[1.2] Procedural Fairings 3.20 (November 8)

[Spanier]

Sorry yes, I wasn't precise enough with my language there, I was meaning that if you put something at the top node with the fuselage pieces, the canister you make is pretty much sealed.

Here's the second part though, fixing fuselage length then winding the top node down and putting opening lids on the launch tubes

Well, but your solution doesn't allow it to have say a 4 engine cluster on the second stage with an interstage, that doesn't split up into 4 and doesn't have an annoying gap to the upper part.

Anyway, is there a way, to properly shield the inside of an interstage fairing for FAR. I tried to create a 1-man apollo and half of my lander-parts were exposed to drag.

[NoMrBond]

Well, but your solution doesn't allow it to have say a 4 engine cluster on the second stage with an interstage, that doesn't split up into 4 and doesn't have an annoying gap to the upper part.

Anyway, is there a way, to properly shield the inside of an interstage fairing for FAR. I tried to create a 1-man apollo and half of my lander-parts were exposed to drag.

I only saw the launch tube question with an example using stacked oscar-b's on a 48-7S so I tried to answer that, it's not a solution to the interstage question because I didn't see that being asked for

I have manufactured interstage shrouds using similar techniques though for a Proton test replica

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Get the fuselage lengths right then lock the part, attach them to a flipped fairing base with fuel crossfeed on, the put the engines under it

You can see the stub-spacer I put in the middle to provide the stand off distance for the engines / lower decoupler

[Spanier]

Why should I use a second decoupler, when the fairing base allready contains one. I allways wished, there was a way to create engineclusters with interstage without the need for strut-cube spacers. And the new interstage fairing base is exactly what I wished to have, a real decoupler with interstage, like the real rockets have it. But it has this little design flaw of sticky fuselage.

[Fred9001]

Those Interstage Fairings need a proper How-To, also for creating apollo-like shrouds for capsules. In my case pressing the letter "R" does not have any influence on fairing shape.

[Spanier]

Those Interstage Fairings need a proper How-To, also for creating apollo-like shrouds for capsules. In my case pressing the letter "R" does not have any influence on fairing shape.

Pressing R does only affect the fairing, when something is inside. When you try to use it as adapter between 2 different sized parts, it only uses the direct connection line.

[Spanier]

Another cool addition would be, that you could adjust the number of fairing parts you can attach to the base by hover and pressing

[Fred9001]

Pressing R does only affect the fairing, when something is inside. When you try to use it as adapter between 2 different sized parts, it only uses the direct connection line.

Even if there is something attached to the top node it has no effect wether I press "R" or not. All the other keys have an influence on the shape, but not the key "R". Thats why I asked for a proper How-To // Instructional Video.

I also fail to make an Apollo-Style fairing over a capsule. It always changes the conic shape to a cylinder with round top before i get the desired shape/opening which would fit perfect around the LES

Gz Fred

P.s. Spanier, you seem to be from Germany aswell, are you active in any form in a German KSP Community/Teamspeak?

[Starwaster]

Even if there is something attached to the top node it has no effect wether I press "R" or not. All the other keys have an influence on the shape, but not the key "R". Thats why I asked for a proper How-To // Instructional Video.

I also fail to make an Apollo-Style fairing over a capsule. It always changes the conic shape to a cylinder with round top before i get the desired shape/opening which would fit perfect around the LES

Gz Fred

P.s. Spanier, you seem to be from Germany aswell, are you active in any form in a German KSP Community/Teamspeak?

Maybe something has to be attached to the bottom inside node. I'm going to try that next and see if 'R' does anything.

[Camelotking524]

Even if there is something attached to the top node it has no effect wether I press "R" or not. All the other keys have an influence on the shape, but not the key "R". Thats why I asked for a proper How-To // Instructional Video.

I also fail to make an Apollo-Style fairing over a capsule. It always changes the conic shape to a cylinder with round top before i get the desired shape/opening which would fit perfect around the LES

Gz Fred

P.s. Spanier, you seem to be from Germany aswell, are you active in any form in a German KSP Community/Teamspeak?

Try adjusting the size of the base.

The base is slightly smaller then the capsule is in this picture.

[e-dog]

Why should I use a second decoupler, when the fairing base allready contains one. I allways wished, there was a way to create engineclusters with interstage without the need for strut-cube spacers. And the new interstage fairing base is exactly what I wished to have, a real decoupler with interstage, like the real rockets have it. But it has this little design flaw of sticky fuselage.

That's likely a problem with auto-struts. Try disabling them (press T over the adapter). If that helps, I'll look into fixing it so that it'll decouple properly with auto-struts too.

Otherwise, use fairings instead of fuselage.

[e-dog]

Another cool addition would be, that you could adjust the number of fairing parts you can attach to the base by hover and pressing

That's not possible currently with how KSP handles craft loading etc.

[jrandom]

Would it be possible to get fairing/fuselage bases that match the shapes of the two non-standard ones in the B9 Aerospace pack? There's the octagon-sided S2 set of parts, and then whatever that flat jet-fighter-looking one is.

[e-dog]

Would it be possible to get fairing/fuselage bases that match the shapes of the two non-standard ones in the B9 Aerospace pack? There's the octagon-sided S2 set of parts, and then whatever that flat jet-fighter-looking one is.

Not easily, the current ones are all surfaces of rotation.

I might make procedural plane fuselages one day though, as well as procedural wings.

[jrandom]

Not sure if this counts as a bug/cheat or just an unexpected feature, but I've discovered you can use the interstage + fuselage sides to hide parts inside of other parts. In the below album I use this setup to hide a fuel tank inside the two-man lander can. By itself, the can just pops off, but the fuselage sides glue it down and it's fully-functional:

Album: http://imgur.com/a/dKmyG

The Setup:

Using 'H' resizing to move the lander can down...

Pops apart:

Stays together and can fly:

Edited August 24, 2013 by jrandom

[e-dog]

Not sure if this counts as a bug/cheat or just an unexpected feature, but I've discovered you can use the interstage + fuselage sides to hide parts inside of other parts. In the below album I use this setup to hide a fuel tank inside the two-man lander can. By itself, the can just pops off, but the fuselage sides glue it down and it's fully-functional:

Album: http://imgur.com/a/dKmyG

That's because of auto-struts between sides and top part (can in this case).

The system is over-constrained, so it might not be as stable as you think.

I guess I need to post my mechanical mutant, demonstrating broken physics with just stock parts

[jrandom]

That's because of auto-struts between sides and top part (can in this case).

The system is over-constrained, so it might not be as stable as you think.

I figured that would probably be the case.

Edit: I just tried this with auto-struts turned off and it still worked.

Edited August 24, 2013 by jrandom

[mushroomman]

Ach. So I've been trying this interstage to cover my capsule, and the thing seems to work pretty well, but as soon as I attach the escape tower it snaps into a cylinder. How do I fix this?

[e-dog]

Ach. So I've been trying this interstage to cover my capsule, and the thing seems to work pretty well, but as soon as I attach the escape tower it snaps into a cylinder. How do I fix this?

Make sure you have PF 2.4.1.

Attach escape tower and then adjust top radius and fairing height. Probably reduce extra payload radius (with R) too.

[jrandom]

I'm starting to finally get a handle on how the interstage part works and it's rapidly becoming one of my favorite pieces. This uses two interstages and one in-line fuselage, instead of one fuselage and and a pair of in-line fairings:

[CalculusWarrior]

I love how you can actually make clustered engines now with the interstage adaptor!

Rocket before separation:

Rocket after separation:

Finally, clustered engines are as easy as pressing 'J' and dragging!

[jrandom]

I love how you can actually make clustered engines now with the interstage adaptor!

Wait a sec... how did you do that? How are those engines actually connected?

[NoMrBond]

Wait a sec... how did you do that? How are those engines actually connected?

Either EdTools with alt+R (surAttach), or that mod that adds surface attach attribute to all the engines

[RoboRay]

Or just stick any of the various little stock surface-attach adapter pieces on there where you want the engines, if you don't want to add more mods.

[Ratzap]

I noticed a problem just now playing around with very small rockets (fiddling with efficiency and mission controller). I have FAR switched on so I thought I'd use a fairing to improve fuel consumption. The problem is the weight of the procedural fairing parts. The payload is just 0.15 tonnes, proc fairings adds another 0.08 bringing the total to 0.23t. This is enough to throw the balance off and the rocket tips over when starting the gravity turn.

A reaction wheel is too much and it becomes twitchy and again does a loop. Adding control surfaces also shifts the weight balance again - it works lower down but as the air thins out it loops again. Without the fairing it goes up fine, just a little tip happy as the tank empties but the probe torque is enough to cope.

So basically, is there a chance of getting fairings that weigh less? Or weigh less for very small loads?

[e-dog]

So basically, is there a chance of getting fairings that weigh less? Or weigh less for very small loads?

You can adjust sideThickness for smaller bases to make fairing thinner and thus weighting less.

If you just want to make them lighter, adjust density in side/fuselage configs.

I didn't really tune it much, so it might need adjustments. What fairing bases are you using? What sizes?