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

[jpkerman]

Am I correct in the impression that there is no 'drift' once the canopy is open? No 'wind' in the game? If so, could a simple option to have a little lateral movement while descending be considered? Perhaps a value per 100' of decent?

Thank you very much for your consideration.

[Master Tao]

@jpkerman:

You might want to check out the (halted) Kerbal Weather Systems, which adds wind.

[undercoveryankee]

Am I correct in the impression that there is no 'drift' once the canopy is open? No 'wind' in the game? If so, could a simple option to have a little lateral movement while descending be considered? Perhaps a value per 100' of decent?

Thank you very much for your consideration.

Like the stock game, RealChute assumes no wind. In smooth air, a large object under a well-designed chute appears to move pretty smoothly. Kerbal Weather Systems exercises FAR's wind-simulation features, but it's a pain in the neck to access that wind system without a hard dependency on FAR. Since RealChute uses the same physics-based drag model whether FAR is present or not, using it with KWS would create the goofy situation where the rest of the ship was feeling wind that the parachute wasn't.

If you want a rectangular or Rogallo-wing chute with steerable glide behavior, that would be a separate mod.

Edited December 3, 2014 by undercoveryankee

[jpkerman]

Thank you all for your answers.

Actually, having spent some of my younger days swinging beneath a canopy, I just thought it might be the simplest way to make the decent more than a waiting game. I remember the times I drifted away from trouble and still have a few scars from when I drifted in the opposite direction. In the game I have benefited from 'no wind' but a few times wished otherwise. I was just hoping there was a simple code fix to give the chutes an 'invisible' thrust in one direction to simulate the effect without anything complicated.

[Guest]

I'm not sure if it's in the scope of RealChutes. RC should perhaps be called Procedural Chutes, since it doesn't really alter aerodynamics nor interact with FAR in any way. RC chutes have a few new features compared to stock chutes, but they use the same simplistic drag model. Only FAR currently has provisions for modeling wind in KSP.

I think that a new parachute plugin would be nice. PhysX cloth or not, the current parachute system is a far cry from reality and it would be great to see a plugin that would throw it out just like FAR throws out souposphere.

Edited December 5, 2014 by Guest

[Starwaster]

I'm not sure if it's in the scope of RealChutes. RC should perhaps be called Procedural Chutes, since it doesn't really alter aerodynamics nor interact with FAR in any way.

Totally untrue. Where are you getting your information? Certainly not this thread nor the source code.

RealChute calculates drag based on the chutes configured diameter and displays the model of the canopy to be the correct size (for RC chutes configured to use ProceduralChute) using correct drag formulae.

Furthermore, it detects the presence of FAR and retrieves the density of the atmosphere for the current CelestialBody. Stock chutes use a global density that does not vary from planet to planet. So if you're using Real Solar System and you travel to Duna, Eve or Jool (i.e. Mars. Venus. Jupiter) then the chute will behave correctly for atmospheric compositions made up of the appropriate gasses (CO2, etc for Mars / Venus. H2, etc for Jupiter)

[stupid_chris]

I'm not sure if it's in the scope of RealChutes. RC should perhaps be called Procedural Chutes, since it doesn't really alter aerodynamics nor interact with FAR in any way. RC chutes have a few new features compared to stock chutes, but they use the same simplistic drag model. Only FAR currently has provisions for modeling wind in KSP.

I think that a new parachute plugin would be nice. PhysX cloth or not, the current parachute system is a far cry from reality and it would be great to see a plugin that would throw it out just like FAR throws out souposphere. Preferably not 64bit locked this time.

That's a whole mumbo jumbo of poop here. That's like the whole purpose of Realchute, having parachutes that behave like real ones, not only slowing down deployment time. Yes RealChute interacts with FAR. Yes RealChute uses a real drag model. I don't go to the level of realism that FAR simply because the difference it would have does not outweight at all the complexity and computational power it would take. Sometimes a simpler does as much of a good job. Really, the only "mistake" I'm making is that the drag coefficient for parachutes is fixed. But really, the result this has on parachute behaviour is so negligible it doesn't make it not worth the shot.

Also, for as much as I care, I might as well call my mod "Banana-pie simulation". Really it doesn't matter.

And I've said it before but I'll say it again: Stop. Bringing. Back. 64bit.

To address requests for wind: theres a mod that does that. There's absolutely no problem to use it with RealChute, so have fun.

Edited December 5, 2014 by stupid_chris

[Guest]

If the drag coefficient is fixed, then how can it use a "real drag model"? Once you have Cd, drag equation based on velocity is pretty simple, and I think Squad uses that, too, or something close (it just uses mass for calculating Cd). The whole trick with aerodynamic modeling is finding out the Cd. That said, maybe it is a good approach, seeing as it's hard to model canopy dynamics with a rigid canopy mesh and animation-based deployment.

Also, does it interact with FAR for things beside using air density it provides? I haven't seen any dramatic changes in parachute functionality between FAR and non-FAR. Well, OK, I don't play the latter much, except on my laptop, (on which I can't use RC, for reasons that everyone could likely guess by now...), so I suppose I might have missed it.

[stupid_chris]

If the drag coefficient is fixed, then how can it use a "real drag model"? Once you have Cd, drag equation based on velocity is pretty simple, and I think Squad uses that, too, or something close (it just uses mass for calculating Cd). The whole trick with aerodynamic modeling is finding out the Cd. That said, maybe it is a good approach, seeing as it's hard to model canopy dynamics with a rigid canopy mesh and animation-based deployment.

Also, does it interact with FAR for things beside using air density it provides? I haven't seen any dramatic changes in parachute functionality between FAR and non-FAR. Well, OK, I don't play the latter much, except on my laptop, (on which I can't use RC, for reasons that everyone could likely guess by now...), so I suppose I might have missed it.

I really suggest you get your information straight before you try to discuss how my mod works.

[undercoveryankee]

If the drag coefficient is fixed, then how can it use a "real drag model"? Once you have Cd, drag equation based on velocity is pretty simple, and I think Squad uses that, too, or something close (it just uses mass for calculating Cd). The whole trick with aerodynamic modeling is finding out the Cd. That said, maybe it is a good approach, seeing as it's hard to model canopy dynamics with a rigid canopy mesh and animation-based deployment.

Also, does it interact with FAR for things beside using air density it provides? I haven't seen any dramatic changes in parachute functionality between FAR and non-FAR. Well, OK, I don't play the latter much, except on my laptop, (on which I can't use RC, for reasons that everyone could likely guess by now...), so I suppose I might have missed it.

For the speeds at which sane parachute materials will work, the Cd is pretty uniform once the canopy is fully inflated and its shape is stable. Treating Cd as a constant for any given parachute shape and running the drag equation with good numbers for air density and area is a good enough model for most real-life purposes.

You don't see major differences between FAR and non-FAR because the air densities coincide at typical parachute altitudes on Kerbin and the drag model RC uses isn't noticeably different from what FAR would calculate for the same shape.

[Devilsgamer666]

sorry if this is the wrong thread but with this mod installed parachutes will not appear on staging even the stock chutes is there a fix?

[Starman4308]

sorry if this is the wrong thread but with this mod installed parachutes will not appear on staging even the stock chutes is there a fix?

Please follow these instructions, particularly checking for proper installation and providing logs.

Unless you mean "parachutes do not immediately pop out", which I'm pretty sure is intended behavior: if I remember right, the default behavior is to arm chutes when staged (they'll pop open when you reach a preprogrammed altitude or pressure, as set when configuring the parachute). The other possibility I can guess at is that you have Deadly Reentry installed, and your parachutes are burning up the moment they are deployed. In this case the fix is not to deploy parachutes into superheated reentry plasma and wait until you're subsonic (Mach 1 being ~330 m/s, with most people waiting to 200-250 m/s to deploy parachutes).

Edited December 6, 2014 by Starman4308

[Devilsgamer666]

they just don't appear on the staging even stock chutes no logs because it does not crash and i did install it according to the page you gave me

[Starwaster]

they just don't appear on the staging even stock chutes no logs because it does not crash and i did install it according to the page you gave me

Unless you disabled logging then you have logs. Follow the instructions you were directed to and you will see how to find your logs.

[Devilsgamer666]

KSP: 0.25 Windows 64bit

Problem: chutes will not appear on staging

Mods installed:

Realcutes 1.2.6

Reproduction steps:

build a craft with any command pod, fuel tank, engine, and a parachute stock or Realchutes and check staging

Log:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cmio83mlcebnb95/output_log.txt?dl=0

[Starman4308]

RealChute, along with many other mods, is disabled for the Windows 64-bit client. The 64-bit client is notoriously unstable for a lot of people, which led to a lot of bogus bug reports which frustrated modders to no end. StupidChris, along with a lot of other modders, then disabled their mods for 64-bit Windows to save themselves the hassle.

Please do not complain about this policy. It has been debated to death and nobody will change his or her mind. You can either use the 32-bit client, install Linux and use its 64-bit client, or remove the check from the source code and recompile at your own risk.

[Devilsgamer666]

well that solves the problem thanks

[Mecripp]

well that solves the problem thanks

It was on the front page in BIG RED letters

Please note that this mod will not work on windows 64bit builds.

[Devilsgamer666]

shh i am blind to things in big red letters any ways now i have the problem of i cant run 32 bit because i get the "too many heap sections" error is this fixable

[Starman4308]

shh i am blind to things in big red letters any ways now i have the problem of i cant run 32 bit because i get the "too many heap sections" error is this fixable

Sounds like a RAM error. 32-bit can't use more than ~3.5 GB of RAM. The Active Texture Management mod can trim down on the size of part textures (which really kill your RAM); otherwise, all you can do is cut down on the number of mods, particularly part packs. One little trick is to delete parts you don't use: the more textures you eliminate, the less RAM you use. More than that, and I suggest making a thread in the modded support forum. I can't help you much more: I use Linux 64-bit.

It's a bad situation for everyone: it stems back mostly to the current version of Unity, which has lurking x64 bugs.

[Devilsgamer666]

well thanks for all the help hopefully the texture manager will fix the ram problem because i really do like this mod

[MonkeyLunch]

I haven't updated in a few months, and I noticed this version doesn't come with the calculator.exe. Is that no longer necessary, or should I keep the old one?

Great mod btw.

[undercoveryankee]

I haven't updated in a few months, and I noticed this version doesn't come with the calculator.exe. Is that no longer necessary, or should I keep the old one?

Great mod btw.

I don't think anything has changed that would cause the calculator.exe from the older versions to give you wrong answers. The in-game editor window is now powerful enough that you won't need it as much as you used to, though.

[stupid_chris]

I don't think anything has changed that would cause the calculator.exe from the older versions to give you wrong answers. The in-game editor window is now powerful enough that you won't need it as much as you used to, though.

You shouldnt need it at all really.

[AccidentalDisassembly]

Dunno if this has already been mentioned, but with the latest RealChute, there's a certain moment during the ascent where "Warning: Chute deployment is unsafe!" is spammed and framerate drops considerably. *Seems* to happen at relatively high (300-400m/sish?) speeds, and seems to stop happening after a certain altitude (I think), or possibly some condition that I don't understand. Lots of mods running, don't know if it's an interaction thing.

Log: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/59567837/output_logRealChute.txt