[1.12.3+] RealChute Parachute Systems v1.4.9.5 | 20/10/24

[steve_v]

Great to hear from you again Chris, and welcome back.

On the topic of ongoing support for 1.x, I wasn't even aware there was a want. It still works just fine.

I'm certain v2.0 will be wonderful, whatever surprises you have in store, 'twill be christmas all over again.

[Starwaster]

They don't deserve a towel.

[steve_v]

Suggest replacing "towel" with "seal skin coat"... so the polar bears have something to overcome the nasty taste.

[Guest]

Glad to see you back, Chris! You have indeed been missed.

[Probus]

Yay! Chris is back! \o/

I am so glad you are feeling better. You don't really appreciate your health until it turns bad.

Now, the awesomeness can continue.

[Initar]

If less updates means a happier Chris, then freakin

Your work is awesome and you've got quite the following, but don't let the faceless masses that we are ruining your mood (and recovery). Its all just a game after all. That said I can't help but being hyped for RC 2.0! Glad to see you back!!

[MaverickSawyer]

Heya people.

As probably no one noticed, I have been absent of the forums and of the whole KSP community as a whole for the last two months or so. There are multiple reasons for that. The first big one is that Real Lifeâ„¢ happened. My tiny penguin heart can only take so much and I had to put a lot aside to focus on feeling better. I bought myself an Xbox One, spent more time playing games instead of coding them, went to see a few of my favourite bands live, travelled to Toronto, bought a few, uhm, expansive vinyls, etc. Basically I kinda emptied my wallet hoping it would help me feel better. And truth be told, it worked.

Now that I'm kinda feeling better about myself and in general, I believe I should be able to resume here, but with a few caveats.

1. Given y'all have completely ignored my multiple messages to help you help me help you (yes, this is no typo), I will not be supporting nor updating RealChute 1.x any further than it is.
   
2. Which brings me to this: my efforts are now going to be going towards finishing RealChute 2.0. This has been in the works since February or so, and it has been pushed back a few times now for many reasons; stuff like exams, KSP 1.0 release, my recent leave, etc.
   
3. If y'all complain about the lack of support, I cordially invite you to learn to code, and fix your goddamn mess.
   
4. The next person to mention 64bit support gets thrown into the black hole of shame. Along with a few polar bears. And a towel.

This being said, hi folks. Been a while.

If you time the release of RC 2.0 with the release of KSP 1.1, I will be a very happy kerbal.

[Kowgan]

As probably no one noticed

You're wrong. I couldn't stop thinking about your beak when you wenk. Welcome back.

Now, what do you have against polar bears?

[drtedastro]

I certainly hope that you consumed LOTS of bacon on your travels.

Cheers and great to see you back.

[Starwaster]

You're wrong. I couldn't stop thinking about your beak when you wenk. Welcome back.

Now, what do you have against polar bears?

probably nothing. I suspect the bears are there to take care of the 64bit'ers

and the towels are probably for them to wrap around their eyes so they don't see it coming. Hence why I am against the towels.

Edited July 24, 2015 by Starwaster

[sumghai]

Good to hear from you again, Chris. Totally reasonable that you're ending support for 1.x, especially if users aren't providing proper bug reports according to your guidelines.

Instead of towels, I strongly recommend large strips of bacon instead - they'll make the KSPwin64ers more palatable to the bears.

[kurtu5]

Increasing frequency of compatibility problems is why I stopped using Ven's parts.

Is there any possibility of putting a FAQ Answer for "What mods does this have compatibility issues with?" and list Vens? It took me a few hours of messing around with renaming Stock_RealChute_MM.cfg to no avail, to finally find the answer was it's Ven's fault.

[ctbram]

Stupid Chris - Is there any update on the status of a proper 1.0.4 update? I hate playing without real chute and I hate cobbling old versions into my game without knowing if they are going to destroy my current run through.

[MaverickSawyer]

The currently available build works just fine in 1.0.4.

[Alpha188]

Hey there! Beautiful mod!

But I ran into a problem: in my career game I can't resize the RealChute Cone Chute! What to do? Is this a bug?

[Gryphon]

Hey there! Beautiful mod!

But I ran into a problem: in my career game I can't resize the RealChute Cone Chute! What to do? Is this a bug?

Are you just starting out in your career game with a Level 1 VAB or SPH? You should be able to change the size of the RealChute Cone Chute via buttons on the right-click menu of the part.

[Alpha188]

Are you just starting out in your career game with a Level 1 VAB or SPH? You should be able to change the size of the RealChute Cone Chute via buttons on the right-click menu of the part.

I usually right-clicked the part in the VAB and resized it as you suggested. It worked fine even in that career save, but now It stopped working.

...aaand I just understood that I can also change its size via the action groups menu. It's a bit inconvenient, because you have to switch to the action groups menu, but it still works.

[NdranC]

I recently discovered RealChutes and started using it, I'm really liking the idea but I have a couple questions that so far I haven't been able to find online.

1. With RealChutes installed what is the difference between the new RealChutes parts and the old stock chutes? Can i use exclusively realchutes without touching stock ones? and if so why leave the stock ones in? can i prune them out?

2. What is the difference between right clicking and "Arm Parachute", "Deploy Parachute" or just activating the parachute through the staging. Does all of this plays like expected with remote tech on?

3. I see RealChute contracts to test the cone one but I can't seem to complete it, staging or right click menu doesn't work as far as the contract can detect. Any ideas?

4. I know I need action groups to be able to edit the parachutes settings, but I noticed that I can edit predeployment and deployment altitude only while flying but not in the vab. Kinda weird to edit parachutes in the middle of a flight but not in the VAB. Is this intended?

Thanks for your time.

[eightiesboi]

Hey all,

I know stupid_chris is working on 2.0, but in the meantime, I think I've found a bug in the cone chutes. I believe the Skin Thermal Mass is off by a factor of ten. It is 4.3 (units) compared to 0.5 for the radial chutes. Even the heat shield itself has a skin t. mass of only 1.4. I believe this has been causing my cone chutes to explode on reentry. Yes, I am using DRE, but I *think* the problem is the RC Cone Chute thermal mass. I'd propose a fix if I were smart enough to figure one out.

Screenshots here: http://1drv.ms/1ElSykB

[Starwaster]

Hey all,

I know stupid_chris is working on 2.0, but in the meantime, I think I've found a bug in the cone chutes. I believe the Skin Thermal Mass is off by a factor of ten. It is 4.3 (units) compared to 0.5 for the radial chutes. Even the heat shield itself has a skin t. mass of only 1.4. I believe this has been causing my cone chutes to explode on reentry. Yes, I am using DRE, but I *think* the problem is the RC Cone Chute thermal mass. I'd propose a fix if I were smart enough to figure one out.

Screenshots here: http://1drv.ms/1ElSykB

Seems like you're unclear on the role that thermal mass plays. The cone chute is not overheating because it has a higher thermal mass. In fact if it had a lower thermal mass it would heat up even faster. That's what thermal mass is. It's a measure of how much heat the thing has to take in to raise its temperature by a given amount. It is based on the part's specific heat times its mass.

You only have it selected in a few shots so it's not clear where the heat was coming from that destroyed it. It did record some convective flux at some point (apparently not fully turned away from the shockwave I guess) but that was of negligible levels in that one shot.

[eightiesboi]

Seems like you're unclear on the role that thermal mass plays. The cone chute is not overheating because it has a higher thermal mass. In fact if it had a lower thermal mass it would heat up even faster. That's what thermal mass is. It's a measure of how much heat the thing has to take in to raise its temperature by a given amount. It is based on the part's specific heat times its mass.

You only have it selected in a few shots so it's not clear where the heat was coming from that destroyed it. It did record some convective flux at some point (apparently not fully turned away from the shockwave I guess) but that was of negligible levels in that one shot.

@Starwaster: Is skin t. mass = thermal mass? I thought the two values were different. The STM for the RC cones, radials, heat shield, and stock cone are (respectively) 4.3, 0.5, 1.4, and 0.7 whereas the thermal mass for each is 116.5, 95.4, 103.1, and 53.5. I am definitely unclear on the role thermal mass plays, although less so since your response. I am still unclear on the difference between the two, but in simply comparing the values (I'm not good for much else!) it seems that the explode-y one is the one with a skin t. mass that is greater by nearly an order of magnitude.

Here's what I have observed: with DRE, returning from a Munar orbit, with a 23-25km PE, my RC cone chute explodes. It doesn't matter what size it is, or what it's attached to. RC Radial chutes don't explode. Stock cones don't explode. Tribbles don't explode.

First craft had a Mk1 capsule with two TAC-LS canisters above it with a RC cone above that. The chute exploded, although nothing else (besides the heat shield) got hot. At about 2000 meters above the water, Jeb jumped out of the capsule and dove head first into the water, EVA jets blazin...er puffing mono all the way. He survived (love the helmets); obviously the craft did not.

Second craft (the one in the screencaps) was a test performed to see if it was my reentry or the chute itself. Only the RC cone blew up.

Third craft (no screenies) was a test on just the stock cone. it survived without a problem but the idiot flying the capsule (er, Jeb?) started screwing around with something and went boom. So, just trust me that the chute was fine.

Suggestions? Should I move this into your DRE thread, or the support for modded installs thread? I posted here because it's only the RC cone that I've noticed this issue, and my inexpert looking at the numbers suggests that maybe the RC cone's characteristics are out-of-whack, but if I knew for sure I'd just fix it and tell you all how I am an absolute genius.

[Starwaster]

I'll take a look at some things to see if DRE is a factor but definitely without a doubt (stock heating or DRE) having a higher thermal mass (skin or internal) is not even a possible cause.

[Gryphon]

First craft had a Mk1 capsule with two TAC-LS canisters above it with a RC cone above that.

I notice your craft has a heat shield part attached to the bottom of the capsule. Have you attempted a reentry without that additional shield? (With DRE, the Mk1 capsule should have integral ablative shielding.)

[Starwaster]

I notice your craft has a heat shield part attached to the bottom of the capsule. Have you attempted a reentry without that additional shield? (With DRE, the Mk1 capsule should have integral ablative shielding.)

I'm guessing he added the extra shield because he was doing a Munar return. The Mk1's builtin shields aren't meant to handle a reentry at those speeds; it can be problematic.

Edited August 12, 2015 by Starwaster
fixing grammar

[Starwaster]

Ok, eightiesboi, I just put a capsule with one of those cone chutes through a reentry from the Mun and it came through ok. Are you keeping it properly shielded the entire way down? (keeping the capsule between the chute part and the airstream with no bits peeking out)