[1.12.x] ScienceAlert ReAlerted : Experiment availability, now with DMagic support

[linuxgurugamer]

Originally written by @xEvilReeperx, original thread here: https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/69538-104-sciencealert-189-experiment-availability-feedback-july-13/&maintained for a while by @DennyTX, thread here: https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/170748-131

 

and now adopted by me ( @linuxgurugamer)

 

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?

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

Dependencies

• Click Through Blocker
• ToolbarController

Availability

• Source: https://github.com/linuxgurugamer/ScienceAlert
• Download (beta): https://github.com/linuxgurugamer/ScienceAlert/releases
• Spacedock: https://spacedock.info/mod/1886/ScienceAlert ReAlerted
• License: GPLv3
• Now available in CKAN 

 

 

What it does:

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Spoiler

    

 

Experiments available! Click to launch experiment:

Spoiler

No experiments available:

Spoiler

There be Science to be done:

Spoiler

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
• SCANsat v6.1+ support! Optional SCANsat integration
• Both Blizzy and stock toolbar are supported by using the ToolbarController
• Button color indicates the following
  • White for a normal experiment that can be rerun
  • Yellow if the experiment needs to be reset before rerunning it
  • Red if the experiment cannot be reset
• Deploy All will deploy all available experiments
• Deploy All except EVA will do all experiments except sending a kerbal on EVA
• Collect All button will collect all science into any/all containers

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.

• To open the list of currently available experiments, left-click the ScienceAlert button
• To open the options menu, right-click the button. You can also change which button type (stock or Blizzy's) here, within the additional options submenu

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. 

Planned Enhancements

• Possibly add a “Reset All” button
• Redo the UI
• Add an “Info” button to show info about the current situation

 

 

Edited January 13, 2019 by linuxgurugamer

[JadeOfMaar]

I've been thinking about this for a few days now and I have just one (hopefully simple) question.

Can I simply replace [x] Science with this? I adore [x]'s features such as:

• It shows projected values of experiments.
• It lets you see all possible experiments and situations or subsets thereof.
• There's a clear indication that past experiments (once you've already used them) have no value left or have been used so that in the case that you have a zillion science parts on your craft you don't waste your effort launching those used experiments.
• (I would make this a feature request if it doesn't already exist, and after trying out Experiment Tracker) A deploy all button but one which is smart to only launch one instance of a given experiment if there's more than 1 of it (like Mystery Goo). Experiment Tracker is, unfortunately, dumb in that it will launch all of the goo, wasting them.

But the lag that [x] produces when its windows are open and it does its checking routine is unbearable.

[linuxgurugamer]

New beta, 1.9.2.2:

• Deleted about 1150 lines of unneeded code related to the Toolbar
• Added exclusion list for experiments and manufacturers

1 hour ago, JadeOfMaar said:

I've been thinking about this for a few days now and I have just one (hopefully simple) question.

Can I simply replace [x] Science with this? I adore [x]'s features such as:

• It shows projected values of experiments.
• It lets you see all possible experiments and situations or subsets thereof.
• There's a clear indication that past experiments (once you've already used them) have no value left or have been used so that in the case that you have a zillion science parts on your craft you don't waste your effort launching those used experiments.
• (I would make this a feature request if it doesn't already exist, and after trying out Experiment Tracker) A deploy all button but one which is smart to only launch one instance of a given experiment if there's more than 1 of it (like Mystery Goo). Experiment Tracker is, unfortunately, dumb in that it will launch all of the goo, wasting them.

But the lag that [x] produces when its windows are open and it does its checking routine is unbearable.

Yes, it shows the value of experments

There are various filters available, it would be best if you looked at the options.  Right-click on the button to open the options window

It currently does not show that the past history of experiments.

It is smart enough to only do one of multiple identical experiments.

There is no Deploy All button at this time.

There are a LOT of options, it's well worth your time in looking at them

[linuxgurugamer]

Also, I've also recently adopted ExperimentTracker, thread is here: https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/175070-14-experiment-tracker-retracked/

I wasn't aware of that problem about deploying all experiments, I'll fix that by tomorrow

Just fixed it

Edited June 10, 2018 by linuxgurugamer

[linuxgurugamer]

New release, 1.9.2.3

• Official release
• Fixed nullref when going from flight to spacecenter
• New icons for stock toolbar, thanks to forum user @Eleusis La Arwall
• Removed log spam for animation
• Replaced foreach with for int on lists
• Added a "Deploy All" button

Edited June 12, 2018 by linuxgurugamer

[storm6436]

Oh wow, how did I miss this?  And by LGG? Damn, between you, DMagic, Kell, and a handful of others... Are there any mods worth having that you're not a maintainer for? :p

[linuxgurugamer]

On 6/13/2018 at 3:27 PM, storm6436 said:

Oh wow, how did I miss this?  And by LGG? Damn, between you, DMagic, Kell, and a handful of others... Are there any mods worth having that you're not a maintainer for? :p

There are a few here and there :-)

 

[Gordon Dry]

@linuxgurugamer I will give this a test run as replacement for [x] Science!, too.

What I miss is a included warning about experiments which have limited usage already inside this mod (I mean all science management mods, lol).

Why?

Because I use Kerbalism and I set it up to hide the stock science transfer dialogue.
That means when it's clicked it's scheduled (for transmission) / stored (for later study).
And that means when it's a one-time experiment (or 2-time) and it was "accidently" clicked (for newbs or tired night owls) it's wasted.

So I request that limited experiments (so no infinite uses) have another font color on the available experiments buttons - preferrably to be chosen, defaulting to something that's different to the default whitish font color and has not a bad contrast to the button color.

[linuxgurugamer]

3 hours ago, Gordon Dry said:

@linuxgurugamer I will give this a test run as replacement for [x] Science!, too.

What I miss is a included warning about experiments which have limited usage already inside this mod (I mean all science management mods, lol).

Why?

Because I use Kerbalism and I set it up to hide the stock science transfer dialogue.
That means when it's clicked it's scheduled (for transmission) / stored (for later study).
And that means when it's a one-time experiment (or 2-time) and it was "accidently" clicked (for newbs or tired night owls) it's wasted.

So I request that limited experiments (so no infinite uses) have another font color on the available experiments buttons - preferrably to be chosen, defaulting to something that's different to the default whitish font color and has not a bad contrast to the button color.

Not a bad idea, please open an issue on Github.  I'm in the middle of something else right now

[Gordon Dry]

19 minutes ago, linuxgurugamer said:

open an issue on Github

I can't, only pull request is available.

Or do I have to open the issue on the original dev's repo?
If yes, is it always like that with Github or is it just a setting to allow issues on forks?

Edit:

I just placed it here:
https://github.com/DennyTX/ScienceAlert/issues/5

Edited June 15, 2018 by Gordon Dry

[linuxgurugamer]

35 minutes ago, Gordon Dry said:

I can't, only pull request is available.

Or do I have to open the issue on the original dev's repo?
If yes, is it always like that with Github or is it just a setting to allow issues on forks?

Edit:

I just placed it here:
https://github.com/DennyTX/ScienceAlert/issues/5

I just fixed that, please close the one on Denny and open it on mine.

Thanks

[Gordon Dry]

Done

[linuxgurugamer]

New release, 1.9.3

• Added two colors to the buttons:
  • Yellow if the experiment needs to be reset before rerunning it
  • Red if the experiment cannot be reset

@Gordon Dry

I had some time, so implemented it, wasn't that difficult

[DougS2K]

Will this work with DMagic Orbial Science?

 

NM. I just went ahead and installed it to test it and it seems to be working.

Edited June 24, 2018 by DougS2K

[Nnimrod]

Is this intended to be compatible with 1.4.3.2152? The version file says 1.4.x.

I know it's not a proper bug report, but I've been trying to track down a bug that's causing a crash message to pop up when you launch anything for hours, and I've finally narrowed it down to this mod. This is with a pretty heavy load order, so... Well I understand that things are less likely to work when using 30+ mods.

[canisin]

Hello lgg, I have a feature request if you would be so kind as to accept it.

I play with a patch that adds science containers to all pods (well, actually they already have one, it just adds the capability to collect all data from the vessel, like a regular data box, it helps a lot with collecting biome specific and repeatable experiments without doing a little EVA dance every time).

Would it be possible to add a collect all button to the Science Alert interface?

Only problem is I am not sure how the destination container will be selected in the case where there are multiple containers on the vessel, which is not very unlikely. Maybe the one closest to the root?

It could be a menu of all available containers, but that wouldn't be very elegant. A 'set as default' can be added to part action menus, but that would probably too much work for too little gain. 

If you do like the idea, I would love to contribute code.

[chateaudav]

When i activate the SCANsat support (amazing thing !), it hides all the notifications, including the non biome specifics ones :-(

Am i doing somthing wrong or is it a known bug ?

Thanks !

[linuxgurugamer]

13 hours ago, Nnimrod said:

Is this intended to be compatible with 1.4.3.2152? The version file says 1.4.x.

I know it's not a proper bug report, but I've been trying to track down a bug that's causing a crash message to pop up when you launch anything for hours, and I've finally narrowed it down to this mod. This is with a pretty heavy load order, so... Well I understand that things are less likely to work when using 30+ mods.

Yes, it is compiled against 1.4.3, but works in all of 1.4

7 hours ago, canisin said:

Would it be possible to add a collect all button to the Science Alert interface

It's already there, called "Deploy All" and "Deploy All except EVA"

5 hours ago, chateaudav said:

When i activate the SCANsat support (amazing thing !), it hides all the notifications, including the non biome specifics ones :-(

Am i doing somthing wrong or is it a known bug ?

Thanks !

No idea, I haven't tested it against SCANsat yet.

Can you provide a log file, please

[chateaudav]

In fact, it works well after a restart. =)

[canisin]

On 6/30/2018 at 6:12 PM, linuxgurugamer said:

It's already there, called "Deploy All" and "Deploy All except EVA"

Hello lgg, I think you have misunderstood me. That is not what I meant. I meant a "Collect All" button that corresponds to the action with the same name that is on a science container part.

[linuxgurugamer]

3 hours ago, canisin said:

Hello lgg, I think you have misunderstood me. That is not what I meant. I meant a "Collect All" button that corresponds to the action with the same name that is on a science container part.

So, this would collect all science into a single location?

You just said it's on a science container part.  What would be different about this, other than the questions which you raised earlier:

On 6/30/2018 at 3:56 AM, canisin said:

Would it be possible to add a collect all button to the Science Alert interface?

Only problem is I am not sure how the destination container will be selected in the case where there are multiple containers on the vessel, which is not very unlikely. Maybe the one closest to the root?

And I can see there being many containers on board some vessels.

The easiest way would be to present a windows with a list of all the available containers.  But, this is a relatively low priority.  It doesn't really add anything, other than a small amount of convenience. 

I've added this as an enhancement request to the mod on Github, you can see it here:

https://github.com/linuxgurugamer/ScienceAlert/issues/6

[canisin]

4 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

So, this would collect all science into a single location?

You just said it's on a science container part.  What would be different about this, other than the questions which you raised earlier:

And I can see there being many containers on board some vessels.

The easiest way would be to present a windows with a list of all the available containers.  But, this is a relatively low priority.  It doesn't really add anything, other than a small amount of convenience. 

I've added this as an enhancement request to the mod on Github, you can see it here:

https://github.com/linuxgurugamer/ScienceAlert/issues/6

Well, the convenience of it is similar to the convenience provided by the experiment buttons, it would be easier to use the Science Alert window than to use the right click menu of the container.

I agree that it would be low priority, but I will look at the code via github and see if I can propose some implementation of some kind. The big issue is selecting the container, but then again that also is similar to the experiments. I wonder what Science Alert currently does when there are, say, multiple thermometers on the same vessel.

[linuxgurugamer]

15 minutes ago, canisin said:

I agree that it would be low priority, but I will look at the code via github and see if I can propose some implementation of some kind. The big issue is selecting the container, but then again that also is similar to the experiments. I wonder what Science Alert currently does when there are, say, multiple thermometers on the same vessel

If there are multiple identical experiments, it uses the first one found.

The implementation will be similar to that of finding and selecting the experiments, just would need to apply to containers.  See the issue I created for details

 

[bolek]

I'm probably missing something obvious but in my game while working good,  mod doesn't display the animation: the flask icon>a new experiment appears>I hear the sound and the icon goes blank; when there are no experiments available, the icon goes from blank to a normal flask. Is there any known reason for it to happen?

[jefftimlin]

I'm getting a crash when using this with Galileo's Planet Pack, when launching into flight mode from the VAB. I've narrowed it down to a conflict between GPP and ScienceAlert, with the crash happening in a clean install with just these two mods (and their dependencies) installed. Both mods are working fine independently if I remove one or the other.

Steps to reproduce:

• Go into the VAB
• Create a rocket (e.g. basic capsule and srb)
• Click launch
• Dialog box appears saying KSP has crashed, and generated a dump file

Versions:

• KSP v1.4.3.2152
• GPP v1.6.3
• ScienceAlert ReAlerted v1.9.3, with dependencies:
  • Click Through Blocker v0.1.6.5
  • Toolbar Controller v0.1.6.10

I've been attempting to debug it in VS without much success. The crash is an access violation reading a null pointer, but I haven't been able to narrow down what's causing it.

I would attach the logs, but the website appears to just time out if I try to submit the reply with the logs included. I've looked through them though, and there doesn't seem to be anything useful.

Edit: I've figured out the bug, it's a problem with the way the biome filter code works. I'm working on a fix.
 

Edited July 8, 2018 by jefftimlin