[0.90] LazTek SpaceX Launch, Exploration, Colonial Transporter & Historic mods (1/25/14)

[LazarusLuan]

The Super Heavy Lift pack is near completion and I've posted a new demonstration video for the Dragon 2 build:

[Virtualgenius]

That was an awesome video well done SIR

[Prowler_x1]

Nice, can't wait to test out the new heavy lift pack... Awesome work; "as always".

Edited May 18, 2014 by Prowler_x1

[epower]

Thank you for this exceptional work. You've made KSP a much richer experience.

I've just completed a config rescale for use in Regex's 6.4:1 variant of RealSolarSystem and your SpaceX pack is one of my go-to lifters. Bonus that the scale you employed was a perfect fit. Alas, my many mods require me to forgo the wholesale use of HD version for now.

Looking forward to your take on the BFR.

Such a level of detail and the Octoweb engine clusters do increase the part count on the Falcon 9 Heavy (94) and predictably I experience much lag during ascent. Unsure if 27 engines or the 27 FX emissions caused the performance hit, I conducted an experiment by rescaling the NovaPunch 'Little Mother' single part Octoweb to the same size, thrust rating and FX definitions as the 9 Merlin 1Ds. The increase in FPS and playability was profound. Listed below are two FRAPS logs from the first 60 seconds after launch.

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg --------(94 parts w/ 27 individual engines)

1696, ... 60000, .....0, ....45, ..28.3

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg ---------(67 parts w/ 3 NP Octowebs)

3291,.... 60000,..... 36, ..59, ..54.8

Not sure if this issue has come up before but given the huge performance increase, would you consider adding to your pack by fusing the Merlin engine housing and the 9 Merlins into a single part?

Regards,

For reference my system specs are:

e8400 Core2Duo OC'd to 3.8ghz

8gb DDR3 RAM

nVidia GTX 760 2GB

Windows 7 64-bit

Edited May 19, 2014 by epower
formatting

[Prowler_x1]

Thank you for this exceptional work. You've made KSP a much richer experience.

I've just completed a config rescale for use in Regex's 6.4:1 variant of RealSolarSystem and your SpaceX pack is one of my go-to lifters. Bonus that the scale you employed was a perfect fit. Alas, my many mods require me to forgo the wholesale use of HD version for now.

Looking forward to your take on the BFR.

Such a level of detail and the Octoweb engine clusters do increase the part count on the Falcon 9 Heavy (94) and predictably I experience much lag during ascent. Unsure if 27 engines or the 27 FX emissions caused the performance hit, I conducted an experiment by rescaling the NovaPunch 'Little Mother' single part Octoweb to the same size, thrust rating and FX definitions as the 9 Merlin 1Ds. The increase in FPS and playability was profound. Listed below are two FRAPS logs from the first 60 seconds after launch.

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg --------(94 parts w/ 27 individual engines)

1696, ... 60000, .....0, ....45, ..28.3

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg ---------(67 parts w/ 3 NP Octowebs)

3291,.... 60000,..... 36, ..59, ..54.8

Not sure if this issue has come up before but given the huge performance increase, would you consider adding to your pack by fusing the Merlin engine housing and the 9 Merlins into a single part?

Regards,

For reference my system specs are:

e8400 Core2Duo OC'd to 3.8ghz

8gb DDR3 RAM

nVidia GTX 760 2GB

Windows 7 64-bit

I love and hate your request.

Please let me explain my self. I too suffer from lag with HD stuff, thats why I prefer Low-Res so I can bulk up ksp with mods and not HD image files. Your request is quite valid except for one major factor.

If the Merlin engine is fused into one part, you will lose the ability to turn on and shut down individual engines, thus loosing the entire purpose of a multi-engine layout. I would suggest keeping things as they are currently. If you need to fuse the engine you can do it your self with the help of the following mod.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/38577-0-22-UbioZur-Welding-Ltd-2-0-Playtest-5-Now-In-Game-Tool

No need to bother Laz for that. This mod will help you achieve your goal. It will also make the weld as a new part so you can have both available if you decide to use either one. Hope it helps...

Oh and another thing, once you animate all the individual nozzles with flames and smoke you will end up with the same lag on the welded part due to the quantity of individual images required for the animation. In other words, back to Square-One.

Edited May 19, 2014 by Prowler_x1

[epower]

If the Merlin engine is fused into one part, you will lose the ability to turn on and shut down individual engines, thus loosing the entire purpose of a multi-engine layout.

A fair point. I hadn't considered the selective engine shutdown options. I wasn't suggesting that Laz eliminate the composite engine housing, just add a fused element, however if UbioZur Welding can handle that without distracting Laz from more interesting pursuits, so much the better. Thanks for the link. I will definitely check that out.

As for animation of individual nozzles, the NovaPunch Little Mother part also has 9 engines and emission points which was the reason I selected it as a test vehicle. Would it not therefore behave in the same way as an Octoweb of individual engines or do FX behave differently in this scenario?

[Prowler_x1]

A fair point. I hadn't considered the selective engine shutdown options. I wasn't suggesting that Laz eliminate the composite engine housing, just add a fused element, however if UbioZur Welding can handle that without distracting Laz from more interesting pursuits, so much the better. Thanks for the link. I will definitely check that out.

As for animation of individual nozzles, the NovaPunch Little Mother part also has 9 engines and emission points which was the reason I selected it as a test vehicle. Would it not therefore behave in the same way as an Octoweb of individual engines or do FX behave differently in this scenario?

Good point, I will take a closer look at the part.cfg files of those two parts to see how they differ. Let me investigate to see if they handle the same type of animation. It wouldn't surprise me if laz is using higher quality emissions for animating his engines as well.

Edited May 20, 2014 by Prowler_x1

[LazarusLuan]

Good point, I will take a closer look at the part.cfg files of those two parts to see how they differ. Let me investigate to see if they handle the same type of animation. It wouldn't surprise me if laz is using higher quality emissions for animating his engines as well.

I can always just add my older, original Octoweb 6-engine cluster back to the mods as an optional component that uses a total of 4 engines instead of 9 if that helps.

[Midanthrope]

Laz,

Have you decided if you are going to be including the Dragon Cargo Pod in your upcoming release of the Super Heavy Lift Pack? More curiosity and hope than anything else, really enjoy your work and efforts.

[Prowler_x1]

I can always just add my older, original Octoweb 6-engine cluster back to the mods as an optional component that uses a total of 4 engines instead of 9 if that helps.

The nine is fine... Then again, options never hurt.

[epower]

Indeed, options are always welcomed.

I took a different approach to the issue and just backed the camera way out early in the ascent. I'm flying the NavBall at that point anyway. Seems to keep the FPS manageable.

[Prowler_x1]

Indeed, options are always welcomed.

I took a different approach to the issue and just backed the camera way out early in the ascent. I'm flying the NavBall at that point anyway. Seems to keep the FPS manageable.

Yes, that helps reduce the emission textures that are currently affecting you. Like I said before the issue is not the engines or their parts. It's in the flame animations and smoke that come out of them. Once you start adding up all those animations with multi-engine setups you can make any hardware come to a crawl... At least until SQUAD resolves the whole game optimizations in KSP. There is much to be done but that is in step #12000 and currently they are on step #247. Patience is key... In the immortal words of KSP; It will be ready "SOON".

If I could only say that to the boss man at work...

[epower]

No doubt SQUAD will eventually optimize things as they continue to build KSP

As for FX textures, I've no doubt that high particle effects degrade FPS, however I don't think FX are the issue in this case. If you look at my original post you'll see that I copied the Laztek FX textures and pasted them into the NP test part cfg. Perhaps I should have stated that more explicitly. Now, it's possible that the single part with 9 emission points treats FX differently than 9 individual engines. I can't say as I'm just learning about how KSP deals with FX textures. Unfortunately, I've yet to get Ubiozur Welding working so a true Merlins to Merlins test will have to wait.

Horrifying, yet hilarious to see Bingo Bob from the West Wing and Louis Nixon from Band of Brothers in the Office

[Prowler_x1]

No doubt SQUAD will eventually optimize things as they continue to build KSP

As for FX textures, I've no doubt that high particle effects degrade FPS, however I don't think FX are the issue in this case. If you look at my original post you'll see that I copied the Laztek FX textures and pasted them into the NP test part cfg. Perhaps I should have stated that more explicitly. Now, it's possible that the single part with 9 emission points treats FX differently than 9 individual engines. I can't say as I'm just learning about how KSP deals with FX textures. Unfortunately, I've yet to get Ubiozur Welding working so a true Merlins to Merlins test will have to wait.

Horrifying, yet hilarious to see Bingo Bob from the West Wing and Louis Nixon from Band of Brothers in the Office

If you say it is not FX related then you might want to take a look at sound files..

[Korb Biakustra]

I have just installed this awesome pack, without the expansion, and here's what happens with Dragon 2:

Any ideas of what is causing these missing textures? I have not Load on Demand running, but have Texture Replacer and ATM.

[Prowler_x1]

I have just installed this awesome pack, without the expansion, and here's what happens with Dragon 2:

http://i.imgur.com/Swf5wvdl.jpg

Any ideas of what is causing these missing textures? I have not Load on Demand running, but have Texture Replacer and ATM.

You need to delete the textures from ATM mod. It is loading the old mod textures. That's it. Once ATM generates the new textures all will be golden.

Edited May 26, 2014 by Prowler_x1

[Korb Biakustra]

Well, I did read the first post. It was updated recently and may have mentiond this issue, but I have not found anything. Then I read the last page and still found nothing, so I figured I'd better ask rather than pick pages randomly not even knowing whether the issue had been discussed (search yields a lot of unrelated results). I'm sincerely sorry if I just missed it by two or three pages. I've got like 50 mods, some of them have threads about 500 pages long, I'm glad it is not mandatory to read everything.

Thanks for your answer anyway, sorry for asking if it was discussed just before!

[Edit] The issue persists after deleting the textures. I was thinking it was odd if ATM loaded old mod textures, as it was the first time I loaded up the game with LazTek SpaceX pack. I'm reinstalling the mod using the LR pack, seeing if it changes anything.

Edited May 26, 2014 by Korb Biakustra

[Prowler_x1]

Well, I did read the first post. It was updated recently and may have mentiond this issue, but I have not found anything. Then I read the last page and, still finding nothing, so I figured I'd better ask rather than pick pages randomly not even knowing whether the issue had been discussed (search yields a lot of unrelated results). I'm sincerely sorry if I just missed it by two or three pages. I've got like 50 mods, some of them have threads about 500 pages long, I'm glad it is not mandatory to read everything.

Thanks for your answer anyway, sorry for asking if it was discussed just before!

[Edit] The issue persists after deleting the textures. I was thinking it was odd if ATM loaded old mod textures, as it was the first time I loaded up the game with LazTek SpaceX pack.

Check 3 to 4 pages back. There are some instructions for ATM.

What version did you download? Did you install and run any older version before? Is it a clean install? Usually the error you post is related to the texture cache from the ATM mod. This usually happens if you ran an older version of Laztek that used to have the tanks on a smaller size and upgraded to the new version of Laztek that has new larger tanks. The tank skin in ATM cache needs to be cleared out so the new skin is generated with the proper dimensions.

[Korb Biakustra]

Thanks for your help Prowler_x1! The issue was apparently coming from CoolRockets.cfg! Consider it fixed now.

do you use CoolRockets Taki117? If so the go to the CoolRockets folder in gamedata and delete the LaztekCoolRockets.cfg

For reference, I tried all three texture packs, and it was a new install of SpaceX pack so there could be no tracks of any older textures. Perhaps the conflict with CoolRockets should be mentioned in first post, it's a quite simple fix!

Edited May 26, 2014 by Korb Biakustra

[Virtualgenius]

The cool rockets pack has an RSS MM config in it for SPACEX I believe it has been asked to be removed but hasnt happened yet

[Prowler_x1]

Thanks for your help Prowler_x1! The issue was apparently coming from CoolRockets.cfg! Consider it fixed now.

For reference, I tried all three texture packs, and it was a new install of SpaceX pack so there could be no tracks of any older textures. Perhaps the conflict with CoolRockets should be mentioned in first post, it's a quite simple fix!

Good to know... thanks!

[sp1989]

I have been using this since the last update without any issue until now. The expanding parts in the VAB thing came back. The long tank is the only SpaceX part that does it I checked. But this is really frustrating especially since last night it wasn't doing it and today it is and i have not changed or done anything to the game between last night and today. I just opened it up and there is the problem. FYI not blaming the pack I am just frustrated because I can't figure out why it is happening all of a sudden.

[RedAV8R]

There is a module out there that prevents that from happening.

[Prowler_x1]

There is a module out there that prevents that from happening.

What module would that be?

[NathanKell]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/63109-0-23-Modulefixer