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

[Diazo]

Not at present there isn't.

As part of the UI rework I am probably going to add a few presets where you can save/load configurations like that across ships.

D.

[Mikeloeven]

On 2/25/2017 at 10:27 PM, Diazo said:

That is a legacy of the fact that the original concept for this mod way back when was to add a lot more actions for people who were building sim pits, it wasn't to add a "few more groups for complicated vessels" it was "add dozens of groups for those big complicated sim pits" and the UI design reflects that.

Since this mod is the only mod (that I am aware of) that adds more action groups, it also became the "few more action groups for complicated vessels" mod as well, but that was a later development.

Anyways, I'm currently redoing the entire mod to move to the new UI system so I'm thinking about tweaking the UI to reduce the size on screen, including showing fewer groups at once, but it's going to stay generally the same as it currently is.

Due to how actions get assigned and all the other information tied to a group, add/removing action groups as needed is not something that's going to happen.

Rather, I'll probably make it so you can configure how many groups show at once (probably in multiples of 10), rather then the hardcoded 50 groups that show now.

D.

I haven't tried modding ksp yet so i dont know if the game supports this but if ksp has support for generic lists you could use that so groups can be added and removed dynamically

Edited March 13, 2017 by Mikeloeven

[Diazo]

Oh, I'm using lists all over the place in code.

Lists don't really work with the UI though, you have to size the UI to handle some arbitrary number of actions and hope you guess right and the user is stuck with a scroll window if they go over that number.

@fatcargo On the moving groups issue, what I'm looking at doing is swapping two groups, so all actions assigned, group name, visibility, etc. would be swapped between two groups. Note that this would not include the keybind. Due to how keybinds are tied to the keyset, not to the craft, being able to move keybinds around like that would have unintended consequences once you start changing vessels that are being controlled.

D.

[fatcargo]

@Diazo Yes that was my idea as well, move grouped actions among keybindings, keybinds are left in fixed order. But do keep in mind that swapping may be useful, if not the only reason for coding such functionality, in my humble opinion.

Edited March 14, 2017 by fatcargo

[wisnoskij]

Is their a way to control what the stock buttons do separately for on/off?
I have a set of mod landing gears (sort of, they are stability legs from RoverDude's Konstruction mod). And they do not have a toggle action, and unfortunately both the "stow" and "deploy" actions are always available. It seems like the mod tries to call both everytime, and assumes one would be disabled, but since neither are it just does the last one on the list "deploy".

[wisnoskij]

Also, is there a way to clear all?
I was playing around with this is a lvl2 building and while I don't think you can use groups/keybinding there you could play around in a window and rename "group1", "keySOMETHING1" etc. Now with an upgraded building that window is not available. I have some group given a random custom name, but now there is no way to rename it That window has been replaced by the giant 1: to :x list of action groups

[Diazo]

For the issue with "stock buttons separately on/off", I'm going to need more details.

And I was going to link the pictures in the first post and they are all gone, what? Going to have to do something about that.

Anyways, you were seeing this in a lvl 2 building where only the named action groups are available.

So, on the right in the "List of actions", those are the actions that will be activated when you activate that group (highlight in green). If both the deploy/stow actions are listed, they both will try to activate. If only one is, then only that action should activate.

Now, as for your second question, that is relevant here:

 

The window with the "Group1" and "Keyset1" you are referring to is displayed by clicking the "KeySet1" button, underneath the "Alpha1" button. Note the text on it may be different as you can rename this.

What those are are 5 Visibility Groups where you can show/hide action groups on vessels with a lot of actions based on phase of flight to reduce screen clutter.

The 5 KeySets are different key assignments so you can setup vessels that dock together can avoid conflicts with their actions. So a mothership activates groups 1-10 on keys 1-10, while a lander that docks to it can activate groups 11-20 with keys 1-10 so that when they are docked, key1 only activates the mothership's actions.

Now, for renaming an action group, you are looking for the Group Name text box, that is where you can enter what will be displayed in flight for that action group.

Hope that helps, it's going to take me a few days to fix the first post which will hopefully help also.

D.

[linuxgurugamer]

Could you update the OP, some of the images are missing

[Jimbo Jangles]

On 3/26/2017 at 4:57 AM, linuxgurugamer said:

Could you update the OP, some of the images are missing

This, please? 

[linuxgurugamer]

Looks like the server where those images were being hosted had an account expire: http://members.shaw.ca/diazo/AGExtQuickStart1.jpg

[Diazo]

Slapped together a quick start in the first post real quick.

I'm going to actually make a full manual (probably in Google Docs) to correctly document everything, but that's going to take me a bit.

D.

[Kerbital]

Is there a Lite version or a simple mode for stupid people? This is a complete overkill and utterly confusing and overwhelming for my brain. While I find the stock 1-0 actions somewhat limiting, this is way to much. I'd love a mod that would just give me the option to add a modifier to numbers, like Alt-1, Ctrl-2, etc., while keeping the interface as simple and stock alike as possible. Thus, giving me 30 actions which is about what my brain can handle.

[Diazo]

@Kerbital Unfortunately the stock action group system is completely blocked in, there is no simpler way to add more action groups then completely replacing the action group management system as I've done in this mod.

What you want to do is possible with this mod, it's just not apparent because I didn't include modifier keys in the quick-start in the first post.

Quote

How to use modifier keys:

In the top left of the KeyCodes window, there is now two new buttons in that corner. (Open the KeyCodes window by clicking the Key assignment button, it is "Alpha1" in the quick start screenshots.)

From left to right the 3 buttons are the "Clear Key" button. Renamed from just "None" in previous versions, this is still the key to select to unbind and have no key assigned to that action group.

The second and third buttons are the Modifier Keys. The text on the keys displays the currently assigned modifier key, on a fresh install both will be None.

The button on the left of the two (so middle of the three in the top left corner) is modifier key 1, the one on the right is modifier key 2.

Where ever a keybind name is displayed (such as in the flight window), if that name has a (1) in front of it, that means that group requires modifier key 1 down, a (2) indicates modifier key 2 and a 1/2 (one-half symbol) indicates both keys must be down to activate that action group.

Example setup:

Step 1: Pick a modifier key.

Open up the KeyCodes window and right click on the Modifier key 1 button, the button will go red to indicate you are picking the modifier key, not the key for the action group, and click on RightAlt. The text on the button will change and the red will go away indicating you have chosen the modifier key and that now if you click a key, you are assigning it to that action group.

Repeat for Modifier key 2, picking the RightCtrl key.

Step 2: Assign modifiers to an action group.

Make group 11 the current group and open the key codes window. Left-click the modifier key 1 button (displaying RightAlt), it will turn green and then pick the Alpha1 key. The KeyCode for group 11 should now show (1)Alpha1 in the bottom right of the Main AGX window.

Repeat for group 12 using modifier key 2 (RightShift) and group 13 using both modifier keys.

Step 3: Use them in flight.

Now, in this example setup, group 11 can be activated by RightAlt-1, group 12 by RightCtrl-2 and group 13 by RightAlt-RightCtrl-3.

Note that the left and right are important and are considered different keys by KSP so that Left Ctrl remains throttle down.

Having done it this way, any key can be used as a modifier key, including joystick buttons. Only have 4 buttons for custom actions? Assign one as a modifier and you have 6 action groups across the other 3 buttons now.

I don't have any pictures to go with those text instructions at the moment, I'll see about doing that part of the full manual tonight so hopefully things make sense.

D.

Edited April 4, 2017 by Diazo

[Kerbital]

Thanks! Will try again:)

[Kerbital]

@Diazo

Finally got around to trying this mod and it just looked scary at first I get discouraged easy when I open something and it presents me with more than ONE unfamiliar window

Anyway, this is awesome. I don't even assign keys to everything, only things that need to happen fairly quickly. The floating toolbar with named buttons is actually even better so I don't have to remember all the actions. Now, I have so much more control! Thank you very much!

PS. One complaint, although I feel this could be the GUI limitation: can the windows be resizable?

Edited April 17, 2017 by Kerbital

[Diazo]

@Kerbital Not in the current version, it still uses the old GUI system that doesn't offer that flexibility.

I do not know exactly how the new GUI will work once I get everything moved over to it, but space concerns are certainly something I am thinking about.

D.

[Kerbital]

In the end, sadly, I have to stop using this mod. Although, the problems do not seem to be the mod's problems but some kind of limitations or bugs of the GUI or the game engine. I saw similar issues with other mods that add floating windows to the Editor.

Two major ones:

- windows are click-through, resulting in frustrating accidental clicks while building (I saw this in other mods too)

- massive lag and stutter added to the editor (possibly conflict with other mod?)

Man, I love this mod but I can't deal with the above. Crossing fingers that the new GUI will fix it.

[Frank Einstein]

Hi! When I'm docking two vessels together, the actions from both vessels are getting merged together, which I guess is normal in this situation, but when I undock my vessels, my action groups are not reverting back like it was before docking. Some actions are also overwritten by the actions of the other ship (when two actions are on the same key).

Every time I'm docking / undocking, I have to configure everything again (and again). Is there something we can do about this? If we could Import / export actions groups to different files for each ship, I think it could fix most of this problem. It could be also very useful in many situations!

This is still one of my favorite KSP mod!

[Diazo]

@Frank Einstein I'm not sure what is happening there.

Every action is assigned to an action group, so when two vessels dock if both vessels have an action assigned to Group 3, both those actions should show in Group 3 after docking. Then after undocking each vessel should have one action in Group 3 again. This is saved on a per-part basis so I'm not sure how one of these actions could overwrite another action as you describe.

However, do you mean the extra information this mod adds such as Group Name, Toggle State, Visibility, etc.? In that case it sounds like the system for saving docked sub-vessels is not behaving as expected. If you click the Next SubVessel button (the arrows in the top right corner of the main AGX window that lists selected parts) does that change anything?

Also, if there are any errors in the console (Alt-F12), that would be helpful as well.

D.

 

[MisterB0420]

in case anyone is wondering, does not work in 1.3. no crashes, but all the menu screens are empty(they exist, just nothing in them)

[Warped04]

22 hours ago, MisterB0420 said:

in case anyone is wondering, does not work in 1.3. no crashes, but all the menu screens are empty(they exist, just nothing in them)

I think it's Blizzy's toolbar, not necessarily Action Groups Extended.  I could be wrong though.  

[ss8913]

On 5/31/2017 at 1:15 PM, Warped04 said:

I think it's Blizzy's toolbar, not necessarily Action Groups Extended.  I could be wrong though.  

toolbar seems functional to me, but AGX windows are, as previously reported, empty.

[ss8913]

Any chance this thing will work properly in 1.3.0 if I load it into visual studio and compile against 1.3.0?  Guess there's only one way to find out.  Will PM the author if it works.

[leatherneck6017]

19 hours ago, ss8913 said:

Any chance this thing will work properly in 1.3.0 if I load it into visual studio and compile against 1.3.0?  Guess there's only one way to find out.  Will PM the author if it works.

I just ran a re-compile. Works great for me.

[ss8913]

31 minutes ago, leatherneck6017 said:

I just ran a re-compile. Works great for me.

likewise.