploaded a Soyuz Launch Base .mu with the large fuel arm in the retracted position...I just noticed it was like that in Unity.  I put it back in the raised position, and put the corrected .mu on the github.

[Gordon Dry]

@AlphaMensaethere is a fact I don't understand.

afaik the main mod folder ModularLaunchPads has to be installed when using the AlphaDev folder.
Now I did a search inside all *.cfg files in AlphaDev for the following:

• ModularLaunchPads/
• /ModularLaunchPads
• ../

There are no references to ModularLaunchPads inside the configs of AlphaDev.
So my logic tells me that is a "myth" and that I could use AlphaDev without ModularLaunchPads.

Please enlighten me.

Edited July 19, 2019 by Gordon Dry

[AlphaMensae]

1 hour ago, Gordon Dry said:

@AlphaMensaethere is a fact I don't understand.

afaik the main mod folder ModularLaunchPads has to be installed when using the AlphaDev folder.
Now I did a search inside all *.cfg files in AlphaDev for the following:

• ModularLaunchPads/
• /ModularLaunchPads
• ../

There are no references to ModularLaunchPads inside the configs of AlphaDev.
So my logic tells me that is a "myth" and that I could use AlphaDev without ModularLaunchPads.

Please enlighten me.

During the earlier phases of the v2 development, the regular ModularLaunchPads folder was still needed, as it had the parts I hadn't yet remade. The patches for other mod parts and the custom tech tree and category .cfgs were also in there; AlphaDev only added onto the MLP tree .cfg

Now, all the old parts have been remade and are in AlphaDev, so the parts folders can now be deleted if they are no longer needed. The Tree and Patches folders are however still needed by AlphaDev .

[xD-FireStriker]

So i have been working on a Saturn V Apollo 11 to launch later today , im using LC39A and i plan to use modular launch pads and make it a cool event.
Im wonder which is the most recent Saturn V pad save and how do you setup the pad, im also currently having an issue with the height of my Saturn V being a weird height and not lining up.

Its late so im going to bed now but i though i would post anyways to figure out how i could configure the pad to work tomorrow for the main event
Thanks 

[AlphaMensae]

@xD-FireStriker First align the crew arm's white room with the pod's hatch with the offset gizmo, then move the floor of the tower's crew access setion using the deploy limit slider to make it even (or close enough) with the walkway of the crew arm. If necessary, the crew access section has a 2x height option to get more vertical space to move the floor. Then move one of the elevator pads (has to be switched on first to one of the height options) with its deploy limit slider to get the pad even with the crew access floor.

Edited July 20, 2019 by AlphaMensae

[joecd82]

Hi,

Im having an issue with the general launch pad tech node not showing up, ive tried installing alpha dev by its self and with MLP but the only new nodes are soyuz, shuttle and saturn, 

Thanks

*Issue fixed but i have no idea how*

Edited July 20, 2019 by joecd82
Problem solved itself

[AlphaMensae]

Separate version of the Soyuz Large Fuel arm is now on the github.  This version now has 6 height options.

I also added a second, lower umbilical to the large arm, for both the integrated base and separate versions. The large arm services both the spacecraft and third stage below it, and in pics two umbilicals are visible, so I did a quick addition to my arm. The lower umbilical moves with the upper one, and is positioned with a Soyuz-sized fairing (i.e. not too wideer than the third stage) in mind. In any case, there are no colliders on the umbilical tubes, so they can be clipped in quite a ways if desired.

[xD-FireStriker]

Is there a guide for putting together the Saturn V Pad? I have the crew arm set but don't know want clamps go where on the base.

 

Thanks 

Edited July 21, 2019 by xD-FireStriker

[AlphaMensae]

5 hours ago, xD-FireStriker said:

Is there a guide for putting together the Saturn V Pad? I have the crew arm set but don't know want clamps go where on the base.

 

Thanks 

You can use any of the new General hold-downs (they're just for appearance, as they do not attach to the rocket), but there are specific ones for the Saturn V and Saturn IB. All of the new hold-downs surface attach to the deck around the exhaust hole typically in 4x symmetry with angle-snap on.

Also note, the Saturn launcher base's origin (the X = 0, Z =0 point) is in the center of the exhaust hole, which is NOT centered in the base itself. The base will have to be moved using the offset gizmo so the front legs are touching the outer edge of the big white circle on the VAB floor:

This makes the back legs just inside the edge of the stock pad static; you don't want the back legs off the top of the static, or Bad Things will happen   Or use the LC 39 pads in the KSC Extended Kerbal Konstructs pack, which is a properly scaled size of the actual LC 39 pads, which means they are far larger than the stock Tier 3 pad.

Don't move the front legs too much past the front edge of the circle, or the some of the engine's plumes won't go down the grating in the pad static.

 

I have to make a new guide.   But for a quick reference, here are some screenshots:

(Note: This is going to change soon, as I'm going to combine the three tower section parts into one part, but it will still have the same functions.)

1> You turn the elevators on in the tower base, which also can be the default large angled type or a shorter square version. The elevators are off by default, as having one visible made the part window icon for the tower base very tiny compared to the other tower parts. There are different heights because as the max height gets higher, there is less precision in adjusting the elevator pad using the deploy limit slider, so if you don't need 80m of travel distance, you can set it at a lower height:

 

2> The regular tower section has multiple height options:

 

3> The crew access section has two height options and an adjustable floor to match the height of the crew arm.  The  2x height option removes the beams and cross braces from the front and back, allowing more room for crew arm and elevator alignment if needed. The walkway can also be turned off for "front" access to something like the Milkstool:

 

4> Adjust the crew arm, crew access floor and elevator pad to match up (or as close as possible, as it may not be a perfect alignment):

 

5> Lastly, put the tower top section on. This closes off the tower with a "roof", and has the mount for the hammerhead crane:

Edited July 21, 2019 by AlphaMensae

[AlphaMensae]

 

Just put a revised Soyuz Launch Base on the Github.  The gantry arms now have three height options, with the 3rd height matching well with the 1.875m TantaresLV TLV (Soyuz).

[xD-FireStriker]

Thanks, i was using LC39A once i process the video i will have some cool pics of the launch pad it action, now i just have to save my kerabls from the mun lol.
I didnt actual put down any of the hold down arms, my experiences with the shuttle pad is that if you can get away without stuff nere the bottom of the rocket, do it cause it will flip your rocket to kingdom come if its not done right

It was a tall bugger too, either 7 or 8x, got the lift working

[AlphaMensae]

The separate version of the Soyuz Launch Base Gantry is now on the github. It has two extra height options, these are in 4m increments rather than the 2m ones with the 3 shorter heights.  It's also attaches to an extra node in the center of the base which is turned on when the Auxiliary Nodes of the base are turned on.

And that completes the Soyuz Launch Base for v2.0.

The final steps for AlphaDev will be the combining of the three separate Saturn Tower and Shuttle FSS parts into one multi tower/FSS part; nothing fancy, just lumping 3 separate .mu fiiles into one, each kind of tower part (regular sections, crew sections and the top section) will be a separate switcher option. So it won't actually reduce part count for the towers, but will reduce the number of parts in the part window by 4.

I'm also going to make a launch clamp version of the Saturn and Shuttle launcher bases the default ones. KSP can be still sometimes be twitchy when you move a vehicle into physics range of the free-standing bases, causing a massive explosion, and I just want to end that for good.  The older free-standing ones will still be available as a separate extra in the regular ModularLaunchPads download.

Also, as mentioned earlier, all v2 dev parts without the "AM_MLP_" prefix will have it added to their internal names. These will not be new parts, as the .cfg  files' names will not change. This mostly affects the Saturn and Shuttle parts. You have been warned.  

This will be the final AlphaDev. Once those steps are done, v2 dev parts will be frozen, and the official v2.0 release will be prepared.