Structiral Integrity Check

[dlrk]

I think we've all had the experience of having a seemingly fine rocket disintegrate on the pad, or shortly after launch. Since career mode will presumably penalize this in someway, it would be good to have utility to determine if this is going to happen before launch is attempted. I've seen some discussion on the forum of implementing a 'simulation' mode. Since that might not be a good, or practical, I suggest this:

A 'structural integrity check' function in the VAB that will background simulate the physics of the rocket on the pad and/or shortly after launch, and provide either an 'ok' message, or a visual or textual indication of what parts have failed.

[rakutenshi]

Yis .. Might even have it as a post-render overlay for the rocket, colour coded with stress levels (think like thermal imaging but showing structural load instead of heat). As a side note, please make it colour blind friendly, red-yellow-green gradients are really really difficult to differentiate if you can't tell the difference between red and green and yellow. I'd suggest a yellow-blue gradient with yellow being the high stress points.

And also.. wind tunnel. I don't seen being in career mode and being able to afford to see the plane explode 50 times before you finally get it "just right" .. wind tunnels and Visual Stress Indicators would be awesome.

[jeti140973]

I would like a simulation mode as well, but I don't think it will happen since the "revert to assembly" option will prevent you from loosing ships, crew and resources. I still think we need some way of testing landers, though.

[IvanTehFennec]

I'd imagine it'd be pretty hard to code something like this to work with any/all designs, but it'd be pretty neat to have. Sounds like something a mod-maker could throw together.