Space Shuttle Atlantis [WiP]

[skeligandrew]

During the forums downtime I have been converting one of NASA's free to use shuttle models into parts for KSP.

So far I have got all pieces cut into sections, created cargo door animations, created collision boxes and got all pieces functioning in game.

Unfortunately I am having problems.

1. The thing flies very unpredictably, it takes power to get it off the ground but then it is very slow to come back down, I think I havn't done the step to give the wings lift.

2. My cargo door animation screws up once in unity.

I would really appreciate if someone with experience in unity would help me with this project, any takers?

[Budgie]

I cant offer any help, sorry.... My only concern is about poly count. The models from NASA, as far as I know, are reeeealllly high in poly count. Have you been able to trim the number down, so machines somewhat less powerful than a supercomputer can run your model on KSP?

On the upside, Im excited to see where this goes! Pic looks good so far

[Netris]

It looks nice What is the size of this baby ?

[Cepheus]

Hellllooooooo. I know, this is a bit brash of me, but if you're interested in working with the CSS team, we need modelers, and we've got some ambitious plans.

[skeligandrew]

Yes, I'm aware that NASA's models are usually very high polycount, but this shuttle is 8 thousand, thats equivalent to a few high poly models from nova punch or something. Runs fine!

Netris at the moment it is bigger than bobcats buran which is not right, the shuttle was smaller than the buran so I will scale it down further

Update on development:

I've got the cargo door animation working, but do I need to make another animation of them retracting or is there some way I "rewind" the opening animation

[samcar304]

So does this come with the external tank and srb or for now just the orbiter none the less it looks magnificent!

[Devo]

Update on development:

I've got the cargo door animation working, but do I need to make another animation of them retracting or is there some way I "rewind" the opening animation

Reverse your animation, so instead of it going from close to open, make it open to close.

When you load up a part thats animated in the hangar, it will generally be on the first frame of the animation unless you have it set to loop. So the first frame of your animation should be at its fully open point. This will allow people to place cargo inside easily.

Edited April 20, 2013 by Devo

[skeligandrew]

But do I add a seperate animation for retract panels and extend panels, or can I just use the extending one and reverse it by configs? if the latter, how?

Samcar it's just the orbiter for now but NASA has the external tank and SRB models released so I will get around to it

[Devo]

But do I add a seperate animation for retract panels and extend panels, or can I just use the extending one and reverse it by configs? if the latter, how?

Samcar it's just the orbiter for now but NASA has the external tank and SRB models released so I will get around to it

No, only one animation.

Call it Retract, openbay... whatever you like. There is no naming conventions on animations as long as your module in the part.cfg has the right reference to the animation split name.

When you activate the animation, it plays one way, when you activate it the second time, it plays in reverse, so no need for 2 lots of animation.

[Tiberion]

You don't even need to animate the doors in the proper order (Open -> Closed) because the animation module has a flag to flip the animation and let it start in the "end" psotion:

animSwitch = True

Its pretty handy.

[skeligandrew]

Not sure I fully understand what to do, for the second animation clip I can't make it start at 100 and end at 0

http://i.imgur.com/yreD2N6.jpg

[skeligandrew]

I still need help with what I've posted above, maybe my post was missed because of new page

[skeligandrew]

Still stuck on this issue, can anyone help?

[zany]

Still stuck on this issue, can anyone help?

What specific need help?

[skeligandrew]

What specific need help?

I want to know how to make an open cargo door animation reverse so it closes them again

[zany]

I want to know how to make an open cargo door animation reverse so it closes them again

check e-mail on forum

[Tiberion]

Again, you don't need a second animation clip to close the doors. You make one animation clip, 1 to 100, and it works for both.

For the zero position, you have the doors in the open position, and for the 100 position they would be closed. Then you import them into Unity normally (legacy rig, define the animation 0 to 100 (or 99, Unity can shave a frame off sometimes)) and give it a name like DoorAnimation

Then you need a animation module in your part config like so:

MODULE {

name = ModuleAnimateGeneric

animationName = DoorAnimation

startEventGUIName = Close Door"

endEventGUIName = "Open Door"

}

Of course changing 'DoorAnimation' to whatever you named it upon unity import/setup. You can change GUI names to whatever you like, just notice that the "start event" is named Closed since you animated the doors as starting opened (to let people place cargo in the VAB)

And if you animated the doors the other way where 0 is closed and 100 is open, you don't need to redo the animation; there's a simple flag for your module: animSwitch = True

This will tell the module to swap the 0 and 100 positions for you automatically, so it still starts with the doors open.

MODULE {

name = ModuleAnimateGeneric

animationName = DoorAnimation

startEventGUIName = Close Door"

endEventGUIName = "Open Door"

animSwitch = True

}

That should sort it out for you. There's some example images and more details in this post.

[TheCanadianVendingMachine]

Hello, Will this mod be able to use the Robotic Arms pack with the CanadaArm and Buran Shuttle Manipualtor? I was going to use Tiberdynes, but it doesn't fit with it.

[ajwojo1210]

You are supposed to use the buran manipulator with bobcats historical pack and the Canada Arm was not normally used on shuttles but if you can find one that it fits in good luck

[TheCanadianVendingMachine]

Yea, I use it with Buran, but I want to have a Arm for a shuttle that it fits in with. If that makes sense

[POTKC]

I would be happy to help with .cfg files, and such , not with animation or modeling (I am useless at Blender) but .cfg files...

[Daze]

Epic design.

[Netris]

Are you also going to make the external fuel tank and the boosters ?

[skeligandrew]

Yes, I will probably model the external tank and boosters myself instead of using a NASA model like this shuttle, don't worry though it will look decent

[Netris]

I trust you. You look very skilled so I don't worry ^^