Is 2.2km limit for non-piloted craft in atmo a unfixable problem?

[Patupi]

I've had a look attempting to see if this question has been asked before but I didn't see anything.

When you separate parts of a ship in atmosphere they disappear, even when 'debris' is equipped with probe bodies, when they go beyond 2.2km from your vessel. Is this a fixed limit of the engine or is there a possibility of this being fixed in future? I'm wondering if it is being left for, as an example, when training kerbals is fully implemented and you can assign them to the task (if they don't flub it!) of, say, landing a reusable second stage of a launch vehicle.

It's annoying when attempting to do a re-useable system, even if you don't get credit for recycling old ships, and then parts just keep vanishing during the ascent!

Edited July 18, 2013 by Patupi

[Johnno]

It's been asked about and discussed and reported as bug by people who don't understand it. It's current function. It's not a problem, it's a feature. Therefore I don't think it's classified as needing to be fixed. Any change to it in the future due to career mode is a development issue and I doubt there's any real answer on that right now.

As for why it works as it does is because of the 'on rails' physics and anything you don't control in a degrading orbit is considered crashed once it's out of render range (2.2km or so).

[Chrisd857]

I think (and don't quote me on the number) that the Lazor mod extends the limit past 100 km.

[unWinged]

ninja'd...

There are mods that change that distance. For example Lazor mod.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/9923-0-20-Lazor-System-v28b-%28Jun-10%29

Edited July 17, 2013 by unWinged
ninja'd

[Tex_NL]

You can use the Romfarer plugin to increase the physics radius from 2,5 to a maximum of 50 km. But .... this will load and calculate physics for EVERYTHING within that 50 km radius which can cause a severe strain on performance.

Edit: Ninja'd²

The Lazor mod also uses the Romfarer plugin. (Duh, it's made BY Romfarer. )

You say 100 km, I say 50. I could be mistaking. But whatever distance it is it will cause lag.

Edited July 17, 2013 by Tex_NL

[Patupi]

Hmm, interesting, and yes I did understand why it was programmed in that way. I've had a go at programming space based stuff before and the sheer technical challenge of vastly differing scales is... well, vast. Trying to calculate on both astronomical and local scales over the whole thing would be ridiculous.

I've used various Romfarer mods before and never heard of that altering the physics radius. Thanks Chrisd857, unwinged and Tex_NL. It might help, though what I was looking for I guess was a way to 'tag' a vessel to stay in physics until it lands (or crashes). Hmm, landed vessels do remain don't they? I guess if the range of physics is enough to allow the stage to land before going outside then they'd stay after touchdown?

Edited July 17, 2013 by Patupi

[Kimberly]

Hmm, interesting, and yes I did understand why it was programmed in that way. I've had a go at programming space based stuff before and the sheer technical challenge of vastly differing scales is... well, vast. Trying to calculate on both astronomical and local scales over the whole thing would be ridiculous.

I've used various Romfarer mods before and never heard of that altering the physics radius. Thanks Chrisd857, unwinged and Tex_NL. It might help, though what I was looking for I guess was a way to 'tag' a vessel to stay in physics until it lands (or crashes). Hmm, landed vessels do remain don't they? I guess if the range of physics is enough to allow the stage to land before going outside then they'd stay after touchdown?

Landed vessels will still be un-rendered, but they're not deleted. So if you can land, you should be just fine. (If you mod the KAS anchor to be very long, you can use this for airships and the like. Throw down an anchor and you're technically "landed".)

[Patupi]

Hah! I'd seen people using KAS like that. Didn't think about that. It combines connected vessels doesn't it? So I guess anything like that is at least partly 'landed'. Just wish it worked better with EL and Kethane converters, but I guess that's the way KSP works at present (or the only way they could get KAS to work at least).

At the moment I don't have a version of KSP I'm using with the Mission Control mod, but it would work with that. Get your second or third stage to land, then later go back and recycle it!