Questions on Modifying IVAs

[Poppa Wheelie]

I want to do the following, and have some questions:

• Edit some existing IVAs
• Create a feature that I have not yet seen within an IVA, and include this new feature in my IVAs

Questions:

1.  Do I need Unity, or Blender?  What are the use cases for preferring one over the other?

2.  If I want Unity, is this still the best process for setup?  (from March 2022).  If this is not the latest, can someone please provide an updated version of the process?

Spoiler

3.  If I want Blender, can someone please provide a process for setting this up?

4.  Some props perform an action by setting "actionName", others by setting "onClick".  Sometimes the actionName is set to "plugin", and then an actionMethod is set inside a PLUGINACTION.  Are all of the possible actions, plugin actions, and onClick function calls documented somewhere?

5. Sometimes a prop sets a labelText, like this:  labelText = <=0=>$&$AGMEMO4

• Is the format of these strings documented somewhere?  How do I read and interpret these strings?  How do I create my own?
• How do I figure out where the string parts of this text have been set previously?  In this example, how do I determine where AGMEMO4 was set?

6.  I want to be able to change the Action Set, which is currently possible with F6 and F7.  I also want to be able to read what the current Action Set number has been set to.  Is this possible?  If so, how?

Edited December 3 by Poppa Wheelie
Several saves to get around 502 and 503 errors. Post is now complete!

[Poppa Wheelie]

@johnnydope:  Is your 2022 guide still current?  Any updates?  Why should I prefer Unity or Blender?

@kurgut:  I see you've been doing a lot of custom IVA work in the past year or so.  Any advice?  Unity or Blender?  Any thoughts on the other questions?

[Svm420]

From my own experience of making aset iva's I think it can only be done in unity. You can use blender to make and edit part, but not IVAs AFAIK YMMV.

The guide for unity setup you linked looks correct to me.

As far as details regarding props and the cfgs for them. I would look at the RPM github and see if there is documentation to help you.

As far as action sets. I don't think there was any props were made after they were added to the game. So i don't think there is a way to see or control from IVA only. It may require code updating in RPM for it to even be possible.

[kurgut]

14 hours ago, Poppa Wheelie said:

@kurgut:  I see you've been doing a lot of custom IVA work in the past year or so.  Any advice?  Unity or Blender?  Any thoughts on the other questions?

 Hi

 

1. It's quite simple, if you only want to modify existing IVAs, by that I mean adding/removing/changing their props, then you only need Unity. You'll gonna need blender if you want to model new interiors, or props. Although, it's always very useful to have it set up and working, so you can open a prop to check a transform name, a texture shift, text label alignement for instance.

2. Yeah that looks correct to me, altough I'm not sure you need textmesh pro anymore... Anyway, try as they say I guess.

3. yep --> https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/topic/40056-12-17-blender-283-mu-importexport-addon/
  In case the forum doesn't want to work, here's their repo : https://github.com/taniwha/io_object_mu

4. ofc, RPM wiki is the bible   (use the github search function in the wiki when you have an interrogation on a specific stuff) --> https://github.com/Mihara/RasterPropMonitor/wiki
Also MAS wiki, if you use MAS --> https://github.com/MOARdV/AvionicsSystems/wiki

5. this is rich text, MAS has a bit of explanation in the wiki https://github.com/MOARdV/AvionicsSystems/wiki/Formatted-Rich-Text, or you can google it  https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/[email protected]/manual/StyledText.html
I mostly learned by "seeing and doing" personnaly for that ^^
 

6. I'm not sure, as actionset doesn't return anything in the wiki, I guess you mean action groups by that  ?

7. Also, it's cool to see new people interested in the small word of IVA making, I remember it could be frustrating in the beginnings (because of the few docs available for instance), but once "you click on your own switches" it feels great, shall I say

Don't hesitate if you have other questions  

Cheers

Edited December 6 by kurgut
edit : I even had to write this reply in my email box, because it got lost 2 times with forum not responding : /

[Poppa Wheelie]

16 hours ago, Svm420 said:

The guide for unity setup you linked looks correct to me.

Thanks @Svm420.  I'll follow this guide, as written.

16 hours ago, Svm420 said:

I don't think there was any props were made after they were added to the game

I would be willing to make my own props for changing the Action Set, but I would need a method for sending a keyboard F6 or F7 to the game (which I don't know how to do), or to use some action function such as, "incrementActionSetNumber" or "decrementActionSetNumber".  I would also need a way to look at some system variable, such as "currentActionSetNumber".

11 hours ago, kurgut said:

I'm not sure, as actionset doesn't return anything in the wiki, I guess you mean action groups by that  ?

And thank you, too, @kurgut, for your advice and pointers to documentation.  And, yes, I meant "Action Set", not "Action Group".  The game has 5 Action Sets.  Each Action Set is a set of Action Groups.  So I can really have 50 Action Groups in play at once, not just 10.  Use F6 and F7 to move between Action Sets.

Thank you both!  I'm off to install Unity.

[kurgut]

12 hours ago, Poppa Wheelie said:

And thank you, too, @kurgut, for your advice and pointers to documentation.  And, yes, I meant "Action Set", not "Action Group".  The game has 5 Action Sets.  Each Action Set is a set of Action Groups.  So I can really have 50 Action Groups in play at once, not just 10.  Use F6 and F7 to move between Action Sets.

You're welcome  
Aaaah right, no those action sets are not implemented in RPM, nor MAS, to my knowledge (github search doesn't return anything). I'll double check, and issue that to the RPM repo, so it gets maybe implemented. In conclusion, it would require code change in the RPM dll

Btw, MAS has kind of an expansion in its own kind to the action goup system : https://github.com/MOARdV/AvionicsSystems/wiki/MASFlightComputerProxy#action-groups-category
But that's a different thing..

Cheers  

Edited December 7 by kurgut

[Poppa Wheelie]

I’m stuck, and could use some more help, please.

I’ve been following the steps as outlined in @johnnydope’s post linked above.  I had a little trouble with the ImageMagick part of Step 4, but figured that out.

Now I’m stuck on the Set Data Dir in Part Tools step.

The instructions read as follows:

Quote

Drag and drop the "Part Tools" window over to the right beside "Inspector". (common usual location for it)
Now click "Set Data Dir" and select your "Modded" KSP GAMEDATA folder.
You should now see two menu columns labelled "Spaces" and "Props" populate.

However, when I click Set Data Dir, and select my GameData folder, I get these errors.

Spoiler

 

[Poppa Wheelie]

I figured it all out.  I wrote an updated 2024 process and posted it here:

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/topic/226382-unity-setup-guide-for-iva-editing-2024/

[Manul]

On 12/7/2024 at 12:16 AM, kurgut said:

nor MAS, to my knowledge (github search doesn't return anything)

I didn't find anything in the KSP API documentation about action sets and how to get or set the active action set, as if they never existed.

[Poppa Wheelie]

Is there anything in the KSP API for sending F6 and F7 to the game?

[Manul]

3 hours ago, Poppa Wheelie said:

Is there anything in the KSP API for sending F6 and F7 to the game?

Emulating keyboard inputs is not the KSP thing, it's the Windows thing.

[kurgut]

8 hours ago, Manul said:

I didn't find anything in the KSP API documentation about action sets and how to get or set the active action set, as if they never existed.

Yeah then maybe it's not documented...^^

I had the same problem with some recently added part modules

 

Edit : ah, didn't see Manul's answer above, I'm not an expert at all in this field so I don't know sadly

Edited 4 hours ago by kurgut