Yaw, Pitch, and Roll

[Lar-E]

Please forgive me if this has been asked before and/or beaten to death with a large wooden club, but I'm still a drooling, knuckle-dragging noob:

What is the theory, in terms of game physics/realism, behind spacecraft yaw/pitch/roll control? My spacecraft all seem to have infinite maneuverability, despite the fact that I haven't included RCS thrusters or a propellent tank in any of my designs yet? I know pods come with built-in SAS now, but what exactly does that mean? Gyros? Tiny jets firing... what?

Also, does anyone else get dyslexic about W/S pitch control? I consistently seem to get which direction is "nose-up" wrong, especially when it is especially mission-critical for me not to screw it up... is there a good way to remember; a mnemonic or trick or anything?

Thanks!

[annallia]

Not sure how to fix your confusion on W/S control. However as for the maneuverability RCS is only needed as a booster (as you would see with big ships). In atmo obviously you have control surfaces to change all of these, in vacuum however you use reaction wheels to apply torque to your craft which turns it.

[BeefTenderloin]

The reason spacecraft lacking RCS can still turn is due to the capsule containing reaction wheels. This is presumably what you meant by gyros.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction_wheels

[NeoMorph]

The rotation is handled by causing precession by turning the reaction wheels and you get an opposite force at 90 degrees to the applied force.

Oh and in 0.21 you are still using a resource... when you turn your craft just look at your electric charge. If you don't have either a solar panel or an RTG then you are going to run out of juice fast. If you are flying a probe you are going to lose all control of it by too much attitude adjustment.

One trick to figure out which is up and down in relation to your controls is to use Chase View. When in space hit the C button until is cycles through the different camera views until it says Chase View, then move your view to the back of your ship and your WASD for turning and IJKL for translation (moving without turning - if your ship is balanced correctly) and HN (for moving back and forward)... they all are aligned for your view.

Oh yeah one further thing... WELCOME TO KSP... The space addict's dream.

Edited August 13, 2013 by NeoMorph

[SRV Ron]

While an RCS pack can assist the yaw, pitch, and roll of a large ship, they become much more useful for translation movements in docking or for precision controlled maneuvers in performing slingshot burns. The Voyager probes used such a setup in doing the slingshot maneuvers that lined them up for the grand tour of the outer planets and eventual solar system escape. For probes of about two tons, they can be used for landing on moons and small planets.

[Levelord]

This video has a pretty good explanation.

[rdfox]

For W/S confusion, it helps to think of it as being like the control stick in an airplane; the WASD keys are used to indicate the direction you're deflecting that stick from its center-neutral position, and the vehicle will start to rotate in the same direction as the tip of the stick rotates around the pivot point. You "push" the nose down, and "pull" the nose up--it's a little confusing when you think of it from outside the vehicle, but if you think of yourself as being inside the vehicle, it makes a lot more sense.

When in doubt, don't trust your eyes, trust your navball, basically. On the navball, W *always* adds pitch-down and S *always* adds pitch-up, no matter how else you're tumbling. That said, if I *am* tumbling, I tend to try and damp out roll first, then yaw, and then finally pitch, to minimize the potential confusion.

Also, you might try playing the game using a joystick instead of the keyboard, if that continues to confuse you; it seems much more intuitive when you're using a stick, since the nose will rotate the direction that the tip of the stick does. There are a lot of relatively-inexpensive three-axis joysticks out there now, where your third axis is twisting the stick; you can choose in the options menu which axis will do what--some would prefer to have left-right control yaw and twist control roll, others would prefer the opposite.

If all else fails, you can also reassign W and S to the opposite functions in the Options menu, too, but I consider that a last resort if you just can't get used to it...

[Torham234]

Also, does anyone else get dyslexic about W/S pitch control? I consistently seem to get which direction is "nose-up" wrong, especially when it is especially mission-critical for me not to screw it up... is there a good way to remember; a mnemonic or trick or anything?

No, I have the same thing. The first thing I have to do after any major update is remap the A to D and D to A controls. After that its much more intuitive for me. You could also flip the W/S control for the same effect.

[Vanamonde]

Until you get used to steering in space, try placing an easily visible but essentially massless part, like an antenna, over the "up" side of the ship.

[Brofessional]

Chase view is the best way to avoid getting disoriented, I always use it for landing and docking.

[UNSC]

I would very much like for them to implement some point in which your reaction wheels are at max or min torque and you have to use RCS to reset them. Although the game might get a little too complicated

[HeadHunter67]

When I try to explain reaction wheels, I ask if someone's ever seen the thing where a person sits on a spinning stool and hold a bike tire by its axle. Put some spin on that tire and when you change the angle of the axle, the stool spins as a result.

Now imagine that you have three machines on your craft that do something just like that. Those are your reaction wheels - and that's how your craft can turn without any apparent external input. It only becomes clear when you stop thinking of the craft's motion as the internal subject of a cause, rather than the external result of the effect.

Edited August 14, 2013 by HeadHunter67