[1.11.2] Vertikal Speed Indicator - A Simple Landing Aid Mod

[linuxgurugamer]

This is a  small mini-mod written by forum user @FruitGoose.  For his own reasons, he decided to leave, and turned them over to me for support.  original thread is here:  https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/201898-_/

Please note that I have consolidated all of his mods into a single Github repo for ease of support.  They are still in their individual directories.

 

The main Github repo is here:  https://github.com/linuxgurugamer/FruitKocktail

 

Vertikal Speed Indicator

Description

This is a very simple mod which gives a quick reference to your ship's vertical speed direction by changing the colour of the NavBall text according to whether your ship is ascending or descending. This has been designed with newer players in mind, although more experienced players may find it helps fine-tune their throttle control skills.

When trying to land manually and reducing their velocity, newer players can often 'overburn' resulting in their vertical velocity changing directions (they start taking off again!) Many tutorials will advise setting the NavBall SAS mode to "retrograde" which makes sense given that's where you'll be landing, however, in the above scenario that can result in the ship flipping upside down (due to the prograde/retrograde markers switching positions) which many new players (and many experienced!) can often struggle to recover from.

Unfortunately, the stock game gives very little information regarding this situation. Quite often, the speed indicator will jump from say -3 to 3 without the player being aware. Also, the VS dial at the top of the screen is (i) too small;  (ii) too inaccurate; (iii) in the wrong place; (iv) unnecessarily complex; (v) too hard to get basic information from at a glance.

This mod attempts to address the above issues by giving the player an easy to read, instantaneous indication of their vertical speed direction. It does this by changing the text on the NavBall to red when descending and back to green (stock colour) when ascending. In theory, and with plenty of practice, it would become possible to land manually in a controlled fashion without locking the SAS to retrograde. It also makes skills such as hovering easier to learn and master as you can get instant feedback when dealing with very fine throttle (and therefore vertical velocity margins).

 

Details

• The mod activates when the NavBall is set to "Surface Mode". It does not function when set to "Orbit" or "Target".
• When in Surface Mode, if the vessel is descending towards the ground, the text turns red. If it is ascending, it turns green. When the vessel lands, it switches back to green.

 

In Pictures

                     

We're ascending. We know this because it's green *                                               We're descending. It's now red. **

 

* there may be additional clues, like the launchpad is getting smaller.

** there may be additional clues, like the launchpad getting bigger and/or crashing.

 

New Dependencies

• Click Through Blocker
• ToolbarController

Availability

• GitHub: https://github.com/linuxgurugamer/FruitKocktail/releases
• Spacedock: soon
• Source - https://github.com/linuxgurugamer/FruitKocktail

License: MIT

CKAN - soon

 

Edited June 20, 2021 by linuxgurugamer

[Grislibar]

Hey @linuxgurugamer, love the mods that you are responsible for.  Just encountered an error with this mod that you've taken over that I wanted you to be aware of.

Vertikal Speed Indicator is showing an error indicating a pathing problem.  I'm using KSP 1.12 (installed via Steam).  Vertikal Speed Indicator is version 1.2.1 (installed via CKAN).

I'd take a look at it myself, but I just exhausted myself working over 80 hours this week doing development for work.

[linuxgurugamer]

21 minutes ago, Grislibar said:

Hey @linuxgurugamer, love the mods that you are responsible for.  Just encountered an error with this mod that you've taken over that I wanted you to be aware of.

Vertikal Speed Indicator is showing an error indicating a pathing problem.  I'm using KSP 1.12 (installed via Steam).  Vertikal Speed Indicator is version 1.2.1 (installed via CKAN).

I'd take a look at it myself, but I just exhausted myself working over 80 hours this week doing development for work.

I’ll take a  look, but you should be ok to ignore it for now

[Singhnaut]

Thank you

[linuxgurugamer]

new minor release for VSI

• Fixed small memory leak