CactEye Orbital Telescope

[Raven.]

Question (probably stupid). Why does the background space around the subject planet / moon appear grey and not black in this and other "zoom in" mods?

As Ralathon has stated, it has to do with the skybox texture. The skybox texture around the equatorial plane is a brighter color because of the "milky way" texture, and most planets in KSP do not deviate very far from it; planets such as Eve and Jool are in a bright part of the sky.

Me personally, I use Rareden's skybox with Texture Replacer: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/87311-Rareden-s-Real-8k-Skybox-for-Texture-Replacer

It's because the skybox is just a large image instead of something more refined. The stars and galaxy are just pixels instead of points. Also, the galaxy on the skybox has the same inclination as all the planets. So whenever you try to take a snapshot of a planet there's always a giant grey pixel in the background.

A simple solution is to use Texture replacer to get a different skybox (One with more black). A more elegant solution (on the side of the mod) would be to use the code from Distant Object Enhancement that blacks out the skybox and use that to hide the skybox when zooming the telescope. But that means extra work for Raven.

I have thought about in the future, after the new version of Cacteye is up for release and has had a good part of the bugs smashed, about looking into integrating Distant Object Enhancement and CactEye together for two reasons: to address the incompatibility with DOE's flares and to allow for observation of something other than simply planets and moons.

You're my hero!! I am very much looking forward to you release!

Thank you!

[montyben101]

Just upgraded my telescope to a level 3 wide field processor and now whenever I try and take a picture it INSTANTLY drains my electric charge????!!!! is there a quick fix for this?

[Raven.]

Just upgraded my telescope to a level 3 wide field processor and now whenever I try and take a picture it INSTANTLY drains my electric charge????!!!! is there a quick fix for this?

What's the total electric capacity for the craft? What kind of batteries do you have on the craft?

[montyben101]

I have enough electric charge. It instantly drains ALL the power in the craft. I have over 4000 units of charge

[Raven.]

I have enough electric charge. It instantly drains ALL the power in the craft. I have over 4000 units of charge

Ok, I know you've probably already have done this, but have you tried deleting and reinstalling CactEye? Also, are you running on Win64 by any chance? Could you post a log file?

[johnwayne1930]

Unfortunately, CactEye add-on is tied to an issue with asteroids no longer being spawned (tested on KSP 0.25 (build 00642), Win 32, without any other add-on).

In a stock unmodded KSP, VesselSpawner routine periodically checks for the possibility to generate a new object:

- if successful, a "[VesselSpawner]: New object found!" line is logged (and the object shows in game);

- if unsuccessful, a "[VesselSpawner]: No new object this time. (Odds are 1:2)" line is logged instead.

But, with just CactEye added to the stock KSP 0.25, that routine always returns: "[VesselSpawner]: No new objects this time. (Odds are 1:101)"

So, CactEye in some way changes the odds for VesselSpawner. The reported 1:101 does not seem to be 1/101 (= 0.00990099), as VesselSpawner is never successful.

I'd like to investigate what could be done to correct this issue, will certainly welcome if anybody wants to help.

As far as I can see, this is not a bug, but an intended feature. The asteroid cameras (mk1-3) are required for discovery with the mod installed. The code for it is in https://github.com/duckytopia/CactEye/blob/master/Source/AsteroidSpawnTweak.cs and basically does a vessel-by-vessel scan, checking for the best processor on each, sums those that are far enough apart (100km), and uses the total combined rate to calculate the discovery odds.

Which would mean that the "fix" is to launch a (or several) telescope(s) with asteroid cameras to search for them.

Does the asteroid one actually auto detect them? I haven't seen any "unknown objects" since the beginning of the game. Also doesn't seem to be "active" when I return to the ship.

I fast forwarded time a few years with three active Telescopes (with Asteroid cameras) in different orbits around Kerbin, no new Asteroid spawns since KSP 0.25.

The debug window constantly writes [VesselSpawner]: No new object this time.

[Raven.]

I fast forwarded time a few years with three active Telescopes (with Asteroid cameras) in different orbits around Kerbin, no new Asteroid spawns since KSP 0.25.

The debug window constantly writes [VesselSpawner]: No new object this time.

Duly noted. I'll check out what's going on. Any chance that I can get a KSP.log file?

[johnwayne1930]

Duly noted. I'll check out what's going on. Any chance that I can get a KSP.log file?

Yes here.

Well, after redo the test for a log file, maybe it's not completely not working...

But the discovery rate could be a bit more, there are only five discovery's with three Telescopes in one in-game year.

[Raven.]

Yes here.

Well, after redo the test for a log file, maybe it's not completely not working...

But the discovery rate could be a bit more, there are only five discovery's with three Telescopes in one in-game year.

Thank you, we now have a confirmed bug with the asteroid spawning; I was able to pinpoint the exact line of code that's causing the problem. I'll make note of this and try to get this fixed in the next version. I think introducing some more error handling in the code will mitigate or eliminate this quite a bit.

[diomedea]

I fast forwarded time a few years with three active Telescopes (with Asteroid cameras) in different orbits around Kerbin, no new Asteroid spawns since KSP 0.25.

The debug window constantly writes [VesselSpawner]: No new object this time.

Thank you, we now have a confirmed bug with the asteroid spawning; I was able to pinpoint the exact line of code that's causing the problem. I'll make note of this and try to get this fixed in the next version. I think introducing some more error handling in the code will mitigate or eliminate this quite a bit.

I had the same exact line since first trying Cacteye with KSP 0.25, and was myself thinking of a bug. However, it turned out that is an intended feature. That is better documented in this post here.

[Raven.]

I had the same exact line since first trying Cacteye with KSP 0.25, and was myself thinking of a bug. However, it turned out that is an intended feature. That is better documented in this post here.

The adjusted spawn rate is an intended feature. What is not an intended feature, is that spawn rate not adjusting with asteroid cameras being thrown into orbit.

I'm pretty sure this is a bug. If you take a look through his log file, CactEye is writing a rather obscure error message to the log file that it can't get access to the object to adjust the spawn rate. In fact, I'm surprised that he's not getting a null reference exception. Specifically, the error handling at line 74 of AsteroidSpawnTweak.cs. So no matter how many asteroid cameras he throws up, the spawn rate never gets adjusted; only five asteroids in a Kerbin year period is a little low for three telescopes.

In addition, this is the same method that's being used for the mod Custom Asteroids, meaning that I don't know how the two mods will interact. Potentially, I believe that CactEye and Custom Asteroids will conflict with each other, but I have not confirmed this so I cannot say for sure.

[Raven.]

It's been a while since the last update, so here's another screenshot of a much more refined, and debugged GUI. Right now the mod is 90% Sandbox mode ready and 60% Career mode ready with the new GUI. The science component is still WIP.

[sp1989]

I don't know, but is there is a way to make the Career version of this telescope more immersive. For example the first pieces you unlock are defective but work fine. As you unlock pieces up the tech tree your telescope gets better but you have to perform a service mission. Now this is all good but if you could incorporate this with the Fine Print Mod (which will soon be stock anyway) that would be incredible too. Like a "Repair of upgrade your orbital telescope".

[rdwulfe]

Raven, are you continuing the development of this mod? If so, that's awesome!

[dtrauma]

Heads up to anyone else just using the SLIM probe core: as linked on the front page, it's missing an SAS module in the part file, so you won't be able to use SAS with a probe with only this core, even if you add reaction wheels and/or RCS. A quick fix is to just add

MODULE
{
    name = ModuleSAS
}

to the part file. Any vessels already launched have to be fixed in the save file.

[Raven.]

Raven, are you continuing the development of this mod? If so, that's awesome!

Yes, I am continuing the development.

Heads up to anyone else just using the SLIM probe core: as linked on the front page, it's missing an SAS module in the part file, so you won't be able to use SAS with a probe with only this core, even if you add reaction wheels and/or RCS. A quick fix is to just add

MODULE
{
    name = ModuleSAS
}

to the part file. Any vessels already launched have to be fixed in the save file.

Good catch. I'll be sure that this makes it into the next release.

In the meantime, development is coming along just fine. The incompatibility between Distant Object Enhancement and CactEye seems to have been solved setting the codebase up in such a way to allow CactEye to control the flare size.

In the meantime, here's some screenshots taken with the update. The game the screenshots were taken from is running Environmental Visual Enhancements, Astronomer's Pack, Distant Object Enhancement with default settings, Planetshine, and of course, CactEye:

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[rottielover]

Yes, I am continuing the development.

Good catch. I'll be sure that this makes it into the next release.

In the meantime, development is coming along just fine. The incompatibility between Distant Object Enhancement and CactEye seems to have been solved setting the codebase up in such a way to allow CactEye to control the flare size.

In the meantime, here's some screenshots taken with the update. The game the screenshots were taken from is running Environmental Visual Enhancements, Astronomer's Pack, Distant Object Enhancement with default settings, Planetshine, and of course, CactEye:

Beautiful, just simply beautiful.

[Ralathon]

Hold on a second, how can Jool and Duna have that kind of illumination? They're further away from Kerbol than Kerbin so there is no possible planetary configuration where they do not have their lit side facing us.

[Chezburgar7300]

Hold on a second, how can Jool and Duna have that kind of illumination? They're further away from Kerbol than Kerbin so there is no possible planetary configuration where they do not have their lit side facing us.

Of course there is... Unless I read what you said wrong. They can be over the other side of the system, so they are facing us. They could be aligned with us, so the telescope could take pictures on the night side of Kerbin. I surely hope I read the thing right for the sake of my pride, but the illuminated side of celestial bodies further away face use practically all of the time.

[Ralathon]

Of course there is... Unless I read what you said wrong. They can be over the other side of the system, so they are facing us. They could be aligned with us, so the telescope could take pictures on the night side of Kerbin. I surely hope I read the thing right for the sake of my pride, but the illuminated side of celestial bodies further away face use practically all of the time.

For less than half of an planet to be illuminated we'd have to be further away from the sun than the planet.

You can only see a crescent on the green planet if you're in the red area. The orbit of Kerbin (And thus the telescope) will never get in the red area. In other words its impossible to see significant phases on the green planet.

Sanity checking on wiki seems to agree with me, outer planets do not have phases (With only Mars having some minor ones)

So I am wondering why the recent pictures by Raven show Jool and Duna as crescents

Edited November 28, 2014 by Ralathon

[Chezburgar7300]

Oh! My mistake, I thought you meant any illumination not a crescent. For an answer to your question, I would think the telescope would be in orbit of Kerbol or at least Jool instead of your traditional Kerbin.

[Theoderich]

I am so looking forward to this being updated, thanks for all the work.

And about the phases: The beauty of a space telescope is that you don't have to take pictures from LKO. Strap enough fuel and LN-Vs (or ion engines if you got the patience) on it and you can take pictures from anywhere.

[iCT]

guys, its work in .25?

[stardestroyer]

Yes, I am continuing the development.

Good catch. I'll be sure that this makes it into the next release.

In the meantime, development is coming along just fine. The incompatibility between Distant Object Enhancement and CactEye seems to have been solved setting the codebase up in such a way to allow CactEye to control the flare size.

In the meantime, here's some screenshots taken with the update. The game the screenshots were taken from is running Environmental Visual Enhancements, Astronomer's Pack, Distant Object Enhancement with default settings, Planetshine, and of course, CactEye:

http://imgur.com/a/amB8e

Do this update works even with The Renaissance Compilation?

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/76972

[Nicholander]

Does this completely work with 0.25? If it doesn't, are there any fixes?