[1.12.x] Kerbulator: use your own math!

[wmvanvliet]

I'm familiar with lua. It should indeed not be too hard to make a mod that executes arbitrary lua code and I welcome you to write one.

However, Kerbulator is not meant to be a programming language. It's a 'math' language. Lua, as almost any programming language, sucks at producing readable math equations.

Personally, if I were to bind a language into KSP, I would do Julia, that's one heck of a good programming language for math!

KSPTOT has MATLAB interfaced to KSP, which is also really awesome (but MATLAB is $$$$$$ so less awesome as Julia).

[Blipman17]

I was asking you because I can't do it myself.

But I understand that you dont want to build a programming language into it. Still gonna try it.

[wmvanvliet]

Creating a mod is a lot of fun. Good luck. Don't hesitate to ask questions when you get stuck.

[Blipman17]

I'm cerainly going to, but first getting of highschool for the next two weeks, then starting to mess around with Java more.

after a verry quick visit on github i found this.

KSPDIR := C:/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/Steam/SteamApps/common/Kerbal\ Space\ Program

isn't it better to just get the place of the running ksp process and work from there?

if you don't, kerbulator won't operate correctly when you install ksp not in the steam folder.

[wmvanvliet]

that's a line of the Makefile, only used for compiling the source code. Once Kerbulator is installed, it will automatically detect the location of KSP.

[Blipman17]

like I said, "verry quick look."

[Aedile]

Does anyone have some good formulas?

[z26]

I think that could be useful for this http://www.kerbaledu.com/

Maybe playing with this only instead of the normal manoeuvers nodes coud be a fun challenge.

Edited May 10, 2014 by z26

[wmvanvliet]

Aedile: why not plot a course to the Mun? Kosmo-not has written about calculating phase angles here:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/16511-Tutorial-Interplanetary-How-To-Guide

It deals with going from planet to planet, but can be used to go from anywhere to anywhere.

[Seth]

Could somebody recompile and upload a working version? The spaceport link doesn't exist anymore.

[wmvanvliet]

I fixed the download links. The binary is now also hosted on Github.

[Noobton]

Hi, I'm beginning to try new things, and I wanted to use the Kerbulator in the VAB, is there any way to enable it on that screen?

Thanks for the awesome work.

[Drew Kerman]

any chance of getting either custom input or craft data like mass and current engine stats? Specifically, this would be great for me to use to calculate my burn times from within KSP without needing to use Google on the side-monitor. But currently I have to constantly edit the function to change the craft mass and delta-v

[wmvanvliet]

Hi, I'm beginning to try new things, and I wanted to use the Kerbulator in the VAB, is there any way to enable it on that screen?

Thanks for the awesome work.

I could easily enable Kerbulator in the VAB. I chose not to at the time because I didn't see a point as Kerbulator doesn't supply any data related to fuel and engines. What kinds of things are you planning on calculating in the VAB?

any chance of getting either custom input or craft data like mass and current engine stats? Specifically, this would be great for me to use to calculate my burn times from within KSP without needing to use Google on the side-monitor. But currently I have to constantly edit the function to change the craft mass and delta-v

I'll create an issue for it in Github. My aim is to enable access to any and all numbers in the GUI, that means engine stats, mass and fuel levels as well.

Edited July 1, 2014 by wmvanvliet

[Drew Kerman]

Thanks. Also I tried to name a function "Resource Mass - L/O" and it didn't like that too much because of the slash. / and \ both cause it to flip out and grow the function screen to the width of the error message and then the window also extends down below the bottom of the screen so you can't resize it back without having to restart the game.

Speaking of which, saved window positions would be nice as well

[wmvanvliet]

Yeah, that's not a valid function name (relevant manual entry), but of course, Kebrulator shouldn't trip out like that. Another issue created Thanks for the feedback!.

Saved windows is on my todo list as well.

[Noobton]

I could easily enable Kerbulator in the VAB. I chose not to at the time because I didn't see a point as Kerbulator doesn't supply any data related to fuel and engines. What kinds of things are you planning on calculating in the VAB?

I'm trying to get a little more precise with my dv budget, currently using engineer to get the delta-v value and I've found a few tables that I've been using, but I want to make some calculations per stage that I can't find anywhere (so far I haven't been able to predict anything, but like I said I've been playing for just a little while and trying to construct rockets as cheap as possible).

Thanks

[PaidLeber]

I just found this plugin a couple days ago and it has become my favorite. i'm using it with remote tech2's flight computer and precise node. Can you expose the current game's epoch as a kerbulator global variable? For example I wanted to calc acceleration to assist with a rocket's ascent profile but can't without change in time. I also want to calc launch windows and output t + epoch (future date).

Thanks.

[PaidLeber]

Also consider adding the atan2(y,x) function. It's useful for calculating eccentric anomaly with regards to quadrants without using if else statements.

[Drew Kerman]

Gotta dredge this thread back up. Works fine in 0.25 but still really looking forward to this

I'll create an issue for it in Github. My aim is to enable access to any and all numbers in the GUI, that means engine stats, mass and fuel levels as well.

[wmvanvliet]

I just found this plugin a couple days ago and it has become my favorite. i'm using it with remote tech2's flight computer and precise node. Can you expose the current game's epoch as a kerbulator global variable? For example I wanted to calc acceleration to assist with a rocket's ascent profile but can't without change in time. I also want to calc launch windows and output t + epoch (future date).

Thanks.

That is actually supported, it's the UT global variable. I just noticed it was missing in the docs...

[wmvanvliet]

A variable to count the number of seconds since vehicle launch (the mission time) is missing though. Another support ticket (#20).

[wmvanvliet]

Adding globals to Kerbulator is easy. What is hard sometimes is digging out the corresponding variables from the KSP codebase... any help with that is always appreciated!

[Drew Kerman]

Adding globals to Kerbulator is easy. What is hard sometimes is digging out the corresponding variables from the KSP codebase... any help with that is always appreciated!

You should chat with the kOS guys

[PaidLeber]

That is actually supported, it's the UT global variable. I just noticed it was missing in the docs...

I browsed the code and found it awhile back. Thanks.