HexCans Standardized Resource Canisters, .20 Ready

[Greys]

I've been working on this since about 26 hours ago, with probably 6 hours total low density work spent, and I finally got to a point where it is something and it doesn't look horrible.

So it's a system of little radially mountable but also stackable hexagonal cylinder things for unspecified purposes. This may sound to you a lot like a certain other radially mountable cylinder things for unspecified purposes pack, Orbital Industries. Because it is. OI is wholly the inspiration for these parts (few that I have right now). But unfortunately due to the forum crash, OI's license is nowhere that I can find, making it essentially off limits for any new developments. Seeing that and resigning to it I thought, how hard could it be to make a fricken cylinder and paint it kinda nice and fill it with ****? not that hard actually.

Get It

Here's the download, pictures to follow

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/33754-0-21-x-HexCans-Standardized-Resource-Canisters-0-5-0-Now-with-aircraft-stuff!

Dev Log

So far I have three sizes of canister, 3m, 1.5m, and 0.75m based on this model via rescaleFactoring

http://i.imgur.com/jRNC7A1.png

http://i.imgur.com/LSNv5nk.png

There were some snafus with unity

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

But after figuring out who was at fault between the three programs, it all came together

http://i.imgur.com/QI7YUTw.jpg

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

(Everything is subject to change, nothing has been balanced yet)

Then it just needed a better coat of paint

http://i.imgur.com/f8jf8fg.png

#==== 5/17/13

I've just finished the cfgs and textures for all of the stock resources except Xenon; can't figure out an icon for it...

The resource amounts have also been balanced to match stock volumes, we'll see if that sticks...

http://i.imgur.com/xbTd6NA.jpg

#==== 5/22/13

Haven't achieved much over the last week, but I have gotten nearly all of the stock stuff done, the only things not finished are the ASAS and SAS bits.

Also, updated to the .20 format, just copy the HexCans folder into your GameData folder to install. If you have any, I highly suggest deleting the old HexCan parts because names have changed; please remember to remove them from your ships and .crafts to prevent weirdness.

Textures have also changed, and will probably change more as I finalize colors and eventually move over to the new UV map... which will just be a lot of work...

New stuff!:

Xenon textured and added

RTGs in all three sizes; note that the Large RTG is not on by default; I may make it more complex.

Normal and Small Probes! in the picture below the unmarked cans with Blue caution tape are probes, the Large size will be a manned pod but I still have to make it's texture from scratch due to the differing model.

Battery color changed from Green to Red; this is to free up Green for Kethane later on.

I don't have any other mods loaded on .20 yet, so the rack is less beautiful, but oh well.

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

I will probably be making Monopropellant a darker, more pastel shade of yellow, maybe tint it orange a bit.

PS, I entirely renovated the organization in the archive (also now provided in both .zip and .7z) to be cleaner

##### 5/24

Finished everything. Stock anyways...

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

Downloads updated, Colliders updated, no changes to previous textures

Rebalanced part weights, fixed some resources that were labeled wrong

Sorted the cans into their correct categories

Submitted to SpacePort.

##=== 5/26

Fixed a bunch of stuff, took more advantage of .20 to reduce the model count by a third; when they fix the referencing things in different folders bug I'll be able to reduce it to a total of 3 models where currently there are 14 (and previously there were three times that)

More importantly though, I made the surface attach rack, cuz it's snazzy, and the Decoupler Rack

In blue is the rack itself, in green is the pistons that make it a decoupler

http://i.imgur.com/LS5KnsH.png

In Game

In Action

http://imgur.com/a/Inx2F

License

This set of parts are released under CC-BY 3.0, you are free to use, alter, or add to as you desire, you may release your works using HexCans under whatever license you desire though I suggest open source as it's good for the community. You may distribute your works however you like.

Rules of Attribution

To make it simple and concrete I require only one thing to consider your released works sufficiently attributing me.

In the .cfg files for all HexCans parts there is the line

author = Greys

"Greys" must remain in that field, you of course can add your own name/names and I do not care about the order.

example:

author = BobDole & Greys

Nothing else is required for the license to be satisfied.

If you can I would like to have a link to either of the HexCans forum threads in your release thread, it does not need to be prominent, but that is not required.

`````````

Happy to hear any critique you might have, or advice you'd like to offer

Edited November 25, 2013 by Greys
Update

[Mekan1k]

Nicely done! I think these look great!

[BloodyRain2k]

I really like the hexagonal shape and the only thing I'd slightly complain about is that the top and bottom remind me of drill heads rather than canisters, but that's maybe just me : /

[Greys]

Thanks for the encouragement!

I can definitely understand that, they are a little more sharp than I had intended but I decided to simplify it to keep polys down, originally they were going to be semicircle cutouts.

They're supposed to be something along the lines of the the impact absorbers on nuclear waste transport containers, so I'm still considering having a variant without the bumpers, it'd have even lower polys and be able to fit into smaller spaces; but doubling the part count leaves a pretty big number so I might only provide them in the Small and maybe Normal sizes and certain contents.

[Greys]

Big update, all stock resources except Xenon cfged and textured, Xenon's cfg is done but it's currently got the oxidizer texture

I also rebalanced the content amounts based on units per volume derived from stock parts, not super happy with the result but might as well playtest that.

Once I finish the Xenon I'll start work on some command modules, Small and Normal will be probes, Large will be a sort of escape pod one kerb thing and I might try to do a custom model for that one; and Mechjeb, SAS, ASAS.

Other than the obvious Kethane, what mod-resources are there/should I include by default?

(pic in first post, download updated)

[Mekan1k]

I would recommend... A command-pod version, fuel and oxidizer (one fuel, one ox, and one fuel+ox), and maybe one that is a RTG (Maybe with nuclear/radiation warning symbols), perhaps one with IntakeAir (For powering jet engines in space, or just for fun)

[Greys]

command-pod is planned, Fuel, Oxy, Fuel+Oxy is part of this update, RTG is now on the list, IntakeAir, ehhhhh...

Also the battery texture turned out kinda burly, checking a fixed version now; if it works it'll be uploaded in a few minutes

Edit: It did, pic and download updated; link not changed; it's a little less fuzzy than I'd like but if you don't look too close you won't notice; whereas with fuzzy you have to not look to far, so this is better. I'll figure out a way to do some AA on it for the next big update.

Edited May 17, 2013 by Greys

[SunJumper]

For Xenon, just have

Xe

[Bluegobln]

Judging by the image, your poly count isn't even remotely pushing the limits of what's acceptable by the game. For example, some parts I've worked on that are admittedly a bit on the high side, but still work alright (and at least on my fairly high end system run smooth as butter besides the FPS drop from physics processing). Most of mine are 1200-4000 polys. I'd guess that one is like... 120? You have a lot to work with, in any case. Trust me. Just don't get addicted to the freedom of it.

Edit: As an example, the Tri-Hex struts you are using to mount those on in one of your images are probably 10x the poly count of your piece lol...

Edited May 17, 2013 by Bluegobln

[Greys]

I added a cockpit windscreen onto the model just to see what might happen

Despite my best disregard for model complexity; it's still only 292 tris, though since it's a command pod I'd probably give it a more complex collision mesh

[Mekan1k]

That looks really cool. Like... A cryo-Pod!

That's what you should make! A pod that looks like it holds a kerbal, and has a crew-capacity. Then you can haul your kerbals in cold-sleep, allowing for multi-year journeys in simple ships that do not need artificial gravity!

YOU MUST DO THIS!

[Mekan1k]

A hexagonal cryopod, with a small hexagonal window.... Sounds cool.

[Greys]

In preparing to do the textures for the hexpod I realized that I don't know what I'm doing and had forgotten how I made the material layers for the regular hexcans, and the hexcan's UV map was crap to begin with, so I remade it and them, here's the change

old UV, nothing's properly aligned, few things are straight

new UV, fixed that

HexPod UV, haven't done anything with it

Edited May 19, 2013 by Greys
changed texture again

[Greys]

Just updated the first post for a big update, nearly finished with the stock set, partly updated for .20, I'm not using a single model file yet just because that's a lot of cfg editing

Pretty soon it's gonna be ready for KSPSP, so yay!

Btw, I'm finding these things make awesome structural elements because of the flat sides

Edit:

After building a few rovers out of these things and spending several hours trying to make them not bend significantly like they do, I became disappointed in how things look when surface mounted onto them on the label surface (between the bumper caps), so I decided to go in and make a more complex collider mesh, which wasn't that hard and the setup is still very minimalistic

I made a mockup of how it looks to have things mounted on it, and it's a pretty big difference with most surface mount parts

I'll definitely be using these for the large and probably normal tanks, but the small ones I'm not sure if it matters; may give it to them just for uniformity; this will be part of the next update, which will probably be tonight or tomorrow.

Edited May 23, 2013 by Greys

[Moon Goddess]

If you're still interested in other things you could add, containers for Oâ‚‚ and COâ‚‚ would be nice. There are multiple modes that use at least these.

[Greys]

I'm going to put most mod support behind the accessories so that may be a while; however, if you want to edit the cfgs and textures to make that work yourself, please by all means go ahead, and feel free to distribute it.

PS, I've posted what amounts to the version 1.0 release in the first post, I've also submitted it to Spaceport; once that clears I'll make a thread on the release board.

[Luckz]

Did that release make all the tanks actually work? The previous version has half of them not working (just not storing any resources).

Edit: Ok, they do work now, and they're nicely sorted into categories. Now the only glaring issue is mass/balance - many containers still have a mass of ~2, and the dry mass is also 2. RTGs are all the same weight irrespective of size, the normal oxidizer weighs far more than the large oxidizer, and such things. Basically every part still needs a good look re stat balancing.

Edited May 24, 2013 by Luckz

[Greys]

that's odd, I went through and adjusted the weight on all the tanks, I guess some of them didn't stick..

should be 0.6 for larges, 0.3 for normals, 0.1 for smalls, and I did the RTGs when I originally made them

once more into the wading pool...

Ps, I've got the racks made and working, the textures are kinda **** though. I couldn't get them to transfer fuel because surface attaches are stupid, so I also included a tiny fuel duct to correct that with

you can see both here

Edit:

Fixed the weights, I'll update the download tomorrow.

Edited May 25, 2013 by Greys

[Greys]

Lots of update!

Weights fixed, resources should continue to stay fixed but I've got a worry about that so let me know if they've unfixed themselves

Racks and Decouplers are done and included.

Finished the first mod part, Liquid Barite, a nice little ballasting system.

I've decided to cancel the MJ hexcans because the included surface attach module is just much nicer than I could ever do.

Took advantage of .20 to reduce every kind of thing into 3 CFGs by size (2 for probes, 1 for ASAS), one model, and one texture (2 for decouplers), reducing the installed file size by 59%.

I don't plan to condense the cfgs simply because having each version of a part in it's own file makes it easier to remember where things are and what I've fixed/changed, and KSP doesn't load the file, it loads information out of the file, so the number of files is completely irrelevant to how much RAM these parts occupy.

Still waiting on SpacePort.

[Greys]

While waiting for spaceport I've started working on the active elements, so far I've got a jet, a hypersonic intake, and a ram air intake

I currently only intend to provide these for the Large hexcan, though once I get it in game I may make a Normal set as well. There will also be a rocket engine, but I'm holding off on that because rockets are more complicated.

These are currently at step 1 of my patented 6 step development process, so it's gonna be a while till they actually do anything

[Mekan1k]

One word can describe this....

Wow

[Moon Goddess]

I know that it wouldn't fit with your current design, and even if you changed the design, I don't know if you could get the nodes right to make it work, but those bumps on the ends really look like they should lock together.

[Greys]

Well, the way the hexcan is set up, the collider goes around the feet but does not conform to them, so on these parts the interlocking wedges would be outside the collider; and the node is right at the end on the hexcans so it would be inside the interlocks on these parts. So if I taper them in a bit and include surface attaches, they should be able to connect to eachother just fine

So basically, there's no way to make the teeth interlock on two end mounting bits without an intermediary adapter, which maybe I'll make; but I can do this pretty easy

[LaVex]

I just wanted to say that I absolutely love these. Hex anything is really nice from a design point of view. I strapped 24 large HexCans and 6 small cans on a hex probe core and shot it into space..

It looks so nice. Took a huge rocket to get up but its so pretty in orbit. I love the surface space, I put all of the science equip as well as the MechJeb and Engineer computers neatly around the outside. There is no way I could have made this compact of a 'probe' as huge as it is without these HexCans.. love em.

It still had a good amount of supplies on board but it was really heavy. I am going to be using them as small fuel storage caches in orbits everywhere.

I wanted to second the notion of these containing IntakeAir, I soo need air containers to power my H.O.M.E generator on airless worlds.. and I figure shipping in air should be lighter than fuel, and more fun to set up the generator base. Also SM pulse engines use Compressed Air which can be made from IntakeAir or there could be a HexCan for Compressed Air as well eventually. I plan on just doing the config edits for these parts myself but I really think they could be in the mod, good resources.

One last idea, I really like flat edged designs and I think an adapter to THSS tri-hexagonal strut would be a really great fit. Since you both are non quad.

Can't wait for the updates.

[Greys]

One last idea, I really like flat edged designs and I think an adapter to THSS tri-hexagonal strut would be a really great fit. Since you both are non quad.

What kind of adapter would you be looking for? the hexcans already mesh unexpectedly well with the THSS set, though I haven't tried the Octos much

I could look into making multi-racks for the smaller cans, but I'm not good enough to replicate the THSS style and I suspect they would be difficult to place things into