[1.5] KOOSE mini reentry pod aka escape pod

[jpkerman]

40 minutes ago, Uthgood said:

just tried it for the first time....apparently my station is just a little bit too high for the solid boosters to get it into the atmosphere.....fortunately Jeb apparently ate beans before getting into the pod, so the rcs had enough to nudge him into the upper atmosphere....

 

Nice work, just enough to get the job done.  May I toss out for consideration that if the un-docking force was increased enough so the Koose would clear the station/ship by just the decoupling then the RCS can orient the pod and use the SRBs for a retro-burn  rather than expending them just to escape the distressed vessel.

  Also, while other mods can supply them,  it would be likely that the pod would have a flashing strobe light to signal their landing spot to rescue craft.

Edited June 17, 2018 by jpkerman

[TiktaalikDreaming]

6 minutes ago, jpkerman said:

Nice work, just enough to get the job done.  May I toss out for consideration that if the un-docking force was increased enough so the Koose would clear the station/ship by just the decoupling then the RCS can orient the pod and use the SRBs for a retro-burn  rather than expending them just to escape the distressed vessel.

  Also, while other mods can supply them,  it would be likely that the pod would have a flashing strobe light to signal their landing spot to rescue craft.

There is no undocking force. The noise is a docking port, not a decoupler node. Decouplers are staged, so, if it was one, triggering it would also trigger the SRBs.  To get a decoupler force, you'd need to use a decoupler then the kooses pod.

I will investigate having the kooses docking cradle provide a decoupling effect, but it's possible that will require all pods to eject at once.

And, I do want to put lights on this. I just haven't decided exactly where and what sort. So that's a future thing for now.

[DStaal]

2 hours ago, TiktaalikDreaming said:

I will investigate having the kooses docking cradle provide a decoupling effect, but it's possible that will require all pods to eject at once.

I know the REKT part has them all eject at once if you stage the decouplers, but you can release them one at a time via the right-click menu.

[TiktaalikDreaming]

No kerbals were hurt in the filming

And, I wouldn't normally link to the unGIFed version, but random song selection and random selection of exactly when in a song things happen sometimes work out... 

 

 

Edited June 17, 2018 by TiktaalikDreaming
gif the imgur

[Gordon Dry]

@TiktaalikDreaming don't let you provoke by the greater file size of an DDS file.

At the end it's more performant because of the mipmaps. Only the mipmap that is actually needed is loaded, so a distant object only got the smaller mipmaps loaded = less VRAM needed.

I'm not a pro, but this helps somehow:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mipmap

Edit:

but perhaps it's just okay for emissive and normal maps ... ?!

Edited June 17, 2018 by Gordon Dry

[TiktaalikDreaming]

7 minutes ago, Gordon Dry said:

@TiktaalikDreaming don't let you provoke by the greater file size of an DDS file.

At the end it's more performant because of the mipmaps. Only the mipmap that is actually needed is loaded, so a distant object only got the smaller mipmaps loaded = less VRAM needed.

I'm not a pro, but this helps somehow:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mipmap

Edit:

but perhaps it's just okay for emissive and normal maps ... ?!

Yeah, I'm keeping the DDS format for the primary texture map.  DDS speeds up loading and a bunch of things because it's basically already gone through a lot of the processing the same engine will do.  But 9k to 1360k was just a bit much. 

[Gordon Dry]

@TiktaalikDreaming btw you didn't properly release, it's called Source code (zip)

[TiktaalikDreaming]

49 minutes ago, Gordon Dry said:

@TiktaalikDreaming btw you didn't properly release, it's called Source code (zip)

It (github) does that.  The github releases are meant as dev things anyway.  Especially as it suffixes the version on what should be the mod folder name.  The actual release versions are on spacedock, https://spacedock.info/mod/1885/KOOSE

Which have a controlled folder structure and makes CKAN happy with it.

[Enceos]

@Gordon Dry @TiktaalikDreaming when quality of a mipmap is essential TGA is the best format, it may take to load a little more time than DDS, but in terms of texture detail it's unbeatable. Only uncompressed DDS is equal in quality, but KSP doesn't support uncompressed DDS for some reason.

[The Minmus Derp]

Can the Docking port be a separate part so it can be a decoupler? @TiktaalikDreaming

[TiktaalikDreaming]

6 hours ago, The Minmus Derp said:

Can the Docking port be a separate part so it can be a decoupler? @TiktaalikDreaming

I'm thinking of a surface attachable decoupler that the pod can attach to. But, I'm going to leave the pod side of the connection if a docking node. Docking nodes work connected to stack nodes, decouplers and docking nodes. Without staging, which keeps the part count down.

[The Minmus Derp]

Oh. I see.

[The Minmus Derp]

Stock Docking ports have a (small, but there) ejection force that keeps them from getting permanently stuck together.

[TiktaalikDreaming]

3 minutes ago, The Minmus Derp said:

Stock Docking ports have a (small, but there) ejection force that keeps them from getting permanently stuck together.

Yes, but it's not defined in the config. The docking port on the koose uses the same module, with the same settings as the junior port. So it's whatever election force is built into the stock docking node module.

[Gordon Dry]

@TiktaalikDreaming the nest and the pods should be CLS passable ...

This patch from zer0Kerbal is not really working, I guess it's because it uses

@PART[KooSEpod|KooSECradle]

which doesn't seem to be right.

See
https://github.com/TiktaalikDreaming/KOOSE/issues/2

 

Edited June 22, 2018 by Gordon Dry

[TiktaalikDreaming]

4 minutes ago, Gordon Dry said:

@TiktaalikDreaming the nest and the pods should be CLS passable ...

I haven't yet looked at various compatibility patches for other mods.  The pod will automatically be CLS passable, as it has a crew value.  The nest will just need a few lines of MM code.

But it *should* also have RealFuel patches and RSS/RO patches, and patches for all sorts of life support mods and so on.  While I do usually make those, they're not inherently part of the mod itself.  

[UNSCspartan]

I love this mod! It very small size makes it great for orbital station escape pods. I have a question about the parachute though, the animations for the pre-deployment and deployment of the parachute seem to be fixed, so rather than being oriented in the direction of the airflow, the parachute is in a fixed position, always facing the direction the capsule is facing until the animation is finished. Just wondering if a fix was coming for it 

[TiktaalikDreaming]

1 hour ago, UNSCspartan said:

I love this mod! It very small size makes it great for orbital station escape pods. I have a question about the parachute though, the animations for the pre-deployment and deployment of the parachute seem to be fixed, so rather than being oriented in the direction of the airflow, the parachute is in a fixed position, always facing the direction the capsule is facing until the animation is finished. Just wondering if a fix was coming for it 

That's unfortunately how the parachute module works. It's a lot less noticeable normally with his chutes tend to be arranged. But you'll notice similar behaviour if your non koose pod is facing the wrong way, the parachutes will deploy backwards until the animation has finished, then the module takes over and reoreints them.

I'm aware of the weirdness though.  I'm tempted to test some part reorientation. The parachute animation is straight up, as it has to be, but there's no reason the chute base can't be rotated a bit except if need to do maths for the stack node. The lazy bit of me suggests I should just speed up the deployment.

[UNSCspartan]

45 minutes ago, TiktaalikDreaming said:

That's unfortunately how the parachute module works. It's a lot less noticeable normally with his chutes tend to be arranged. But you'll notice similar behaviour if your non koose pod is facing the wrong way, the parachutes will deploy backwards until the animation has finished, then the module takes over and reoreints them.

I'm aware of the weirdness though.  I'm tempted to test some part reorientation. The parachute animation is straight up, as it has to be, but there's no reason the chute base can't be rotated a bit except if need to do maths for the stack node. The lazy bit of me suggests I should just speed up the deployment.

Thanks for the response! I was simply wondering about it, but again thank you for your hard work! I really enjoy the mod, I think its a must have when it comes to mods, and your work in the IVA is also amazing as well, it fits the overall theme of the pod. Simple, yet it works, and works well. thank! (the parachute texture is pretty awesome too) 

[TiktaalikDreaming]

15 minutes ago, UNSCspartan said:

Thanks for the response! I was simply wondering about it, but again thank you for your hard work! I really enjoy the mod, I think its a must have when it comes to mods, and your work in the IVA is also amazing as well, it fits the overall theme of the pod. Simple, yet it works, and works well. thank! (the parachute texture is pretty awesome too) 

Thanks.

The main reason the parachute is even a separate part was because it acted very very strangely when it came from the pod itself.

At least with it a separate part, the final decent looks roughly right. I'm actually a bit surprised you are the first person to mention the oddness.  . I guess most ksp players are now used to weird parachute behaviour.

 

[UNSCspartan]

44 minutes ago, TiktaalikDreaming said:

Thanks.

The main reason the parachute is even a separate part was because it acted very very strangely when it came from the pod itself.

At least with it a separate part, the final decent looks roughly right. I'm actually a bit surprised you are the first person to mention the oddness.  . I guess most ksp players are now used to weird parachute behaviour.

 

I believe the reason why the parachute acts oddly when it is a part of the craft itself is because the parachute deploys from the center of mass of the part that has the parachute value, I dont know for sure, but that seems to be the case from what ive observed 

[TiktaalikDreaming]

3 hours ago, UNSCspartan said:

I believe the reason why the parachute acts oddly when it is a part of the craft itself is because the parachute deploys from the center of mass of the part that has the parachute value, I dont know for sure, but that seems to be the case from what ive observed 

Yep.  And it was pretty clear that I either moved the chute to the CoM which made no sense, or moved it to a different part, like every other chute in the game.

I have some nice screengrabs of the single part edition floating down with the chute offset and the pod perfectly upright.  Doesn't look weird at all, honest;

 

[jpkerman]

  KOOSE in conjunction with COMFORTABLE LANDINGS works to the point that the 0.625 parts fit between the Koose pod and the heat shield.  The airbags, landing rockets and sea flotation work when set to an action group but I have experienced the heat shield hanging up if i try to jettison it.  The animations show thru the heat shield fairly well.  The landing skirt/heat shield does not  not seem to work as well. 

[jlcarneiro]

Great idea, outstanding implementation, thanks!

One question, though?

Where is the door? Can't see a place roughly big enough for a kerbal head... 

[TiktaalikDreaming]

2 minutes ago, jlcarneiro said:

Great idea, outstanding implementation, thanks!

One question, though?

Where is the door? Can't see a place roughly big enough for a kerbal head... 

The hatch, docking port and window are the one exit. On top. 

Finding an area big enough for a kerbal head is tricky at times.

2 hours ago, jpkerman said:

  KOOSE in conjunction with COMFORTABLE LANDINGS works to the point that the 0.625 parts fit between the Koose pod and the heat shield.  The airbags, landing rockets and sea flotation work when set to an action group but I have experienced the heat shield hanging up if i try to jettison it.  The animations show thru the heat shield fairly well.  The landing skirt/heat shield does not  not seem to work as well. 

I should really take a look at comfortable landings. It looks awesome.