[WIP] RSS Runway Fix

[whale_2]

IMPORTANT!

The fix was integrated into RSS starting from version 16.4. Should work for KSP versions 1.3 - 1.7.

Downloadable .zip files were removed from GitHub. Just use the latest RSS.

 

So, everyone who ever touched RSS, knows that 09-27 runway is not very pleasant to use during take offs and landings.

I spent some nights swearing and pulling my hair out, but here's a somewhat hacky fix for it.

https://github.com/whale2/RSSRunwayFix

 

So, what's wrong with the runway? As I found out there are two things (Please correct me if I'm wrong in general or in some particular details if you possess such knowledge).

First, Unity is really pushed to the limit by rescaling the world, so particular objects could not be placed with required precision. I still didn't find a fix for this, but not giving up (yet).

Second, KSP regularly shifts World Center as the vessel moves, so it more or less stays always near the center to avoid high floating point values and minimize all the rounding errors. This shift happens seamlessly in stock-sized KSP, but in rescaled it gives the same imprecise placement so the vessel jumps in the air without any obvious reason.

The fix works around these two issues in following way:

- It disables colliders of individual runway sections, leaving the main collider that spans the whole runway. As a result, vessel could appear slightly above runway or slightly below, but it doesn't affect movement. (Side effect - runway probably indestructible now. EDIT: Proved to be still very much destructible)

- Then it prevents KSP from shifting World Center while the vessel is on the runway. As soon as it is airborne and at 10 meters AGL, the mod stops interfering with this.

 

As a side effect, if you travel on the ground away from the runway at distance about 2700 m from initial vessel position you might experience that bump so avoid high speeds until the first one.

So far no serious issues have been reported by few folks who tried this fix, but most likely there are some - please leave feedback when possible.

 

Licensed under MIT License

Edited November 26, 2019 by whale_2
Integrated into RSS

[whale_2]

Fixed log spam and made proper .zip

https://github.com/whale2/RSSRunwayFix/releases/tag/0.0.1

Edited July 26, 2019 by whale_2

[itwtx]

Can confirm -- works like a charm.

Thanks a lot!

[Incarnation of Chaos]

I know this isn't the intended use case but is this compatible with a stock sized system? Because i experience planes flipping into the air upon loading a craft for no explainable reason along with issues with wheels not colliding with the runway at all when they look like they should. The changes you made seem like it should make the former impossible and the latter much harder; which would make developing aircraft far more easy.

[whale_2]

7 minutes ago, Incarnation of Chaos said:

I know this isn't the intended use case but is this compatible with a stock sized system? Because i experience planes flipping into the air upon loading a craft for no explainable reason along with issues with wheels not colliding with the runway at all when they look like they should. The changes you made seem like it should make the former impossible and the latter much harder; which would make developing aircraft far more easy.

Well, the mod is not incompatible per se, it doesn't use anything that can not be found in stock sized runway. 
However, for planes flipping upon loading better results might be achieved with this mod:   

 

 

As of wheels not visually touching the runway, or being sank into it - that's another issue, I'm trying to find some workaround for it as well. 

[Incarnation of Chaos]

1 minute ago, whale_2 said:

Well, the mod is not incompatible per se, it doesn't use anything that can not be found in stock sized runway. 
However, for planes flipping upon loading better results might be achieved with this mod:   

 

 

As of wheels not visually touching the runway, or being sank into it - that's another issue, I'm trying to find some workaround for it as well. 

Alright; i'll try that thx!

[hypervelocity]

hi! this sounds so great, I have been struggling with the bumpy runway for years now! what KSP versions does the mod support? thanks in advance!

[whale_2]

12 minutes ago, hypervelocity said:

hi! this sounds so great, I have been struggling with the bumpy runway for years now! what KSP versions does the mod support? thanks in advance!

It was initially compiled against 1.6.1, but it uses very basic API, so should work in most other versions too. Drop me a line if it doesn't for your particular version.

[hypervelocity]

i'll try it and let you know!! thanks a bunch!!!!

[IncongruousGoat]

Tested in 1.6.1 with Principia, and it seems to work. Unfortunately, the plane I was trying to test did not. Trying to break the sound barrier with an airplane in RP-1 is hard. I think I'm gonna do it by strapping a cockpit onto an A4 clone instead...

[Snark]

Hi @whale_2,

Thanks for helping out the modding community! 

By the way, please see our add-on posting rules.  In particular, could you please tidy up the following issues?

• Update the OP of this thread to specify the license.  (A simple note like "License:  MIT" or whatever is sufficient.)
• Include a license text file with your download, with the full text of the license (i.e. the whole shebang including legalese, not just naming the license).

Thanks!

[whale_2]

30 minutes ago, Snark said:

...
In particular, could you please tidy up the following issues?

• Update the OP of this thread to specify the license.  (A simple note like "License:  MIT" or whatever is sufficient.)
• Include a license text file with your download, with the full text of the license (i.e. the whole shebang including legalese, not just naming the license).

Thanks!

Oops, always keep forgetting this. (Hopefully ) fixed.

[Snark]

3 minutes ago, whale_2 said:

Oops, always keep forgetting this. (Hopefully ) fixed.

License notice in the OP looks good. 

I note that you've still got a direct DLL download link there, though, instead of a proper .zip link.  Looks like you've made a .zip, based on a subsequent post... may I suggest that you just replace your DLL direct download link with a link to your zip, instead?  That would settle things, as long as the .zip includes a license file.

Sorry to be a noodge, it's just one of those tedious bits of red-tape that alas are necessary.

[whale_2]

2 minutes ago, Snark said:

...
That would settle things, as long as the .zip includes a license file.

Sorry to be a noodge, it's just one of those tedious bits of red-tape that alas are necessary.

Will fix this later tonight, don't have my laptop with me.
Don't want to mess with all that red-tape stuff in any way, thanks for pointing out.

[Dunbaratu]

I just tested using this mod and it works great so far.  Thank you very much for fixing this longstanding frustration I've had with RO/RP-1 games - the runway being totally unusable.

When you reach the point where this would leave Beta and become "official" are there any plans to simply integrate this code into the official RSS releases down the road?

[Although, I'm not enough of a legal guru to understand if there's any legal hurdles to mixing MIT license code with CC-BY-NC-SA license code.]

Edited August 7, 2019 by Steven Mading

[whale_2]

On 8/6/2019 at 5:33 PM, Snark said:

...
 That would settle things, as long as the .zip includes a license file.

Now everything should be set. Thanks again for keeping stuff in order. 

[whale_2]

14 hours ago, Steven Mading said:

I just tested using this mod and it works great so far.  Thank you very much for fixing this longstanding frustration I've had with RO/RP-1 games - the runway being totally unusable.

When you reach the point where this would leave Beta and become "official" are there any plans to simply integrate this code into the official RSS releases down the road?

[Although, I'm not enough of a legal guru to understand if there's any legal hurdles to mixing MIT license code with CC-BY-NC-SA license code.]

I'm happy this mod helps bringing the "no planes" era in RSS/RO to the end. I still have some ideas needed to be checked, ideally I want to make wheels touching the runway collider exactly where you would visually expect it - so far this is not the case. I need some time for it as every time I start my RSS/RO save I find myself fixing just another mod or long-standing issue, literally want to complete some launches and landings.

Regarding integration - I believe core RO team is aware of this fix, they are just too busy with all other stuff (They're doing great work, but it's just so much of it). Perhaps if more voices are raised in RO thread, this might happen earlier, but anyway I think I should either succeed in bringing wheels where I want them to be or give up on this and advance the mod from WIP to release status.

And now - where that mixing of MIT license with Creative Commons license comes from? I'm afraid I don't follow.

[Snark]

21 hours ago, Steven Mading said:

[Although, I'm not enough of a legal guru to understand if there's any legal hurdles to mixing MIT license code with CC-BY-NC-SA license code.]

6 hours ago, whale_2 said:

And now - where that mixing of MIT license with Creative Commons license comes from? I'm afraid I don't follow.

I confess I was having a bit of trouble following, myself.  "Code mixing"?  My impression from looking at the github repo is that this isn't bundling any code from other mods-- looks like it is its own DLL.

@whale_2, can you confirm that what you're releasing here is just your own code, not borrowed from elsewhere?  If that's the case, you should be good to go-- it's your stuff, so you can put whatever license you want on it.

[Dunbaratu]

9 hours ago, whale_2 said:

And now - where that mixing of MIT license with Creative Commons license comes from? I'm afraid I don't follow.

That was in reference to my question about incorporating this code into RSS directly.  The RSS license is CC, this mod's is MIT.

[whale_2]

I think RSS uses CC due to all the graphic content. I don't see this fix as hard dependency, rather as "recommended" thing - some people just don't care about stock runway either by not touching planes at all or using Kerbal Konstructs for runways , besides, though I don't know for sure, but can imagine if other rescaling mods might have similar issue with the stock runway. MIT license allows redistribution, so everything should be fine here.

@Snark, there's no borrowed code in the few lines comprising this mod.

 

[pap1723]

Hey @whale_2!

I am wondering if you would be alright if I took the code for your runway fix and integrated it directly into the RSS.dll?

As you mention, it fixed a LONG, LONG, LONG time issue that has plagued us for a long time!

[whale_2]

13 minutes ago, pap1723 said:

Hey @whale_2!

I am wondering if you would be alright if I took the code for your runway fix and integrated it directly into the RSS.dll?

As you mention, it fixed a LONG, LONG, LONG time issue that has plagued us for a long time!

Totally up for it.

[whale_2]

The fix was integrated into RSS itself.

https://github.com/KSP-RO/RealSolarSystem/releases/tag/v16.4

[Thaua]

KSP is one of my favorite games ever and I literally can't bear it withouth RS, RSS and RO.

Since they added destructible KSC in V1.3 this glitch has been plaguing RO players. You either had to make STOVL aircraft (lots of boosters and a parachute...), stick with V1.2.2 or not use the runway at all. And it seems like some people (myself included) had to deal with very wonky vessel-terrain interactions on top of that, so even landing on the grass was tricky.

I've been waiting for years for a fix. Thank you.

[trekkie88]

On 11/26/2019 at 5:06 PM, whale_2 said:

The fix was integrated into RSS itself.

https://github.com/KSP-RO/RealSolarSystem/releases/tag/v16.4

Would this work with KSP version 1.6.1? I know it says minimum KSP version is 1.7.0, but I'm not sure if it'll work or not.