[WIP] Kip Engineering: Now updating - Universal Docking Ports

[CaptainKipard]

I know I said not to test, but did you see if they work? Sorry I didn't think it through.

Edited December 2, 2014 by Cpt. Kipard

[LitaAlto]

LOL, no, sorry. I'm ill and not thinking all that clearly either.

I have Snacks! and can easily try that. I'll download IFI and TAC if I have time tonight and see if those load OK as well.

Since I have never use IFI or TAC the best I can go by is seeing if the parts load both in the editor and on the launchpad/runway--but if that's enough testing for you, that's no issue.

[CaptainKipard]

That's all I need, thanks.

[LitaAlto]

The large T-hubs are getting the config for the generic part name (kip*hub) and not the specific exception I defined after the fact (kipthub). Unless you're up for renaming kipthub, we'll have to define each hub's config separately. Not a huge deal, just adds complexity to the config. What do you think?

Also, this is testing with the current release of the hubs.

[CaptainKipard]

A few things:

For the T-hub try

@PART[kipthub]:Final
{
	@RESOURCE
	{
		@amount = 20
		@maxAmount = 20
	}
}

It's possible that because you've defined a new resource definition earlier, you now have to change the values, and that's done using the @ prefix.

The Final suffix might force the definition to be used last, which is what you want.

the name is not necessary because it was added earlier, with the kip*hub definition

There are more hubs now with different names that you'll need to take into account.

I've uploaded what I have so far here, for you to experiment.

They are finished, except for the medium hubs, which for now are just scaled versions of the large ones, so if anyone wants they can play with them already, but they are not compatible at all with the previous hubs. You can't just overwrite them, you need to delete the old ones completely.

Remember the 6, X and the hex hub should have no resources, so either you'll have to remove them later in the config using the ! prefix (including the "name") and Final suffix, or just do definitions for every part separately.

Edited December 3, 2014 by Cpt. Kipard

[LitaAlto]

Got it. Thanks for the guidance, will work on this tonight.

...

I'm a dork. I should've looked at the MM thread long ago.

Edited December 4, 2014 by LitaAlto

[LitaAlto]

I found the problem with my T-hub config. You have to specify which resource you're editing, like this:

@PART[kipthub]{
    @RESOURCE[Snacks]
    {
        @amount = 20
        @maxAmount = 20
    }
}

The deletes still fail though:

@PART[kip6hub]{
    !RESOURCE[Snacks]
}

I've posted in the MM thread asking about deletes.

Failing that, I'll grit my teeth and write individual configs. It'll make things a bit messier for maintenance, having to do things individually, but hopefully we won't need to make a lot of changes. Also, I'm reminding myself, there's only six hubs that get resources.

Another update: Shasol, who's maintaining ECLSS, got back to me and he'll try to provide me the new rebalanced resource utilization numbers for that mod this weekend--if real life will stop being real long enough.

I'll keep at it for the next few days, and one way or another I should have working configs this weekend.

Update: Although the examples I followed suggest that deletes don't need empty curly braces, I've been told otherwise, so I'll try that tonight. (And now sarbian has weighed in and fixed the example.)

Edited December 4, 2014 by LitaAlto

[toadicus]

Kip, I've finally got a chance to test the gendered port code I worked up at the end of October, and based on preliminary lab tests, it works!

Here's a zipball of the latest plugin. To test it (in the absence of actual gendered parts), I used this patch:

// Kip's 1.25m docking port
@PART[kipunivdockport125]
{
	@MODULE[ModuleAdaptiveDockingNode]
	{
		Gender = female
	}
}

// Squad's shielded docking port
@PART[dockingPort1]:AFTER[AdaptiveDockingNode]
{
	@MODULE[ModuleAdaptiveDockingNode]
	{
		Gender = male
	}
}

Edit: Note that the plugin is compiled with debug logging enabled, so it's going to be noisy and probably slow. But, if you encounter any troubles in your testing the logs it will produce will be much more useful to me.

Edited December 5, 2014 by toadicus
Added debug logging note.

[LitaAlto]

Brief update: Kinda wish I had a versioning system at this point--what started as a code update turned into a bug hunt. But I think I managed to squash the last of the bugs this morning. Tonight I'll retest and if they pass muster I'll upload.

[CaptainKipard]

Kip, I've finally got a chance to test the gendered port code I worked up at the end of October, and based on preliminary lab tests, it works!

Cool, cool.

I have not been working on the models much since I got stuck on the details that depend on what direction we'll be taking. Sirkut hasn't been very vocal there. I suppose we could continue with the simple route: make it behave like any other port, as I assume it is now. Does this version include any orientation checking? Is there anything you need from a model to make that happen? Maybe a correctly oriented docking transform?

Brief update: Kinda wish I had a versioning system at this point--what started as a code update turned into a bug hunt. But I think I managed to squash the last of the bugs this morning. Tonight I'll retest and if they pass muster I'll upload.

Thanks

[toadicus]

This version doesn't have any orientation enforcement but it does report the relative orientations as I believe they are checked by Squad's code. So, if you run some tests with various transforms I can tell you what they mean.

I'm pretty sure Squad's unused orientation enforcement checks the dot product of the "up" vectors of each docking transform. "Forward" goes in the direction of docking, "Up" is orthogonal and can be used to determine relative rotations.

[LitaAlto]

OK, I'm done with Snacks!, IFI, and TAC. Still no word as of yet about new ECLSS resource numbers, so I'll have to touch on that later on.

Also, some of these mods have their own MM configs, some of which are too generous, others too sparing, and all of which are fairly aggressive. I wound up having to abandon the define-once-then-make-exceptions tactic for a clean slate and individual definitions. It works--not the way I would prefer, but it works.

Download the cfg files here.

And I'm done. Until ECLSS has updated resource numbers, I'm going to take a break from staring at Notepad.

[CaptainKipard]

What exactly is the problem with ECLSS?

[LitaAlto]

As I mentioned previously (here, here, and here) ECLSS is expected to be updated soon with completely rebalanced life support resources. I've requested those numbers from Shashol, who's doing the updates, and they said they'd try to get me the new numbers this weekend. So far, though, real life seems to be interfering with that.

Thank you for the rep. I'm not sure what I did to deserve it, but thank you.

Edited December 7, 2014 by LitaAlto

[CaptainKipard]

New hubs are out.

[LitaAlto]

Update: Shashol has clarified that his ECLSS rebalancing will be using figures from Paul Kingtiger's rebalancing mod. I'm asking Paul about his numbers, but it sounds like I'll be able to get an ECLSS config out this weekend.

[LitaAlto]

Paul Kingtiger is a gentleman and a saint. He got me all the information I needed for ECLSS and then some.

I've added ECLSS to the cfg bundle. You can get it here.

I was able to verify the values for the parts, but I ran into a complication that only happens with ECLSS, and only the parts with actual modules and resources:

If anyone who uses ECLSS wants to test this out, and see if they also get exploding parts in the VAB, please do.

[CaptainKipard]

This looks like a known bug.

You need ModuleFixer.

I had the same with the TACLS patch.

Edited December 11, 2014 by Cpt. Kipard

[LitaAlto]

I'll try that, thanks. BTW, I'm running into ModuleManager errors I hadn't caught before with the ECLSS cfg. Hold off on using that just now, please.

[LitaAlto]

False alarm--I thought ECLSS was installed properly but it wasn't, and that's what threw the errors.

But it did lead to Paul making a great suggestion. I could combine all the cfgs into one file and use the NEEDS directive (if that's what they're called here?) to specify that a given node in the cfg requires a particular plugin. That is, I can basically say: "OK, if you got TAC, use this config. If IFI, use this instead." And so forth.

I can have that done this weekend if you'd like.

Alternately, use the current ECLSS cfg and update the hubs. If you go with the latter, you may want to make clear they should only use the relevant cfg for their LSS.

Also, thanks for the lead on the ModuleFixer patch, that was a great help.

[CaptainKipard]

NEEDS ... I can have that done this weekend if you'd like.

It's ok I already edited the other ones like this before I uploaded the whole thing. I'll do this one too and assuming everything else is fine I'll update the download. Thanks for helping. I know it must have been tedious.

[LitaAlto]

It's ok I already edited the other ones like this before I uploaded the whole thing. I'll do this one too and assuming everything else is fine I'll update the download. Thanks for helping. I know it must have been tedious.

Thanks. There were pretty frustrating moments, but I'm grateful for the opportunity.

[CaptainKipard]

Here's some progress on the gendered docking port. It's a 1.25m part, and there wont be a larger version, because IRL gendered docking ports are all small like this.

It will be available earlier in the tree than the stock docking ports, but they're more difficult to use because they require you to plan ahead.

7534 triangles for the male and female part together.

Edited January 1, 2015 by Cpt. Kipard

[RainDreamer]

Nice, now we will have those fool-proof keyed docking port designs where only one orientation would fit.

[CaptainKipard]

Nice, now we will have those fool-proof keyed docking port designs where only one orientation would fit.

Maybe. This functionality doesn't exist yet, but I asked toadicus for it, so maybe he'll write something.

If you have a specific request for the plugin visit toadicus's thread and ask him.