LLL - Lack Luster Labs - Development Thread

[Mekan1k]

Lack, Place a docking port on top, and MekJeb on the pod. That should let you land somewhere flat, I deal for a ship that size.

[Ember]

heh the inclines certainly hate ya

btw could you make an SAS part as well? ive always wondered why mods almost always dont add them

could you make a battery part? radial and inline?

Edited April 30, 2013 by Ember

[Lack]

Lack, Place a docking port on top, and MekJeb on the pod. That should let you land somewhere flat, I deal for a ship that size.

I already had a docking port on the top and MechJeb tends to mean less explosions, which is a bad thing in my book (I think it would be best if I don't work in health and safety).

heh the inclines certainly hate ya

btw could you make an SAS part as well? ive always wondered why mods almost always dont add them

could you make a battery part? radial and inline?

Yeah, that shouldn't be too hard, I keep meaning to add batteries as well, I've already got meshes for various 2x1 sizes so I just need to make a new texture and a .cfg. Need to make a new one for a radial part though, but I've been meaning to take a proper stab at some radial parts.

[LazarGuitrWulvz]

This is what I made with the Lack Luster Labs. Based some-what off of the Halo frigates. Kethane mod, pirated weaponry, and Hyperedit were used for it. The Engines and comms are stock and LLL.

I'm also currently making a space station, a mun base, and a kethane mining station using these parts. Thank you Lack for making my Kerbal Space Program experience 100% better!

[PringleMan]

edit: scratch that, will just edit the walkway hub. Cheers!

Edited April 30, 2013 by PringleMan

[shadowsutekh]

How come the cooling vents can only be placed on the wide side of the nuclear engine? If you try to do 2x symmetry on the thinner side, the vent hovers far off the engine.

[bs1110101]

I just thought of something, why not have a 2 by 1 linear aerospike (and a 1 by 1 with half the power) that have side nodes so they can be made as long as you want?

[PringleMan]

I just thought of something, why not have a 2 by 1 linear aerospike (and a 1 by 1 with half the power) that have side nodes so they can be made as long as you want?

I could see this. It WAS one of the leading designs considered by NASA for a long time.

edit: following my previous post, here is a suite of 1x1 fuel tanks made from the 1x1 walkway hub.

1x1 Fuel Suite

These are balanced (capacity wise) as 1/4 of the 2x1 fuel tank. If you want to change the levels, just adjust the config. Not the perfect shape, but hey, it works! Something to open more designs with the 1x1 cockpit.

edit: Updated with a suite of pipe-model fuel tanks

Edited May 2, 2013 by PringleMan

[bs1110101]

Also, shouldn't it be called an aeroblade instead?

[PringleMan]

Also, shouldn't it be called an aeroblade instead?

Boo. Nice joke though!

[Lack]

How come the cooling vents can only be placed on the wide side of the nuclear engine? If you try to do 2x symmetry on the thinner side, the vent hovers far off the engine.

Have you got a screenshot of that? I haven't been able to replicate it.

The aero-spike is do-able, weren't they thinking about the linear aero-spike for the shuttle's main engine. I'll have a look at it over the weekend (if I have the time. Been busy this week, all that ale sitting in pubs won't drink itself).

Consider PringleMan's 1x1 Fuel suite an officially endorsed stop-gap till I get round to making some 1x1 tanks. I'd perhaps think about using the basic walkway as well.

Also, here's an alt version of the fuel-tank texture. I found the banding the other texture caused a bit irritating.

http://imgur.com/20eyrzV

Just take that, save it as 'model000.png' and over-write the model000.png in LLL2x1Fuel. I've also made some alterations to the engine, I'll upload a copy this evening.

[Mechrior]

hate to be a pain in the ass because I love this mod but the attachment nodes on the side and the ends of the Bailey Vlb Munar Research Lab are too high, all the other parts in the pack have their nodes in the middle of the airlock doors, this parts nodes are too high!

oh and:

[Lack]

hate to be a pain in the ass because I love this mod but the attachment nodes on the side and the ends of the Bailey Vlb Munar Research Lab are too high, all the other parts in the pack have their nodes in the middle of the airlock doors, this parts nodes are too high!

oh and:

*snip*

That's one of those things that I could best describe as having 'brushed under the carpet and walked away whistling'. I'm having a go at fixing it now, so far I've managed to go the other way and make the nodes are far too low.

[Mechrior]

That's one of those things that I could best describe as having 'brushed under the carpet and walked away whistling'. I'm having a go at fixing it now, so far I've managed to go the other way and make the nodes are far too low.

Lol, i know that feeling! I like to edit parts to "fit" with what im doing! Much like I did with the canadarm from lazor, made a tiny on for rovers!

although the node issue it only seems to be on the one with legs though o.O

[Lack]

Lol, i know that feeling! I like to edit parts to "fit" with what im doing! Much like I did with the canadarm from lazor, made a tiny on for rovers!

although the node issue it only seems to be on the one with legs though o.O

Yeah, I screwed up the centring on the model when I made the one with legs so it ended up off the intended centre. I did the same as you with the canadarm, that thing is big, so I made a smaller copy; I end up fiddling with the rescaleFactor on quite a few parts.

Anyway, I've tweaked the nodes a bit,

// --- node definitions ---

node_stack_right =  0.0, -0.077, 1.41, 0, 0.0, -1
node_stack_left =   0.0, -0.077, -1.41, 0, 0.0, 1

node_stack_front = 2.376, -0.077, 0.0, 1, 0.0, 0
node_stack_back =  -2.380, -0.077, 0.0, -1, 0.0, 0

node_stack_top =  0.0, 0.75, 0.0, 0.0,-1, 0.0
node_stack_bottom =   0.0, -1.05, 0.0, 0.0, 1, 0.0

Copy those over the existing ones for the legged version.

Edited May 2, 2013 by Lack

[shadowsutekh]

Have you got a screenshot of that? I haven't been able to replicate it.

Yeah I'll try to get a SS or two

[dethsturm]

Must. Download. Pack.

[Ember]

hey lack, how good are you at making parts with animations?

could you make a 1x2 cargo bay and a 2x6 cargo bay, if you cant do animations i guess permanently open bays will also work

[Lack]

Well, I made that linear aerospike. It's 1x1 part so that you can line them up side-by-side.

hey lack, how good are you at making parts with animations?

could you make a 1x2 cargo bay and a 2x6 cargo bay, if you cant do animations i guess permanently open bays will also work

Animations are easy enough in Unity, all the lights run off animations and the Halley's legs are animated.

[Ember]

Animations are easy enough in Unity, all the lights run off animations and the Halley's legs are animated.

now you making me want to give making my own part a try

[Lack]

now you making me want to give making my own part a try

You should try it, before I started this project I'd never really tried much modelling before (well, other than making buildings on sketchup) so you can learn (pretty) quickly. There's plenty of tutorials out there and most of the rest can be figured out by just trying things and seeing what happens.

Bit more tweaking:

Edited May 2, 2013 by Lack

[Ember]

You should try it, before I started this project I'd never really tried much modelling before (well, other than making buildings on sketchup) so you can learn (pretty) quickly. There's plenty of tutorials out there and most of the rest can be figured out by just trying things and seeing what happens.

I've done quite a bit of modeling before since im majoring in Design tech which is using cadd sketch-up and a bit of revit, Ive even used a bit of blender

any tips before i get into it?

also what program do you use for your models? sketch-up?

Edited May 2, 2013 by Ember

[Lack]

I've done quite a bit of modeling before since im majoring in Design tech which is using cadd sketch-up and a bit of revit, Ive even used a bit of blender

any tips before i get into it?

Hmm, tips. Remember to add a node_collider mesh and don't needlessly complicate models, you can do details with textures, normal maps and specular maps. Oh yeah, KSP processes specular maps as the alpha-channel on the main texture. If you want anything more specific then PM me, I've got the sketchup files for all my parts as well.

Might as well release the new engine. It contains the linear aerospike and an update to the 2x1 Nuclear Engine, played around with the stats and improved the grouping of the parts in the model (which has an effect on performance if you look at one of the sticky'd threads).

LLLEngines-2013-05-02.zip

Contents:

Linear Aerospike

2x1 Nuclear Engine

Edit:

As for the programs I use. I make things in sketchup, then import it into blender. (With that you'll want to select all the parts of the imported file and merge the meshes (Ctrl+J), set scale to 0.0254, then press tab to edit it and simplify the mesh (Shift-J) and then 'W' and 'Remove Doubles'. That cleans up the meshes). Once it's edited, UV mapped, bits that need it set to be smoothed and a simple node_collider mesh made, then I export the UV map and do the textures in Photoshop.

Edited May 2, 2013 by Lack

[ahappydude]

Wow, never cease to impress me. Those look so slick, really nice engine effects to!

[Camelotking524]

Just downloaded and have to say very impressive. So many building options.