[WIP] (1.9.1 - 1.12+) TrekDrive - a Star Trek-like Warp Drive by ShadowWorks v0.99.1w NX-Class (10/08/2021)

[TheShadow1138]

12 hours ago, bjornadri said:

very interesting, i have tried that mod in past times, but it never seemed to work for me. if it hasn't updated in a while a possibility would be to check the licensing and basically use the code from lcars as a base with the authors permission. also yes, reinstalling did fix the plumes, thanks for the support on that and overall keep doing what you do because it's awesome thusfar!

Glad the plumes issue got cleared up.  I'll look into your suggestion.  I'm definitely going to look at it for inspiration.

Here's a quick NX texturing update pic:

I'm getting very close to completion on the textures.  Still have the bridge and navigational deflector, as you can see.  I also need to model the Columbia variant deflector, and there's plenty of room on the deflector UV map to place the Columbia variant dish.  I then need to set up the mesh that will hold the ship's name and registry number.

[TheShadow1138]

NX-class Textures are Complete!!!!!

This is a big milestone, and I'm so pleased with how well it's turned out.  You'll also notice that the NX-02's larger, more rectangular deflector dish has also been modeled, as promised.  I now need to set up the mesh(es) for the name and registry, and then any geometry for the shuttle bays, which I still haven't settled on a solution for at the moment.  Once that's done I can get the ship into KSP to begin testing/balancing.  No ETAs on when the ship will be released in a WIP release, but we're definitely a lot closer now.

[bjornadri]

21 hours ago, TheShadow1138 said:

NX-class Textures are Complete!!!!!

This is a big milestone, and I'm so pleased with how well it's turned out.  You'll also notice that the NX-02's larger, more rectangular deflector dish has also been modeled, as promised.  I now need to set up the mesh(es) for the name and registry, and then any geometry for the shuttle bays, which I still haven't settled on a solution for at the moment.  Once that's done I can get the ship into KSP to begin testing/balancing.  No ETAs on when the ship will be released in a WIP release, but we're definitely a lot closer now.

i'm not saying i orgasmed when i saw this, but i orgasmed when i saw this. jesus christ dude that looks genuinely gorgeous!

[kerbalk]

23 hours ago, TheShadow1138 said:

NX-class Textures are Complete!!!!!

This is a big milestone, and I'm so pleased with how well it's turned out.  You'll also notice that the NX-02's larger, more rectangular deflector dish has also been modeled, as promised.  I now need to set up the mesh(es) for the name and registry, and then any geometry for the shuttle bays, which I still haven't settled on a solution for at the moment.  Once that's done I can get the ship into KSP to begin testing/balancing.  No ETAs on when the ship will be released in a WIP release, but we're definitely a lot closer now.

Holy crud dude! I can't imagine how much hard work is put in to this! It looks simply phenomenal! And also, it is on CKAN now, so thank you for that. Really looking forward to new ships!

 

Edited June 23, 2021 by kerbalk

[TheShadow1138]

20 hours ago, bjornadri said:

i'm not saying i orgasmed when i saw this, but i orgasmed when i saw this. jesus christ dude that looks genuinely gorgeous!

 

18 hours ago, kerbalk said:

Holy crud dude! I can't imagine how much hard work is put in to this! It looks simply phenomenal! And also, it is on CKAN now, so thank you for that. Really looking forward to new ships!

 

Thank you both.  I am extremely pleased with how it turned out.  It is quite beautiful if I do say so.  Still a bit of shuttle bay work left to do before I start getting it in-game.  I'm going to turn the aft bay doors into shuttle bay doors with each bay holding a single shuttlepod.  I know that KSP 1.12 is adding the ability to rotate docking nodes after docking, which will allow me to set up the shuttlepod and bays so that when you return and dock the shuttle, it can be rotated to face the bay door once again, or left facing inward.

Using the aft doors removes the need to any extra parts, or part switches in the even that the NX-reft is added.

[theJesuit]

20 minutes ago, TheShadow1138 said:

dock the shuttle, it can be rotated to face the bay door once again, or left facing inward.

I hadn't thought of this.  GENIUS!

Peace.

[kerbalk]

Here's a small exploration ship  made with Phoenix parts. I call it U.S.S. Escape.

Edited June 23, 2021 by kerbalk

[TheShadow1138]

2 minutes ago, kerbalk said:

Here's a small exploration ship  made with Phoenix parts. I call it U.S.S. Escape.

https://imgur.com/B2Yj4q2

That's a cool little ship.  Nice.  If you add the file extension (.png, .jpeg, or what have you) to the image URL, it will display the image in the post.

[kerbalk]

Just now, TheShadow1138 said:

That's a cool little ship.  Nice.  If you add the file extension (.png, .jpeg, or what have you) to the image URL, it will display the image in the post.

Ahh. That's neat, thank you.

[kerbalk]

Here's another ship with Phoenix parts, i call this one the U.S.S. Liberty.

[kerbalk]

Here's a big one: The Low Kerbin Orbit Dockyard. Have about 2 FPS with tis thing, but looks cool.

[TheShadow1138]

3 hours ago, kerbalk said:

Here's another ship with Phoenix parts, i call this one the U.S.S. Liberty.

A nice little pseudo-Enterprise.  The next ship I'll be tackling, after the full 1.0 release will be the NCC-1701.  I've been saying that I'm going to do the version from Star Trek: Discovery, but I'm thinking of doing a slight re-design.  I'm thinking of using the design of the saucer section from the DISCO version, with minor modification, and modifying the design of the film version engineering hull to provide more continuity between the TOS and film version without just copying the Phase II engineering hull.  I'll use the nacelle pylons, and probably the neck design from the DISCO version and then do the nacelles using TOS, DISCO, and the NX-01's nacelles as inspiration.  The overall idea is to not copy just one version of the Enterprise, and to modify it enough so that the film refit isn't an almost complete re-build, and is more of a refit.

32 minutes ago, kerbalk said:

Here's a big one: The Low Kerbin Orbit Dockyard. Have about 2 FPS with tis thing, but looks cool.

That thing must be really huge to take you down to 2 fps.  What's the part-count on it, if you know.  I ask because judging from the Phoenix nacelles, there's a chance the NX may be close to this size, but it'll only be 7 parts, if I remember correctly.

[kerbalk]

14 hours ago, TheShadow1138 said:

A nice little pseudo-Enterprise.  The next ship I'll be tackling, after the full 1.0 release will be the NCC-1701.  I've been saying that I'm going to do the version from Star Trek: Discovery, but I'm thinking of doing a slight re-design.  I'm thinking of using the design of the saucer section from the DISCO version, with minor modification, and modifying the design of the film version engineering hull to provide more continuity between the TOS and film version without just copying the Phase II engineering hull.  I'll use the nacelle pylons, and probably the neck design from the DISCO version and then do the nacelles using TOS, DISCO, and the NX-01's nacelles as inspiration.  The overall idea is to not copy just one version of the Enterprise, and to modify it enough so that the film refit isn't an almost complete re-build, and is more of a refit.

That thing must be really huge to take you down to 2 fps.  What's the part-count on it, if you know.  I ask because judging from the Phoenix nacelles, there's a chance the NX may be close to this size, but it'll only be 7 parts, if I remember correctly.

Parts: 434 (Without docked ship)

Width: 53.4M

Length: 92.4M

Height: 25.3M

The 3 tubes on the side are living spaces.

I like the refit instead of a brand-new ship, i can see some cool combinations with that.

Oh, and here's that docked ship, called the U.S.S. Caldrius.

Edited June 24, 2021 by kerbalk

[TheShadow1138]

7 hours ago, kerbalk said:

Parts: 434 (Without docked ship)

Width: 53.4M

Length: 92.4M

Height: 25.3M

The 3 tubes on the side are living spaces.

I like the refit instead of a brand-new ship, i can see some cool combinations with that.

Oh, and here's that docked ship, called the U.S.S. Caldrius.

The NX is a little over 157m long and the saucer is about 93m wide, but as I said it'll only be about 7 parts so hopefully not too much of an issue FPS-wise

Another cool little ship, you're using the Phoenix parts in many ways to create your own warp-capable fleet.  Once the NX gets released you will be able to build out another nice fleet I think with custom names..

[kerbalk]

17 hours ago, TheShadow1138 said:

The NX is a little over 157m long and the saucer is about 93m wide, but as I said it'll only be about 7 parts so hopefully not too much of an issue FPS-wise

Another cool little ship, you're using the Phoenix parts in many ways to create your own warp-capable fleet.  Once the NX gets released you will be able to build out another nice fleet I think with custom names..

Woah, that's HUGE! I can't wait to make the next generation of custom vessels!

[Rakete]

Maybe a nice youtube video on the trek drive mod would be a great idea. So that it shows whats in the mod, the ingame animations and operations of the phoenix parts and how to operate.... Just a hint. 

Moving pictures are the best advertisement.

Edited June 25, 2021 by Rakete

[TheShadow1138]

19 hours ago, Rakete said:

Maybe a nice youtube video on the trek drive mod would be a great idea. So that it shows whats in the mod, the ingame animations and operations of the phoenix parts and how to operate.... Just a hint. 

Moving pictures are the best advertisement.

That is probably a good idea.  I'll have to see about putting something together.

[Rakete]

Just take your time and don't make the video too short. Some nice "how to..."-moments might encourage people to try it out themselves.

[kerbalk]

Quick question: Are the Engines/Propulsion going to be surface attach? Asking to know if i can easily make more little spacecraft.

[TheShadow1138]

10 hours ago, kerbalk said:

Quick question: Are the Engines/Propulsion going to be surface attach? Asking to know if i can easily make more little spacecraft.

I certainly can make them surface attachable, it's just a matter of changing a 0 to a 1 in the CFG.  They will all have nodes for attachment to build the NX and NX variants.

[Kenobi McCormick]

Absolutely lovin' the Phoenix parts right now. I don't know if it's just a quirk of running them in 1.12.0 or not but I do have to do some exploitey nonsense to drop out of warp and into a stable orbit; once said orbit is achieved I have to quicksave and then quick load to 'lock in' that orbit elsewise the next time warp changes it to a hyperbolic trajectory. And I had one moment where time warp emptied out 7500 units of Liquid Deuterium and Antimatter in half a frame. That was fun.

I'm assuming that, for now, this is just a side effect of running it in 1.12.0 before it's updated for 1.12.0, and overall it's great fun to run! So nice being able to pop over to Jool in 15 minutes flat.....
 

One happy Jeb after a 34 day round trip sightseeing voyage to Moho. Relatavistic speeds, didn't break C even though I should have as the .cfgs for the warp coils have a max warp setting of 2. Oh well. Only took 5 minutes to warp there, warp back, rest of the time was spent time warping and orbiting.

That bird flies like a homesick angel too. And technically it's an SSTO; warp drive engagement at 2,500 meters ASL may not be advised but it does seem to work quite nicely.

Edited June 27, 2021 by Kenobi McCormick

[TheShadow1138]

2 hours ago, Kenobi McCormick said:

Absolutely lovin' the Phoenix parts right now. I don't know if it's just a quirk of running them in 1.12.0 or not but I do have to do some exploitey nonsense to drop out of warp and into a stable orbit; once said orbit is achieved I have to quicksave and then quick load to 'lock in' that orbit elsewise the next time warp changes it to a hyperbolic trajectory. And I had one moment where time warp emptied out 7500 units of Liquid Deuterium and Antimatter in half a frame. That was fun.

I'm assuming that, for now, this is just a side effect of running it in 1.12.0 before it's updated for 1.12.0, and overall it's great fun to run! So nice being able to pop over to Jool in 15 minutes flat.....
 

One happy Jeb after a 34 day round trip sightseeing voyage to Moho. Relatavistic speeds, didn't break C even though I should have as the .cfgs for the warp coils have a max warp setting of 2. Oh well. Only took 5 minutes to warp there, warp back, rest of the time was spent time warping and orbiting.

That bird flies like a homesick angel too. And technically it's an SSTO; warp drive engagement at 2,500 meters ASL may not be advised but it does seem to work quite nicely.

That may be what's going on.  Are you disengaging the drive after you achieve orbit?  That is, going into the PAW for the warp field generator and clicking the "Engage" button to disengage the warp drive so you can use more conventional propulsion.  Since the drive uses throttle input, if it is net deactivated before using the throttle for other sunlight engines, it will still use the warp drive.  That doesn't seem like what's happening from what you describe, I just wanted to make sure there isn't a possibility of this being the cause of the weird orbit issue.  While the drive is active it draws power, so time warping will drain Liquid Deuterium and Antimatter quickly sometimes, though that does seem like an extreme amount in only half a frame.  I haven't updated to 1.12 yet, so I haven't had a chance to test it myself.  I've been working on finalizing the NX to start exporting to Unity, but I'll see if I can get 1.12 installed later this week to test the issue.  Establishing an orbit initially can be a bit of a pain sometimes, even on the "Easy" orbital mode, but it shouldn't be changing because of time warp.  Though, if you were using physical time warp and trying to use a conventional engine without disengaging the warp field generator, then it would enter warp and change the orbit, but that's the only thing I can think of, other than it's some weirdness with the plugin and 1.12.

That is one cool looking ship, if you're going to go warp, you might as well go in style.  I think the coils had the max warp of 2 set by me during testing of the new heating setup and I didn't change it back before releasing that update.  The warp coil maximum warp ratings don't determine the ship's maximum warp, it's more of a "this coil could handle this maximum warp factor".  The warp field generator is what determines the maximum warp factor at which the ship can travel.  The warp coil max warp setting also has an effect on the heating of the coil.  You could use a warp 2 coil with a warp 1 generator, or any other generator for that matter, but if the warp generator's rating is higher than the attached coil(s), the coils will heat up faster as the system is injecting plasma at a higher rate than the coil can handle, and so it heats faster, while the opposite is true that if the coil is rated higher than the drive, it will not heat as fast.

[Kenobi McCormick]

12 minutes ago, TheShadow1138 said:

That may be what's going on.  Are you disengaging the drive after you achieve orbit?  That is, going into the PAW for the warp field generator and clicking the "Engage" button to disengage the warp drive so you can use more conventional propulsion.  Since the drive uses throttle input, if it is net deactivated before using the throttle for other sunlight engines, it will still use the warp drive.  That doesn't seem like what's happening from what you describe, I just wanted to make sure there isn't a possibility of this being the cause of the weird orbit issue. [/quote]
 

Yeah I'm toggling the drive off before engaging impulse power. I have that little PAW pinned on my screen to make this easier; would prefer being able to action group it but it is what it is.

Using throttle input to control warp factor is the bomb, though. Helps avoid krakening on SoI changes; I've always had issues with high speed SoI changes going all the way back to 0.17.1. I usually throttle well back to something like Warp 0.1 before I let it change SoI. I feel like I can also use it to fine tune where my final orbit ends up to within a few megameters which greatly cuts down on LF/O usage for final orbital setting. When returning to Kerbin I use the warp drive to set myself on a re-entry path and let it coast the rest of the way; I have re-entry heating turned off(personal preference) and just let it faceplant into the atmosphere at 3-4km/s haha.

 

 

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While the drive is active it draws power, so time warping will drain Liquid Deuterium and Antimatter quickly sometimes, though that does seem like an extreme amount in only half a frame.

Yeah it only used a couple hundred units warping basically from the runway...I engage the warp drive at about 2500m ASL because hey it works in atmosphere...all the way out to Eeloo. then the screen violently shakes when time warping and suddenly I've got neither resource at all? Wierd. Definitely isn't intentional behavior either because I've flown a couple other missions and it hasn't happened since.
 

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Though, if you were using physical time warp and trying to use a conventional engine without disengaging the warp field generator, then it would enter warp and change the orbit, but that's the only thing I can think of, other than it's some weirdness with the plugin and 1.12.

I seldom, if ever, use physwarp. One too many kraken attacks over the years has made me reticent to use it.

Quote

That is one cool looking ship, if you're going to go warp, you might as well go in style.

Hehe, thanks. I figured I'd make something that would at least look like it flies in atmo...turns out the thing flies like a homesick angel! No SAS no trim hands off rock solid. Love it. Uses three RAPIERs for impulse power; they're in LF/O mode in space and turbine mode in atmo. Not really a very useful craft but eh. Jeb wanted a relativistic hotrod so I built him one.

Also a good bird to learn how to use the warp parts on.
 

Quote

I think the coils had the max warp of 2 set by me during testing of the new heating setup and I didn't change it back before releasing that update.  The warp coil maximum warp ratings don't determine the ship's maximum warp, it's more of a "this coil could handle this maximum warp factor".  The warp field generator is what determines the maximum warp factor at which the ship can travel.  The warp coil max warp setting also has an effect on the heating of the coil.  You could use a warp 2 coil with a warp 1 generator, or any other generator for that matter, but if the warp generator's rating is higher than the attached coil(s), the coils will heat up faster as the system is injecting plasma at a higher rate than the coil can handle, and so it heats faster, while the opposite is true that if the coil is rated higher than the drive, it will not heat as fast.

Ahh so basically I just increased the skookum factor of the nacelles. Time to tweak the generator itself then haha.

Edited June 27, 2021 by Kenobi McCormick

[TheShadow1138]

1 hour ago, Kenobi McCormick said:

Yeah I'm toggling the drive off before engaging impulse power. I have that little PAW pinned on my screen to make this easier; would prefer being able to action group it but it is what it is.

Using throttle input to control warp factor is the bomb, though. Helps avoid krakening on SoI changes; I've always had issues with high speed SoI changes going all the way back to 0.17.1. I usually throttle well back to something like Warp 0.1 before I let it change SoI. I feel like I can also use it to fine tune where my final orbit ends up to within a few megameters which greatly cuts down on LF/O usage for final orbital setting. When returning to Kerbin I use the warp drive to set myself on a re-entry path and let it coast the rest of the way; I have re-entry heating turned off(personal preference) and just let it faceplant into the atmosphere at 3-4km/s haha.

Making it an action group would be ideal, and it's what I want to do, I just need to figure out how to make it something that can be action grouped. I agree about using the throttle to control the warp factor, it's easier to get fine control and avoid any appearance of the kraken, as you said.

 

Quote

Yeah it only used a couple hundred units warping basically from the runway...I engage the warp drive at about 2500m ASL because hey it works in atmosphere...all the way out to Eeloo. then the screen violently shakes when time warping and suddenly I've got neither resource at all? Wierd. Definitely isn't intentional behavior either because I've flown a couple other missions and it hasn't happened since.

Just to make sure, did this only happen with this particular craft, or just once with this particular craft?  I did go back and look at the code to see if I could see a possible cause, other than just a 1.12 issue.  I found a bit of logic that calls the function which sets the orbit upon disengaging the drive if electric charge runs out.  There is no check to see if you are currently at warp, which there really should have been, it was only checking if there was enough electric charge.  So, if you had anything drawing power on the ship, even with the warp generator disengaged, then when the warp core is drained it would reset the orbit (this causes the violent shaking of the camera, not sure why) as if you had been warping in and throttled down.  This could then place you in a very undesired orbit.  I've already corrected this oversight in the code so that there is a check to see if you were traveling at warp before triggering the orbit calculation, otherwise it would just deactivate the drive, if active and you wouldn't be able to go to warp until there were enough electric charge.

 

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I seldom, if ever, use physwarp. One too many kraken attacks over the years has made me reticent to use it.

Understandable.  I rarely use it either, though I never had any kraken issues, I just didn't really use it.

 

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Hehe, thanks. I figured I'd make something that would at least look like it flies in atmo...turns out the thing flies like a homesick angel! No SAS no trim hands off rock solid. Love it. Uses three RAPIERs for impulse power; they're in LF/O mode in space and turbine mode in atmo. Not really a very useful craft but eh. Jeb wanted a relativistic hotrod so I built him one.

Also a good bird to learn how to use the warp parts on.

That is awesome that it's so stable.  The 1.0 release of the mod will have an impulse drive module, and I may convert the Phoenix's main thruster to use it.  I'm also going to rework the power system to hopefully be more efficient overall.  I'm also going to make sure there is a good description/manual included to explain how everything works, and I'll probably do a video to go along with it.

 

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Ahh so basically I just increased the skookum factor of the nacelles. Time to tweak the generator itself then haha.

Yeah.  This was one of the more recent changes (late last year or early this year).

[Kenobi McCormick]

9 minutes ago, TheShadow1138 said:

Just to make sure, did this only happen with this particular craft, or just once with this particular craft?  I did go back and look at the code to see if I could see a possible cause, other than just a 1.12 issue.  I found a bit of logic that calls the function which sets the orbit upon disengaging the drive if electric charge runs out.  There is no check to see if you are currently at warp, which there really should have been, it was only checking if there was enough electric charge.  So, if you had anything drawing power on the ship, even with the warp generator disengaged, then when the warp core is drained it would reset the orbit (this causes the violent shaking of the camera, not sure why) as if you had been warping in and throttled down.  This could then place you in a very undesired orbit.  I've already corrected this oversight in the code so that there is a check to see if you were traveling at warp before triggering the orbit calculation, otherwise it would just deactivate the drive, if active and you wouldn't be able to go to warp until there were enough electric charge.
 

Just once, and just to that craft. I just got done with a 30 minute round trip to Jool in a MUCH larger craft(Too large to really be practical with chemical rockets go figure) and did not have the issue.

Some of it may also be my controller. I'm using a Futaba 10J as an input device and with the throttle stick fully down it's still something like 1%. That may be enough to cause some wierdness with regard to coming out of warp. And that solution is simple enough; stick to keyboard controls outside of the atmosphere.

I usually MechJeb around space anyway.

 

 

 

That is awesome that it's so stable.

To be perfectly frank the thing flies better than some of my real world RC planes do hahahaha. I.....kinda want to build a replica of it as such.

The 1.0 release of the mod will have an impulse drive module, and I may convert the 

Phoenix's main thruster to use it.  I'm also going to rework the power system to hopefully be more efficient overall.  I'm also going to make sure there is a good description/manual included to explain how everything works, and I'll probably do a video to go along with it.

Ooohhh. Proper impulse drives. Be perfect for us to set up our orbits with. Using chemical rockets is tricky and I'm sorta hesitant to use some of the Phoenix rocket engines due to needing that LD/AM for the warp drive itself.