[0.21.1] StretchyTanks v0.2.2 (updated 8-26-13)

[MDBenson]

I love this, procedural tanks are such an awesome idea.

[Climberfx]

Amazing. Definetly gonna try this!

Waiting for kethane parts...

Thank you AncientGammoner!

Edited August 20, 2013 by Climberfx

[Albert VDS]

I don't know if this has been suggested yet, but it might solve the awkward looking tanks.

Make the model like the image bellow, but make it so that only the orange part can be stretched.

That way you can have a detailed top and bottom, but it also allows simple stretchable textures.

[velusip]

Very odd set of bugs shown here. I'm not sure if this has more to do with the attachment method used by the AIES mod. I set the KI-3000 tank to the shortest it could be, then attached 6 AIES engines and a bi-directional decoupler below it and this started happening.

[OdinYggd]

Amazing. Definetly gonna try this!

Waiting for kethane parts...

Thank you AncientGammoner!

It looks like all you have to do for that is make duplicates of the config file and switch what resource is contained.

I'm currently test driving this in combination with Kethane and Orbital Construction to create an all-new rendition of my old Skynet series ring stations, this time with far fewer parts thanks to these tanks.

[CoriW]

I don't know if this has been suggested yet, but it might solve the awkward looking tanks.

Make the model like the image bellow, but make it so that only the orange part can be stretched.

That way you can have a detailed top and bottom, but it also allows simple stretchable textures.

As much as I like that idea, and it would be awesome if he could get it to work, I'm pretty sure since it uses a rescale value that rescales the entire model, it has to stretch all of the UV's. Then again, just brainstorming here, what if he used a sort of separate model at each end rather than just a separate UV? That way it could just stretch the center model and leave the models on the end's alone, I'm no modder though so correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyways on a related note, is there any chance that we could have some options on what color the tanks are? I think it would look really good if the tanks used the same texture they do now, but were a similar orange to the Rockomax Jumbo-64 Fuel Tank.

[Hadlock]

If that idea would work, then you could slap an engine model on the bottom and now you've got procedural tanks AND engines that don't stretch out of proportion. Boom. Mind blown.

So I am running in to this problem on the 4m tanks - the textures aren't aligned very well. This is with "Angle Snap" (c key) turned on, the struts should line up with the bolts, but they're off by ~5 degrees. If I l connect with struts bolts from a stock part and bolts from a procedural part, it will create torque and start to spin my rocket, slowly at first but after 4500m/s of Delta V it's pretty fast! Sperg level... rising...

[AncientGammoner]

Very odd set of bugs shown here. I'm not sure if this has more to do with the attachment method used by the AIES mod. I set the KI-3000 tank to the shortest it could be, then attached 6 AIES engines and a bi-directional decoupler below it and this started happening.

I can't explain why it's doing that, but I've had connections break in the game in general where the object behaved really strange and passed inside other stuff, not sure if that's the case here. All that I know is, after the vehicle is loaded the plugin itself does nothing at all while vehicle is in flight, so I'm not sure what in my mod could be causing it.

I don't know if this has been suggested yet, but it might solve the awkward looking tanks.

Make the model like the image bellow, but make it so that only the orange part can be stretched.

That way you can have a detailed top and bottom, but it also allows simple stretchable textures.

As much as I like that idea, and it would be awesome if he could get it to work, I'm pretty sure since it uses a rescale value that rescales the entire model, it has to stretch all of the UV's. Then again, just brainstorming here, what if he used a sort of separate model at each end rather than just a separate UV? That way it could just stretch the center model and leave the models on the end's alone, I'm no modder though so correct me if I'm wrong.

It doesn't use rescale, it changes the scale of the transform containing the model. And the model already uses two UV maps, one for the sides and one for the top, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to tile the sides without messing up the top. That method with the overhang might be made to work, my only concern would be the mesh collider because at the moment it scales exactly with the model, but if you attached it only to the stretching portion it wouldn't be the right length to cover the gap so you would have to do something different, maybe tweak some stuff in Unity.

That being said, I really dislike making textures (and I'm not particularly artistic which doesn't help), so if there's anyone who knows anyone or is themself awesome at texturing and wants to make this mod look better please send message me and I'll send you the info on how to make one for this mod.

While we're on textures, I did get one particularly cool addition to the next version of this mod working today: being able to press a button and switch the tank texture on the fly in the editor. I got other cool stuff working as well, so stay tuned!

[AncientGammoner]

If that idea would work, then you could slap an engine model on the bottom and now you've got procedural tanks AND engines that don't stretch out of proportion. Boom. Mind blown.

So I am running in to this problem on the 4m tanks - the textures aren't aligned very well. This is with "Angle Snap" (c key) turned on, the struts should line up with the bolts, but they're off by ~5 degrees. If I l connect with struts bolts from a stock part and bolts from a procedural part, it will create torque and start to spin my rocket, slowly at first but after 4500m/s of Delta V it's pretty fast! Sperg level... rising...

Thanks for catching that, just fixed it for the next update.

[Starwaster]

I discussed the idea with some KSP mod authors who said you couldn't do it reliably without the ability to query the model the nosecone is attached to ( which is how pWings works ). pFairings appears to basically create a bounding mesh for parts which it's the parent for & draws the fairing around it. So, as the most likely thing to be attaching nosecones to which could provide size data on request, I dropped the idea in to the most relevant place.

Honeywell: yep, I'm not in any rush, and yes that seems exactly what is wanted.

Why not just use Procedural Fairings then for your nosecones? Put a ring base down, then a cubic/octogonal strut in the center then attach fuselage siding on it. (fuselage because you probably don't want it decoupling)

[Van Disaster]

Because that's 6 parts per nosecone. It was a relevant suggestion - given considered evidence - for consideration during feature planning, not a demand for something now.

Edit: RE tanks & stretching textures: if you want some fixed dimension non-repeating graphic like text, you could always just overlay that on "floating" quads which don't get longditudinally scaled.

Edited August 21, 2013 by Van Disaster

[Mott Oper]

I want procedural solid boosters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DrPastah]

Why can't you change the girth of the rockets?

[jrandom]

Why can't you change the girth of the rockets?

I imagine that would play merry hell with radially-attached parts.

[AncientGammoner]

Update - v0.2.0

-Fixed it so surface attachments stay on the surface even as the tank stretches

-Fixed some texture issues

Tons of new features added:

-Hovering GUI on mouse-over telling you how much of each Resource is in the tank along with the Total Mass and Dry Mass.

-Ability to switch a tank in the editor to store LiquidFuel or MonoPropellent (in addition to the standard LiquidFuel/Oxidizer).

-Introduction of the SuperStretchyTank that can stretch in width in addition to length.

-Ability to change the texture of the tank on the fly in the editor to an alternative "stock" looking texture.

(read How to Use for further instructions)

Edited August 22, 2013 by AncientGammoner

[AncientGammoner]

Why can't you change the girth of the rockets?

I imagine that would play merry hell with radially-attached parts.

Speak of the devil huh? Just finished implementing that lol. And yes it does play hell with the surface attached stuff, but I found a way to make it work (most of the time lol). You can even stretch the radius of surface attached SuperStretchyTanks and they don't clip. Go ahead test it out

Here's a short demonstration video:

Edited August 22, 2013 by AncientGammoner

[Starwaster]

speak of the devil huh? Just finished implementing that lol. And yes it does play hell with the surface attached stuff, but i found a way to make it work (most of the time lol). You can even stretch the radius of surface attached superstretchytanks and they don't clip. Go ahead test it out

here's a short demonstration video:

wooot!!!!!!!

[Subcidal]

The texture selection doesn't save when you reload a craft / subassembly. Not a major bug or anything but i'd figure i'd let you know. And for anybody updating it seems to refill the tanks you have in play already.

Awesome job though, loving this mod it's really reduced my part count. All i really want is a few more texture selections for some variation between tanks (So you can identify an RCS apart from an fuel tank easier, to add some variation to the tanks and to make planes look less like rocket parts =P). Well done OP.

[AncientGammoner]

The texture selection doesn't save when you reload a craft / subassembly. Not a major bug or anything but i'd figure i'd let you know. And for anybody updating it seems to refill the tanks you have in play already.

I don't think the craft file can save plugin stuff like that unfortunately, but I'll look into what can be done. As far as refilling, in my testing I specifically launched a vehicle into orbit using v0.1.1 tanks and then installed v0.2.0 and the tank was still there and the same amount of fuel so I don't know why it would be refilling but I'll look at the code again.

[AncientGammoner]

Update - v0.2.1 Hotfix

-Fixed a bug in the loading of LiquidFuel/MonoPropellent tanks

Grrr pesky bug crept into one if statement in the resource loader, redownload the new version which fixes it.

[Climberfx]

Wow, now it resizes in width too! Amazing...

[larsmaehlum]

This was the missing piece for some of my designs.

This is just so cool!

[Starwaster]

Do I have a problem with OCD if the first thing I do when downloading is to go into the cfg and fix the indentation?

[MilkDust]

Awesome mod, but i found some nasty bug causing random unplanned disassembly on launchpad, or in the air. Random means 80% of the time. It seems like things attached to the bottom and top of the fuel tanks wants to "slide" off, and often they do.

Here are some pic of the craft:

[Crater]

Do I have a problem with OCD if the first thing I do when downloading is to go into the cfg and fix the indentation?

Only if you also go through making sure that all your parts use either spaces or tabs.

Back on topic: To get around the stretched textures means no top/bottom caps.... would it be possible to use the fact that you can now have multiple MODEL {} nodes to have one for each end-cap and one for the center-tank, and only stretch the center one?