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

[InfiniteDice]

ICE (engines for firespitter bi-planes) is up!

Comes with the German Oberursel UR.II engine, and cool new tweakable params in the hangar. Also as a bonus, I've implemented a rudimentary Gui Multi throttle, to allow some basic throttle control on a per engine basis. (not perfected yet).

My procedure for taking off using Snjos bi-planes with ICE engines.

1) on the runway keep the stock ksp throttle at 0 this keeps snjos tail dragger braking.

2) set the gui throttle to on, and the throttle to 0.2 == 20%

3) click autostart

4) let it warm up to 60 or so.

5) put the KSP throttle to 1/3 and click off the gui throttle. ( now you're back to normal throttle use) you'll also start moving now

6) takeoff!

For landing set the gui throttle to 0.1 and turn it on. this will put the engine to the lowest it can Idle. or... you can keep the throttle up and put the prop pitch slider to 0. this will let you slow down but the engine won't stall... to abort landing click prop pitch back to 1 and you'll be back on the power again!

Have fun everyone!

[Madrias]

Just had to try it, and sadly, no surprises if you cycle all the way around the Cycles counter for maintenance. No, it didn't take long, no, my mouse doesn't need replacing, nor does my hand hurt. But honestly I didn't expect anything in the counter anyway.

Anyway, I'm back to edit here again. Anyone know of a mod with some good machine guns to go with my new fighter plane?

Edited December 18, 2013 by Madrias

[ultrasquid]

Anyway, I'm back to edit here again. Anyone know of a mod with some good machine guns to go with my new fighter plane?

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/42189-0-22-GatlingGun-mod Might have what you're looking for.

[lttito]

Hi Snjo,

one thing I noticed in your mod for 0.23:

In SPH, after using your parts. when pushing the CoM button, the CoM mark appears for a second and then dissapear. I looked at the debug log but nothing seems wrong.

When flying, using SAS gyroscope and turning on SAS makes the plane fly wobbly (pitching up and down constantly), I think tryng to correct the trajectory. When deactivating SAS plane flies straight as an arrow. Is there any parameter in the config to reduce the force (or something like that) of the SAS?

Besides that minor (bugs?), your mod is marvelous, the first I installed in 0.23, and one of my must-have mods.

Thanks for your work and dedication, bringing more awesomeness to the awesome world of KSP.

[Snjo]

Hi Snjo,

one thing I noticed in your mod for 0.23:

In SPH, after using your parts. when pushing the CoM button, the CoM mark appears for a second and then dissapear. I looked at the debug log but nothing seems wrong.

When flying, using SAS gyroscope and turning on SAS makes the plane fly wobbly (pitching up and down constantly), I think tryng to correct the trajectory. When deactivating SAS plane flies straight as an arrow. Is there any parameter in the config to reduce the force (or something like that) of the SAS?

Besides that minor (bugs?), your mod is marvelous, the first I installed in 0.23, and one of my must-have mods.

Thanks for your work and dedication, bringing more awesomeness to the awesome world of KSP.

http://i.imgur.com/YQP9mTv.png

Awesome car. It totally justifies those silly red parts

I noticed that weight bug too. Looking into it further, it only seems to happen after right clicking an engine with electric charge on it...

Digging deeper.

[ColinR]

I have a problem when ever I use the mod and use propeller engines there is no sound for the engines. why?

[Bugger Burger]

This is an amazing mod, but it seems to have some conflicting issues with the Ferram Aerospace Research mod. I've brought the issues up in the FAR thread, but the owner of FAR said that it was one of your custom aerodynamic modules breaking his mod.

Heres my post in that thread containing some information

Here's two output logs in one ZIP folder. Pastebin won't allow me to paste them due to the file size, so I put them in a Zip folder.

http://www./download/1vmtuj7yscfh9wh/Logs.zip

They only seem to crash when I'm recording with Fraps.

I have a feeling it's something to do with the Biplane's wings, because for some odd reason a propeller plane can reach speeds of Mach 1 and beyond

http://i.imgur.com/hcbIaD4.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/QF6KHVX.jpg

Like I mentioned earlier, some even go insanely fast, enough to crash the game.

http://tinypic.com/r/29fz3ua/5

[Snjo]

I have a problem when ever I use the mod and use propeller engines there is no sound for the engines. why?

This is usually because the folder is in the wrong place or has been renamed. It should be in a location like KSP_win\GameData\Firespitter

This is an amazing mod, but it seems to have some conflicting issues with the Ferram Aerospace Research mod. I've brought the issues up in the FAR thread, but the owner of FAR said that it was one of your custom aerodynamic modules breaking his mod.

Here's my post in that thread containing some information

I forgot to mention in the patch notes that FAR support is not yet implemented for the new wings. When I've made some FAR values for them, the custom lift will be disabled automatically so there is no conflict.

[The Spacemonkey]

I just thought of something. What if someone made a replica Wright brothers flying machine!

[qwertyx2y]

Quick question, will the other parts eventually get other textures, because I want to make a RAF mustang and a accurate Hannover, one last thing, could you add the dope fabric color so it is possible to make a Be2c?

[Snjo]

I just thought of something. What if someone made a replica Wright brothers flying machine!

Quick question, will the other parts eventually get other textures, because I want to make a RAF mustang and a accurate Hannover, one last thing, could you add the dope fabric color so it is possible to make a Be2c?

I've made it quite easy to make an alternate texture that will be applied to many parts at once. in the biplane\textures folder, you will find the common texture for all biplane parts, and the simple ones used by the oblong parts tex switcher.

I'm thinking of adding a tan coloured one with some optional french insignia, that would also work well for Wright Flyers etc. The cool thing about this module is that adding a new texture to all the parts will only use a single new texture file, so the memory impact is negligible and updating it is a breeze.

The only tedious part is adding that extra texture line to all the parts that will have it as an option. I hope you will find it easy to make the crazy colour schemes that were found in many of the WWI era planes.

The tex looks like this and is used both for the cockpit and the wings

Click to embiggen

The UV guide + annotated

part.cfg setup

MODULE
 {
	name = FStextureSwitch	
	textures
	{
		name = Firespitter/Parts/biPlane/textures/biPlaneGreen
		name = Firespitter/Parts/biPlane/textures/biPlaneRed
		name = Firespitter/Parts/biPlane/textures/fuselageRed
	}
	objects
	{
		name = obj_main
		name = obj_ctrlSrf
	}	
 }

Edited December 19, 2013 by Snjo

[bs1110101]

Would you please make a turret part and bigger biplane wings (or a biplane style procedural wings) for bombers.

[Snjo]

Would you please make a turret part and bigger biplane wings (or a biplane style procedural wings) for bombers.

A bomber wing overhaul, bomb bays and droppers, and hopefully some working turrets will be the bi-product of the Lancaster update.

There will of course also be the parts needed to create the civilian version, the Lancastrian. Namely some small and large oblong nose cones in place of nose windows and turrets.

All of these things are still in the planning stage however, so don't expect them straight away. I still have smaller updates to do on the current part set.

[bs1110101]

All i meant by turrets are turret shaped bits that hold a kerbal kinda like what's on this

Really, what i'm asking for are parts to make something like this properly

Edited December 20, 2013 by bs1110101

[Snjo]

Yeah, I see what you mean, but without working turrets that can be controlled from that IVA position, it's jumping the gun a bit.

I'm planning on making a turret where you can control the gun from the IVA view, the gun tracking your camera, and optionally looking down the gun sights and having mouse aiming.

[Snjo]

Oh, youtube!

[T-Pilot395]

Oh, youtube!

-image-

Dammit I clicked on it thinking it was a video!

Oh youtube captions!

[Boamere]

ahahah.. DAMN YOU YOUTUBE

anyway I think I've found a buuuuuug!

look what happens to the centre of mass

ITS GORN!

[Snjo]

Yeah, I've noticed it happens on engines with electric charge as a resource because of the generator. I'll be testing that further and patching it. Cause CoM is kinda important.

This is some new fancy 0.23 bug, cause I made no changes to the engines. Maybe to do with the fact that electric charge has no mass.

edit: for now, if you tweak the amount of electric charge (from NaN to 0), the ball comes back until you right click the engine again

Edited December 20, 2013 by Snjo

[Boamere]

.

edit: for now, if you tweak the amount of electric charge (from NaN to 0), the ball comes back until you right click the engine again

Cool thanks

[Talisar]

Just wanted to pop in and say that I love the way you integrated the FSTextureSwitch into the tweakables menu. Works great!

[Madrias]

These are fun! Flying around Kerbin in style, and being a little crazy at the same time.

[Snjo]

v6.1

Download

-FAR values added to biplane wings and F-86 wings (FAR is optional as always!)

-CoM indicator bug fixed, replace engines on existing craft for a fix. (Removed 0/0 electric resource node from engines)

-Some wings have had module changes, which will reset the texture selection. For craft already in flight, you can EVA a Kerbal an Repaint the part.

-All example craft renamed with the prefix FS to make them easier to find

-Guide PDF updated

-Added Normal map (etc) switching support to FStextureSwitch

edit: note that when flying biplanes with FAR, they have FAR consistent lift values, which require a much higher speed, and can be scary to land with just the narrow biplane wheels.

Edited December 21, 2013 by Snjo

[SnappingTurtle]

edit: note that when flying biplanes with FAR, they have FAR consistent lift values, which require a much higher speed, and can be scary to land with just the narrow biplane wheels.

I like FAR and Firespitter but I don't like the sound of this. Is it because FAR assumes symmetric airfoils?

[Snjo]

I like FAR and Firespitter but I don't like the sound of this. Is it because FAR assumes symmetric airfoils?

No, it's because the wing values, both for FAR and FS are based on the size of the wing, but FAR values provide something close to the stock lift amount.

To get the planes taking off and landing at realistic speeds, I increased the amount of lift they produce almost four times in the FS values.

Generally planes fly way too fast in KSP, and I didn't want that for these historic planes. As an example, the real take off speed of a Sopwith Camel is 39 knots, the take off speed before the tweak, using stock equivalent lift was 80 knots.

I increased the lift, so the take off speed is now around 50 knots. Still faster than real life, but much better behaved than stock. A major factor in the take off and landing problems in KSP is the horrible, awful nature of the wheel collider code. People veer off the runway or skid, flip and bounce on landing, because you are going too fast. Lowering the take off and landing speed fixes these issues.

I could of course fake the FAR values to be higher to bring them in line, but I figured some feedback from actual FAR users could set me on the right path.

So FARstronauts, what do you think?

edit: Oh, and there is a problem in FAR where I can only set the span, and not the total area, but that would probably only increase the lift to maybe 150%

Edited December 21, 2013 by Snjo