Walking, Flying, Custom Replica T-Rex Mech[.23.5]

[VR_Dev]

So it's hard to tell whats happening here. But by moving the parts around in unity I have been able to get the IR plugin to move my parts. The COM of the part is still in the middle, but they rotate correctly. Good news for walking. Obviously the robotics still need to be tweaked

Edited April 22, 2014 by clown_baby

[m1sz]

That is awesome :D:D:D

[VR_Dev]

So the legs are done. I need to finish the custom hip, then the the body itself is pretty much done. The tail needs to sway back and forth and the elbows animated, but I'm going back to the scythe engines because I want to see this thing fly.

I've also been loading torque wheels into everything. The body, tail, and upper leg all have torque wheels now. I also need to make the toes claws bigger.

Here the hip joint is stock so it isn't very strong, hence the extra movement. Also I sped the robotics up to get a couple walk cycles into the gif. Here only the hip and foot are moving, but the knee and lower knee can also rotate.

The foot stabilizers also lower now. I hope you guys dig it all so far.

Edited April 21, 2014 by clown_baby

[VR_Dev]

Well I finished the body yesterday. It's sent off to a couple guys who are gonna try and make it walk so hopefully we'll see some progress there. I thought it would by flying now but it turns out all the mechanics in the arms have to be ir, I can't just animate them in blender. But I'm off to work and I'll probably jam it out there.

I've started messing with the particle emitter and now I'm confident the cannon will shoot some kind of laser beam. It may even be able to emit a force field like the one in the cartoon if you ever saw that. I just need to figure out how to call the animation, as right now its constantly running.

Edited April 22, 2014 by clown_baby

[Parallax]

clown dude, I downloaded the files you linked, and im a little lost as to where to put them.... I stuck both folders in my gamedata folder and moved the craft file to the ships folder, and ksp wouldn't launch at all. I deleted the macosx folder, and I was able to load ksp successfully. also when I opened your craft file, it loaded properly but my game started lagging hardcore as well. I tried loading it with .23.5 and I get the same result, hardcore lag both in the vab and on the runway (.23.5 is super smooth for me). a low res pack would be nice.

otherwise, it looks like I have enough to work with to make this thing walk, once we get this lagging issue sorted out.

[blackheart612]

I doubt it is about the texture though.

[Parallax]

or too many polygons or something... I tried putting it together piece by piece from scratch, and it gets noticeably more laggy every time I add another piece

[blackheart612]

Yep, polys.

[Parallax]

whats weird is that after I had the thing sitting on the runway for a bit, the performance went up to normal, but no such luck in the vab, even with settings turned way down.

[blackheart612]

Oh maybe not. While lagging, check the debug, it might be piling up with stacks

[Parallax]

how do I do that, and how do I fix it?

[VR_Dev]

whoah. sorry I missed all this. First, there was only one folder in the .zip called berserk fury. that should have gone in your game data folder, and the .craft where ever you want.

I know its not buttery smooth, but for me on my ****ty macbook its playable. It isn't any worse than when I build a large ship. My gundam lagged way more. I have the graphics all the way up and its ok, but at 50% its just fine. I know it can be de-detailed but that'll be last if necessary. You can see in the running gif I made it moves pretty good in those 11 seconds. That video isn't sped up.

And blackheart is right, it throws a bunch of errors when debugged but it still loads fine for me. The errors just say it can't calculate drag from some meshes. Which I assume are like the teeth and what not.

[blackheart612]

Check it first, alt+f12 and see debug

Edit: oh, there you go, it does. lol

[VR_Dev]

Hah, yeah, it flies.

But not well. Couple things I could use some advice on. First and foremost, IR joints. I thought breaking force and torque being cranked up would do the trick, but it didn't. I'm pretty sure this is a well known problem, but I really need them strenghtened. Does anyone know what "joint damping" does?

I have made the arm and engine mass low so they work alright when extending, but as soon as the engines turn on they turn into noodles. As I type this I just realized it might just have to come down to quantum struts.

And I need the engine to rotate. I'm trying to add the engine module to an IR configuration, but nothing yet. Anyone know anything about combining two .cfgs into one essentially?

Edited April 23, 2014 by clown_baby

[blackheart612]

If you mean wobble, the nodes are what determines how strong their connections are methinks, try making it 3 instead of 1.

[m1sz]

I'm gonna try it rightnow, I'll post what I got

[VR_Dev]

Blackheart that seems to have worked. You have any idea why it might move around on the runway? I thought it was parts colliding, but I've put allow collisions for all parts. I might go back and remove the mesh collider for all overlapping parts in unity.

Anyway, check this out, the arms have to be tweaked to find the COM before it will fly however. Hopefully gifs later

The scythes have to be made symmetrical.

The blades have to be attached via nodes, not surface attach so they don't leave the engine. That will be interesting. Break time now though

[VR_Dev]

Combo of IR and my animations. This is full graphics, it's smoother in game. Recording kills my fps. I'm done for the day amigos. Flying tomorrow

Edited April 23, 2014 by clown_baby

[blackheart612]

What do you mean moving around?

[m1sz]

it will slide when you're standing on the runway, like it was standing in ice!

It happens after you move a little, not just after you launch

[blackheart612]

Tha's odd. Is there a module for landing legs? try adding that lol

[VR_Dev]

That's correct. Rillz said it was like his was on a turntable. Mine doesn't do it anymore but apparently its still happening. The feet are mumechservos so they can move, so I have to figure out how to combine the landing gear module.

On the flying front, I flew it up to the helipad last night

[VR_Dev]

A realistic amount of fuel just gets it up there from the rocket platform. There might be a version with like a nuclear reactor or something that allows it to go further. The blades aren't on the engines because I'm reworking them to avoid contact with the ground

[VR_Dev]

High altitude test is 1200m

Edit: I'm also thinking about how to design winglets to pop out of the last tail section. If anyone feels like helping me out in blender it would be much appreciated. I know how to tweak things that are already built, I'm not necessarily creative enough to design something like that

Edited April 24, 2014 by clown_baby

[m1sz]

Working with this massive lag in the VAB, and having to wait a half a minute to start moving after launch is tedious, and making everything harder!

Anyway, in order to walk it needs 2 things: GRIP in the legs, and a lot more TORQUE near the COM!

The grip might be hard..., atm I'm trying my best adding wheels to the legs, but more SAS would be very welcome =)

I guess it's just changing a number in the CFG, but I've never did it myself..., anyway, I'll try to do it tomorrow!