Hexagon Projects [Phase I Development]

[mbartelsm]

Our goal here at Hexagon Projects it to provide the kerbal population access to high end modular parts which can be combined in anyway while keeping visual consistency and overall appeal. Given the abysmal lack of rocket engines currently available to the public, this will be our main focus early on, before we move onto structural parts, command pods and ultimately utility and science parts. Check the roadmap below to see our plans for the future.

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HL-04C :: 0.625m Core engine

HL-04B :: 1.250m Booster engine

HL-04U :: 1.250m Upper engine

HL-08C :: 1.250m Core engine

HL-08B :: 2.500m Booster engine

HL-08U :: 2.500m Upper engine

HL-16C :: 2.500m Core engine

HL-16B :: 3.750m Booster engine

HL-16U :: 3.750m Upper engine

HL-24C :: 3.750m Core engine

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LFO Tanks :: 0.625m, 1.250m, 2.500m and 3.750m (TweakScale optional)

HTL-025 :: 1/4 Pancake tank

HTL-050 :: 1/2 Short tank

HTL-100 :: 1/1 Standard tank

HTL-200 :: 2/1 Long tank

HTL-400 :: 4/1 Tower tank

HM-04O :: 0.625m Orbital maneuver engine

HM-08O :: 1.250m Orbital maneuver engine

HM-16O :: 2.500m Orbital maneuver engine

HN-06O :: 0.625m Orbital nuclear engine

HN-12O :: 1.250m Orbital nuclear engine

HN-25O :: 2.500m Orbital nuclear engine

HN-37O :: 3.750m Orbital nuclear engine

HET-06O :: 0.625m Orbital resistojet thruster

HES-06O :: 0.625m Orbital hall effect thruster

HET-12O :: 1.250m Orbital resistojet thruster

HES-12O :: 1.250m Orbital hall effect thruster

???

???

Edited June 12, 2015 by mbartelsm

[mbartelsm]

Progress:

Right now I'll be iterating the 08 engine series in order to reduce texture footprint to at least 50% (currently~80%), I'm new to texturing so this might take anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks

Edited June 12, 2015 by mbartelsm

[nli2work]

Very cool looking so far! fits well with stock parts.

for engine fairings

tag the fairing object with Icon_Hidden in Unity

add ModuleJettison to the engine's config.

MODULE
{
       name = ModuleJettison
       jettisonName = fairing                  //same name as the fairing object in your unity set up. 
       bottomNodeName = bottom          //when something is stacked to this node fairing to become visible, typically the bottom stack node
       isFairing = True
       jettisonedObjectMass = 0.1
       jettisonForce = 5
       jettisonDirection = 0 0 1

}

[Robotengineer]

This is interesting, as to how to add a fairing, I believe you model the fairing with the rest of the engine in your graphics program, then in unity you put that mesh under an empty gameobject that will be the name the following module calls, then add module jettison to the part .cfg with the jettison name = to the game object with the fairing mesh. Not completely sure if that is correct, otherwise check the compilation of modding info thread. ninja'd by Nli2work.

Edited July 7, 2014 by Robotengineer
Ninja'd.

[mbartelsm]

Thank you both very much

[sumghai]

This is interesting, as to how to add a fairing, I believe you model the fairing with the rest of the engine in your graphics program, then in unity you put that mesh under an empty gameobject that will be the name the following module calls, then add module jettison to the part .cfg with the jettison name = to the game object with the fairing mesh. Not completely sure if that is correct, otherwise check the compilation of modding info thread. ninja'd by Nli2work.

In addition to this, the fairing mesh should be tagged as Icon_Hidden in Unity, so that the fairing is hidden from the preview thumbnails of the VAB/SPH part list.

[nli2work]

I like the your idea of mix-matching rocket base w/ nozzles, in terms of production it makes generating multiple parts very quick with the benefit of sharing textures and meshes to reduce the part pack's memory footprint. but in terms of game play you need some kind of plugin to create some impact when mixing Base-A w/ Nozzle-C... or Base-D w/ Nozzle A. etc. Or at least something to make sure that both parts are present and directly attached together before the whole contraption will work as an engine. otherwise the mixing will be purely cosmetic, and it would be possible for one or the other to function as an entire engine depending on which part you assign the engine module.

Interstellar mod has this mechanic for constructing engines with multiple necessary parts.

Edited July 7, 2014 by nli2work

[Raptor831]

This looks great! Always could use more engine options.

One thing: clustering can be achieved quite easily if you enable radial attachment for the engines. Just enable symmetry and there you go. AIES does this with the smaller engines, so you could look at those to see the details.

[mbartelsm]

I like the your idea of mix-matching rocket base w/ nozzles, in terms of production it makes generating multiple parts very quick with the benefit of sharing textures and meshes to reduce the part pack's memory footprint. but in terms of game play you need some kind of plugin to create some impact when mixing Base-A w/ Nozzle-C... or Base-D w/ Nozzle A. etc. Or at least something to make sure that both parts are present and directly attached together before the whole contraption will work as an engine. otherwise the mixing will be purely cosmetic, and it would be possible for one or the other to function as an entire engine depending on which part you assign the engine module.

Interstellar mod has this mechanic for constructing engines with multiple necessary parts.

I have zero knowledge of coding, I was planning on doing the mix-matching by hand, generating a total of 9 parts for the editor (10 with the hexarch). The only thing I was planning on coding were the engine clusters, but I'm not worrying about that part yet.

[mbartelsm]

This looks great! Always could use more engine options.

One thing: clustering can be achieved quite easily if you enable radial attachment for the engines. Just enable symmetry and there you go. AIES does this with the smaller engines, so you could look at those to see the details.

Yeah, that was the idea, but I still want a part that looks good for the job, not the bottom of a tank .

[sumghai]

I have zero knowledge of coding, I was planning on doing the mix-matching by hand, generating a total of 9 parts for the editor (10 with the hexarch). The only thing I was planning on coding were the engine clusters, but I'm not worrying about that part yet.

MODEL{} node calls in the part CFGs will allow you to "weld" and re-use separate model / texture files to make all the permutations desired.

[mbartelsm]

MODEL{} node calls in the part CFGs will allow you to "weld" and re-use separate model / texture files to make all the permutations desired.

dammit! so I don't have to make a separate model for each engine?

[sumghai]

dammit! so I don't have to make a separate model for each engine?

What you can do is to make the models for the three bases and three nozzles separately, and then use the MODEL{} node system in the CFG to pick and choose which ones to combine - for each submodel, you can specify position, rotation and even alternative textures/bump/emissive maps.

This is how I've managed to create so many space station module variants for FusTek - I reuse a common base model upon which I add other bits and pieces, without having to duplicate assets in Blender.

[nli2work]

you still need separate model for parts that have appreciably different mesh. but if you are making, say an engine cluster that consists of 5 smaller engines, MODEL{} nodes will let you do that without having to export an mu file for the cluster.

[mbartelsm]

Ok, that would still reduce the amount of work by a lot, thank you once more

Tomorrow Awaits!

[NathanKell]

I really like these! Especially since the housing at the top is not larger than the bell.

I'll put in my usual plea however: please make the nozzles realistic. In particular, your main/lifter (difference?) engine should have about 16x the thrust of the orbital engine, if they have the same nozzle diameter (going by modern engines). (Well, it varies by the difference in expansion ratio obviously, but 16x is a good estimate.) Also the shape of the nozzles will differ slightly, since in essence the orbital nozzle *is* the lifter nozzle, scaled down, with a large extension placed below it.

Also, if you're going to be using the stock color palette, why not go SXT's route and reuse stock textures as much as possible? Then you'll not be taking up extra texture memory, so your pack will be essentially "free."

[mbartelsm]

Well, I have done my fair share of investigation on rockets in order to make this mod, but I still believe I'm gonna need help with balancing.

The Lifter is that, the lifter, it take your biggest rockets out of kerbin, the Main is a multitask engine, a balance between power and ISP (Think SSME)

I'm planning on using Baha's plugin to animate the Obrital engines, so that a nozzle extension descends into place on engine activation

EDIT: Did not notice who you were , I was in fact planning on adding full support for RO once I was done with the parts

BTW, does anyone knows what is the problem with my emissive animation?

http://i.imgur.com/XN80xEf.png

http://i.imgur.com/lxhhNk1.png

Edited July 8, 2014 by mbartelsm

[Gryphorim]

This looks like a worthy successor to RLA-Stockalike. Love the Aesthetic. I hope this is going to eventually encompass more that just engines.

[NathanKell]

Heh. Guilty as charged, I'm me.

That sounds awesome! My dream has always been to have to do less work^H^H^H^H have other modders support RO "out of the box"--and the best part is, MM2.1.5 allows you to do just that, shipping configs that only activate when RO is installed.

In that case if you want realistic-ish thrust ratios for your engines, it's probably something like 24-12-1 lifter/main/orbital.

Never used Unity, so I got nuthin. Sorry!

[mbartelsm]

This looks like a worthy successor to RLA-Stockalike. Love the Aesthetic. I hope this is going to eventually encompass more that just engines.

Maybe one day

Heh. Guilty as charged, I'm me.

That sounds awesome! My dream has always been to have to do less work^H^H^H^H have other modders support RO "out of the box"--and the best part is, MM2.1.5 allows you to do just that, shipping configs that only activate when RO is installed.

In that case if you want realistic-ish thrust ratios for your engines, it's probably something like 24-12-1 lifter/main/orbital.

Never used Unity, so I got nuthin. Sorry!

Thanks for the ratios, what about the ISP? is there kind of a rule of thumb to balance it?

[MainSailor]

Thanks for the ratios, what about the ISP? is there kind of a rule of thumb to balance it?

Stupid_chris has a pretty good chart for balancing thrust, isp, and engine weight (or more precisely, engine TWR) in his Stock Rebalance mod. It's what I use when I rescale engines for my own purposes.

[mbartelsm]

Rebooting the mod. I'm open to feedback for the entire project and open to suggestions for all phases except phase I since those parts are already set in stone (mostly).

[Nansuchao]

Hi, good to see you back. Can you add some pictures of the done part to the OP?

[mbartelsm]

There are no pictures, I'm barely starting. But they will come soon

[mbartelsm]

Ok, finished the first model and texture, onto the config.