[0.90][WIP] Kerbal Konstructs v0.6.6 (Dec 16) - Static Objects and Launch Sites!

[medsouz]

We should probably make an actual 0.4 release at some point

[AlphaAsh]

We should probably make an actual 0.4 release at some point

Yup. I wanted to make sure you could review my recent stuff and choose when that happens chap. "There's plenty of letters left in the alphabet." - Captain Jean Luc Picard.

[medsouz]

How about once we get all of our changes stable we release 0.4 then move on to adding new stuff for 0.5?

[AlphaAsh]

Yup. Only thing I've currently got baking in the oven is getting Save Changes available on the Instance Editor and putting a Close button on the Statics Editor. There's no rush on that so I'm good to go for 0.4 whenever you're ready to sign off on the recent changes.

[magico13]

So I'm working on an update for KCT that adds support for the different Real Solar System KSCs with totally separate build lists and vessel storages (and upgrades and all that). I was going to include KK support the same way, but I'm wondering if it would instead be better to keep it closer to how it currently is where there's only one KSC but you can launch from any site (since you don't choose KSCs in KK, but instead only individual launch sites). It seems like it would be a non-trivial amount of work on my side to figure out which sites are part of a single KSC and then split the lists up for each determined KSC (and then make sure you only can launch from sites corresponding to that KSC).

I figured I should alert you that I'm working on this since I may need your help in the future. I think I will instead stick to a single set of build lists and vessel storages and just allow you to choose the launch site at launch time for KK, while having completely independent KSCs for RSS.

[AlphaAsh]

A Guide to Making and Editing Bases With Kerbal Konstructs

To Make a New Base

Find a suitable location. Land there. You need a craft or a kerbal at the location you want to make a base. Make sure you're controlling that craft or kerbal, then hit Ctrl+K to bring up the Kerbal Konstructs Statics Editor window.

To Edit an Existing Base

Take control of a craft or kerbal currently at that base. Then hit Ctrl+K to bring up the Kerbal Konstructs Statics Editor window.

The Kerbal Konstructs Statics Editor

• This window lets you list available assets (typically known as 'statics') you can spawn. You can then select a static to spawn.
  
• To have statics available to you, you need to have some content installed, like KerbinSide.
  
• The window allows you to list all existing statics already spawned, known as 'instances'. You can also narrow down this list to instances in your immediate vicinity (within 10km). You can then select an instance to edit.
  

Let's take a look at using The KK Statics Editor to spawn new instances and edit existing instances.

Spawning New Instances

1. Click this button and a list of available statics will appear below.
   
2. Each available static is listed as a button. The 'title' of the static appears to the left. Hopefully this will be descriptive enough to tell you what the object actually is.
   
3. The unique identifier of the static appears to the right. You can use this to quickly identify which mod this static comes from.
   

Click one of the listed statics. This will spawn an instance of that static at your current location with the camera focused on it and pops up KK Instance Editor (see later).

Editing Existing Instances

1. Click this button and only instances within 10km of your location will be listed below.
   
2. Click this button whenever you want to commit any changes you make to instances. This button also appears on the KK Instance Editor. See later.
   
3. Instances are listed as buttons. On the left of the button is the group the instance is assigned to.
   
4. On the right is the 'title' of the static the instance is an instance of. (I bit my tongue. Ow.)
   
5. When listing local instances, they can all be assigned to a custom group. Enter the name of the group you want them assigned to here.
   
6. Click this to then immediately assign the listed instances to that group.
   
7. Click this if you want a list of every instance regardless of where it is. Be careful if you decide to then edit a distant instance. When the camera focuses on it, the world itself may not be fully rendered, making it very difficult to edit your instance in relation to the terrain it is on.
   

To edit an instance, just click a button in the list. The camera will focus on it and the KK Instance Editor will pop up.

Why Group Stuff?

Currently the main advantage of placing instances in a group is it improves the efficiency of Kerbal Konstructs making instances in visibility range or out of visibility range active or inactive. It helps with KSP's performance. It will have future benefits as more features are added to Kerbal Konstructs.

The KK Instance Editor

When you spawn a new instance or edit an existing instance up pops the KK Instance Editor.

1. Enter a number here and hit enter. This increment will be applied to re-positioning by the various re-positioning buttons below.
   
2. Displays the current position of the instance. You can manually enter a new position in these five boxes. Hit enter after typing in a change.
   
3. These sixteen buttons allow you to fine-tune the position of your instance. The increment modifies the size of the position change applied by a click. Experiment with them - no teaching how to suck eggs today.
   
4. The buttons for rotation are a little different. The double arrowed buttons decrease and increase angle by 1 degrees. The single arrowed buttons decrease and increase angle by the increment divided by 10 degrees.
   
5. This should be pretty obvious what it does.
   
6. Click this to pop up the KK Launchsite Editor. More on this in the next part of the guide. WARNING! Not all statics can be made launchsites.
   
7. Saves ALL instances, including the one you're working on.
   
8. Saves ALL instances and deselects the instance you're working on. Camera focus returns to your craft or kerbal.
   
9. Deletes (despawns/kills/removes)the instance you're working on.
   

NOTE! Alt. is altitude. Rot. is rotation.

Saving Your Bacon... Er... Your Bases

Content developers like myself also make bases. When I put out a release of KerbinSide, it has a bunch of instances already defined for each static. The details of each instance are kept in a static's configuration file.

When you create instances yourself, they are also written to those same static files. Then along comes a new release of your favourite statics which you merrily install... and all the bases you made vanish.

Don't let this happen. Before installing an update of your favourite content, back-up all your config files. Install the new content, then merge the instances data from your backed up configs in to the new configs.

You'll have to do this manually for now. In a future release I plan to include a utility that will do this for you.

Edited November 11, 2014 by AlphaAsh

[Justin Kerbice]

wwaoo I'm impress good work on this AlphaAsh !

You also just answer what I'm abot to ask about groups and thanks for the "rot" button, it's better than the bare textfield .

Looks like you've also increased window size, that's great.

By the way, I'm not really into for discovery stuff right now, and for what I have looked into, GUI and internal needs some knowledge I don't really have yet, if you wish, you could make the UI+config parts (a button in the editor which default is "unknown", clicked => "known", and in launch site's cfg : discovered=true/false).

I just play a little bit for now and the Unity GUI thing is not really what I enjoy the most and in cfg, for some reason, it duplicate data (I've ended with two 'dicovered=' lines both with the 2 opposite values !).

[Gaalidas]

Nice, I never did actually try to look at the editor. I always forgot in my excitement of actually getting something off the ground without it exploding on the launchpad.

[Justin Kerbice]

@AlphaAsh: it looks like your tutorial used an unreleased yet release, on the last one (0.4PRE4e), local instances calculation is wrong, I have a bunch of buildings which are farer than 10 kms (one or two on Duna, two on Minmus), the group feature is not really useful as it is, as it groups ALL local instances, we CAN'T choose instances A,B,C but not D,E, it's "all or nothing", too bad !

@medsouz: 1st post not up to data (KK version)

[AlphaAsh]

@AlphaAsh: it looks like your tutorial used an unreleased yet release, on the last one (0.4PRE4e), local instances calculation is wrong, I have a bunch of buildings which are farer than 10 kms (one or two on Duna, two on Minmus)...

Considering that it's just a distance check between the camera and statics, that's... bizarre. I have no instances on any planet except Kerbin to test that with and the function is working flawlessly here. I'll look at it some more and get some debug in to help for the next version.

EDIT - Found the bug already. I'll get a fix out asap.

As for not being able to group individual instances, that's a feature not implemented yet. Other than manually doing it in a config file.

Edited November 11, 2014 by AlphaAsh

[medsouz]

So I'm working on an update for KCT that adds support for the different Real Solar System KSCs with totally separate build lists and vessel storages (and upgrades and all that). I was going to include KK support the same way, but I'm wondering if it would instead be better to keep it closer to how it currently is where there's only one KSC but you can launch from any site (since you don't choose KSCs in KK, but instead only individual launch sites). It seems like it would be a non-trivial amount of work on my side to figure out which sites are part of a single KSC and then split the lists up for each determined KSC (and then make sure you only can launch from sites corresponding to that KSC).

I figured I should alert you that I'm working on this since I may need your help in the future. I think I will instead stick to a single set of build lists and vessel storages and just allow you to choose the launch site at launch time for KK, while having completely independent KSCs for RSS.

Internally KK launch sites work the exact same as Squad does for the Runway or Launchpad so I would keep doing it the way you're doing it currently. If you need us to add anything to the API to make your job easier let us know.

[AlphaAsh]

v0.4 now available from KerbalStuff.

Changelog:

• Hover the mouse over the KK icon in the VAB or SPH and a big message with the currently selected launchsite will be displayed.
  
• Completely re-wrote and re-designed the Instance Editor GUI window. Rotation has some really useful buttons too now.
  
• Orientation has been withdrawn from the KK editor. If you really want it back, let us know. Someone actually used that? Really?
  
• Fixed bug in the KK Statics Editor where off-Kerbin instances were always considered local.
  

EDIT - Heh. Just after medsouz updated the thread title. Sorry chap

Edited November 11, 2014 by AlphaAsh

[medsouz]

EDIT - Heh. Just after medsouz updated the thread title. Sorry chap

(╯°□°）╯︵ ââ€Â»Ã¢â€Âââ€Â»

[drtedastro]

Would it be possible to have;

a) static parts who's meshes take precedent over the underlying ground / surface mesh? For example, when you currently place a runway, if there is a 'hump' or such in the middle and you lower the elevation of the airstrip to match the end points, the 'hump' in the middle protrudes out of the runway. If the runway's mesh could replace / override the 'grounds' mesh , like bulldozers ripped the hump out of there, that would be great. Something like a toggle option in the editing page would be great.....

either ability to 'stretch' parts / rescale them. Things like ability to make larger versions of the current airfields would be great. The Area 110011 runway is great, but it has lots of 'baggage' with it. All of the side ramps etc. Yes I know I can basically bury them, but it would 'nice' if we could use any version of airfield and make it bigger or smaller etc....

c) ability to rotate on the axis. Be able to have runway match terrain, even if on downhill / uphill slope...

Thanks for a great mod and all of the updates / features / options.

Edited November 11, 2014 by drtedastro
forgot something

[comham]

Would it be possible to have;

a) static parts who's meshes take precedent over the underlying ground / surface mesh? For example, when you currently place a runway, if there is a 'hump' or such in the middle and you lower the elevation of the airstrip to match the end points, the 'hump' in the middle protrudes out of the runway. If the runway's mesh could replace / override the 'grounds' mesh , like bulldozers ripped the hump out of there, that would be great. Something like a toggle option in the editing page would be great.....

Thanks for a great mod and all of the updates / features / options.

Something like CSG for KSP would be pretty cool but I think it's beyond the scope of this mod, which just uses pqscity (a function already in KSP) to place meshes. I suppose there's potential for some integration with that ground editing mod.

[drtedastro]

Something like CSG for KSP would be pretty cool but I think it's beyond the scope of this mod, which just uses pqscity (a function already in KSP) to place meshes. I suppose there's potential for some integration with that ground editing mod.

I know NOTHING about how any of the stuff works in the 3D model world. Thanks for any info that I can read so that I have a better understanding of what can and cant be done.... I am fascinated with what has already been accomplished and enjoy all of the new bits as they come out.....

Cheers.

[AlphaAsh]

... a) static parts who's meshes take precedent over the underlying ground / surface mesh?

Nope. Although:

Something like CSG for KSP would be pretty cool but I think it's beyond the scope of this mod, which just uses pqscity (a function already in KSP) to place meshes. I suppose there's potential for some integration with that ground editing mod.

... is a fascinating possibility. I don't know enough about this mod yet but I'll look at it when I have some time.

either ability to 'stretch' parts / rescale them...

No, sorry. KSP's rescaling of part parts is native functionality. Fairly certain that's not the case with statics. Not a feature I want to spend time on.

c) ability to rotate on the axis. Be able to have runway match terrain, even if on downhill / uphill slope...

No again, sorry. I just took out the very limited feature for this because it was totally useless and I'm again, fairly certain, it's too much hassle to improve.

[drtedastro]

Man, looks like I am batting 0..... LoL...

Well you will never know if never ask...

Thanks for the reply...

[AlphaAsh]

KK Career Mode Base Management Strategy Layer (KKCMBMSL) - Working Title Obviously

I've started introducing some new features to KK and the first stage of a new strategy layer involving base management is ready to try. This is optional and can be easily disabled in KerbalKonstructs.cfg if you don't want it. Since this is only the first stage, you may want to just try it out then disable it until more features are added.

Here's what the launch site selector looks like in career mode if you have the strategy layer enabled:

1. A handy indicator as to whether a site is open or not.
   
2. Most bases now have to be opened by paying some funds. If a base is always open (and some are) this button won't appear.
   
3. Most bases can also be closed and a small percentage of what it cost to open is refunded. If a base cannot be closed (some can't) this button won't appear.
   
4. To set a site as your launchsite press this button. This is a change to how you normally set a launchsite in sandbox or science mode.
   

Q - What's the point of opening a base?

A - Right now it's just so you can launch from it. There will be more benefits to opening bases in future versions of KK.

Q - Like what?

A - I'll tell more when there's more to show.

Q - What about science mode?

A - I have plans for a strategy layer in science mode too.

Q - Is opening and closing bases saved?

A - Opening and closing sites is persistent for each of your career saves.

Q - I make bases for KSP too. How do I set them up for this?

A - There is two new tags to use in your launchsite's instance. OpenCost and CloseValue. If you set OpenCost to 0 your base will always be open. If you set CloseValue to 0 your base cannot be closed.

Edited November 16, 2014 by AlphaAsh

[comham]

That's actually great and perfect. Any chance of some bases requiring other bases to be unlocked first? It would allow for a linear story mode of some kind.

[AlphaAsh]

That's actually great and perfect. Any chance of some bases requiring other bases to be unlocked first? It would allow for a linear story mode of some kind.

Good idea. I'll certainly consider doing something like this.

[comham]

Good idea. I'll certainly consider doing something like this.

Cheers, I mean it's already amazing, I guess it's something to do with being raised on Collect Them All platformers like Spyro, Jak And Daxter, Ratchet and Clank etc but I do like me a list of things to tick off.

[tygoo7]

Awesome! Can't wait for the next release!

[RedParadize]

Hello there.

This is my first poast, but I have been following KSP forum for over 8 months now. I have tons of mod installed, including some that I customized for my own usage. I know, as I have worked in the gaming industries, how much work modding represent and I really appreciate how it have improved this game. As you may have noticed already, English is not my native language. Please excuse my bad vocabulary, grammar and the hilarity that it sometimes create. Now that I have introduced myself, here is why I am here:

I see a great potential in your mod, and I am wondering how far it is possible to go with this aproach. To your knowledge, would it be possible to give static building property similar to the one that are in KSC? Or maybe attribute that parts can have? Like hatch, IVA, resource etc ?

I would like to have a mod that work a bit like your one, but that would have the purpose of building premanent colony on other planets and moons. What I am considering is to build colony that work a bit like the Space Center. With a interface similar to it. Like the free camera (moving view on a plane using arrow). From that view you can build new building. Clic on building to get the interface just like in the KSC, and from there you access the management part, and possibly upgrade the building itself.

Obviously, thats quite ambitious. The building would not be the same, and the code that handle KSC doesn't seem to be available. It seem to be allot of work. I realy don't know... What do you think?

[medsouz]

Hello there.

This is my first poast, but I have been following KSP forum for over 8 months now. I have tons of mod installed, including some that I customized for my own usage. I know, as I have worked in the gaming industries, how much work modding represent and I really appreciate how it have improved this game. As you may have noticed already, English is not my native language. Please excuse my bad vocabulary, grammar and the hilarity that it sometimes create. Now that I have introduced myself, here is why I am here:

I see a great potential in your mod, and I am wondering how far it is possible to go with this aproach. To your knowledge, would it be possible to give static building property similar to the one that are in KSC? Or maybe attribute that parts can have? Like hatch, IVA, resource etc ?

I would like to have a mod that work a bit like your one, but that would have the purpose of building premanent colony on other planets and moons. What I am considering is to build colony that work a bit like the Space Center. With a interface similar to it. Like the free camera (moving view on a plane using arrow). From that view you can build new building. Clic on building to get the interface just like in the KSC, and from there you access the management part, and possibly upgrade the building itself.

Obviously, thats quite ambitious. The building would not be the same, and the code that handle KSC doesn't seem to be available. It seem to be allot of work. I realy don't know... What do you think?

I've been playing with creating custom space centers whenever I get the chance but haven't been having much luck. Hopefully I can figure it out soon.