[0.25] Tweakable Wheels (Adjustable Brakes, Steering, and Torque for Wheels!)

[OrbitusII]

if first gear is the default torque does that mean there won't be an option for lower speed higher torque gear options?

Yeah, I have it set up to use 3 gears: low, default, and high. I'll post more details when I release the update.

[JeffreyCor]

Ohh goodie

[OrbitusII]

Finally released the update! Gearing is now implemented but I still need to set up the system to check the config files for values to use, and higher torque values are not taken into account for resource consumption quite yet, so it's an incomplete release but at least I have it out there.

Here's your context menu in the flight scene. Hit "Gear Up" to switch to a higher gear and "Gear Down" to switch to a lower one. It defaults to Gear 1 (default torque values) but if you shift up or down it will persist throughout quicksaves and stuff.

I still need to figure out good torque values for the wheels so let me know what you think of the values I have currently and I'll adjust them as I get feedback.

Current Values:

And yes, this is raw code from TweakableWheels.dll, soon enough you'll be able to put the keys into a config file like with stock parts.

[ArkaelDren]

Orbit, as much as we appreciate the simple ways you have created to adjust these settings, is their "ANY" way you can figure out a way to adjust spring/dampening rates on all types of wheels/tracks. If you could make it possible to change these settings, it would finally, once again, make it meaningful to add multiple sizes of a specific wheel or track. As it stands, you can change, or add another size of any single item with a simple cfg add, but without the ability to change how much weight or dampening settings its useless. Please see if you can figure this out, I love the tracks system that was created a year or more ago but they just could not hold enough tonnage to be very useful.

Thx again, Dren from Oregon.

[OrbitusII]

is their "ANY" way you can figure out a way to adjust spring/dampening rates on all types of wheels/tracks

I know there is a way to do it, I just haven't had the chance to work on that. I'll prototype some code this weekend.

[OrbitusII]

Out of town currently so I can't check to see if the plugin needs an update to make it compatible with 0.23.5. I don't expect it will need a major compatibility update but you never know.

I should be able to work on it on Sunday.

[brusura]

Thanks for keeping this mod updated

I jsut saw you added Gear Up and Down to gui, would you also add a reverse ?

Edited April 6, 2014 by brusura

[OrbitusII]

Thanks for keeping this mod updated

I jsut saw you added Gear Up and Down to gui, would you also add a reverse ?

I could add a reverse button, but I personally don't see any reason to. All you have to do is press the key assigned to reverse (by default the S key) and the wheels will turn backwards.

[brusura]

I could add a reverse button, but I personally don't see any reason to. All you have to do is press the key assigned to reverse (by default the S key) and the wheels will turn backwards.

Maybe use negative gear for reverse? But with S you would use power to stop and then start backward once your are full stopped, yeah I could use B to brake and then start with S I know

Also I'd like to have a toggle reverse on wheels so I can turn a rover like a tank, the left wheels go forward and the right wheels for backward something like this:

[OrbitusII]

... I'd like to have a toggle reverse on wheels so I can turn a rover like a tank, the left wheels go forward and the right wheels for backward something like this:

-snip-

Oh, so you mean something like a tank/standard steering toggle... I can do that easily.

[brusura]

Oh, so you mean something like a tank/standard steering toggle... I can do that easily.

Yeah that would be awesome!

[OrbitusII]

Update after ages of no info! Hooray!

State of Things

- Everything seems to be working in 0.23.5, so I'll update the title to reflect that

- Curse is being a pain to work with, so putting it on there will take a while

- I will be able to work on this more starting next week. This is my last week of High School so wish me luck!

- Features I will add in by next release (sometime in June probably, possibly July since we're moving out of state) include the steering toggle, configurable settings for the plugin, and more tweakables for the landing gear (steering is the major one)

- Features I plan to add, potentially in the next release, includes Firespitter support and an improved gearing system. Since the 3-gear system seems to be a bit useless (high helps, low doesn't) I'll drop that down to 2 gears.

Also, some stuff I've been working on in KSP with my extra free time, now that school's winding down:

Naturally, this uses Tweakable Wheels. It's sooooooo much easier to rove and dock these two things together.

<More Info>

[ThermalShark]

OrbitusII, you said in this thread that you didn't add tweakable suspensions because you could not find a way to access the variables of the WheelCollider. Yesterday i asked for help in the forums and EvilReeper showed me how to access the WheelCollider. I am not sure if that is what you were looking for, but i tested reading the variables and it worked. I didn't try editing, but i see no reason for it to not work.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/81840-Accessing-the-WheelCollider-of-a-rover-wheel

[OrbitusII]

OrbitusII, you said in this thread that you didn't add tweakable suspensions because you could not find a way to access the variables of the WheelCollider. Yesterday i asked for help in the forums and EvilReeper showed me how to access the WheelCollider. I am not sure if that is what you were looking for, but i tested reading the variables and it worked. I didn't try editing, but i see no reason for it to not work.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/81840-Accessing-the-WheelCollider-of-a-rover-wheel

Yeah, at first I was having issues accessing the wheelcollider because I was doing the wrong thing to change the torque and steering, but at this point it's just because I've been lazy and haven't gotten around to it. Thanks for linking to that thread, it should help in case I have trouble getting the plugin to work.

Edited June 3, 2014 by OrbitusII

[dtoxic]

any updates for this mod on 0.24?

[OrbitusII]

any updates for this mod on 0.24?

I'll have to run some tests but I think it should work out-of-box even in 0.24 since there haven't been major changes to the code base. Still, it would be nice to have some new features I suppose... I've been working on my personal Unity project lately but I can look into new stuff, I know I want Firespitter support for my 747 replica...

[Taquarinha]

I was thinking that i wouldn't need this anymore, until i barely touched the brake and my rover fliped over.

[OrbitusII]

I was thinking that i wouldn't need this anymore, until i barely touched the brake and my rover fliped over.

Oh no! I hope the Kerbals survived!

I really need to work on this some more, add FS support and extra tweakables for landing gear... It might be worth investing a whole day to working on updating/expanding the functionality.

[OrbitusII]

Gonna be working on this on my stream all day tomorrow.

Linky: twitch.tv/orbitusii

It looks like I'm gonna be scrapping the gearing system in favor of keeping the more user-friendly slider, as well as adding more tweakables to the stock landing gear. I may potentially start to add some FireSpitter support, depending on what I can figure out for referencing those components.

[Jaxx]

Gonna be working on this on my stream all day tomorrow.

Linky: twitch.tv/orbitusii

It looks like I'm gonna be scrapping the gearing system in favor of keeping the more user-friendly slider, as well as adding more tweakables to the stock landing gear. I may potentially start to add some FireSpitter support, depending on what I can figure out for referencing those components.

yyaayyyyyy i forget, this automatically makes the necessary tweakables appear on B9 gears, right?

[OrbitusII]

yyaayyyyyy i forget, this automatically makes the necessary tweakables appear on B9 gears, right?

Not yet, since they use FireSpitter for their landing gear. I'll be working on adding that tomorrow after the rest of the stuff is sorted.

I may eventually want a custom landing gear module for my 747-inspired part mod (preview... sort of) since not even FS has the cool functionality I want. More info on that when/if I get to the point where I'm confident enough to start a thread for it.

Edited August 4, 2014 by OrbitusII

[OrbitusII]

Working on this on stream starting now! twitch.tv/orbitusii

[OrbitusII]

So a major update on the state of things, one which will unfortunately kill any major feature expansions of this plugin:

• The stock ModuleLandingGear does not have a public variable for setting steering angle like ModuleWheel does. Stock landing gear steering is therefore virtually impossible at this point.

• Firespitter's FSwheel class, used for all landing gear and rover wheels based on the Firespitter plugin, is not public and cannot be accessed. It is therefore also virtually impossible to implement tweakables for Firespitter at this point.

Highlight from my Stream Today Explaining These Issues

As a result of these two issues, Tweakable Wheels is effectively Feature-Complete, i.e. the plugin is done developing for the time being because it has expanded to encompass the features it was originally intended to have. While it is not necessarily done developing forever, until there are more features that can be added, TW has as many functions as it can get.

Fortunately, there are some benefits to this.

• TW is very lightweight with only two classes totalling about 150 lines of code (which is including a lot of comments!). Three sliders are as fancy as it gets for now, which help keep it feeling close to stock.

• As I remarked in the highlight above, these issues may be the kick in the pants I need to start working on my own landing gear module. This module would be used primarily for the 747 mod I have in my head, but could be used for virtually anything. More info when/if I get it to a working state.

As usual, post any bugs you may find here in this thread and I'll look into solving them. Thanks for being supportive of TW thus far, I appreciate knowing that people enjoy having these features and I'll keep TW updated for as long as I can.

[Jaxx]

So a major update on the state of things, one which will unfortunately kill any major feature expansions of this plugin:

! Thanks for trying, at least. Time to re-add this.

You could also stand to remove the Spaceport download from the OP.

[OrbitusII]

! Thanks for trying, at least. Time to re-add this.

You could also stand to remove the Spaceport download from the OP.

Thanks for catching that, I removed it from the OP to avoid confusion.

Added the new version to the OP.

Changelog:
-Confirmed functionality in 0.24.2
-Condensed the plugin to two classes, LandingGearBrakes and WheelTweaks
-Updated the included version of ModuleManager to 2.2.1

Also submitted to the Community Mods and Plugin Library.