[1.2.2](Dec10/16) Action Groups Extended: 250 Action Groups, in-flight editing. Now kOS/RemoteTech

[Diazo]

I haven't tried this idea yet, but I think his mod will be exceptionally useful for space stations and ships that will dock with them. My understanding is that everything defined for action group (I'll play with #6) stays with the group no matter what is in control. If someone has group 6 toggle an engine, clamp-o-tron release, or decoupler, and a station has group 6 set up for some lights... someone flipping a light switch on the station with that ship attached could be disastrous. (The front page's write up on "Docked Vessels" covers a work around that I like.)

Correct, an assigned action is always activated when that group is activated. The action groups added by AGX allow you to avoid this situation by using groups 1-10 for the docked vessel and groups 11-20 for the space station. Then using keysets you can use the same 10 physical keys to control the two different sets of 10 action groups.

You can even hide the actions on the docked vessel using the visibility groups now if you wish.

Requests/notes:

For testing purposes and users without enough free keys, can this control panel be given buttons to toggle the action groups (this panel both a control panel and the way to edit groups) or make a separate panel to toggle/activate groups without keys/stick?

I'm pretty sure both of these things are already in. Clicking on a group in the flight window activates that group with the mouse. Clicking on the 'Edit' button on the same flight window opens the edit windows so you can assign/change actions in flight.

2. Joysticks currently only <= 4?

I think the joystick test only supported 4 Joysticks (or Joystick[any?], 1,2,3,4). Due to KSP/Unity ignoring my joystick IDs and assigning stuff in whatever order it feels like and the use of PPJoy to fix some issues, I think the joystick I tried to use is "more than 4" and did not show up to the test and could not be assigned from the Joystick list. To avoid having your list grow, could that be implemented as "Joystick" selection (pick any or a number) and "button" selection (pick a number)?

Err, I'll have to look again, but I did run into some issues with joystick support. I'll get back to you on this one.

It's also been a few days since I tried this; if any of this is out of date or irrelevant, please let me know!

Shouldn't be. It looks like 1.19 is stable, I have not had to push any hotfixes for it.

Thanks for the feedback,

D.

[Diazo]

Version 1.20

Redo system showing part locations from scratch.

Actions in the Current Group Actions window now always show a Green Plus over their center of mass.

Parts in the Selected Parts window always show a Blue Cross over their center of mass.

The Action/Part that is being mouse-overed now has a large Red Cross over its center of mass.

Note: Frequently a part will qualify for both of these conditions and show both icons at once.

Note2: There is an optical discrepancy, especially with stack mounted parts such as fuel tanks, where the location icon will appear 'high' as only the side of the tank is visible. Due to the camera location being above the part, this will cause the center of mass icon to look off to the eye. Pan the camera around to dispel this effect.

Add RCS/SAS/Stage action groups support.

Accessed through the 'Other' button at the top of the groups window, support for adding/removing actions to the RCS, SAS and Stage groups have been added.

Note this does nothing about the fact that these groups are activated by the same keys that turn those systems on/off. (R for RCS, T for SAS and Spacebar for Stage.) Exercise appropriate caution in using these groups.

Add Non-numeric groups support to the editor.

This is the non-numeric group editor ('Other' button at the top of the group window). This has been available in Flight mode for several versions, I have now added it to the Editor also.

Download link.

Mod status going forward

On a going forward basis, I am trying to move this mod to feature complete so I can focus on supporting other mods. Notable adding kOS and RemoteTech support and more support for the Toggle State Monitoring.

Are there any issues or tweaks you would like to see?

The only thing I am currently planning on doing is adding support for switching the KeySet assigned to the active vessel from the Flight Window, the same as the Visibility Group can be switched.

Otherwise, I'm hoping the mod is pretty much done as far the features and user interface is concerned. I am planning a polish pass over everything to smooth some rough edges out, but I'm not planning any significant additions at this point.

Are there any suggestions for things I should look at specifically?

Current list for polish pass:

-Look at joystick support again, notable joysticks above 4.

D.

[JedTech]

Version 1.20

Are there any suggestions for things I should look at specifically?

D.

Assign an action group to occur X amount of seconds after another action group.

An automatic solar panel action group to toggle all solar panels.

[Diazo]

-Assign an action group to occur X amount of seconds after another action group.

Hmm, not a bad idea. Not sure how I would implement it, my current save method requires an existing action on a part. I'm note this down on the long term plans though.

-An automatic solar panel action group to toggle all solar panels.

Probably not happening. From my AGX mod, how do I tell which parts are solar panels and what their deploy command is named? I could do the stock ones easily enough, but all the custom modded solar panels would be missed by any sort of global "deploy" command I could implement.

However, you can select all parts of the same type by name by using the "Show all parts" button that shows when nothing is selected. You would have to do this for each type of solar panel to get them all but it saves you have to hunt for each panel on larger vessels.

D.

Edited October 30, 2014 by Diazo

[Crater]

-An automatic solar panel action group to toggle all solar panels.

Probably not happening. From my AGX mod, how do I tell which parts are solar panels and what their deploy command is named? I could do the stock ones easily enough, but all the custom modded solar panels would be missed by any sort of global "deploy" command I could implement.

D.

I think he meant a non-numeric group, similar to gear or lights or staging, that was defined to auto-trigger as you left the atmosphere. That way a user could put solar panels into it, also antennae for RemoteTech, and whatever else they might want to set off once they've got to space.

If that wasn't what jmanidb meant, then can I suggest it instead?

(Love this mod, btw)

[Diazo]

First, edited my previous post.

Second, auto-trigger on outside condition? That is for sure not happening. There are several mods out there that offer that capability and I would ask that you investigate those. Notably there was a mod specifically for this, that I can't remember the name of, that started as an auto-decoupler for empty fuel tanks that expanded into triggering action groups automatically. I'll see if I can track it down.

The auto-trigger another action group after a set time is a grey area on this but as it is self-contained with AGX it is something I am willing to look at implementing in the future.

D.

edit: The auto-trigger mod I remember is http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/64227-0-24-1-27-July-Smart-Parts-V2-0-New-API-and-new-KM-folder-structure/ A bit more limited then I remember though.

Edited October 30, 2014 by Diazo

[erendrake]

First, edited my previous post.

Second, auto-trigger on outside condition? That is for sure not happening. There are several mods out there that offer that capability and I would ask that you investigate those. Notably there was a mod specifically for this, that I can't remember the name of, that started as an auto-decoupler for empty fuel tanks that expanded into triggering action groups automatically. I'll see if I can track it down. (I think it was by the same person who did the Goodspeed automatic fuel pumps?)

The auto-trigger another action group after a set time is a grey area on this but as it is self-contained with AGX it is something I am willing to look at implementing in the future.

D.

I agree with Diazo, Having a mod that is defined in scope and executes it flawlessly is what all mods should aspire to. My 2 cents would be to skip the "do x action y seconds after action z" is a black hole of intervalometers and other timers that would vastly increase the scope of the mod.

[TK421d]

i just reinstalled this earlier in the week, and i am having a horrible time trying to deal with it.

Ive been constructing new station nodes, and no craft ever has the same assignment of actions twice. (no editing outside of the VAB) every time the craft is re-loaded it has lost several action groups, a random 2-3 out of about 8 used total.

i have not even begun launching the sections yet because this is such a problem. what gives? even when saving, then immediately reloading the same vessel this happens.

[Diazo]

i just reinstalled this earlier in the week, and i am having a horrible time trying to deal with it.

Ive been constructing new station nodes, and no craft ever has the same assignment of actions twice. (no editing outside of the VAB) every time the craft is re-loaded it has lost several action groups, a random 2-3 out of about 8 used total.

i have not even begun launching the sections yet because this is such a problem. what gives? even when saving, then immediately reloading the same vessel this happens.

First, did you ever see the "AGX Ambiguous" message in the green text in the top center of the screen?

Second, I'm going to need your ksp_log.txt from your KSP_Data subfolder. (Or the player.log if you are on linux.) If you can also send the AGExtEditor.cfg and the AGExt00000.cfg with the largest number from your save file (where the persistent.sfs is found) that would also be a big help.

Third, are the actions lost in groups 1-10 or groups 11 or higher? And are the parts the actions lost on consistent?

If you can get me that I will dig into what is going on, the fact that saving in the editor then immediately reloading the editor loses actions is a huge problem.

D.

edit: I also just saw you said station nodes, are you using subassemblies? Right now subassemblies lose all actions in groups 11 or higher.

Edited November 9, 2014 by Diazo

[TK421d]

First, did you ever see the "AGX Ambiguous" message in the green text in the top center of the screen?

Second, I'm going to need your ksp_log.txt from your KSP_Data subfolder. (Or the player.log if you are on linux.) If you can also send the AGExtEditor.cfg and the AGExt00000.cfg with the largest number from your save file (where the persistent.sfs is found) that would also be a big help.

Third, are the actions lost in groups 1-10 or groups 11 or higher? And are the parts the actions lost on consistent?

If you can get me that I will dig into what is going on, the fact that saving in the editor then immediately reloading the editor loses actions is a huge problem.

D.

edit: I also just saw you said station nodes, are you using subassemblies? Right now subassemblies lose all actions in groups 11 or higher.

hmm, 2 things.

I was only paying attention during game loading for any error messages, i just noticed one of the ambiguous messages (during a craft load, wasnt expecting it then), but it was too fast to see what was affected. it was 3 lines though, cant seem to replicate it.

and secondly i have been using subassemblies, but i have not been assigning commands to anything before saving them.

the only log i have in /KSP_Data is output_log. is that bad???

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6pw5sy2oq5i8ku7/AGExt00007.cfg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qvr06t0re8o13bf/AGExtEditor.cfg?dl=0

[Diazo]

Version 1.21a Release

This release moves the Edit Actions in Flight button to the toolbar due to running out of space on the flight window.

-Right-click the AGX button on the toolbar (Left-click will show/hide the Flight Window.)

-Click the Edit button.

Download here.

-Fix ModuleAnimateGeneric to remove some Action Ambiguous messages.

-Fix showing of Part Cross when not in Action Editing mode

-Move Edit In Flight button to the toolbar due to space issues (Right-Click Toolbar, Edit button).

-Add Keyset selection button to Flight window the same as the Group Visibility button.

-Overhaul externally exposed code for other mods to interface (this change will not be visible to the average player.)

@BobsYerUncle: The ModuleAnimateGeneric fix will help your situation. While I can't check to see if I got all the Ambiguous errors without the output_log.txt, the two files you uploaded did allow me to find the Taurus Science Bay not saving its actions correctly and this release fixes that. If there are still some I missed, post them up and I will get them fixed as well.

D.

[Coreador]

Hi,

First, thanks for this great mod! It is really convenient to be able to tie everything to functions, especially labelled functions (I sometimes can't remember what 5 does on a specific ship).

I was wondering if this works with ExtraPlanetary Launchpads? In my experience my keys set up in VAB work if I launch from Kerbin, but the labels are wiped out if the ship is created at a base. Does it matter that the bases don't have keybindings set up (they existed prior to installing the mod)? I can set up the keys in flight, but that can be a pain because I have to do it per ship instead of just per ship type, and sometimes the parts aren't visible (e.g. parts inside a fairing). It would be nice to be able to turn on my generator hidden inside a fairing without having to blow the fairing open.

Another problem I ran into is that when using nuclear engines from Near Future Electrical, the options I'd like don't actually show up as choices for actions. For example, Start and Shutdown reactor aren't available for action groups; they can only be used for right clicking. Nor is show reactor GUI (if I had this, I could work around all the others). For some reason only the command to extend/close/toggle the radiators shows up. IIRC, the show GUI for KAS winches didn't work either.

And, it's a known issue, but I'll given another vote for handing keys properly on sub-assemblies.

A final thought I had about this: Since you have this mod which provides part selection, control windows, and all this other interface related stuff, how about adding to it (or providing as a separate mod) the ability to display information? Several parts have information in the right click menu (engine thrust, engine isp, extraction rates, intake rates, part state, resource levels, etc). The whole ability to select the parts, choose an item from the part's abilities, assign them to groups, switch groups, edit on the fly, etc, is already here. It would be nice to have a window to monitor all of my engine's thrust or isp levels, or the state of all solar panels, or how much resource is distributed in each part.

Thanks for listening. I appreciate any response to any part of this.

[Diazo]

Glad to hear you are liking this. I've replied inline to keep things organized.

I was wondering if this works with ExtraPlanetary Launchpads? In my experience my keys set up in VAB work if I launch from Kerbin, but the labels are wiped out if the ship is created at a base. Does it matter that the bases don't have keybindings set up (they existed prior to installing the mod)? I can set up the keys in flight, but that can be a pain because I have to do it per ship instead of just per ship type, and sometimes the parts aren't visible (e.g. parts inside a fairing). It would be nice to be able to turn on my generator hidden inside a fairing without having to blow the fairing open.

When a craft is launched, it should bring across all the actions that show in the editor, regardless if that is done at the default launch complex or via a mod such as ExtraPlanetary launchpads.

The only catch is that when a mod launches the vessel, I can't tell the difference between a space plane and a rocket. If you make a rocket in the VAB and a plane in the SPH and name them the same, AGX will always try to load the rocket's actions regardless of if it is the rocket or the plane that spawned. Note that if you only have a spaceplane with that name, the plane's actions will load. This is only a problem when they share a name.

As a test, the next time this happens can you go launch the same craft at the default launch pad on kerbin and see if the actions load correctly there? If they do, that is a bug I need to fix and I will look into it.

Also, on the hidden generator, you don't need to blow the fairings to select it. Rather, make sure nothing is selected by hitting the clear list button, then click the "List all parts on vessel" button that appears where the parts normally list. Then pick the generator from the list that appears and all generators of that type will be selected. Then using the part cross location icons you can then remove the individual generators that you don't want to affect actions on.

Another problem I ran into is that when using nuclear engines from Near Future Electrical, the options I'd like don't actually show up as choices for actions. For example, Start and Shutdown reactor aren't available for action groups; they can only be used for right clicking. Nor is show reactor GUI (if I had this, I could work around all the others). For some reason only the command to extend/close/toggle the radiators shows up. IIRC, the show GUI for KAS winches didn't work either.

This is an issue with KSP itself. When making a mod, there are Events which show in the right-click menu, and Actions that can be assigned to action groups and they are two different things. This means that the mod maker has only made the Event to shut down the reactor, not the Action and there is nothing that I can do about it in AGX.

Having said that, my next mod I am prototyping at the moment will deal with this issue of actions missing. It currently only exists in the Add-On development forum as it is a long way from release ready but if you are interested you can find the Actions Everywhere mod under development here.

And, it's a known issue, but I'll given another vote for handing keys properly on sub-assemblies.

This is issue #2 in the queue to be dealt with. Now that version 1.21a finalizes the UI, issue #1 is getting a youtube tutorial video out as right now there really is not a good manual on how to use this mod.

A final thought I had about this: Since you have this mod which provides part selection, control windows, and all this other interface related stuff, how about adding to it (or providing as a separate mod) the ability to display information? Several parts have information in the right click menu (engine thrust, engine isp, extraction rates, intake rates, part state, resource levels, etc). The whole ability to select the parts, choose an item from the part's abilities, assign them to groups, switch groups, edit on the fly, etc, is already here. It would be nice to have a window to monitor all of my engine's thrust or isp levels, or the state of all solar panels, or how much resource is distributed in each part.

Not going to happen as part of AGX. Due to how KSP's underlying code works and how actions are separate items that get assigned to a part, the only cross-over is actually in the part selection stage. That is also something that is worth a mod of it's own in terms of how big its scope is and I already know what my next two mods are going to be that I spend development time on. (The previously mentioned Actions Everywhere and an on-screen joystick for flying spaceplanes with the mouse as I'm tired of crashing them with the keyboard.)

Thanks for listening. I appreciate any response to any part of this.

More feedback is always better and I'm glad to see you are getting use out of this.

D.

Edited November 10, 2014 by Diazo

[TK421d]

@BobsYerUncle: The ModuleAnimateGeneric fix will help your situation. While I can't check to see if I got all the Ambiguous errors without the output_log.txt, the two files you uploaded did allow me to find the Taurus Science Bay not saving its actions correctly and this release fixes that. If there are still some I missed, post them up and I will get them fixed as well.

D.

cool, tyvm kind sir.

[Coreador]

Thanks for the feedback. I finally had a chance to do a proper test like you requested.

I've verified that the lost actions for EPL is a problem. I've launched the same ship from both Kerbin and Gilly. At the normal Kerbin launchpad, the keys are properly set up like the editor. When launched from Gilly, I only see the keys that we previously configured for the launch base; it doesn't appear that any keys from the new ship design are preserved. Even if the actions are assigned to numbers unused by the base, they will still be cleared. When the ship leaves, it will retain the base's config and none of its own (of course, the base parts are all at the base, so those configs are nothing but names once it launches).

[Diazo]

@Coreador: Odd. I'll install EPL this weekend and see if I can replicate. Something unexpected is happening there and I'd like to know what it is.

D.

[Darren9]

Hi, I'm having trouble getting some of the keys available in the keysets to work. I can't seem to get anything that requires a modifier on my keyboard to work, the "&" or "?", pressing shift + 7 just moves the throttle, I've tried sending the character directly with an external scripting tool, if I focus notepad it types "&&??" but if I focus the game and send the same characters nothing happens even though action groups are set to those characters.

Sending a ">" (greater?) activates time warp which is ".", on my keyboard ">" would be SHIFT+"." Is there a technique to getting these upper case symbols to work?

[Diazo]

No, there is not.

Total over sight on my part, I simply grab the first key press.

I'm not sure where to even start on this, but I'm in the code this weekend for the EPL issue so I'll see if I can think of something.

D.

[Diazo]

Version 1.22 Release

Download here.

-Add Extraplanatery launchpads compatibilty

-Fix weaknesses this revealed in the docking code.

Extraplanetary launchpads should now work. Let me know of any issues with it, or with the docking code not working correctly please.

Noting in this release addresses the key binding issue that is pending.

D.

[Einarr]

Possible bug noted with 1.21a. Right clicking the toolbar icon (blizzy's toolbar) while in IVA mode causes the Flight window to vanish if it was open. I have been unable to get it to reopen by any ingame means I'm familiar with, as well as completely closing KSP and reopening it. Perhaps this has been resolved (wasn't aware of a recent update when I loaded up today), but likely not if I'm the first to report it...

[Diazo]

Hmm.

1.21a did change how the button works, but right-clicking is not supposed to affect the flight window at all.

Checking it out.

D.

edit: Okay, it looks like the IVA is overriding AGX. In AGX 1.22, when I goto IVA and right click, I start looking around the cockpit. I have to right click again to release the mouse. This overrides the Toolbar so you can't right-click AGX in IVA. Left clicking seems to work fine and right-clicking did not affect the flight window for me. Do you have better reproduction steps for me?

Edited November 17, 2014 by Diazo

[Einarr]

You should have reproduced it. I was in IVA and the right click was overridden to look around. The flight window vanished and has not reappeared for me, even outside IVA. neither left or right clicking on the toolbar button restores the flight window. This may only affect this one ship though. I was wanting to change my groups around (and did so outside IVA) and therefore whatever was borked may have been saved to this particular vessel.

[Diazo]

Ah, that probably has nothing to do with the IVA, rather the Flight Window has teleported off screen.

With KSP not running, goto KSP_Install\GameData\Diazo\AGExt and open the AGExt.cfg file. Find the FltMainX and FltMainY values and make sure they are smaller then your screen resolution (in pixels), setting them both to 200 should put the flight window back on-screen in the top left of your monitor.

D.

edit: As this is not the first time this has happened, I have added Reset Window buttons to the right-click menus to reset the window location from in-game without having to edit the .cfg file manually. The windows will reset to the top-left/centerish on your screen.

This is added in version 1.22a available here.

Editor: Right-Click the AGX button on the toolbar while in action group editing mode then click the Window button.(Right-click does nothing if in Part Placement or Crew Assignment mode).

Flight: Right-Click the AGX button on the toolbar at any time. Click the Reset Window button.

Note that all windows will reset, even ones that are hidden.

Edited November 17, 2014 by Diazo

[Einarr]

FltMainX = -10117 FltMainY = 1

Somehow, I think this may be my problem...perhaps changing these values will help. Don't suppose there's any way to prevent the flight window from being teleported?

[Diazo]

Ouch, that's the problem. That's trying to draw the flight window up above you and to the left on the wall above your computer desk.

And no, there's no way for me to stop that, KSP sometimes does weird stuff to windows when you pan/rotate around your vessel (the previous reports of this) and also something weird in IVA that got you.

However, I can allow you to reset the windows in-game and I've added that in version 1.22a that you can use next time this happens.

D.