[1.02] BioMass - Renewable Bio Fuel and Supplemental Life Support Modules

[Roboto]

Question with this, is there a way to replenish CO2 using the biomass modules?

Yes, when converting BioMass to fuel, the BioReactor should be outputting CO2.

[KvickFlygarn87]

Any news on this one? It looks really awesome!

[Roboto]

Any news on this one? It looks really awesome!

It's coming along. I have finished models for the BioReactor, MicroBiome...

MicroBiome Module

and one of the science experiments, sorry no screenshot. I have 2 or 3 more models to get through, a bit of tweaking and testing and it should be ready. I want to make sure it's polished up before I release it...aiming for 2 weeks max.

[therealcrow999]

Pretty cool! Can't wait.

[therealcrow999]

Did you get any of my PM's I am just checking to see if my PM's are working. I sent other people PM's and I don't know if they worked.

[Roboto]

Did you get any of my PM's I am just checking to see if my PM's are working. I sent other people PM's and I don't know if they worked.

Yea, sorry. Was pretty busy over the weekend. How are the frame rates going?

[USS_Cuttlefish]

Is there any projected forecast to when this will be finished. It looks like a wonderful mod that would make my Mun base more interesting.

[Roboto]

Is there any projected forecast to when this will be finished. It looks like a wonderful mod that would make my Mun base more interesting.

I'm hoping to be able to release it next weekend. Some of the details are still being nailed down, but it's progressing pretty well. I'll have to see if the guy I'm collaborating with thinks this is possible, so by early next week I should know for sure and I'll give an updated time frame.

[jduchock]

Hey Roboto:

Just a quick FYI: I am still using an older version of BioFuels along with about 25 other mods and it is still working perfectly. I am not sure what you might be updating, but i eagerly look forward to any improvement you might add to this already great mod...

Cheers !

[USS_Cuttlefish]

Alright. Great!

[seanth]

I'm hoping to be able to release it next weekend. Some of the details are still being nailed down, but it's progressing pretty well. I'll have to see if the guy I'm collaborating with thinks this is possible, so by early next week I should know for sure and I'll give an updated time frame.

I'm "The Guy". I think this is achievable. I started working with the parts last night (hi5 for getting the greenhouse solar detection fixed!), and we'll be testing things soon.

[seanth]

A quick update:

Things are progressing well. Roboto has been making some great models and I've been flailing around with the biology. My general hope is we'll see something like this:

Progress:

-Proposed standards for densities of gasses and materials. Since we are modeling actual chemical reactions, things need to balance, so the values matter. More on this later.

-Supply tanks for water, H2, O2, CO2, compressed CO2 exist and are colour coded to match real world tank colour schemes.

-Compressors for H2, O2 and CO2 exist and have colour codings on them to help indicate what they are for. We tried having one compressor for all gasses, but the resource list in the parts window was too long.

-Photosynthesis and respiration are working in a realistic way. By that I mean photosynthesis is about 4x greater than respiration, and the consumption/production of gasses, water and biomass all mass balance correctly. Time acceleration really messes with the accuracy, though.

-The greenhouse part is really wonderful. Photosynthesis stops when the shutters are closed.

More to be done, but things are coming together.

[Scotius]

Will there be an option to tie your parts with existing life-support mods? I.e: pump CO2 generated by crew into Greenhouse, and in return get O2 for crew?

[KerbMav]

You could even make a wing or a nose cone do that.

It is possible to adept these parts to function for life-support mods, yes.

[therealcrow999]

Current mod state already does this. I use it with IonCross Crew Support. O2 comes into be used and the CO2 kerbals produce help the plants.

Will there be an option to tie your parts with existing life-support mods? I.e: pump CO2 generated by crew into Greenhouse, and in return get O2 for crew?

[seanth]

My hope is that, yes, BioMass will be compatible with at least IonCross and Kethane. There _are_ some changes in resources in the coming update, but I've been talking with yongedevil of the IonCross mod. Hopefully BioMass and IonCross will Just Work together. We'll see

[therealcrow999]

What kind of changes with Ioncross? I'm sure Roboto will keep it up to par with other mods. All mods these days are made compatible with others, if not at first they will be.

My hope is that, yes, BioMass will be compatible with at least IonCross and Kethane. There _are_ some changes in resources in the coming update, but I've been talking with yongedevil of the IonCross mod. Hopefully BioMass and IonCross will Just Work together. We'll see

[USS_Cuttlefish]

This is wonderful work and I look forward to the day that this mod comes out. The only thing I wonder about is will this beable work properly if someone has a mod that adds its own resources like the interstellar mod pack?

[seanth]

If people are interested, I'd be happy to start posting more technical aspects of why we're (I'm) choosing density values for resources that might differ from other plugins. In my idealized world, all the biology-based plugins would sit down and agree to some standards as far as densities and rates of conversion.

If you have a favorite _other_ plugin that you are interested in seeing BioMass work with, feel free to list them. I'll take a peek and yes whether it will work out of the box, or whether changes would need to be made.

[Roboto]

What kind of changes with Ioncross? I'm sure Roboto will keep it up to par with other mods. All mods these days are made compatible with others, if not at first they will be.

I'm not exactly sure what the specific changes are at the moment. I think its still sort of up in the air, but we're trying to come up with a standard for biological resources and processes as far as their weights and usage rates go. For BioMass currently, seanth is focusing a lot on the science behind the processes that take place with in the modules to simulate them in a more scientifically accurate way. Which BTW, is leading us to a lot of cool new ideas, some we are already planning the details for the next release. As you can see by his post above, seanth has put a lot of thought into simulating the processes as close to reality as possible, and is currently tweaking them so they don't take away the mods usefulness and fun. It's pretty complex and I was a bit skeptical at first. But I've been playing with some of the module configurations he's creating, and so far, he's knocking it out of the park!

That said, I am indeed keeping everyones input in mind, and BioMass currently does integrate with mods that use O2 and CO2, and always will. In the future cross integration will continue to grow, as we are planning on incorporating things like Food and Waste resources as seen in other mods. Sean had a killer idea for a new food resource, but I'm going to hold off on spilling the beans on the details for right now, because we are still trying to determine if the stuff is actually made out of KEERRBALLSSS or not.

Additionally: I realize a lot of people are quite happy with BioMass as it is currently set up, and are looking forward to it being extended and debugged, but not totally reconfigured. So I am seriously considering extending the original mod path in parallel. The changes I had in mind for the upcoming release where much less ambitious than what Sean has bullied me into 0.0..... JUST KIDDING! and it shouldn't be too much extra work for me to follow through with those changes.

Thoughts?

[Roboto]

This is wonderful work and I look forward to the day that this mod comes out. The only thing I wonder about is will this beable work properly if someone has a mod that adds its own resources like the interstellar mod pack?

It should work fine. As far as BioMass is concerned, as long as the resources it requires for its processes are available, it will work. That, and BioMass provides everything so that it can stand alone. There are supply tanks for each of the required gasses, compressor/decompressors that will convert things back and forth where necessary, and some modules output the resources needed as inputs by others.

P.S THANKS!

[therealcrow999]

Seems like there is a lot to look forward to in the up coming release. I am relatively new to this mod so I don't know much and can't suggest any ideas. The only problem I had was the large space station parts, seem like they have a poly count, which was slowing me down. But there detail looks really nice.

I haven't been playing or testing this mod in a while. I've been waiting for the update to come out to put in back in my game. I'm looking forward to the new stuff and surprises.

I'm not exactly sure what the specific changes are at the moment. I think its still sort of up in the air, but we're trying to come up with a standard for biological resources and processes as far as their weights and usage rates go. For BioMass currently, seanth is focusing a lot on the science behind the processes that take place with in the modules to simulate them in a more scientifically accurate way. Which BTW, is leading us to a lot of cool new ideas, some we are already planning the details for the next release. As you can see by his post above, seanth has put a lot of thought into simulating the processes as close to reality as possible, and is currently tweaking them so they don't take away the mods usefulness and fun. It's pretty complex and I was a bit skeptical at first. But I've been playing with some of the module configurations he's creating, and so far, he's knocking it out of the park!

That said, I am indeed keeping everyones input in mind, and BioMass currently does integrate with mods that use O2 and CO2, and always will. In the future cross integration will continue to grow, as we are planning on incorporating things like Food and Waste resources as seen in other mods. Sean had a killer idea for a new food resource, but I'm going to hold off on spilling the beans on the details for right now, because we are still trying to determine if the stuff is actually made out of KEERRBALLSSS or not.

Additionally: I realize a lot of people are quite happy with BioMass as it is currently set up, and are looking forward to it being extended and debugged, but not totally reconfigured. So I am seriously considering extending the original mod path in parallel. The changes I had in mind for the upcoming release where much less ambitious than what Sean has bullied me into 0.0..... JUST KIDDING! and it shouldn't be too much extra work for me to follow through with those changes.

Thoughts?

[USS_Cuttlefish]

Is there any idea as of yet how big the file size will be when this comes out. I just want to check so I can decide what mods I may need to remove.

[Roboto]

Is there any idea as of yet how big the file size will be when this comes out. I just want to check so I can decide what mods I may need to remove.

Hard to say for sure right now, but I'm thinking it will be around 30-50MB. Depends on how much we end up needing/including this time around. I've been experimenting with things like this for example...

I've been told i should go bigger. You can see a comparison to Jeb in the last shot.

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If we make all our dreams come true, it will get pretty big i think. 0.0

[XanderTek]

Impressive! The only comment I have is that requiring all those different compressors feels... awkward. If a single multi-purpose compressor doesn't work, then perhaps the compressors could be built into either the tanks or the biomass parts? It would help keep the part count down both on ships and in the VAB part selection window, and it would reduce the need for having a compressed and uncompressed version of each resource.

In any case, I'm very much looking forward to trying the next version!

Edited November 21, 2013 by XanderTek