[WIP] MSI's Infernal Robotics - Model Rework (v02 Pre-Release Beta)

[ZodiusInfuser]

What do people think of this as a possible landing leg concept? It's the only decent thing i've seen so far, but is more sci-fi then I would like. I'd welcome peoples suggestions on this, especially if they're of real designs.

I should say this lending leg will be independent from the KAS grappling hook / anchor using the concept posted earlier, as although similar it seems both would have their uses. Thoughts?

[Camacha]

IR has done a wonderful job of remaining fairly believable until now. I agree that these landing legs would break that trend. Maybe for another mod, or maybe the SpaceX legs could serve as an inspiration.

[ZodiusInfuser]

Thanks. I've looked at the spacex design and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for my planned use (I'm not putting it around a tank). I may be able to combine the two concepts though, but I'm not sure it will look right. Unless I can find some good reference material, I may just have the Anchor as my landing foot solution, since that will be more useful IMO, and has a real world analogue.

[Alewx]

What do people think of this as a possible landing leg concept? It's the only decent thing i've seen so far, but is more sci-fi then I would like. I'd welcome peoples suggestions on this, especially if they're of real designs.

http://www.8thpassenger.airart3d.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/legs_show.jpg

I should say this lending leg will be independent from the KAS grappling hook / anchor using the concept posted earlier, as although similar it seems both would have their uses. Thoughts?

So far It Looks nice, but might be a bit extreme in polycount even in a reduced shape.

I think the leg sould be more like the ones from Asteroid Recylcling Technology

But the idea of an animated landing leg that spreads the toes to increase contact surface with the planet is nice.

[ZodiusInfuser]

So far It Looks nice, but might be a bit extreme in polycount even in a reduced shape.

I think the leg sould be more like the ones from Asteroid Recylcling Technology

But the idea of an animated landing leg that spreads the toes to increase contact surface with the planet is nice.

Yea, I didn't model that, but I agree that with lots of tubes getting a low poly count may be tricky.

As for that other concept, if you look at my posts on the last page you'll see that I already have plans for that style of part as a KAS hook. That would technically do for a landing foot too, but I doubt it's possible to combine both partmodules, meaning I either loose wall climbing or loose animation and suspension. I'm inclined to go for the former atm.

[Alewx]

Yea, I didn't model that, but I agree that with lots of tubes getting a low poly count may be tricky.

As for that other concept, if you look at my posts on the last page you'll see that I already have plans for that style of part as a KAS hook. That would technically do for a landing foot too, but I doubt it's possible to combine both partmodules, meaning I either loose wall climbing or loose animation and suspension. I'm inclined to go for the former atm.

Arh right, sorry I forgot that in my morning sickness

I have faith in you, you managed to get things to work that were more complicated, than combining these modules

[ZodiusInfuser]

I have faith in you, you managed to get things to work that were more complicated, than combining these modules

Thanks to a lot of peoples help and support . I suspect I'll just go for it being a KAS grappling hook, but design it to look ok as a landing leg. For animation I've got a really cool idea in mind, but will keep that quiet for now

[Camacha]

I think one of the problems is that the pictured foot is overcomplicated for a space lander. If you look at the landing feet on Moon or Mars landers, they typically are just round disks (or wheels). Another more complex folding shape, with all kinds of failure modes and less of the benefits of a simple surface, hardly make sense.

[lo-fi]

I think that foot looks really cool, though you could adapt it to fit with the look of the rest of your parts. The feet can be very effectively animated using wherlcolliders or raycasts with cunning use of lookat controllers. Basically the same as I demonstrated for the swing beam on the 747 landing gear, its very simple.

Stuck on the end of a foldatron and modelled in your usual clean, sleek style would look fantastic!

[ZodiusInfuser]

I'm on the fense about the design, and will only really know if it's viable once I try to model it. I need to consider what it would add to the pack that cannot be achieved with existing parts.

For now though I think this is much cooler! (and very much WIP)

I understand that the same points about complexity can be made for this, but at least there's a real world version of it to back me up:

Edit: I have to say it's great when there's a schematic diagram I can follow

Edited September 2, 2014 by ZodiusInfuser

[sirkut]

Ok you win, that is awesome.

[girka2k]

ZodiusInfuser:

First of all I would like to thank you for your work. This is a great addition to Infernal Robotics mod.

However I personally find the parts little overweighted, but it's a matter of taste, as they say.

At the same time I wanted to report a typo in IR_Pivotron_OneTwenty (Joint Rotatron - Wide Angle) part definition - in TweakScale MODULE word "TWEAKSCALEEXPONENTS" lost letter "T" and turned into "WEAKSCALEEXPONENTS".

This inevitably weakens this part () and prevents the mass scaling.

Another remark: K.A.S. mod places Electro-Magnet in nanolathing node of tech tree, while you placed your (very useful due to the lighting) Utilitron Grabber in advMetalworks.

Perhaps you ought to change it?

[Tubal]

Hey, great mod. I find I mostly use it to mount cameras on arms so I can see what I'm doing in IVA missions (probe control room, raster prop monitor)

A landing foot would be really useful to me as well though. In my opinion a four toe design would fit the ksp style better, and keep the polycount down.

I imagine that this may have been asked before, but would it be possible to let us adjust the rotation of a part in the VAB?

[sirkut]

Hey, great mod. I find I mostly use it to mount cameras on arms so I can see what I'm doing in IVA missions (probe control room, raster prop monitor)

A landing foot would be really useful to me as well though. In my opinion a four toe design would fit the ksp style better, and keep the polycount down.

I imagine that this may have been asked before, but would it be possible to let us adjust the rotation of a part in the VAB?

I'll give you a hint on the VAB question. Read the Infernal Robotics thread and NOT the rework thread(this one.) read a few pages, check out the video and be sure to follow that thread along with this one.

[mjy]

that landing leg looks great, be perfect for bigger spaceship, I would prob use square middle part and only use the bottom part, like 1/2 way down, there isn`t much on landing legs , I would prob use it on my spaceship

[loler43214]

How do you make a walking mech realistic

[Tubal]

I'll give you a hint on the VAB question. Read the Infernal Robotics thread and NOT the rework thread(this one.) read a few pages, check out the video and be sure to follow that thread along with this one.

Didn't remember that this was mostly a thread about models

I can only find how to rotate the part, what I meant was how to activate the part's function when building. For example I'd like to set elbow pieces to a particular angle to wrap an arm around the hull.

It seems like that was asked and the response was that it wasn't currently possible :/

Thanks anyway.

[ZodiusInfuser]

Didn't remember that this was mostly a thread about models

I can only find how to rotate the part, what I meant was how to activate the part's function when building. For example I'd like to set elbow pieces to a particular angle to wrap an arm around the hull.

It seems like that was asked and the response was that it wasn't currently possible :/

Thanks anyway.

Soon http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/37707-0-24-2-Magic-Smoke-Industries-Infernal-Robotics-0-18-6a?p=1394979&viewfull=1#post1394979

[Guest]

I noticed a big optimization issue with IR rework. You use the same texture on all parts, and it's duplicated for every single part. That's not how it's done, unless IR doesn't like MODEL nodes for some reason, you should consolidate all you can into a single folder with a single instance of the texture. That'd save a ton of disk space, memory and loading time.

[ZodiusInfuser]

I noticed a big optimization issue with IR rework. You use the same texture on all parts, and it's duplicated for every single part. That's not how it's done, unless IR doesn't like MODEL nodes for some reason, you should consolidate all you can into a single folder with a single instance of the texture. That'd save a ton of disk space, memory and loading time.

IR doesn't like MODEL nodes for some reason

Unless improvements have been made recently in that regard, switching to the MODEL format completely disables the robotic functionality of the part. Even having all cfgs in the same directory and referencing different meshes the old fashioned way doesn't work

[ZodiusInfuser]

Ok you win, that is awesome.

Wo! Is that why you sent me the IR test build, as a prize?

ZodiusInfuser:

First of all I would like to thank you for your work. This is a great addition to Infernal Robotics mod.

However I personally find the parts little overweighted, but it's a matter of taste, as they say.

None of the parts have been balanced for Mass, Cost, or Tech Required, so I'd welcome any insights you can offer on how to improve their balance.

At the same time I wanted to report a typo in IR_Pivotron_OneTwenty (Joint Rotatron - Wide Angle) part definition - in TweakScale MODULE word "TWEAKSCALEEXPONENTS" lost letter "T" and turned into "WEAKSCALEEXPONENTS".

This inevitably weakens this part () and prevents the mass scaling.

My bad, will get an update out soon.

Another remark: K.A.S. mod places Electro-Magnet in nanolathing node of tech tree, while you placed your (very useful due to the lighting) Utilitron Grabber in advMetalworks.

Perhaps you ought to change it?

I plan to do a complete pass on the tech required for IR Rework parts. Again, suggestions on where things should go would be very helpful. Especially as this image is now out of date.

--------------------------------------------------

Had a bit of time today to revisit the Grappling Hook / Anchor / Whatever I Decide to Call It . I'm hoping to make use of a wheel collider in the centre to make the fingers actuate as you push the part into a surface (since KAS doesn't trigger animations upon connection).

It has the same mounting point size as the grabber, but won't fit within the athlete set of parts. Oh, it also has a light on the underside, because it's effectively another type of end effector

Edited September 6, 2014 by ZodiusInfuser

[Angelo Kerman]

Can't wait to try this out. Your parts rework was instrumental in my station robot arm design that's much more compact than before. That wheel would be great for making an ATHLETE to transport my MKS modules too.

[Entropius]

Thanks for making these rework parts, they appear to use a lot less RAM than the legacy ones.

[Alewx]

Wo! Is that why you sent me the IR test build, as a prize?

None of the parts have been balanced for Mass, Cost, or Tech Required, so I'd welcome any insights you can offer on how to improve their balance.

My bad, will get an update out soon.

I plan to do a complete pass on the tech required for IR Rework parts. Again, suggestions on where things should go would be very helpful. Especially as this image is now out of date.

--------------------------------------------------

Had a bit of time today to revisit the Grappling Hook / Anchor / Whatever I Decide to Call It . I'm hoping to make use of a wheel collider in the centre to make the fingers actuate as you push the part into a surface (since KAS doesn't trigger animations upon connection).

https://www.cubbyusercontent.com/pl/IR_Anchor2.png/_f7e15a8df7504553970bd8edb6e6e6fa

It has the same mounting point size as the grabber, but won't fit within the athlete set of parts. Oh, it also has a light on the underside, because it's effectively another type of end effector

Nice nice, I like it.

Feels more fitting than the quad legs/grabbers you showed.

BTW, any plans on remodeling the station core parts? I use them and think they sould be included in the regular pack.

[sirkut]

Nice nice, I like it.

Feels more fitting than the quad legs/grabbers you showed.

BTW, any plans on remodeling the station core parts? I use them and think they sould be included in the regular pack.

Psst. He modeled the IR station parts...