[WIP] NohArk's Pick and Pull - Space Tug DEV 0.4

[DracovaXIV]

I've done some snooping around to try and determine how the engines will work. All of these beauties are clearly propfans, perhaps with the exception of the one with straight blades, but the twin-rotor design and the gas turbine exhaust vanes in front of its nose cone suggest that it too is a propfan like the others. That's what you had in mind, correct? This is pretty exciting because I don't think there are any propfans modeled in AJE to date. These are prop engines driven by turbines, as opposed to piston engines. For the big 14-bladed one, I'll try to copy the stats of the Progress D-27 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_D-27) and I'll work from there for the others. AJE is actually a very strange, in-depth mod with more math than RealFuels rockets. Hmm.

Edit: I forgot to ask. That cockpit, the pointed one - I've never seen it before, I presume it's your work as well? It's magnificent. I can just imagine it working on a mini-Skylon. I look forward to trying it as well.

Edited August 13, 2014 by DracovaXIV

[nli2work]

the two on the left are prop-Fans. Ultra High Bypass turbofans. Left one is similar to Antonov AN70 engine; exactly the one you are looking at.

second left is just kind of made-up based on UDF prototypes GE built in the 80s.

two on the right are WW2 type contra-propellers; max thrust for both are around 325m/s; and drops to 0 just under Mach 1, which I think is accurate for non-turbine driven propellers. The fuselage parts are custom made, I'll be releasing them after I round out the set a bit with a tail landing gear and couple spoilers. because they are hard to slow down in FAR.

I made these mostly just so I can build the 2 hero planes from Sky Crawlers.

[DracovaXIV]

Hmm, I see! That will make writing the first two configs relatively straightforward, I'll try to make the second engine a downscaled version of the first. I'm going to try a few configurations with the last two, and will likely stick to either subsonic for all of them, or very mildly supersonic for the first three. They really do look like they're all driven by turbines!

[nli2work]

Hmm, I see! That will make writing the first two configs relatively straightforward, I'll try to make the second engine a downscaled version of the first. I'm going to try a few configurations with the last two, and will likely stick to either subsonic for all of them, or very mildly supersonic for the first three. They really do look like they're all driven by turbines!

the 3rd one is based on J7W shinden, a ww2 japanese prototype interceptor. there was plans to make a turbine version but it was never produced, so who knows, maybe it could go a little supersonic. The last one would be subsonic, strictly piston driven.

yeah they do all look similar, they all share the same main cowling piece, just slightly different shape. saves me production time. I'd still be modeling them if I was making each separately.

[DracovaXIV]

Got it. Pistons all the way for the fourth one. Shinden! All right, that's another IRL set of numbers I could gnaw on, then. I've found detailed stats on the D70, so now I'll try to make heads or tails of them in context of the AJE mod. There's not much in the way of documentation, from what I can see.

[DracovaXIV]

Here's a very, very early draft for the first engine in that picture. Not suited for use until I actually test everything out. I tried to copy the stats of the D-27 as closely as possible, pulled straight from the manufacturer's website and Russian wiki articles. For the blade pitch and gear ratio, I had to use intuition halfway. I have no idea how this is going to look in-game, and will have to wait until I have the part files before I can try something. Also, had to do one heck of a unit conversion for the specific fuel consumption at Wolfram Alpha, I hope it's not going to be a case of math failure. I'm looking at these numbers and starting to freak out a little bit, because this engine is ostensibly a nightmarish fantasy beast. I mean, 11-plus-change thousand horsepower at almost nine thousand RPM, with a blade pitch of 16 degrees... Well, maybe AJE will surprise me by having it work as advertised...

MODULE
{
name=AJEPropeller                   
IspMultiplier = 1
useOxygen = true
r0 = 4.5
v0 = 672
omega0 = 7135
rho0 = 1
power0 = 8210

fine = 0.2
coarse = 16

omega = 8936
power = 11200
gearratio = 0.542
turbo = 3.8

BSFC = 6.3325e-8
}

[Helix935]

i know that you have been hard at work on the new engines that you're building but i just hope that your glass pods haven't been forgotten...

[nli2work]

i know that you have been hard at work on the new engines that you're building but i just hope that your glass pods haven't been forgotten...

nope not forgotten, plugging away at the internal props and figuring out all the JSI internal goodies. sorry it's taking a long time. but good news is all 3 pods will get updated. not just one.

Edited August 17, 2014 by nli2work

[nli2work]

Bill approves

[Gaalidas]

Awesome... now quit torturing me and get that prepared for a new release. I swear, the day I starting trolling the development forum was the day I realized there really is something worse than... well... okay so I didn't think that one out far enough to make sense of that comment. For an explanation, see my signature area.

[RoverDude]

Question - what are you using for the glass pods to make the Kerbals appear outside of IVA?

[nli2work]

RasterPropMonitor's JSITransparentPod module. It does much more than just making the IVA visible, all the prop animations will be visible, the RPM monitors will update as well. There're few caveats, mostly with transparent shaders in IVA, limited by KSP's rendering order when dealing with those shaders. but for 90% of things you might have in the IVA it's perfectly good

Edited August 20, 2014 by nli2work

[Gaalidas]

Now we just need someone to go around and update all the other pods and cockpits, even those with only teeny tiny little windows, to do that so we can see our kerbals freaking out in their normal way when we zoom in really really really close. That would be awesome.

[nli2work]

Now we just need someone to go around and update all the other pods and cockpits, even those with only teeny tiny little windows, to do that so we can see our kerbals freaking out in their normal way when we zoom in really really really close. That would be awesome.

unfortunately it's much harder going in than out. Squad would have to make RPM stock and rebuild all the IVAs

Took few hours to figure out String.Format; but now making good progress getting functioning displays in place.

[nli2work]

Still alot of kinks to iron out... but definitely making progress

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Bi3OE1vQ4w

[nli2work]

Tower of Kerman... quite costly on the frame rate.

Edited August 26, 2014 by nli2work

[Shad0wCatcher]

It's beautiferous.

[nli2work]

DEV release v0.8 @ Mediafire

Parts:

• 0.625m sized Mono Pod;
  
• 1.25m sized Cyclops Pod;
  
• ~0.3m sized AGU "Klaw";
  
• ~0.15m Radial & Ventral mount micro lander leg.
  
• Internal Displays and Switches powered by RPM
  
• Main see-through full function MFD
  
• all instruments and MFD update while viewed in IVA or EVA mode
  

Known issues:

• Stage-Lock and Engines Active/Deactive switches don't work; IVA alarms don't work. still waiting for Mihara to come back and help me out with these.
  
• Having multiple transparent pods in physics range will eat up alot of FPS, especially during initial load and physics stabilization. maximum recommended IVAs is 3 or 4
  
• Too many transparent pods in physics range will crash the game. number depends on total IVAs being created. Maximum on my test install is ~9.
  
• Transparent Pods will generate Initialization errors in VAB/SPH; switches will be functional after Launch, with exceptions noted above.
  
• Flight HUD will render Black instead of Green in OpenGL mode.
  
• Lighting direction from Sun incorrect in IVA.
  
• One of the stack nodes on Mono Pod will snap to, but not attach to other stack nodes
  

please report any bugs and issues, Thanks!

Edited August 27, 2014 by nli2work

[Shad0wCatcher]

.....YOINK. Will Test when I get home (At work now; should be home in approx 1 hour so long as a deer doesn't decide to fight my car >.> )

[Shad0wCatcher]

Apologies for the double post. Tried these out extensively. Absolutely love the ultralight (have one running off a firespitter propeller and fusion power pushing me well past 0.5 mach and it weighs less than 3000 kg). Still trying to think of a design where the Cyclops (larger) pod would be useful but that's more a lack of creativity on my end than anything wrong with this mod. (replacement cupola perhaps? It only having a bottom node feels weird to me) Also the pictures here don't do these justice; the emissives at night are gorgeous. My one and only (minor) gripe is lack of brightness of the displays, but that may be one of the vagaries of OpenGL rendering.

[nli2work]

Apologies for the double post. Tried these out extensively. Absolutely love the ultralight (have one running off a firespitter propeller and fusion power pushing me well past 0.5 mach and it weighs less than 3000 kg). Still trying to think of a design where the Cyclops (larger) pod would be useful but that's more a lack of creativity on my end than anything wrong with this mod. (replacement cupola perhaps? It only having a bottom node feels weird to me) Also the pictures here don't do these justice; the emissives at night are gorgeous. My one and only (minor) gripe is lack of brightness of the displays, but that may be one of the vagaries of OpenGL rendering.

Thanks for the feedback!

Cyclops should have a 0.625 node on top and 1.25 under. similar to Mk1 pod. Interior lighting is quite dim still, I need to adjust the lights a bit more. The RPM is dim intentionally and is lit with interior lights during night time. Alternative is setting the rendering to emissive layer, which works well at night, but is overblown during the day time. Not an issue with OpenGL. I think I can find a decent compromise with interior lights.

I'm going to have to roll back on the number of RPM driven gauges and revert to stock dials and the like. The frame rate drop is too much. If I have 1 of each transparent pod in the scene, frame rate is acceptable, only after a very long initial load time, during time warp the frame drops below 10fps. 4 panopticon pods will crash the game with KSP complaining about too many internals.

I'll have another dev version out tomorrow.

[Shad0wCatcher]

Really? Guess I haven't tested enough pods in one scene to notice the FPS drop. I did notice the 0.625 meter node up top which makes the Cyclops perfect for Spaceballs-esque escape pods. Now all we need is a large grizzly bear to clasp together for a seat belt and we'll be set! I'd love to see a 1.25 meter or larger pod with horizontal attach node for tug purposes; but that's wishlist-type material. Lord knows how much work each of these take. Great job though. I need to get a modulemanager config up for these to play nicely with Raptor831's stockalike engines monoprop->hydrazine changes but that's on my end.

[nli2work]

Really? Guess I haven't tested enough pods in one scene to notice the FPS drop. I did notice the 0.625 meter node up top which makes the Cyclops perfect for Spaceballs-esque escape pods. Now all we need is a large grizzly bear to clasp together for a seat belt and we'll be set! I'd love to see a 1.25 meter or larger pod with horizontal attach node for tug purposes; but that's wishlist-type material. Lord knows how much work each of these take. Great job though. I need to get a modulemanager config up for these to play nicely with Raptor831's stockalike engines monoprop->hydrazine changes but that's on my end.

my computer's not exactly new. but I'm guessing the sheer amount of linked variables those displays require is what does it.

[Shad0wCatcher]

Oh yea for sure. I wonder if it might be within the transparentIVA code recursing all the displays. I'd gladly take a static display (though I have to admit it is REALLY cool watching the navball in the pod change with pitch / yaw / roll input. Makes me giddy every time) to allow for many pods to be active at once.

[nli2work]

DEV 0.9 up. link in OP.

Spied low above KSC