[Plugin,Parts] 14.3 Katerpillar-Wheels V0.3

[SOLIDninja]

i love you

[TheMattyPrince]

Is there a way to make them any faster? because the max speed of mine seems to be about 3.4 m/s

[Katalliaan]

Is there a way to make them any faster? because the max speed of mine seems to be about 3.4 m/s

I really don\'t thing these things are designed for speed; you\'d be better off with using something from the cart plugin for that. Also, when you consider the crawlers used to transport rockets between VABs and launchpads in real life only move about 0.4 m/s when carrying cargo, I\'d say they move at a reasonable rate.

[Causeless]

Is there a way to make them any faster? because the max speed of mine seems to be about 3.4 m/s

From looking at the source, I\'d try putting this in the part.cfg file:

driveStrength = 0.02F

but increase the '0.02F'.

[Capt'n Skunky]

Is it just me, or does anyone else see the title of this thread and start going 'Craaaab people, craaaab people!' in their head?

Cheers!

Capt\'n Skunky

KSP Community Manager

[Spoot Knight]

No, but after reading the post I\'m hearing CRAB BATTLE now.

[TheMattyPrince]

I really don\'t thing these things are designed for speed; you\'d be better off with using something from the cart plugin for that. Also, when you consider the crawlers used to transport rockets between VABs and launchpads in real life only move about 0.4 m/s when carrying cargo, I\'d say they move at a reasonable rate.

Its not that I want a particularly large speed, but just for it to reach about 10 m/s. That way I don\'t have to wait ages just to move a small stretch.

From looking at the source, I\'d try putting this in the part.cfg file:

driveStrength = 0.02F

but increase the '0.02F'.

Thanks, I will try this later.

[drewmacrae]

So I got a chance to do a bit of work last night and I managed to tie control to the appropriate axes pretty easily, the tutorial I\'ve linked on my todo list is very helpful 8). I\'m going to hold off before rolling it up into 0.2 with the following bugfix:

I wanted to fix the wheels clipping into the rocket when in flight, but I\'m running into a few difficult things S:|. The wheel hit ray-cast, the Unity routine that finds where to draw the wheel, seems to measure the moving part as if it\'s lagging behind in time a bit, but the lag isn\'t constant, and the measurement error\'s relation to velocity isn\'t linear. So I feel as if there\'s something a bit more complicated than 'the target collider is behind by one frame' and it\'s also going to be harder to compensate because of the unknown dependence on velocity. The Unity wheel-collider tutorials have a tendency not to mention what to do if your car is flying upward, atop a platform, very fast... so go figure. Increasing the physics step does increase the error in the measurement, so that\'s one more variable I\'d need to compensate in a solution. I ought to do a data dump to a log and print the reading and the velocity and plot them to be sure, but I think I\'m pretty confused. ???

I did some reading on sway bars (the parts of cars that keep them from flipping when they turn) but they aren\'t really relevant to this pack. They might be a nice feature in the hstw cart, and it\'s important to see why we shouldn\'t really expect much stability from any of these platforms.

[CAPFlyer]

I use struts to stabilize the wheels on my probe landers for now, however, I\'d like to see with the release of the new multi-joint part some form of extending wheel strut that will fold the wheels in for flight and then extend them either horizontally for a stable base or out and down like landing wheels to clear the engine bell if needed.

[drewmacrae]

After two evenings of trial and error, I\'m becoming disheartened about this clipping bug... I\'ve filed a question with Unity Answers: http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/230615/wheel-colliders-raytrace-to-old-rigid-body-positio.html, so we\'ll see how that goes. I\'ll upload the part with controls tied to the appropriate axes this evening. It\'s still limited by the assumption that the wheel\'s are oriented downward in relation to the vessel. (This assumption might be broken by nodes or hinges, but I\'ll fix it when I have some failing tests which I imagine will take a while.)

[Mynorus]

Thanks. Now my rover, H3><i is now operational!

[drewmacrae]

Just uploaded a new version with several fixes and features.

Example of .cfg file and a very crude model for a nonsteering omniwheel is included

Steering and friction curves are now adjustable with part.cfg

Controls are now linked to axes

The omniwheel is lighter but shouldn\'t be used on rough terrain

Hope you folks like it... or better yet, dislike the omniwheel so much you make one that isn\'t as ugly.

[Tosh]

Nobody ever credits C7 for giving Tosh the wheel code in the first place ;P

We worked independently. C7 gave me his code in attempt to help me with that \'explode at the launchpad\' problem... which was finally solved by you =P

[nerdboy64]

I\'m, sure I look like an idiot for asking this, but how do you install it? This is the first plugin that has really interested me, so naturally my knowledge of the subject is simply not present.

Also, what language is KSP coded in? Just wondering as I have modded other games before and was thinking of trying it with this one.

[pina_coladas]

Parts in the Parts folder, dll files in the Plugins folder. And this stuff is all in C# I believe.

[cutterjohn]

Interesting bug/feature...

If you land two vehicles next to each other, you\'ll control both with one set of controls. No big deal, just odd.

[drewmacrae]

Thanks Cutterjohn,

I somehow hadn\'t checked that before.

This should make for an easier bugfix than your last finding.

Almost 10% of your posts have been bug reports on this mod, which I\'m choosing to take as a compliment.

I\'m also planning on making the gear enable-able for 2 reasons:

• 
  [li]
  You don\'t always want your rovers to roll, and friction is a weird thing to do[/li]
  [li]The computations I\'ve done aren\'t the most elegant and it might be nice to avoid that trigonometric overhead. [/li]
  

I don\'t plan on adding deployment animations other than an activation of the suspension. I\'m still of the opinion that if these things are going to be properly modular, they should be deployed by another part. (I think work on multi-part hinges is progressing elsewhere, though I\'ve only seen multi-mesh single-part hinges)

I\'ll update the future work section to show plans for the next release.

[cutterjohn]

I don\'t plan on adding deployment animations other than an activation of the suspension. I\'m still of the opinion that if these things are going to be properly modular, they should be deployed by another part. (I think work on multi-part hinges is progressing elsewhere, though I\'ve only seen multi-mesh single-part hinges)

While I understand your opinion here, I feel you may be carrying it a bit too far. I\'d totally understand this argument if used against making a fully self contained cart. However, I don\'t feel this is all that much different than the extendable landing gear we already have, where it comes complete with a pad. Kerbal is certainly \'build your own\', but it does wave away some stuff.

On the other hand, if you just don\'t want to do it, I totally understand.

And yeah, I really love this mod, much more than the other cart mod, because you do build things.

Oh, and one last thing, a feature request. Can you add a variable to the config file so I can adjust the power of the wheels?

[drewmacrae]

I believe that the configurable drive is already in place, though there may not be a demo in any of the config files. It might be worth looking through the source for public variables, they\'re optionally overridden in the .cfg. So you should be able to build your faster vehicles.

What I will do regarding rotation, is try to clean up my vector math so it\'s no longer insane and stupid. This should facilitate implementation by parties who might be interested, but don\'t want to inherit ugly and un-maintainable code.

[nerdboy64]

Parts in the Parts folder, dll files in the Plugins folder. And this stuff is all in C# I believe.

Ah, thanks.

[nerdboy64]

Very nice. It\'s well-balanced and useful. I especially like that it\'s just one specific thing, rather than a ton of new stuff.

[sting_auer]

... How do I actually download this? Is it the Github link?

EDIT: Okay, I went to the Github link, but it has every individual part of it up for download, and I have no idea where I need to put the different parts.

[nerdboy64]

At the bottom of the OP there is a section for attachments. Download the one called Katerpillar-Wheels.zip.

[royying]

Can you make a taller version ?

the original one is shorter than most engines

THX ;D

[eran100]

Is it just me, or does anyone else see the title of this thread and start going 'Craaaab people, craaaab people!' in their head?

Cheers!

Capt\'n Skunky

KSP Community Manager

yep