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

[Talisar]

Glad you find it of use, Cardinal. It's a pretty simple piece, because I had just made it for my own use and couldn't find one.

1 Suggestion: Can you make the "caution sign" with a Kerbal figure, instead of a human?

Lol, I can't believe I didn't think of doing that. I'll definitely do that in the future.

[Starwaster]

I would swear that these came in a smooth topped version (no mounting point)

Is my memory faulty? Or am I thinking of some part made by someone else?

[Greys]

I would swear that these came in a smooth topped version (no mounting point)

Is my memory faulty? Or am I thinking of some part made by someone else?

You're probably thinking of the spherical tank from UDK_Lethal_Dose's pack

[Starwaster]

You're probably thinking of the spherical tank from UDK_Lethal_Dose's pack

Thanks I'll check it out.

[OopsThatNotWork]

Hey Talisar, just wanted to say thanks for all the work you put in man. I use your tanks for alot of things, but my favorite currently is my kethane convoy. Hope you like it.

And if you cant tell, i like making them glow.

[Railgunner2160]

ALL ABOARD!!! (Sry, train nut here) But Awesome job on that!!!!

[OopsThatNotWork]

ALL ABOARD!!! (Sry, train nut here) But Awesome job on that!!!!

Haha, that was kind of the idea since i hate using the stock wheels. I used docking ports as connection pivots, worked eerily similar to train couplers with a little less rotational give on them.

[The Lone Wolfling]

Haha, that was kind of the idea since i hate using the stock wheels. I used docking ports as connection pivots, worked eerily similar to train couplers with a little less rotational give on them.

Docking ports do work well for that. A couple of radial decouplers inline also work.

[Fox62]

So, how's progress coming on the endcap adapters?

[TheCardinal]

.... snip ....

I've thrown together a quick radial mount intended for attaching engines or tanks:

.... snip ....

/QUOTE]

It's a perfect part! I would like to request such a part connectable from top and bottom. (i.o.w. a double mount)

[Talisar]

Hey Talisar, just wanted to say thanks for all the work you put in man. I use your tanks for alot of things, but my favorite currently is my kethane convoy. Hope you like it.

-snip

And if you cant tell, i like making them glow.

That is awesome!

So, how's progress coming on the endcap adapters?

It's a perfect part! I would like to request such a part connectable from top and bottom. (i.o.w. a double mount)

Thanks for the comments! The endcap adapters are pretty much modeled, but I still need to unwrap them for texturing. Shouldn't take too long once I actually sit down to do it. It also wouldn't be too hard to make the part you suggested, Cardinal. I'll probably get to both within a few days (KSP has taken a back seat to 3 games that I've been looking forward to which came out this week and I've been a bit....distracted, but I've just about played enough of them to be able to walk away for a bit )

[Talisar]

I have pretty much finished the new set of tanks. By re-making everything from scratch, I have been able to optimize the pack quite a bit by reducing poly counts and greatly improving the colliders and texture maps. What I have now adds 3 tanks in the current sizes, a variant of the large tank with 3.75m endcaps, and a 7.5m diameter toroidal tank with 2.5m connectors. I also have cfg files set up for each of the tanks containing LFO, Monopropellant, LiquidFuel, Kethane, and Oxygen (For Ioncross Crew Support). The size of this is about 1/3 that of the original set of tanks.

The way I have it set up on my computer now is the models are all in their own folder and each type of resource has it's own sub-folder containing the cfgs and textures for each type of tank. This way, if someone does not play with Kethane or Ioncross, they can just delete that subfolder ro remove that particular flavor of tank from their game. My first question to you is: Would this be a good way to release the new pack, or should I break the specialized fuel tanks off into their own download? I'm leaning toward distributing them all together to lessen spam on the spaceport.

Secondly, due to the availability of mods with allow adjusting amounts of fuel in tanks and/or draining tanks, I have not included empty versions in this pack (Other than Kethane tanks, which are all empty). Is there a great call for emptys to be included? If so, just the largest tanks, or all of them?

Thirdly, since everything in the new set has been redesigned from scratch, I made them all with new names in order to avoid breaking any current builds. I plan on releasing these as a new pack, but leaving the old one available for the time being, although it won't be updated from it's current state.

I'll be getting these together for release in the next day or so, and I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions.

[Mihara]

The way I have it set up on my computer now is the models are all in their own folder and each type of resource has it's own sub-folder containing the cfgs and textures for each type of tank. This way, if someone does not play with Kethane or Ioncross, they can just delete that subfolder ro remove that particular flavor of tank from their game. My first question to you is: Would this be a good way to release the new pack, or should I break the specialized fuel tanks off into their own download? I'm leaning toward distributing them all together to lessen spam on the spaceport.

Tracking multiple spaceport packages is a chore more annoying than removing a few files. Besides, I'm not sure they will even load if they list an unknown RESOURCE {}...

Secondly, due to the availability of mods with allow adjusting amounts of fuel in tanks and/or draining tanks, I have not included empty versions in this pack (Other than Kethane tanks, which are all empty). Is there a great call for emptys to be included? If so, just the largest tanks, or all of them?

I do not care much for empty smalls, but empty mediums and larges, including their halves, are a convenience even when you can dump fuel, and I don't currently use anything that would let one adjust fuel amounts in VAB... Now, if you settled on a method of in-VAB amount editing and pre-prepared the configs to use it, that would be nice, since it would be a part module and just wouldn't interfere with the normal order of things if you didn't have that particular mod.

[Talisar]

Tracking multiple spaceport packages is a chore more annoying than removing a few files. Besides, I'm not sure they will even load if they list an unknown RESOURCE {}...

They do show up, they just don't contain anything. I will most likely leave it the way I have it, as I agree with you. I tend to pick and choose out of every pack I download anyhow, and with each type having it's own directory, it's very easy to remove those you don't need.

I do not care much for empty smalls, but empty mediums and larges, including their halves, are a convenience even when you can dump fuel, and I don't currently use anything that would let one adjust fuel amounts in VAB... Now, if you settled on a method of in-VAB amount editing and pre-prepared the configs to use it, that would be nice, since it would be a part module and just wouldn't interfere with the normal order of things if you didn't have that particular mod.

I could set up empties in the same manner that I did the different fuels... put the cfgs in a separate directory so they can be deleted by those who don't want them. I think a setup like you describe for setting fuel amounts in the VAB would be ideal, but I'd have no idea of how to go about implementing this.

[Mihara]

I could set up empties in the same manner that I did the different fuels... put the cfgs in a separate directory so they can be deleted by those who don't want them. I think a setup like you describe for setting fuel amounts in the VAB would be ideal, but I'd have no idea of how to go about implementing this.

The Tweakable Parameters mod was the most obvious way of doing it, but it hasn't been updated for a while. Modular Fuel Tanks is a catch-all solution, but a bit too catch-all for the purpose. There should be others...

[Talisar]

I had looked at using modulemanager to make the different types of tanks for fuels and for empties so if you wanted to remove one type all you'd have to do is remove the cfg for it, but my (admittedly limited) understanding of how it works is that I can use it to change the parameters of a certain part, but not to make a duplicate of a part. So I could change a tank that holds LFO to one that holds Kethane, but that would replace the original LFO tank. I could definately have missed something when looking at it, however.

In any case, the setup with separate directories seems to work all right, and it'll be very easy for me to make the cfg's for the empties. Plus, if I do it this way instead of depending on a plugin, there's little chance of a game update making the tanks unuseable.

[SyberSmoke]

Since I did not feel like reading 35 pages of posts, I may be barking up an old tree. I do not know if this is intended, but the three radial mounts provided in the pack are very heavy at 2.5 tons each. This seams a little extreme especially for the small mount and that most of then should be hollow space with pipes and tubes.

[Orphican]

In any case, the setup with separate directories seems to work all right, and it'll be very easy for me to make the cfg's for the empties. Plus, if I do it this way instead of depending on a plugin, there's little chance of a game update making the tanks unuseable.

Thank god. Way too many mods are leaning on module manager. IMHO thats not a good idea in the state KSP is still in.

[BigFatStupidHead]

My first question to you is: Would this be a good way to release the new pack, or should I break the specialized fuel tanks off into their own download?

Secondly, due to the availability of mods with allow adjusting amounts of fuel in tanks and/or draining tanks, I have not included empty versions in this pack (Other than Kethane tanks, which are all empty). Is there a great call for emptys to be included? If so, just the largest tanks, or all of them?

It sounds like the way you have tanks packed off in their own directories will make it very easy to only use what you want. What you've proposed seems quite sound.

I have no interest in the empty tanks, of any size. As it stands, I have to go throught the CFG's and delete the empties, so if the file was set up in such a way that I don't need to do that, I would be quite content.

By the way, I love these.

[Talisar]

Since I did not feel like reading 35 pages of posts, I may be barking up an old tree. I do not know if this is intended, but the three radial mounts provided in the pack are very heavy at 2.5 tons each. This seams a little extreme especially for the small mount and that most of then should be hollow space with pipes and tubes.

I initially didn't intend for them to remain that heavy, but when I lessened the mass of them, it seemed that the effects of wobble increased dramatically. I'm doing some experimenting with the updated pack I'm working on to see if I can find a sweet spot

[SyberSmoke]

I initially didn't intend for them to remain that heavy, but when I lessened the mass of them, it seemed that the effects of wobble increased dramatically. I'm doing some experimenting with the updated pack I'm working on to see if I can find a sweet spot

Interesting, not knowing anything about how the physics engine does things, I can not comment. But I hope that it gets sorted out because it is a little heavy to be of use, at least in some of the builds I have been doing. Still, a good pack and the tanks are excellent.

[taniwha]

Talisar: apparently node size comes into it too.

Anyway, I noticed that you had size 1 nodes on all tanks (though this might be an older version, I'm not sure I've updated). 0 1 and 2 seem to be ok for the three tank sizes (and will make them a little more consistent with FAR).

[taniwha]

Talisar: I'd like to suggest a minor edit to the small spherical tank (and half sphere): change the LF and O capacities from 640/782 to 639.9/782.1. This keeps the wet mass the same, but fixes the incorrect fuel ratio to be exactly 9:11 (as best as can be represented by doubles). Similarly for the small half sphere: from 320/391 to 319.95/391.05.

The discrepancy became a problem when testing the EL launchpad code: it wanted 0.22u of JetFuel because there was a shade more liquid fuel than needed for the oxidizer.

To get the 15.222... mass ratio of the other sizes, the tank masses can be shaved down to 0.499921875 and 0.2499609375.

[edit]An alternative is just to slap 14 decimal places of 2s (or 1s for the half sphere) onto the oxidizer.

Edited August 28, 2013 by taniwha

[Talisar]

Talisar: I'd like to suggest a minor edit to the small spherical tank (and half sphere): change the LF and O capacities from 640/782 to 639.9/782.1. This keeps the wet mass the same, but fixes the incorrect fuel ratio to be exactly 9:11 (as best as can be represented by doubles). Similarly for the small half sphere: from 320/391 to 319.95/391.05.

Can do!

Another small update on the status of the new set of tanks.... I haven't been happy with my models for adapters, so I made variations of the large and small tanks to go into the set. The large will now be available with either 3.75m or 2.5m endcaps, and the small will be available with 1.5m or 0.625m endcaps. The size of the endcap will not affect the capacity of the tanks, just the connections on the ends. I tried making versions of the medium sized tank with 2.5m or 0.625m endcaps, but they didn't look very good. IIRC, the two variants that I made were the most requested adjustments. The half-tanks will be available in all variants as well. By request, I'm also including monopropellant tanks in the large sizes as well.

[Talisar]

My new, optimized pack has been released. The main post has been updated with pics (just a bunch of spheres, really) and it can be downloaded at http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/?p=31849.

Be advised, this is a totally new pack, not an update to the old one. It will not break current craft, as the tanks are completely renamed. Do not delete the old tanks until you are done with any ships that have them included.

Taniwha: I also updated the fuel capacities and node sizes as you suggested. Thanks for the continued feedback!

Edited August 29, 2013 by Talisar