[1.12.3] Kerbal Wind Tunnel 1.3.1.1

[ssd21345]

it seems wind tunnel doesn't work with planes with b9 proc wings tho

[Booots]

On 6/3/2020 at 10:21 PM, ssd21345 said:

it seems wind tunnel doesn't work with planes with b9 proc wings tho

That may very well be the case. If that mod has its own Class for lifting surfaces instead of the stock module, this mod will have problems accounting for it. I'll add that to the to-do list.

Progress report on implementing .Net 4+ features: it's going well, but involves a fairly substantive overhaul of a large chunk of code so I'm taking my time to make sure I don't break anything along the way. Fun times!

[Sirius K]

My game crashed again and again when I use WindTunnel.
log: https://drive.google.com/file/d/128lbVBjugsjNHsK-bK2ycEphFuanqUrB/view?usp=sharing

I don't see unity out, nor does GC saying anything, the game just close.
I'm on Windows 10 and I have editor extensions, and Kerbal Engineer Redux

Edited June 18, 2020 by Sirius K

[Linkageless]

Firstly, my congratulations, @Booots on an amazing achievement.  It reveals so much detail that so far I've had to only guess at - why I didn't try it out earlier, I don't know.

I've had an interesting time loading up a couple of my existing vessels and inspecting their calculated performance, giving me clues as to how I might improve them.  I've also started working on improving a design in progress, an Eve plane with BG fans at which point I started experiencing game crashes.

First time it happened was when I'd selected Eve in the dropdown, calculations got only a few percent then the game abruptly exited.  I now find it's increasingly sensitive, I can't get it to look at the very same existing designs I looked at yesterday.  It rarely gets through calculating the stats and even if it does, it stays on 100% in the flight envelope screen.   For example, I was able to get that far with just a mk2cockpit, and I found AoA curves were viewable.  Once I added a mk2 rocket fuel tank & a vector and hit update, the game crashed after only a few percent of calculation.

The tail of the KSP.log:

Spoiler

[LOG 09:40:14.390] Fuel: 0.3237194, ISP: 295, Thrust: 3.174603
[LOG 09:40:14.390] Fuel: 0.3237194, ISP: 295, Thrust: 3.174603
[LOG 09:40:14.390] Fuel: 0.3237194, ISP: 295, Thrust: 3.174603
[LOG 09:40:14.390] Fuel: 0.3237194, ISP: 295, Thrust: 3.174603
[LOG 09:40:14.391] Fuel: 0.3237194, ISP: 295, Thrust: 3.174603
[LOG 09:40:14.391] Fuel: 0.3237194, ISP: 295, Thrust: 3.174603
[LOG 09:40:14.391] Fuel: 0.3237194, ISP: 295, Thrust: 3.174603
[LOG 09:40:14.391] Fuel: 0.3237194, ISP: 295, Thrust: 3.174603
[LOG 09:40:14.391] Fuel: 0.3237194, ISP: 295, Thrust: 3.174603
[LOG 09:40:14.392] Fuel: 0.3237194, ISP: 295, Thrust: 3.174603

Head of my KSP.log:

Spoiler

 

[LOG 09:36:01.512] ******* Log Initiated for Kerbal Space Program - 1.9.1.2788 (LinuxPlayer) en-us *******
Kerbal Space Program - 1.9.1.2788 (LinuxPlayer) en-us

OS: Linux 4.4 Ubuntu 16.04 64bit
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5300U CPU @ 2.30GHz (4)
RAM: 15872
GPU: Mesa DRI Intel(R) HD Graphics 5500 (Broadwell GT2)  (512MB)
SM: 50 (OpenGL 4.5 (Core Profile) Mesa 18.0.5)
RT Formats: ARGB32, Depth, ARGBHalf, Shadowmap, RGB565, ARGB4444, ARGB1555, Default, ARGB2101010, DefaultHDR, ARGB64, ARGBFloat, RGFloat, RGHalf, RFloat, RHalf, R8, ARGBInt, RGInt, RInt, BGRA32, RGB111110Float, RG32, RGBAUShort, RG16, BGRA10101010_XR, BGR101010_XR, R16

 

and all references to 'wind':

Spoiler

pete@maggie:~/Desktop$ grep -i wind /arc/SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/Kerbal\ Space\ Program/KSP.log            
[LOG 09:36:03.122] Load(Assembly): WindTunnel/Plugins/Graphing
[LOG 09:36:03.122] AssemblyLoader: Loading assembly at /opt/SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/Kerbal Space Program/GameData/WindTunnel/Plugins/Graphing.dll
[LOG 09:36:03.122] Load(Assembly): WindTunnel/Plugins/Wind Tunnel
[LOG 09:36:03.123] AssemblyLoader: Loading assembly at /opt/SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/Kerbal Space Program/GameData/WindTunnel/Plugins/Wind Tunnel.dll
Wind Tunnel v1.0.0.0
WindTunnel
[LOG 09:36:08.566] Load(Texture): Squad/Parts/Command/cupola/window
[LOG 09:36:08.600] Load(Texture): Squad/Parts/Command/hitchhikerStorageContainer/window
[LOG 09:36:08.691] Load(Texture): Squad/Parts/Command/mk1pod/window
[LOG 09:36:08.695] Load(Texture): Squad/Parts/Command/mk1pod/window_illum
[LOG 09:36:08.828] Load(Texture): Squad/Parts/Command/mk2LanderCan/window
[LOG 09:36:13.070] Load(Texture): Squad/Parts/Science/LargeCrewedLab/window
[LOG 09:36:13.477] Load(Texture): Squad/Parts/Utility/GrapplingDevice/window
[LOG 09:36:15.192] Load(Texture): Squad/Spaces/cupolaInternal/ksp_l_cupola_internal_windows_alpha
[LOG 09:36:15.308] Load(Texture): Squad/Spaces/landerCabinSmallInternal/ksp_s_landerCan_internal_window_alpha
[LOG 09:36:15.360] Load(Texture): Squad/Spaces/mk1CockpitInternal/Windows
[LOG 09:36:15.632] Load(Texture): Squad/Spaces/mk2CockpitStandardInternal/Windows
[LOG 09:36:23.449] Load(Texture): WindTunnel/Textures/KWT_Icon
[WRN 09:36:23.480] Texture resolution is not valid for compression: '/opt/SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/Kerbal Space Program/GameData/WindTunnel/Textures/KWT_Icon.png' - consider changing the image's width and height to enable compression
[LOG 09:36:23.498] Load(Texture): WindTunnel/Textures/KWT_Icon_blizzy
[LOG 09:36:23.547] Load(Texture): WindTunnel/Textures/KWT_Icon_blizzy_on
[LOG 09:36:23.592] Load(Texture): WindTunnel/Textures/KWT_Icon_on
[WRN 09:36:23.622] Texture resolution is not valid for compression: '/opt/SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/Kerbal Space Program/GameData/WindTunnel/Textures/KWT_Icon_on.png' - consider changing the image's width and height to enable compression
[LOG 09:36:23.640] Load(Texture): WindTunnel/Textures/KWT_saveIcon
[LOG 09:36:23.690] Load(Texture): WindTunnel/Textures/KWT_settings
[LOG 09:36:38.558] Config(KerbalWindTunnelSettings) WindTunnel/KerbalWindTunnelSettings/KerbalWindTunnelSettings
  Wind Tunnel                             1.0.0.0                  1.0.0.0                                           b36de308dda24cd49787b342f1614afc1cc65f2a91de1ae8687949bab77aa5e3
  WindTunnel
[LOG 22:07:25.179] :BEFORE[WIND TUNNEL] pass
[LOG 22:07:25.179] :FOR[WIND TUNNEL] pass
[LOG 22:07:25.179] :AFTER[WIND TUNNEL] pass
[LOG 22:07:25.179] :BEFORE[WINDTUNNEL] pass
[LOG 22:07:25.179] :FOR[WINDTUNNEL] pass
[LOG 22:07:25.179] :AFTER[WINDTUNNEL] pass
[LOG 22:07:25.180] :LAST[WIND TUNNEL] pass
[LOG 22:07:25.180] :LAST[WINDTUNNEL] pass
[LOG 09:37:27.379] controllerwindow.prefab
[LOG 09:38:05.382] [AddonLoader]: Instantiating addon 'IntroWindowClass' from assembly 'ToolbarController'
[LOG 09:38:29.924] [AddonLoader]: Instantiating addon 'WindTunnel' from assembly 'Wind Tunnel'
        KerbalWindTunnel.DataGenerators.EnvelopeSurf.UpdateGraphs () (at <c79c2577fc6c47ad8b3f39475acfaf61>:0)
        KerbalWindTunnel.DataGenerators.EnvelopeSurf+<Processing>d__20.MoveNext () (at <c79c2577fc6c47ad8b3f39475acfaf61>:0)
        KerbalWindTunnel.DataGenerators.EnvelopeSurf.UpdateGraphs () (at <c79c2577fc6c47ad8b3f39475acfaf61>:0)
        KerbalWindTunnel.DataGenerators.EnvelopeSurf.Calculate (KerbalWindTunnel.AeroPredictor vessel, CelestialBody body, System.Single lowerBoundSpeed, System.Single upperBoundSpeed, System.Single stepSpeed, System.Single lowerBoundAltitude, System.Single upperBoundAltitude, System.Single stepAltitude) (at <c79c2577fc6c47ad8b3f39475acfaf61>:0)
        KerbalWindTunnel.WindTunnelWindow.DrawGraph (KerbalWindTunnel.WindTunnelWindow+GraphMode graphMode) (at <c79c2577fc6c47ad8b3f39475acfaf61>:0)
        KerbalWindTunnel.WindTunnelWindow.DrawWindow (System.Int32 id) (at <c79c2577fc6c47ad8b3f39475acfaf61>:0)
        KSPPluginFramework.MonoBehaviourWindow.DrawWindowInternal (System.Int32 id) (at <c79c2577fc6c47ad8b3f39475acfaf61>:0)
        UnityEngine.GUILayout+LayoutedWindow.DoWindow (System.Int32 windowID) (at <5c0adbf4bfd64247bdedbb543f29b763>:0)
        UnityEngine.GUI.CallWindowDelegate (UnityEngine.GUI+WindowFunction func, System.Int32 id, System.Int32 instanceID, UnityEngine.GUISkin _skin, System.Int32 forceRect, System.Single width, System.Single height, UnityEngine.GUIStyle style) (at <5c0adbf4bfd64247bdedbb543f29b763>:0)
        KerbalWindTunnel.DataGenerators.EnvelopeSurf.UpdateGraphs () (at <c79c2577fc6c47ad8b3f39475acfaf61>:0)
        KerbalWindTunnel.DataGenerators.EnvelopeSurf.Calculate (KerbalWindTunnel.AeroPredictor vessel, CelestialBody body, System.Single lowerBoundSpeed, System.Single upperBoundSpeed, System.Single stepSpeed, System.Single lowerBoundAltitude, System.Single upperBoundAltitude, System.Single stepAltitude) (at <c79c2577fc6c47ad8b3f39475acfaf61>:0)
        KerbalWindTunnel.WindTunnelWindow.DrawGraph (KerbalWindTunnel.WindTunnelWindow+GraphMode graphMode) (at <c79c2577fc6c47ad8b3f39475acfaf61>:0)
        KerbalWindTunnel.WindTunnelWindow.DrawWindow (System.Int32 id) (at <c79c2577fc6c47ad8b3f39475acfaf61>:0)
        KSPPluginFramework.MonoBehaviourWindow.DrawWindowInternal (System.Int32 id) (at <c79c2577fc6c47ad8b3f39475acfaf61>:0)
        UnityEngine.GUILayout+LayoutedWindow.DoWindow (System.Int32 windowID) (at <5c0adbf4bfd64247bdedbb543f29b763>:0)
        UnityEngine.GUI.CallWindowDelegate (UnityEngine.GUI+WindowFunction func, System.Int32 id, System.Int32 instanceID, UnityEngine.GUISkin _skin, System.Int32 forceRect, System.Single width, System.Single height, UnityEngine.GUIStyle style) (at <5c0adbf4bfd64247bdedbb543f29b763>:0)

 

I'm running 1.9.1 on Linux, with Wind Tunnel 1.2.4.   I also use 'RCS Build Aid Continued 0.10.0', and 'Precise Editor 1.4.0' in the SPH, but was using neither at the time.

Do you have any suggestions as to how I might debug this further?

[Udav]

My dream is to see a working version of this mod. Unfortunately, he does not calculate any of my aircraft. On some, it gets stuck at 0.0%, and on some even this window cannot be drawn.

If it works for you, then I suspect that you are compiling it specifically for your computer, using the specific commands of your processor and video card, not considering that other people may have different hardware. Although I can not insist on this version.

Running a mod on a clean, freshly installed game does not help.

[GDJ]

2 hours ago, Udav said:

My dream is to see a working version of this mod. Unfortunately, he does not calculate any of my aircraft. On some, it gets stuck at 0.0%, and on some even this window cannot be drawn.

If it works for you, then I suspect that you are compiling it specifically for your computer, using the specific commands of your processor and video card, not considering that other people may have different hardware. Although I can not insist on this version.

Running a mod on a clean, freshly installed game does not help.

Do you have any evidence to support your claim? There are hundreds of different configurations of computers on multiple OS platforms and this mod appears to work well on a vast majority of them based on the posts that date back to August 2018, and it has over 12,000 downloads on Spacedock. If your claim is accurate then this thread would have been populated with negative reviews.

Edited June 19, 2020 by GDJ

[Linkageless]

My point of view is that there's evidently many happy users of this mod.  At present, I'm at a loss to explain the seeming swift degradation in stability I've experienced when I've changed nothing aside from trying a few of it's settings.

There's easily any number of reasons why mine is unstable, so I'm looking for troubleshooting suggestions.  Does, for example, RCS Build Aid play nicely?

[Udav]

2 hours ago, GDJ said:

Do you have any evidence to support your claim?

There is no concrete evidence, but this may explain why some players mod works, while others do not. This could be explained by the conflict of mods, but for me it did not work on a freshly installed game without additional mods on the plane created in it.

A primitive research aircraft on a pair of J-20 "Juno" engines, base wings and fixed gears, elevators on the nose - the window starts, the mode hangs by 0.0%.

A more sophisticated supersonic aircraft designed to perform atmospheric and ground missions on Kerbin, made on a pair of J-404 "Panther" and equipped with three pairs of hanging tanks to fly longer without returning, completely kills the mod. He doesn’t even open his window. It simply opens a small window with three buttons to control the window itself. It responds to these buttons, but does not show either graphs or the scale of these graphs or buttons that specify the contents of the graphs. I lifted the chassis, removed the hanging tanks --- no difference.

 

Edited June 19, 2020 by Udav
Additional info

[Krazy1]

I'm also having KSP crashes with this mod. It's great when it works but it's a crapshoot. For example, take the stock Dove plane and it runs no problem... but change the Rapier to closed cycle and it gets stuck at 0.0% for a few seconds before KSP crashes. Rocket planes are a thing... trying to run one shouldn't crash KSP. 

[Udav]

There is another possible cause of instability: the amount of RAM in the computer.
I noticed that on the same plane, sometimes the simplest graphics of the mod are launched, and if the game has already been running for some time, then the mod will hang on the same graphics. My computer has 4 GB of RAM. While the game is eating less than 7 GB of virtual memory, everything is going fine. If the game captures more, freezes begin when switching from one spacecraft to another.
Perhaps, if the mod immediately allocates physical memory for their databases, then it will be able to work more stable.

Edited July 29, 2020 by Udav

[etmoonshade]

FWIW, this doesn't seem to work in 1.10.1 either, at least for me.

Shame, because I'd love to see what it could do with my spaceplanes.

Edit: Yes, it's not "compatible" with 1.10 anyway - just providing another point of data if it's useful.

Edited August 1, 2020 by etmoonshade

[Booots]

Thanks everyone for the bug reports and for your patience. I think I've figured out why it's working for some people and not for others. It basically comes down to the way I implemented multi-threading and background threads. I did it in a pretty hacky way that works in lots of cases but fails in some cases that should have been expected. Fortunately, with the new tools available in the latest version of Unity, all of that should be resolved - once I finish porting it over to use those new features, which is a bigger job than I expected.

I appreciate everyone's patience since I don't get a lot of time to work on this these days. I'm almost done porting it over to the new threading features but I expect there'll be a few weeks of testing to make sure it's working right and then a bit of time to squeeze out the performance I want so that it makes pretty plots in a reasonable amount of time. Cheers!

[NARS1201]

On 8/1/2020 at 2:19 PM, Booots said:

Thanks everyone for the bug reports and for your patience. I think I've figured out why it's working for some people and not for others. It basically comes down to the way I implemented multi-threading and background threads. I did it in a pretty hacky way that works in lots of cases but fails in some cases that should have been expected. Fortunately, with the new tools available in the latest version of Unity, all of that should be resolved - once I finish porting it over to use those new features, which is a bigger job than I expected.

I appreciate everyone's patience since I don't get a lot of time to work on this these days. I'm almost done porting it over to the new threading features but I expect there'll be a few weeks of testing to make sure it's working right and then a bit of time to squeeze out the performance I want so that it makes pretty plots in a reasonable amount of time. Cheers!

Booots,

 

Thank you so much for all of your hard work on this!

[theonegalen]

On 8/1/2020 at 4:19 PM, Booots said:

Thanks everyone for the bug reports and for your patience. I think I've figured out why it's working for some people and not for others. It basically comes down to the way I implemented multi-threading and background threads. I did it in a pretty hacky way that works in lots of cases but fails in some cases that should have been expected. Fortunately, with the new tools available in the latest version of Unity, all of that should be resolved - once I finish porting it over to use those new features, which is a bigger job than I expected.

I appreciate everyone's patience since I don't get a lot of time to work on this these days. I'm almost done porting it over to the new threading features but I expect there'll be a few weeks of testing to make sure it's working right and then a bit of time to squeeze out the performance I want so that it makes pretty plots in a reasonable amount of time. Cheers!

Great to hear, Booots! I've had this as an essential mod in my game ever since it came out, and I look forward to the update and improvements. Thanks so much for everything you've done!

[Linkageless]

That's great to hear, @Booots  Thank you again for this excellent mod and your continued improvements!

[nuclearpotatoes]

So I see there are some issues with the newest version of ksp, along the lines of the game crashing. I was really interested in this mod and upon getting it I noticed that the flight envelope stops at 100% and doesn't show up. I have a few other mods and my game doesn't crash but I've tried it with only vanilla parts as well and the same thing happens.

[Gavin786]

I just perfected and calibrated my wing angle and size to get the maximum fuel efficiency for my aircraft, it can now circumnavigate Kerbin and without adding any additional fuel.

The number of different things this mod can do and how amazing it is just cant be overstated.  If you create aircraft in KSP this is the Mod for you, and I seriously hope we get this in KSP2, it is one of the top-tier mods in my book.

You NEED to use Precise Editor with this, of course, as one cant set exact angles of wings under a degree accuracy by hand, its not possible without Precise Editor.  And that is something that aught be stock also.

This mod is utterly amazing.

Thanks to Boots for creating this.

Said it before and say it again.  Really love this mod.

[Gavin786]

There are a few questions/comments/bugs about this Mod I would like to point out, given I use it regularly.

Fuel efficiency numbers are off by a factor of 1000.  No biggie as normally usage is to just compare changes to the aircraft and maximise fuel efficiency at cruising.  Just remember if it says 0.7 Kg/ 100Km this is way too optimistic, actual value is 7.0Kg/Km.  Not a real problem, it is just a scale factor error.

I notice that there is a "Jump" after a calculation, when Wind Tunnel seems to re-calculate its results to get a more accurate table.  Often this is several seconds after calculation is complete and when looking at the graph there is a "jump" of lines and figures.  Is there any more info on what exactly is happening here, is it exactly what it looks like, that the initial calculation is done "fast", then a more in-depth one is done in the background, and results updated after completion?  Would be good to know or have some indication about this.  Something on-screen letting us know this is happening and giving a % complete would be great, especially if people are going in depth to the figures, they need to know they have the correct and fully computed set.

Could be good when I manually adjust graph axis, Wind Tunnel remembers what I input and does not keep resetting to default unless I keep the tab open.  Sometimes I forget to do it and keep needing to re input the figures.

There are of course crashes and bugs, and great if they are fixed, I do need to regularly restart KSP when using Wind Tunnel, but totally worth it.

Would also be great if it remembered the previous values so that we can compare right on the Wind Tunnel app and not record values on a note pad, so when we change the plane, then click on the graph we can see the previous set of figures and the new set and work out if/how much the changes we made improved the aircraft.  Nice to have feature of course.

Another nice option is if engines have dry and wet modes to click which mode is being used.  Just an ergonomics and totally not necessary.  I did note that had been done on the AOA and Velocity curves but not the main page.

Anyway, there are my thoughts given I use this a lot what I think could be better.  Of course general stability, accuracy and bug fixes got to be #1 priority.

Gavin786

[Ike2]

Hi! Thanks so much for all your work developing this. I'm trying to figure out how the drag model works in KSP so I can model it in a launch trajectory calculator in MATLAB. This mod is exactly what I need, prevents me from having to do extensive flight tests of every single rocket I build. I am having trouble getting a CSV export though. Does the mod write the file to the WindTunnel folder in GameData, or does it put it somewhere else? I've tried several times to export a CSV, but can't find it on my computer. Thanks! 

[Drew Kerman]

1 hour ago, Ike2 said:

I'm trying to figure out how the drag model works in KSP so I can model it in a launch trajectory calculator in MATLAB

Have you seen this? Not trying to discourage you but you're new to the forums I'm assuming you're new to the community in general and may not have come across it yet. You may be aiming for something different but if it already does what you plan to do the author is always open to suggestions and contributions

 

[Ike2]

I'll definitely take a look at that, thanks for the link! My end goal is to write a kos script to launch my vehicles into whatever orbit I want. I'm using MATLAB to solve the differential equations for the gravity turn. I pretty much have it figured out except drag, KSP seems to be all over the place. I have one very simple rocket for which drag force remains almost constant up to about Mach 0.2, spikes to a maximum value around Mach 1, then drops to an almost constant value for all faster speeds. A second, more complex rocket has a drag force that follows a more exponential model, so I'm a little lost haha. 

[Linkageless]

In case it helps, @Booots, I've given 1.2.4 from CKAN on KSP Linux 1.10.1 just to see if there were any differences.  I loaded up a fairly complex spaceplane and after a few moments hit the wind tunnel button.  Sadly it lasted only a few moments, not long enough to touch any controls.

KSP.log entries were along these lines:

[LOG 09:09:56.827] FAR not installed
[LOG 09:09:56.991] Fuel: 0.01773419, ISP: 85, Thrust: 0.173913
[LOG 09:09:56.991] Fuel: 0.01773419, ISP: 85, Thrust: 0.173913
[LOG 09:09:57.006] Fuel: 0.01773419, ISP: 85, Thrust: 0.173913

...

[LOG 09:09:58.440] Fuel: 0.01773419, ISP: 85, Thrust: 0.173913
[LOG 09:09:58.440] Fuel: 0.01773419, ISP: 85, Thrust: 0.173913
[LOG 09:09:58.440] Fuel: 0.01773419, ISP: 85, Thrust: 0.173913

At which point, KSP abruptly exited.

From memgraph, I noticed a jump of about 200MB, an entirely reasonable consumption.

I'm eagerly anticipating your porting work to the new features!

[king of nowhere]

this is very useful... or at least, it would be very useful if i figured out how to get good information out of it.

unfortunately, i could not find ways to get a good drag report. or something to help me optimize drag. that's because most of my drag comes from the wings, and that's good drag, and i can't separate good drag from bad drag. as for the drag of the main body, i only see some reddish parts for those most draggy. as those are generally the wings, there is no big surprise there.

also, trying to use the tool on anything more complicated than basic shapes causes the thing to malfunction, sometimes ksp crashes abruptly.

It also does not seem to work for anything with propellers.

any tip for dealing with those issues?

[Linkageless]

It is regrettable that KSP appears to consider lift from rotor blades as negative drag vectors.   An illustration of this is that to get maximum forward prop thrust for any particular situation I need to adjust blade pitch to maximise the negative 'Total drag' shown in the AeroGUI.  ie - the forward thrust from the prop blades has been subtracted from the total drag of the plane.

[Booots]

Hey folks! After four hours of debugging today, I finally found where the race condition was happening and I fixed the last of the issues with the new .Net parallelization! So now I very nearly have things back to where they were before I broke and rebuilt everything.

I just have a few more things to tweak and fix and I'll release an update that should both fix all outstanding bugs and make it compatible with the latest KSP.

On 10/20/2020 at 7:46 PM, Ike2 said:

Hi! Thanks so much for all your work developing this. I'm trying to figure out how the drag model works in KSP so I can model it in a launch trajectory calculator in MATLAB. This mod is exactly what I need, prevents me from having to do extensive flight tests of every single rocket I build. I am having trouble getting a CSV export though. Does the mod write the file to the WindTunnel folder in GameData, or does it put it somewhere else? I've tried several times to export a CSV, but can't find it on my computer. Thanks! 

So yeah, you won't really be able to replicate the drag model in MATLAB because there's a lot that's done behind the scenes in KSP that I don't have access to without decompiling. I owe a lot of credit to the Trajectories mod for figuring out a lot of it, but most of the Drag Cubes stuff is opaque to modders. But what you could do is get a thorough drag/lift model of your vessel and then use lookup tables in MATLAB. The latest release fixes the export to CSV feature so you'll be able to export drag and available thrust for all speeds and altitudes to pull this off.

On 11/3/2020 at 1:23 PM, king of nowhere said:

this is very useful... or at least, it would be very useful if i figured out how to get good information out of it.

unfortunately, i could not find ways to get a good drag report. or something to help me optimize drag. that's because most of my drag comes from the wings, and that's good drag, and i can't separate good drag from bad drag. as for the drag of the main body, i only see some reddish parts for those most draggy. as those are generally the wings, there is no big surprise there.

also, trying to use the tool on anything more complicated than basic shapes causes the thing to malfunction, sometimes ksp crashes abruptly.

any tip for dealing with those issues?

One of my to-do items is to add some new part highlighting modes to address exactly this. I'm thinking L/D, D/L, and D/mass. Any other suggestions to help your purposes? The new version will also be much much much more stable since it doesn't rely on my own hacky implementations of standard C# features.

On 11/3/2020 at 1:23 PM, king of nowhere said:

It also does not seem to work for anything with propellers.

On 11/3/2020 at 2:17 PM, Linkageless said:

It is regrettable that KSP appears to consider lift from rotor blades as negative drag vectors.   An illustration of this is that to get maximum forward prop thrust for any particular situation I need to adjust blade pitch to maximise the negative 'Total drag' shown in the AeroGUI.  ie - the forward thrust from the prop blades has been subtracted from the total drag of the plane.

Oh yeah... propellers... I'm not sure how I'll be able to handle moving parts. For now these are going to be beyond the scope of the next release, sorry. I have an idea or two but I'll have to do lots of reading into how KSP handles motors.

Priority is getting a stable release, then FAR support, then spinning things.

See you next time!