[1.5] KOOSE mini reentry pod aka escape pod

[plausse]

This is literally the best thing ever. Since 0.18 I have waited, and waited. The last KOOSE was almost the same but not quite. Cannot overemphasize how excited I am about this, and the fabric on the inside is just the icing to finish it off. 

[TiktaalikDreaming]

4 hours ago, [email protected] said:

thats probably because the game is looking at the Kerbal and not the seat

Yep.  In particular, even if there's extra bits, the physics is treating it like a kerbal with some extra equipment if anything.  So it abides by Kerbal rules, like head up, feet down, etc.  Same as the issues trying to sort  aerodynamic stability

[linuxgurugamer]

On 10/13/2019 at 4:51 PM, TiktaalikDreaming said:

I'm planning on a variant for stock using the external command chair module, but I'm not 100% sure (more like 0%) how I'll have then stowed/stored/attached.  I haven't so much as glanced at the breaking ground storage things in game, let alone how they work as parts.  I just did the "why is storage a separate thing from payload?" double take and moved on.  I think it would be best if you don't need a special part to store them, but I'm not sure if that's achievable yet.

Imagine my surprise when I found that the new science parts in Breaking Ground have a different power mechanism.  PowerUnits instead of EC.

Blech!

I'm finishing up a mod to allow batteries power the science parts because of this

[TiktaalikDreaming]

2 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Imagine my surprise when I found that the new science parts in Breaking Ground have a different power mechanism.  PowerUnits instead of EC.

Blech!

I'm finishing up a mod to allow batteries power the science parts because of this

Oh wow.  That's so much worse than storage vs payload.  I never noticed due to the lack of time to actually mess around with the DLC.  All I've done so far is look at the cfg files for the robotic parts.  And not even in great depth because I'm not yet doing any robotic parts.

[TiktaalikDreaming]

OK, it's been a while.  When KSP 1.8 came out, for no reason apart from curiosity and stubbornness, I decided to update this project to Unity 2019 and the new part tools.  AFAIK, there's no great reason to do this, but I've switched to blender 2.80, and I guess I was hoping Unity 2019 would be better at handling it.  As it turns out, the opposite seems to be true, Unity 2019 does funky things with fbx imports and the blender import basically steps through blenders fbx export scripts, and I had a fudgy workaround to make that work with Unity 2017 and Blender 2.80, which still works in Unity 2019, but does some weird stuff with animations.

Anyway, the point is, I have animations and imports working again, and have made some small updates.  And now I can progress this again.  My plan is basically to fix up the seams at the top and bottom of the front of the "pod", then tackle something as a frame for back of the kerbal pack.  Maybe a bottle of compressed something and some hoses etc.

[TiktaalikDreaming]

After some hiatus, I relooked at the whole inflating ELK thing.
I remove all the old animation, and just split off all the hard components.  Those got animated in the regular move/rotation ways to packed nicely around where the kerbal pack should be.  Then I made a copy of just the outside shell, and used sculpting to form it around the packed away parts.  The animation for the main heatshield/ELK is a combo of the final form expanding from hidden, and, once that takes over the shrink-wrapped deflated ELK, that then shrinks away to be hidden.  It's a cheap and nasty trick, but the whole expansion takes very little time.

Anyway, there's still some tweaking, and possibly adding some pack straps or gas bottles or something.  But I'm 200% happier with it now.

https://github.com/TiktaalikDreaming/KOOSE/releases/tag/1.2.5

I'm approaching a 2.0 (once I'm happy the ELK is release worthy basically)

[TiktaalikDreaming]

OK, The mod is updated (marked as 2.0.1 for the new pod) with a KIS inventory inflatable pod.  Jeb here is wearing it as part of his EVA ensemble.

There's a few small tweaks to come.  At the moment, it's ONLY useable if you have KIS (Kerbal Inventory System) installed.  I intend to make it so if KIS isn't installed, then it comes as something you can pop in cargo bays or service bays, detach, and then use as an external command seat.  Then if KIS is installed, it becomes an inventory item, wearable as a pack.
Initial tesing suggests I have some transforms upside down and back to front.

Unfortunately, having a laugh at "Sooon!" memes doesn't keep reentry heat at bay.  But, apart from every transform being wrong, all the functions I wanted to test worked.  So, it's just a bit of messing about with transforms, and then the part will be available for anyone, regardless of other mods.

[zer0Kerbal]

so.... .its a Griswald re-entry sled?

[TiktaalikDreaming]

2 hours ago, zer0Kerbal said:

so.... .its a Griswald re-entry sled?

It probably works better without piling half a house full of gear on the top, but, just maybe, strapping some extra junk to the bottom?  Damages to grandparents strapped to the outside are not warranted.

[zer0Kerbal]

3 minutes ago, TiktaalikDreaming said:

It probably works better without piling half a house full of gear on the top, but, just maybe, strapping some extra junk to the bottom?  Damages to grandparents strapped to the outside are not warranted.

nuclear powered holiday lights included?

 

[TiktaalikDreaming]

27 minutes ago, zer0Kerbal said:

nuclear powered holiday lights included?

 

And fireworks!

[TiktaalikDreaming]

Nearly there.  Just have a bit of Kerbal butt and pack poking through the shield.

[TiktaalikDreaming]

OK, well, the external command chair edition has disadvantages and advantages.  It's annoying as hell to get into, but when you're in it, the aero works.

 

[Redacted]

I have a few requests...

1) Would it be possible to have the control direction for the KOOSE pod, be reversible? 

Note: I've a micro SSTO plane that uses the KOOSE capsule: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1974950726 

2) Can you please add the option to manually disable the Solid motors in situations where the fuel has been removed? (Doesn't show on staging)

[Redacted]

Was messing around with FAR Analysis today and took a look at the "Display Debug Voxels". The KOOSE Capsule has a HUGE amount of drag, even when contained within a fairing (Air-stream Protective Shell). By comparison, the MK1 command POD had maybe a 10th of the drag seen with the KOOSE. Yet here i was wondering why the KOOSE capsule was so hard to get airborne. (lol)

Would it be possible to have the KOOSE capsules drag be relative to its size / shape?

Yes, i understand that this is primarily a re-entry capsule but i does have to start off on the ground at some point right?

 

Thanks in advance!

Redacted

[TiktaalikDreaming]

On 1/22/2020 at 7:54 PM, Redacted said:

Was messing around with FAR Analysis today and took a look at the "Display Debug Voxels". The KOOSE Capsule has a HUGE amount of drag, even when contained within a fairing (Air-stream Protective Shell). By comparison, the MK1 command POD had maybe a 10th of the drag seen with the KOOSE. Yet here i was wondering why the KOOSE capsule was so hard to get airborne. (lol)

Would it be possible to have the KOOSE capsules drag be relative to its size / shape?

Yes, i understand that this is primarily a re-entry capsule but i does have to start off on the ground at some point right?

 

Thanks in advance!

Redacted

I'm not very up to speed on FAR, I haven't used it for a long time now.  But nothing in the mod uses custom drag cubes, not even the chutes.  And as far as I know, the colliders all match up to the shape fairly well.  So I'm not sure where the drag's coming from.  If it was stock aero, I'd say something's gone fubar in calculating drag cubes, and to delete the PartDatabase.cfg file from the main directory.

I *did* have an issue at stages with the ELK "capsule" for a while, but that was due to changing both Blender and Unity versions, having to scale down the models in unity by 100, and that not affecting the colliders.  AFAIK, that shouldn't have impacted the KOOSE pod.  What version are you on?

For other purposes, parachutes have caused issues before.  Depending on how FAR works, it may have calculated drag on the open chute.  Can you just check if you still see the large drag without a parachute attached?

Edited January 25, 2020 by TiktaalikDreaming

[Sebra]

On 1/16/2020 at 4:10 PM, TiktaalikDreaming said:

OK, well, the external command chair edition has disadvantages and advantages.  It's annoying as hell to get into, but when you're in it, the aero works.

This means you can make them different.

E.L.K. to wear and pray

and for exmple "Glider, Only One Should Escape" in the form of hot dog or paper airplane or something else, able to glide through the flame of doom.

Just an idea, not demand.

[Sebra]

Hi again.

Just tested ELK it in flight. Barely splashed Valentine at second try.

1.I can refuel from equipped balon, but cannot inflate equipped ELK.

2.Inflated ELK cannot be used as command seat.

3.ELK do not orient self retrograde by air flow to keep safe.

4.Inflated ELK do not prevent usage of RCS and Parachute.

5.After splash equipped ELK drug Valentine to the depth until dropped.

Nice, but can those be fixed?

[TiktaalikDreaming]

9 hours ago, Sebra said:

Hi again.

Just tested ELK it in flight. Barely splashed Valentine at second try.

1.I can refuel from equipped balon, but cannot inflate equipped ELK.

2.Inflated ELK cannot be used as command seat.

3.ELK do not orient self retrograde by air flow to keep safe.

4.Inflated ELK do not prevent usage of RCS and Parachute.

5.After splash equipped ELK drug Valentine to the depth until dropped.

Nice, but can those be fixed?

I'll need to check again.

With the KIS version I definitely get 3 & 4.  
I will say I'm not very happy with what I thought the issues currently were with the non-KIS version;

Can use as command seat before inflation, but:

0: inflating ejected the kerbal
2: re-connecting kerbal to inflated system was maddeningly hard
5: After splash down, everything was horribly wrong

 

I'll definitely look into the aero again, as It *seemed* to be working. But I only had a few descents due to it being really annoying to get into the thing. 

[Sebra]

7 hours ago, TiktaalikDreaming said:

0: inflating ejected the kerbal

ELK escape Kerbal? OMNEG

Can IgorZ help you with KIS?

7 hours ago, TiktaalikDreaming said:

I will say I'm not very happy with what I thought the issues currently were with the non-KIS version;

Can I see and test non KIS version?

Edited March 12, 2020 by Sebra
typeproof

[TiktaalikDreaming]

6 hours ago, Sebra said:

ELK escape Kerbal? OMNEG

Can IgorZ help you with KIS?

Can I see and test non KIS version?

Ah....   you're using the KIS edition.

Sorry.  I have been messing around with the "KIS isn't there" edition, and being generally unhappy with it, and then some of the concerns kinda matched up.

Non KIS capable edition, https://github.com/TiktaalikDreaming/KOOSE/releases/tag/2.0.3

It still has the KIS code in a ModuleManager "NEEDS" stanza, so if KIS is there, it uses that instead.

Now, to not get confused and re-answer the queries;

1.I can refuel from equipped balon, but cannot inflate equipped ELK.

I can't stop the refueling, see note A below.  I've always been able to inflate an equipped ELK, I'll need to double check with KIS re-installed.  I've been focused on the non-KIS version since before an update or two

2.Inflated ELK cannot be used as command seat.

I can't stop this, see note A below

3.ELK do not orient self retrograde by air flow to keep safe.

I can't stop this, see note A below

4.Inflated ELK do not prevent usage of RCS and Parachute.

I can't stop this, see note A below

5.After splash equipped ELK drug Valentine to the depth until dropped.

Damn it, I thought I'd stopped that.

Note A: Because KIS items aren't a deployed part, they're kerbal attachments, the physics object in use is still the Kerbanaut.  So, even though it changes drag and the drag cube, for instance, kerbals are a point mass, and so there's zero directional stability.  I tested with add on balloon animals to verify this, and I'm still a bit sad to not have a use for those.  Also, as it basically counts as a backpack, it doesn't interfere (except visually) with parachute, rcs, & sas use.  It also can't be a PART when it's a KIS item (AFAIK).  I think the best behaviour would be if I could start the deflated ELK as a KIS backpack, but turn it into an external command chair when inflated.  So far it's only ever been a KIS backpack, or an external command chair.  Never managed to transition.

Because, as an external command chair, it has directional stability

But, it's a complete pig in other ways.

 

[Sebra]

8 minutes ago, TiktaalikDreaming said:

I think the best behaviour would be if I could start the deflated ELK as a KIS backpack, but turn it into an external command chair when inflated.

I imagine exactly this while write "Inflated ELK cannot be used as command seat. "

And about retrograde orientation I mean some code to orient kerbal if aerodynamic cannot be used. Squad parachutes seems to be quite a special way coded behaviour.

I understand that limitation and just think about wais to mask it.

About Valentine sinking, may be I am too much overweight her. She had 10kg eva tank and some more.

I do not like to remove KIS but will give it a try.

Thanks!

[TiktaalikDreaming]

On 3/13/2020 at 7:46 AM, Sebra said:

I do not like to remove KIS but will give it a try.

Thanks!

Just make a copy of the whole KSP folder, remove KIS from that, and test there.  The game is quite happy to run copies.  

[Sebra]

Tryed 2.0.3 version.

1.Has separation setting, but not control.

2.No way to decelerate from orbit. Unable to use suit RCS in seat also.

3.Val exploded even perfectly aligned retrograde with ablator.

[TiktaalikDreaming]

20 hours ago, Sebra said:

Tryed 2.0.3 version.

1.Has separation setting, but not control.

2.No way to decelerate from orbit. Unable to use suit RCS in seat also.

3.Val exploded even perfectly aligned retrograde with ablator.

1-3, agree on all.  I'm still messing around trying to work a functional way of getting into one of these.  I'm not sold on making a nonKIS version if I can't sort some things out, so at the moment, there's no de-orbit capability, control, etc.  I'm not sure why survivability went down, but if you aim at a deorbit that dips only down to about 60km altitude, it seems to be mostly OK.  It's balanced to punish bad de-orbits in KIS form.  And it's still very "test" in non KIS.

Also, I'm looking at  various KIS options.  If I *CAN* get it as a thing that you unpack and then use as an external command seat, that would be awesome.  It doesn't take a lot of work to fix the control and de-orbit capabilities.  And the entry heating is just a balance issue.