Beastly Science Industries - Development Thread (Scoop-O-Matic)

[BeastofChicken]

Beastly Science Industries Dev Thread.

I'm keeping my original post here as a record, but I'm changing this thread to talk about all the mods I'll be working on from here on out, and to show WIPs, and getting advice etc.

-BeastofChicken

Hey everyone. Hopefully this is the right place to post this... if not feel free to move it wherever.

I've been wanting to get into modding KSP for quite some time, but I haven't actually sat down and done anything about it until now. Basically, I'm either looking for a mod group to join up with, or some pointers on where to go next or what to do.

For example, I made this thing last night:

It's very rough looking since I only spent a few hours on it, but hopefully it shows that I know what I'm doing to a point.

I've gotten to where I know how to get everything imported and "working", but I have no clue how to make it actually do anything useful like collect science or whatever. I'd like to be able to do it, but with work and everything, I just don't see how I'm going to have time to pick up even more knowledge by myself. I'd much rather make the art and let someone else make it work to be honest.

A little bit about me is in order I suppose. I'm a professional game artist. I've been working as a freelancer for various studios for the past few years. I'm fluent in 3ds Max, Blender and Maya, but I prefer 3ds Max. I can model, texture, rig and animate, and I have a little bit of experience in Unity... which helped me get this far with the above model.

So anyways, if there's anyone out there that would like to team up, or a mod group that's looking for an artist, hit me up. Or if you are a kind soul and have any resources or pointers that could help me out I would appreciate that as well.

Edited December 31, 2013 by BeastofChicken

[Galileo Kerbonaut]

I'm not a modder so I can't help you in that field, but I can give you a little encouragement: That's one cool part you made there sir!

[Specialist290]

Moving this to Add-on Development, since it seems to be an active project.

[TheCanadianVendingMachine]

I have a recomendation. Put the animating part as a non entity, so it can clip into the surface.

[BlazingAngel665]

Looks great. There are some other Science projects floating around this forum that may be looking for some parts. Great work!

[NathanKell]

Wow! That looks great!

I have lots of things I'd love modeled--in particular, probe parts and realistic engines--but I'm full up right now with all the other stuff I'm coding and can't code this one for you. However if making human-scale / human-looking parts interests you...we should chat

[CluelessModeler]

That's awesome! Good job bud! Just take TheCanadianVendingMachine's advice and make it a non-entity and that'll stop the problem with wobbling everything around! But other than that, this is a genius idea!

[BeastofChicken]

Hey thanks for the comments everyone, I really appreciate the feedback. I'm glad you like the part

TheCanadianVendingMachine, I was wondering why it was hitting the ground like that... had a good laugh about it when I first tried it out! I'll change it to a non-entity and see how it handles that. Thanks!

NathanKell, actually that sounds interesting... sending you a PM in a bit!

---

Gonna still see if I can get this part finished, or at least to a point where I can release it into the wild and let people use/modify it. Stay tuned...

[TimMartland]

My god! If you can allow unmanned sample collection, you will be my hero forever!

[Camacha]

NathanKell, actually that sounds interesting... sending you a PM in a bit!

Yes. Oh yes! This could be magic.

[sumghai]

That scoop and animation is way, way too cool. Here, have some rep

[XanderTek]

The robot arm looks great, I really hope you release it! As far as making it do science, I'd suggest taking a look at the part.cfg file for one of the stock experiments like the Goo canister. Or better yet, the .cfg for this sample collector mod. I think a correctly configured .cfg should be all you need here. If you want to upload what you have so far, I'm sure someone here could get it working for you.

I don't know of many mod groups, but a couple projects that come to mind:

Station Science had someone working on the art, but apparently that fell through. I really don't know if the programmer is looking for someone else, but its a cool mod that deserves to have models that do it justice.

KSP Interstellar has artwork contributed by a number of individuals. Again, not sure if they're actually looking for someone, but I get the impression Fractal_UK always has more parts in the works that need models.

Hope that helps!

Edited December 7, 2013 by XanderTek

[diomedea]

@ BeastofChicken: Absolutely lovely. I actually find that animation quite hilarious and rather... kerbalish. Dunno, if changing the scoop to a non-entity, gonna lose on the effect: I would retain that unless it has serious drawbacks.

I would certainly like to learn one thing or two from you. What about writing some tutorial (with good examples and step-by-step guide) on aminating parts?

[Cilph]

Awesome! I've been wanting to develop a rover surface sample scoop for a while now but I lack the modeling skills. If you'd like, I could definitely help out with writing a nice plugin for it.

Send me a PM. I might even distribute it alongside RemoteTech2. Heck, I could use more dishes as well.

Edited December 7, 2013 by Cilph

[Greys]

Rather than make it a non-entity, just remove most of the colliders; you need something to have a collider so that players can pick up the part in the VAB, but it doesn't need to be all-encompassing. Many stock and add-on parts escape the bounds of their colliders for the sake of convenience. I'd suggest you keep the 'upper arm' section and the base collided... collideable... collidered... hard. And make the other two arm sections and the end effector intangible

[BeastofChicken]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, I've been able to spend some time on it, and I actually have it collecting science now!

I do have a problem with the animation though.... Everytime you reset the container or send the science away, the animation plays again backwards. It's kind of weird. I'm wondering if I have to make it use two animations, one to dig and one to sit there, but I'm not sure if thats even possible. Anyways, I'm uploading it here to let you guys play around with it, and to see if anyone has any other suggestions about what to do

Thanks again for the help

Oh, as for the collisions... that part is also a bit strange. So I took off the colliders for the arm part, and the only part that has one, is the base/container of the part. When using the scooper on the launch pad, it still collides, but if I move it over to the dirt, or use it on the mun, it doesn't....

Here is a video of the part in action:

And here is a download of the part: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18268118/Soil%20Sampler.zip Just extract and merge with you GameData folder. The part requires the Science Tech in the research tree.

[TheCanadianVendingMachine]

How much science will this generate? As in - per scoop sample.

[BeastofChicken]

For now, the same amount as a manned sample. I haven't spent any time doing any balancing yet, and probably won't until I release it officially. Since science gathering is changing a bit in .23, I might wait until then to make any big changes. Not sure though.

[BeastofChicken]

Had another thought I'd like to add. Long term goal for this, is to make it so the scooper and the analyzer part are separate. I'm not sure if it's entirely possible, but I'd like to make a few different scoopers, and then several different analyzers that test different things in the surface. So you could do a mission to test radioactivity, another to test for water, microbial life, or whatever else I can think of. The analyzers would be up the chain in the tech tree, so you had to do simple tests in the beginning and work your way up to the bigger ones. Thats the idea anyways.

[Dispatcher]

I do have a problem with the animation though.... Everytime you reset the container or send the science away, the animation plays again backwards. It's kind of weird.

Here's my lazy solution: once the report is kept or transmitted, the scoop-o-matic gently returns the sample back where it was; the designers were obviously environmentally conscious. That or afraid some as yet unseen aliens might be upset if their "property" was disturbed.

[Camacha]

Oh, as for the collisions... that part is also a bit strange. So I took off the colliders for the arm part, and the only part that has one, is the base/container of the part. When using the scooper on the launch pad, it still collides, but if I move it over to the dirt, or use it on the mun, it doesn't....

Awesome by accident, as this is pretty much how it would look if you scooped at those locations in real life.

[ZobrAA]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, I've been able to spend some time on it, and I actually have it collecting science now!

I do have a problem with the animation though.... Everytime you reset the container or send the science away, the animation plays again backwards. It's kind of weird. I'm wondering if I have to make it use two animations, one to dig and one to sit there, but I'm not sure if thats even possible. Anyways, I'm uploading it here to let you guys play around with it, and to see if anyone has any other suggestions about what to do

Thanks again for the help

Oh, as for the collisions... that part is also a bit strange. So I took off the colliders for the arm part, and the only part that has one, is the base/container of the part. When using the scooper on the launch pad, it still collides, but if I move it over to the dirt, or use it on the mun, it doesn't....

Here is a video of the part in action:

And here is a download of the part: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18268118/Soil%20Sampler.zip Just extract and merge with you GameData folder. The part requires the Science Tech in the research tree.

OMG! I cant believe this is true! Huge thx for this piece of science&technology! (^o^)_/

[TimMartland]

It's awesome! Maybe make it a bit smaller, but still this is one of the best science part mods I have seen!

[WinkAllKerb'']

Real cool , oh yeah need more of that kind

( for collider you can aslo try to fake the bones scheme with one ( or a few) simple separate cube that you animate separetly with some loc/rot/scale that closely fit rendering.This work pretty well and greatly help with reducing anim collider an manage animate physics superposition or else. )

[biohazard15]

This is actually one of the most awesome science mods I've seen on this forum!

Any chance to .23 update? You can't take data from it and need the lab to clean it after data transmission.