[WIP] R.E.L Skylon C2. Alpha Released. FAR config broken. (08 Dec 2014)

[Scripto23]

How is work on this progressing? From the last update it seems like work on the landing gear was the big hold up? I might be late to the party on this one seeing as you already seem to have the landing gear modeled, but if that is still the hold up maybe just try use the B9 landing gear (at least for testing purposes?). Yeah it won't be ideal, but looks like you're trying to reinvent the wheel (heh) and I wouldn't want that to delay this truly awesome mod indefinitely .

[CaptainKipard]

Everything with the exception of RCS thrusters is modelled and unwrapped, that includes nose gear and main gear, cargo bay doors, and side doors for kerbals. All the doors are now rigged. I managed to make a realistic cantilever bay door mechanism and plug door mechanism of which I'm quite proud. The landing gear could have been rigged a long time ago except I'm still not completely sure how to make things work in unity. It's not as simple as I'd like, or maybe people just aren't explaining it well. I don't see the point of using existing wheels. Afterall if Bac9 can make them then I should be able too and if I used his wheels I'd have to mod them anyway.

Actually a detailed noobie gear tutorial is something this community REALLY needs including all the components like:

- Shock absorbers

- Working torque arms (I've never seen those in KSP)

- Turning functionality

- Deployment animation (parenting, constraints etc)

- Free rotation with constraints for multiwheel gear axle beams. (because if they're rigid, they look weird when you pitch up on take off, or land)

The reason is simple. Real planes have their gears hide inside the fuselage and wings. That means custom gears for each addon.

Anyway, I still have the following to do

- Model, and unwrap RCS thrusters

- Finish rigging animated parts

- Animate parts

- Import and setup parts in unity

- Texture everything

- Create configs

- Test

- Test

- Test

Finally I'm not updating the thread right now simply because most of the work in the past several weeks has been done on things that you can't really show in a screenshot. I'll post a render of the whole plane when I finish rigging. Then I'll be able to show the animations too.

[Scripto23]

Great, thanks for the update! I am looking forward to the completed model. I'm not a modeler, but if you need help with creating configs or testing I can help if wanted.

[Redrobin]

Progress report? Or is this dead?

[NoMrBond]

There was a recent post (by Cpt. Kipard) involving rigging the landing gear, so definitely not dead

Edited March 18, 2014 by NoMrBond

[CaptainKipard]

Yes. At this point I know everything I need to know or at least have access to the necessary info in order to finish this, with the exception of the gear. It's literally the only thing stopping me from progressing. I'm still quietly hoping someone generous will just sacrifice some time and write a proper tutorial for this. That screenshot of the stock gear floating around isn't as complex as my gear would need to be but it's still causing my brain to overload. Some official documentation would be nice too.

[curiousepic]

Can't wait for this! In the meantime, I'm having trouble making my own replica. If anyone else is eager to try out a semi-accurate RSS Skylon and helping me refine it to reach orbit, check it out.

[Dimetime35c]

so like in percentage what would you say the % done is? also ive been living under a rock. what exactly is Skylon? is it a military, civilian, private, or concept program? Sorry if this is an off topic question but im very curious about this now.

[NoMrBond]

Skylon is a reusable spaceplane utilising SABRE engines (What the SABRE's from B9, or RAPIERS from stock are based on)

It is (presently) a civilian development by Reaction Engines (UK), although it has also attracted a significant amount of military funding

[Prime flux]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon_%28spacecraft%29

[CaptainKipard]

so like in percentage what would you say the % done is? also ive been living under a rock. what exactly is Skylon? is it a military, civilian, private, or concept program? Sorry if this is an off topic question but im very curious about this now.

It's probably a good idea to look at the first post of every thread. People usually have important information there.

[hieywiey]

It's probably a good idea to look at the first post of every thread. People usually have important information there.

But you haven't updated the first page in almost 2 months. So it's likely that 2-month-old data isn't exactly super accurate (unless this is on hiatus)

[CaptainKipard]

I always keep it up to date but it is kind of on hiatus. (ignore today's update, the numbers are still the same) I'm waiting for another modder to help me with the more complex aspects of unity integration. I can't do a whole lot without it unless I want to have to redo some things later. The only thing I can do at the moment is to texture parts of it. I'll probably get on with that.

Edited March 30, 2014 by Cpt. Kipard

[Esme]

Oh, wow! Since the Rapier engines were added, I've been thinking about trying to make something (with the bits available in KSP I mean - I'm not a modder!) like Skylon, but aren't very good with aircraft. Good luck with this, I look forward to this project's completion!

[CaptainKipard]

Thanks but you might be waiting a while. I'm getting very close to understanding what I need to do, but there are still a couple of hurdles.

One good thing is that with the release of 0.23.5 we have connections strong enough to (probaby) handle the mass of this thing. It will have a diameter of 5m afterall.

[R0cketC0der]

So is this project dead? It would be kinda sad because I like Skylon.

[CaptainKipard]

Not quite. It's just difficult for me to get started on something that has no tutorial, i.e. the landing gear.

[CaptainKipard]

Hey everyone! I have made some tangible progress with the model. The basic texture is now done. I need HELP setting up the landing gear in Unity. If you have done something like that please chime in. I would particularly welcome source files, which I could reverse engineer, or a tutorial.

For maximum viewing pleasure, please hum "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins

Edited July 23, 2014 by Cpt. Kipard

[sirkut]

Have you looked at this image to know how the hierarchy is laid out?

Also, you can use taniwha's .mu blender importer if you want to look at the SmallGearBay part.

btw. looking good.

[CaptainKipard]

Yes I have that image and a couple others, but I can't follow vague instructions, and those are very vague.

[sirkut]

I've only done wheels based off an image similar as this one but after slamming my head into my desk I realized that it makes sense. I haven't done landing gear but I can't imagine it being that much more difficult. I'm dreading doing them as I have the Dynasoar to finish. :/

[Porkjet]

Looks absolutely fantastic, Kipard!

I like this black and white design better than the pure black skylon.

Maybe some slight 'imperfections' to the surface may make the material appear more real, like in this image (which you probably took for reference?) http://wordlesstech.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Skylon-could-Revolution-Space-Travel-1-640x426.jpg

Overlaying a generic metal texture at low opacity might already suffice to achieve this.

But you said 'basic texture' so I assume you were going to do something like this anyway.

[CaptainKipard]

Thanks!

Yes that's the image I used, although I have a larger version of it, and also the same model in flight.

I already tried to do something similar. To me it kinda looks like the skin of that craft is made of lots of small panels, so I tried doing that with little luck. I didn't want to make it look too dirty, but if someone thinks of a good reason why it should be then I'll do what you suggest. I'll also add a slightly bumby/wavy normal map, because as I recently found out, real aeroplane hulls are never smooth if you look closely.

How did you make your panels? They look really good.

[Master Tao]

That's gorgeous! So glad you haven't stopped working on this.

I've stopped using Interstellar, but it makes B9's SABRE precoolers functional, so you might post in the Interstellar thread when you get close to completion. I believe that's hardcoded into the Interstellar plugin.

... real aeroplane hulls are never smooth if you look closely.

Oh, right... Aerodynamics of very smooth objects can be counterintuitive. It's the reason baseballs with leather covers usually perform better than baseballs with artificial cover and why golf balls have dimples and tennis balls have fuzz. More here.

[CaptainKipard]

I've stopped using Interstellar, but it makes B9's SABRE precoolers functional

Cool. I'll have to do this.

Oh, right... Aerodynamics of very smooth objects can be counterintuitive. It's the reason baseballs with leather covers usually perform better than baseballs with artificial cover and why golf balls have dimples and tennis balls have fuzz. More here.

Interesting, although what I was referring to was more imperfections in shaping the metal panels rather than something intentional like this.