[1.0.x] [V1.9f] Kerbal Foundries wheels, anti-grav repulsors and tracks

[Space Scumbag]

Wow, that sounds really cool. And how are the longer tracks going? You know, we need them for our battle tanks. I'm also planning to do a showcase video of your mod, but don't know when it's the right moment. I think I will wait for some more new parts.

[lo-fi]

Ah, long tracks. Yep, quite quick at tracks now, there will be a long set too.

Showcase would be brilliant, thank you hopefully have some more textures sorted and a greater range of parts with 1.8, so that would probably be a good point.

[hydran101]

Mind making tracks that look like this:

[lo-fi]

^Tricky, as they don't have rotational symmetry. Working on that....

I forgot: Spanners wicked landing skid/ski will also be in 1.8.

Little teaser of the small wheels:

[mike9606]

Mind making tracks that look like this: http://www.monstermayhem.org/forums/images/imported/2010/04/448.jpg

Are those FlakPanzer I tracks on that pickup?

[RenatsMC]

^Tricky, as they don't have rotational symmetry. Working on that....

I forgot: Spanners wicked landing skid/ski will also be in 1.8.

Little teaser of the small wheels:

http://youtu.be/ms39MENmvro

Keep it up

More smaller wheels for rovers.

[lo-fi]

Just realised I may have left a debugging message hitting the log. I'll issue an update shortly.

I'm quite pleased with the small wheels, now trying to decide what sort of design would be good for a really small set.

[Madrias]

Am I the only one hoping for wheels small enough that you can strap four of them to the wide, short I-beam, add a seat and a battery, and call it a go-kart?

[Gaalidas]

Not anymore you're not.

[Madrias]

Hey, it'd make for a real cool micro-rover. Add Cubic Octagonal Strut and Solar Panel (and perhaps an antenna, if you're so inclined to play in Career mode) and you have a rover that's travel ready, and at the same time, can fit literally in any carrying vehicle, even if it happens to only have 1.25m cargo bays.

[lo-fi]

I'll have a go. Things tend to get rather odd at that scale, so they may not work well in KSP. The suspension raycast has a significant non linear error and torque is measured in force, not force applied at a length away from a fulcrum. It all gets kinda weird.

[thorfinn]

Could mini-tracks work better than mini-wheels?

[lo-fi]

Tracks are a bunch of wheel colliders and some visual trickery, so the same applies really. I'll maybe knock out some tiny test parts, see what you guys make of their behaviour.

Researching the little trip that happens occasionally has proved interesting. Seems to be similar to the old problem where the suspension would wind up, then spring back. Further information is proving hard to find. I do know that the wheel raycast loses ground contact when moving over certain points of terrain, and this seems to correspond with where the suspension would unwind (makes perfect sense) and the trip happens. I can see no way to fix it, however. The annoying thing is, it's far worse with small suspension travel. Though I suppose making small wheels with decent suspension travel might work well...

[RenatsMC]

Small wheels is answer for Career mode because big wheels cost more funds and also need to buid bigger Rocket carrier to Duna and Eve :/ So thats why were asking for small wheels or even tracks. Funds are precocious just like in Real life

[lo-fi]

Ah, I see Not a career mode player myself, so these things tend to pass me by..

[Voculus]

How would I increase the volume of the wheel sounds?

EFFECTS

{

WheelEffect

{

AUDIO

{

channel = Ship

clip = KerbalFoundries/Sounds/wheel

volume = 0.0 0.0

volume = 0.1 0.2

volume = 1.0 1.0

pitch = 0.0 0.2

pitch = 1.0 .7

loop = true

}

}

Would I simply increase the highlighted numbers slightly?

[lo-fi]

Almost. The first number is just a value that the plugin passes to the effect module. The second is the volume or pitch for that value, so it's the second one you want to modify. Very similar to the floatcurves used for steering and torque.

[Voculus]

I've been testing a bunch of rovers, all with different weights, wheel types, wheel numbers, and suspension settings. Sadly, I just can't get them to drive right if the terrain isn't nearly flat. On heavier rovers (15 tons or more) the hesitation becomes so severe, it destroys the craft in the process. Lighter rovers (2-3 tons) aren't broken up, but any terrain feature that has an abrupt edge, like the curb on a sidewalk, flat out stops the rover in place, rather than allowing it to crawl over.

On the brighter side, the tracks seem to behave much better. They seem to soak up the contours of the terrain, and will drive over the top of most of the things I've thrown against them so far.

[lo-fi]

I've been testing a bunch of rovers, all with different weights, wheel types, wheel numbers, and suspension settings. Sadly, I just can't get them to drive right if the terrain isn't nearly flat. On heavier rovers (15 tons or more) the hesitation becomes so severe, it destroys the craft in the process. Lighter rovers (2-3 tons) aren't broken up, but any terrain feature that has an abrupt edge, like the curb on a sidewalk, flat out stops the rover in place, rather than allowing it to crawl over.

On the brighter side, the tracks seem to behave much better. They seem to soak up the contours of the terrain, and will drive over the top of most of the things I've thrown against them so far.

That's something I haven't found. Could you post some vids? The tracks are really no different to wheels, so something not right there at all

[Voculus]

That's something I haven't found. Could you post some vids? The tracks are really no different to wheels, so something not right there at all

Sure, gimme just a bit to whip something up.

[Madrias]

I look at small wheels for the design idea of carrying as many rovers as needed on any mission easily. Sure, I could build bigger designs meant to carry larger, more conventional rovers, but I like my shuttles and spaceplanes. For a while now, I've wanted to create a super-small rover that can comfortably pack into a 2.5m cargo bay, along with some science/comms gear (even in Sandbox, I carry science gear and all missions must have an antenna onboard), and another rover or refueling/recharging station. After all, even electric rovers need gas stations on the Mun. They just happen to be KAS equipped solar stations.

[Voculus]

My pea brain finally pieced together that the SAS modules were somehow fighting against the wheels. With too much SAS force, and especially with MechJeb Stability Control, it's hard to drive anywhere with a heavy rover. I found by reducing the amount of SAS modules, that the handling was vastly improved. So the fault is mine.

[lo-fi]

I look at small wheels for the design idea of carrying as many rovers as needed on any mission easily. Sure, I could build bigger designs meant to carry larger, more conventional rovers, but I like my shuttles and spaceplanes. For a while now, I've wanted to create a super-small rover that can comfortably pack into a 2.5m cargo bay, along with some science/comms gear (even in Sandbox, I carry science gear and all missions must have an antenna onboard), and another rover or refueling/recharging station. After all, even electric rovers need gas stations on the Mun. They just happen to be KAS equipped solar stations.

Sounds pretty cool, I have to admit

Got a tiny wheel design going, just need to find a suitable suspension rig. Also had a very enlightening discussion about struts this morning, which will be integral to retaining rovers in the launch/lander capsules I want to make.

My pea brain finally pieced together that the SAS modules were somehow fighting against the wheels. With too much SAS force, and especially with MechJeb Stability Control, it's hard to drive anywhere with a heavy rover. I found by reducing the amount of SAS modules, that the handling was vastly improved. So the fault is mine.

PHEW! You had me worried there. Thanks for the info, that's one to watch out for.

[Voculus]

OK lo-fi, as if you didn't already have enough on your plate, I have another question about the wheel sounds. I overwrote your wheel sound with one from Pizzaoverhead's Rover Wheel Sounds Mod. With the Kerbal Foundries sound system, the medium wheels sound like this:

Before you included wheel sounds, they sounded like this with the above-mentioned mod:

Now those are the exact same WAV files. Is it possible to make your sounds have a more "dynamic range"? (For lack of a better term) I can't use Pizza's mod, since it only works on ModuleWheels found in the config files.

[lo-fi]

Absolutely, just change the pitch values the same as the volume. The plugin generates a value 0-1, calcluated by current RPM/maxRPM (defined in the config). The second values for pitch or volume can be changed, so maybe try:

EFFECTS
{
   WheelEffect
   {
	AUDIO
	{
	  channel = Ship
	  clip = KerbalFoundries/Sounds/wheel
	  volume = 0.0 0.0
	  volume = 0.1 0.2
	  volume = 1.0 1.0
	  pitch = 0.0 0.2
	  pitch = 1.0 1.8
	  loop = true
	}
   }
}

Either way, it's the pitch you'll want to play with probably. Or I'm open to suggestions for a better sound That was a recoding of an electric space heater mashed through some filters, IIRC