[1.3.0] Kerbal Engineer Redux 1.1.3.0 (2017-05-28)

[Paul Kingtiger]

It mostly There was an issue with selecting a target in the Rendezvous tab of the Flight Engineer, that caused to dialog to shrink to almost nothing, though it's reportedly been fixed by a recompiled dll that was posted a page or so back (I haven't tested it myself).

That fix didn't work for me, I'm going to hold on for a few days see what happens.

[Kaleb]

So it can't just be root parts causing this. It *must* be something in the new pod/core cfgs.

After a bit more testing tonight, I've concluded I was completely wrong about this. Adding the Build Engineer module to a part cfg will work if-and-only-if the part it is added to is *not* a root part -- regardless of whether or not the part is a pod/core (or whether it also has SAS/RW functionality).

I temporarily added the module to both the sphere probe core, and the jumbo 64 fuel tank. When either of those parts was used as the root part, the dialog *did not* show up. When either of those parts was added on to an existing core without Build Engineer, the dialog *did* show up.

At this point, I'd probably need to start looking at the code to determine what's going on further, but I don't know if I'll have time to do that.

[Grim187]

When you burn fuel, you reduce your mass but you keep the same thrust, so your delta-V will be higher than you'd expect. I think the Engineer gives you the right number.

Ve x Ln (m0/m1) is taking into account the loss of mass due to fuel burn.

i'm not questioning your belief that Engineering Redux is correct.

from the source it looks like its using the same equation but is most likely taking into account other variables, i'm interested to know because i would like to reproduce the equation and therefore figure out why my calculation is so different.

[Designer225]

Is KER compatible with KSP 0.21 and later?

[Kaleb]

I refer you to post #225, four posts above your own...

Edit: For anyone else considering looking at this, I think I found the problem in the source code, with attaching the BuildEngineer module directly to the root part, but unfortunately, I don't have time to test fixing it at the moment. Maybe later this week?

(Warning: Tech-speak ahead) The method BuildEngineer.OnEditorAttach() contains the following condition:

if (IsPrimary && (this.part.parent != null || (this.part is CommandPod)))

I think the entire second half of the AND condition should go away, so it would just read "if (IsPrimary)". Looking at the cfg files between .20 and .21, command pods just have "module = part" now, rather than "module = CommandPod", so "(this.part is CommandPod)" is probably always false, which mean if there is no parent part (i.e. when it's the root part) then the entire condition would fail. I don't know why that condition was there in the first place, so who knows what kind of other problems it might cause removing it, but I think that's the root cause of the problem.

Edited July 30, 2013 by Kaleb

[Beleg]

I refer you to post #225, four posts above your own...

Edit: For anyone else considering looking at this, I think I found the problem in the source code, with attaching the BuildEngineer module directly to the root part, but unfortunately, I don't have time to test fixing it at the moment. Maybe later this week?

(Warning: Tech-speak ahead) The method BuildEngineer.OnEditorAttach() contains the following condition:

I think the entire second half of the AND condition should go away, so it would just read "if (IsPrimary)". Looking at the cfg files between .20 and .21, command pods just have "module = part" now, rather than "module = CommandPod", so "(this.part is CommandPod)" is probably always false, which mean if there is no parent part (i.e. when it's the root part) then the entire condition would fail. I don't know why that condition was there in the first place, so who knows what kind of other problems it might cause removing it, but I think that's the root cause of the problem.

Worked like a charm. Thank you :-)

[arq]

I think the entire second half of the AND condition should go away, so it would just read "if (IsPrimary)". Looking at the cfg files between .20 and .21, command pods just have "module = part" now, rather than "module = CommandPod", so "(this.part is CommandPod)" is probably always false, which mean if there is no parent part (i.e. when it's the root part) then the entire condition would fail. I don't know why that condition was there in the first place, so who knows what kind of other problems it might cause removing it, but I think that's the root cause of the problem.

I suspect that this was there to allow people to edit the CommandPods to add KER. So this statement would be true if 1) KER is attached to a part or 2) someone modified a CommandPod's .cfg to include Engineer. However, I'm making stuff up now because I have not looked into the source code (or the source of any mod, for that matter) any more than the one line you excerpted. You could be entirely correct that that condition should be removed.

[cybutek]

Version 0.6.1.0 is now available!

Sorry for the delay for this update, I've been watching what has been going on closely around my mod. You guys really spurred me on to do this update... I've just did a bit of an update for the 0.6 version to get it working and fixed a couple bugs including the notorious no deltaV for SRB bug . The simulation now runs on its own thread as well so may run a bit smoother with larger vessels, but don't quote me on it though.

A little backstory about what has actually been happening... Not much to be honest, since 0.20 completely broke my v1.0 of Kerbal Engineer laying waste to a hundred or so hours of work, my heart has not been in it since then. I would still love to bring out v1.0, but until KSP updates become smoother and less breaky, I'm going to just keep this version going. I have not vanished off the face of the earth if any of you are wondering

[Kaleb]

Yay! Update! Glad you're still around, Cybutek.

And ouch! That's sad about all that time spent in vain. I can certainly understand how that might dampen your enthusiasm.

In the meantime, I've been thinking about possibly writing a mod of my own, along a similar line to this one (or maybe even something that could be incorporated into it) -- "Kerbal Electrical Engineer". It would list all parts that produce, store, or consume electricity, and show you things like whether you have a power surplus or deficit, how long your batteries would last in shadow, or how long they would take to recharge. I was trying to compute that for a satellite a while back, and wishing I had a mod to do it for me.

[arq]

Woooo update! I was worried you'd abandoned us! This mod has become essential for me now. I can get by without many of the others, but I'd be lost without KER! Thanks for all your hard work, Cybutek!

[Lexif]

Wow, thanks a lot, cybutek. I know very well how crushed you feel when so much work was done in vein.

Kaleb, that sounds like a good idea now that more and more stuff uses electricity. I would certainly use such a mod.

[PPR]

Kerbal Engineer: Don't leave Kerbin without it!

I realize it takes a lot of hours to keep these mods up to date and it is done only for the common good of the Kerbals. I would offer to start a petition to make you an honorary citizen of Kerbin were it not for their alarmingly high mortality rate. Instead, I'll just bow to my monitor and chant: "We are not worthy."

Thanks Cybutek.

[dlrk]

Thanks for keeping this in development!

[Paul Kingtiger]

Thank you very much, Engineer is a core mod for me and even though you get a lot of the same functionality from MechJeb I prefer this solution.

Please, please keep up the good work.

Looking at the zip file on spaceport the folder structure isn't set for .21, the parts are not in a Parts folder.

I fixed it by putting the three parts folders in a folder called Parts and the dll in a folder called Plugins then you just have to put the Engineer folder in GameData

after that it works like a charm

Edited July 30, 2013 by Paul Kingtiger

[Torham234]

Awesome, the engineer us updated. And with moar SRB's!! Thank you so much for this!

[cybutek]

Thank you very much, Engineer is a core mod for me and even though you get a lot of the same functionality from MechJeb I prefer this solution.

Please, please keep up the good work.

Looking at the zip file on spaceport the folder structure isn't set for .21, the parts are not in a Parts folder.

Thanks for the comment Paul, and everyone else who's using Engineer.

I would just like to reply to your comment though about it not being set in the .21 folder structure. Because it adheres perfectly to the folder structure set out since 0.20 which is that you can have anything, anywhere you want

To me, it doesn't make much sense separating out a .dll file into its own folder and all the parts out into another folder when it is pretty obvious what they are. The whole reason for the Parts and Plugins before was to keep separation and uniformity amongst lots of parts and plugins from different sources. It made sense when you had 10's of .dlls and 100's of parts all mingling together. But now that mods can have their own dedicated folders with their own structures within the GameData folder, that old file structure is just not needed any more when it comes to mods with only a few files. I believe that in my case, there would be nothing to gain from having a more strict folder structure. If there is nothing to gain by doing something, then why do it? I like to work by the acrynim K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Stupid)... No point having extra complexity when there clearly is no need for it

But now that it's been brought up... Does anyone have any problems with the simple folder structure I've used? Any opinions for or against it?

My guess is that most people just don't care as long as it works

EDIT:

I fixed it by putting the three parts folders in a folder called Parts and the dll in a folder called Plugins then you just have to put the Engineer folder in GameData

after that it works like a charm

It should work fine by plopping the whole Engineer folder directly into your GameData folder. If that didn't work then I'd like to know what build of KSP you're running, Linux etc... As in I thought that the new folder structuring and file managements brought in with 0.20 would work the same with all builds of KSP.

Edited July 30, 2013 by cybutek

[jcraft]

I just discovered two bugs in version 0.6.1.0 - fuel pipes connections no longer affect delta v value (in previous versions they did) and second problem - after a while of using, Build Engineer just stops responding to any changes and only way to make it work again is to restart game.

But now that it's been brought up... Does anyone have any problems with the simple folder structure I've used? Any opinions for or against it?

My guess is that most people just don't care as long as it works

Don't have anything agaist it - if its works fine... then why it should matter?

Anyway, thanks for update cybutek. Keep up good work

Edited July 30, 2013 by jcraft

[mrenigma03]

Build Engineer just stops responding to any changes and only way to make it work again is to restart game.

I'm having this problem too, except I was only 10 minutes into it. No exceptions or anything in the Debug log either.

[arq]

I'm currently having an issue that the build engineer doesn't update as you make changes. Replacing the part and even leaving the VAB and re-entering won't force it to recalculate the ship parameters (or even add stages), though it did remove a stage properly once (and then did nothing after). The only way to refresh the display is to exit KSP and relaunch. Anyone else seeing this issue with 0.6.1.0?

EDIT: It seems others are having the issue. For me it happens from the moment I add engineer, or at least within a few seconds after.

Edited July 30, 2013 by arq

[iadnab]

Thanks for the update!

I have a problem using the new version mod, the program is not calculating the dV correctly especially when you add fuel lines to make an asparagus staging. It seems the fuel lines are ignored during the calculation, while it is getting the right number in the last version.

[iadnab]

I just discovered two bugs in version 0.6.1.0 - fuel pipes connections no longer affect delta v value (in previous versions they did) and second problem - after a while of using, Build Engineer just stops responding to any changes and only way to make it work again is to restart game.

Don't have anything agaist it - if its works fine... then why it should matter?

Anyway, thanks for update cybutek. Keep up good work

I notice the same problem here, it does not take the fuel line into calculation.

[cybutek]

I can confirm that bug for myself... Looking into trying to fix it, looks like a horrible one though because that part of the code hasn't been changed, so something KSP was doing is now being done differently. *scratches head*

edit:

Think I've found the problem... Just got to sort the rest of the stuff out. As the freezing I've not come across yet, could be related to the multi-threading put in or the bug which has just been sorted.

Edited July 31, 2013 by cybutek

[cybutek]

Version 0.6.1.1 is now available!

I have fixed the bug with the fuel lines not working. I have also increased the time required to pass between simulations are run in-case that's what was causing some people's freezes. If you still get freezes try This Alternate Plugin File is just single threaded and doesn't make use of multi-threading. Hopefully the multi-threaded version will work fine, but I need to know if the threading is the culprit of the freezes of whether a symptom caused by the fuel line bug.

[Paul Kingtiger]

I would just like to reply to your comment though about it not being set in the .21 folder structure.

Hello,

I didn't know that, I thought you had to have things separated out. I'm running the windows version and when I ran the tests it was on a fresh install with only this mod enabled. I'm going to test that again though just to make sure, I'll let you know what I find.... So it turns out you're quite right, I tested it again and it works! I must have screwed it up some other way.

Regarding some of the problems others have had, I noticed a compatability issue with this and KW rocketry, in that the vessel view wouldn't work on a multi-stage rocket, but would start working as soon as you activated the engine on the last stage. After removing KW it works fine.

Finally, I've used ialdabaoth Module Manager to add the Flight Engineer modules to all the stock pods. To use it you just have to drop ModuleManager.dll in the GameData folder and the .cfg file in the Engineer folder. These files can be freely distributed as long as credit and link backs are given to ialdabaoth so if you wanted to include it in Engineer, that's an option.

I've adding the ModuleManager.dll and config file to Spaceport: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/21-x-engineer-redux-stock-pods/

If you include it with Engineer as standard let me know and I'll take it down to keep spaceport tidy.

Paul

[Respawn]

I'm not sure if i had the very latest dll but i just updated the dll about 1 hour ago from the spaceport download.

(if the spaceport download is the latest then the difference between that and this new alternate plugin dll is whats causing the build engineer freezing).

If you still get freezes try This Alternate Plugin File is just single threaded and doesn't make use of multi-threading.

I'm not sure what the difference is but this alternate dll fixed it for me. Tnx