Flames for Debris on re-entry

[Kruleworld]

I just noticed that while your ship gets flamed hot air around it on reentry, debris or other ships dont. This might be something to add. Also, if debris has a chute, it should deploy and be recoverable (i think it doesn't get calculated and is destroyed).

picture: other ships deorbiting don't glow. there's one higher and one lower.

[Roderik]

That is actually pretty unrealistic that debris doesn't get flamed.

Btw, Did you noticed your debris is faaaaar lower than you?

[Kasuha]

They have flames for me as long as they are close enough. 500 meters is the limit I think.

Edit: image proof. But I admit they die off rather fast, I think they disappeared when the distance went over 100 m or so.

Edited October 25, 2013 by Kasuha

[Pulstar]

Yes, the flame effect has a limited distance so that it doesn't tank performance I think. Really long and wide vessels aerobraking most notably only get the red glow and no flames for some of their parts more distant from the very tip of the craft that is in the front.

[UbioZur]

You got your answer for the flame.

This might be something to add. Also, if debris has a chute, it should deploy and be recoverable (i think it doesn't get calculated and is destroyed).

You can still deploy the parachute as you decouple the debris. And if you manage to stay less than 2.5km from it, it will work as intended, if you go further, physics stop calculating, it goes on rail, it's in atmosphere so the game delete it.

[SilverWarior]

You can still deploy the parachute as you decouple the debris. And if you manage to stay less than 2.5km from it, it will work as intended, if you go further, physics stop calculating, it goes on rail, it's in atmosphere so the game delete it.

I think that there should be exception for debrie parts or ships which have parachutes deployed. They shoulÄÂdn't be destroyed then they get more than 2.5 km away.

I understand that the game puts all objects which are more than 2.5 km away on rails to prevent slowdowns. I also understand that object which are more than 2.5 km away and inside athmosphere are now simply destroyed becouse othervise they could constantly circle around planets even if ther orbit would be so low the would be passing athmosphere (no air resistance simulated).

But since now in carrer mode retrieving craft parts got inportant it would be nice to be able to athleast save some of the parts without the need to folow them all the way down.

Limiting this to only parts with already deployed chute shouldn't cause to much performance hog and it can be clearly controlled by players themselves. It is players choice whther he wants to retrieve certain part and his own fault if he creats to many of them and they cause the game slowdowns becouse of this.

[Kasuha]

I have landed multiple parts simultaneously several times and I always succeeded. The trick really is to keep these parts together as long as possible. Deploy parachutes on all parts while the ship is still in one piece and disconnect it as late as possible, preferably after drag and your chutes got you to safe small speed and you're less than 3 km above terrain.

But who knows, maybe this is planned for the final release. It's not like there's thousands of parts entering the atmosphere all the time so it shouldn't be major problem to run several physics simulations at once for each atmosphere passage. It might be a problem if that happens when you're trying to time warp on some completely different ship but the game could just tell you sorry, that and that ship is in the atmosphere now so you cannot warp until it's over. Or it could mark the ship as "unresolved" and run the simulation when there's time for it.

[leax256]

it seems to be a hit and miss kind of thing. I noticed this also when it first came out, sometimes it will heat up but sometimes it won't. seems to be some sort of bug.

[lajoswinkler]

In reality, no flames appear (combustion is impossible at those altitudes), and there's no fluttering we see in the game. There's ionized, glowing gas from evaporated matter. The glow is extremely intense, similar to the glowing spot you see at electrical arc welding, but spread all over the impacted area. The first trail left behind is straight, without bulbous cloudy parts, which appear in lower parts of the atmosphere and are not that prominent or lasting.

I think the reality would be easier to simulate than the stuff we see in KSP at the moment. You only need glow and a trail. No tons of small orange surfaces.

However I'd like to see the rumble at IVA. Reentry is a bumpy ride.

[Kasuha]

In reality, no flames appear (combustion is impossible at those altitudes), and there's no fluttering we see in the game. There's ionized, glowing gas from evaporated matter. The glow is extremely intense, similar to the glowing spot you see at electrical arc welding, but spread all over the impacted area. The first trail left behind is straight, without bulbous cloudy parts, which appear in lower parts of the atmosphere and are not that prominent or lasting.

I think the reality would be easier to simulate than the stuff we see in KSP at the moment. You only need glow and a trail. No tons of small orange surfaces.

However I'd like to see the rumble at IVA. Reentry is a bumpy ride.

As far as I know, most of the glow comes from air which is highly compressed by the craft going through it, heated by the compression and glowing due to that heat.

[lajoswinkler]

As far as I know, most of the glow comes from air which is highly compressed by the craft going through it, heated by the compression and glowing due to that heat.

That's correct. But there's lots of evaporation going on, too. I think the greenish light comes from the air (oxygen or nitrogen, not sure), and the warmer tints come from the insulation material ablating away. It depends on the height.

[Kruleworld]

Ok, thanks guys for pointing that out.

And if you manage to stay less than 2.5km from it, it will work as intended,

That doesn't really help for booster rockets that you drop after launch (shuttle SRBs chute back to earth to be reused).