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


LazarusLuan

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Bug report. I've been trying to figure out why my rockets won't fly straight and I've discovered that the node is off center for the Merlin 1D center engine. This 6 picture album explains the issue.

Good catch - thanks for finding that! I've posted updates in the first page of this thread that that fix this issue as well as change the layout of the cockpit controls and display. The Exploration Expansion kit is completed and is being uploaded tonight. Here is a shot of the new cockpit layout:

screenshot51.png

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Good catch - thanks for finding that! I've posted updates in the first page of this thread that that fix this issue as well as change the layout of the cockpit controls and display. The Exploration Expansion kit is completed and is being uploaded tonight. Here is a shot of the new cockpit layout:

http://electrictomatoes.com/ksp/screenshot51.png

Awesome! Cannot wait!

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I've posted the first completed versions of the SpaceX Exploration Expansion kit up to my server and you can download them here in regular and high-res versions:

LazTek SpaceX Exploration Expansion Kit 1.0

LazTek SpaceX Exploration Expansion Kit HD 1.0

I'd appreciate feedback on everything before I post it to SpacePort. The internal textures are a work in progress and will be updated as I come up with things to add.

Here are some views from the lower-resolution version of the interior:

screenshot56.png

screenshot53a.png

screenshot54a.png

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The Exploration Pod ladder seems to be bugged and crashes every time u try to grab it , also does not show kerbals face plates for kerbals in the pod , also the attachment nodes seem to be very picky. Some of the new parts seem to be angled a little to the left when u load them in the VAB. So far all i have tested.

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The dragon parts seem to be off set in the VAB when building , and attachments nodes seem to hate life when trying to attach radial. Other then that looks great so far liking it.

http://imgur.com/a/jq8PD

Oh yes - I turned the default attachment rotation 15 degrees on the habitat unit to make the habitat ladder line up with the Dragon ladder, but I can see how it doesn't look right when you first attach it. I'll change that so there's no confusion.

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The habitat seems to not be the one that is not off set , its the dragon trunk and other parts that are. Ty

That 15 degree rotational offset is actually a design of SpaceX. The pivot point for the solar panels is located at the center, so the entire ship and solar panels are symmetrical when deployed.

I've uploaded new versions of everything to fix various issues I've found over the past 12 hours, including new craft files that fix the offset.

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Hi Laz,

I'm struggling to get your SpaceX stuff working properly with the Realism Overhaul pack of mods. I think you've done a really AWESOME job here and want to get it working over there.

Now we've been discussing things in the RO threads, and I certainly don't expect you to support the mod in unintended places, but if you don't mind being bugged with some questions that would be awesome. The main problem i'm having, at the moment, is the rocket really wants to roll badly, and doesn't seem to have the ability to actually roll intentionally.

The first thing i'm noticing is that the 6 engine in the pre-built pack do not seem to gimbal. Is this intentional, or is maybe something i'm using breaking it? From what I read, all 9 engines in the Falcon 9 v1.1 are supposed to gimbal.

I'm also curious if there is a reason you modeled it as a pack of 6 engines as one part, as opposed to providing the housing, and letting the user place 9 individual - controllable - engines in place?

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Another bug report. The Falcon Separation Engine has a thrust vector that is slightly angled leading to off center thrust. Not a big deal if you're using it as a separation engine, but if you use it as mini booster for small rockets it causes problems.

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Laz, I'm having lots of fun with the new Dragon Explorer. It's a beautiful extrapolation I think goes well with SpaceX's style.

On my system, the new retractable nosecone makes the capsule aerodynamically unstable. Launched alone from Kerbin, the Dragon 2 capsule as equipped in your Explorer craft file is unable to hold attitude beginning at about 4km. During reentry I was likewise merrily tumbling through the flame effects though it stabilized again before landing. Test flights without the nosecone had no stability problems. I'm not running FAR nor any other aerodynamic mod.

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Hi Laz,

I'm struggling to get your SpaceX stuff working properly with the Realism Overhaul pack of mods. I think you've done a really AWESOME job here and want to get it working over there.

Now we've been discussing things in the RO threads, and I certainly don't expect you to support the mod in unintended places, but if you don't mind being bugged with some questions that would be awesome. The main problem i'm having, at the moment, is the rocket really wants to roll badly, and doesn't seem to have the ability to actually roll intentionally.

The first thing i'm noticing is that the 6 engine in the pre-built pack do not seem to gimbal. Is this intentional, or is maybe something i'm using breaking it? From what I read, all 9 engines in the Falcon 9 v1.1 are supposed to gimbal.

I'm also curious if there is a reason you modeled it as a pack of 6 engines as one part, as opposed to providing the housing, and letting the user place 9 individual - controllable - engines in place?

Thank you for your efforts to adapt these mods to the Realism Overhaul pack. You are correct about the gimballing issue. It was speculated early on that the center engine would be the only engine to gimbal of the nine, which is obviously not true now and I forgot to update it. The reason for simplifying the engine design to have 6 engines in the cluster (originally 8 before the last update) was to counter the ill effects of having too many parts for Kerbal to handle before the Unity 4.2.2 update. I was concerned about 27 separate engines firing simultaneously with the earlier versions and will test the setup today that you've suggested to see how it performs. I will also look into the roll issue and see what I can do to take care of that as well.

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Another bug report. The Falcon Separation Engine has a thrust vector that is slightly angled leading to off center thrust. Not a big deal if you're using it as a separation engine, but if you use it as mini booster for small rockets it causes problems.

Thanks - I'll investigate that today.

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Laz, I'm having lots of fun with the new Dragon Explorer. It's a beautiful extrapolation I think goes well with SpaceX's style.

On my system, the new retractable nosecone makes the capsule aerodynamically unstable. Launched alone from Kerbin, the Dragon 2 capsule as equipped in your Explorer craft file is unable to hold attitude beginning at about 4km. During reentry I was likewise merrily tumbling through the flame effects though it stabilized again before landing. Test flights without the nosecone had no stability problems. I'm not running FAR nor any other aerodynamic mod.

I'm pleased you are having so much fun with these mods and I want to make them even better. I've discovered the same problem you have with stability. It appears to be a relationship between the angle of thrust on the hybrid engines while using the nosecone/air intakes. I've adjusted the thrust angle and now have now problems maintaining stability up to about 25k when the rocket engines kick in. Just redownload the Exploration pack to get the updated engines.

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Thank you for your efforts to adapt these mods to the Realism Overhaul pack. You are correct about the gimballing issue. It was speculated early on that the center engine would be the only engine to gimbal of the nine, which is obviously not true now and I forgot to update it. The reason for simplifying the engine design to have 6 engines in the cluster (originally 8 before the last update) was to counter the ill effects of having too many parts for Kerbal to handle before the Unity 4.2.2 update. I was concerned about 27 separate engines firing simultaneously with the earlier versions and will test the setup today that you've suggested to see how it performs. I will also look into the roll issue and see what I can do to take care of that as well.

The roll issue is most apparent in Realism Overhaul. Not as much so in stock. I haven't narrowed it down yet to the cause exactly, but I do know that some parts of the craft don't play well with FAR. The solar panel covers for example.

If it is possible to get the 9 engines individually, then I should be able to use HoneyFox's gimbal plugin to manage roll properly. So if that is a switch you can do, even optionally, that would be great. Maybe release the bottom fairing as a new piece with no engines, but mount points for all 9. Then people could choose which way to set it up?

Right now I think a lot of my issues are coming from the fact that there are 6 non gimbaled engines pushing in there, and the 3 that do gimbal don't do so enough to really have much control. It works fine in stock probably because of the reaction wheels which are nerfed bad in RO since they are not realistic.

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My latest update to the Rescale config (now linked to in my sig) adds in ferram's code for both versions of the solar panel covers. He mentioned that it was the horizontal nodes causing the issue, which FAR sees as cylinders sticking out the side of the rocket, obviously very bad for aerodynamics and control. I wonder if maybe the nodes on the Dragon capsule, which are similar to that of the solar panels', might be causing a problem as well. I'll need to do more testing today.

Also I would second Agathorn's request for the optional engine bottom part with the 9 connect points.

Edit: Just tested a rocket with nodes on the Dragon and a rocket with nodes removed from the Dragon. They are definitely causing issues in the same manner that the solar panel covers nodes were. I'll message ferram and see if he knows of a fix. If not, I'm just going to remove them from my config.

Edited by Scripto23
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