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

[royying]

I have a heavy seaplane, I need to click the right click menu thousand time to make it float

Can the seaplane float buoyancy have the action group and tweakable support?

Thanks!

[Snjo]

I have a heavy seaplane, I need to click the right click menu thousand time to make it float

Can the seaplane float buoyancy have the action group and tweakable support?

Thanks!

It's already in the pre-release

[Geschosskopf]

After building the float struts, try attaching the float wheels to your floats individually, without using symmetry. Since they align to attachment nodes it's only a minor inconvenience.

Not sure if that'll solve your problem, though.

It's some symmetry problem with this one plane. The wheel floats on the others, even saved designs from 0.22 using the 23 Dec version of 0.23 Firespitter, have the wheels working correctly. I solved the problem here by deleting the floats and rebuilding them from scratch. I think what happened was things got screwed up when I accidentally moved the whole wing, float and all, with only 1x symmetry in the SPH, then realized my mistake and cloned the wing with 2x symmetry.

[Madrias]

Out of curiosity, any chance for a 1m bomb bay? Possibly both in round and oblong configs?

[Pliuple]

Out of curiosity, any chance for a 1m bomb bay? Possibly both in round and oblong configs?

Im with yah on this, smaller bomb bays would be nice.

[SirusKing]

IMO, the mod itself looks fantastic but the parts look way too cartoony for me. Are there any completed texture packs that make it look more "Realistic"?

[InfiniteDice]

IMO, the mod itself looks fantastic but the parts look way too cartoony for me. Are there any completed texture packs that make it look more "Realistic"?

Snjo is probably the most accommodating modder for KSP out there, he includes templates so you can make your own textures and has manuals with instructions on how to get it working. That's more than I'd ever do!

IMO making your own textures is pretty easy and you can use gimp or other freeware tools to do it, so it only costs you time. Then you can share your texture packs with the rest of us!

[SirusKing]

Will do then!

[Justin Kerbice]

Hi snjo, thank for this great mod and set of parts. Textureswitch is an amazing idea !

I have two issues in 6.1.1 release:

- the small chopper or the vtol provided as examples looks very very light (more like RC model in fact) as engine generate lift instantly upon ignition even with throttle set quite low (similar to the massless parts referred above), I see for ex. the oblong fuselage have a 0.25 kg mass (which makes it weight less than 2.5 kgs on Kerbin, big battery = 8 kgs, main rotor large = 8kgs too, ... this is an amazing use of ultra lightweight materials )

EDIT: more precisions with some chopper/vtol tried

- apache3 : eng 75% throttle, chopper is lifted instantly before even the engine reach its target speed (visually + sound)

- FS86 : too much lift (it can glide with engine off) !

- Kerbocopter dognose : ok

- quadrocopter : even more crazy than apache3, it moves up immediatly despite engine have just been started

- vtol2 : same as previous

- the hovering incr/decr height is a pain to use (1 click to add/remove 10 m !) Could you change the UI a bit, perhaps like "engine thrust" setting with default 0 to 1000m and if possible increase min/max every 1 km, ie on the ground bar shows 0-1000, from 1000m => 1000-2000, ...

EDIT: I figure out that hover altitude is set dynamically, so +-10 by click is ok.

To end, any interest in making two stacked rotors like the russian Kamov chopper ?

Edited February 12, 2014 by Justin Kerbice

[Snjo]

Hi snjo, thank for this great mod and set of parts. Textureswitch is an amazing idea !

I have two issues in 6.1.1 release:

- the small chopper or the vtol provided as examples looks very very light (more like RC model in fact) as engine generate lift instantly upon ignition even with throttle set quite low (similar to the massless parts referred above), I see for ex. the oblong fuselage have a 0.25 kg mass (which makes it weight less than 2.5 kgs on Kerbin, big battery = 8 kgs, main rotor large = 8kgs too, ... this is an amazing use of ultra lightweight materials )

- the hovering incr/decr height is a pain to use (1 click to add/remove 10 m !) Could you change the UI a bit, perhaps like "engine thrust" setting with default 0 to 1000m and if possible increase min/max every 1 km, ie on the ground bar shows 0-1000, from 1000m => 1000-2000, ...

To end, any interest in making two stacked rotors like the russian Kamov chopper ?

1 mass is actually roughly 1 metric ton, as you will see if you do the volume calculations for the cylindrical parts. Meaning 0.25 mass is 250kg.

If you look at a fuel filled stock fuselage and subtract the weight of the fuel, the dry mass is pretty low. The MK1 is 0.35 mass dry, but for some odd reason they made the purely structural one heavier, at 0.4.

I try to base my parts weights on the fact that it's for an airplane, and therefore light. I don't think 250 kg is too light for an empty fuselage section section measuring 1.875m long, 1.25m tall and 0.925m wide. But then again, I've never tried building a real world fuselage out of aluminum, but a quick wolfram alpha check of the pure plate piece , assuming a 1mm plate gives 75kg.. Then there's also the internal structure, but I think it's still well within 250kg.

(edit: 1mm is actually overkill, it's probably more in the range 0.3 to 0.7mm, much like in a car)

I have a much smoother hovering system in the works on the new rotors, which I'll also probably add in to the older rotors.

Edited February 12, 2014 by Snjo

[Geschosskopf]

This is one of my favorite mods and I've used it since I started playing KSP. But I have a few minor nits to pick with the pontoons.

1. Pontoon Joint Strength

The pontoon parts just don't stick together very well. While this has improved significantly since about KSP 0.20, they're still pretty much limp noodles without lots of struts, especially where the wheel modules connect to the normal parts. Maybe KSP 0.24's stronger joints will solve this problem by themselves. But the weakest joint in the whole assembly is between the vertical post and the bottom of the plane. Even if the individual pontoon parts stick together better, the whole assembly still needs beaucoup struts to the plane itself to keep the pontoon from skewing off and tripping the plane during takeoff. So maybe a bigger and/or stronger vertical post would help?

2. Pontoon Wheel Retraction Force

When extending or retracting the pontoon wheels, the whole pontoon flexes, applying force to the rest of the plane. Without sufficient strutting, this can actually break the wings off the plane.

3. Pontoon Wheel Steering Symmetry Issue

The only way to get the wheels on opposite sides of the plane to steer the same direction (as in both left or both right) is when you 1st build the pontoon from scratch. If at some later point you accidentally disconnect and reconnect either the whole pontoon or just a section containing wheels, then steering symmetry gets broken. From this point on, the wheels on opposite sides will steer in opposite directions, so you get toe-in or toe-out, which acts as a brake and tends to twist the pontoons off the plane. The only way to cure this is to trash the existing pontoons and start them over from scratch.

Otherwise, great mod

[blackheart612]

I'm having trouble using texture switcher. I'm trying it on Mainsail and Kosmos Fairing.

I get the module working, got the texture on the right place but I seem to get confused about choosing the right object to change texture and about underscores. I get the next texture button but texture don't change at all. Help would be appreciated

[Snjo]

I'm having trouble using texture switcher. I'm trying it on Mainsail and Kosmos Fairing.

I get the module working, got the texture on the right place but I seem to get confused about choosing the right object to change texture and about underscores. I get the next texture button but texture don't change at all. Help would be appreciated

Do you have a cfg example?

When it comes to underscores, the only thing I can think of is that unity or ksp translates any periods to underscores, but you should be able to see the actual game object names if you use the list objects function on the switcher (if showlListButton = true).

[blackheart612]

For example for mainsail:

MODULE

{

name = FStextureSwitch

showListButton = true

moduleID = 0

textures

{

name = Squad\Parts\Engine\liquidEngine1-2\model002orig

name = Squad\Parts\Engine\liquidEngine1-2\model002

}

objects

{

-snip-

}

}

I have no idea what to put there because the objects are:

obj_base, obj_gimbal, model, collider

I have no idea which of those happen to have the correct transform for textures and the others have underscores.

I've tried adding them all (at once) and still don't switch.

[Snjo]

I've tried adding them all (at once) and still don't switch.

That might not work, cause it will generate an error as soon as you try to access the mesh/material of an empty transform. Try one at a time, with a game restart between each try (because of the way the nodes are loaded).

Underscores are not a problem. Only periods are a potential gotcha as far as I know, cause they are replaced during the part tools export or model import.

[Hellbrand]

Curious. Has anybody done RPM Configs for the Firespitter cockpits? Notably ... All or any of them?

[Justin Kerbice]

Making small drones gives me some ideas: adding some smaller electric/liquid fuel engines and also a "fan style" enclosed in an octogonal, and even circular, structure/shape to build central-engine drone, such engine can have a small abilities to move in its X/Y axis to create lateral movement on its own.

This way we might also be able to build classic UFO .

[Madrias]

A round glass bubble canopy on a 1 meter stack might be nice. Not the elongated fighter one, but a cross between the open cockpit and the fighter and the stock round parts. Useful for UFO's and interesting futuristic designs, I think. Especially if combined with fan style lifting engines and a circular/octagonal/hexagonal body structure.

[colmo]

Quick q - does this thrust balancing mod (Throttle Controlled Avionics) work on Firespitter rotors or VTOL engines? I see it being very useful for Chinooks and Quadcopters.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/67270-Throttle-Controlled-Avionics-1-2-0-23

[K3-Chris]

Has anyone successfully modified the seaplane floats (pontoons) to work with B9 sized airplanes? I tired rescaleFactor = 2 but they're not buoyant enough to support a 37 ton plane.

Any ideas how to increase their buoyancy? Would be very useful on laythe.

[Justin Kerbice]

Any ideas how to increase their buoyancy? Would be very useful on laythe.

have you checked the right click on part ? Buoyancy can be modified individually and it is not set to the max.

You can also make you own parts by duplicating existing ones, and increase buoyancy more than what was initially designed.

[K3-Chris]

have you checked the right click on part ? Buoyancy can be modified individually and it is not set to the max.

Tried that, doesn't seem to do anything on my modified parts or the stock ones.

You can also make you own parts by duplicating existing ones

That's what I've done.

and increase buoyancy more than what was initially designed.

How?

[Justin Kerbice]

Tried that, doesn't seem to do anything on my modified parts or the stock ones.

That's what I've done.

How?

oohh too bad.

I just thought there was a buoyancy parameters, I found one in FS_floatStrut part:

MODULE

{

name = FSbuoyancy

buoyancyForce = 2

}

Adding this to all float parts.

Didn't tried myself, perhaps it may help.

[K3-Chris]

Hmm https://github.com/snjo/Firespitter/blob/master/Firespitter/water/FSbuoyancy.cs

"public float buoyancyForce = 12f"

I wonder if 4x:ing that (48) using "buoyancyForce = 48" will fix it? Takes so long trying this stuff with KSP restarts on each tweak...

"Increase Buoyancy" needs some kind of feedback though, there should be a number or slider or something along those lines and making it tweakable would be nice.

Edit: Success!

Edited February 23, 2014 by K3|Chris

[Hellbrand]

any chance we can have a jet engine with a more central exaust. so we can build aircraft like A-7's or F-8's ? or maybe a cockpit with a built in intake :3