Fixing the CSS

[Cepheus]

Some of you may be familiar with the CSS shuttle. You may also know that it does not fly. Now, it\'s a beautiful mod, and seeing that we have several shuttle parts in game, I\'d like for it to work. After several dozen attempts at .cfg editing, even after consulting the CFG File Documentation wiki, I\'ve had no luck in improving the atmospheric flight. I humbly ask that one of the skilled addon developers assist me in fixing this ship.

I don\'t know if this should go here, or in Addon requests. If it\'s inappropriate, please move it.

[Tiberion]

Have you contacted the author about permission?

I only ask because the model he used was from another production that was high in detail and had a specific license in place about distribution and reuse.

You can of course edit it, and even distributing cfg edits might be okay, but you might have issues releasing the whole thing.

I\'m fairly full on work right now, even my own shuttle pack is behind now, but I can offer some help on overcoming some shuttle-only configuration issues.

[Cepheus]

I originally had no intention on releasing it; I just wanted to have it be flyable, but the author is okay with it.

[Guest Flixxbeatz]

You may also know that it does not fly.

What.

[Cepheus]

I was referring to atmospheric flying.

[RichieD76]

i\'m right there with you Cepheus. With the posability of fully automated lift off with seperable SRB\'s and external tank, along with RCS that can actually control the thing during reentry...this could be the best add-on there is. opening doors to catch satelites, recoverable SRB\'s, reentry heat (once implemented) Canadarm.. could be pretty epic

[Cepheus]

It could be entirely possible. We even have the solid boosters! I\'d love to be able to do it myself, but I have no experience (or access) to modeling software.

I\'d love the whole 1980s - 2011 International Space program - Hubble ( a plugin) The ISS, the shuttle, Ariane 5, and the ATV.

[Tiberion]

So, I\'ve been looking at the shuttle, pondering what it would need to be as functional as the TiberDyne/C7 shuttle in my pack.

The nose piece is currently an RCS tank. It would need to be turned into an RCS thrusterblock (mine also has the actual cone separate as the flight computer (which can serve as ASAS or could be turned into a MechJeb or ascent computer)

That leaves the rear-end RCS thruster. On the real shuttle its in the OMS engine, which also provides actual thrust for orbiting maneuvers. It would require an actual plugin to replicate this dual-use module (and it won\'t be easy, you\'d need to re-code either an entire RCS or liquid thruster class) - I just made the engine mount the RCS thrusterblock, but it wouldn\'t be authentic. If you did cut off the OMS engines from the mount and make them functional, then you could use the mount as your RCS tank

That leaves the fuselage, which would need to be cut into a fuel tank segment, possibly an RCS tank segment depending on what you did above, and the cargobay segment.

The wings just need some adjustment, as well as the weight of all of the parts maybe. There is a .craft file edit you can make to attach the controlsurfaces in 2x symmetry to allow roll (Since the wings are non-symmetrical, it doesn\'t work by default)

Of course, there are no engines, so you might want to model an authentic main engine. For mine, I had to make a static cluster of three as one part, and then add a thrustvector, otherwise the shuttle tries to flip when the external tank is attached. You might be able to get by with just some gimballing if you use a flight computer that can hold a gimbal setting (instead of ASAS which tends to flop it around)

So that leaves:

Wheels (a plugin, perhaps C7s)

Functional tank and SRBs

Functional cargobay and CanadaArm (multiple plugins)

a braking parachute (which would be trivial)

And looking forward, a docking port (perhaps a plugin)

Whew.. so.. quite a bit of work there, you\'re close to starting over from the model. It might be something I\'d tackle down the road with other stuff done, but its a big project. Especially since releasing it would be unlikely.

[Cepheus]

Whew.. so.. quite a bit of work there, you\'re close to starting over from the model. It might be something I\'d tackle down the road with other stuff done, but its a big project. Especially since releasing it would be unlikely.

Appreciate the help, mate, I\'d really like to see this happen. I\'ll see if I can send a PM to the original author, and talk to him about this.

Also, rocket2guns said, in the OP of that thread,

'Free and open for any use! Do whatever you like with it this is an open source project.'

[sarkun]

I don\'t have the time to model or texture, but could help with the glide flight model - I\'ve done that with my shuttle, could do it with this one too.

[tadeass]

The big problem is this, I think: The external fuel tank is only dummy, shuttle has another fuel, ET is unnecessary. The creator can use the 'shuttle fuel' as now, but only with (for example) capacity: 1, and use fuel ducts for pumping.

But that\'s secondary.

Author can put any object to the opposite side of the ET, with the same weight as a shuttle and fix the nodes.

[Cepheus]

Good news! I have talked to the original author, and he has given permission for the finished project to be released. For future reference, I would like to work closely with you experienced mod-makers, as I am an aspiring mod-maker myself.

Cheers

Cepheus

Good news! After conversing with Tiberion, the shuttle is now stable during atmospheric flight!

[Caesar15]

Good news! I have talked to the original author, and he has given permission for the finished project to be released. For future reference, I would like to work closely with you experienced mod-makers, as I am an aspiring mod-maker myself.

Cheers

Cepheus

Good news! After conversing with Tiberion, the shuttle is now stable during atmospheric flight!

yes!