[1.9-1.10] Hangar

[allista]

EDIT: Another thing I came up with, since your mod responds to an old issue of the KSP community - part count, is the compatibility of your mod with other cargo transportation systems. I have not installed it and tried it yet, but maybe it will be possible coding-wise to implement the functionality of your mod in any cargo bay part - such as CTS, B9 or Lack's part packs. I have no idea how easy would that be, but it would make your mod even greater, since it will allow great versatility regarding craft uniformity. However I do think implementing it should keep the volume requirements, and calculating those for third party mods may be hard or impossible.

Right now it is not so stright forward. The Hangar module that brings the functionality relys on some particular objects in the part model. Namely, to function properly, it needs an empty which transform is used to position the launched vessel, the convex body which determins the position and bounds of the hangar space, and a trigger collider to sence the vessel that has flown into the hangar. If these are not provided through the config node of the module in the part definition, they're guessed from the part center and bounds. Which is so far from perfect that I was thinking to remove this guessing at all. In a "good" case it will result in smaller hangar space that it appears from the part's model. In bad case the launched vessel will intersect with some of the part's colliders and both will explode.

In other words: it is quite simple to make new hangar parts. And plugging the Hangar module to existing parts will "work"... but I wouldn't want to look at the results ==

[Ringkeeper]

Sorry for the mess with your station =( I hope you have your save backed up.

Am I understand correctely that you stored Moths during construction in VAB? If so, they are probably repacked badly on launch from VAB. I thought I got rid of this bug, but apparantely not.

Could you please post a KSP.log somewhere (Pastebin, Dropbox...)?

Unfortunally i dont have a log as the game didnt respond anymore shortly after.

On the second test where everything worked i just send the hangar with the 2 ships packed (as before: put them in VAB into it (from subassembly)) and everything worked. I will test further if this might be a problem with lag or so, as the station was quit big and the 2 ships have 100+ parts

[smunisto]

Unfortunally i dont have a log as the game didnt respond anymore shortly after.

On the second test where everything worked i just send the hangar with the 2 ships packed (as before: put them in VAB into it (from subassembly)) and everything worked. I will test further if this might be a problem with lag or so, as the station was quit big and the 2 ships have 100+ parts

You still have a log. It is located in the KSP data folder.

[Helix935]

sooo, cargo bays? why not multi-purpose cargo bays with like a space for KAS components and a storage space for EVA fuel?

[AdmiralTigerclaw]

Well, the issue I run into when making rover deployers tends to be the way attachement nodes work in general.

It's not so much the rover, or the rocket that ends up being a problem. It's building both in such a way that you can attach the rover, and then land the thing with the right orientation to deploy.

Building the deployer into an inline stack works for landing. But now there's an engine between the rover and the ground, and you have to figure out how to get the rover down. Alternately, the rover might be side-attached, but then you have to tweak it for careful disconnect or risk breaking it violently. Anything else rapidly becomes a horrendously heavy array of parts very quickly.

The most viable option I've created to date involved using the cargo transportation solutions' cargo frames to make a cage of sorts, with sideways facing engines. It took a few passes to tweak it so I could land it, but it worked... For a small rover.

If you build a unit for deploying rovers, I suggest at least two types.

One being a vertical inline unit who's door acts as a ramp by folding out and down. The other being a horizontal unit that deploys sideways.

I suggest calling them 'Chicken Koop' and 'Doghouse' respectively. (Because the inline one will look a bit like a chicken coop with that ramp.)

[rabidninjawombat]

Amazing mod =) downloading it now to test. Seems like a perfect addition for my Mun base =) Already useing EPL.

Will report back

[tfm]

This sounds great! Now we can do containers and "unpack" rovers and the like like they did with the Apollo missions. Is there anyway the weight of the stored items can be applied to the container part?

[allista]

AdmiralTigerclaw, could you provided some scatches? I didn't quite captured it through the description. A simple drawing would be enough.

Meanwhile, I've created a modified version the small inline hangar that should work like bomber's belly: with sliding doors beneath and a rover launched wheels down. This design still needs side attached engines to land properly on a non-atmospheric worlds, but that's a start.

Tmf, mass of stored vessels is added to the mass of hangar, well as their cost.

[EDIT] I think I kinda figured out your proposals, Admiral. Will work on them soon.

Edited July 31, 2014 by allista

[JDCollie]

This looks incredible! (And a godsend for those of us with cluttered colonies and space stations >.>) Definitely will give it a try.

[The Destroyer]

That's pretty dang amazing. After a patch (I know theres going to be one) I'll definitley try it out

[Seeker89]

Going to keep a really good eye on this.... as it looks really cool!

[allista]

That's pretty dang amazing. After a patch (I know theres going to be one) I'll definitley try it out

Do you mean any patch in particular, or just moving from beta?

[Joshwoo70]

Do you mean any patch in particular, or just moving from beta?

When it gets stable from beta like from nightly to ReleaseCanidate to Stable.(reference form openttd).

Edited August 1, 2014 by Joshwoo69
phone derp

[Ringkeeper]

ok.. more testing with more strange vehicles and kerbals in different spots... and no explosion anymore . I guess i was just totaly unlucky on the first use and other things led to this behaviour.

[allista]

ok.. more testing with more strange vehicles and kerbals in different spots... and no explosion anymore . I guess i was just totaly unlucky on the first use and other things led to this behaviour.

Glad to hear! If anything strange happens again, let me know.

[Linear]

Just tried it out, really great concept, after bugs are fixed and everything's a bit more friendly, this will be put into my main install.

Awesome work.

[rabidninjawombat]

Having fun with this thing!

Question: When filling the Spaceport in the VAB, i noticed i can only get it to 50% or so full before it says its full. Im assuming the 50% is totally inside volume eh? And that its judging the fullness based on the size and shape of the crafts im putting in? If so thats one smart plugin. my hats off to you sir. '

Gonna try filling it with 20 box sats, and see if i can get it closer to 100% utilize the space properly heh

[Ringkeeper]

oh and can we have a light inside the hanger that turns on with door open? I already put lights inside but always afraid it will break something with the spawning And they clip kinda in the floor so hard to turn on without action groups.

[Boamere]

Wow this will be great, I'm going to wait until it's out of beta before I download it!

[allista]

Having fun with this thing!

Question: When filling the Spaceport in the VAB, i noticed i can only get it to 50% or so full before it says its full. Im assuming the 50% is totally inside volume eh? And that its judging the fullness based on the size and shape of the crafts im putting in? If so thats one smart plugin. my hats off to you sir. '

Gonna try filling it with 20 box sats, and see if i can get it closer to 100% utilize the space properly heh

The vessels are indeed handled as boxes. And they're filling the inside volume, which is a bounding box of visible inside volume.

The filling algorithm is described here: http://www.blackpawn.com/texts/lightmaps/default.html I've just reimplemented it for 3 dimensions instead of 2.

That's why big ships usually cannot fill a hangar up to 100% or even near.

Edited August 1, 2014 by allista

[allista]

oh and can we have a light inside the hanger that turns on with door open? I already put lights inside but always afraid it will break something with the spawning And they clip kinda in the floor so hard to turn on without action groups.

Lights are turned with the "U". Ground hangars and Spaceport have lights inside. I'll add such lights to inline hangars as well.

[colmo]

I just saw this highlighted by Kottabos Space Program on YouTube, and immediately linked to it on the Boat Parts thread - this tech is perfect for the aircraft carrier.

One thing I found immersion breaking was the vanishing vehicle. If it could discretely shut the door before this happens, and the hangars had large closed spaces where the vehicles plausibly get towed from the open part, that would help. This is more the case for the ground and space hangars than the inline ones.

Whoever has the model for the Battlestar Galactica will be salivating at the thought of churning out Mk II vipers using this code.

[Z3R0_0NL1N3]

Hey guys, look, Spaceport is back!

(Geddit? Spaceport? Geddit? Oh god that was awful. I'm sorry.)

Anyway, though, this mod is an interesting concept.

I'm more of the type of person that likes to have my ships visible inside the hangar, but this is a very good idea.

Needs a bit of texture work, but still, clever mod.

My idea is thus: when the hangar is open, make the ship visible, and when it is closed, store it (thus reducing part count). This doesn't work as well for large hangars with a lot of small ships, but the solution for that is to cycle through ships.

[allista]

Hey guys, look, Spaceport is back!

(Geddit? Spaceport? Geddit? Oh god that was awful. I'm sorry.)

Anyway, though, this mod is an interesting concept.

I'm more of the type of person that likes to have my ships visible inside the hangar, but this is a very good idea.

Needs a bit of texture work, but still, clever mod.

My idea is thus: when the hangar is open, make the ship visible, and when it is closed, store it (thus reducing part count). This doesn't work as well for large hangars with a lot of small ships, but the solution for that is to cycle through ships.

I thought of that myself, but I'm not sure if it is even possible using KSP API to display just the graphical model of a vessel without loading it into the game with all it's physics.

So I preffer the colmo idea of closing hangars befor storing. The only thing -- it'll make operation slower, considering the time needed to close the doors.

As for the texture work: I'm more a programmer than a designer, and at this period priorities go to bugfixing. But if you wish to retexture something, go ahead: all source models (I used Blender) and textures are there at GitHub.

[colmo]

I thought of that myself, but I'm not sure if it is even possible using KSP API to display just the graphical model of a vessel without loading it into the game with all it's physics.

Check out the Distant Objects mod, it does exactly this.