Flight Plan [0.10.7 for KSP2 v0.2.2+]

[schlosrat]

19 hours ago, Jhaxxar said:

Thanks for the link, I have just downloaded the latest FP too. Really should help a lot.

Great! In other good news MNC is now updated on SpaceDock as well to 0.9.3, so you can get that from the official site too.

Also, I've just produced a video demo for how to use Flight Plan to perform an orbital rendezvous. I did it with a developmental version of FP that I expect to release soon as 0.8.8, but 0.8.7 will do all the same things except it doesn't have the new node quality messages. As a picture is worth a thousand words, I figure a video is probably worth closer to a million, right? Well, in any event this should help convey how to use FP in general.

 

Edited May 21, 2023 by schlosrat
Updated video

[schlosrat]

Here's another demo video, this time showing how to use Flight Plan, together with Maneuver Node Controller and K2-D2 to take a quick trip to Minmus. There's ahigh degree of synergy with these three apps, and using them together can really help make things easier for you. In this video you'll see 

• Use Flight Plan to easily select a distant celestial body
• Use Flight Plan to make a maneuver nodes
• Use Flight Plan to make a node to match planes with the selected target
• Use Flight Plan to have K2-D2 perform a precision node execution
• Use Flight Plan to plot a Hohmann transfer to Minmus at the optimal time
• Use Maneuver Node Controller to make precise edits to a node
• Use K2-D2 to warp to the next SOI change
• Use Flight Plan to change the orbital inclination after a fixed time
• Use Flight Plan to change the Periapsis after a fixed time
• Use Flight Plan to circularize at the next Periapsis

 

 

Edited May 21, 2023 by schlosrat
Updated video link

[schlosrat]

In this video we see how to use Flight Plan, along with K2-D2 and Maneuver Node Controller, to take a trip from Kerbin all the way to Dres. This is one of the harder destinations to get to in the Kerbol system due to it's small size and modest orbital inclination. Starting out in a Low Kerbin Orbit this demo shows how to use Flight Plan, Maneuver Node Controller, and K2-D2 to perform the following actions and maneuvers needed for a trip to distant and dusty Dres

• Use Flight Plan to easily select a distant celestial body
• Use Flight Plan to make a maneuver nodes
• Use Flight Plan to have K2-D2 perform a precision node execution
• Use Flight Plan to plot and execute a Hohmann transfer to Dres at the optimal time
• Use K2-D2 to warp to just past an SOI boundary
• Use Flight Plan to plot a Course Correction to improve an planetary intercept
• Use Maneuver Node Controller to fine tune a node
• Use Flight Plan to Circularize at the next periapsis
• Use Flight Plan to change the periapsis after a fixed time

 

 

 

[schlosrat]

Updated to 0.8.8

• Added node quality estimation to aid in evaluating the quality of nodes. The user may now set their own threshold for what is good enough via the configuration parameters for Large % Error Threashold and Small % Error Threashold. If the percent error between the sought value (e.g. inclination) and the obtained value is greater than the large % error threshold, then the status is set to error (red text) and MNC is automatically launched if auto-launch is enabled). If the % error is between the large and small values, then the status is set to warning (yellow text) and MNC is automatically launched if auto-launch is enabled. If the % error is below the small value, then the status is set to OK (green text) and MNC is not launched.
• Rendezvous maneuver guidance has been improved to give better hints to the user about what they need to do next.
• Now requires Node Manager 0.5.4 as the automatic node deletions are calling a function to only delete nodes in the past.

https://github.com/schlosrat/FlightPlan/releases/download/0.8.8/flight_plan_v0.8.8.zip

FYI - this is the version used in the videos linked above.

[Cable Guy]

Been waiting for a MechJeb analogy and I am stoked with this mod. I have a question and a suggestion....

Question: Will you be adding functionality where we can select a target location on a planet for landing...? This would be great for landings at established bases and was an existing feature in MechJeb.

Suggestion: Something that MechJeb lacked in KSP1 was the ability to plot ummm... "Ballistic Transfers" so that you could land at a base, collect resources and takeoff in a ballistic trajectory to land at a second base (sometimes just a few hundred meters away, sometimes several hundreds of kilometers). How hard would it be to add something like that?

Once again saying that I am absolutely stoked with this so far...!!

Edit: Oh hello K2D2.... You might just be able to cater to my needs.

Edited May 23, 2023 by Cable Guy
My Bad.

[Jhaxxar]

I have a problem. I have installed KS-V0.4.1.1, NM V0.5.3,  MNC V0.9.3, K2-D2 V0.9.0, and FP V0.8.8.  All I have done sense a couple of days ago was upgrade FP to V0.8.8. Now Flight Plan no longer shows in the Mod Tab.  I went back to FP V0.8.7 and all is well. 

     I have a 4K Monitor and run in a window Mode in order to get top Frame Rate. I have noticed that any text that is in RED is not readable.  Some fonts will not scale down very well.

[schlosrat]

1 hour ago, Jhaxxar said:

I have a problem. I have installed KS-V0.4.1.1, NM V0.5.3,  MNC V0.9.3, K2-D2 V0.9.0, and FP V0.8.8.  All I have done sense a couple of days ago was upgrade FP to V0.8.8. Now Flight Plan no longer shows in the Mod Tab.  I went back to FP V0.8.7 and all is well. 

     I have a 4K Monitor and run in a window Mode in order to get top Frame Rate. I have noticed that any text that is in RED is not readable.  Some fonts will not scale down very well.

@Jhaxxar, you need to update to Node Manager 0.5.4. With FP 0.8.8 it now depends on NM 0.5.4 as that gives it a function to selectively only delete nodes that are in the past - something NM 0.5.3 was not able to do. When you update your NM that should get you going. Here's a link:

https://github.com/schlosrat/NodeManager/releases/download/0.5.4/node_manager_v0.5.4.zip

You can also find it on SpaceDock here: https://spacedock.info/mod/3366/Node Manager

Or get it via CKAN.

9 hours ago, Cable Guy said:

Been waiting for a MechJeb analogy and I am stoked with this mod. I have a question and a suggestion....

Question: Will you be adding functionality where we can select a target location on a planet for landing...? This would be great for landings at established bases and was an existing feature in MechJeb.

Suggestion: Something that MechJeb lacked in KSP1 was the ability to plot ummm... "Ballistic Transfers" so that you could land at a base, collect resources and takeoff in a ballistic trajectory to land at a second base (sometimes just a few hundred meters away, sometimes several hundreds of kilometers). How hard would it be to add something like that?

Once again saying that I am absolutely stoked with this so far...!!

Edit: Oh hello K2D2.... You might just be able to cater to my needs.

@Cable Guy, Thanks! I do want to add a capability to paint a landing target on a celestial body and return the lat/lon for that point. That would then enable Flight Plan to prep a descent burn that you could turn over to K2-D2 for landing. It could also interface with KS2 that can take a lat/lon for landing guidance.

I like your idea for plotting ballistic trajectories! I'll look into it for use on airless bodies.

[schlosrat]

So, the next cool thing I hope to get into Flight Plan is an equivalent to the Mech Jeb Advanced Interplanetary Transfer, complete with porkchop plots and everything. It's not ready yet in that this is not generating nodes, but it can already make the porkchop plots and let you pick points off of them! Here's what it looks like so far.

Here's a sample of the porkchop from Kerbin to Eeloo.

 

 

Edited May 24, 2023 by schlosrat

[RaccoonTOF]

So, good news is that targeting docking ports works great now.  Bad news is - setting new AP in the Target Relative Maneuvers tab doesn't seem to work at all.  It seems to accept the entered value - but actually sets the node to the default 200km Ap regardless of the entered value.  EDIT: Note that it works fine when done on the Ownship Maneuvers tab, it's just the Target Relative Maneuvers tab that it fails.

Edited May 25, 2023 by RaccoonTOF

[schlosrat]

4 hours ago, RaccoonTOF said:

So, good news is that targeting docking ports works great now.  Bad news is - setting new AP in the Target Relative Maneuvers tab doesn't seem to work at all.  It seems to accept the entered value - but actually sets the node to the default 200km Ap regardless of the entered value.  EDIT: Note that it works fine when done on the Ownship Maneuvers tab, it's just the Target Relative Maneuvers tab that it fails.

Thanks for the feedback! I'll look into what may be causing that.

[schlosrat]

@RaccoonTOF, I've confirmed what you've observed and found a workaround. If you set a New Ap on the Target Relative Maneuvers tab, then switch to Ownship maneuvers I believe you'll see the new value. You can either execute that there, or you can switch back to Target Relative Maneuvers tab and your new value will work. That's not ideal, and a counterintuitive process, so I will clearly need to fix this - but until then it may get you working without an update.

Please try that and see if it works for you as well. In the meantime I'll see why this isn't working as intended.

Update: I've found the issue and corrected it in my dev build. This will roll out with the next update to FP (0.8.9).

Edited May 25, 2023 by schlosrat

[RaccoonTOF]

Yup, that's what I meant by my edit above, but good to know you found out why it fails on the target tab too

[Tundra]

WOW!  This is absolutely amazing work!  I am totally going to boot up KSP2 right now to try this out.  I don't know how I didn't find this sooner!    @schlosrat is an absolute legend! 

[schlosrat]

Tested with KSP2 0.1.3 and SpaceWarp 1.3.0. Things appear to be working fine, but you never know with a mod as complicated as this one. If you run into issues in the new version of the game please let me know.

FYI, I'm working on an update to Flight Plan which will stitch it over to using a UITK-based GUI (rather than IMGUI), as this is much more performant and will make a difference in the long run. As SpaceWarp 1.3.0 requires UITK for KSP2 1.3.0 itself, the added dependency will be covered in any case with no real impact unless you're just holding off on jumping to SpaceWarp 1.3.0 for some reason.

[Cable Guy]

I seem to have lost my mods... they're all still listed in the "Mods" dialog at opening screen, and they're all green as active with no updates... but in game they're missing from the uh.... whatever the nine-dice thingy is... 


Edit: Reinstalled game with latest mod packs... all good now. (Did not have to nix my save games) 

schlosrat, could you update the OP to include that you need UITK as well please... I keep forgetting that step.

Edited June 26, 2023 by Cable Guy

[schlosrat]

8 hours ago, Cable Guy said:

I seem to have lost my mods... they're all still listed in the "Mods" dialog at opening screen, and they're all green as active with no updates... but in game they're missing from the uh.... whatever the nine-dice thingy is... 


Edit: Reinstalled game with latest mod packs... all good now. (Did not have to nix my save games) 

schlosrat, could you update the OP to include that you need UITK as well please... I keep forgetting that step.

Technically, this version of FP doesn't need UITK, but SpaceWarp does, so I get where you're going here. That said, I'm soon to release a version of FP that overhauls the GUI, and that will require UITK. I plan to update the OP soon with that.

[Cable Guy]

No worries

I saw in the Mechjab discussion thread that someone asked if you were planning to include alignment functionality like in Mechjeb's ASS module. (Align to horizon, match/anti alignments with (set same or opposite alignment as) targets etc). It would be really handy for docking but it also really aids in rovers. I found that it (somewhat) aided in landings if you found yourself doing a Dukes of Hazard off a crater... Wondering if that's in your to-do list. 

Also... docking autopilot..!! Godamn I'd forgotten what a pain in the Boutros Boutros-Ghali manual docking is.

Edited June 27, 2023 by Cable Guy
spelling - doh

[schlosrat]

4 hours ago, Cable Guy said:

No worries

I saw in the Mechjab discussion thread that someone asked if you were planning to include alignment functionality like in Mechjeb's ASS module. (Align to horizon, match/anti alignments with (set same or opposite alignment as) targets etc). It would be really handy for docking but it also really aids in rovers. I found that it (somewhat) aided in landings if you found yourself doing a Dukes of Hazard off a crater... Wondering if that's in your to-do list. 

Also... docking autopilot..!! Godamn I'd forgotten what a pain in the Boutros Boutros-Ghali manual docking is.

Those are all great things that would improve the user's experience and I hope we see them soon! For all autopilot-related things Flight Plan relies on K2-D2, and I'd like to keep it that way, but I do hear you and agree these would be excellent features.  @cfloutier and I collaborate on these sorts of things, but it will be up to him to add those to K2-D2, and then up to me to get Flight Plan to use them. He's already got some fantastic capabilities that may help you with launch and landing, and he's actively developing K2-D2, so it's possible we may see a docking autopilot mode at some point. If so, I'll add a button in Flight Plan on the Target Relative Maneuvers tab so that when you've rendezvoused and have a docking port targeted you can turn that on.

[Westinghouse]

I just found about this mod from reading the MechJeb discussion thread. Really great to see @schlosrat! Looking forward to testing it out

[cfloutier]

I'm currently working on the docking pilot !!! this isn't very hard to code but it will take some more time... be patient It will worth it

[schlosrat]

1 hour ago, cfloutier said:

I'm currently working on the docking pilot !!! this isn't very hard to code but it will take some more time... be patient It will worth it

Awesome! This will add so much to complete the rendezvous and docking picture!

[Cable Guy]

19 hours ago, cfloutier said:

I'm currently working on the docking pilot !!! this isn't very hard to code but it will take some more time... be patient It will worth it

YES....!!!  We are not worthy....!
=======================

schlosrat, something I noticed when trying to rendezvous an engineless light docking hub using RCS burners (and bulk mono propellant)... if there is no "main" fuel supply Flightplan won't allow you to set a manoeuvre. Mechjeb would let you set the manoeuvre and if you were out of fuel would switch to trying to complete the manoeuvre as an RCS transition manoeuvre (think using RCS as an OMS).

Any chance you could add that ability in a future update?

Edited July 1, 2023 by Cable Guy

[schlosrat]

On 7/1/2023 at 4:20 AM, Cable Guy said:

schlosrat, something I noticed when trying to rendezvous an engineless light docking hub using RCS burners (and bulk mono propellant)... if there is no "main" fuel supply Flightplan won't allow you to set a manoeuvre. Mechjeb would let you set the manoeuvre and if you were out of fuel would switch to trying to complete the manoeuvre as an RCS transition manoeuvre (think using RCS as an OMS).

Any chance you could add that ability in a future update?

That’s not FP holding you back, it’s the game. They added that “feature” in 0.1.2 I believe where KSP will not allow you to create a node unless you’ve got an engine with fuel to do it. Given that there are satellites with just a little (or a lot) of RCS on them this is quite annoying! Personally, my use case is deploying small comm sats that have RCS only for maneuvering, but your use case is another really good one!

We should ask the Devs to set us free when there’s RCS available or at least to make this a player configurable setting. In the meantime I’ll see if there’s any way to patch the game to allow for this - but if there is then I think it might belong in the Community Fixes mod. My fist thought would be to implement it as an override that the player can configure to either (a) allow node creation no matter what, (b) allow if there’s RCS available, or (c) do nothing and let the game do it’s thing.

@cfloutier, If/when we get this sorted, then I think it would be a K2-D2 kind of thing to say “Hmmmm, we’re out of fuel for the main engine - Switching to RCS!” Part of what we need here is the autopilot to make or offer a switch to complete execution of a node.

Edited July 2, 2023 by schlosrat

[schlosrat]

@Cable Guy good news! I’m working on a fix that will roll out in the Community Fixes mod to address this. Should be out soon. I’ll post an update here once I’ve tested it to be sure it works right.

[schlosrat]

@Cable Guy I've submitted my first contribution to the Community Fixes mod. Once that contribution is accepted and rolled out, there will be a fix that allows you to either create and update nodes regardless of fuel or do so if your combined total DeltaV (engine + RCS) would allow you to achieve it. You can switch the fix off entirely to get the default game behavior, so basically there are three options: Default (fix is off), Total DeltaV limited (combined engine + RCS), or unlimited.

Now if @cfloutier might be so inclined as to allow/enable K2-D2 to step on the RCS gas pedal when he runs out of regular, you would get behavior more like old school KSP1 MJ where the autopilot will do whatever is necessary and possible to help you achieve your node. As I recall with MJ, that trick only worked if RCS was turned on. Presumably, that would be the same here too.