[WIP] Universal Storage

[Daishi]

^

Interesting change to the doors. Personally I would like something with a smaller radius, but I see your reasoning. I think the thing that looks most off about them right now is that they look too thin. Do you plan on making them thicker, like the current US? Also, do you have any wedges ready (textured or untextured) to put between the girders, to give us an picture of what the final model would look like with the new doors?

And just thinking out loud - part of the point of US2 is to be able to extend the wedges vertically to reduce part count, right? But now with those wide doors, have you thought about being able to extend them horizontally as well? In this case, the two exposed girders between the wide doors would disappear, and then the wide wedge would fully wrap around between the two door edges. In combination with being able to vertically expand wedges, it could save a decent amount of parts. I could see it being used for fuel wedges and life support wedges for those long journeys or space stations.

Of course, this would limit the radius of the "wide-wedge" parts, so they would only fit on the 2.5m storage rack.

They'll release it when they're ready - Dangit's devs have been quite busy recently. Totally up to them how they incorporate it into the mod, I was just in charge of the visuals

Re: the thin doors - they're thin in those screenshots because they don't have the outer surface attached yet (the customizable paneling). They'll be around three times thicker to match the circumference of the shrouds baseplate (in green) when everything is put together, so don't worry! The door section visible in the previous images is in white.

I've been thinking about laterally extending wedges too - good idea but just a pain to design. Will experiment later on

I'll get some more resolved images up soon, been a bit slow with persistant winter colds and the start of the Christmas retail season. Ho hum

[Daishi]

Puttering on, inside the bay doors are resolved and textured up. Will be making the outside now

[Daishi]

1.25m shroud, with standard striping. Two bays are suited for low profile door deployment (for inline craft where aerodynamics are important, like 1.25m aircraft), while the other two have a traditional wide-arc hinge. Each pair can be opened individually.

2.5m shroud, with no exterior (yet). Has two bays on either side that allow for quick access to often used equipment (only one shown), while the back and front of the shroud open completely. The core can be removed and the 2.5m shroud used as a payload bay with these larger doors.

Slow going, once this boring stuff is done i'll get going on the parts.

[CobaltWolf]

Looking great as always. I like the low profile doors.

[Daishi]

Looking great as always. I like the low profile doors.

Thankyou! I was intending to have every door on the 1.25m shroud be low profile sliders, but it just looked weird when the segments overlapped each other, and created a ton of clipping issues. It's just hard to get things resolved - I feel like I'm going around in circles when nothing I do seems to match what I've visualized in my head.

Higher res versions of those gifs too,

and

. Edited October 22, 2015 by Daishi

[Angelo Kerman]

I'm really impressed with your art techniques, I wish I could be that good. Practice, I know, but there's obviously techniques I've yet to learn. Looks great!

[Daishi]

I'm really impressed with your art techniques, I wish I could be that good. Practice, I know, but there's obviously techniques I've yet to learn. Looks great!

Yeah, it all boils down to practice, and realizing there's often better ways to do things halfway through (and then doing it all again lol). Keep going!

The underside of the 1.25m shroud almost resolved, based on elements of the Mercury capsule. The outside rim of the base changes based on what variant of shroud you choose, so the white blocks won't appear when you're sporting a full-metal CSM design, for example.

[landeTLS]

Very nice and visually interesting designs daishi.

[Daishi]

Very nice and visually interesting designs daishi.

Thanks! Hope your own stuff is going well

[landeTLS]

Thanks! Hope your own stuff is going well

Thanks! I hope so too:P

[Paul Kingtiger]

That end cap looks amazing!

I love the way the corrugated structure terminates.

[skbernard]

hey guys, any new fancy dev pictures?

[Daishi]

On ‎15‎/‎12‎/‎2015‎ ‎7‎:‎41‎:‎01‎, skbernard said:

hey guys, any new fancy dev pictures?

Not really

Most of my work recently has been revising all the node positions again. Now that the wedges need to fit within an enclosing structure, I need to find a good compromise with their attachment so that none of them clip through the walls.

Of course I made the job harder by slightly shrinking the diameter of the small shroud to an accurate width - I've noticed the current quad pieces create a cylinder of 1.29m instead of 1.25m. Kept as it is, having US parts inline would catch airflow and create a ton of airflow resistance.

Full on work in my other job too, so its slow progress I'm afraid. With this groundwork done I should be able to get momentum going pretty quickly.

[Nemeko]

Probably too late, but if is possible consider a variant of the octocore in which we have a fuel tank instead of the tunnel (giving extra dv) because i think most of the time is used in the bottom of the capsule with a heat shield in the middle so kerbals don't pass through it, and it would be a nice add to use it for the empty space that represents the tunnel in some cases.

[Paul Kingtiger]

On 1/1/2016 at 1:59 PM, Nemeko said:

....variant of the octocore in which we have a fuel tank instead of the tunnel....

You could set this up pretty easily with a modulemanager file.

[StevieC]

I frequently pair the octocore with the LV-T95-8 from Nertea's Near Future Spacecraft Parts addon, which has a ring of eight LV-T95s encircling a hatch that can have a docking-port attached to it (also it has a toroidal fuel-tank built into it) so that tunnel in the Octocore is quite useful.

[Daishi]

Back again! 

Rough exterior test of the 2.5m shroud, bare steel. Will have to make it shinier\lighter but balancing can come after everything is fleshed out. 

[Daishi]

[CobaltWolf]

Looks beautiful Daishi! My only concern is that this seems to be edging into a very realistic style. Previous versions toed the line between realistic and stockalike, and generally fit in with both. Is fitting into the stockalike art style no longer in the scope of this mod?

[Daishi]

On 2/3/2016 at 10:01 AM, CobaltWolf said:

Looks beautiful Daishi! My only concern is that this seems to be edging into a very realistic style. Previous versions toed the line between realistic and stockalike, and generally fit in with both. Is fitting into the stockalike art style no longer in the scope of this mod?

I'm still trying to follow that style, but seeing what Porkjet has done with the new spaceplane parts (and looking ahead to what he'll probably be doing with revised fuel tanks) there's a lot more fidelity in stock textures compared to what there used to be.

Once everything has been made and in-game alongside KSP 1.1 (my goal), i'll make changes to tone down what needs it, and balance the appearance to fit in more appropriately with the newest assets

[Daishi]

Decided to go back to smaller doors for smaller radii. It was so awkward to animate otherwise, and makes more sense if you're designing smaller ships, or deciding to build inline on small aircraft and need less surface area jutting out for drag. The opening should be big enough to allow all Dmagic wedges to extend with minimal (if any) clipping.

This is a quick test of a 1.25m single and double high bay, in the "CSM Steel" variant; the same texture that the previous post had. . Haven't added specular yet and toned down the scratches, but true polishing comes last   

[Daishi]

@CobaltWolf Bit more stockalike? I thought the scratches were a bit overdone, now that you mentioned it. 

[Daishi]

1.25m black\ gemini \ mercury shroud WIP

Edited February 18, 2016 by Daishi

[Daishi]

[jcthemc]

Is it in any way possible to switch the fuel tank from Liquid + Oxidizer to Liquid only, so i can make more use of the volume of the tank?

Edit: i just answered my own question. I already had KSPI installed, and adding Starlion Industries - KSPI & IFS Compatibility Patches did the trick. Tanks are tiny but i need to fill up some space

Ps. I frigging love this mod!

Edited February 20, 2016 by jcthemc