[1.2] Procedural Fairings 3.20 (November 8)

[NoMrBond]

FAR version 0.9.5.2 is out, fixing some bugs, some lift and drag adjustments and adding compatibility with procedural fairings.

New version of FAR is out for interested PF users

[betaking]

doesn't keep out dynamic pressure (be wary users of remote tech) with far.

[Kimberly]

Would it be possible to add a "control from here" right-click option to fairings? It would be helpful if the elements you'd usually select that from are covered by a fairing, preventing you from having to fly with reversed controls until you're ready to release the payload.

[e-dog]

doesn't keep out dynamic pressure (be wary users of remote tech) with far.

I don't know what that means and how to check it, could you elaborate?

Is payload shielded? That is, when you right-click fairings on the launchpad, do they show more than 0 shielded parts, and when you click payload parts, do they show "shielded: 1" ?

[e-dog]

Would it be possible to add a "control from here" right-click option to fairings? It would be helpful if the elements you'd usually select that from are covered by a fairing, preventing you from having to fly with reversed controls until you're ready to release the payload.

Do you mean "control from here" in the direction of the fairing base, like if it was a docking port?

Also, fairings only have colliders at the cylindrical middle section and at the tip, so you might be able to click through them. I also often check payload (mostly for wobbling) by moving camera up close to clip through the fairings.

[elkar]

I think he thought to be able to click on payloads to control from there.

[Ralathon]

I don't know what that means and how to check it, could you elaborate?

Is payload shielded? That is, when you right-click fairings on the launchpad, do they show more than 0 shielded parts, and when you click payload parts, do they show "shielded: 1" ?

Deployed antenna break when you're going fast through the air, just like solar panels. He's warning that the fairings don't shield from that, so don't deploy your antenna and solar panels until you're outside the atmosphere.

[Tsuki]

Not sure if it was already suggested but it would be awesome:

Uppon launch the weight and CoM of payload is calculated and when the rocket is spawned the fairing and what is inside counts as 1 or 2 parts, and only when you "decouple" the fairing the mass is changed back to the correct one and payload is "spawned" and attached to where it should be. The idea is to reduce the part count on launch, without any drawbacks. Even if your rocket accidentally disassembles inflight, you just do the same, if the fairing is "opened" you just spawn the payload.

Sure there could be some problems if you have cockpit in the fairing with a kerbal in it. But i think it should be easy to do a workaround, since the payload should be passive when inside the fairing.

[e-dog]

Not sure if it was already suggested but it would be awesome:

Uppon launch the weight and CoM of payload is calculated and when the rocket is spawned the fairing and what is inside counts as 1 or 2 parts, and only when you "decouple" the fairing the mass is changed back to the correct one and payload is "spawned" and attached to where it should be. The idea is to reduce the part count on launch, without any drawbacks. Even if your rocket accidentally disassembles inflight, you just do the same, if the fairing is "opened" you just spawn the payload.

Sure there could be some problems if you have cockpit in the fairing with a kerbal in it. But i think it should be easy to do a workaround, since the payload should be passive when inside the fairing.

There are a lot of potential problems with that if you consider mods: pretty much anything with any functionality can be in the payload.

It's also a question of what is slow, rendering or physics. Hiding payload is simpler than turning off physics, but might still cause problems.

[e-dog]

Updated to 1.2:

• Added invisible automatically placed struts between side fairings to eliminate wobble.
  
• Replaced ejectionNoseDv with ejectionTorque so that all ejected fairings have the same motion, regardless of shape.
  
• Improved payload scanning for better fitting of mesh and box colliders.
  
• You can now adjust radius by moving the mouse over the base part while holding R (the default key, can be changed in part .cfg).
  
• Fixed "recursion" bug which caused misplaced fairings to grow out of control. (It's also a foundation for future inline fairings).
  
• Using a (hopefully) better method to offset side fairing center of mass.
  
• Using proportionally smaller part of texture for 1/3 (and smaller) side fairings to reduce texture stretching.
  
• Renamed "capsule-shaped" fairings to "egg-shaped" to be more Kerbal.
  

[Fyrem]

Sounds great, e-dog... will be downloading and updateing shortly.

[justadude]

Thanks for the Mod and the updates!

The improvements you made are great.

The look is much improved due to the better payload scanning.

The struts... well let me just say that I can enclose my entire, huge 3 stage Kerbollo rocket and launch wobble free.

I have noticed that the fairings separate if they are alone in a stage when the engine in the stage below them fires.

Example: 0 - Payload, 1 - payload decoupler, 2 proc fairings, 3 - engine, 4 - decoupler, 5 - engine / Fairings separate when stage 3 ignites.

Separation is generally clean, if somewhat fast. The change you made definitely helped. However the fairings still shoot outward (at least with small payloads).

This is a great mod. Thank you for making it.

Edited July 12, 2013 by justadude

[xarvox]

how do i install it ? I just have the files no folders. Iam Confus

[e-dog]

I have noticed that the fairings separate if they are alone in a stage when the engine in the stage below them fires.

Are you using MechJeb with auto-staging? I've seen it skip through the fairings stage after firing the engine and stop at the stack decoupler in the next stage, just like you describe. Turning off auto-staging and staging manually worked for me.

I guess it's because MechJeb doesn't detect them properly since they are not stock decouplers, but a new custom PartModule. Fixing it likely means fixing MechJeb, I'll look into it later.

how do i install it ? I just have the files no folders. Iam Confus

Did you read the installation instructions at the SpacePort?

The files should go into (your KSP folder)\GameData\Keramzit\ProceduralFairings\

That's the same folder structure as in the zip-file you download from SpacePort.

[HoY]

Are you using MechJeb with auto-staging? I've seen it skip through the fairings stage after firing the engine and stop at the stack decoupler in the next stage, just like you describe. Turning off auto-staging and staging manually worked for me.

I guess it's because MechJeb doesn't detect them properly since they are not stock decouplers, but a new custom PartModule. Fixing it likely means fixing MechJeb, I'll look into it later.

MechJeb autostages through anything during ascent if its not an engine stage that hasnt run out of fuel.

this isnt a bug, and Autostage has been fixed, so as long as he doesnt have it placed inside the launch vehicles staging it shouldnt fire after ascent guidance has been turned off.

Get the latest dev build (build 69) from the first post in the mechjeb thread to make sure you arent effected by the autostage bug

[e-dog]

Get the latest dev build (build 69) from the first post in the mechjeb thread to make sure you arent effected by the autostage bug

That explains it, but when it didn't stage through fairings (including KW-Rocketry ones) it was more useful, because I could eject them when I wanted to manually.

In theory, it could be made to step through fuel-less stages like fairings later rather then earlier, so it would eject them just before decoupling the lower stage which ran out of fuel, and not just after starting an engine.

[HoY]

I dont actually know why the fairings wouldnt be on their own stage where you actually want them to be ejected that setup works for me..

[e-dog]

I dont actually know why the fairings wouldnt be on their own stage where you actually want them to be ejected that setup works for me..

I don't see how that's possible.

I want to eject fairings when lower stage runs out of fuel, then decouple the payload and start payload's engine.

What setup would work for that?

I use:

Payload engine

Payload decoupler

Fairings

Lower stage engine

...

But MechJeb ejects fairings just after starting lower stage engine when using auto-staging.

[CaptainArbitrary]

But MechJeb ejects fairings just after starting lower stage engine when using auto-staging.

Not in my game. In my game it works as one would expect. But I do tend to just keep the fairings and the first-stage interstage in the same … um … stage. The first stage burns out, then the interstage fires and the fairings jettison simultaneously. Works a treat.

[e-dog]

I do tend to just keep the fairings and the first-stage interstage in the same … um … stage. The first stage burns out, then the interstage fires and the fairings jettison simultaneously. Works a treat.

I see. I had some accidents with that setup, payload colliding into fairings etc. It was with KW ones though...

[HoY]

I tend to keep my fairings until after ive aero captured at whichever planet im headed to. I dont use deadly re entry but im just practicing for when I do lol

[BFGfreak]

I tend to keep my fairings until after ive aero captured at whichever planet im headed to. I dont use deadly re entry but im just practicing for when I do lol

Just a little heads up, it doesn't work. When I tried DR out with KW's fairings the capsule had a habit of going nose first through the atmosphere, which by itself wasn't bad, it was the fact that the flames were getting between the fairing halves and cooking the probe inside that was the problem.

EDIT: Reading the changelog for 1.2 if those struts can keep the seal tight these fairings just might work as heatshields, that said I would recommend trying it out in Kerbin orbit before committing to an interplanetary mission.

Edited July 13, 2013 by BFGfreak

[HoY]

The fairings arent supposed to he heat shields, but look at the planned features list in the first post

[viperwolf]

Updated to 1.2:

• Added invisible automatically placed struts between side fairings to eliminate wobble.
  
• Replaced ejectionNoseDv with ejectionTorque so that all ejected fairings have the same motion, regardless of shape.
  
• Improved payload scanning for better fitting of mesh and box colliders.
  
• You can now adjust radius by moving the mouse over the base part while holding R (the default key, can be changed in part .cfg).
  
• Fixed "recursion" bug which caused misplaced fairings to grow out of control. (It's also a foundation for future inline fairings).
  
• Using a (hopefully) better method to offset side fairing center of mass.
  
• Using proportionally smaller part of texture for 1/3 (and smaller) side fairings to reduce texture stretching.
  
• Renamed "capsule-shaped" fairings to "egg-shaped" to be more Kerbal.
  

Thank you for the update, and sincere thank you for listening to the problems everyone was having. Your work is appreciated very much

[Big_Ron]

is there any way to add custom graphics to the side of the fairings? instead of eh recycle sign