[WIP] Universal Storage

[ModZero]

Just a shot in the dark as I haven't read through the whole thread, have you considered a deployable RCS wedge?

That'll be waay too hard to do, sorry. I don't even know how to make a liquid fueled engine yet :|

Animation Modules does this kind of thing, actually. Never looked at the config file, and it's yet another dependency, kinda common but not even close to Firespitter. It's used in B.Dynamics, which contains the awesomestest rover part ever made.

[Daishi]

Animation Modules does this kind of thing, actually. Never looked at the config file, and it's yet another dependency, kinda common but not even close to Firespitter. It's used in B.Dynamics, which contains the awesomestest rover part ever made.

We'd rather go down the path of wedge customization with Firespitter, rather than animated engines with B.Dynamics. That's an amazing plugin though, might have to find ways to use it in future mods.

Pretty much resolved radial tanks, i think

Would it annoy anyone if the main resource stickers were removed, and shrunk down to only appear on the "info" sticker (where the O2 hazard diamond is)? It'd make the tanks cleaner and less cluttered, but would make identifying what each tank holds a little harder in flight.

Edited September 18, 2014 by Daishi

[AngusJimiKeith]

With the adoption and re-release of Asmi's ECLSS, will that US pack be re-released as well?

EDIT: sorry if this has already been asked.

[Daishi]

With the adoption and re-release of Asmi's ECLSS, will that US pack be re-released as well?

EDIT: sorry if this has already been asked.

Yep, we're just working through a few things first.

[SpeedyB]

I like the labels on the tanks. Makes it easier to tell where things are at a glance.

[CaptainKipard]

I like the labels on the tanks. Makes it easier to tell where things are at a glance.

I agree. Also it makes things look more interesting.

[Paul Kingtiger]

With the adoption and re-release of Asmi's ECLSS, will that US pack be re-released as well?

EDIT: sorry if this has already been asked.

Yep, our next release is going to be at the same time as 0.25, which I'm guessing means next week. That release will include the ECLSS pack along with an official pack for Snacks!

[Chris_Pi]

Would it annoy anyone if the main resource stickers were removed, and shrunk down to only appear on the "info" sticker (where the O2 hazard diamond is)? It'd make the tanks cleaner and less cluttered, but would make identifying what each tank holds a little harder in flight.

Color-coding the top (and maybe bottom) end of each tank past the mounting bracket would keep them easy to ID without the big label. And you could always zoom in and eyeball the info sticker if you weren't sure what was what. The big Labels look nice but it's way more visual clutter than is needed to deliver the information.

[Daishi]

I can't really decide, so i might make it optional with a Firespitter texture-switch, or come back to it later.

Proof of concept for the alternative structures, this is leaning towards an Apollo CSM metal paneling kind of thing. Neutral and blends in pretty well with the stock metal tanks. I'm also planning a white-painted version of the corrugation, with paint chipping and wear and all that slack workmanship that comes with Kerbal engineering.

[Chris_Pi]

That's an alternate external texture for the wedges? Looks pretty nice for install-and-forget, Don't have to mess with them setups. Is the door in that big retangular flat spot or are they simply left out? These with no internal models might make a nice super-low memory alternate texture.

[Daishi]

That's an alternate external texture for the wedges? Looks pretty nice for install-and-forget, Don't have to mess with them setups. Is the door in that big retangular flat spot or are they simply left out? These with no internal models might make a nice super-low memory alternate texture.

Yep! The door is the raised sections under the landercan's window - still able to be opened (the variants share the same door animation) with the same interior labels from the original part. At the moment we have a few options planned for customization...

* Parent exterior structure on and off toggle. This will turn off everything barring the tank on the inside, doing the same thing as our old\current animation module. If you guys want to turn off the interior but leave the exterior, I could include that as an option too.

* One toggle for the corrugation textures; switching between bare metal CSM plating, painted white metal corrugation, and stock black.

* One toggle for the hatch textures; switching between bare metal CSM and the stock painted white hatch. Not sure about having a black variant there yet. I have yet to name the toggle groups, i presume that's possible.

If you're worried about overhead with memory or polygons, these new textures will only be referenced from a single 512px map and shared over every wedge. Firespitter does something different with mesh visibility to - it actually removes nodes in Unity on command so nothing is rendered in the background until it is called with the toggle (unlike the current\old method which still rendered the mesh even if it was off or scaled to 0%).

The old maps are still being used for the white\black structure and are baked in with the interiors, so I can't really remove them to save memory without separating every piece out to have its own texture map. Doing that would be a little nasty for the GPU, drawcalls (rendering throughput) would go through the roof and the game will start to slow down. At the moment it seems to be a nice balance of drawcalls, animation, and functionality.

So switching off the structures with future updates will net you a saving of around 1000 tri a wedge of on-screen rendering, as well as its associated drawcalls. Taking out the interior would save a ton more, but an empty wedge filled with invisible monoprop would be a little odd

Edited September 23, 2014 by Daishi

[Helix935]

Yep! The door is the raised sections under the landercan's window - still able to be opened (the variants share the same door animation) with the same interior labels from the original part. At the moment we have a few options planned for customization...

* Parent exterior structure on and off toggle. This will turn off everything barring the tank on the inside, doing the same thing as our old\current animation module. If you guys want to turn off the interior but leave the exterior, I could include that as an option too.

* One toggle for the corrugation textures; switching between bare metal CSM plating, painted white metal corrugation, and stock black.

* One toggle for the hatch textures; switching between bare metal CSM and the stock painted white hatch. Not sure about having a black variant there yet. I have yet to name the toggle groups, i presume that's possible.

http://i.imgur.com/nsUrZsi.png

If you're worried about overhead with memory or polygons, these new textures will only be referenced from a single 512px map and shared over every wedge. Firespitter does something different with mesh visibility to - it actually removes nodes in Unity on command so nothing is rendered in the background until it is called with the toggle (unlike the current\old method which still rendered the mesh even if it was off or scaled to 0%).

The old maps are still being used for the white\black structure and are baked in with the interiors, so I can't really remove them to save memory without separating every piece out to have its own texture map. Doing that would be a little nasty for the GPU, drawcalls (rendering throughput) would go through the roof and the game will start to slow down. At the moment it seems to be a nice balance of drawcalls, animation, and functionality.

So switching off the structures with future updates will net you a saving of around 1000 tri a wedge of on-screen rendering, as well as its associated drawcalls. Taking out the interior would save a ton more, but an empty wedge filled with invisible monoprop would be a little odd

Awesome Work Daishi, do you plan on releasing the next update by .25 or is it too early to say?

[Daishi]

Awesome Work Daishi, do you plan on releasing the next update by .25 or is it too early to say?

Dunno, got a fair bit on my plate atm, revising every wedge in the set is going to take a while. We'll be re-releasing the ECLSS pack for 0.25 though, I'll try get some of the newer stuff rolled out in that release if we have the time. 0.25 could be emerging in the next few days though so it might be a stretch

[Paul Kingtiger]

0.9 will be released alongside 0.25 KSP. It'll feature the release of the ECLSS pack as well as the new Snacks! pack, giving you 4 life support options!

The main difference though will be a new folder structure which brings everything into a single UniversalStorage folder in GameData. This helps to sort parts in the VAB/SPH in a more logical order and makes Part Catalog integration automatic.

[Ippo]

... a new folder structure which brings everything into a single UniversalStorage folder in GameData. This helps to sort parts in the VAB/SPH in a more logical order and makes Part Catalog integration automatic.

Aww yisss!

[Chris_Pi]

One folder! That will be nice for future updates. Though the current setup makes more sense when things were changing quick. I might try parts catalog again - that "utility" tab is getting stupid big.

[Paul Kingtiger]

We'll be using the USI_Toolkit to manage our resource processors in 0.9

These work on rails which is a big plus, and also have a nice right click menu UI that tells you when you're going to run out of resource.

Because of the new functions, we'll be removing the TAC convertor file from the TAC pack, USI already does everything TAC can for resource processors.

[Paul Kingtiger]

Good news everyone!

0.9 will include a customised Tweakscale config.

The 3 cores can be upscaled as follows:

Quad core: 1.25m (default), 2.5m, 3.75m

Hexacore: 1.875m (default), 2.5m, 3.75m

Octocore: 2.5m (default), 3.75m, 5m

The wedges are also scalable from 100% (default), 133%, 150%, 200%

This matches the cores above.

The wedges are configured via the US_Core.cfg module manager file and the cores via their part.cfg files, which should make for easy modding.

[sp1989]

Good news everyone!

0.9 will include a customised Tweakscale config.

The 3 cores can be upscaled as follows:

Quad core: 1.25m (default), 2.5m, 3.75m

Hexacore: 1.875m (default), 2.5m, 3.75m

Octocore: 2.5m (default), 3.75m, 5m

The wedges are also scalable from 100% (default), 133%, 150%, 200%

This matches the cores above.

The wedges are configured via the US_Core.cfg module manager file and the cores via their part.cfg files, which should make for easy modding.

Total missed opportunity by not using this picture.

[diomedea]

Good news everyone!

0.9 will include a customised Tweakscale config.

...

Excellent news, really . Ability to use different sizes for US parts is perfect to build crafts optimized for a specific mission, and allows ample freedom in choosing how best those parts can be integrated.

Perfect for those designs I was hoping to make.

[Chris_Pi]

This is sure going to help with parts count on my fuel depot. Tons of little KAS wedges for bits and pieces on that thing. With the low orbit bigger recycler wedges will be helpful given enough solar power. I'll actually have a reason for a half-dozen big panels.

[Daishi]

Awesome news with the Tweakscale stuff Paul!

Here's a sneak preview of one of the things i'm up to, a revision of the Sabatier reactor to coincide with the new O2 and C02 tanks coming up (eventually). Pretty much removing most of the grunge, sorting out the stretched UVs and prioritizing the each UV island so the final model is as crisp as possible for its given resolution. Compare it with the old one at the same sized texture map - a big difference

[Daishi]

I'm coming for you, Elektron.

[Alewx]

extremely nice.

[Chris_Pi]

Is that a new decoupler I see under the capsule? Nice looking logo on the Sabatier.