[1.0.4] Smart Parts v1.6.6 | DDS Textures and Bug Fixes | July 5

[Clythoris]

Just came here to say that I absolutely love this mod. I have been using it for only about a day or so, but it is absolutely fantastic and works flawlessly. Thanks!

[Diazo]

Ok i can confirm that the AGs are getting messed up. When i made them i hab only two decouplers in one ag but after the lauch of this second vessel now there is everything in all definded action groups. So basicly they mixed all the seperate action groups into one big one and then put this big one in all definded action groups. So if i press "1" all the definded stuff in every action group will be activated.

Sounds pretty definite it is an AG thing.

That certainly is an error of some sort, the output_log.txt is located on windows in KSP\KSP_Data\output.log. If you are on linux, the player.log is the file needed. That file should show the errors happening so I can fix this.

D.

[Firov]

Just came here to say that I absolutely love this mod. I have been using it for only about a day or so, but it is absolutely fantastic and works flawlessly. Thanks!

Now this is the kind of honest feedback I need! Seriously though, I'm glad you're enjoying the parts. Feel free to report any bugs in this thread, and if you have any comments or suggestions as you get more familiar with the mod I'd like to hear them.

Also, as promised, I've got a new update ready to go. v1.6.5 is pretty minor, mostly just bug fixes to the proximity sensor and altimeter. You can download it here.

New Releases

The proximity sensor now works properly when docking as well as with multiple sensors on the same vessel, either when they're listening on the same channel or on different channels. It 'should' be pretty safe to use at this point. Still, if you run into any bugs, be sure to report them in this thread.

The altimeter now ignores ASL when orbiting planets/moons that lack an ocean, and includes a toggle to use ASL exclusively. Note that the altimeter will still use AGL on oceanless planets, even if configured to use ASL, and similarly, just as it has in the past, it will use ASL when over water in AGL mode.

Finally, I did a quick pass over the part configs to fix the node issue as well as rebalance the cost, weight, heat, and crash tolerance values. I'd appreciate any feedback on these tweaks.

Edited May 18, 2015 by Firov

[Azimech]

Great!

It probably almost works! Just not yet they way I've built it :-) Debug console doesn't show any proxsens activity.

Anyway, here's a preview & WIP of my twin cylinder. The starter turbine works :-)

If sensor - sensor distance & action group toggles become reality, expect a working 4-stroke 7-cylinder radial soon :-)

[InsanePlumber]

Thank you for the update.

My little contribution, textures converted to DDS format.

Link to Google Drive - Only for next 48h.

>>> Remember to remove the old textures, they have the same names as those converted to a DDS format. <<<

@Firov

Please use them in the next update, if you want to.

[Borklund]

Thanks for the update!

[Virtualgenius]

Having a small issue with a smart fuel detection it only detects oxidiser and not the liquid fuel its attached to a KW tank but also doesnt fire the AG, anyone else experiencing this

[Firov]

@Firov

Please use them in the next update, if you want to.

Perfect! Thank you! I'll be sure to switch over to these in the next update.

It probably almost works! Just not yet they way I've built it :-) Debug console doesn't show any proxsens activity.

I have to admit, looking at that remarkable contraption, I'm not surprised the proximity sensor isn't working properly. It currently goes off the CoM of the vessel it is attached to. You'd need sensor to sensor detection and a lot more precision to make that work. Though, I'm curious, have you tried timers? Timers can activate/deactivate, or reset other timers.

Either way though, very impressive!

Having a small issue with a smart fuel detection it only detects oxidiser and not the liquid fuel its attached to a KW tank but also doesnt fire the AG, anyone else experiencing this

With the fuel detector, you can choose which resource it monitors. You should be able to set it to monitor liquid fuel if you like.

As for the AG problem, very strange. Does the fuel detector actually fire? What % is it set for? Finally, what AG have you configured it to fire?

[Virtualgenius]

When i select Liquid fuel the resource just stays unlit when I select liquid oxidiser it lights up the action group I am selecting is custom 1 to fire a decoupler I hope these explain it better

[Azimech]

I have to admit, looking at that remarkable contraption, I'm not surprised the proximity sensor isn't working properly. It currently goes off the CoM of the vessel it is attached to. You'd need sensor to sensor detection and a lot more precision to make that work. Though, I'm curious, have you tried timers? Timers can activate/deactivate, or reset other timers.

Either way though, very impressive!

Thank you!

The possibilities of sensor-sensor detection and better distance resolution are almost endless. Imagine timers and prox sensors activating and deactivating each other, thereby creating a chaotic dancing machine. You could program a formula in it's sequencing and create patterns with it (imagine someone builds a machine that can draw lines near the KSC). I also see a primitive guidance system for vehicles. Even an automatic pilot (easy: pitch & roll levelers, CoM compensators), an autothrottle which works with dynamic pressure, a centrifugal speed governor, using triangulation for automatic attitude adjustment, walking robots without having to build a kOS script, etc.

People without knowledge of programming languages, can suddenly start programming stuff and create wonderful things with amazing speed.

Edited May 23, 2015 by Azimech

[Firov]

When i select Liquid fuel the resource just stays unlit when I select liquid oxidiser it lights up the action group I am selecting is custom 1 to fire a decoupler I hope these explain it better

The LiquidFuel detection being "unlit" isn't actually a problem. You see, that's actually a slider. The reason it's "unlit" is because LiquidFuel is just the first resource in the list, and so the slider is at the 0 position. Much like with that "Scale" slider there. However, if you leave it on LiquidFuel detection, it will detect liquid fuel rather than Oxidizer.

Finally, what happens if you manually fire AG1? Do the decouplers detach as expected?

Thanks.

[Virtualgenius]

Yes manual works and oxidiser works fine liquid fuel doesnt not sure why i am shortly going to put it in a test enviroment with just smart parts and kw and see if i can get it to work to rule out other mods. Is 5% the lowest that you can set on the slider

[Firov]

Yes manual works and oxidiser works fine liquid fuel doesnt not sure why i am shortly going to put it in a test enviroment with just smart parts and kw and see if i can get it to work to rule out other mods. Is 5% the lowest that you can set on the slider

Okay. That's definitely strange. When you put it in a test environment with just KW and SM, let me know if you can still replicate it. In fact, if you upload the craft file somewhere, that would be even better.

On my end, the fuel stage seems to work properly. Also, the fuel stager supports down the 0% (technically, <1% and no longer draining resources due to rounding errors).

Anyway, definitely feel free to upload a craft file if you can replicate this. If there is a bug that's affecting your craft, I will find it and I will kill it.

[Virtualgenius]

It could just be a classic PEBCAK error ( problem exists between keyboard and chair ) but I will definately let you know

[volcanicshrimp]

When I right click the altimeter the right click menu is missing anything to do with action groups and has a gap in the middle. After looking at posts a few pages back I installed KAE (from CKAN) but it still doesn't work. Any suggestions?

[Azimech]

You probably have multiple & outdated versions of the KSPAPI-extensions.dll. Do a search, update the outdated ones.

[UnanimousCoward]

You probably have multiple & outdated versions of the KSPAPI-extensions.dll. Do a search, update the outdated ones.

I've recently read several posts that say it's a bad idea to replace it yourself, as it can cause problems.

[volcanicshrimp]

How do I know what version they are? I have 6 versions of it around my KSP install which are all called KSPAPIExtensions.dll and the only place I can find a version number is the folder the CKAN version came in (1.7.2)

I'll try replacing the version in smart parts with the CKAN version and see if that works.

- - - Updated - - -

Didn't work! I did notice a second gap at the top of the menu though - probably the staging/action group slider someone mentioned earlier in the thread. Another thing that I noticed is a post further back that says that KAE version 1.7.4 is needed for smart parts. I'll see if I can find that to replace it with.

- - - Updated again - - -

Also didn't work!

Edited May 25, 2015 by volcanicshrimp

[macdjord]

How do I know what version they are? I have 6 versions of it around my KSP install which are all called KSPAPIExtensions.dll and the only place I can find a version number is the folder the CKAN version came in (1.7.2)

I'll try replacing the version in smart parts with the CKAN version and see if that works.

- - - Updated - - -

Didn't work! I did notice a second gap at the top of the menu though - probably the staging/action group slider someone mentioned earlier in the thread. Another thing that I noticed is a post further back that says that KAE version 1.7.4 is needed for smart parts. I'll see if I can find that to replace it with.

- - - Updated again - - -

Also didn't work!

Download the latest version directly, and replace them all with that?

Edit: Better solution: Delete all the existing copies, then download one new copy of the latest version directly from the source and drop it in you GameData folder.

[Virtualgenius]

I have found the problem (http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/118176-GPOSpeedFuelPump-KSP-V1-0-2) I believe its when i set the tanks to pump fuel from the outer tanks to inboard tanks and balance that it fails, I can get it to separate at 5% but nothing lower than this but have narrowed it down to this plugin

[Shaymes]

i missing the actiongroup gears, maybe it can be add in the next update and maybe there is a way to get the smart parts into the groupt "command and control" it makes more sence in my opinion (and i find it easier becouse soooo many parts are utility)

[eodh]

Here's a suggestion for tech tree along with a CTT (Community Tech Tree) config:

Advanced Rocketry:

-Fuel Flow Breaker 1.25m

-Fuel Flow Breaker 1.85m

Heavy Rocketry:

-Fuel Flow Breaker 2.5m

Very Heavy Rocketry:

-Fuel Flow Breaker 3.75m

Fuel Systems:

-V1 Valve

Advanced Fuel Systems:

-KM Fuel Controler

-Drainex 1

Large Volume Containment:

-V2 Valve Straight (I don't even know the difference from V1 though it's a bit random here)

Flight Control:

-Alt-Pro Altimeter

Advanced Flight Control:

-Prox-Pro Proximity Sensor

Specialized Controls:

-Radio GAGA

-AGT Timer

CTT: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxWJPHau1WxfVmdWUXJ1U2NtNG8/view?usp=sharing

[macdjord]

I should point out that, unless you're using RemoteTech or something similar, most of the utility in Smart Parts is in the early game, before you get fuel transfer and fuel pipes and good probe cores. Put this stuff too late in the tree and you'll only get it after you cease to need it.

[Firov]

I have found the problem (http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/118176-GPOSpeedFuelPump-KSP-V1-0-2) I believe its when i set the tanks to pump fuel from the outer tanks to inboard tanks and balance that it fails, I can get it to separate at 5% but nothing lower than this but have narrowed it down to this plugin

I have to admit, I've not really looked into this yet. Though, I'm not surprised that the auto fuel balancer plays havoc with the fuel detector. Depending on how exactly it works, there are all kinds of ways the fuel pump could be breaking resource monitoring.

i missing the actiongroup gears, maybe it can be add in the next update and maybe there is a way to get the smart parts into the groupt "command and control" it makes more sence in my opinion (and i find it easier becouse soooo many parts are utility)

Unfortunately, the gears action group is... very finicky, and likely not something that can really be added into Smart Parts. The reason for this is the fact that the wheel deploy/retract status really doesn't have to correspond with the current status of the gear action group, so sometimes you have to hit the gear AG twice for it to properly synchronize. You've probably occasionally run into this within KSP just using the gear AG manually. As far as I can tell, 'fixing' this with Smart Parts would require iterating through all of the parts on the current craft to figure out the status of the landing gear. Doable, but... messy. You can, however, use normal AGs for gear.

Here's a suggestion for tech tree along with a CTT (Community Tech Tree) config:

Thanks for the suggestion, eodh! I likely will be doing a rebalance of the SmartParts tech tree and will definitely keep this in mind.

I should point out that, unless you're using RemoteTech or something similar, most of the utility in Smart Parts is in the early game, before you get fuel transfer and fuel pipes and good probe cores. Put this stuff too late in the tree and you'll only get it after you cease to need it.

True. Though I do like to think that Smart Parts can still add quality of life improvements later in the game. Anyway, I'll not put the Smart Parts too late in the tech tree when I rebalance the tech tree. Any specific suggestions?

Edited June 2, 2015 by Firov

[webanck]

Hmm is there any reason I can't see any way to use those parts? I can put them on the rocket but how should I select the action group triggered? I don't have any selection menu for this, am I missing something?