[1.8.1] Docking Port Alignment Indicator (Version 6.8.5 - Updated 12/14/19)

[WuphonsReach]

Small bug with regards to docking port target selection.  If I use DPAI's target selector more then 200m away from the target vessel, then pick a docking port, the nav-ball target never changes from the vessel as a target to the docking port as a target.

This causes an issue in MechJeb2 where MJ does not know which docking port I am going to and will attempt to dock with the vessel marker as the target.  But if I change docking ports again in DPAI while inside 200m, MJ2 will work fine because now it sees that the docking port is the target.

(Or at least, I think this is what is going wrong.)

Maybe DPAI needs to change the target (or notify other addons) again once it crosses the 200m distance marker.  Or check every so often inside of 200m whether the desired target is equivalent to the game's concept of what the target currently is on the nav-ball.

Edited January 5, 2016 by WuphonsReach

[WuphonsReach]

It would be nice if DPAI would only allow you to select from targets that are compatible with the docking port that you are "control from here" with.  As of KSP 1.0.5, docking ports can have multiple nodeType values (indicating compatibility) plus there is now gender to consider.

[NavyFish]

On 12/3/2015 at 9:54 PM, Gryphon said:

I don't know, but are you sure NavyFish is the person maintaining the metadata for his mod on CKAN?

I don't know much about KCAN... I enabled integration with it via the KerbalStuff mod hosting, but don't use KCAN myself, so am pretty clueless about it. Did it ever get fixed?

 

@WuphonsReach

 

Thanks for the bug report!  TBH, the way DPAI selects ports has always been quite hacky, so I'm not surprised a bug finally crept in. Hopefully the KSP API now supports proper module targeting so I can implement a proper solution.  Lots of crazy and undocumented code behavior takes place in KSP right at 200m. Very frustrating to work with, but again I haven't visited that chunk of the API since ~0.22,so maybe it's been improved upon.

 

Regarding port compatibility... That's a feature that should already be implemented... Check your DPAI settings. Non compatible ports won't show up in the cyclable list of targets. If not, bug. Let me know.

 

*Edit*  Actually maybe I'm smoking things. Can't find that feature mentioned in any of my change logs, so it's possible I haven't implemented it yet, despite having a fairly distinct memory of doing so, lol.  If not, I'll try to get it into the 7.0 release (shooting for sometime shortly after 1.1 is out).

Edited January 9, 2016 by NavyFish

[WellingtonBloke]

Hi

Hopefully someone can help as i am at my wits end.

In brief i am running kerbal V23 and after being unable to dock my craft,
I downloaded Docking Port Alignment Indicator

However it doesnt seem to want to run.

The following is my screen once i have select the target docking port

http://www.tiikoni.com/tis/view/?id=16df035  

And these are my Kerbal Files

http://www.tiikoni.com/tis/view/?id=aa2dd1e

 

Any thoughts?

 

 

[razark]

1 hour ago, WellingtonBloke said:

Any thoughts?

Don't run a mod for KSP 1.0.5 with KSP 0.23.  You'll have to either find an old version of the mod, or update your KSP to the current version.

[WellingtonBloke]

26 minutes ago, razark said:

Don't run a mod for KSP 1.0.5 with KSP 0.23.  You'll have to either find an old version of the mod, or update your KSP to the current version.

Thx for prompt response - i'll give it a go.
Any idea of a source?

 

 

Edited January 27, 2016 by WellingtonBloke
Add info

[razark]

16 minutes ago, WellingtonBloke said:

Any idea of a source?

https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/kspstore/?

[Varsi]

28 minutes ago, WellingtonBloke said:

Thx for prompt response - i'll give it a go.
Any idea of a source?

 

 

You can find previous versions of the mod at Curse. You could try the oldest one. I have no idea why anyone would want to play version 0.23 of KSP tho. 

[WellingtonBloke]

Thx Varsi - it worked well so it must have been a version issue.

FYI - I play Kerbal as my man cave time after work.
I haven't upgraded beyond V23 because I am a poor spaceship designer and my ships are not robust.
So when I port my super huge fuel tanker with 21 tanks (it was empty when it reached orbit) to a newer version - it immediately develops a oscillation that rapidly leads to its self destruction.
But I am having fun

 

 

 

 

[Varsi]

7 hours ago, WellingtonBloke said:

Thx Varsi - it worked well so it must have been a version issue.

FYI - I play Kerbal as my man cave time after work.
I haven't upgraded beyond V23 because I am a poor spaceship designer and my ships are not robust.
So when I port my super huge fuel tanker with 21 tanks (it was empty when it reached orbit) to a newer version - it immediately develops a oscillation that rapidly leads to its self destruction.
But I am having fun

 

I guess it might not even be such a bad idea to play older version till you're tired of it and then switch to newer version for a new set of challenges.

[Technologicat]

Hi,

Is it just me imagining things, or has anyone else noticed that attached docking ports are not filtered out from the list that is cycled by the arrow buttons in the DPAI window? (Docked docking ports are filtered out correctly.)

Attached means that the ports were docked right there in the VAB, and the ship launched that way. There is a technical difference in how KSP handles these cases, as was noted during the original dev thread for Connected Living Space.

Noticed this after launching a two-section ship the lazy way using moar boosters (and in orbit, trying to dock another craft to it). DPAI 6.2 on KSP 1.0.5.

[ap0r]

KerbalStuff is down, just tought i'd let you know

[John FX]

Hello, as is probably well known now there is no more kerbalstuff. Spacedock is up and running as a replacement with apparently a lot of the same functionality.

Are there plans to update things/upload to spacedock so this mod works with CKAN again?

[Kaerwek]

I run KSP 1.0.5. I have Docking Port Alingment Indicator version 6.2 via CKAN.

For some reason, the first time I tried it, it worked. But these days, I can't even see the icon. I have to dock manually.

What could be causing that it doesn't show up?

[GreenWolf]

@Kaerwek If you have a lot of mods installed that are all using the stock toolbar, it can sometimes overflow and hide some icons. Just click and hold on the toolbar and drag it to the left or right to show the hidden ones.

This is assuming that there's not a bug involved, of course.

[Yourself]

Is there a way to invert axes on the indicator?  As it is right now the pitch alignment is reversed from the yaw alignment, which actually makes it extremely difficult for me to control the attitude alignment because I have to do the opposite of what I think, but only in the pitch axis.  This is also something that aggravates me with KSP's stock control scheme, since the translation controls are reversed in up/down from how they work in left/right (in one axis, they accelerate towards the direction you're pressing, in the other it accelerates opposite the direction you're pressing).

[Kerbal101]

Let me show you why this mod is awesome.

I forgot to keep an eye on monopropellant fuel and had only 25 units left to dock this fuel train.

With Docking Port Alignment indicator, the first docking attempt was complete success - and I used only 18(!) units.

 

And this is how I dock:

a) be near the target (about 50 meters), facing docking port.
b) lock the target SAS into normal/antinormal vectors. This is the rotational vector, so the ports will be minimally affected by rotation.
c) click on docking port "control from here"; on target, click on docking port "set as target"

1) RCS off, SAS off - use WASD to bring big orange point in the white cross in the middle. Makes port face same vector as target port.
2) RCS off, SAS on - use QE to bring orange patch above the white cross in the middle. Makes port roll face same vector as target port.
3) RCS on, SAS on - use JKLI to bring green cross in the middle of the white cross. Places your vehicle exact in front of the target port.
4) carefully press HN to approach the port at 0.5 m/s

Docks like magic! This mod is a gem! Thank you NavyFish!!

Synergizes extremely well with Kerbal Attachment/Inventory System, use it to make your engineer change location of RCS on your payload.

More pictures:

 

[space55]

I have to say, you sir have managed to create an amazing mod. I know how darn useful it can be to have some sort of docking indicator (especially in rotation). However, I do have a suggestion.

As this mod (largely) supports graphical docking, i.e. not having to use numbers for any indicators except distance, it's very helpful. However, what if distance had an indicator as well? I was thinking (feel free to build upon this) of a circle that would be at a set size at a set distance, and slowly shrink to center as you get closer. As an idea, maybe 10-20 meters for the circle to have the same diameter as the indicator window, and then down to essentially nothing at ~1 meter? Just throwing out ideas...

Anyway, thanks for creating such a great mod. Keep up the good work!

[Table]

i downloaded this, there's a folder called navyfish, but i can't find the dockping port alignment in the toolbar (im using blizzy's)

[NavyFish]

On 3/28/2016 at 10:14 PM, Table said:

i downloaded this, there's a folder called navyfish, but i can't find the dockping port alignment in the toolbar (im using blizzy's)

What KSP version are you running?

On 3/24/2016 at 1:41 PM, space55 said:

I have to say, you sir have managed to create an amazing mod. I know how darn useful it can be to have some sort of docking indicator (especially in rotation). However, I do have a suggestion.

As this mod (largely) supports graphical docking, i.e. not having to use numbers for any indicators except distance, it's very helpful. However, what if distance had an indicator as well? I was thinking (feel free to build upon this) of a circle that would be at a set size at a set distance, and slowly shrink to center as you get closer. As an idea, maybe 10-20 meters for the circle to have the same diameter as the indicator window, and then down to essentially nothing at ~1 meter? Just throwing out ideas...

Anyway, thanks for creating such a great mod. Keep up the good work!

Although I've largely stopped adding features to the mod (at least for the time being due to RL commitments), this would be a nice feature. I'll add it to the list, though can't promise anything.

On 2/25/2016 at 3:07 PM, Kerbal101 said:

Let me show you why this mod is awesome.

I forgot to keep an eye on monopropellant fuel and had only 25 units left to dock this fuel train.

With Docking Port Alignment indicator, the first docking attempt was complete success - and I used only 18(!) units.

 

And this is how I dock:

a) be near the target (about 50 meters), facing docking port.
b) lock the target SAS into normal/antinormal vectors. This is the rotational vector, so the ports will be minimally affected by rotation.
c) click on docking port "control from here"; on target, click on docking port "set as target"

1) RCS off, SAS off - use WASD to bring big orange point in the white cross in the middle. Makes port face same vector as target port.
2) RCS off, SAS on - use QE to bring orange patch above the white cross in the middle. Makes port roll face same vector as target port.
3) RCS on, SAS on - use JKLI to bring green cross in the middle of the white cross. Places your vehicle exact in front of the target port.
4) carefully press HN to approach the port at 0.5 m/s

Docks like magic! This mod is a gem! Thank you NavyFish!!

Synergizes extremely well with Kerbal Attachment/Inventory System, use it to make your engineer change location of RCS on your payload.

More pictures:

 

Awesome thanks for sharing

[Table]

im running 1.1, i posted the question when i was using 1.0.5

[Sophistry]

My only "complaint" about this awesome mod is that it makes docking so wonderfully simple I'm worried I've lost all ability to dock without it :P.

[samwisee]

This mod makes docking possible in KSP. Any chance we get an update for 1.1 comparability?

Thanks!

[Tex]

Hey @samwisee, please note that it is generally frowned upon to post messages asking for modders to update their mods for 1.1 or any new version that is released. They will get to it when they have time to. A message praising the mod goes much further in the way of encouraging them. Thanks a bunch.

This goes for the rest of the forum, too 

[AG5BPilot]

It's not necessarily a terrible question.  "Why isn't the mod updated yet?!?  The pre-release came out over 5 minutes ago!!!" is obnoxious.  But there's actually a good reason to ask whether the mod developer plans on releasing a 1.1 version of the mod:  If he or she answers yes, then everyone can wait patiently.  If, on the other hand, the answer is no (either the developer no longer wishes to support the mod or has gone MIA), then, license permitting,  someone else can start thinking about forking the code and taking over.

It's easy to read every question as the KSP equivalent of "Are we there yet?", but asking once, politely, is reasonable.  It helps, however, to ask the question in such a way that question reflects not impatience, but rather curiosity.

For many mods, it appears that only a recompilation of the dll is needed for compatibility.  Knowing that a developer may not be able to get to it for an extended period time is useful information,  I know of at least one mod where the developer said it would be a while before they could update their mods and a third party recompiled the dll.