Micro Engineer [v1.8.1 for KSP2 v0.2.1]

[Falki]

MICRO  ENGINEER

Displays useful information about your vessel in flight and in VAB. See your orbital and surface parameters, deltaV, TWR and many other things.

---------------------------------------------

Spacedock: https://spacedock.info/mod/3282/Micro Engineer

Source: https://github.com/Falki-git/MicroEngineer

Authors: Falki, Micrologist

 

DESCRIPTION

A (heavily) KER inspired mod to give you some additional information on your missions.

Flight:

• You can enable and disable individual sections and pop them out into their own window or create your own window containing only the information you want to see.

VAB:

• See stage info for your vessel - TWR, deltaV, burn time

 

REVIEW

 

INSTALLATION

Automatic

• It's highly recommended to use CKAN to download Micro Engineer (and any other mod really) as it will take care of mod placement and installing dependencies
• Grab the latest version of ckan.exe from here: https://github.com/KSP-CKAN/CKAN/releases
• Open CKAN and point to the location of your KSP2_x64.exe (commonly located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Kerbal Space Program 2)
• Select Micro Engineer from the list and click on Apply changes

Manual

• Install BepInEx + SpaceWarp + UITK for KSP2 (see Dependency chapter)
• Grab Micro Engineer's .zip file from SpaceDock
• Extract the contents of the .zip into your KSP2 installation folder (commonly located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Kerbal Space Program 2)
• Mod folder will be placed in ..\Kerbal Space Program 2\BepInEx\plugins\

 

USAGE

• While in flight or VAB, open the mod window by clicking its entry in the APP BAR.
• Or press CTRL + E to toggle mod windows

Flight

• Pop out windows and drag them where you want
• Minimize the main window to hide irrelevant data
• Popped out windows will snap to each other when being near 
• Open Edit windows by clicking on the gear icon
• Edit windows:
  • add or remove any entry from any window any way you like
  • reorder entries inside the window
  • create new custom windows/huds with information you want
  • rename any window, rename any entry
  • change number of decimal digits for each entry
  • lock a window to prevent accidental dragging
• Double-clicking an entry that displays a speed will change to an alternate unit: km/h

VAB:

• See deltav, TWR, sea level deltav, sea level TWR and burn time for each stage
• Set a different celestial body for each stage to see what TWR and deltav you'll get on that body
• See Torque that your vessel is generating. NOTE: CoT & CoM indicators must be turned on for torque to display properly!

 

DEPENDENCY

• Space Warp + BepInEx - v1.7.0 or later
• UITK for KSP 2  - 2.4.1 or later

 

CHANGE LOG

• Full change log: https://spacedock.info/mod/3282/Micro Engineer#changelog

 

Quote

v1.8.1 Fixed Drag & Lift

• Fixed Drag and Lift values not updating properly when their units change (e.g. mN -> N) - reported by @Kayser

 

v1.8.0 New entries, fixes, refactor

New Entries (23)

• Vessel:
  •  NonStageableResources (double click to toggle capacity) - requested by JustinSchneider
  • CommNetRange
  • CommNetStatus
  • AngularSpeed
  • DryMass
  • FuelMass
• Surface:
  • TerrainAltitudeFromCenter
  • TerrainAltitudeFromRadius (can be used to read ocean depth beneath the orbiting vessel)
  • AltitudeFromCenter - requested by Unknow P
• Body:
  • BodyOceanDepth (max depth of the ocean)
• Target:
  • Target_ClosestApproachDistance (updated from Flight view also) - requested by @Biggen & alex-sherwin
  • Target_ClosestApproachTime (updated from Flight view also) - requested by @Biggen & alex-sherwin
  • Target_ClosestApproachRelativeSpeed (updated from Flight view also) - requested by @Biggen & alex-sherwin
• Stage:
  • StageDryMass
  • StageFuelMass
  • StageEndMass
  • DecoupledMass
• Misc:
  • CurrentPatchEndType
• Surface:
  • TimeToImpact
  • ImpactLatitude
  • ImpactLongitude
  • ImpactSeaLevelAltitude
  • ImpactRegion - requested by @munix

Other

• Changed: StageFuelPercentage moved from Vessel to Stage entries (not working currently due to game bug)
• Changed: updated SpaceWarp template to the newest version
• Changed: plugin name changed from "micro_engineer" to "MicroEngineer"; also changed mod_id to "MicroEngineer"
• Fixed: mouse wheel scrolling entries in EditWIndows doesn't trigger game zoom anymore
• Fixed: game input is now properly disabled when editing TextFields (EditWindows)
• Fixed: mili unit precision - reported by @rogerawong
• Refactored: moved UITK custom controls initialization to the controller classes. This enables the same custom controls to be used in the unity project's UI builder
• Moved code repository to a new fork: https://github.com/Falki-git/MicroEngineer. Old location won't be updated anymore.

Notes

• Most of new entries aren't shown by default. Add them with the EditWindow - click on the cogwheels to open that window
• Impact data: Micro Engineer uses the game's patched conics to determine the impact location. Since the last patch ends before the actual collision, up to several hundred meters above ground (according to my testing), collision point isn't 100% accurate. If you have a high horizontal and low vertical velocity, precision won't be accurate.

 

v1.7.1 OAB fixes

• Fix OAB TWR and DeltaV calculations if celestial body is changed in the stock dv tool - reported by @Deadly_Laser
  • Explanation of the solution: if another body is selected in the game's dv tool, then Micro Engineer's body dropdown will be locked to that selected body. If body in the game's dv tool is switched back to Kerbin, then Micro Engineer's body dropdown will be unlocked too.
• OAB stages now keep their selected body - requested by @adaniel87
  • Note: this update can take a while, up to a few seconds - no need to report this.
• Replaced region names with the localized version (e.g. BiggestCrater -> Rayed Crater) - reported by @missiah

 

v1.7.0 Fixes and Lat/Lon in decimal format

• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused Micro Engineer to stop refreshing values after docking vessels or targeting another vessel
• Added 2 new entries:
  • Surface category:
    • Latitude (dec): shows latitude, but in decimal format
    • Longitude (dec): shows longitude, but in decimal format

Note: new entries do not show in the active window by default. If you want them, add them via the Edit window (gear icon)

 

v1.6.0 "The cake is a lie"

• Added 10 new entries:
  • Surface category:
    • (1) ScienceSituation: shows the current science situation; high/low orbit, atmosphere, etc.
    • (2) ScienceRegion: shows the current science region
  • Misc category:
    • (3) ScienceExperimentState: shows if there are available experiments at the current location
    • (4) AvailableSciencePoints: shows unspent science points
  • Body category:
    • (5) BodyAtmosphereMaxAltitude: altitude at which the atmosphere ends and Low Orbit begins
    • (6) BodyLowOrbitMaxAltitude: altitude at which the Low Orbit ends and High Orbit begins
    • (7) BodyHighOrbitMaxAltitude: altitude at which the High Orbit ends
  • Target category:
    • (8) Target_BodyAtmosphereMaxAltitude: same as above, but for Target
    • (9) Target_BodyLowOrbitMaxAltitude: same as above, but for Target
    • (10) Target_BodyHighOrbitMaxAltitude: same as above, but for Target
  • Replaced former "Situation" and "Biome" entries with the newly added "ScienceSituation" and "ScienceRegion" since they're more meaningful for gameplay purposes. Old entries are still available in the Edit window for those who need them.
  • Added new "For Science!" window - shows entries relevant to science accumulation
  • Added "HideWhenNoData" property to some entries to hide them when they're not relevant (e.g. new Target Atmosphere/Low/HighOrbit entries for when the target is a vessel, not a body)
  • Added support for upcoming UITK for KSP 2 changes (Window.Create(...))

NOTE: if upgrading from a previous version of Micro Engineer, newly created entries and For Science! window will NOT be automatically added. If you want them, you can either manually add them with the Edit window or just delete the MicroLayout.json file inside the plugin folder (..\BepInEx\plugins\micro_engineer) and restart the game. Also note that deleting the MicroLayout.json file will undo all customization you've done to that point (added/removed entries, created new windows, etc.)

Happy sciencing!

 

Micro Engineer 1.5.1

• Fixed textfields locking game input when they shouldn't have. It's now possible to rename windows and/or entries without locking the game

NOTE: in order for this fix to work correctly, UITK for KSP 2 needs to be updated to v2.1.1 or later

 

Micro Engineer 1.5.0

• now supports 0.1.5 patch
• added years to time entries (1 year = 426 Kerbin days, 1 Kerbin day = 6 hours)
• changed OAB Stage Info header "SLT" (Sea Level TWR) to "ASL TWR" for clarity
•  now possible to disable the keybind (CTRL + E) or to change it; look for the option in Settings -> Mods  --requested by @Benozkey
• message subscriptions are now persistent, meaning Micro Engineer will continue to function through exiting to the main menu and loading a different campaign
•  fixed Total ASL deltav in OAB Stage Info window not updating if different celestial bodies are selected  -- reported by @Scarecrow71

 

Quote

Micro Engineer 1.4.0

• Add minimize button to the main window
• When the main window is minimized, popped out windows remain open
• Tweak styles to add more padding to buttons; reduced size of buttons

Quote

Micro Engineer 1.3.0

• Double-clicking a speed entry changes to an alternate unit (km/h)

 

Quote

Micro Engineer 1.2.1

• Fix background color of Stage window when locked

 

Quote

 

Micro Engineer 1.2.0 "UITK overhaul"

• New Flight scene windows
• New EditWindows window
• New OAB StageInfo window

Main user feature of UI Toolkit is optimization, as UITK uses events to make changes to the UI, it's not being redrawn several times per frame.
Also, UI will automatically rescale to any resolution user selects.

Other changes:

• "ALT + E" can be used to open in-flight and OAB GUI
• edit windows: double-clicking an entry automatically installs/removes it
• stage info window is now also editable
• if upgrading from a previous version:
  • window layout will be reset due to intensive changes made to the UI
  • all leftover images in ..\assets\images\ can be safely deleted - except icon.png(!)

Dependencies:

• Space Warp - v1.3.0.3 or later
• UITK for KSP2 - v1.4.0 or later

Developer notes:

• UITK uses asset bundles to load UXML, USS and images. They are located in ..\assets\bundles\microengineer_flightui.bundle & microengineer_oabui.bundle
• UI was created in Unity Editor, version 2020.3.33f1. Source Unity files are located in (github source): ..\UnityProject\

 

Quote

Micro Engineer 1.1.0 "Snap & Rename"

• Added window snapping (can be turned off in settings)
• Added renaming of individual entries by user
• Add support for SpaceWarp 1.2.0 (mod_id discontinued in favor of BepInEx GUID); backward compatibility with SW 1.1.x retained

Snapping:

Renaming:

 

Edited March 24 by Falki

[schlosrat]

Excellent mod! Highly recommend! Wouldn’t want to fly without it.

[Falki]

Micro Engineer 0.7.2

• Add Stage Info window to VAB
• Window positions and states are now automatically saved on scene changes
• Windows no longer persist on scene changes (Flight <-> Space Center <-> VAB)
• Windows automatically open when entering Flight and VAB scenes if user didn't close them previously
• Fix: disable game input when editing window names (from 0.7.1)
• Preserve compatibility with SpaceWarp 1.0.1 (version with no sound problems) (from 0.7.2)

[FirroSeranel]

Amazing, thank you!

One of my most-used statistics in designing craft in KSP1 with KER is torque in a given stage. Is there any way to add that to this?

[Falki]

17 hours ago, FirroSeranel said:

Amazing, thank you!

One of my most-used statistics in designing craft in KSP1 with KER is torque in a given stage. Is there any way to add that to this?

Glad you like it

Torque will have to be calculated with what the game is currently providing. I might be able to get something, will look into it.

[Falki]

Micro Engineer 0.8.0

• More accurate Sea Level TWR for bodies with Atmosphere
• Tree/node-like selection for CelestialBody selection
• Optimized data updates for Stage Info entries (update only on deltav changed)
• Add Torque entry (experimental). CoT & CoM indicators must be turned on. Toggle Torque in Settings window. Per request by @FirroSeranel. Note that torque data is experimental as I'm not sure if it calculates it correctly. If something seems wrong, please let me know and I'll see if it can be fixed.

Accurate SLT:

Node-like selection for CelestialBodies::

Torque:

 

[FirroSeranel]

On 4/7/2023 at 2:24 PM, Falki said:

Micro Engineer 0.8.0

• More accurate Sea Level TWR for bodies with Atmosphere
• Tree/node-like selection for CelestialBody selection
• Optimized data updates for Stage Info entries (update only on deltav changed)
• Add Torque entry (experimental). CoT & CoM indicators must be turned on. Toggle Torque in Settings window. Per request by @FirroSeranel. Note that torque data is experimental as I'm not sure if it calculates it correctly. If something seems wrong, please let me know and I'll see if it can be fixed.

Nice! Love the more accurate SLT for atmospheric bodies, heh. Really helps with the Eve challenge.

I'm curious how you're doing torque... does the game give the exact coordinates of the CoM and CoT markers, and you take the thrust vector multiplied by the torque arm with some trig? It seems to be behaving correctly to me.

This should help a ton with design of VTOL craft especially, until someone manages to recreate RCS Build Aid and/or Throttle Controlled Avionics.

[Scarecrow71]

I gotta say that, for the TWR readout alone, this mod is a must-have for me.

[FirroSeranel]

One thing I'm wishing this did, but don't know if it can, is to split out asparagus stages separately. It seems to generally add the dV correctly, but combining it all into the engine activation stage is a bit opaque.

Heh, that's probably partly because I don't trust KSP2's own dV estimations yet. Especially sometimes when putting multiple engines on a stage, it'll suddenly double the available dV compared to a single engine, even though dV should go down in that case, not up. I assume for now you're pulling dV info from the game? Or do you calculate it using the part hierarchy?

It also doesn't seem to correctly calculate fuel-only stages, like drop tanks... though that could also just be because the game doesn't have a fuel flow priority system yet, other than fuel lines (which like to reverse themselves on load, it seems).

[Falki]

16 hours ago, FirroSeranel said:

... I assume for now you're pulling dV info from the game? Or do you calculate it using the part hierarchy?

What's currently mostly being done is dumping information about staging directly from the game, with some additional calculation to get sea level TWR & deltaV on other celestial bodies. If the game makes a mistake, Micro Engineer will happily forward that mistake

For torque, it's exactly as you described. Ackward thing is that you have to have CoM and CoT turned on to get positions of vectors. For some future version we'll have to manually calculate CoM and CoT by going through all the parts. 

[Falki]

Micro Engineer v1.0.0

Change log:

• Added 105 new entries: Orbital (13), Surface (5), Flight (11), Vessel (15), Maneuver (22), Target (26), Body (2), Misc (11)
  • NOTE: for obvious reasons most of new entries are not added to the default windows, so if you're interested in some of them then add them to any window via the Editing window
  • NOTE2: since this update brings a breaking change in windows layout, if you already made changes to the layout in the previous version it will now reset when you upgrade, sorry!
• Added themes support: light, gray, dark + visual overhaul of all buttons/icons
• Open edit entries window for the particular window directly from the window header
• Added possibility for decreasing or increasing of number of decimal digits per entry
• Large values are now automatically scaled by changing the unit they're display in. E.g. m -> km -> Mm -> Gm
• Base unit for Thrust is now kN
• Maneuver nodes: added possibility for deleting and switching to other active nodes
• Reordered default entry ordering (can be manually reordered by player)
• Settings window is no longer toggleable from the toggle bar at the top of Main GUI. It can now be opened by clicking on the dedicated Settings icon (gear)
• Locked window transparency changed: 80% -> 20%
• Optimized OAB updates: they're now done entirely by messages/events
• Substantial rewrite of the entire codebase; some bugs are likely so please report them (discord, forum)

--

New Entries, full list:

• Orbital (13):
  • Argument of periapsis, Eccentric anomaly, Longitude of ascending node, Mean anomaly, Orbit percent, Orbit radius, Orbit time, Orbital energy, Orbital speed, Semi latus rectum, Semi major axis, Semi minor axis, True anomaly
• Surface (5):
  • Altitude from scenery, Dynamic pressure, Static pressure, Atmospheric temperature, External temperature
• Flight (11):
  • Angle of attack, Drag coefficient, Exposed area, G-Force, Heading, Pitch, Roll, Sideslip, Speed of sound, Yaw, Zenith
• Vessel (15):
  • Burn time, Command crew capacity, Fuel percentage, Number of parts, Stage fuel percentage, Stage ISP Actual, Stage ISP ASL, Stage ISP Vac, Stage Thrust ASL, Stage Thrust Vac, Stage TWR ASL, Stage TWR Vac, Throttle, Total ∆v ASL, Total ∆v Vac
• Maneuver (22):
  • Argument of periapsis, Eccentric anomaly, Eccentricity, Inclination, Longitude of ascending node, Mean anomaly, Orbit percent, Orbit time, Orbital energy, Period, Semi latus rectum, Semi major axis, Semi minor axis, Time to apoapsis, Time to periapsis, True anomaly, Universal Time, UT at closest approach, UT at SOI encounter, ∆v prograde, ∆v normal, ∆v radial
• Target (26):
  • Altitude from sea level, Argument of periapsis, Body radius, Eccentric anomaly, Eccentricity, Inclination, Longitude of ascending node, Mean anomaly, Name, Orbit radius, Orbit time, Orbital speed, Period, Phase Angle, Semi latus rectum, Semi major axis, Semi minor axis, Standard gravitation parameter, Distance at close approach 1, Distance at close approach 2, Relative speed at close approach 1, Relative speed at close approach 2, Time to close approach 1, Time to close approach 2, Transfer Angle, True anomaly
• Body (2):
  • Radius, Standard gravitation parameter
• Misc (11):
  • Altimeter mode, Autopilot mode, Autopilot status, Launch time, Local gravity, Speed mode, Start UT, Time since launch, Universal Time, UT Close Approach, UT SOI encounter

--

Themes:

--

Open editing window by clicking the gear icon:

--

Decrease or increase number of decimal digits per entry:

--

Units automatically scale for bigger values:

--

Manipulate maneuver nodes:

--

Open settings by clicking the gear icon:

--

Pop out windows and drag them wherever you want:

--

That is all, have fun!

 

FYI @linuxgurugamer, you asked for additional maneuver info (inclination, eccentricity, etc.)

Edited April 27, 2023 by Falki

[schlosrat]

This is an amazing update to an already amazing mod! Well done!

[Scarecrow71]

Wow.  The work you've done here is superb.  Super superb. Super duper super superb.

[Falki]

Micro Engineer v1.0.1

• Fixed main window from twitching when the window height exceeds the available screen size.

Edited April 27, 2023 by Falki

[FirroSeranel]

On 4/20/2023 at 2:06 AM, Falki said:

What's currently mostly being done is dumping information about staging directly from the game, with some additional calculation to get sea level TWR & deltaV on other celestial bodies. If the game makes a mistake, Micro Engineer will happily forward that mistake

For torque, it's exactly as you described. Ackward thing is that you have to have CoM and CoT turned on to get positions of vectors. For some future version we'll have to manually calculate CoM and CoT by going through all the parts. 

Ah, yeah, and the game happily makes lots of mistakes. xD

I don't think it's that big of a deal to need CoM and CoT on, honestly. If I'm tweaking thrust vectoring and balance, I almost certainly have those on anyway. Calculating it manually might be quite the pain, too, because of the ability to have multiple crafts in the VAB at once. Depending on how the "active launch vehicle" flag is done and exposed, anyway, if it ends up way, way easier to keep it how it is, I don't see a particular problem.

If you want to be more ambitious, I might suggest integrating RCS Build Aid's functionality (basically just torque from RCS systems along each control axis). The only trouble with RCS Build Aid is that it stopped getting maintained, and because it's a fairly small, niche feature set, nobody adopted it.

Something like this is so essential that even if you get tired of maintaining it, _someone_ will pick it up, you know? So integrating it would make sure that functionality is always available.

[munix]

5 minutes ago, FirroSeranel said:

The only trouble with RCS Build Aid is that it stopped getting maintained, and because it's a fairly small, niche feature set, nobody adopted it.

Just to address that, I use the mod all the time on KSP 1.12.5, and haven't had any issues (which is I imagine why it hasn't had any updates in 2 years, the game hasn't really changed since then, and I haven't seen any complaints in its thread that would require an update to be released)

 

[FirroSeranel]

Just now, munix said:

Just to address that, I use the mod all the time on KSP 1.12.5, and haven't had any issues (which is I imagine why it hasn't had any updates in 2 years, the game hasn't really changed since then, and I haven't seen any complaints in its thread that would require an update to be released)

 

Yeah, I still use it too, but because it hasn't been on CKAN as compatible (without old versions checked), new players don't even know it exists. Since all it would seemingly take to get it current again is literally changing the version limits in its config files, it'd be nice if someone adopted it and did that, or forked it and did that... but that's a lot of responsibility to take on if it ever breaks due to some unforeseen future update. Not that that's likely anymore, but... still.

If its core functionality was integrated into the core engineering data mod of KSP2, then it'd always be maintained for sure... even if it's only numerical torque readouts rather than the graphical right-hand-rule arrows, although I do love the wet/dry/average CoM markers as well.

[Falki]

Micro Engineer v1.0.2

• Fixed popped out windows sometimes getting bugged

[ManuxKerb]

Thanks for this mod! Cant live without it!

But: i Play with 4k and the windows and the writeing is really really tiny and i already got glases....

Could you make the font size changeable like with a slider or something ?

Thanks!

[Poppa Wheelie]

Thank you for this mod!

I'm seeing a discrepancy between TWR calculated in the VAB, and TWR on the surface of Eve.

In the VAB my vehicle shows TWR of 1.44 for Eve, but on the surface of Eve I see a TWR of 0.80.  I think the 0.80 is more accurate, because this thing will not lift off.

I landed this on Eve.  TWR for liftoff stage shows 1.44

This is what I actually attempt to liftoff from Eve.  TWR still shows 1.44

On the surface of Eve, however, TWR now shows 0.80

[Falki]

@Poppa Wheelie, for surface level TWR you should look at the SLT metric (Surface Level TWR). It shows 0.74 on your screenshot, which is close to the actual value of 0.80. To get the exact value some more calculations need to be performed, but this is close enough to be usable.

13 hours ago, ManuxKerb said:

Could you make the font size changeable like with a slider or something ?

Text scalability is on the TODO lost, although a bit longer one

Yes, current scaling is built for 2560x1440 or 1920x1080 really. 

Edited May 4, 2023 by Falki

[Poppa Wheelie]

6 hours ago, Falki said:

for surface level TWR you should look at the SLT metric (Surface Level TWR)

OK, thanks!

[Omar X]

On 4/29/2023 at 4:55 PM, munix said:

Just to address that, I use the mod all the time on KSP 1.12.5, and haven't had any issues (which is I imagine why it hasn't had any updates in 2 years, the game hasn't really changed since then, and I haven't seen any complaints in its thread that would require an update to be released)

 

You are correct. Just because a mod has not been updated in a long time, does not mean it won't work. I used RCS Build Aid today. I'm running 314 mods in KSP1, and some of them have not been updated in years.

[Falki]

Micro Engineer v1.1.0 "Snap & Rename"

• Added window snapping (can be turned off in settings)
• Added renaming of individual entries by user
• Add support for SpaceWarp 1.2.0 (mod_id discontinued in favor of BepInEx GUID); backward compatibility with SW 1.1.x retained

Snapping:

Renaming:

[Falki]

Micro Engineer 1.2.0 "UITK overhaul"

UI overhaul: switch from IMGUI to UI Toolkit (UITK):

• New Flight scene windows
• New EditWindows window
• New OAB StageInfo window

Main user feature of UI Toolkit is optimization, as UITK uses events to make changes to the UI, it's not being redrawn several times per frame.
Also, UI will automatically rescale to any resolution user selects.

Other changes:

• "ALT + E" can be used to open in-flight and OAB GUI
• edit windows: double-clicking an entry automatically installs/removes it
• stage info window is now also editable
• if upgrading from a previous version:
  • window layout will be reset due to intensive changes made to the UI
  • all leftover images in ..\assets\images\ can be safely deleted - except icon.png(!)

Dependencies:

• Space Warp + BepInEx - v1.3.0.3 or later
• UITK for KSP2 - v1.4.0 or later

Developer notes:

• UITK uses asset bundles to load UXML, USS and image files. They are located in ..\assets\bundles\microengineer_flightui.bundle & microengineer_oabui.bundle
• UI was created in Unity Editor, version 2020.3.33f1. Source Unity files are located in (github source): ..\UnityProject\

Flight windows:

Stage Info in VAB:

Edit windows:

Edited June 28, 2023 by Falki