[WIP] Apollo-like crew module (Updated download 17.2.2014)

[Ledenko]

Well, there you have it, pretty much anything you can think of has been either made or is in the making Dream chaser has seen some starts, but I don't think anyone currently has plans of finishing one. I could be wrong of course. Also, as much as I didn't like it's aesthetics in the beginning, the shape really grew on me. I'm also still considering an original design derived from other existing designs, but I'm not aerospace designer, I'll see if I can come up with something plausible.

[martinezfg11]

Speaking of Dream Chaser, here's my current attempt at it.

[Taki117]

Sorry to burst everyones bubble, but the parachute part keeps exploding on reentry. I play with DRE and as the capsule reenters (travelling at about 3.5km/s, normal for a Minmus return) with the bottom pointing retrograde the capsule heats up to about 700C and the paracutes heat up to about 1000C before exploding violently. I added the heat-shield module (for DRE) to it to no avail. Any tips?

[Captain Sierra]

Uhm . . . Oh I know!!!! IIRC (I'm still on an earlier version since I've modified it some to my liking), there's a thing with the collider on the base. It is much flatter than the apparent heat shield (though that appears to have changed since I last used this). That MIGHT be it, but I'm no DRE expert. Try it with a different parachute. If it still does it, you have a problem.

[astropapi1]

Speaking of Dream Chaser, here's my current attempt at it.

~snip~

Aww hell yeah. I love Dream Chaser!

[Taki117]

So, Trying out the new IVA view I thought it appropriate to do an Apollo style mission to the mun and got the following on the Return.

I must say, some Very nice work Ledenko!

[Ledenko]

That's very nice martinezfg11! Looking forward to seeing the finished one

Regarding the heatshield, the collision mesh is not as smooth as the CM mesh and it only has 12 sides compared to 24 for the CM, but otherwise follow the outline. That has always been the case, but I did set up connection nodes to clip into it at first to fit the stock large decoupler nicely. The connection between the CM and parachute part is very wobbly though, I'll look intro strengthening that, probably by making the connection nodes larger because I think that's what determines joint strength. Unfortunately I don't personally use DR and I'd test it, but this computer I'm on right now *hates* DR with the passion of a thousand burning suns. This might be a stupid question, but could the entry angle be wrong for this CM? If there's something specific that needs doing, please let me know and I'll add it to my todo, which is currently as follows (IVA todo is separate):

- Redo the UV map to improve texture in certain parts, especially the heatshield

- add some texture detail to the docking port

- add a retracting animation to the docking port probe (to simulate it being removed after undocking, how does that sound?)

- strengthen the joint between the CM and parachute part by increasing node size

- I've become divorced from the window texture and I'll attempt to replicate the look from the first version, which wasn't so happily white-bright

- rotate the collision mesh of the CM to improve surface attachment in cardinal directions (as long as it doesn't create other issues)

- adjust the parachute canopy model to look less goofy in the way it attaches and add realchutes support

- an exciting development that will be revealed when the time is right!

I think there was something else, but I forget at the moment.

[DasBananenbrot]

That's very nice martinezfg11! Looking forward to seeing the finished one

Regarding the heatshield, the collision mesh is not as smooth as the CM mesh and it only has 12 sides compared to 24 for the CM, but otherwise follow the outline. That has always been the case, but I did set up connection nodes to clip into it at first to fit the stock large decoupler nicely. The connection between the CM and parachute part is very wobbly though, I'll look intro strengthening that, probably by making the connection nodes larger because I think that's what determines joint strength. Unfortunately I don't personally use DR and I'd test it, but this computer I'm on right now *hates* DR with the passion of a thousand burning suns. This might be a stupid question, but could the entry angle be wrong for this CM? If there's something specific that needs doing, please let me know and I'll add it to my todo, which is currently as follows (IVA todo is separate):

Hmm what problems with DRE you have exactly? And which was the last version you tried...

- add a retracting animation to the docking port probe (to simulate it being removed after undocking, how does that sound?)

wow that sounds nice Would you maybe want to also make a passive docking module as you already made the active part of the custom docking system..Shouldn't be too hard I guess

- adjust the parachute canopy model to look less goofy in the way it attaches and add realchutes support

you mean full RealChute Support? Or do you still want to hold this plugin free. I still have my plans though ,to make a "new" parachute part which will be fully dependant on RC as it would also feature drogue chutes..If you would be interested to release such a part as alternative or even replace the current one, I would gladly work for KerbonTech :DI will contact sumghai again so he helps me with the setup of main and drogues in the same part via RC, I hope he responds but he said he has few time so... Anyway I thought about maybe also overworking your textures. If I reach a useable state I will notify you via PM

Edited January 28, 2014 by DasBananenbrot

[Ledenko]

Hmm what problems with DRE you have exactly? And which was the last version you tried...

Pretty sure it was the latest - it just lagged this business laptop to death

wow that sounds nice Would you maybe want to also make a passive docking module as you already made the active part of the custom docking system..Shouldn't be too hard I guess

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/History/SP-4205/images/c137.gif

Ugh, the fact the probe extends completely eluded me. I'm gonna keep things simple and plugin free here - I'll only add an animation for retracting it to hide it from view. To add an additional animation would mean having to use firespitter I think?

you mean full RealChute Support? Or do you still want to hold this plugin free. I still have my plans though ,to make a "new" parachute part which will be fully dependant on RC as it would also feature drogue chutes..If you would be interested to release such a part as alternative or even replace the current one, I would gladly work for KerbonTech :DI will contact sumghai again so he helps me with the setup of main and drogues in the same part via RC, I hope he responds but he said he has few time so... Anyway I thought about maybe also overworking your textures. If I reach a useable state I will notify you via PM

Full realchute support - adding a drogue canopy doesn't do anything to the game if you're not using the plugin except probably needing to edit the config to remove it. I'll try to do this on my own because it's more or less a matter of adding another canopy, but if you're keen on doing it, I'm not stopping you

[DasBananenbrot]

Pretty sure it was the latest - it just lagged this business laptop to death

Ohh business laptop.. xD

Ugh, the fact the probe extends completely eluded me. I'm gonna keep things simple and plugin free here - I'll only add an animation for retracting it to hide it from view. To add an additional animation would mean having to use firespitter I think?

Hmm probably but it somehow bugs me that you dock with a pointy docking probe into a flat dokcing port xD Well maybe you could maybe at least do a model without animation so it is more aesthatically pleasing xD

Full realchute support - adding a drogue canopy doesn't do anything to the game if you're not using the plugin except probably needing to edit the config to remove it. I'll try to do this on my own because it's more or less a matter of adding another canopy, but if you're keen on doing it, I'm not stopping you

Yes, full RealChute support is needed for drogues but I asked because earlier you were pretty uncertain about that. ANd yes I am keen on doing that but I guess in the end you will be faster

Edit: 500th post by the way.... I spend way too much time on the forum xD

Edited January 28, 2014 by DasBananenbrot

[NathanKell]

The latest-latest version of DRE has some speedup work by a.g. and should lag less. Also if it's lagging your laptop to death, it's possible that was due to disk writes from errors; post your output_log.txt

Regarding joint strength: actually, node size has nothing to do with that; AFAIK the *only* two things node size affects are: (1) the size of the node, visually, in the VAB/SPH, and the snap distance; (2) the "open node" drag in FAR.

The only way I know to make the joint wobble less is tweak the collision meshes of the two parts involved so they sit together better/more evenly/tighter.

[Ledenko]

The latest-latest version of DRE has some speedup work by a.g. and should lag less. Also if it's lagging your laptop to death, it's possible that was due to disk writes from errors; post your output_log.txt

Regarding joint strength: actually, node size has nothing to do with that; AFAIK the *only* two things node size affects are: (1) the size of the node, visually, in the VAB/SPH, and the snap distance; (2) the "open node" drag in FAR.

The only way I know to make the joint wobble less is tweak the collision meshes of the two parts involved so they sit together better/more evenly/tighter.

Don't worry about my laptop and DRE, I sometimes have time to test things at work but if a business laptop won't run it, I won't complain that much I'll just do testing at home when I get a chance.

And you're right about node sizes, I was recalling that joint reinforcement mod and somehow mixed it all up (the mod does use node size as reference for joint strength... at least I hope so, I better not be mixing other stuff as well)

[Ledenko]

Yay for small updates!

[NathanKell]

Afraid you are mixing things up--not even KJR uses node size for joint strength (I just checked the source to be sure). It's just FAR that uses it for drag.

[DasBananenbrot]

Yay for small updates!

http://i.imgur.com/g6QZBZG.png

That looks pretty

[specs]

Yay for small updates!

Mmm... Shader-y.

*Drools*

[Taki117]

Yay for small updates!

http://i.imgur.com/g6QZBZG.png

YAY! This isn't dead! but more importantly, how far off is the next update? I'm really excited

[Ledenko]

Not dead, hopefully soon! I've been meaning to work on this today but we're having major power outages.

There is something about parachutes and realchute support though: It's frustrating as heck. I wanted to modify the parachute animation to look a bit less goofy (by separating the canopy models and animating each one separately in Unity) and since the parachute module uses a weird way of playing animations, that took hours to fiddle to being just right. Then came realchute, which does further weird things to the animation (instead of deploying sideways as is usually the case with chutes, the drogues are rotated about 45 degrees along the vertical axis). This means you'll probably end up without realchute drogue support, because I don't have the energy to fight with it any longer or maybe there will be a simplified mesh of some sort.

[DasBananenbrot]

Not dead, hopefully soon! I've been meaning to work on this today but we're having major power outages.

There is something about parachutes and realchute support though: It's frustrating as heck. I wanted to modify the parachute animation to look a bit less goofy (by separating the canopy models and animating each one separately in Unity) and since the parachute module uses a weird way of playing animations, that took hours to fiddle to being just right. Then came realchute, which does further weird things to the animation (instead of deploying sideways as is usually the case with chutes, the drogues are rotated about 45 degrees along the vertical axis). This means you'll probably end up without realchute drogue support, because I don't have the energy to fight with it any longer or maybe there will be a simplified mesh of some sort.

stupid_chris has built something into the RealChute plugin so canopys try to go into different directions and don't clip into each other. maybe that is what's causing your problems. I think it is the forced orientation part in the plugin but You should better ask stupid_chris about this.

Major power outages ..that sounds pretty ****ty ..

Edited February 2, 2014 by DasBananenbrot

[Ledenko]

I checked the readme and found a force vector setting... I'll play with it when I get a chance.

What I've managed so far:

Heatshield textured

Cosmetic animation for the docking probe (it goes back and forth a little bit)

Connection between module and chute/dock parts dewobblified

Collision model tweaked so you can attach stuff in front/back/sides without it jiggling about trying to decide when it's level

Parachute animation degoofified (edit: actually, degoofifying has been goofed at some stage, I'm not touching it again)

Parachute center of mass fixed, nobody noticed, but it's center of mass was waaaaay above the actual model, that's now been fixed by correcting the model's position, no more CoMOffset in config

It's minor stuff, but in the grand scheme, it works toward making the module behave better.

Edited February 2, 2014 by Ledenko

[Taki117]

YAY! I like it and keep up the good work! (And hope those power outages go away soon)

[techstepman]

great pod!my #1 favourite and most used pod!keep up the good work.is the new heatshield up fro download?it looks amazing!

[Jobin]

Nice work Ledenko! Love the look of the Apollo capsule (whoever said it looks like Orion, NO! Orion looks like Apollo CM!). Here's my RSS Saturn V launch vehicle with C/SM & LEM (in the fairing) replica. Ignore those ugly ullage boosters, I haven't gone in to reconfigure the nice KW ones for RSS. Will we see a complete Apollo Flight computer implemented using RPM?

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. Edited February 6, 2014 by Jobin

[Ledenko]

Jobin, lovely mission Is the parachute/dock missing to fit the LES there? I should probably actually complete that LES...

techstepman: I'll see what needs fixing and do an upload soon.

I'll also split the download into two versions: one with the built-in fairing/decoupler (removing the decoupler is a simple case of modifying the config) and another where the decoupler/fairing is a separate object.

[Jobin]

Actually I wasn't even aware the parachute/docking mechanism was included as a separate part. I just now saw it in the folder. I think I could probably still use that LES with part clipping turned on. I'll post an update of my Apollo 10 mission whenever I get time. Again, love the model!

EDIT: I tried to use the included parachute/docking module, doing my own rescale to fit the RSS mod, but was having difficulties with docking. A real pain considering it takes about 20 minutes to get into a transfer trajectory. Going to switch back to the regular docking ports.

Edited February 8, 2014 by Jobin