[0.20] v0.0.4: RAD ALT and VSI update

[bulletrhli]

I am just in awe, this is so pretty, you managed to capture the visual style I like. Thank you man, now, no more IVA needed whilst landing. Thank you. Can't wait for future updates. Please, if you need testers before you release your future versions, let me know, I would love to help and throw my input around.

[Darren9]

Thanks again, I really need these when trying to fly cockpit view. There is one thing that isn't mentioned in the ToDo list, they don't disappear with F2 and all the other plugins I have seem to - it's not especially important but it would be nice to have the whole UI vanish.

[HoneyFox]

Im guessing your gonna say yes, but have to throw it out there anyway. Have you tried adjusting the UI size in the games settings menu?

Actually no.

I will try it later and see if that is big enough.

[MR4Y]

Could you perhaps make real time readouts for science parts too?

[mediumchris]

Is it normal for the instruments to return back to the original position if a flight is restarted? it gets annoying after a while.

Anyway, the RALT is nice

Thanks again, I really need these when trying to fly cockpit view. There is one thing that isn't mentioned in the ToDo list, they don't disappear with F2 and all the other plugins I have seem to - it's not especially important but it would be nice to have the whole UI vanish.

Well you guys found the two biggest rough edges (F2 fix is the render queue item in the TODO list). Fixing them is up next before looking at other instruments

I am just in awe, this is so pretty, you managed to capture the visual style I like. Thank you man, now, no more IVA needed whilst landing. Thank you. Can't wait for future updates. Please, if you need testers before you release your future versions, let me know, I would love to help and throw my input around.

Hey thanks. I'm trying out this whole "release early, release often" thing, hence me putting stuff out with the issues mentioned above. It also means I'm just putting it out as I change it for now, so totally input your input in this thread.

[mediumchris]

Could you perhaps make real time readouts for science parts too?

That should be doable, I've put it on the potential feature list.

[Lindy]

May the gods spare me... I'm in love... With a scrap of software!! As feedback goes, these indicators work wonderfully, they're accurate, and asetically pleasing. One thing I'd put on my personal wish list is making them togglable. Beyond a certain point (say 10km.) they're less important and can be switched off. Good job, bravo zulu!

[Galacticruler]

Well done Bucky!

[MOARdV]

These look really good. It's particularly funny watching them when a Kerbal goes EVA from his lander and the radar altimeter and VSI bounce around (I consider this a feature, not a bug ).

As for the texture artifacts you mention in your release notes - you are very likely seeing the same thing Trigger Au saw with the Kerbal Alarm Clock - it appears that Unity or KSP is converting PNG images to DXT compressed format when sending it to the GPU. I don't know if other formats (like TGA) are handled differently in that respect. I think he saw this after he started using the new (0.20.2) resource management system, but not with the older method he was using to load UI images.

One suggestion for an improvement - the VSI gets really twitchy near the zero, thanks to precision and noisiness in the data. You might consider having a simple smoothing (like average the value with the previous one), just to dampen that effect.

[Lurven]

Can anyone post a screenshot of this mod in-game?

[TheCanadianVendingMachine]

If you could make a radio altimeter that shows up on the bottom of the navball, I'll love you forever give you cookies.

Why a 737's? Why not a Cessena?

[IvanTehFennec]

Why a 737's? Why not a Cessena?

Because I have a deep love with 737's.

[TheCanadianVendingMachine]

Oh, is it the default 737(FSX) or a Addon?

[Darndello]

Feedback wanted? I can only say cool! Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool! I know it doesn't help but soooooo cooool! The radio altimeter is awesome btw. You should make that.

[MOARdV]

One suggestion for an improvement - the VSI gets really twitchy near the zero, thanks to precision and noisiness in the data. You might consider having a simple smoothing (like average the value with the previous one), just to dampen that effect.

Okay, two more suggestions after spending a bit of time playing it this afternoon (one of which was already made)

Have a way to make the screen position persistent (at least in a game session; even better if it's saved and restored between sessions).

Have a 'minimize' button, like Kerbal Alarm Clock, ISA MapSat, Protractor, etc, have. During those long trips between planets, having a VSI and radar altimeter doesn't do any good, and it takes up screen space.

[betaking]

I don't mean to beg,

but what about something to tell my trim, for like aircraft or rockets,

you can edit trim with alt + wasd, but they don't have anything on the navball that actually tells you where that is.

in any case, thank you, this is really helpful.

[Senshi]

Lovely addition and implementation, I like the clean and minimal looks.

As others already stated, a way to toggle the indicators on/off would be nice, as well as the "Remember position" thing. I also think the radar altimeter could automatically be hidden if your vessel is above 10.000m, I can't think of any scenario where you might need it up there, even on planetoids with harsh reliefs.

[Spoo Hunter]

A radar altimeter is a definite must. I look forward to seeing how this develops. Keep up the good work.

[mediumchris]

I like the idea of grouping all the readouts in one spot on the screen in a tidy fashion so I wouldn't have to look all around to see what is going on. I don't like making requests, so consider it to be an interesting paper airplane that flew by you.

You mean you'd prefer they were stuck together? I'm toying with the idea of trays/racks/stacks which group instruments together and can be collapsed individually. Assuming I make more gizmos I'm not sure whether people will want to be able to position each one individually etc. I can probably do better stuff if I don't provide per-instrument configuration.

Anyone else have feedback on this (assuming more instruments)?

[mediumchris]

What I would love to see is a navball for VTOL craft.

eg when you land a rocket, you keep the heading (-w-) indicator inside the retrograde indicator to balance on your thrust.

When you are flying a horizontal (plane style) VTOL craft, the retrograde indicator is not visible on the navball. Sure you can have a pod on the top of the craft and switch control to there, but then the controls are logically wrong (roll is yaw and vice versa) for a VTOL craft.

Ideally the solution would involve either injecting a duplicate prograde indicator offset at 90deg to the real one, or some kind of window / overlay.

If you could address this issue, I would love you long time.

Could you hook me up with a stock parts example craft so I can make sure I understand the issue properly?

[mediumchris]

Reading this actualy gave me an idea for the radar altimeter. Think of a high-performance tac, like whats used for drag racing. There is a timing light that the user will set to a certain RPM. Upon approaching that RPM the light flashes 4 times, twice red, once yellow, once green. With a little timing and tuning a racer can use this cue to set up perfect shifts between gears.

A radar altimeter could have a timing light that operates in same manner, but the users sets an altitude. This way you have nice visual reference to start a braking burn.

Im no modder so no clue if that would be possible, or how hard it would be....but it sure would be useful =P

Another way to think about it would be Space Park Distance Control, right?

Can you give me an example set of altitudes (and what you'd be doing at each if possible)? There'd be a similar but less urgent need for takeoff I imagine, altitudes for turns and throttle adjustments.

[mediumchris]

As for the texture artifacts you mention in your release notes - you are very likely seeing the same thing Trigger Au saw with the Kerbal Alarm Clock - it appears that Unity or KSP is converting PNG images to DXT compressed format when sending it to the GPU. I don't know if other formats (like TGA) are handled differently in that respect.

That's exactly right, my prototype in Unity had the artifacting in compressed DXT and not other formats, but I found the odd texture sizes also had something to do with it.

One suggestion for an improvement - the VSI gets really twitchy near the zero, thanks to precision and noisiness in the data. You might consider having a simple smoothing (like average the value with the previous one), just to dampen that effect.

It's that and I need to tweak the scale calculation around zero, that slipped through the cracks when I first did it.

[Lindy]

Can anyone post a screenshot of this mod in-game?

Here ya' go...

[KhaosCorp]

I am a bit late with posting this but......

THANK YOU for the radar altimeter!!!! I don't pilot from IVA much at all, so having a RA I can actually use during a landing is worth its virtual weight in gold!

Feature Request: Would be awesome to have all the gauges your making start as not showing, but have a little dropout window (like what you get with mechjeb or crew manifest) that can be opened. What gauges are actualy displayed onscreen could then be selected per situation via tic boxes.

Also..

@betaking: its not as nice as these displays (so still a valid request) but if you adjust your trim it will show as much on the little 'pitch/yaw/roll' sliders. That having been said it can be kinda hard to see very small adjustments, more so if you play with tiny UI like me.

[MOARdV]

Can you give me an example set of altitudes (and what you'd be doing at each if possible)? There'd be a similar but less urgent need for takeoff I imagine, altitudes for turns and throttle adjustments.

*I* think a warning based on time to impact would be an interesting one. I don't know if it'd be useful in actual usage, and I don't know what the Green / Yellow / Red warning times would be.

Or, even more convoluted - warnings based on available thrust vs. dV remaining. Green - you have plenty of reserve thrust to land based on current velocity and thrust. Yellow - you need to throttle up - you're getting marginal. Red - you don't have enough thrust to avoid splattering your ship all over the surface; maybe you should try aborting. This could tie in to Mervina's voiceover becoming increasingly urgent as the transition from Green to Yellow to Red take place.

You mean you'd prefer they were stuck together? I'm toying with the idea of trays/racks/stacks which group instruments together and can be collapsed individually.

I find myself arranging them stacked on the left side of the screen to minimize the real estate they occupy during flight, since I have a 16:9 display. So, if they are grouped together, bonus points if they can be stacked vertically or horizontally. Being able to individually minimize them would be nice, as long as the minimized display has some sort of identifier (like VSI or RA) so we can find the right one when we need it.