Kerbal Construction Time/StageRecovery Dev Thread

[autumnalequinox]

Can you get me the output_log.txt fie from the KSP_Data folder from the play session where that happened? I can probably tell you what mod is causing it. There is a chance it is KCT related. That sometimes happens when a null reference error occurs, sometimes on recovery. Do you use RealChute? KCT's booster recovery code may have an issue with stock parachutes in a really rare case which will be fixed in the next version. Ironically, using RealChute has less interaction bugs, which is kind of silly to me.

that's the same problem I had awhile back. I also use RealChute. I haven't seen it since the newest hotfix, however.

I've also been getting a sporadic camera lock up that can be hard to work around. It locks the camera when returning to the space center, facing out towards the runway. I also cannot warp at all, the sky flies by but no time passes. It can be fixed by going to a launch. If I jump to any ship in orbit (such as by using the alarm clock) I immediately get a kraken and the ship gets vaporized and a random ship gets launched out of the Kerbin system. It seems the only solution is if the camera locks and I can't get to the launchpad (reconditioning) is to exit the game and close it down completely.

I saw this bug reported earlier in the thread. It seems to be triggered at random, about every 15th scene change to the Space Center. It can be triggered at will by having a ship on the launchpad and reverting to the VAB.

Next time it happens I will grab the log. (how do you do that?? I feel stupid but I have never done it before).

[autumnalequinox]

I(and I am sure many others) would love a plugin that does exactly that with configurable numbers (although those seem reasonable, many people like custom configuration ) - Would it be in the scope of this mod to add the functionality described in Autumnalequinox's post to KCT, magico13? (Specifically Annual Funding & Reputation loss.)

of course I second this, but only to get out of doing work

[magico13]

I'm going to assume you are on Windows, if not then I don't know where they are stored. With that assumption, the output_log.txt file will be located in the Kerbal Space Program folder (aka, where GameData is and the KSP.exe) in a folder called KSP_Data (or KSP_x64_Data if using 64 bit). It is overwritten every time the game loads, so it has to be from after a play session where the issue occurred to be of any use.

That log is KSP Modder's gold. If you include it with bug reports without being asked you will be regarded as a saint by any modder. It saves ourselves so much work and means that we can actually try to be of help, instead of taking up a bunch of posts saying "Please include logs or I can't help". Seriously, check the RealChute thread. I know it's happened there

It could be related to a lock being stuck active. Or just a "normal" Null Reference Error. Or some bug in the booster recovery code (I mean, that's literally where 73%* of the bugs are for some stupid reason). If it's an NRE the log will say that. If it's a lock being stuck active, I think the active locks are printed on scene changes, so the log will say that too. If it's neither of those then I haven't a clue. The past camera lockups have been hard to diagnose, since the only "error" reported is with the camera itself, randomly, and without reference to anything else.

Also, I want to point out that I've spent the past hour watching other people use KCT on youtube (okay, there's only 3 youtubers who come up when you search "Kerbal Construction Time" and I take up 2 and a half out of three pages). Not gonna lie, their reactions to things are hilarious. Having written the code, it's hard to imagine what it's like for people who don't know what certain features do. Watching first time users gives me a lot of insight into the Ease of Use. My favorite is waiting for them to try unlocking a tech node. The one person's reaction was so unexpected, since normally I figured people get upset, but he was like "You have to wait for tech to be unlocked?! That's awesome!" or something along those lines. I died with laughter. I also learned that I should make the part inventory viewable under the VAB/SPH Storage tab.

*: Not literally. Though I swear it has to be over half of them.

[vardicd]

Somehow doubting this is the culprit, but might as well ask... Has anyone else seen this happen? Game was running like normal, I fast forward a few days, trying to get contracts to cycle, then go to VAB and get this...

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=303393642

It's like the reasearch center got crammed into the VAB... Like I said, dunno if it's actually related to this, but figured that KCT would've been about the only thing actively doing something in that chain of events, so this should be a good place to start

I've only seen this once before, and I wasn't using KCT at the time. {Least I'm pretty sure it was in my pre-KCT game days}

@Vardicd That option won't affect any existing reconditiong, but should affect future ones. If you temporarily disable reconditioning, then reenable it, the new setting should take affect and you can cancel the current reconditioning.

Yeah, and I figured out if your launching really big rockets, like 9000+ tones of single frame per second lag fest, the difference between 4 days for every 25 tones and 4 days for every 100 tones... Not so much actually O_O

[CatastrophicFailure]

Somehow doubting this is the culprit, but might as well ask... Has anyone else seen this happen? Game was running like normal, I fast forward a few days, trying to get contracts to cycle, then go to VAB and get this...

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=303393642

It's like the reasearch center got crammed into the VAB... Like I said, dunno if it's actually related to this, but figured that KCT would've been about the only thing actively doing something in that chain of events, so this should be a good place to start

I've gotten this a few times myself, most recently last night when everything was just fine that morning, and after time warping too. It could also be related to the StageRecovery mod if you're running that.

[JeffreyCor]

I haven't gotten that at all. Occasionally will have a camera goof going to the space center screen but not in the VAB or SPH. I suspect it's caused by another mod as I use both KCT and SR without this issue popping up. Naturally make sure you are updated to the latest version of both I can't attest to the interaction of older versions.

[magico13]

It's possible that it's related to StageRecovery if you've got that installed because of an issue with Powered Recovery. Try turning that off in the SR settings. There's an issue related to the fact that I'm referencing a PartModule reference from a ProtoPartModuleSnapshot but the reference is null (which only occurs outside of the flight scene). I need to fix that up for next version of SR, but disabling the Powered Recovery should avert that since the normal parachute recovery should be free of anything like that now.

[autumnalequinox]

I'm going to assume you are on Windows, if not then I don't know where they are stored. With that assumption, the output_log.txt file will be located in the Kerbal Space Program folder (aka, where GameData is and the KSP.exe) in a folder called KSP_Data (or KSP_x64_Data if using 64 bit). It is overwritten every time the game loads, so it has to be from after a play session where the issue occurred to be of any use.

That log is KSP Modder's gold. If you include it with bug reports without being asked you will be regarded as a saint by any modder. It saves ourselves so much work and means that we can actually try to be of help, instead of taking up a bunch of posts saying "Please include logs or I can't help". Seriously, check the RealChute thread. I know it's happened there

ahh thanks this is actually very helpful, I need to do my part with the debuggery. I need to update realchute and a few things, I suspect it may be there or with mechjeb, now that memory serves me I had the camera lock up problem before I got KCT, it was just less frequent (but then again I am playing alot more now lol).

and @WololoW: here is a link to a mod proposal I have made dealing with such things. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/91176-Space-Program-Historical-Framework-Research-Goals-a-plugin-to-tie-it-together

@magico13: actually assuming I can find time and learn a new programming language again I would like to make (or trick someone else into making) a dependent plug-in that deals with more of the admin side of things. It would sort of be like MKS/OKS to TAC life support, an expansion and companion but reliant on the passage of time provided by KCT (as well as research). If you were okay with this of course. So far it's barely out of outline, however.

[magico13]

@magico13: actually assuming I can find time and learn a new programming language again I would like to make (or trick someone else into making) a dependent plug-in that deals with more of the admin side of things. It would sort of be like MKS/OKS to TAC life support, an expansion and companion but reliant on the passage of time provided by KCT (as well as research). If you were okay with this of course. So far it's barely out of outline, however.

I would be happy to provide access to KCT's abilities if you find that you need them. If you let me know what you need, I can try to make an API that exposes the functionality. You may find that it's easier to write your own versions of some things, and I give you full permission to base those off of the KCT source. I would suggest avoiding just copying and pasting, but I don't mind if there's some overlap in code (you may also find that the way I handle things could be done much better. I've never actually been formally trained in any programming languages, so my methods tend to be somewhat ad-hoc).

I of course am also fine with you compiling against the KCT .dll directly, but if you want to make anything standalone I've got some experience with setting up a wrapper class to allow soft dependencies, which I can setup for KCT with whatever functions you need access to.

Good luck!

[Ixonal]

Can you get me the output_log.txt fie from the KSP_Data folder from the play session where that happened? I can probably tell you what mod is causing it. There is a chance it is KCT related. That sometimes happens when a null reference error occurs, sometimes on recovery. Do you use RealChute? KCT's booster recovery code may have an issue with stock parachutes in a really rare case which will be fixed in the next version. Ironically, using RealChute has less interaction bugs, which is kind of silly to me.

I'm assuming this was directed at me, since it doesn't have anything to directly imply that it was. I do use Realchute, but still use some stock chutes too. This seems to be something that's stuck in the savegame as well, since it does it every time I load the game after that point.

Here's a full dump of the output log, but it doesn't look odd to me...

(ack, dropbox looks to be down, had to put it in a gist...)

https://gist.github.com/Ixonal/637fdd2bb6d370847719

Edit: I do not have stage recovery installed

Edit 2: Whoops, had the 32 bit version of the log, just updated it to my 64 bit version. Looks like FAR has an exception in there towards the end...

Edited August 21, 2014 by Ixonal
clarification

[magico13]

@Ixonal Yeah, that was directed at you, sorry about that. If I don't quote or say a name directly, it's usually directed at the post right before mine. PR 7.2.3 fixed that bug (although I later realized it has its own problem). It won't crash your game anymore but dropped stages with excess resources may not recover properly (because the resource density is incorrectly determined to be 1, so every unit of resource weighs a literal ton). That is fixed in the next version, which is in testing. Alternatively, StageRecovery has both problems fixed already, but has an issue that I'm working on with powered recovery (which can be easily disabled if you're not intending to use it).

Thank you for the log. Updating to PR 7.2.3 or adding StageRecovery should cause the problem to stop happening on load and should cause your save to function again. That pesky booster recovery code accounts for a majority of the bugs I run into

[Ixonal]

@Ixonal Yeah, that was directed at you, sorry about that. If I don't quote or say a name directly, it's usually directed at the post right before mine. PR 7.2.3 fixed that bug (although I later realized it has its own problem). It won't crash your game anymore but dropped stages with excess resources may not recover properly (because the resource density is incorrectly determined to be 1, so every unit of resource weighs a literal ton). That is fixed in the next version, which is in testing. Alternatively, StageRecovery has both problems fixed already, but has an issue that I'm working on with powered recovery (which can be easily disabled if you're not intending to use it).

Thank you for the log. Updating to PR 7.2.3 or adding StageRecovery should cause the problem to stop happening on load and should cause your save to function again. That pesky booster recovery code accounts for a majority of the bugs I run into

That brings up another little weirdness. I updated the mod to 0.7.2.3 when it was released, and the .version file says that's the version, but the plugin keeps saying I'm using version 0.7.2.2, and wants me to download 0.7.2.3. Any idea what's up with that?

[magico13]

Oh, I think I had inadvertently forgotten to include the updated .dll in the zip when I first uploaded it. I'm pretty sure I fixed that, but it was about an hour or two later. Looking back to this post that does appear to be the case. If you redownload it will properly be 0.7.2.3 this time. So far that's the first time I've done that after 33 different releases I should automate the build process some more, but that's easier for me in Linux than on Windows. (For minecraft modding I had a bash script that would recompile, copy all the files and merge textures into a folder, make the zip file with automatic naming, and even copy it to the minecraft directory for testing. For KSP I have to do most of it manually, except when I compile it will automatically start KSP.)

[Ixonal]

Oh, I think I had inadvertently forgotten to include the updated .dll in the zip when I first uploaded it. I'm pretty sure I fixed that, but it was about an hour or two later. Looking back to this post that does appear to be the case. If you redownload it will properly be 0.7.2.3 this time. So far that's the first time I've done that after 33 different releases I should automate the build process some more, but that's easier for me in Linux than on Windows. (For minecraft modding I had a bash script that would recompile, copy all the files and merge textures into a folder, make the zip file with automatic naming, and even copy it to the minecraft directory for testing. For KSP I have to do most of it manually, except when I compile it will automatically start KSP.)

What IDE do you use for Windows development? if it's visual studio, you can set up some post-build events to take care of that.

Edit: updating the mod fixed it! thanks!

Edited August 22, 2014 by Ixonal

[magico13]

Yeah, it's visual studio express. I've got some setup to copy the .dll to the GameData directory and start the KSP.exe automatically, but I haven't taken it any further yet. I do very little Windows scripting, as I'm far more comfortable with Linux scripting, but maybe I'll look into doing some more to ease the release process.

[Ixonal]

Yeah, it's visual studio express. I've got some setup to copy the .dll to the GameData directory and start the KSP.exe automatically, but I haven't taken it any further yet. I do very little Windows scripting, as I'm far more comfortable with Linux scripting, but maybe I'll look into doing some more to ease the release process.

I have to use visual studio for work. I think there's an addon or extension or something that can help with writing build scripts. I do so little with them, that I don't really need it right now, though.

[CatastrophicFailure]

It's possible that it's related to StageRecovery if you've got that installed because of an issue with Powered Recovery. Try turning that off in the SR settings. There's an issue related to the fact that I'm referencing a PartModule reference from a ProtoPartModuleSnapshot but the reference is null (which only occurs outside of the flight scene). I need to fix that up for next version of SR, but disabling the Powered Recovery should avert that since the normal parachute recovery should be free of anything like that now.

FYI: yup that fixed my "lost-flights-VAB-floorwall" issue alright. Spot on.

[mouzfun]

Is there some updates on DR+ KJR bug in simulation? it's a major bummer to me since i want to test everything before i launch my dudes for 3 year journeys.

[magico13]

Is there some updates on DR+ KJR bug in simulation? it's a major bummer to me since i want to test everything before i launch my dudes for 3 year journeys.

Not yet, I'm finishing up some rewrites that I had to do for TweakScale, then I'll take a look at that.

Edit: Making progress with that. Added a 3 second countdown before movement, which should fix that. It also means that physics will be applied prior to movement, so it may make ships fall apart that aren't designed for Kerbin's gravity.

Edited August 24, 2014 by magico13

[mouzfun]

Great news, waiting for the release.

[JeffreyCor]

The problem with KJR in simulations looks good, the holdup is the dang tweakscale giving problems. Knowing our luck once things looks good there they will probably release an update to throw a wrench into things like RealChutes had done before

[forsaken1111]

This mod is giving me a lot of problems when I try to use a vessel with any of the boxsat parts on it. I'll do some more targeted testing tonight.

The vessel will 'build' fine but when I attempt to launch it, it will just go to the KSC scene and sit there unresponsive.

[magico13]

Great news, waiting for the release.

Hopefully soon^TM. Like JeffreyCor said, just trying to sort out a few more kinks. I've been trying to do a bunch more optimization and general code cleanup.

The problem with KJR in simulations looks good, the holdup is the dang tweakscale giving problems. Knowing our luck once things looks good there they will probably release an update to throw a wrench into things like RealChutes had done before

I'm about to take a look at what you sent me last night, so hopefully I can clear some up that up. I haven't seen any of the lag you have thus far, but I also am typically running at over 100 fps, so any drops are not that noticeable (well, right now I've got v-sync on and am constantly at 60 fps). Also, if StupidChris refactors the RC code another time I may scream. Though I'm getting better at updating with it. The first time I tried to figure it out it took several weeks (anyone else remember when there were two versions of KCT?)

This mod is giving me a lot of problems when I try to use a vessel with any of the boxsat parts on it. I'll do some more targeted testing tonight.

The vessel will 'build' fine but when I attempt to launch it, it will just go to the KSC scene and sit there unresponsive.

I'll take a look and see what I can find. I was considering playing around with that mod too, so it gives me a reason to download it now

[forsaken1111]

I'll take a look and see what I can find. I was considering playing around with that mod too, so it gives me a reason to download it now

It's a good looking mod so hoping you can figure out what is going on. I did not try to get a reproducible save yet as it was late. I was able to launch the vessel fine once I removed KCT which is what makes me think it is this but I will do some more testing tonight and see if I can get you a good save to reproduce the effect.

[magico13]

The potentially good news is that it works fine for me with the latest development version of KCT. The bad news is that I don't know if that because I don't have the issues in the first place, or because I already fixed the issue. I'm going to switch back to the last released KCT version and see if I can force it to have a problem. If I can't then I will definitely need your output_log.txt file and hope that something's reported. Just to be clear, you did go to the VAB (or SPH) Storage tab and click the launch button after it finished?

Edit: Even with the old version I'm not having any issues. It built and launched just fine.

Edited August 25, 2014 by magico13