[WIP] Nert's Dev Thread - Current: various updates

[riocrokite]

That a 2.5 or 3.75 diameter fairing?

If 3.75 its gonna be tight but the more square shape of the bay area will make it work well.

edit: width=3.4625, height = depending on modules attached

I remember testing MFS-Mk4 and it fit in previous version (width-wise). The only problem was collider on the ramp (which was a bit narrower than cargobay). Height-wise I'm sure normal design won't fit (it would require airbus beluga-style cargobay). However thanks to cabin and power modules being shorter and adapters for lower mount of cargo containers I'm sure it will fit completely

you can see lower profile achieved with adapters below:

Edited June 27, 2015 by riocrokite

[Captain Sierra]

edit: width=3.4625, height = depending on modules attached

I remember testing MFS-Mk4 and it fit in previous version (width-wise). The only problem was collider on the ramp (which was a bit narrower than cargobay). Height-wise I'm sure normal design won't fit (it would require airbus beluga-style cargobay). However thanks to cabin and power modules being shorter and adapters for lower mount of cargo containers I'm sure it will fit completely

you can see lower profile achieved with adapters below:

http://i.imgur.com/rPy1cft.png

Beluga style cargo bay for supersized payloads would be interesting. Nert, thoughts? Definitely not gonna suggest for immediate rerelease, but as a possible expansion update later?

Riocrokite, considering getting back into IR, partly for your stuff. Have avoided that and tweakscale (which IR now depends on heavily) like the plague as each one has horribly destroyed an entire KSP install singlehandedly.

[Nertea]

I had already planned a forward-opening cargo bay for last version, if that's what you all mean. I also expect the new version of the rear-loading bay to be better designed this time.

[Nertea]

Not at my modding computer, but I took a stab at the 2.5m multimode engine (working name Cutlass, or Broadsword, depends what makes a better acronym). It's an aerospike built around a jet engine!

[Svm420]

No words... So beautiful!

[Streetwind]

That is crazy and ridiculous and I want to buy ten.

[Captain Sierra]

Not at my modding computer, but I took a stab at the 2.5m multimode engine (working name Cutlass, or Broadsword, depends what makes a better acronym). It's an aerospike built around a jet engine!

http://i.imgur.com/hhKXl0Z.png

Thats . . . interesting. Definitely not what I would have come up with as a concept, and executed stunningly as always. My only concern is the jet portion looks very small for how powerful it will need to be.

[Naf5000]

C.U.T.L.A.S.S. engine - Combination Under-space Toggleable Aerospike Space propulSion Engine

B.R.O.A.D.S.W.O.R.D. engine - Big, Roaring, Ominously Adaptable Dynamic Space, Water* and Ordinary Really Dangerous engine

*Not meant to function underwater.

[Nertea]

Glad you guys like it. The centre is oscillating between the actual jet engine and just the ramjet bypass. Regardless, looking forward to making the FX for this guy

Edit: also the model for the 2.5m basic jet, and a generic heavy RCS blister

Edited June 28, 2015 by Nertea

[Captain Sierra]

Basic, or turbo? ALso looking good there too.

[riocrokite]

those engines are awesome

[Streetwind]

Basic, or turbo? ALso looking good there too.

The "basic jet" is actually (and has always been) a turbojet. You can't have a subsonic jet engine without a turbine* And its ability to go just barely past mach 2 matches the performance of common realworld turbojets, too.

What the game called a "turbojet" before was grossly misnamed, but thankfully 1.0 fixed that, and it's now properly designated as an air-turboramjet. Which is a device that has a full bypass turbofan engine forcing air directly into a ram combustion chamber, so you can have a ramjet-type engine that actually provides thrust from standstill. The best of both worlds, so to speak. But, like a pure ramjet, the main powerband still sits in the transsonic/supersonic range, where the ram effect kicks in.

I'm going out on a limb here and guess that Nertea's engine is either going to be flavored as a turboramjet or as a precooled rocket jet (like the R.A.P.I.E.R.) of some description, because you need that sort of speed to go to space with a spaceplane. And a scramjet, while very much a valid option for hypersonic flight, has the same problem as the pure ramjet in that it doesn't work at all unless you get up to speed first. A lot of speed in this case.

* Okay so you can have a pulsejet. But you probably don't want to

Edited June 28, 2015 by Streetwind

[Raptor9]

A good watch for anyone interested in how the SR-71 turbo-ramjets worked :

[Ignath]

A good watch for anyone interested in how the SR-71 turbo-ramjets worked :

Phenomenal video, thanks for sharing Raptor9!

[Nertea]

It's supposed to be equivalent to the basic jet, but bigger. The turbojet equivalent is still in sketches. I have a large fan intake and 2.5m engine nacelle in the works as well, so you can make 777s with this. Sometimes I just like cruising in atmo, ya know...

[blowfish]

The "basic jet" is actually (and has always been) a turbojet. You can't have a subsonic jet engine without a turbine* And its ability to go just barely past mach 2 matches the performance of common realworld turbojets, too.

Actually, the higher Isp and lower specific thrust would peg the basic jet as a low-mid bypass turbofan.

[ThatGuyWithALongUsername]

It just means that the tank mesh in the side pod disappears and is replaced by a frame. I feel poorly about double jointed doors, though they will probably happen for any ventral cargo bays.

Hard to see on the pictures thus released, but I did improve the visibility from the windows - they're more vertical now and have a slice for pilots to see down.

But anyways, here are some new pictures: I have mostly completed the textures for the cockpit, cargo bays and fuselages, and in addition did the drone core. Probably going to knock out the service bay and start work on some adapter next, though I won't have time to do anything until the weekend.

http://nertea.the3rdage.net/ksp/mk4reduxW2.jpg

New comments required: I need to completely change the adapters from the last version - the hull is just too large to be compatible with the previous layouts. I also want to keep them to a minimum number, because they're very boring to make and take time out of more interesting parts.

I have confirmed for sure:

• Mk4 to 2x 1.25 m (on the sides) and 2x 2.5 m
  
• Mk4 to 2x 1.25 m (on the sides) and 1x 3.75 m
  

These have the same profile as the cockpit, so the shoulder pieces can mount on the 1.25m nodes nicely. I'm for sure deprecating the Mk4 to 2x 1.25m and 1x 2.5m, it just doesn't work at all. So I guess... what else? I'll allow perhaps two more.

Also, did anyone really use the Iguana adapter (short fat one)?

What about a 3X 2.5m adapter? Would work really well for the 2.5m jets.

[Streetwind]

Actually, the higher Isp and lower specific thrust would peg the basic jet as a low-mid bypass turbofan.

True, but turbofans don't generally go that fast.

The game basically uses one engine as a stand-in for a lot of different types. But at the heart of them, all of them are turbine-driven. So ultimately we can say that the basic jet engine is a... turbo-something

[blowfish]

True, but turbofans don't generally go that fast.

Yes they do. Exhaust mixing low bypass turbofans are used on almost all modern jet fighters.

[Starbuckminsterfullerton]

New engines look interesting! That spike nozzle looks heavy. Hollow drone core will be so nice to have. I had a double ended cargo ramp carryall type thing, and had to bolt a little probe nacelle to the outside since the old core had, well, a core.

As far as adapters go, there are a lot of possibilities, but not all of them are worth doing.

One that might be kinda fun is mkIV-5x 1.25m in a row. Kinda like NFC's trilinear, but spaceplane and 5. You have the two lump ones on either end, and three more bridging the gap between them. Maybe not too practical, but maybe kinda cool.

Can't wait to be building mkIV craft again.

Edited June 28, 2015 by Starbuckminsterfullerton

[Nertea]

I'm locking off the adapters for initial rerelease at 3:

• Mk4 to 1x Mk3 and 2x 1.25m (shoulder)
  
• Mk4 to 1x 3.75m and 2x 1.25m (shoulder)
  
• Mk4 to 2x 2.5m and 2x 1.25m (shoulder)
  

They're modeled, unwrapped and waiting for the textures to be finished.

I have completed the service bay. It has 3 hatches that open that are enough to fit an EVA kerbal through (I tested!). It's also just pretty cool looking .

[Justicier]

Really like your models Nertea, the new Mk4 cargo bay looks absolutely stunning. Strange thing though, your 1.25m MPDT that is on the first page of this thread... it looks identical to the one on the Kerbal website that SQUAD has as a background image of each thumbnail on the news section. Does that mean what I think it means?

[Captain Sierra]

Really like your models Nertea, the new Mk4 cargo bay looks absolutely stunning. Strange thing though, your 1.25m MPDT that is on the first page of this thread... it looks identical to the one on the Kerbal website that SQUAD has as a background image of each thumbnail on the news section. Does that mean what I think it means?

OMG yes. Thats Nertea's prerender model on the official KSP page (gotta scroll down a bit).

P.S. I wish KSP had as good a lighting & materials render engine as what you're teasing us with there.

[ZodiusInfuser]

Really like your models Nertea, the new Mk4 cargo bay looks absolutely stunning. Strange thing though, your 1.25m MPDT that is on the first page of this thread... it looks identical to the one on the Kerbal website that SQUAD has as a background image of each thumbnail on the news section. Does that mean what I think it means?

That they took the render without permission? Probably

[Raptor9]

Now Nertea is just showing off That service bay looks really cool.