HotRockets! Particle FX Replacement + Tutorial

[Guest]

Isn't that orange color intentionally given by adding some "additives" into the fuel? Pure hydroLOX flame should be quite transparent and white, might be only a little blue-ish I guess?

Nope, it's because of a). ablatively cooled nozzle. . hydrogen being ran through the nozzle at not stoichometric ratio. Mass ratio of hydroLOX is usually around 5.5:1 instead of 0.125:1 that a purely chemical reaction would have. The reason is that exhaust velocity (and therefore efficiency) becomes greater when you've got a lighter gas expelled from the nozzle, not to mention the exhaust is cooler, putting less strain on the nozzle. So the Delta IV's exhaust is red because of lower temperature, and very non-transparent due to nozzle material present in it. Regeneratively cooled SSMEs have a much fainter flame, but it's still orange-ish, with a blue bit inside the flame (where the actual combustion takes place, presumably).

Nazari made some great SSME flames for CSS, but they're quite unique (well, would do for NP SSME-lookalike, I suppose). Delta IV exhaust looks somewhat more universal.

[blackheart612]

I've tried what I have read in the tutorial to make my own FX. When I export the mu no texture is exported, when I add the module, no textures appear.

I'm so noob. How do I really make one? @_@

[MOARdV]

What's really needed is for me to add a few config option in SmokeScreen to disable some of the more expensive effect for those whose computer can't handle it.

Even a higher powered computer struggles when there are multiple engines. My i5 3570K can handle a single engine just fine. I get a bit of lag from two engines. The one time I tried five, it was very slow. Is there a way to keep track of how much time the module is using per frame, and reduce the effects when it's above a particular value? I haven't looked into your code and Unity to see if there's a way to do that, so maybe dynamic adjustments isn't feasible.

[BrutalRIP]

The Poodle was changed to a more "orbital engine" exhaust after all the screens on the OP were made. It almost looks like just smoke coming from the engine, but that's intentional. You can read about it by going back through the thread if you want, but basically it's a bit more realistic given the Poodle's role in the game.

thanks for clearing that up though i must say i dont like it im gunna remove the poodle from the cfgs on my pc there is ONLY smoke comming from it

[Nazari1382]

No, I want a fainter, more orange, visibly transparent flame. Shock diamonds would be nice, but what I really want is the "feel" of a hydroLOX engine, as opposed to them being all keroLOX.

You can try using "ssmeflame" as the effect, as it should be just the clear orange component of the CSS flame. Some of the kw engines have pretty large differences in their effect position though.

I've tried what I have read in the tutorial to make my own FX. When I export the mu no texture is exported, when I add the module, no textures appear.

I'm so noob. How do I really make one? @_@

You need to create a material and assign the material at the top of the effect in unity. I'll look over my tutorial.

thanks for clearing that up though i must say i dont like it im gunna remove the poodle from the cfgs on my pc there is ONLY smoke comming from it

Are you sure you have all of the newest versions of the files? The poodle has a wider and much weaker looking flame than the other engines.

[blackheart612]

I have checked it over and over again, I have a material, I have the textures applied to it, Unity is pretty much animating the particles, anything Im missing?

[Nazari1382]

I have checked it over and over again, I have a material, I have the textures applied to it, Unity is pretty much animating the particles, anything Im missing?

So you can see your image on the particle effect in unity? If you can, it should only be a matter of exporting everything with Part Tools.

[blackheart612]

I also have exported it, mu is done, no png though, no texture, no nothing.

[Nazari1382]

I also have exported it, mu is done, no png though, no texture, no nothing.

I might need screens of your emitter settings, and you might have another version of unity/parttools

[blackheart612]

Here it is for your contemplation:

Had to cut my screen because you might see my cute anime wallpaper

[GorillaZilla]

Cheers for making this mod chaps, Makes the effects Much nicer on most rocket engines, and fills the nozzles with effect rather than having an effect a meter or so away from the end of the nozzle, and the nozzle empty

However the Effects for the Closed cycle part of the Larger Sabre-M Engine seemed to be broken.....

I noticed that the Smaller Sabre-S was not affected by the Issue, and noticed that the Sabre-S had The extra Line fixedEmissions = false in it's running_closed section that the Sabre-M did not have in It's version of the "running_closed" section

So I added in the fixedEmissions = false line in, and it Fixed the issue :-)

Link to changed file to fix the Sabre-M: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/85344120/b9_hotrockets.cfg

(Right Click and save link as, or Brower tends to open the file in-Browser)

Also I Didn't like what this modification did to some of the jet engines very much, as Copious flames coming out of the B9 airliner style TurboFan engines didn't do it for me, As I've never seen this much fire coming out of a Turbofan engine other than some of the Birdstrike videos I've seen.

I Much prefer the more subtle Gas fire Ceramic Back element fuzzy heat glow effect of the B9 Turbo fans as they are, as it's much more convincing an effect :-)

However not really a big Issue in my honest opinion, as it was pretty easy to cut out the Parts of the b9_hotrockets.cfg that referred to the TurboFans, and some people might even like the Kerbalness of airliner engines which belch out worryingly large amounts of smoke and fire.....

One thing I did notice is it seems to break the Spinning element of the Compressor fans in the B9 Turbofans (Updated Firespitter DLL, they spin when Hotrockets is not installed), as with the Mod installed the fans simply sit still.

Another little Issue, at least for me is that the sounds of all the jet engines don't have the spool up and down effect, the thrust seems to, as normal but the sound seems to match the throttle setting at all times, So if you max the throttle and activate the engine, the sound is for max trust and RPM instantly, and when you hit X to kill throttle the sound is gone instantly too.

I like The effects for the other more Turbojetty engines, But not the Whole Sound is tied directly to throttle thing....

Thanks again for being awesome and spending your time and effort making cool mods like this, and hope my feedback helps you make it better, and apologize in advance if anything I said was inadvertently lame and sucky, as I appear to be dying of some kind of aggressive brain tumor right now the way my head feels all like muggy fog.....

[smunisto]

Would you mind sharing these configs? I don't like flamey turbofan engines too. P.M. works too, as to not break any license.

[Mekan1k]

Since updating to 0.23.5, I have noticed that the engines all have two flames- the ones from the parts pack, and the Hotrockets versions. Is there a reason why?

[GorillaZilla]

It's pretty easy to open up the .CFG files in the MP_Nazari folder, and find the @PART[partnamehere] line that refers to the engine your out to remove or edit the HotRockets effects of.

Then select it, and everything down to the next @PART line for another engine, and remove. Not touching the next @partline for the next engine in the file.

Sent you a PM anyhow with an Example file with fixed Sabre-M and The HotRockets sections for the Two B9 Jet airliner type engines cut out.

Expanding on the Jet engine Sound Issues, Is the Sound Is Locked to the Throttle no matter the state of the engine, for example this jet/missile/thingie is flying at pretty much the max speed a stock turbojet will go, hence is only generating about 16kn thrust, Yet the sound is still exactly the same as when the thing took off at max throttle, infact the sound does not change at all from Launch at full throttle on the pad, to Flameout a few seconds later...

Another funny thing I noticed about the Jet engines having their sound directly tied to the throttle rather the engine's spool up/down state is that the Sabres seem to be exempt from the issue, and have their sound spool up and down properly with the engine's Spool/Thrust state as normal....

Talking about the sabres sound, This Sabre Is at a fair throttle setting, and generating a considerable 233KN of thrust, yet is almost whisper silent.

Normally jets have a prettly loud idle sound even at miniscule throttle, and mostly its the pitch that raises as the engine spools up/Generates more thrust.

All the jet engines seem to loose their Idle sound with HotRockets installed at the moment, Ive actually removed all the jet engine references from the B9 CFG file, Except the Sabre, as After the Sabre-M fix the Sabres are Worlds better than stock B9 Sabres, With Proper jet sound/Spoolup/Effects in Jet mode, and A Completely Different and Proper rocket effect when in rocket mode, They Just need a Good loud Idle sound When activated in jet mode even with low throttle

Edited April 5, 2014 by GorillaZilla

[Nazari1382]

They Just need a Good loud Idle sound When activated in jet mode even with low throttle

I'm looking at the sounds. It's just a matter of them being on the runningEffect instead of the directThrottleEffect. Do you know of a sound file that could be used for an idle sound...? (without license issues)

[Pulsar]

I found that when I use this mod with Stock Rebalance mod by stupid_chris. The maximum thrust and Isp don't change like it's suppose to.

The rebalance mod that I'm talking about.

[GorillaZilla]

Since your using stock sounds, as Jet engines with Hotrockets installed at full throttle sound exactly like the stock Basic jet engine when it is generating 75kn thrust at partial throttle without the mod you could just do what stock does, the stock jet engines just use their normal running sound for idle, They just seem to leave the volume at a set level at all times as long as the engine is producing any thrust at all. And just increase the pitch as their Thrust increases.

Another thing I noticed while testing is that the stock jets have another layer to their sound, like a low thunderous rush of air that seems directly connected to, and comes on when the engine produces enough thrust for it's particles to start being generated, and that may or may not have it's pitch increase as the engine ramps up in thrust....

I can't help much in this kind of thing except test a lot and post my observations, Took me ages just to figure out how to paint Markers in just the right places on the KW rocketry decoupler .png textures so its easy to see which side they decouple from....

So not going to be much use, Specially when it comes to license issues, That stuff just Eludes me X-|

[shael6636]

Yeah i have been it also could be because im using [.23] KSP Mod Pack Manager (Standalone) to "manage" all the mods I use, when using that program it asks where to extract the files to and I always select the GameData Folder.

I might try a clean install and extract HotRockets the old fashioned way:). I have had some previous issues when having to extract to a specific folder i.e. Kerbal Engineer but that works fine when using ModpackManager when the GameData folder is selected.

Im suspecting in hindsight this might be the issue will let you know.

Thanks Nazari

fyi Nazari, clean install without using the Mod Pack Manager worked fine. As soons as I installed my normal mods and used the Mod Pack Manager I had the same issue so it looks like a conflict with one of my mods.

When I work it out will post ths uspect mod.

[Captain_Party]

Does this work with RealFuels now?

[NathanKell]

It has for quite a while--since RF v5.0 from, oh, 2-3 weeks ago...

[Spanier]

Is someone working on better effects for RCS?

[Captain_Party]

Can someone make a HotRockets config for BobCats SovietEngines pack? Right now I'd be fine with a config for just the RD-0146. I think the poodle effect would look best on it, as it is a vacuum engine.

[Mecripp]

Making a cfg not work anymore for adding this FX ? or does something have to be set in Unity ?

[smunisto]

Unfortunately HotRockets breaks certain other mods' functionality by replacing ModuleEngine in its cfg files.

One such mod is TriggerAu's Alternate Resource Panel. This, doubled by the other issues people are reporting with engines having incorrect thrust values, even though I have not had issues personally(or I just haven't followed closely how my engines behave), made me delete the mod.

Sad, but true I think that this ModuleEngine replacement is the cause of most issues and would be happy to know that there is some different way to apply the effects, rather than injecting them with MM cfgs and replacing modules which are vital to the proper engine operation.

Edited April 8, 2014 by smunisto

[DasBananenbrot]

Unfortunately HotRockets breaks certain other mods' functionality by replacing ModuleEngine in its cfg files.

One such mod is TaranisElu's Alternate Resource Panel. This, doubled by the other issues people are reporting with engines having incorrect thrust values, even though I have not had issues personally(or I just haven't followed closely how my engines behave), made me delete the mod.

Sad, but true I think that this ModuleEngine replacement is the cause of most issues and would be happy to know that there is some different way to apply the effects, rather than injecting them with MM cfgs and replacing modules which are vital to the proper engine operation.

The New ModuleEngineFX introduced in 0.23 makes the creation of new effects so easy. So I guess there won't be an alternative way. Molders should just convert their mods to the new ModuleEngineFX. I mean Deadly Reentry and RealFuels are compatible, so I guess mods like the KSP Alternate Ressource Panel can be made compatible too

Edited April 8, 2014 by DasBananenbrot