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[1.2] Procedural Fairings 3.20 (November 8)


e-dog

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Only with FAR, I think.

That is correct.

Though at one point Squad said that nosecones were going to functionally improve aerodynamics in stock... in this last update. (or the one before? I forget which). Not that PFairings would necessarily be affected, though one would think if there were a way for nosecones to provide lessened drag that it could be adopted for fairings. But no such improvement is evident for nosecones at all.

(though I did see a reference to cylindrical and conical drag models but it doesn't seem to actually be used in stock parts and I have no idea if the part variables involved are actually functional in any way. They certainly didn't help drag when I played with them)

Edit: Oh, all that aside, PFairing's autostrutting can be used to make upper stages more structurally sound regardless of whether FAR is used and I've made some interesting heavy payload lifters by enclosing the payload top and bottom with fairing bases/sides and mounting four rockets, one to each fairing. Two of the four feed the other two (I refuse to use the 'A' word). Remarkably stable.

Edited by Starwaster
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That is correct.

Though at one point Squad said that nosecones were going to functionally improve aerodynamics in stock... in this last update. (or the one before? I forget which). Not that PFairings would necessarily be affected, though one would think if there were a way for nosecones to provide lessened drag that it could be adopted for fairings. But no such improvement is evident for nosecones at all.

[conjecture]

The stock nosecones now just have drag set as 0.1 instead of 0.2, which means that the front of the craft drags less than the back of the craft and the craft will stay orientated 'up' easier. There's no actual increased efficiency in 'penetrating' the soupy atmosphere, but the ship will fly a little easier.

[/conjecture]

And I'm happy about that. I'm playing with FAR at the moment, and it's a challenge. It's placing restrictions on my building that weren't there before. This is fine for me, 1000 hours of gameplay into KSP, but I don't think a newbie should have to worry so much about it.

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[conjecture]

The stock nosecones now just have drag set as 0.1 instead of 0.2, which means that the front of the craft drags less than the back of the craft and the craft will stay orientated 'up' easier. There's no actual increased efficiency in 'penetrating' the soupy atmosphere, but the ship will fly a little easier.

[/conjecture]

And I'm happy about that. I'm playing with FAR at the moment, and it's a challenge. It's placing restrictions on my building that weren't there before. This is fine for me, 1000 hours of gameplay into KSP, but I don't think a newbie should have to worry so much about it.

I don't think stock drag works that way? I dont remember where (FAR thread likely) but I thought stock drag just got applied to the rocket as a whole taking into account the drag values and mass of all the parts. Which is wrong obviously.

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I don't think stock drag works that way? I dont remember where (FAR thread likely) but I thought stock drag just got applied to the rocket as a whole taking into account the drag values and mass of all the parts. Which is wrong obviously.

That was certainly the old way things were done. My conjecture on the method may be incorrect, but the end result should be the same: that is the behaviour that Squad has described (and I thought I observed, but something so subtle could be just placebo!)

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Could we get heavier and black fairings for custom-shaped heat-shields?

Black definitely. It's just a texture. Kosmos has them for this mod. You could download it and install only the fairings. Heavier? Do you mean literally more massive? Sure but why? Unless its for the ablative material?

Which brings us to heat shields themselves. If you mean actual functional shields for Deadly Reentry I have tried and tried to make them resist heat and they don't no matter what I do.

It might be a problem in DRE or the fairing itself. It's very frustrating.

Edit: the reason I was doing it was for a DRA 5.0 style Mars reentry vehicle.

Edited by Starwaster
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That was certainly the old way things were done. My conjecture on the method may be incorrect, but the end result should be the same: that is the behaviour that Squad has described (and I thought I observed, but something so subtle could be just placebo!)

missed this. looks like they do help keep things oriented sort of. oriented better maybe. dont see much improvement on DV though which is my real measuring point on these things... as in how much of it did I lose to drag on that launch. Still want to know if anything is going on with dragModelType or if its just some placeholder for later work.

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yeah but the current texture packs just add more parts with the textures. I think he knows about that and wants a way to switch between the without having to use different parts

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yeah but the current texture packs just add more parts with the textures. I think he knows about that and wants a way to switch between the without having to use different parts

EXACTLY... Thanks... I have many craft that have many different uses and usages of PF. As payload fairings, as CM to SM fairings, intra-stage fairings, etc... As I try to use ST-SRB as much as possible, it would be fantastic to be able to use selected textures for selected applications all on same vehicle.

All works fine, it would just be nice to have it look 'nicer'... At least to me...

Again, thanks for all ideas and suggestions, and Abes, you hit the nail on the head.....

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Is there a way to lock the height of the interstages as you increase the width? Or maybe for the next version, have the interstages be really thin? I'm just throwing this out there because it gets to be kind of ridiculous to have an 8m lower stage, and have this massive interstage on top. Especially for larger and wider rockets, they take up precious verticle space, and they don't look great either when they're that big.

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