[1.12.X] RealChute Parachute Systems v1.4.8.3 | 24/01/21

[Starwaster]

Speak for yourself about deployment speeds. I like being able to adjust them especially if the target planet has a thin atmosphere

[rynak]

How would a thin atmosphere be relevant for deployment speed?

EDIT: I myself did edit the timespan down in the configfile to 3 seconds - but as i said in my prev post, i see no need to adjust it on a per-vessel basis.

Edited January 21, 2015 by rynak

[Nitrous Oxide]

Yes its from there, and the icons are exactly the size used by the game, so no scaling artiffacts. If ATM resize them, see that with rbray

Even weirder is that the .cfg I wrote for all my toolbar icons works for every icon except RealChutes...

ACTIVE_TEXTURE_MANAGER_CONFIG
{
	folder = RealChute
	enabled = true
	OVERRIDES
	{
		RealChute/Plugins/PluginData/.*
		{
			compress = false
			mipmaps = false
			scale = 1
			max_size = 0
			make_not_readable = false
		}

	}

}

My guess is that ATM doesn't like the PluginData folder, or the third layer folder (95% of the icons would be in RealChute/Textures or RealChute/Icons or something).

[Starwaster]

How would a thin atmosphere be relevant for deployment speed?

EDIT: I myself did edit the timespan down in the configfile to 3 seconds - but as i said in my prev post, i see no need to adjust it on a per-vessel basis.

Short deployment speeds have less snap in a thin atmosphere than a thick one.

[NathanKell]

Nitrous Oxide: Any files in a PluginData are *not* loaded automatically by KSP at startup, and thus ATM does not touch them. Files in PluginData must be loaded manually by mods.

[Nitrous Oxide]

Nitrous Oxide: Any files in a PluginData are *not* loaded automatically by KSP at startup, and thus ATM does not touch them. Files in PluginData must be loaded manually by mods.

Well that's strange... ATM is definitely making the icons pixelated...

Edit:

Same deal in the VAB/SPH. My above exclusion method is working for those other icons...

Edited January 21, 2015 by Nitrous Oxide

[mecki]

Same problem for me with the icons.

Made a naughty pull request to move them to /Icons

I totally understand if stupid_chris trashes it and hates me now…

---Update---

Just to clarify (and I already am sorry for my stupid question):

What exactly changes the size of the deployed parachute?

Is it always just automatically the mass of the vessel or also the size of the casing?

Is it the same in the early career mode when there are no action groups yet?

Edited January 22, 2015 by mecki

[undercoveryankee]

Same problem for me with the icons.

Made a naughty pull request to move them to /Icons

I totally understand if stupid_chris trashes it and hates me now…

---Update---

Just to clarify (and I already am sorry for my stupid question):

What exactly changes the size of the deployed parachute?

Is it always just automatically the mass of the vessel or also the size of the casing?

Is it the same in the early career mode when there are no action groups yet?

The size of the canopy is normally calculated based on vessel mass and desired landing speed, but there's a way to set it manually in the editor. The visible size corresponds to the area used in the drag equation, so reality will ensue if you go too small.

The changelog says there's a setting for whether the pre-action groups auto-size keeps the default canopy size or resizes it. I haven't started an 0.90 career yet, so I haven't seen the details in action.

[stupid_chris]

Proposals about the GUI:

Currently, it is rather cluttered, because of all the many options. Unfortunatelly, most of them are probably used by some users. However, at least two mostly are just aesthetic, and probably never have to be changed between vessels, so i propose to remove them from the GUI:

- Predeployment speed

- Deployment speed

In fact, removing those might clear up confusion - some people probably think the above is about the VESSEL SPEED at which chutes deploy - but nope, this is just how fast the chutes deploy once activated.

No no no no no. This setting is /very/ important. It doesn't cary from vessel to vessel, but from parachute to parachute. Drogues have a different setting for this than mains, and drag chutes have it different too. It's important and needed, and it's at the core of what causes parachute to not rip themselves open. It stays.

Other minor tweaks to the GUI:

- Add an X button to close the window and apply settings. I know you can just click elsewhere, but the intuitive reaction is to look for a close button.

- Remove the confirmation dialog about settings having been applied. If i click apply, i expect that it worked, unless i get an error message. It just adds another unneccessary step in the GUI

A close button is pointless. The GUI is active as long as the part is selected, and there isn't really any reason to remove that window as long as that part is selected.

The confirmation window is not only for you, but also for me. If it doesn't show, that means to me something went wrong. Because if something goes wrong and an error happened, nothing will show. There /will/ be something to confirm that everything worked. I'd use the same system than I use to pop up messages during flight, but I don't think it exists outside of flight. I can still try to force some text up if you guys would prefer that to a window, but a confirmation text will stay.

A last proposal, unrelated to the gui:

In the config files, have a setting to globally scale the model size of parachutes. What it is like now might perhaps be realistic, but in terms of usability, the chutes often obscure my view because of their size.

Not happening.

Same problem for me with the icons.

Made a naughty pull request to move them to /Icons

I totally understand if stupid_chris trashes it and hates me now…

And I closed it. The icons are staying there so that they are not loaded by the game automatically. NathanKell is right on that, ATM can't touch files the game hasn't loaded.

Just to clarify (and I already am sorry for my stupid question):

What exactly changes the size of the deployed parachute?

Is it always just automatically the mass of the vessel or also the size of the casing?

Is it the same in the early career mode when there are no action groups yet?

The size shown in the game is the actual size of the canopy needed to make your craft land at the requested speed. The craft's mass, the material's drag coefficient, and the target planet's atmospheric density are all factors that affect that.

[mecki]

And I closed it. The icons are staying there so that they are not loaded by the game automatically. NathanKell is right on that, ATM can't touch files the game hasn't loaded.

As I said I totally understand that decision.

As also stated by Nitrous Oxide, ATM does make something with the icon anyway. But then it is a bug (or something) in ATM and I hope rbray will reply on his thread soon.

about the other things (GUI and how RealChutes works): I think a small tutorial or wiki would be really useful for many people including me. If there already is one please slap me in the face.

[stupid_chris]

As I said I totally understand that decision.

As also stated by Nitrous Oxide, ATM does make something with the icon anyway. But then it is a bug (or something) in ATM and I hope rbray will reply on his thread soon.

about the other things (GUI and how RealChutes works): I think a small tutorial or wiki would be really useful for many people including me. If there already is one please slap me in the face.

It's on my todo list. But there are a lot of things on my todo list, and not much time on my hands. I'm still on RealChute hiatus too, I'm not feeling up to work on anything serious related to RealChute yet. The next non-compatibility update will be 1.3, and I'm working on making 100% sure a full fledged wiki will come along v1.3.

[rynak]

It is not ATM that is doing this (even though, it would of course be the primary suspect). I know that, because it is happening on my machine as well, even though i removed ATM (because of the heap crashbug).

I suspect it might be the game itself, that might be downsizing the icon, if texture scaling is set to "half" (which by now probably everyone uses at least, cause without it, KSP runs through the 32bit VMem barrier in no time).

[mecki]

It is not ATM that is doing this (even though, it would of course be the primary suspect). I know that, because it is happening on my machine as well, even though i removed ATM (because of the heap crashbug).

I suspect it might be the game itself, that might be downsizing the icon, if texture scaling is set to "half" (which by now probably everyone uses at least, cause without it, KSP runs through the 32bit VMem barrier in no time).

Of course it is!

1/2 is the default. But the stock icons don't get resized. Maybe there is a way to avoid it?

Anyway, thank you stupid_chis for your efforts on making this mod even more awesome

[stupid_chris]

Of course it is!

1/2 is the default. But the stock icons don't get resized. Maybe there is a way to avoid it?

Anyway, thank you stupid_chis for your efforts on making this mod even more awesome

Go figure why that even happens. The game is whack 99% the time.

[Nitrous Oxide]

Go figure why that even happens. The game is whack 99% the time.

True that, at least we know it isn't ATMs fault so we can stop bugging rbray about it now.

I'll confirm that I'm running at 1/2 textures as well, so it seems KSP is acting a little strange.

[stupid_chris]

As it's been indirectly announced with the 1.0 features, no sensible parachutes are to be seen in KSP for 1.0.

It was kind of one of the reasons I kept myself from working more on RealChute, but now I can trash that.

You can all expect a massive RealChute update in the few next months. I can't tell exactly when because of University work, but I'm beginning to work on this tonight.

[Tommygun]

Any new features or is it more for maintenance?

[Espresso]

Any new features or is it more for maintenance?

I'm thinking EVA Parachutes integration, I remember Stupid_Chris said a while back he'd taken it over or been given it, if he could confirm this, or say what will be new, that'd be great.

[stupid_chris]

Any new features or is it more for maintenance?

Features?

I didn't plan on releasing this, but I'm feeling pumped tonight. Probably the dissapointment from the 1.0 announcement, but whatever.

Here's the full feature list I currently have planned for the future versions of RealChute:

• Fully functional EVA parachutes using the same deployment logic as the regular RealChute chutes. Those parachutes will be brought into the pod, can be passed from pod to mpod, and can be collected by kerbals as they come by and need them.
  
• Every single spare chute will be stored similarly to EVA chutes: into pods or into predesigned parts that will hold them. They will all have mass, and the limit to how many spares can be brought along will be defined with how big they are, and the storage capacity of the part containing them.
  
• Spare chutes can be transported from a part to another by this logic. This does mean that a part that orginally had a 20m parachute can then change to a 50m parachute after it's first use. This also means you can bring a spare chute to a craft left in orbit with an empty chute, for whatever reason.
  
• Parachute material will have safety ratings. Some will be rated for higher speeds/dynamic pressures than others. If a chute is used in conditions for which it's not rated, there is an increased chance that it will fail and completely break off. This will lead to strategic choices of materials for different missions.
  
• High level Kerbal engineers will be able to modify the parachute's values, such as deployment altitude, speed, and all the other non-resizing parameters on the go.é
  
• I am extremely unsure of this as I don't know if I'll manage to do it, but I'm very much hoping to manage to do it: parachutes repulsing each other. I have a plan to make this happen, but that does not mean I'll manage to get through it. I'll try though.

Here's also a list of things that I that are planned but are not features:

• Rewriting and redesigning most if not all of the editor GUI window to make it more efficient and less heavy on the coding side.
  
• A full and complete Wiki will be available on GitHub, written by yours truly.
  
• Maybe more, who knows.

That's what I have for now. Hold on to your underwear.

[sumghai]

Features?

I didn't plan on releasing this, but I'm feeling pumped tonight. Probably the dissapointment from the 1.0 announcement, but whatever.

-awesomeness in cupcake form-

With regards to EVA parachutes, I'm wondering if it would be possible to have ejector seats (as an optional extra).

As always, I can make the models and textures, but I'll probably need some help with thrust transforms and particle effects

[stupid_chris]

With regards to EVA parachutes, I'm wondering if it would be possible to have ejector seats (as an optional extra).

As always, I can make the models and textures, but I'll probably need some help with thrust transforms and particle effects

That sounds out of my range, but I'll think of it I was hoping on you too for the container parts Don't know what exactly I want to see, but I'll let you know when I come to this.

[Starwaster]

With regards to EVA parachutes, I'm wondering if it would be possible to have ejector seats (as an optional extra).

As always, I can make the models and textures, but I'll probably need some help with thrust transforms and particle effects

I can help with thrust transforms and maybe particle effects (though I haven't done them before so I'd have to learn them)

[Espresso]

Features?

I didn't plan on releasing this, but I'm feeling pumped tonight. Probably the dissapointment from the 1.0 announcement, but whatever.

Here's the full feature list I currently have planned for the future versions of RealChute:

• Fully functional EVA parachutes using the same deployment logic as the regular RealChute chutes. Those parachutes will be brought into the pod, can be passed from pod to mpod, and can be collected by kerbals as they come by and need them.
  
• Every single spare chute will be stored similarly to EVA chutes: into pods or into predesigned parts that will hold them. They will all have mass, and the limit to how many spares can be brought along will be defined with how big they are, and the storage capacity of the part containing them.
  
• Spare chutes can be transported from a part to another by this logic. This does mean that a part that orginally had a 20m parachute can then change to a 50m parachute after it's first use. This also means you can bring a spare chute to a craft left in orbit with an empty chute, for whatever reason.
  
• Parachute material will have safety ratings. Some will be rated for higher speeds/dynamic pressures than others. If a chute is used in conditions for which it's not rated, there is an increased chance that it will fail and completely break off. This will lead to strategic choices of materials for different missions.
  
• High level Kerbal engineers will be able to modify the parachute's values, such as deployment altitude, speed, and all the other non-resizing parameters on the go.é
  
• I am extremely unsure of this as I don't know if I'll manage to do it, but I'm very much hoping to manage to do it: parachutes repulsing each other. I have a plan to make this happen, but that does not mean I'll manage to get through it. I'll try though.
  

Here's also a list of things that I that are planned but are not features:

• Rewriting and redesigning most if not all of the editor GUI window to make it more efficient and less heavy on the coding side.
  
• A full and complete Wiki will be available on GitHub, written by yours truly.
  
• Maybe more, who knows.
  

That's what I have for now. Hold on to your underwear.

Thanks for this Chris, Much more exciting than finding out kerbals aren't asexual...

[mecki]

Features?

I didn't plan on releasing this, but I'm feeling pumped tonight. Probably the dissapointment from the 1.0 announcement, but whatever.

Here's the full feature list I currently have planned for the future versions of RealChute:

[…]

WOW! That sounds great and awesome!

I have even more specific questions about case sizings, I hope I don't go on anyones nerves with my stupid questions:

What exactly does the "Part GUI resize updates canopy size" preference do? Is it correct that it changes the canopy size on pressing "next size" and "previous size" in the context menu in early career mode? Does it change it corresponding to the size change of the case or does it just "actualize" the canopy's size to fit the mass of the ship?

How do RealChute's module for the Squad chutes interact with TweakScale? Does TweakScale only change the case size or also the canopy size?

Thanks!

[Kowgan]

People have said it! These planned features sound so yummy! I can only imagine how frustrating thse 1.0 news can be, but I can also keep loving you and your effort for this mod. Thank you so much for it, Chris.