Sphere thingy guide

[Tacroy]

It would be nice if someone who understands how the sphere indicator works wrote a guide on it for the Wiki; I kinda skimmed over the tutorial, and now I have no idea what the purple indicators mean (but green is current vector, right?). I also can't figure out how to re-do the tutorial, but that's not a huge problem.

[LionsPhil]

It would be nice if someone who understands how the sphere indicator works wrote a guide on it for the Wiki; I kinda skimmed over the tutorial, and now I have no idea what the purple indicators mean (but green is current vector, right?). I also can't figure out how to re-do the tutorial, but that's not a huge problem.

Purple is the direction of the space centre.

It looks like showing the tutorial is controlled by some lines at the top of the configuration file in the game's directory, which you can open in a text editor like Notepad.

[Finrandojin]

Purple circle: Kerbal Space Center

Purple dot with 3 radiating lines: Opposite direction from KSC

Green circle: current velocity vector

green circle with X: the opposite of the velocity vector (handy for retro burns)

The horizon of the gimball compass is level with the surface of Kearth at your current position above the surface, brown is down and blue is up naturally.

[Ntmoore19]

I highly suggest you look at this and ignore the rocket. I've screwed up launches so many times because the rocket looked like it was off balance but it was actually fine.

[JuggernautOfWar]

Even steering using the nav ball can throw me off sometimes because:

W=Down

S=Up

A=Left

D=Right

When I am looking at the nav ball it makes sense to have W as up and S as down. Drives me crazy.

[Sordid]

Even steering using the nav ball can throw me off sometimes because:

W=Down

S=Up

A=Left

D=Right

When I am looking at the nav ball it makes sense to have W as up and S as down. Drives me crazy.

You don't play very many flight sims, then. 'Back' or 'towards you' on the controls being 'up' is standard control in aviation.

The navball (otherwise known as artificial horizon) is a standard instrument as well.

[JuggernautOfWar]

Thank you for the reply. I realize what you are saying (I am a rotary wing pilot, after all) is true, but for rocket flight it just seems backwards for some reason. Don't get me wrong, whenever I play flight sims or ArmA I simply must invert my flight yoke or I go crazy. Just seems backwards for rocketry.

[Zombieweasel]

Its really tricky trying to fly without using it. Ive gotten used to it and even keep telling myself.

'If your drifting down, HOLD DOWN. If your Drifting up, HOLD UP.' Other than that its really easy to understand whats going on.

Didnt know what the purple markers were, but now it makes sense.

[Zeroignite]

Even steering using the nav ball can throw me off sometimes because:

W=Down

S=Up

A=Left

D=Right

When I am looking at the nav ball it makes sense to have W as up and S as down. Drives me crazy.

Ah, they key seems to be using the navball to fly (and paying attention to to orientation of the little 'wings' indicator - controls are relative to this!) rather than trying to eyeball the rocket orientation and axes. Was trying to do the latter for ages... pretty much impossible.

[Sordid]

Thank you for the reply. I realize what you are saying (I am a rotary wing pilot, after all) is true, but for rocket flight it just seems backwards for some reason. Don't get me wrong, whenever I play flight sims or ArmA I simply must invert my flight yoke or I go crazy. Just seems backwards for rocketry.

That actually piqued my interest, I tried looking up how the controls were set up during actual real space flights. They did have control sticks for manual control: http://historicspacecraft.com/Photos/Gemini/Gemini_VIII_NAM_2008_RK_18.jpg I couldn't find any actual info on whether pulling back was up or down. Given that the astronauts were pretty much all air force test pilots, though, it seems most likely the controls were set up in a way they'd find familiar, ie. the same as in a plane.

One other thing I discovered was an Apollo attitude indicator: http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum14/HTML/000813.html What we have in KPS looks really close. Terrifyingly, if you look at the previous picture you'll notice they didn't have much else.

[LionsPhil]

Three-men-in-a-tin-can is the most exciting part of the space program. ;D

But, yeah. Steering via looking at the actual rocket is basically useless. I guess if you're trying to make a jet plane you might get away with it with the camera in chase mode.

[Sordid]

Nah, that's advanced stuff. One guy in a tin can, that's the real pioneering stuff. I mean, look at the Mercury capsule: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mercury_Spacecraft.png It's ridiculously tiny! Those guys were absolutely batshit insane to get into those things and get a big honkin' rocket strapped to their ass.

[VDOgamez]

Yeah, I kind of would like an option to uninvert the vertical axis controls.

[sc_bfc]

You don't play very many flight sims, then. 'Back' or 'towards you' on the controls being 'up' is standard control in aviation.

The navball (otherwise known as artificial horizon) is a standard instrument as well.

This, and because the first video games I played were flight sims, is why I play everything with the Y axis inverted now. I have been ruined. 8)

Also: Love the forum, been lurking for a while; this is my first post..

[foamyesque]

Three-men-in-a-tin-can is the most exciting part of the space program. ;D

But, yeah. Steering via looking at the actual rocket is basically useless. I guess if you're trying to make a jet plane you might get away with it with the camera in chase mode.

Yeah, if you're doing rocketplaning inside atmosphere, chasecam's the way to go. Aside from that, the only times to look at your rocket are arranging screenshots and final landing approach.

[rdfox]

Yeah, if you're doing rocketplaning inside atmosphere, chasecam's the way to go. Aside from that, the only times to look at your rocket are arranging screenshots and final landing approach.

When I'm not using ullage engines, I usually also use it during staging to make sure that the next stage's engines have cleared the shroud decoupler before firing them. Reduces the odds of the previous stage's catastrophic failure taking them out.

Nah, that's advanced stuff. One guy in a tin can, that's the real pioneering stuff. I mean, look at the Mercury capsule: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mercury_Spacecraft.png It's ridiculously tiny! Those guys were absolutely batshit insane to get into those things and get a big honkin' rocket strapped to their ass.

To quote the famous 'Jose Jimenez, Astronaut' comedy routine I linked over in the 'Signs that You're In for a Short Flight' thread: 'To me, the most important part of rocket travel is the blastoff. I always take a blast before I take off. Otherwise, I wouldn't get in that thing!'

That actually piqued my interest, I tried looking up how the controls were set up during actual real space flights. They did have control sticks for manual control: http://historicspacecraft.com/Photos/Gemini/Gemini_VIII_NAM_2008_RK_18.jpg I couldn't find any actual info on whether pulling back was up or down. Given that the astronauts were pretty much all air force test pilots, though, it seems most likely the controls were set up in a way they'd find familiar, ie. the same as in a plane.

Rotational hand controllers (the attitude control stick) have always been set up like aircraft controls--pull back to pitch up, push forward to pitch down. (While it may seem counterintuitive in a video game, in the actual vehicle, it's completely intuitive--you move the stick in the direction you want the nose to go.) The only difference is that they controlled yaw by twisting it instead of rudder pedals--so if you have a Saitek X52 (or many other sticks that work that way), you've actually got a very accurate idea of how the RHC works.

The one that is a bit of a brainbender is the TRANSLATIONAL hand controller, a T-handle held with (usually) the left hand, where you push it in the direction you want to shift the ship--push forward and you'll thrust forward, push left and you'll thrust left, push down on it (like pressing L3 or R3 on a Playstation controller) and you'll thrust down. Once you've gotten used to it, it's pretty natural, and offers a whole lot more control than a simple throttle where you can only translate forward, but it does take some adjustment.

Its really tricky trying to fly without using it. Ive gotten used to it and even keep telling myself.

'If your drifting down, HOLD DOWN. If your Drifting up, HOLD UP.' Other than that its really easy to understand whats going on.

Didnt know what the purple markers were, but now it makes sense.

You *hold* the control on? Man... in my designs, that's a recipe for disaster, but I tend to build large rockets that make good use of the Wobbly Rockets parts. Only way to safely control them is carefully timed 'pulsing' of the steering thrust, to prevent Ye Olde Banana Rocket from happening *and* avoid hitting the resonance frequency...