[1.8 - 1.12] KSPCommunityFixes - Bugfixes and QoL tweaks

[Gotmachine]

9 minutes ago, Rakete said:

Again: it were just proposals as I tend to be a fan of your efforts to fix that bugmonster KSP. 

Don't worry, I appreciate the feedback and suggestions, and discussing them can't hurt.
I would personally really appreciate a stock DV UI integration for MechJeb (which has the most reliable and up-to-date DV simulator currently).

[Rodger]

Another feature suggestion, an angle to tangent threshold for RCS to activate. So to stop certain RCS thrusters firing when they have really low effectiveness. Stock seems to do this somewhat by reducing the throttle of a thruster the more it's pointing away from the ideal angle, but a threshold that just disables the thruster unless it's within 50% (or adjustable) of ideal would be very nice, make fuel use more efficient, and stop some RCS parts with misaligned RCS transforms from inducing unwanted torque.

I think @NESDsaid it better here:

 

[Gotmachine]

2 hours ago, Rodger said:

angle to tangent threshold for RCS to activate. So to stop certain RCS thrusters firing when they have really low effectiveness.

Mmmh... I guess that could be something. I could add two advanced PAW tweakables, a threshold for rotation and another for translation. Clamping it by default would be a bad idea, first because that would alter stock behavior (one of the first principles of this mod) and because it's impossible to predict a vessel control scheme.

2 hours ago, Rodger said:

make fuel use more efficient, and stop some RCS parts with misaligned RCS transforms from inducing unwanted torque.

Fuel use more efficient, yes. But that wouldn't change much about inducing unwanted torque.

Edit : Actually, that reminds me that ModuleRCS.GetPotentialTorque() has been broken since forever and is the main cause of the stock SAS wasting tons of RCS fuel, as well as generating random amounts of torque. Will fix that first.

Edited April 19, 2022 by Gotmachine

[Gotmachine]

@Rodger So, after experimenting a bit...

• I won't implement RCS angle / torque cutoffs :
  • The main reason is that this would introduce a change that would mess up things for all other plugins relying on the stock RCS module behavior (KOS, TCA, MechJeb, RCSBuildAid, kRPC...).
  • There is some value to such a feature but with many gotchas. Especially for the rotation/torque limits (it's less of an issue for translation limits), making it usable from an user-facing perspective isn't straightforward. Depending on the control scheme, absolute angle limits as shown in the picture you linked don't always work. A fixed torque cutoff might be a bit better, but in any case defining a fixed limit only work for a fixed control scheme, with a fixed CoM. Your carefully in-VAB tuned RCS would produce garbage after any major in flight vessel re-configurations (staging, docking, control point toggling, CoM shifting...).
  • For all those reasons, this would be better implemented as a separate mod. Also note that there are already mods that implement RCS control scheme dynamic optimization (TCA, Mechjeb...).
• Fixing ModuleRCS.GetPotentialTorque() definitely helps a lot with RCS fuel consumption when using the stock SAS.
• There are likely other refinements that could be done at the stock SAS level. For example, it doesn't correctly account for the GetPotentialTorque() results, always taking the highest available torque for a specific axis regardless of the direction. I will look into how to improve things there.

[Gotmachine]

V1.12.2 is out.

Available from GitHub and CKAN.

Changes in that release :

• RoboticsDrift : fixed issue #35, incorrect handling of non-stock servo parts having MODEL{} rotation/position offsets and/or a model hierarchy where the rotation transform has a position/rotation offset relative to the model root. Notably fixes incorrect behavior with the BDB Hokulani OCO-RT90 Truss Structure.

[Gotmachine]

V1.13.0 is out.

Available from GitHub and CKAN.

Changes in that release :

• New modding patch : ReflectionTypeLoadExceptionHandler [KSP 1.8.0 - 1.12.3]
  Patch the BCL Assembly.GetTypes() method to always handle (gracefully) an eventual ReflectionTypeLoadException. Since having an assembly failing to load is a quite common scenario, this ensure such an situation won't cause issues with other plugins. Those exceptions are logged (but not re-thrown), and detailed information about offending plugins is shown on screen during loading so users are aware there is an issue with their install. This patch is always enabled and has no entry in Settings.cfg.
• New QoL patch : ShowContractFinishDates [KSP 1.12.0 - 1.12.3]
  For archived contracts, show accepted/finished dates. Contributed by @NathanKell
• New QoL patch : NoIVA [KSP 1.8.0 - 1.12.3]
  Allow to disable IVA functionality and prevent related assets from being loaded, which can speed-up loading, reduce RAM/VRAM usage and increase FPS. Has a "use placeholder IVA" option allowing to keep crew portraits. This patch is disabled by default and must be enabled from the KSP "ESC" settings menu. It has no entry in the Settings.cfg file and require a restart to take effect. Do not use this option alongside IVA mods like RPM or MAS.
• Added localization support
• Added tooltips to in-game settings

[Grimmas]

1 hour ago, Gotmachine said:

• New QoL patch : NoIVA [KSP 1.8.0 - 1.12.3]
  Allow to disable IVA functionality and prevent related assets from being loaded, which can speed-up loading, reduce RAM/VRAM usage and increase FPS.

Just what the doctor ordered!

[Gotmachine]

4 hours ago, Grimmas said:

Just what the doctor ordered!

Turns out the medicine had a few side effects

V1.13.1 is out.

Available from GitHub and CKAN.

Changes in that release :

• Fixed NoIVA patch causing missing part textures when the part reuse/share IVA textures (ex : SXT). Note that this change negate the loading time gains of the original patch, and might even cause a small increase (a few seconds) if KSP isn't running from a SSD.

[610yesnolovely]

4 hours ago, Grimmas said:

Just what the doctor ordered!

All 22 people who use IVA cried out "Hey!" - but we're glad it's optional and off by default. Muahahah. You will eventually get curious and try flying with an IVA enabled ship and then there will be 23 people!

[Grimmas]

47 minutes ago, 610yesnolovely said:

All 22 people who use IVA cried out "Hey!" - but we're glad it's optional and off by default. Muahahah. You will eventually get curious and try flying with an IVA enabled ship and then there will be 23 people!

Been There, Done That (TM by SCANSat committee). RPM/ASET is nice but honestly - I'd rather use that RAM for more parts mods. Reentry Orbital Simulator is a much better game if you're into IVA stuff.

[theJesuit]

1 hour ago, Gotmachine said:

Turns out the medicine had a few side effects

V1.13.1 is out.

Available from GitHub and CKAN.

Changes in that release :

• Fixed NoIVA patch causing missing part textures when the part reuse/share IVA textures (ex : SXT). Note that this change negate the loading time gains of the original patch, and might even cause a small increase (a few seconds) if KSP isn't running from a SSD.

If it negates the performance gain in loading times, is this now just for RAM availability then?

[Guest]

51 minutes ago, Grimmas said:

Been There, Done That (TM by SCANSat committee). RPM/ASET is nice but honestly - I'd rather use that RAM for more parts mods. Reentry Orbital Simulator is a much better game if you're into IVA stuff.

That much RAM do those mods consume?

[Gotmachine]

15 minutes ago, theJesuit said:

is this now just for RAM availability then?

The loading time might get a bit better or a bit worse, it depends on how many IVA vs non-IVA stuff your install contains and how fast your disk is. In any case, we are talking about no more than a handful of seconds either way.
But beside reducing RAM usage, technically this also reduce VRAM usage, which is beneficial to performance if your GPU doesn't have enough VRAM to hold everything and is using shared RAM to make up for what it needs.
This also is beneficial to scene switch time and overall performance, but don't expect anything really significant.

If you have a good gaming rig, disabling IVAs likely won't make any measurable difference. If you have older hardware, it can help a little bit.
Personally, I see that patch as convenient way to disable a feature I never use and that just annoy me when I mistakenly hit the "C" key and then don't remember how to switch back

[dok_377]

On 5/8/2022 at 7:39 PM, Gotmachine said:

Changes in that release :

• RoboticsDrift : fixed issue #35, incorrect handling of non-stock servo parts having MODEL{} rotation/position offsets and/or a model hierarchy where the rotation transform has a position/rotation offset relative to the model root. Notably fixes incorrect behavior with the BDB Hokulani OCO-RT90 Truss Structure.

Looks like by fixing something mod related, you broke something in stock. On the looped robotics this happens:
 

KSP 1.10.1, this behavior started happening right after this release (KSPCF 1.12.2), KSPCF 1.12.0 doesn't have that behavior. Logs don't say anything at all, there are no related errors. 

[Gotmachine]

1 hour ago, dok_377 said:

KSP 1.10.1, this behavior started happening right after this release (KSPCF 1.12.2), KSPCF 1.12.0 doesn't have that behavior.

Whoops.

Well indeed by fixing stuff for rotation servos I broke something for all translation servos.

Just released a hotfix in KSPCF 1.13.2 :

• RoboticsDrift : fixed a rotation offset being wrongly applied to child parts of translation servos following the fix for issue #35 released in KSPCF 1.12.2 (see report 1, report 2)

[desert]

Hi, I have a small suggestion. When starting a new game, you are always greeted by Gene Kerman and others as they tell you the basics of KSC. Would be cool to be able to turn these messages off globally.

[Stone Blue]

51 minutes ago, desert said:

Hi, I have a small suggestion. When starting a new game, you are always greeted by Gene Kerman and others as they tell you the basics of KSC. Would be cool to be able to turn these messages off globally.

YES!... that is sssooooo annoying

[Guest]

3 hours ago, desert said:

Hi, I have a small suggestion. When starting a new game, you are always greeted by Gene Kerman and others as they tell you the basics of KSC. Would be cool to be able to turn these messages off globally.

I second that.

Also I have a question, anyone knows if Training missions, and Scenarios weight something on the RAM and/or loading times? Because I've been playing since 0.23.5 and never clicked in any of them, they are just there not doing anything

EDIT: I remembered something tedious that I have to do anytime I start a new game or need new Kerbals: Changing the suit. Is there a way to choose the default for all new kerbals in all games? Like pilots use slim black, engineers slim orange and scientist slim blue?

EDIT2: I meant "Scenarios" not "missions"

Edited May 15, 2022 by Guest

[Grimmas]

Really guys? It's like literally one screen per building that only comes up when you start a new save. Hardly worth the effort to remove.

@Forked Camphor you may be interested in the mod Making Less History.

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, Grimmas said:

Really guys? It's like literally one screen per building that only comes up when you start a new save. Hardly worth the effort to remove.

@Forked Camphor you may be interested in the mod Making Less History.

Thing is, I don't have MH DLC, and for what I've read, Making Less History works by temporarily renaming files from that expansion, so it wont do anything in a stock install

[Gotmachine]

32 minutes ago, Forked Camphor said:

Thing is, I don't have MH DLC, and for what I've read, Making Less History works by temporarily renaming files from that expansion, so it wont do anything in a stock install

I think @Grimmas was referring to your RAM usage concerns. Making Less History allow to cut down on RAM usage when the MH DLC is installed by preventing the "mission editor" feature from being loaded.

2 hours ago, desert said:

When starting a new game, you are always greeted by Gene Kerman and others as they tell you the basics of KSC. Would be cool to be able to turn these messages off globally.

That's trivial to do but it won't be enabled by default. You will need to edit the Settings.cfg file to enable it (or better, to add a MM patch for that so your changes are kept when KSPCF is updated).

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Gotmachine said:

I think @Grimmas was referring to your RAM usage concerns. Making Less History allow to cut down on RAM usage when the MH DLC is installed by preventing the "mission editor" feature from being loaded.

I understand, but without MH does that mod helps in any way in a stock install? (I meant scenarios, not missions in my first post)

And what I asked about the suits? How difficult would be to implement? I know there are mods that can do that (Texture replacer for example) but the less mods the better, and yours do a fantastic job at reducing my mod count. If there is an easier way to do what I've asked let me know.

Edited May 15, 2022 by Guest

[MashAndBangers]

Possible bug with the Hokulani (Skylab) truss section from BDB:  When I return to my space station, the truss is unlocked even though the PAW says it's locked.  I set mechjeb to orientate the station in Prograde, and thus the "unlocked" truss will move from momentum.

Latest version of KSPCommunity Bug Fixes 1.13.2 and latest version of BDB from the dev branch.

[Grimmas]

1 hour ago, Forked Camphor said:

(I meant scenarios, not missions in my first post)

My bad, you can tell how often I use those when I don't even know they're different lol. Not sure if MLH will help then to be honest.

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, Grimmas said:

My bad, you can tell how often I use those when I don't even know they're different lol. Not sure if MLH will help then to be honest.

Same, that was why I was asking if its consuming resources, because I think nobody will ever notice if they dissapear