[0.25]KSP Interstellar (Magnetic Nozzles, ISRU Revamp) Version 0.13

[artforz]

I'm using WaveFunctionP version of Interstellar, and i have a problem with swapping fuels. Clicking on "swap button" doesn't do anything. I have 4 empty UF4 canisters (Witch makes space for 3200 units-200 more than needed), and another 4 canisters of ThF4. Reactor is disabled and cooled down. Is it becouse actinides?

http://i.imgur.com/PcwxHaW.jpg

Yes. It should be the same in the official 0.11.

To be able to swap fuel in a reactor, it has to have less or equal to 0.01 actinides in it (see https://github.com/FractalUK/KSPInterstellar/blob/master/FNPlugin/FNNuclearReactor.cs#L71)

It's also kinda sorta documented in the wiki: https://github.com/FractalUK/KSPInterstellar/wiki/Reactors#swap-fuel

[phoenix_ca]

Fractal, exactly what would be required in setting up a part to use the WarpDrive functionality? I want to add it to some parts that are indev for my new mod (Link is my Sig Pic.) and I wanted to make sure it was ok for me to do this. If you are interested, here is what I have planned and made so far:

http://imgur.com/a/7crUe

There's absolutely nothing stopping you from using KSPI's plugin as a dependency for any parts you may create. You don't need Fractal's permission. You don't even need to concern yourself with the license for KSPI's plugin if all you're doing is creating parts that will use functionality provided by the plugin. The most you might need to deal with is if you package the plugin with your parts/mod, which means you need to follow the license with regard to distribution of the plugin, modified or otherwise.

TL;DR: If all you are doing is creating parts that will use KSPI's warp functionality, you don't need permission to make or distribute the parts. The KSPI dll yes. Your own work that uses it as a dependency, no.

Edit: Technically that wouldn't stop Fractal from pulling a ****-move so common in the Minecraft community of writing code into your mod that explodes the game if you use it with some other mod you don't like, but KSPI being open source and all...and the KSP community not being full of dicks like that...and Fractal not being a ****...I doubt that'd ever happen here.

Edited April 29, 2014 by phoenix_ca

[Sauron]

Question: do thermal turbojets lose thrust with more radiators attached. Because I've been getting to 1000 m/s with only the little atmospheric radiators, but with the bigger space-based ones (even when they're retracted) I only get ~400 m/s. Is this by design? If so it'd be great to be able to fully disable the folding radiators when you don't want them.

[DivisionByZero]

Question: do thermal turbojets lose thrust with more radiators attached. Because I've been getting to 1000 m/s with only the little atmospheric radiators, but with the bigger space-based ones (even when they're retracted) I only get ~400 m/s. Is this by design? If so it'd be great to be able to fully disable the folding radiators when you don't want them.

I don't think you need radiators so much with thermal engines, either rocket or turbo jet. The waste heat goes out the tail pipe, I think. I could be wrong as I've not used them much yet.

[Sauron]

Right, but are the radiators stealing my heat? (Since I'm using them on SSTOs)

[WaveFunctionP]

Right, but are the radiators stealing my heat? (Since I'm using them on SSTOs)

The deployable radiators weigh more, and if you have FAR, they are going to cause significantly more drag.

The thermal nozzles will get rid of any waste heat while they are running, but if you intend to go into space, you'll need more than the inline radiators to dissipate waste heat if you are generating or receiving power for anything other than for the nozzles.

Edited April 30, 2014 by WaveFunctionP

[DailyFrankPeter]

Hi,

I did a thread/wiki search but no answer to this simple question:

What are the rounding rules for science added on-focus by the KSPI Lab?

I.e. I focus on my Minmus lab every day, which invokes a "0 science added" message (but deep down I hope it actually is the 0.6-something, promised by KSPI Lab when I right click on it). If yield is actually rounded to full points (well not rounded but really truncated), then I'm completely negating my science income by focusing on the station!

Edited April 30, 2014 by DailyFrankPeter

[TheGatesofLogic]

Is the radial antimatter collector from the hi-tech bits dev thread planned to be added? It would be an incredible addition. If it isn't i'll probably make it for myself if anyone wants it.

[db48x]

Hi,

I did a thread/wiki search but no answer to this simple question:

What are the rounding rules for science added on-focus by the KSPI Lab?

I.e. I focus on my Minmus lab every day, which invokes a "0 science added" message (but deep down I hope it actually is the 0.6-something, promised by KSPI Lab when I right click on it). If yield is actually rounded to full points (well not rounded but really truncated), then I'm completely negating my science income by focusing on the station!

Science is stored in your saved-game as a double-precision (I think, it might actually be single-precision) floating-point number. You'll often see numbers like 247.131438637816924 in there; it keeps track of the rounded-off bits at all times.

Of course, it wouldn't matter how the total is stored if KSP Interstellar rounds it off before adding it to the total; luckily we can check the code pretty easily. A quick search reveals <https://github.com/FractalUK/KSPInterstellar/blob/def545fc24007fdbd0390ab667ba78a8f2f19d77/FNPlugin/ScienceModule.cs#L304-L305>, which looks like this:

ResearchAndDevelopment.Instance.Science = ResearchAndDevelopment.Instance.Science + (float)science_awaiting_addition;
ScreenMessages.PostScreenMessage(science_awaiting_addition.ToString("0") + " science has been added to the R&D centre.", 2.5f, ScreenMessageStyle.UPPER_CENTER);

You can see that the first line adds the variable science_awaiting_addition, which is a float, to the global total science collected. The next line then displays the message, converting the numeric value into a string containing numerals which a human would interpret as a numeric value by calling ToString() on it. The ToString method is documented on MSDN <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/f71z6k0c%28v=vs.110%29.aspx> and further at <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/26etazsy%28v=vs.110%29.aspx>, but I'll summarize. The argument it takes describes in a schematic way how to format the value as a string of digits. The format string passed in is "0", which tells it to round the value off to an integer and make a string containing the numerals that represent that integer.

I hope this answers your question.

Edited April 30, 2014 by db48x

[DailyFrankPeter]

I hope this answers your question.

Very thoroughly. Thanks!

[ebookah]

I've been getting this in my debug window

[Exception]:UnityException:Texture WarpPlugin/ResourceData/Kerbin_Uraniaum' is not readable the texture memory can not be accessed from scripts you can make readable from the texture imports settings.

I cant seem to find the texture import settings. Can some one help?

Never mind i found it.

Edited May 1, 2014 by ebookah

[smunisto]

Two questions:

1. There is no documentation on the precooler. Can someone describe it - I know already that it doesn't work if it's not directly stacked behind an intake(which means I can't stack more than one of them behind an intake). What are its stats, how many do I need per engine? Or per intake?

2. Wtf?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wepz6p5oktc3yl9/Screenshot%202014-05-01%2015.06.01.png

[nli2work]

1. From my experiments precooler is per intake, and seem to only add altitude ceiling for stock turbofan (take off to 200km apoapsis without rocket engine at all). B9 Saber and Turbofan engines still overheat around 1300m/s and 23km+... I'm not even sure how Precoolers work at all. Nothing in the config files shows anything special that sets it apart from a normal part config. Without Interstellar mod, you don't even see the status text "Precooler: Active"

2. Yep, that's part of the tech upgrade apparently. I was surprised myself at first, but it's incredibly convenient, and sensible.

Edited May 1, 2014 by nli2work

[Deredere]

So... radiators sometimes experiencing load times in excess of 30 seconds, especially when placed in 6 or 8 fold symmetry.

Has this been addressed?

[JewelShisen]

Is there some way to get KSPI to stop displaying some message about a tech tree update? Neither button gets it to go away and stay away

[Woodstar]

Is there some way to get KSPI to stop displaying some message about a tech tree update? Neither button gets it to go away and stay away

Yup, you update it. If it is still there after the update then I don't know. Have you updated toolbar also?

[Boamere]

So... radiators sometimes experiencing load times in excess of 30 seconds, especially when placed in 6 or 8 fold symmetry.

Has this been addressed?

Unfortunately no, but a new save stops this from happening :/

[undercoveryankee]

1. There is no documentation on the precooler. Can someone describe it - I know already that it doesn't work if it's not directly stacked behind an intake(which means I can't stack more than one of them behind an intake). What are its stats, how many do I need per engine? Or per intake?

Interstellar adds a module to turbojet, RAPIER, and B9 SABRE engines that adds additional heating to the engine at high airspeeds if you have intakes without precoolers. If you have a precooler behind every intake, only stock sources of heating will apply. If you have coolers on some intakes and not others, you will get extra heating as a function of the percentage of intakes that aren't precooled. The code doesn't care about the number of engines, only whether every intake is cooled.

[undercoveryankee]

1. From my experiments precooler is per intake, and seem to only add altitude ceiling for stock turbofan (take off to 200km apoapsis without rocket engine at all). B9 Saber and Turbofan engines still overheat around 1300m/s and 23km+... I'm not even sure how Precoolers work at all. Nothing in the config files shows anything special that sets it apart from a normal part config. Without Interstellar mod, you don't even see the status text "Precooler: Active".

In stock, the part that Interstellar uses as a precooler is called "Radial engine body," and it's just an aesthetic variant on a structural fuselage. Interstellar renames it and adds a module that works with the changes to the engines. The ModuleManager config with the changes is in Interstellar's folder.

The 200km apoapsis on airbreathing engines was probably the bug in FAR 0.12.5.2 that made those engines overpowered at high airspeed. The precooler code has no effect on how an engine's thrust varies with speed or altitude; it only governs whether you get Interstellar-applied heating in addition to stock heating.

[Deredere]

Unfortunately no, but a new save stops this from happening :/

Oh. Oh dear.

Well, I'd been meaning to try out a life support-enabled save anyway. I'm going to have to skip most of the tech tree however, I'm totally over lunar landings unless it's a kethane juggernaut.

[Sauron]

Question and/or suggestion:

Would it be possible to have smaller and less efficient brayton cycle generators? Currently if you want to get any electricity out of your reactors you need a giant, heavy generator. This is fine if you're looking to produce megajoules, but a little radial generator that only produces a (fairly small) amount of stock EC (not enough to use for electric propulsion but enough to power a probe core/reaction wheels) would be a very helpful addition.

[WaveFunctionP]

Question and/or suggestion:

Would it be possible to have smaller and less efficient brayton cycle generators? Currently if you want to get any electricity out of your reactors you need a giant, heavy generator. This is fine if you're looking to produce megajoules, but a little radial generator that only produces a (fairly small) amount of stock EC (not enough to use for electric propulsion but enough to power a probe core/reaction wheels) would be a very helpful addition.

The stock game already has a part for that. The RTG.

[undercoveryankee]

The stock game already has a part for that. The RTG.

If you're running things like life support or RT2 that add power draws to everything you put in orbit, you may want to move RTGs earlier in the tech tree so you're less likely to get flight-capable fission reactors before you get RTGs, and/or find a mod that gives you chemical fuel cells before you get anything nuclear.

[Sauron]

The stock game already has a part for that. The RTG.

Yes, but presumably it makes sense to get a bit more use out of the giant nuclear reactor you're using It's a perfectly logical niche that while not critical, is a nice touch.

[Fractal_UK]

If you're running things like life support or RT2 that add power draws to everything you put in orbit, you may want to move RTGs earlier in the tech tree so you're less likely to get flight-capable fission reactors before you get RTGs, and/or find a mod that gives you chemical fuel cells before you get anything nuclear.

I did actually think about moving it because I don't really understand the justification for such a late placement of the RTG in the tech tree. They were being regularly used back in the 60s and consequently seem like they should be an early-middle tech, I haven't done this because it opens a can of worms in that there are many ways that the game's tech tree isn't very sensible from a realism perspective and I don't really want to totally redesign it.