[1.2] Procedural Fairings 3.20 (November 8)

[Troberg]

No, in the stock game the fairings are only cosmetic. However, if you install the Ferram Aerospace Research (FAR) mod then fairings will enclose the payload aerodynamically. (FAR also affects the aerodynamics of most of a rocket, so you have to fly them rather differently and may have to re-design them.)

Sounds like it will be a long process anyway. I suspect I'll just add a ****load of fins and rcs instead, as I have plenty of delta V to spare. They should be able to keep it on track.

[JuggernautOfWar]

I am having an issue with this otherwise incredible addition. Even when set to high ejection force the fairings just sort of fall away from the craft, getting caught on equipment blowing up parts of my craft.

[e-dog]

Updated to 2.2:

• Added experimental egg-shaped fuselage (a side fairing without decoupler).
  
• Moved fairing decoupler code to separate PartModule.
  
• Auto-struts are now created between the top inline base and side fairings as well. NOTE: if you payload is wobbly, the sides might still wobble.
  
• Fixed bug with misplaced fairings on new ring bases.
  

[e-dog]

I am having an issue with this otherwise incredible addition. Even when set to high ejection force the fairings just sort of fall away from the craft, getting caught on equipment blowing up parts of my craft.

You could try:

Increase fairings radius, maybe it'll reduce collisions with your equipment.

Stop engines before ejecting fairings.

Spin your craft to add more momentum to your fairings. Real rockets do it too

Add sepatrons to help move fairings away (middle cylindrical section is surface-attachable).

[JuggernautOfWar]

Thanks for the help. Turns out the struts were causing this. Is this a known issue?

Now I have a wobbly payload, but things aren't blowing up as much.

[Whirligig Girl]

The fairings often create highly non-aerodynamic shapes. When using a 3.5 m fairing, a poodle engine, and a lander spacecraft underneathe, the fairing creates an ugly cylinder, rather than a smooth cone, even though it should be easy. The fairings need to be tweakable.

[The Lone Wolfling]

The fairings often create highly non-aerodynamic shapes. When using a 3.5 m fairing, a poodle engine, and a lander spacecraft underneathe, the fairing creates an ugly cylinder, rather than a smooth cone, even though it should be easy. The fairings need to be tweakable.

They are...

Press r and mouse over the fairing.

[e-dog]

Thanks for the help. Turns out the struts were causing this. Is this a known issue?

Now I have a wobbly payload, but things aren't blowing up as much.

Auto-struts in my fairings, or stock struts you attached to the payload?

[ZRM]

I am having a lot of difficulty placing the low profile fairing bases. They keep wanting to attach by one of the 4 attachment nodes on their circumference. It is very difficult to get them to attach by the central node.

[e-dog]

I am having a lot of difficulty placing the low profile fairing bases. They keep wanting to attach by one of the 4 attachment nodes on their circumference. It is very difficult to get them to attach by the central node.

I find it easier if you turn the camera 45 degrees so that the view line to the center doesn't cross side nodes.

[ZRM]

I find it easier if you turn the camera 45 degrees so that the view line to the center doesn't cross side nodes.

The solution should be that the side nodes are not active when trying to place the part, only when trying to place parts upon it. Is that possible?

Edit: Also I am having difficulties regardless of the viewing orientation.

[e-dog]

I don't know, needs research.

[JuggernautOfWar]

Auto-struts in my fairings, or stock struts you attached to the payload?

Stock struts. I have compared no struts with extreme wobble (making it difficult to control the craft) to using stock struts holding the fairing and payload firmly where they should be. Whenever struts are used on the fairings, any fairings attached to a strut have 0 jettison force. They just sort of fall away from the craft from just gravity. This causes them to snag other things on the way down, most notably the top 'cone' of the fairing breaking whatever is on top of your payload.

An easy way to test this is create a simple craft in the VAB with fairings. Connect the fairing sides to a strut, right click fairing, and jettison. Do the same after detaching the struts and you will see for yourself.

Since I cannot currently secure my payloads I unfortunately have no choice but to wait for future addon versions. Small rockets work well enough since they do not need many if any struts, but thanks to Unity's crappy parts physics larger rockets wobble around like gelatin for no apparent reason.

Edited July 30, 2013 by JuggernautOfWar

[RoboRay]

As someone who frequently tucks misc gear into "equipment bays" within the hollow decoupler centers, I like the new fuselage sections. To expand on them, do you think it would be possible to do a pair of animated space-shuttle style payload-bay doors? The player would still need to construct some kind of off-set side trusses or deck to connect the forward and aft fairing rings together, but this would allow building custom cargo bays for any arbitrary payload. Say, on a four-node base, you would have two adjacent fuselage sections, then a right-opening and a left-opening door attached to the other two nodes.

Curved bays would be problematic, though, if there's no way to set the hinge-point to always be at the widest point of the bay.

[sidfu]

personaly with such a awsome mod like this think its time for e-dog to design the next super parts pack like b-9 lol

[colmo]

Updated to 2.2:

• Added experimental egg-shaped fuselage (a side fairing without decoupler).
  
• Moved fairing decoupler code to separate PartModule.
  
• Auto-struts are now created between the top inline base and side fairings as well. NOTE: if you payload is wobbly, the sides might still wobble.
  
• Fixed bug with misplaced fairings on new ring bases.
  

Excellent, looking forward to using the fuselage. While we're waiting for airlocks and windowed fuselage, I'm looking forward to mixing fuselage with fairing to reveal storage compartments, maybe even rover bases.

Skinning aircraft with sleek bodywork is the ultimate purpose.

[colmo]

Allow me to present the Procedural Jet MkI, using procedural wings and fuselage:

Note the use of internal fuel tanks, with fuel flow set to drain from the rear. It adds to the part count, but you get the idea. That plane has a lot of fuel for its size (and it could be packed tighter) and the auto-struts make it very sturdy. The procedural wings are a bit flappy, but nothing a few struts won't fix. It's not a great flyer, but that will come with tuning.

Symmetry doesn't currently work in the SPH, so I had to attach wings to the top rather than the sides - I could go for the bottom either.

Craft file - mods required are Procedural Fairings, Procedural Wings and Firespitter radial fuel tank.

Procdural Jet MkI craft file

Edited July 30, 2013 by colmo

[SchroedingersHat]

Updated to 2.2:

• Added experimental egg-shaped fuselage (a side fairing without decoupler).
  

This mod keeps getting more and more awesome. Have you thought of adding doors to the fuselage? Or doing something like this

for a reusable payload faring?

It would probably have to eliminate the ability to surface attach things (unless you used or recreated mumechlib)

[mizo]

Are these inline fairings also intended in the future to be used as interstage separators?

Right now the low profile bases are still too bulky for that, and they are not generating a very streamlined fairing design.

[cxg2827]

Are these inline fairings also intended in the future to be used as interstage separators?

Right now the low profile bases are still too bulky for that, and they are not generating a very streamlined fairing design.

Have you tried pressing R while mousing over the base of the fairing to tweak its shape?

[colmo]

Have you tried pressing R while mousing over the base of the fairing to tweak its shape?

Note I used this technique for the Procedural Jet above, and it achieved a completely cylindrical fuselage. It doesn't bulge at all.

[sarbian]

Allow me to present the Procedural Jet MkI, using procedural wings and fuselage:

Glorious !

[ricardoprisco]

This is the best visual mod ever and I salute you.

I`m sure you can upgrade this on the future to be even more interesting like side fuselages to cover tanks, cargo bays, a hollow one, to cover engines

or even wings and stuff like that. This mod is a must have for every KSP player and need to congratulate you for the excellent idea and the finished product of your hard work.

So. Congratulations.

[mizo]

Have you tried pressing R while mousing over the base of the fairing to tweak its shape?

Yeah, the problem is that after the fairing base, I have to place an engine adapter plate (a 3.5 meters to 5x1.25m engines) and this plate is the same radius as the tank itself, which is slightly bigger than the fairing base.

The problem is that the fairings generated are unnecessarily bulky, and it should be possible to streamline them more without any clipping, but it just won't let me to.

[jrandom]

The procedural fuselage is great! Now I want procedural everything. Procedural cockpits? Procedural command modules! Control surfaces! ENGINES.