Firespitter propeller plane and helicopter parts v7.1 (May 5th) for KSP 1.0

[Shadowmage]

Hey this might be a bit of a stupid question but is there a way to change the value for how fast you can go in water with the floats? I was messing around with making boats but can only go 125m/s as that is the cap, is there an easy way to change this?

125m/s = 450kph = 279.61695mph (unless my math is way off...)

I'm not sure you can realistically go much faster on water without rapid disintegration problems (and probably not even that fast? ... not really a boat guy.)

Okay, so a quick wikipedia search turned up some speed records for water-surface travel:

317.596 mph (511.121 km/h) by Ken Warby on 8 October 1978 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_speed_record)

(and there is an 80% fatality rate associated with water-speed record attempts... rapid disintegration at those speeds is very real).

Not many people are aware of just how fast 30m/s really is, let alone 125m/s ....

--

Sorry, but no, I do not know of a way to change the speed cap, just adding some information for reference and perspective.

[Fengist]

Plugin feature request:

1: FSplanePropellerSpinner - rotation speed based on throttle position.

2: FSplanePropellerSpinner - rotation direction based on FSswitchEngineThrustTransform direction.

Though I'm probably the only modder out there that could use these changes it would really add to the realism of my parts. Since all of the spinning parts I create are either submerged or partially submerged in water I cannot use the useRotorDiscSwap as the alpha textures vanish under water. These two changes to the plugin would mostly affect an upcoming release of paddlewheel boats and would allow the paddles to spin based on throttle position and direction. Would add a lot of realism to my mod. I'm currently using prop spinner to rotate the paddlewheels but it's rather unrealistic as once they start spinning, they don't stop.

I'd attempt to fork the code myself but my programming skills are in pascal and php, not c#.

Thanks!

[V8jester]

Plugin feature request:

1: FSplanePropellerSpinner - rotation speed based on throttle position.

2: FSplanePropellerSpinner - rotation direction based on FSswitchEngineThrustTransform direction.

Though I'm probably the only modder out there that could use these changes it would really add to the realism of my parts. Since all of the spinning parts I create are either submerged or partially submerged in water I cannot use the useRotorDiscSwap as the alpha textures vanish under water. These two changes to the plugin would mostly affect an upcoming release of paddlewheel boats and would allow the paddles to spin based on throttle position and direction. Would add a lot of realism to my mod. I'm currently using prop spinner to rotate the paddlewheels but it's rather unrealistic as once they start spinning, they don't stop.

I'd attempt to fork the code myself but my programming skills are in pascal and php, not c#.

Thanks!

I like the idea of reversing the rotation, I build a lot of tilt rotor aircraft and both / all 4 rotors spinning in the same direction can take away from the "scale" appearance. The trick with that is you would need an entirely reversed rotor and animation. I wonder if it could be done without adding additional parts to the editor. It's really just a nit picky visual thing but it would be great to have. And the speed changing in relation to throttle I thought the rotors already did that, but I could easily be wrong.

[amankd]

made a quick tutorial on modding firespitter engines from scratch

[Fengist]

I like the idea of reversing the rotation, I build a lot of tilt rotor aircraft and both / all 4 rotors spinning in the same direction can take away from the "scale" appearance. The trick with that is you would need an entirely reversed rotor and animation. I wonder if it could be done without adding additional parts to the editor. It's really just a nit picky visual thing but it would be great to have. And the speed changing in relation to throttle I thought the rotors already did that, but I could easily be wrong.

With the propspinner procedure you can change the direction of rotation but it's in the .cfg. You set the rotation speed to positive or negative depending on which direction you want them to spin. But, then every part with that rotation spins the same direction. Since individual engines can be reversed with firespitter I'm assuming that having an option to reverse the spin is a matter of multiplying the speeed by -1.

As for speed, it's a constant of the propspinner in the .cfg. While it slowly builds up to that speed, once achieved, that's where it stays. Since firespitter can detect throttle positions I imagine that rotation speed can be achieved by having the rotation speed being a percentage based on throttle position and max rotation speed.

If I could code in C# it doesn't sound that difficult. Alas, I cannot.

[GDJ]

Hey Firespitter developers:

First off, thank you all for your hard work over the years with Firespitter. For me it's my #1 mod to get since 0.18.4.

Second, and I apologize if this has been mentioned before, I'm having issues with the Bomber wings, specifically the extender that goes between the fuselage and the painted bomber wing. Pics to clarify:

As you can see, the wings are there and all is good. But the issue pops up when I try to relocate the wings by grabbing the extender:

One wing disappears completely, and the extender is unresponsive.

But the outer (painted) wing is still "clickable":

I entered the debug screen and it came up with this.

Currently using KSP 1.04, Firespitter 7.1.4 and I do have some mods that use the Firespitter plugin and they seem to be working alright (Maritime Pack for example).

If you need more info from me, please don't hesitate to ask.

EDIT - Went into the console logs for KSP and here's the text just after I loaded the bomber in the pics:

[LOG 13:20:54.173] create guideLine

[LOG 13:20:54.173] create wheelLine

[EXC 13:20:54.194] NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object

ModuleControlSurface.CtrlSurfaceEditorUpdate (Vector3 CoM)

ModuleControlSurface.LateUpdate ()

[EXC 13:20:54.195] NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object

ModuleControlSurface.CtrlSurfaceEditorUpdate (Vector3 CoM)

ModuleControlSurface.LateUpdate ()

Hope this helps.

Edited July 29, 2015 by GDJ

[General Venter]

First off, i would like to say I absoultely love this mod! Is my number one and only one! Thank you so much for it and we really aprecciate it.

Second off, i know creating new parts is really difficult. REALLY REALLY DIFFICULT. And it consumes sooo much time. But i am wondering when we are gonna see new pieces. I am burning for those me 262 parts mentioned in the todo list. Anyways, I will continue to support this mod and am more than pleased with your efforts

Happy Kerbalkilling

General Venter

[Snjo]

made a quick tutorial on modding firespitter engines from scratch https://youtu.be/vrmyEgu6sMI

For part makers who want some insight into how some of the models are arranged, you can take a look at this dump of my model folder https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22972712/ksp%20forum/Firespitter%20model%20source.zip.

It's a mess, and mostly made for the Unity 4, but if you can wade through it, and assume which file is more relevant based on the date, you can maybe learn how propeller blur discs, wheel setups or wings control surfaces are done.

License: Do whatever you want with these files, modify, redistribute etc.

Warning: 546MB zip file. No logical system.

[RoverDude]

...best license and warning ever....

[Artfact]

Hey there,

I'm having trouble with the FS4LGS Biplane Single Landing Gear. Can't seem to make a stable craft with these (while I have in the past) planes always bounce out of control before gaining enough speed to take off.

Using FAR might have changed dynamics on them.

I'm sure the crappy standard runway doesn't help in any case.

Anyone else having trouble with these? Tips for using them?

Otherise: love Firespitter. It's added so much more to aircraft creation in career mode instead of going straight into jet planes. Thanks!

[loler43214]

made a quick tutorial on modding firespitter engines from scratch https://youtu.be/vrmyEgu6sMI

Was this a Halo inspired engine.

Edited July 31, 2015 by loler43214

[volcanicshrimp]

Are the engines realistically underpowered or just underpowered? My 6 engine electric mk3 plane with 8 1.1 size blades per 0.5 size engine at 600 rpm (If I change the rpm in the editor it doesn't actually change anything in flight) can barely reach 100 m/s and the max thrust from each engine is about 29.

Also the only thing which changes the thrust in the editor is the engine size (according to the right click menu) so a 12 blade engine with size 3 blades at 1000 rpm would provide the same thrust as a 2 blade engine with size 0.3 blades at 100 rpm. When I tested this in flight the same was true:

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Another thing, it's a bit confusing having some engines in the fuel tanks tab.

Edited August 3, 2015 by volcanicshrimp

[Argonicus]

What it may be?

LOG 01:25:26.564] Load(Model): Firespitter/Parts/Wheel/FS_apacheLandingGear/model

[ERR 01:25:26.573] WheelCollider requires an attached Rigidbody to function.

[ERR 01:25:26.573] WheelCollider requires an attached Rigidbody to function.

I found this in my KSP log file.

Reason why i start digging is when i launch rocket from VAB i got stuck. No crash log, no CPU/HDD/memory overload, just stuck. I can kill the process and that all.

Posible reason in 64x version, but this bug not came from start. Tomorrow i will make new copy from steam and install modes one by one...

[Kermen]

I'm sorry if this is addressed somewhere, but why do so many other mods package [parts of?] this mod? I've never used a single part from it, but I always wind up with a FireSpitter folder in my GameData directory.

[Drew Kerman]

What it may be?

LOG 01:25:26.564] Load(Model): Firespitter/Parts/Wheel/FS_apacheLandingGear/model

[ERR 01:25:26.573] WheelCollider requires an attached Rigidbody to function.

[ERR 01:25:26.573] WheelCollider requires an attached Rigidbody to function.

I found this in my KSP log file.

Reason why i start digging is when i launch rocket from VAB i got stuck. No crash log, no CPU/HDD/memory overload, just stuck. I can kill the process and that all.

Posible reason in 64x version, but this bug not came from start. Tomorrow i will make new copy from steam and install modes one by one...

that's a harmless error AKAIK - you'll see it pop up for every single wheel part you have installed. At least, I always have

[V8jester]

I'm sorry if this is addressed somewhere, but why do so many other mods package [parts of?] this mod? I've never used a single part from it, but I always wind up with a FireSpitter folder in my GameData directory.

When other mods use Firespitter. They are typical just using the firespitter plugin to handle functions of there parts. For instance propellers are something you will almost always see using the firespitter plugin. Firespitter is one of the older and really staple mods of KSP. So there are a lot of people that will work off of Snjo and RoverDude's work, to save them having to write a whole new plugin to do what they need when a perfectly good one exists.

[volcanicshrimp]

The custom lift code wings still seem to destroy the universe and leave my craft in a totally featureless area of space moving at NaN m/s. I had to restart ksp to fix it and then a probe which had been in orbit was missing.

The fighter liquid fuel propeller is also missing an air intake. It still spins until you throttle up then it flames out but idk if ksp's engine stuff lets you prevent it from spinning unless the engine has fuel and air.

Edited August 6, 2015 by volcanicshrimp

[Reiver]

I only just tried this mod yesterday, and I love it!

That said, what I was looking for was propellers. While I have full kudos to the wide range of nifty toys on hand, I'm finding the plethora of vintage aeroplane parts is clogging up my inventories a little. Is there a 'lightweight' version of this mod (or perhaps related mods entirely) that just comes with the propellers?

My current goal is Eve-based aircraft to support a colony base, so the extras are a little superfluous (Though I suspect I'll be putting the thing wholesale into my separate spaceplane install, for when I'm flying with my joystick )

[TUKE]

I only just tried this mod yesterday, and I love it!

That said, what I was looking for was propellers. While I have full kudos to the wide range of nifty toys on hand, I'm finding the plethora of vintage aeroplane parts is clogging up my inventories a little. Is there a 'lightweight' version of this mod (or perhaps related mods entirely) that just comes with the propellers?

My current goal is Eve-based aircraft to support a colony base, so the extras are a little superfluous (Though I suspect I'll be putting the thing wholesale into my separate spaceplane install, for when I'm flying with my joystick )

Try KAX (Kerbal Aircraft Expansion) it only has engines and a few other parts.

[Reiver]

Try KAX (Kerbal Aircraft Expansion) it only has engines and a few other parts.

Ooh - thanks! I'll give it a go.

[TUKE]

Would it be possible to have it so that an engine will stop working and blow smoke when temp gets to a certain point?

Because it nice for use with BD Armory, as an engine could be just disabled rather than completely destroyed, as it take a rather big round to completely destroy an engine.

[Planet missions]

Love it!:P:0.0:

[Spacefarer]

Snjo, a huge thank you for wonderful mod.

I've got a little idea for you:

is it possible to make procedural coaxial rotors (NK-12) and heli. blades (like on Ka-50/Ka-52)?

[bartekkru99]

Is there any way to reverse rotor rotation (I know it sounds kinda silly)? I'm now working on attack gunship using intermeshing rotors and I don'y know how to do it. It would also help with tandem rotors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermeshing_rotors

[will 146]

Here goes a noob question, but rotors, and all of the other tweakable engines dont work, they just, sit there, when i open the rightclick menu it says, flameout, intake air deprived. I'd be forever in your debt if you helped me out here, thanks in advance, will.