Copernicus MTV components

[Porkjet]

The ladder thing is a good Idea starwaster. I've playing around with that aswell. Might add it to my tanks.

[Starwaster]

The ladder thing is a good Idea starwaster. I've playing around with that aswell. Might add it to my tanks.

Make sure not to put the ladder collider too deep. Still playing around with exact values but at the very least make sure the center is outside of whatever you're putting it on.

[Starwaster]

Are these screenshots from the RSS or vanilla scale?

RSS because that's where I'm doing my primary development of these parts.

A non-RSS rescale will be available when I release but currently it's scaled around a 10 meter diameter scale. (!)

[Starwaster]

I've been experimenting with using the reflective plugin on the droptank. Had to hack the plugin a bit to make the texture scale right because it seems to default to UV scaling of 1, 1 no matter what it's set to on the exported model.

Also, added in the.... crycooler... avionics... box thing on the large truss. I'm not sure if I'll make that actually part of the truss model or export it as a separate part. In the shots it's been all been exported (from Unity) as one mesh, but I'm intending for it to be optionally function as a radiator when using Real Fuels cryogenic boiloff and currently radiators don't function properly unless they are a child part. Literally it only directly drains heat from its parent. Also the Real Fuels radiators are a bit bugged so I've been playing with the code in there to figure out the best fix to propose to NathanKell. So I haven't got a lot done on fixing the texturing on the existing parts. Which I think is really the only thing holding me back at this point. The parts work decently. The truss is a bit poly heavy so I'm looking at maybe trimming that down but I'm not seeing a lot I can do as it's just a high resolution piece. (should ask Porkjet what the poly count on his truss object is, it's very similar in construction just without the open bottom)

[Fraz86]

As you said, the truss is a large, complex part, so a high poly count is expected. Just how high is it? Regarding textures, I actually really like the look of the tank inside the truss in your second picture above. Looks like texture #4 from the 5 possibilities you presented earlier, right? I understand the desire to use a more foil-appearing texture, but I think the aforementioned texture would fit in well with stock parts (whereas more "realistic" textures might look a bit more out of place, perhaps).

[Starwaster]

I forget which that is... I think it was one I'd shied away from but it's kind of growing on me especially with the shininess.

But whether to use the plugin required is up to the individual to decide for themselves. Feels a bit laggy because its doing realtime reflections instead of conventional environment maps. Or that could be the FF plugin which insists on cycling through my Kerbals and awarding ribbons to them that they already earned. I think they each have First In Space 12 times each now.

Edit: Oh and the long truss is 4,893 tris. Short truss is 2,336. Most of that is in the curved supports.

If I were to do the Terra Nova's star truss (the middle section with the 4 drop tanks) that would probably be about double. Or, actually, probably even more. Just looking at the thing gives me a headache so I'm not really sure what's happening with it. Took me awhile to find a decent picture of it. The simplest version of it would be 4 pieces of one of the saddle trusses sides with curved struts connecting them. The complicated version has them actually mounted to something that looks like a saddle truss only closed.

But I'm not even thinking about doing that one right now. Maybe later when this one is done.

Edited January 30, 2014 by Starwaster

[Fraz86]

I think that's an acceptable number of tris. Obviously on the high side, but shouldn't be a problem unless you're using quite a few of them on one ship.

And again, I really like that texture. In that picture, comparing the texture of the tank inside the truss versus the texture of the tank attached to the engines, I feel that the one inside the truss looks much more "Kerbal," which in my opinion is a good thing.

[Starwaster]

I think that's an acceptable number of tris. Obviously on the high side, but shouldn't be a problem unless you're using quite a few of them on one ship.

And again, I really like that texture. In that picture, comparing the texture of the tank inside the truss versus the texture of the tank attached to the engines, I feel that the one inside the truss looks much more "Kerbal," which in my opinion is a good thing.

The two tanks will definitely be made to match. And I'm actually not sure which of two textures it is inside the truss in the second picture. One Porkjet sent me and the other I found on Filter Forge's site. I think it's Porkjet's though.

I'm going to give both the shiny treatment and post them up.

[czokletmuss]

Any news you would like to share with us?

[Starwaster]

Any news you would like to share with us?

Working on texturing and fixing some poly issues mostly. Here's the ring texture so far. Nothing fancy, Put a pattern on it to aid in docking alignment and textured the attachment points. Also gave those a normal map. The picture below shows it attached to a 10 meter 'docking target'. Again, that's just RSS scale. There will be a stock sized version but I'm not sure what size that will be except that it would be larger than 2.5m tanks. Not sure if it would be large enough to require the multiple docking nodes that I'm experimenting with. You can see in the picture there are four textured areas that represent docking latches. Each one is a separate docking port to make it easier to line the rings with each other. That's been done in other part packs though I'm not sure it's been done with something 10 meters in diameter so it gets a bit touchy. Maybe needs to have attraction force lowered.

I've also been working on non-Copernicus specific areas that would be necessary for those using Real Fuels and Deadly Re-entry. (not that Copernicus is meant to re-enter the atmosphere but if you're familiar with DRA 5 (or 3 or 4 for that matter) then you'll know that there are other things that attach to the 'core propulsion stage' such as aeroshell landers. I'm not sure if that will be an actual part I make or not. Currently I'm trying to implement it entirely through Procedural Fairings combined with Deadly Re-entry's heat shields. So a couple of days have been trying to actually make something out of existing parts + PF that could survive a Duna drop. So far I have not been successful. (fairings do NOT like being turned into heat shields and I'm not even sure DRE is even accurately determining the contents of the fairing are even protected). Finally, radiators for Real Fuels, because hydrogen tanks want to boiloff. Real Fuels has radiators but they currently need to be a child part. They don't directly cool anything that is not their immediate parent. So the radiator that I put on the truss doesn't want to cool the drop tank.

So, to sum up I've been

• texturing
  
• reworking models
  
• Deadly Re-entry experiments on aeroshell landers
  
• Radiators
  

Also, forgive me but the KSO was released so I was playing around dropping it from RSS altitudes to see if it would survive re-entry. It's one thing using that shuttle with Deadly Reentry. Even combined with FAR. But combine them at RSS scales and one learns that space is indeed a harsh mistress. (well, actually it's the re-entry interface that's the problem.... space was just fine). So, some Copernicus work was lost there to the KSO shuttle so blame Helldiver. All his fault. Also go try out KSO cause it kicks butt. Kerbin Shuttle Orbiter System

[czokletmuss]

-snip-

Also, forgive me but the KSO was released so I was playing around dropping it from RSS altitudes to see if it would survive re-entry. It's one thing using that shuttle with Deadly Reentry. Even combined with FAR. But combine them at RSS scales and one learns that space is indeed a harsh mistress. (well, actually it's the re-entry interface that's the problem.... space was just fine). So, some Copernicus work was lost there to the KSO shuttle so blame Helldiver. All his fault. Also go try out KSO cause it kicks butt. Kerbin Shuttle Orbiter System

Thank you very much for so detailed and thorough post about the current state of the project - you are great to write all this

And yes, KSO ate some time in my case too - it's incredibily well made mod and the best non-Buran spaceplane we have now IMO. Pity that landing even in vanilla with DeadlyReentry is quite, well, complicated (last time I survived but the landing gear blew up). Take care and good luck, I can't wait to use Copernicus. If I ever start playing with RSS it would be only thanks to your mod

[kiwiak]

Sarwaster, coudl you release 3,75m and 2,5m version of saddle truss? Model is ready, and simple grey texture s enough... for now.

This thing coudl be very usefull for storing landers on interplanetary vessels.. right now i just have to dock them in front of ship.

[Starwaster]

Sarwaster, coudl you release 3,75m and 2,5m version of saddle truss? Model is ready, and simple grey texture s enough... for now.

This thing coudl be very usefull for storing landers on interplanetary vessels.. right now i just have to dock them in front of ship.

I'll get something pushed soon. I got a little side tracked with the reflective shader plugin, which I wanted to make available for the MLI texturing on the Copernicus tanks so they look shiny.

[kiwiak]

This wasnt in original MTV plan, but how about some 6-way or 4-way truss hub fitting hub saddle? Something like this

[Starwaster]

This wasnt in original MTV plan, but how about some 6-way or 4-way truss hub fitting hub saddle? Something like this

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3579841/J_Splitter.jpg

Maybe.... but I'm having some trouble envisioning what you mean exactly. Is it something that itself would be a saddle truss and open underneath but with connection structures? Do you think maybe you could sketch it out?

[kiwiak]

Just an element that woudl allow easily attaching another saddle truss radially to main inline ones.

behold my paint skills

[Starwaster]

Ok, so someone asked about some 2.5/3.25 truss pieces. How are they just rescaled? And should the radiator piece go?

Second shot shows a stock I-beam for comparison to the saddle truss beams. They are even thinner rescaled down; nothing to do about that unless new parts are created from scratch.

Stock 2.5m tanks don't fit so well because they tend to have flanges and pipes....

[Camacha]

I think I prefer a clean metal truss, with the number three gold foil on it. That is probably most in line with other parts and realism.

[Starwaster]

Ok, little update. Had a lot to deal with including some other KSP mods I'm involved with but I'm back to working on parts. I am aiming to have these out by the time the 23.5 update comes out. (seeing as how one of Copernicus missions involved asteroid interception). Can't give a good ETA right now; I have to rework the scaling (see below) and go through and adjust masses for the rescaled parts. It's no fun trying to raise a 2.5m tank that has a dry mass of 22 tons.

To recap, these are the parts I'm currently working with.

hab adapter, meant to allow attachment of things like inflatable habs or whatever you want to the trusses.

saddle truss: meant to have a drop tank mounted in it but could have other things mounted on the outside or inside.

half saddle truss. Half sized version of the above, but no mounting point for tanks. (could add one later if there's desire for it but it's meant as a storage area of garage for smaller craft.

drop tank. Mounts directly to the full sized saddle truss. Both of them connect in the form of docking nodes. decoupling requires action groups. Will not stage unless you use a radial decoupler. Technically, it could be refilled and reconnected but that's up to individual imagination. (KAS grappling would be a good fit here)

Docking rings to be mounted either at the ends of the trusses or in the truss adapter ring.

Truss Adapter ring allows connecting a docking ring to a fuel tank but also contains batteries and avionics so parts with this. If you've seen the Copernicus or Constellation videos then you may have seen fuel tanks with nuclear engines and solar panels launched for later rendezvous with trusses or other parts. The adapter ring is meant to help facilitate that.

Latest on these parts is I now have everything rescaled (from the default 10m) to 5m, 3.75m and 2.5m. Some use MODEL{} nodes and because of the rescale bug involved with that had to do some rescaleFactor trickery. This is the first time I've done this on such a scale so was unaware of the rescale bug that happens IFF the part is root and you revert to launch pad. (scales back up to its original sizeI guess). So I have to go back through them and rescale everything the old fashioned way, but that means rescaling all attachment nodes by hand, which is sucky tedium.

What else.... multiple textures will be available for the drop tank but it will have foil normal map#4 by default. It is also configured to make use of the reflective shader plugin if you have it installed, and I recommend the build I released, which has the option of non-realtime reflections, or procedural environment mapping: That's the term I prefer for it.

Finally, screenshot of the hab adapter with some texture reworking: (actually it's four half trusses, 10m, 5m, 3.75m and 2.5m with matching hab adapters)

[Deathsoul097]

Have you done the propulsion block? If you have, can I has it for 0.23.5 so I can do my constellation programme replica more accurately?

Edited March 26, 2014 by Deathsoul097

[Starwaster]

Have you done the propulsion block? If you have, can I has it for 0.23.5 so I can do my constellation programme replica more accurately?

All I've been doing for propulsion so far is modifying the LVN to be surface mountable and rescaling it up a bit. That just takes a config file and I'll be including that.

I'd like to model my own later down the line though.

[Deathsoul097]

All I've been doing for propulsion so far is modifying the LVN to be surface mountable and rescaling it up a bit. That just takes a config file and I'll be including that.

I'd like to model my own later down the line though.

No no, I mean the actual augment, as in the tanks and engines. Have you just been using the Stretchy SRB tanks?

[Starwaster]

No no, I mean the actual augment, as in the tanks and engines. Have you just been using the Stretchy SRB tanks?

I've just been using stretchies. I'm considering making a separate part though which would double as the aft tank's radiator for those using RF.

[Starwaster]

Well I was going to do some kind of April Fools announcement but I couldn't think of anything particularly funny or credible.

So I figured I'd just post this boring old link to the first developmental parts pack instead.

Sorry.

Download Link: Copernicus - Beta 1

Ok, so some fine points:

• This isn't an official release so no release thread yet.
  
• Because this is still in development, licensing is: Don't distribute this or use it in derivative works. (actual release will be much less restrictive, some CC sharealike type thing probably because I don't believe in restricting my work)
  
• The hab adapter has three attach nodes. It is meant to be used with the trusses primarily and attaches to the ends of those using the middle interior node. Somewhat useful with the adapter ring too.
  
• Size 10 parts are included but intended for use with RSS which may or may not be compatibile with 23.5. Don't know yet.
  

More coming soon!

[WhatsThisButtonDo]

Hmmmm...April 1st. To click or not to click, that is the question.