Cargo Transportation Solutions (WIP)

[Talisar]

Recently there have been a couple of mods put out that were inspired by the proposed MTV Copernicus. My approach to this particular idea was a set of parts that would facilitate inline storage and transportation of cargo (much like an open-framework cargo bay), so here is my own personal WIP take on this idea.

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The basic idea I had was that I wanted the cargo parts to be slightly wider than the standard sizes. This way, standard sized parts would fit inside them, if a bit snugly. The set is supposed to be extremely modular, so you can build a ship in whatever configuration is best suited to your desired mission profile. At the moment, only the smallest segments have been set up in config files, but longer ones are planned (balancing the need to reduce part counts against VAB part bloat)

I've got an alpha release set up for people to test, if they are so inclined. Included are parts intended for use with both 2.5m and 3.75m ships. My texturing skills are (as always) lacking, but I feel that the ones on this pack are a HUGE improvement on my previous work . Any feedback would be appreciated.

License: CC-BY-SA 3.0

DOWNLOAD (Updated to v0.3.5 on 10/25/14)

Changelog:

v0.3.5 (10/25/14)
     - Adjusted Entry Costs and Costs to more realistic values (Thanks to invultri and BadManiac, who's work I stole to do it)
     - Corrected orientation of stack node on large arched cargo frame with mount

v0.3.4 (05/15/14)
     - Rolled back the docking ring to previous (working) version.

v0.3.3 (05/06/14)
     - Collider simplification update

v0.3.2 (05/05/14)
     - Included reworked cargo bay and arched truss models in package.  Should lessen VAB lag (but may still be present when moving multiple arches, they have very complex colliders)
     - Included truss with arches on both front and back (basically a skeletal cylinder)

v0.3.1 (04/30/14) [COLOR=#ff0000]WILL STILL BREAK ANY CRAFT PRIOR TO v0.3.0
[/COLOR]     - Added configs for parts intended for use with 3.75m craft back in.  Sorry for the oversight.

v0.3.0 (04/30/14) [COLOR=#ff0000]CRAFT BREAKING UPDATE[/COLOR]
     - New models for adapters and separators.  They are a bit thinner, and the textures are even uglier for the time being.  [COLOR=#ff0000]THIS UPDATE WILL BREAK ANY CRAFT USING THE PREVIOUS ADAPTERS AND SEPARATORS![/COLOR]
     - Added hollow separator ring and hollow docking ring.  This ring is specifically designed for use with these parts and will not dock with standard docking adapters.  If there is interest, I will make versions compatible
       with and sized to standard docking adapters.
     - Included an adapter that is designed to be used in conjunction with Kerzamit's procedural fairings (fairings not included)
     [COLOR=#ff0000]- Be advised that this update will break any craft that are using the previous iteration of adapters and separators.[/COLOR]
     - Temporarily removed 3.75m versions of parts, will include them again in the next update .  Any craft currently using these parts [COLOR=#ff0000]will be broken.
[/COLOR]
v0.2.2
     - New model for test capsule, with toggleable cockpit lights this time

v0.2.1 (04/25/14)
     - Made all versions of arched frame surface attachable
     - Added mk1-2 pod internal to test capsule as a placeholder IVA

v0.2.0 (04/24/14)
     - Added test version of command pod

v0.1.1 (04/23/14)
     - New compiling of cargo bay, hopefully corrected the slowdown when moving doors in VAB/SPH

v0.1.0 (04/22/14)
     - Initial test release

-edit: Oh, I should also mention that these parts are found in the structural tab, and at the moment are not very well balanced for mass (gonna have to do some research to get that one right). They're also not tech-tree integrated in any way that makes sense as of yet.

-edit #2: I should also have mentioned that the cargo bay is dependent on the FireSpitter.dll plugin for it's animation (not included in the download, but it's pretty likely that anyone in this subforum already has it )

Edited February 16, 2015 by Master Tao
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[blackheart612]

Dude, this is by far better than all the other parts that are like this. Downloading now to pair with my mod.

[Nazari1382]

Looks good!

[HoneyFox]

I would hope that this can be procedural... that means it can be scaled to adapt to cargo of any size... but still it looks great.

[kiwiak]

this is gonna be usefull, SXT saddle truss is just same size as other parts and its hard to fit something except tanks made for it inside.

Maybe make some special decoupler for releasing things from inside it?

[Justin Kerbice]

Recently there have been a couple of mods put out that were inspired by the proposed MTV Copernicus. My approach to this particular idea was a set of parts that would facilitate inline storage and transportation of cargo (much like an open-framework cargo bay), so here is my own personal WIP take on this idea.

...

My texturing skills are (as always) lacking, but I feel that the ones on this pack are a HUGE improvement on my previous work .

It already looks great, and... I'm not really convinced by the highlighted sentence .

[Pigbear]

All of it looks great, the textures are awesome, way better than I could do.

[RoverDude]

Very nice!

[TheKosmonaut]

This is pretty neat. I have been wanting more cargo bays for a while now. Looking forward to any developments that can come up. Later will post a pic of a craft with a cargo bay on.

[Talisar]

I would hope that this can be procedural... that means it can be scaled to adapt to cargo of any size... but still it looks great.

Hmm, I hadn't considered this, as I'm not totally clear on the mechanics of how procedural parts work. I'm pretty sure that for increasing length it actually stretches the mesh (which wouldn't look right), but for diameter if it just rescales the part it would work great. Having a right-click UI to choose diameter in the same manner that the procedural tanks mod would be nice. I'll ask some questions as to the viability.

Maybe make some special decoupler for releasing things from inside it?

This I HAD considered . Rather than make another part that was only able to be used with this specific pack, what I did was put additional stack nodes on the adapter and separator. It's easier to see if you have the part open, but there are a set of nodes even with the top of the rim that are used for attaching the structural parts, and there is a set of nodes flush with the base for attaching other things to. These, along with the stack node on the side-mount on that version of the saddle truss, I intended for people to be able to attach docking ports/decouplers to, so that the current ones available could be used easily.

There's still the possibility of adding one though, if the demand is there. I had thought about a saddle truss part that had an integrated decoupler on the inside of the arch.

It already looks great, and... I'm not really convinced by the highlighted sentence .

All of it looks great, the textures are awesome, way better than I could do.

I'm glad you guys think these look all right. I'm working on improving There will be some changes before final release of these. I plan to do normal maps, as well as maximize the use of the space in the texture maps. Right now there is a lot of unused area that can be compressed.

[Justin Kerbice]

Just notice a serious slowdown when cargo doors anim is played (0.23/win 7)

And please, could you put templates somewhere else in the final release ? Thanks.

[MainSailor]

I'm really excited at the current availability of Constellation hardware suddenly cropping up here! Last year I hacked together a cheater frame using girders and NP fairing plates and made it a solid part using the MODEL nodes. It worked, but it wasn't pretty. I never got the mini NERVA engines working the way I liked either (I just used the smallest FTMN nuke and just made it OP.)

Also, if you haven't seen it, this was the video that inspired me to 'build' my parts...it's just a fantastic mission and well thought out.

A mission in 23.5 using these parts would be even more amazing.

[Talisar]

Just notice a serious slowdown when cargo doors anim is played (0.23/win 7)

And please, could you put templates somewhere else in the final release ? Thanks.

I've seen that slowdown myself. It only seemed to happen in the VAB for me, once on the launchpad it went smoothly. In any case, I'll have to research the reason. It's the first animated part I've done, so I am sure it can be optimized.

In the final release, I'll have the templates in a separate folder that can be deleted if desired, the same way I do with my other pack.

[Talisar]

I'm really excited at the current availability of Constellation hardware suddenly cropping up here! Last year I hacked together a cheater frame using girders and NP fairing plates and made it a solid part using the MODEL nodes. It worked, but it wasn't pretty. I never got the mini NERVA engines working the way I liked either (I just used the smallest FTMN nuke and just made it OP.)

Also, if you haven't seen it, this was the video that inspired me to 'build' my parts...it's just a fantastic mission and well thought out.

-snip-

A mission in 23.5 using these parts would be even more amazing.

That's the video that made me want to make them too I had tried making several different frames in-game using docking ports and they never worked like I wanted them to.

Oh, and RLA Stockalike has a nice mini-nerva. Not very strong, but...

[Talisar]

Just notice a serious slowdown when cargo doors anim is played (0.23/win 7)

Revisited this, and I think I corrected the issue. Here's a LINK for v0.1.1, and the first post has been updated as well. Please let me know if this fixes that issue for you.

I would hope that this can be procedural... that means it can be scaled to adapt to cargo of any size... but still it looks great.

I also made some inquiries about this, and I think that the way to go would be to have a plugin that allows rescaling on the fly (in the manner that stupid_chris uses for the RealChutes mod) rather than a true procedural part. I'll do so more research into the matter, but it definitely looks possible. Many thanks to stupid_chris and swamp_ig for helping point me in the right direction.

Edited April 23, 2014 by Talisar

[Sauron]

If you do make this rescaleable, please, please, please make it rescaleable to a large degree and in nonstandard increments for those of us playing RO/RSS saves--it would make a whole lot of things possible. Also, I would be eternally grateful

[Talisar]

If you do make this rescaleable, please, please, please make it rescaleable to a large degree and in nonstandard increments for those of us playing RO/RSS saves--it would make a whole lot of things possible. Also, I would be eternally grateful

If I'm able to make it happen, what I have in mind is a right click tweakable option very similar to the one currently used by the procedural parts WIP mod to select the part diameter. The main difference is that choosing the diameter would rescale the entire part rather than just the width. His menu allows rescaling in (iirc) 0.25m increments, which should coincidentally allow proper resizing for any RSS utilization as well. As my personal abilities for coding the plugin are next to non-existant, I'll have to sell someone else with the proper skills and the willingness to keep it updated on the idea. I believe it has merit, however, so I'll try.

[Justin Kerbice]

@Talisar: not sure as I tried only once in space, but I think it was the same as you and the 0.1.1 do the job great. (What was the issue for the record?)

Also, the stock node system mess up with assembly of frames (side + 1 arched structural = top/bottom node no more available :/ )

[Talisar]

@Talisar: not sure as I tried only once in space, but I think it was the same as you and the 0.1.1 do the job great. (What was the issue for the record?)

When I exported it from my modelling program, I had animation keyframes for every separate mesh in the model, including the static parts. I went back and re-did it, only exporting animation keyframes for the parts that were actually moving.

Also, the stock node system mess up with assembly of frames (side + 1 arched structural = top/bottom node no more available :/ )

I'm not quite sure what you mean here... can you post a pic to illustrate?

[Talisar]

It seems I'm flooding my own thread with posts, but here's a version of the MTV Copernicus I made using these parts, procedural parts pack, Porkjet's inflatable habs, FTMN nuclear engines, and NFP:

[Justin Kerbice]

When I exported it from my modelling program, I had animation keyframes for every separate mesh in the model, including the static parts. I went back and re-did it, only exporting animation keyframes for the parts that were actually moving.

I'm not quite sure what you mean here... can you post a pic to illustrate?

OK thanks for the info. Here they are (don't mind other unrelated pic, it's a generic issue album ):

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Hope it's explicit enough, all is done in sequence without any kind of jump, I took a part, attach it and/or detach it, look at the stack nodes.

[Talisar]

Hmm, I haven't had that issue with these parts, but I've seen it happen before with hub pieces. Perhaps it has something to do with having more than 2 stack nodes in a line? I've found that picking up and re-attaching the part that the node is missing on usually fixes the issue when it happens to me.

I'm curious if anyone else has seen this behavior before?

-edit Oh, and does it only happen with the arched piece with the attachment hub on the side? If so, that would be consistent with my observations about hub pieces (that's basically the same setup)

Edited April 24, 2014 by Talisar

[Justin Kerbice]

Not only with one part with attachment hub, two frames v1 together create the issue, and detaching the "parent" then reattaching it does nothing (add 1 frame v1 = the parent, add another rotated twice to make it oriented the right way, try to attach something else on top => no node, detach the parent then rettach it to where it was => still no node).

The node issues is if more than two nodes exists on a part, ONLY top/bottom nodes can be attached together on multiple instance of the same part (try stock small cube or the octo hub, you can also check with my structural cube from advertizing panels mod, I've add two stickers on top/bottom face to make it easy to see).

[BigD145]

The old WolfPackAeronautics had cargo bays that were wider than standard parts so they'd fit standard parts within. But they were a static space all around so no joining them end to end for longer bays. This is a nice alternative.

[BananaDealer]

Hmm... Interesting...