[0.23.5] Spherical and Toroidal Tank Pack (Updated 05/02/14) (New download link)

[Benzschwagel]

hehe, a built-in glowing light effect for when it's lights are turned on for a gentle glow effect instead of the stark contrast of a spot light. Now that would be cool.

[corpsdog]

^ Inflatable spherical fuel tanks.

Agree. I can definitely see this being useful.

[Frayne]

Continuing to use these awesomesauce tanks. I changed my mind about the plain textures and went back to using the stockish type, however the Kethane tanks are only in plain texture. Any chance of getting these with the grubby texture plus subtle green coloured banding to indicate Kethane? Also, although your radial mounts are massively different sizes they all have the same (big) mass at 2.5t... typo?

I thoroughly endorse the request for inflatable tanks!

[cy-one]

Frayne, like these?

Those are my small xenon tanks.

[Frayne]

Yeah I think I like the dashed striping better to indicate container type, more subtle. The only thing I didn't like about the original textures were the low-res out-of-focus warning badges, but the grubby look is more important in the end than worrying about that. Also, I think the original fuel and mono-prop tanks have no colour differentiation (both orange banding I think).

Incidentally, Talisar, if you do fancy having a go at inflatable tanks I think some sort of strutted base to support the sphere would look cool and realistic. I'm trying to make an interplanetary ship atm and want it to look like an explosion in a girder factory... Matari style. Check out Lethal_d0se's spherical tank over HERE to see what I mean.

My pic, as Leathal's one doesn't really show the base.

[Talisar]

A base similar to that is actually exactly what I'm working on right now. My intention is for the next iteration of the tanks to be mounted in the same way as the current one, or to be able to use a detachable base similar to the one in your pic. I'm also going to be making the bases in several sizes for each tank, so they can be used as adapters. As far as inflatable tanks, I really like the idea! I'll do some research into how to make them.

[OopsThatNotWork]

Yeah I think I like the dashed striping better to indicate container type, more subtle. The only thing I didn't like about the original textures were the low-res out-of-focus warning badges, but the grubby look is more important in the end than worrying about that. Also, I think the original fuel and mono-prop tanks have no colour differentiation (both orange banding I think).

Incidentally, Talisar, if you do fancy having a go at inflatable tanks I think some sort of strutted base to support the sphere would look cool and realistic. I'm trying to make an interplanetary ship atm and want it to look like an explosion in a girder factory... Matari style. Check out Lethal_d0se's spherical tank over HERE to see what I mean.

My pic, as Leathal's one doesn't really show the base.

Please dont make a part similar to this one. I love that pack it comes from but this is the one part I just remove from it everytime (cant give a particular reason for disliking it).

Edit: love using your tanks though, so go figure.

[Talisar]

The tanks that I'm working on are pretty much identical to the current ones so far. The main reason I'm doing them from scratch is that I learned quite a bit making the originals, and I think I'm able to greatly improve the texture map template. The original one that I made was a bit hard to work with, and the resolution was too low (especially for the largest tank). The bases that I'm planning are very similar to the ones on Lethal_d0se's tank, but will be separate parts and only necessary for aesthetic reasons, or used to attach tanks to parts with different sizes than the endcaps.

People have been overwhelmingly supportive of these tanks, and the only major requests I've received for alterations concern textures and endcap sizes, so I'm trying to address both. I'll also ensure that the bases' masses make a bit more sense Once I have some progress worth posting, I definitely will, and as always I appreciate any feedback and suggestions.

[Benzschwagel]

hmm, awesome, so a kind of docking port for fuel tanks only? made for transferring fuel but not kerbals? hmm, the thought returns to jeb of all the attempts to make kerbals survive within a liquid oxygen, hydrogen, or kethane environment, a tear falls from his eye...

I always had this thought of making a platform that had Hooligan Labs balloons on the top and Spherical Fuel Tanks on the bottom, possibly with KAS to anchor it in some way, maybe also as a type of fuel block for a station, planetside or orbital

[sojourner]

I decided to go with a Bob McCall design aesthetic for the space program with this expansion and your tanks have been invaluable. Here's a couple of shots of Gateway station in Kerbin orbit with a work tug attached.

[Greys]

Just so you know Talisar, as long as the image you provide is the correct format and aspect ratio, you can change the resolution at your will, so if the large tanks resolution is too low, you can provide a different texture for it which is larger, I'd suggest sticking to multiples of 2. The image you provide will be stretched to fit the canvas that the model expects, so it doesn't actually need to be the same aspect ratio, but it'll get warped if it's not

[taniwha]

Rather than multiples of 2, powers of 2 would be better (256/512/1024/2048) (unless that's what Greys meant).

I don't know how it would be done, but it would be awesome if the mission flag could be plastered on the sides of the tanks.

[Talisar]

Just so you know Talisar, as long as the image you provide is the correct format and aspect ratio, you can change the resolution at your will, so if the large tanks resolution is too low, you can provide a different texture for it which is larger, I'd suggest sticking to multiples of 2. The image you provide will be stretched to fit the canvas that the model expects, so it doesn't actually need to be the same aspect ratio, but it'll get warped if it's not

Yes, I've done that, but the main issue with the texture map is that I was very sloppy with unwrapping it. It works fine for broad, solid colors (like my original smooth textures), but when people try to add detail it gets difficult. It's less a resolution problem than texture stretching.

Anyhow, here are a couple WIP renders of what I'm considering about the mounts. This one is for the medium tanks which works as an attachment that connects the 1.25m endcap to a 0.625m part.

What do you think?

edit: I'm also thinking of adding a ring which is attached to the base that the tank seats in similar to the one built into Lethal_d0se's tank, but I'm uncertain as to how it would look, and I'm concerned about clipping and wobble when it's attached. I'll have to throw one together and see how it works. Maybe some type of clamps instead of a full ring?

Edited July 29, 2013 by Talisar

[Talisar]

I don't know how it would be done, but it would be awesome if the mission flag could be plastered on the sides of the tanks.

Hmm, this actually seems pretty easy to accomplish using the FlagDecal module that was mentioned here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/35225-Some-lesser-known-bits-of-info-for-addon-developers. Since I'm re-doing the models anyhow, it should be pretty easy to implement. I'll definitely take a look at it.

[taniwha]

Ah, I figured there would be a way, I just didn't know what it would be. Thanks for the link.

[smunisto]

Tal, I have a question, since I checked the directories of the mod when I unpacked it and couldn't figure out - are you using the optimized part structure from 0.20? Since all 3 sizes of tanks use the same texture I mean, you can just make 3 different part configs. This saves a lot of space.

Apologies if you do.

[Talisar]

I am using the optimized structure, but the 3 different sizes of tanks are actually modeled individually, not just resized. When I made the texture maps, I made them very similar, but they are actually distinct for each size of tank. I will be optimizing this version even more, so that each size tank will only have one directory for each fuel type however.

[taniwha]

Eh? if anything, I'd put the different sizes into different directories, and all the fuel types into one directory for each size (if I didn't have just the one directory).

[Talisar]

That's what I meant to say. There will be one directory for each size tank, and that directory will include all the cfgs and textures for each fuel type.

[sojourner]

Can I recommend one tank size smaller? To match the diameter of the 1.25m (or whatever the diameter is of the 1 man command pod) parts? Would be great for smaller rockets.

Edited July 29, 2013 by sojourner

[taniwha]

Talisar: ah, I'd hoped it was just mangled communications somewhere.

sojourner: the current small tanks (2.5m diameter) already have 0.625m connections. 1.25m tanks would require proportionally bigger connections. Doable, but they might look out of proportion, and new dry masses would need to be calculated (just scaling wouldn't do).

[Talisar]

I agree on this point. I think that I've pretty much reached the limit on how small I could make these tanks and still have them be spherical. I could possibly come up with something with a slightly different design that would be workable, but it will probably be a little while before I can put time into that.

[smunisto]

I am using the optimized structure, but the 3 different sizes of tanks are actually modeled individually, not just resized. When I made the texture maps, I made them very similar, but they are actually distinct for each size of tank. I will be optimizing this version even more, so that each size tank will only have one directory for each fuel type however.

I am not a modder for Unity, but from what I know about it - this means that each tank will still be using a different texture. And textures are the actual resource hogs in the mods for KSP, not the models themselves.

[dave4002000]

That mounting base looks very cool. I know i would definitely use that!

edit: I'm also thinking of adding a ring which is attached to the base that the tank seats in similar to the one built into Lethal_d0se's tank, but I'm uncertain as to how it would look, and I'm concerned about clipping and wobble when it's attached. I'll have to throw one together and see how it works. Maybe some type of clamps instead of a full ring?

I don't know how the attachment nodes would work for it, but instead of clamps, what about something like this:

The tank would sit inside it, then the whole thing would get mounted to the base. If that's not possible, a four-finger clamp attached to the base might be cool too.

[taniwha]

smunisto: while textures are indeed the hogs, mesh data does add up, so any amount of savings is good. Also, if all tanks of the same type use the same texture...