[1.2] Procedural Fairings 3.20 (November 8)

[egreSS]

Also, yes as jrandom mentioned - this mod makes the FAR-Rocket handicap a total misconception. My heavy 3.75 vehicles and payloads are totally flyable in FAR with your latest version - Thank you!

[KerbMav]

Also, yes as jrandom mentioned - this mod makes the FAR-Rocket handicap a total misconception.

So ... does FAR make launching rockets "unrealistically" easier than intended - or what do you mean by this?

[taniwha]

KerbMav: FAR makes rockets realistically easy. A well designed rocket should not be losing ~1100m/s to drag (actually more: 1100 is the difference between stock and FAR). Most of the people making the "easier than intended" claim are crying sour-grapes over any difficulties they had getting rockets into orbit using FAR (going from stock's 10km turn to a real gravity turn is not easy) and then making up reasons for trying to stop others from using FAR. Stock "aerodynamics" are not there to control the difficulty of getting to orbit, but as a place-holder to have some aerodynamic model.

[mwlue]

Thx to the author and everybody involved in the development! orz it just awesome!

My first procedural fairing fitted mun rocket with successful test flight & CSM-LM docking \o/

[Railgunner2160]

Nice design, however doing a test flight using a recreation, it doesn't seems to really have enough fuel to get to the mun and back. Do note I use mechjeb 2 to fly, I'm horrible at flying manually...

Time to build a better CM to go rescue poor Bob Kerman......

Edit: I used the second stage for the munar insertion burn, just as the Apollo mission would use the Saturn V's third stage.....

[NathanKell]

Weird issue: I can almost never get "r" to work for the interstage adapter. Is it intended that r is to work with it?

Edited September 4, 2013 by NathanKell

[Starwaster]

Weird issue: I can almost never get "r" to work for the interstage adapter. Is it intended that r is to work with it?

IIRC, it won't work if something's not attached to the upper node

[Dunbaratu]

What's the hotkey or rightlcick menu to make a fairing's walls split open?

I just installed procedural fairings and tried adding a fairing around an existing rocket design and ended up with this problem. The fairing decouples properly from the rocket below and from the payload above, but still stays closed, with the payload now drifting inside the eggshell of the fairing. Since the fairing walls seem to allow clipping without collision I was able to maneuver the payload sideways through the fairing wall to get it out, but I doubt this is how the mode was meant to be used.

What am I missing here? How do I get the fairing to split open?

here's some screenshots:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=175634585

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=175634657

Sorry for the darkness of the screenshots, I was on the night side of Kerbin when the situation arose. I hope you can squint and see what's going on.

[Awaras]

What's the hotkey or rightlcick menu to make a fairing's walls split open?

I just installed procedural fairings and tried adding a fairing around an existing rocket design and ended up with this problem. The fairing decouples properly from the rocket below and from the payload above, but still stays closed, with the payload now drifting inside the eggshell of the fairing. Since the fairing walls seem to allow clipping without collision I was able to maneuver the payload sideways through the fairing wall to get it out, but I doubt this is how the mode was meant to be used.

What am I missing here? How do I get the fairing to split open?

here's some screenshots:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=175634585

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=175634657

Sorry for the darkness of the screenshots, I was on the night side of Kerbin when the situation arose. I hope you can squint and see what's going on.

Are you sure you used the 'fairing' pieces and not the 'fuselage' pieces instead? There are two 'fuselage' and two 'fairing' pieces The fuselage ones are not meant to be decoupled...

*Edit*

After playing around with the contrast of your first screenshot, I can confirm that this is your problem. The non-jettisonable 'fuselage' pieces have gray stripes on them, and jettisonable fairing pieces do not...

Edited September 4, 2013 by Awaras

[Dunbaratu]

Are you sure you used the 'fairing' pieces and not the 'fuselage' pieces instead? There are two 'fuselage' and two 'fairing' pieces The fuselage ones are not meant to be decoupled...

*Edit*

After playing around with the contrast of your first screenshot, I can confirm that this is your problem. The non-jettisonable 'fuselage' pieces have the gray band on them, and jettisonable fairing pieces do not...

Okay thanks. I'll try that next time.

[HeadHunter67]

My first procedural fairing fitted mun rocket with successful test flight & CSM-LM docking

I apologize for going slightly off-topic, but the CSM and LM are beautiful - especially that service module! May I ask what mods you are using there?

[mwlue]

I apologize for going slightly off-topic, but the CSM and LM are beautiful - especially that service module! May I ask what mods you are using there?

I'm using stock pod, fuel tank from "Nova punch" & large nuclear engine from KSPX v2.2 . I'm not sure the solar panel is stock or not (i don't have ksp to verify on the comp i'm typing atm). Oh almost missed the heatshield from "deadly reentry" pack too.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/3870-0-21-NovaPunch-2-02-RELEASED-July-25th-2013

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/kspx-kerbal-stock-part-expansion-mod-v0-2-2/

have fun, cheerz!

[NathanKell]

Thanks, Starwaster--that did it!

[egreSS]

Slightly OT; Has anyone heard any details of future designs or solutions regarding the use of bindings that mods use in the VAB/SPH? (e.g. better contextual menu support, etc. al.)

Right now I have to edit some of the bindings that procedural [X...] uses due to conflicts. It works its just not pretty.

[e-dog]

It'd be nice if they'd finally make tweakables mode, like action groups tab, so you could set initial states, check landing legs in deployed position etc.

Firespitter (and B9 that uses its plugin) does it in action groups now, but it's not pretty either.

[HeadHunter67]

I'm still not clear on how to use the interstage fairing adapter. Specifically, I am trying to convert the NP Captain Morgan launcher to work without the NP fairings. Using the regular procedural fairing bases above and below the lunar module payload, it looks nice, but shakes like a hula girl on the launch pad. From what I read, it sounds like the interstage part is intended to help, but damned if I can figure out exactly how to use it or where to put it on this rocket. I looked over the pictorial PF tutorial but it didn't shed any light on the issue.

[HeadHunter67]

I'm using stock pod, fuel tank from "Nova punch" & large nuclear engine from KSPX v2.2

Got it, thanks. It looks like the lander fuel tanks are NP as well, but I can't seem to place the lander command pod. Is it from AIES or something?

[mwlue]

Yep, lander pod & tanks are from AIES.

[NathanKell]

e-dog, any chance we could adjust the height of where the fairing starts to curve inward? Useful both for normal and interstage fairings.

[Supernovy]

I've been using the interstage adapters to change how my rockets look by covering up the stock fuel tanks. I was trying to make something Juno-1-esque here.

Everything's covered in fairings except the payload. What's nice about this is that you can get other sizes apart from the standard 0.625, 1.25, 2.5 metres.

[krashkart]

I've been using the interstage adapters to change how my rockets look by covering up the stock fuel tanks. I was trying to make something Juno-1-esque here. Everything's covered in fairings except the payload. What's nice about this is that you can get other sizes apart from the standard 0.625, 1.25, 2.5 metres.

Nice! I'm inspired to fiddle around with the interstages and see what I can come up with. Edit: Does anyone else get a little bit of lag when they use these fairings? I seemed to get a little bit after I added an interstage/fairings under the second stage of one of my rockets. It's no big deal, just wondering. Edited September 6, 2013 by krashkart

[Starwaster]

Nice! I'm inspired to fiddle around with the interstages and see what I can come up with. Edit: Does anyone else get a little bit of lag when they use these fairings? I seemed to get a little bit after I added an interstage/fairings under the second stage of one of my rockets. It's no big deal, just wondering.

Not really, seems pretty smooth to me. Any lag I attribute to the 69,105 pieces of debris in orbit around me, some of which I have actually watched whiz past at extreme velocities within visual range.

[mwlue]

Does anyone else get a little bit of lag when they use these fairings? I seemed to get a little bit after I added an interstage/fairings under the second stage of one of my rockets. It's no big deal, just wondering.

It seems to be my case too, do you use MJ? i noticed significant lag on my mun rocket with MJ.

[Spanier]

Could you alter the fuselage parts so we can do interstages for engine clusters like this: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/48865-0-21-PWB-Engine-fairing-for-clustered-engines

Not exactly, that the interstage separates on its own, but sticks to the lower stage.

[jrandom]

I'm still not clear on how to use the interstage fairing adapter.

Here's what I know:

The interstage part has two "upper" connectors - one right on top of the base, and one that floats in the air. The most important thing to remember is that the upper floating connection point is the one that decouples.

Connect the floating connector to the stage above it. Use 'H' to change its distance from the base and 'N' to alter the size of the base. To size the base to a known size, connect something underneath it of the desired size and use 'N' to get a close match. You can use 'H' to bring the upper stage right down to the base, or leave room for other parts that will go beneath it but will remain attached to the lower stage when the interstage is decoupled.

Now turn off symmetry, grab a fairing side (conical tends to be the most useful here) and attach it to one of the outer interstage base connection points. This will let you see the inner contents the interstage will hide while still being able to see the shape that the walls will take. Use 'Y' to widen/shrink the top radius of the walls and 'J' to adjust their height until everything is lined up the way you want. Remove the fairing wall, add any struts you deem necessary, then turn on symmetry and re-add the fairing wall.

Important note: Use the fairing sides, not the fuselage sides. If you use the fuselage sides, they will auto-strut to the stage above them and when you eject the interstage, the upper stage will remain stuck. (I'm hoping this gets fixed in the future, but for now you'll have to use the ejectable fairing sides.)