[v0.24] Tarsier Space Technology (v4.5c Now with GALAXIES!!!)

[tobyb121]

[h=1]Tarsier Space Technology[/h]

Tarsier Space Technology is a set of parts with enhanced science capability.

Current Version 4.5c(for KSP v0.24.X) (Probably best to delete whole Tarsier Space Tech folder and reinstall)

Installation:

Just unzip into your KSP directory

Download on Curse: http://www.curse.com/ksp-mods/kerbal/222276-tarsier-space-technology

or Curseforge: http://kerbal.curseforge.com/ksp-mods/222276-tarsier-space-technology

Source:https://github.com/tobyb121/TarsierSpaceTechnology (MIT licence)

Parts:

• ChemCam - Analyse the surface of planets by shooting them with lasers.
  
• Space Telescopes - Peer deep into the solar system and now to distant galaxies
  
• Science Hard Drive - Store science in hard drives to maximise your science points.
  

[h=2]ChemCam[/h]

• Analyse the surfaces of planets using a high powered laser
  
• Uses biomes where available
  
• Fully integrated into the tech tree
  

[h=2]Space Telescopes[/h]

• Look deep into the Kerbol system (you can see to Eeloo and beyond from the comfort of a Kerbin orbit)!!
  
• Science experiments depend on what you're actually looking at!! (I welcome suggestions on experiment results)
  
• Targetter to help find distant planets
  
• Save your images to share on the forums!!
  
• Servos added for fine control (use I,J,K,L to look around)
  
• Extra info displayed on what telescope is looking at
  
• Can collect science from EVA and transfer to command pods
  
• Two telescopes with different zoom capability integrated into the science tree
  
• NO MORE WOBBLE!!!
  
• Look at distant galaxies and take photos of them for science
  

[h=2]Science Hard Drives[/h]

• Store science data on hard drives to maximise science value
  
• Don't need to save up electricity to transmit data home
  
• 2 great sizes: 80 Mits and 20 Mits
  
• Data corruption removed to fit in better with the stock game
  
• Can now collect data in EVA
  

Changelog:

v4.5c: Fixed recovery of science data from TST parts
v4.5b: Fixed build script that messed up 4.5a release
v4.5a: Fix for null reference error on first load
v4.5: Galaxies added for the telescope, allows you to search for and collect science for distant galaxies and nebulae
v4.4: Fixes issues where ChemCam and Telescope input callbacks were not transferred to the new vessel when undocked.
v4.0: Introduces the contracts system, custom contracts for the ChemCam and Telescopes

Edited September 27, 2014 by tobyb121

[Hammer Tech]

Very nice. Any possibility of less powerful telescopes for earlier in the game?

[SnappingTurtle]

Looks cool but which zip do I need? Or do I need both?

Edit: Never mind, I somehow read over the "Source:" bit.

Edited December 21, 2013 by SnappingTurtle

[tobyb121]

Very nice. Any possibility of less powerful telescopes for earlier in the game?

That could certainly be done, the main reason I hadn't done this is that modelling is that I'm slow at modelling, and there are some other things I want to work on. The max distance the telescope can see is in the part.cfg file under maxZoom. There are a couple of requirements (names of transforms and animations) that mean you couldn't just use any old model

Looks cool but which zip do I need? Or do I need both?

Sorry added some more info, it was the first

[therealcrow999]

That telescope looks sweet!

[SnappingTurtle]

Just some preliminary feedback: Could you add an attach node under the space telescope so I can put it centrally on a stack? Also I can't put it under a procedural fairing if it's surface attached.

Edited December 22, 2013 by SnappingTurtle

[Hammer Tech]

That could certainly be done

Sweet! If you get round to it I will definitely give this a whirl.

[tobyb121]

Just some preliminary feedback: Could you add an attach node under the space telescope so I can put it centrally on a stack? Also I can't put it under a procedural fairing if it's surface attached.

It should work if you add:

node_stack_bottom = 0.0, -0.127145, -0.1118595, 0.0, -1.0, 0.0

and change the attach rules to:

attachRules = 1,1,0,0,1

in the part.cfg file.

I'll do this for the next release.

[UAL002]

I second that node request. Couple of questions, does the telescope have animations?

[7499275]

Looks good I'm curious though how does the hard drives work/do?

[tobyb121]

I second that node request. Couple of questions, does the telescope have animations?

Yes it has an open/close animation. When you add the part it is folded up ready for launch, when you are in space you can open it and it will unfold and switch on.

Looks good I'm curious though how does the hard drives work/do?

From a user perspective, you right click on them and click Fill Hard Drive, it then looks at all the science instruments on your ship and checks if they have any data (and there is enough free space on the drive and there are no other reports stored of the same type). It then copies that data from the instrument and then tells them to delete the data. You can still transmit data from the HDD, and it will give you the points when you land and recover, but you cannot transfer it to the lab. If you want a more in depth/technical description let me know.

[nobodez]

Well, I found the telescope in the tech tree (it's in the starting node, which is nice), but I can't seem to find the HDDs. I looked at the part.cfg files for each, and the nodes are "science_module" for the small HDD, and "electronics" for the large HDD.

Also, the telescope has the small HDD descriptive text.

[tobyb121]

Well, I found the telescope in the tech tree (it's in the starting node, which is nice), but I can't seem to find the HDDs. I looked at the part.cfg files for each, and the nodes are "science_module" for the small HDD, and "electronics" for the large HDD.

Also, the telescope has the small HDD descriptive text.

Ahhh sorry, not sure how this happened. those part.cfg files are from my test build, I must have packaged them by mistake. Fixing this now!!

Edit: Fixed and added stack attach node for telescope...sorry about that

Edited December 22, 2013 by tobyb121

[Galileo Kerbonaut]

I've been playing around a little with it today and I noticed huge FPS hits when using this mod. It doesn't matter if the camera is active or not, it slows down my game regardless. As soon as I turn to another craft with no telescope strapped on, everything runs smooth as usual (since 0.23, that is). Maybe something you can look into?

The mod itself is fun and I would definitely use if it weren't for this FPS penalty.

[tobyb121]

I've been playing around a little with it today and I noticed huge FPS hits when using this mod. It doesn't matter if the camera is active or not, it slows down my game regardless. As soon as I turn to another craft with no telescope strapped on, everything runs smooth as usual (since 0.23, that is). Maybe something you can look into?

The mod itself is fun and I would definitely use if it weren't for this FPS penalty.

That is an interesting problem, I'm wondering if it is the model itself that's causing the problem, as very little should happen if the camera is inactive. I haven't experienced huge frame rate drops, but my performance on my little laptop tends to be pretty low anyway.

Would you mind trying something: could you remove the SpaceTelescope module from the part.cfg, if this fixes it, then there must be a problem with the code, otherwise I'll need to optimise my model. (Not sure which is worse )

[Galileo Kerbonaut]

SNIP

I did some more testing, here are my results:

1 telescope = no lag if not deployed, a slight FPS hit when activated (around 10 FPS)

2 telescopes = lag, regardless whether deployed or not... big FPS hit (around 25/30FPS)

After removing:

  MODULE
{
	name = SpaceTelescope
}

}

No FPS hit at all, not even when I strap 10 telescopes to a frame.

Hope this helps a little.

[zYnthethicz]

I did some more testing, here are my results:

1 telescope = no lag if not deployed, a slight FPS hit when activated (around 10 FPS)

2 telescopes = lag, regardless whether deployed or not... big FPS hit (around 25/30FPS)

After removing:

  MODULE
{
    name = SpaceTelescope
}

}

No FPS hit at all, not even when I strap 10 telescopes to a frame.

Hope this helps a little.

So, did you remove the "name = SpaceTelescope" or the rest of the code? (maxZoom = 5 and xmitDataScalar = 0.5)

[Galileo Kerbonaut]

So, did you remove the "name = SpaceTelescope" or the rest of the code? (maxZoom = 5 and xmitDataScalar = 0.5)

I removed exactly what I posted.

[zYnthethicz]

I removed exactly what I posted.

Okay, thanks!

[CloudyMN1979]

I love your telescope plugin. I'm trying to get it to work with other models, but not having any luck. (Specifically the old Ordan Industries small telescope model).You're model is great, but I'd like to build a more traditional Hubble style satellite. Any thoughts on how I can get it to work?

[Mileaos2]

i love this telescope, but its quite a hassle to keep it straight =/

is there any way, to finecontrol the craft, so i can focus more easily?

[tobyb121]

I did some more testing, here are my results:

1 telescope = no lag if not deployed, a slight FPS hit when activated (around 10 FPS)

2 telescopes = lag, regardless whether deployed or not... big FPS hit (around 25/30FPS)

After removing:

  MODULE
{
	name = SpaceTelescope
}

}

No FPS hit at all, not even when I strap 10 telescopes to a frame.

Hope this helps a little.

Thanks so much for doing this, it looks to me like the problems must be in my code somewhere. I'll work on a fix asap.

[tobyb121]

i love this telescope, but its quite a hassle to keep it straight =/

is there any way, to finecontrol the craft, so i can focus more easily?

When testing I was using Mechjeb and setting it to look at the target (which was set to a planet), otherwise it's pretty difficult to find things that are too far away. I have been thinking on how it could be controlled better, but the difficulty is that the angles become so small when you are looking far away that controlling the craft is very difficult.

I love your telescope plugin. I'm trying to get it to work with other models, but not having any luck. (Specifically the old Ordan Industries small telescope model).You're model is great, but I'd like to build a more traditional Hubble style satellite. Any thoughts on how I can get it to work?

My plugin won't work directly with the old models because it specifically needs to find a transform called CameraTransform and one called LookTransform and some animations called open and close. Without them the camera doesn't know where to look, I could maybe change it so that you input the co-ordinates in the part.cfg and it creates the transforms, I'll look into it

Edited December 23, 2013 by tobyb121

[tobyb121]

Fixed low FPS issues with camera closed, turns out the camera was still rendering in the background.

When open you will still see a drop in FPS, as it has to render everything twice, but this will only be when the camera is open and activated.

[ludsoe]

[*]Science experiments depend on what you're actually looking at!! (I welcome suggestions on experiment results)

Well done. Looking forward to what else your produce.