LLL - Lack Luster Labs - Development Thread

[LTClaydohman]

Thanks for the help, Lack, I appreciate it. I really like your mod, so I don't like having to go with out it. Now, hopefully, I won't have to

[Lack]

Thanks for the help, Lack, I appreciate it. I really like your mod, so I don't like having to go with out it. Now, hopefully, I won't have to

No problem, now I'm aware of the issue (big thanks to rditto48801 and a.g. for the figures and the likes) I'll see what I can do to work on optimising the textures. Reducing the overly large ones and, texture and model sharing primarily.

Sorry if this has been mentioned, but are there any more 1x1 parts like rcs tanks planned? I was trying to make a vehicle out of the 1x1 tanks that had its own engines, but the rcs is only 2x1

I should be able to knock some general 1x1 parts to handle that sort of thing reasonably quickly, especially now you can scale parts within the .cfg.

Edited June 7, 2013 by Lack

[rditto48801]

Well, at least my thread in the support forum will have brought about something good for someone.

Although for me it is starting to look to be more like a bug in KSP itself.

The Texture res setting not properly affecting png files by the looks of it.

It drives me nuts because I have to leave out a good half dozen mods in KSP 0.20.2 that worked fine in KSP 0.19.1, and prevents me from getting a chance to properly try out this mod.

I am hit extra hard by two other factors, a 32 bit OS (so 2GB wall, despite 2.4-2.6 GB free when playing KSP), and only 512 MB video RAM, so lots of 'texture' related 'out of memory' type crashes when I first butted heads with the issue in KSP 0.20.2.

[WhatsThisButtonDo]

.....I should be able to knock some general 1x1 parts to handle that sort of thing reasonably quickly, especially now you can scale parts within the .cfg.

Good to hear, there have been a few times I've also wished there was a 1x1 RCS part.

[JonoRig]

No problem, now I'm aware of the issue (big thanks to rditto48801 and a.g. for the figures and the likes) I should be able to knock some general 1x1 parts to handle that sort of thing reasonably quickly, especially now you can scale parts within the .cfg.

Cool. Thanks. If I remember, I was gonna post up an image of my new mining rig, which uses more or less you parts exclusively (except some utilities and the kethane drills) this is one of the best part mods and I'm excited to see what u and ember, etc come up with in the future

[Simplicity]

I gots a silly question, is there a way for you to have your docking ports automatically line up with each other if for instance they are less than 2 degrees out of alinement??

Reason for asking, is that no matter how long I spend lining up docking, I get results like this:

I use mechjeb for docking, and control the roll myself, but can never get it correct

[ickli]

I agree, it would be so much nicer to have the "Power of love" not only draw them together, but in the right rotation too

[BioSehnsucht]

THSS uses rather complicated colliders (which match the geometry of the docking ports) to force things to line up. Maybe some invisible colliders (so as not to mess up the nice clean look)

[shadowsutekh]

No problem, now I'm aware of the issue (big thanks to rditto48801 and a.g. for the figures and the likes) I'll see what I can do to work on optimising the textures. Reducing the overly large ones and, texture and model sharing primarily.

I should be able to knock some general 1x1 parts to handle that sort of thing reasonably quickly, especially now you can scale parts within the .cfg.

Yeah if you can get bac9's help you'd be in good shape considering how much b9 got optimized.

1x1 parts like a small non-radial engine would be nice too.

Related to engines, I noticed the sneaky update with the grill plates and the fact that they slowly start glowing the longer the 2x1 engine is active

[PringleMan]

Yeah if you can get bac9's help you'd be in good shape considering how much b9 got optimized.

1x1 parts like a small non-radial engine would be nice too.

Related to engines, I noticed the sneaky update with the grill plates and the fact that they slowly start glowing the longer the 2x1 engine is active

The grill plates actually act like a radiator iirc. He put it in a version or so ago. It was just most of his engines end up not really heating up all that much for some reason.

[Mach56]

I gots a silly question, is there a way for you to have your docking ports automatically line up with each other if for instance they are less than 2 degrees out of alinement??

Reason for asking, is that no matter how long I spend lining up docking, I get results like this:

Snip

Are you sure those are the docking ports? Check if they look the same or they have a door on.

[Lack]

Yeah if you can get bac9's help you'd be in good shape considering how much b9 got optimized.

I've been working on [figuring out how on Earth to get] the optimising [to actually work]. It's prooving really annoying to do (as in smashing your face into a brick wall annoying). Sharing the .mu f's up rescaleFactor really badly for some reason, so I've been needing to go back and re-scale them in Unity, then type in the URL for the export for the sharing to work and export with the new 0.20 Part tools (and for some reason I can't change where it will export to). Slow going, but it is getting done.

Yeah, I was wondering who many would notice the grill. I was going make a version using the new particle emitter that came with 0.20 Part Tools to make it pump out cooling gas when it got really hot, but I can't get it to work.

Edit:

Anyway, a helping hand for anyone who wants to make parts that fit to the 1x1 and 2x1 hulls.

1x1+2x1sizes.skp

That's a sketchup with the sizes for the 1x1 and 2x1 parts. That's then scaled up by 1.25 when it's put in game.

Edited June 9, 2013 by Lack

[ickli]

Thought i'd show off my Part LLL Rover Lander which i managed to get to Duna, Barely.

Omni Wheels make it possible for me to lower and raise the rover...

Which also means redocking with the lander is a lot easier!

If you'd like to witness some unfortunate events which occured afterwards, Use this link

http://imgur.com/a/7prnu

'Definately' not caused by my bad piloting >.>

[ickli]

Anyway, a helping hand for anyone who wants to make parts that fit to the 1x1 and 2x1 hulls.

1x1+2x1sizes.skp

That's a sketchup with the sizes for the 1x1 and 2x1 parts. That's then scaled up by 1.25 when it's put in game.

Thanks Lack!

[Simplicity]

Are you sure those are the docking ports? Check if they look the same or they have a door on.

I am using the corridor Berthing Port

Here are a couple of pics of the two bits not joined.

Please don't tell me these are the wrong things to be docking with, cause they seemed to dock ok, just not lined up

[Frederik]

So many nice parts, really enjoyed the Moon movie reference

But what happened to the wheel arches? They aren't in the 0.09.9 zip?

[Ember]

So many nice parts, really enjoyed the Moon movie reference

But what happened to the wheel arches? They aren't in the 0.09.9 zip?

those were made after the current release and i dont think they have been made available

Edited June 9, 2013 by Ember

[Pigbear]

I need to get creative with my buildings and build bigger. Also does anyone have an idea of how to build bigger rocket/planes than you can currently? I know there used to be a mod by r4m0n that did so, But I think that it is broken now.

[Lack]

I am using the corridor Berthing Port

Here are a couple of pics of the two bits not joined.

snip

Please don't tell me these are the wrong things to be docking with, cause they seemed to dock ok, just not lined up

Those are the right parts, I'll just need to think of an easy way to get them to line up properly.

@Frederik,

Ember's right, the wheel arches haven't been released yet. I may do an interim release with a few new parts as the optimising has been taking longer than expected.

[Frederik]

@Ember, @Lack

Thanks for the answers. Those wheel arches look great, and are just what I always thought were missing for some of my rovers Until they are released, I'll just enjoy the other wonderful parts

[Simplicity]

Those are the right parts, I'll just need to think of an easy way to get them to line up properly.

I would be eternally grateful if you can figure something out, as I am guessing so would a lot of other people who have the same trouble

[ickli]

^ I agree

[Lack]

2013-06-10-LLL-InterimRelease.zip

Contains a few of the new things:

• Update to 2x1 Engine - Fairings and I got the grill vectoring to work as intended
  
• 2x1 Decoupler
  
• Wheelhousing - [2x1 and a 4x2 resize]
  
• An extendable CBM - Interim at the moment, just to see what people think of it
  
• Updates to all the Cuploa parts - Fixed window specularity and updated the emissive map. Re-balanced closer to proper weights, mainly BoN calcs from stock and ISS cupola
  

As for CBMs; I could possible work the CBM alignment by having a pair of clamp-like objects on the side, best have them visible if I do that. The problem comes from when the opposing parts come together, having the meshes lock together is orientation dependent, which is a bit difficult to comprehend without a visual guide. If anyone has any ideas for a 'lock and key' that won't depend on the initial orientation you approach from then say (preferably with sketches).

[PringleMan]

As for CBMs; I could possible work the CBM alignment by having a pair of clamp-like objects on the side, best have them visible if I do that. The problem comes from when the opposing parts come together, having the meshes lock together is orientation dependent, which is a bit difficult to comprehend without a visual guide. If anyone has any ideas for a 'lock and key' that won't depend on the initial orientation you approach from then say (preferably with sketches).

What about a gear-tooth approach? Not the most elegant I suppose, but would be easier for it to snap together with very little rotation needed. Another idea would be a "flap and spike" approach. Basically on the female side of the CBM have a set of flaps (animated would be nifty) that are set at like 45 degrees or something. The male side has a sort of "spike" on each corner (again, animated would be nifty) that fits in the gap between adjacent female flaps :3 This approach would allow alignment without dependence on initial direction, so long as the initial direction was at least reasonably on-axis xy with the area vector.

edit: will make a sketchup to better illustrate. brb

Like this: http://imgur.com/ov5CKB1

That should give you the basic idea. Did it super fast so it super sucks

Edited June 10, 2013 by PringleMan

[ickli]

Thank you Lack! More awesome parts to use for my Duna Base! and actually getting LLL ships up easily.