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[1.1] QuantumStrutsContinued 1.6 - Magical Struts for Rigidifying Outside the VAB!


toadicus

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@toadicus Quantum Struts seems to work fine in 1.1.2 but I was experiencing an issue where they weren't showing up at all. It turned out Ven's Stock Part Revamp was interfering with Quantum Struts. I think this happens because Ven's Revamp changes the model for the linear RCS strut.

I fixed this by copying the mu and dds files from the Squad/Parts/Utility/linearRCS folder into to a new folder inside the quantum struts folder ie:

QuantumStrutsContinued/Parts/QuantumStruts/strut

Then I updated the model section inside the cfg files for quantumStrut and strutGun to read:

    MODEL
    {
        model = QuantumStrutsContinued/Parts/QuantumStruts/strut/model
    }

It's not an elegant fix, but it does work. Perhaps some module manager trickery can fix this without copying the file. Also to anyone else having this issue, I can't provide a download for this, since the model is squads, but it should be easy enough for anyone to do on their own.

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@Fireheart318 Sorry; I fixed that in the last update. :(

* * * * *

Hey all!  I've got a request to make.  I've been gone a lot the last few months: mostly because of work and a few family vacations, but also because I'm having trouble fitting modding time into my schedule these days.  It's nothing to do with whatever has apparently been going on around the forums that Scott Manley's talked about, or anything that Squad has done or is doing, it's just that my life is busy and as time wears on my life gets busier and the work of modding slowly gets less enjoyable.  It's also been a long time since I've actually played KSP: I only turn it on to test mods.

This isn't "I'm done".  I've got a few updates pending that I really need to finish and get out.  I'm committed to finishing those and making sure all of my mods work correctly with KSP 1.1.3.  I also plan to finish up VOID 1.0 and get that released.  I'm also not ready to say "I'm done", because if the mood strikes me I'd love for the mods to still be here for me to work on and keep sharing with you.

I want to take a minute to emphasize that it has been an absolute joy writing these mods, learning so much about programming from them, and sharing them with you.  Our communities have been extremely friendly, and having you all along for the journey with me has really been fantastic.  There have been many of you that really stand out as going the extra mile to help with support in the threads, and it is so pleasing to see how when I'm out (or even just asleep), you guys are still here helping each other.

So, if this isn't "I'm done", what is it?  For now, this is "I'd like some help".  Most of my mods are basically in maintenance mode at this point.  I've got some bugs to fix in AntennaRange, a feature to fix and a feature to add in TweakableEverything, and the Scripted functionality to finish in VOID.  I'm going to get those done one way or another -- probably on my own, hopefully next week.  But past that, the mods really just need some TLC every time Squad updates the game, and when a new player turns over a bit of untested code in a corner to find a bug or defect.

If you're interested, please e-mail me: my address is andy (at) wtribe (dotcom), and I'd love to hear from you.  You don't need to be a C# expert, but programming experience seems pretty necessary.  I'm happy to hold your hand through things and help you learn -- that's how I learned, and I'm entirely willing to share what I've learned with you.  Write me a quick letter -- maybe a couple of paragraphs -- so I can tell you're not a robot, and in the letter just try to convince me that you're right for the projects and willing to do what you can to keep these mods successful, and these threads positive.

I'm cross-posting this on the threads for all my mods.  Thanks again for being awesome!

Edited by toadicus
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4 hours ago, Calvin_Maclure said:

Just discovered this mod. How does it work? And are we going to see it brought to 1.2?

Cheers!

its a part-pack, so u might be fine in just copying it to ur install. Even in 1.2

to use it, u have a few new parts like a strut-cannon.

attach it to ur ship, pointing to where the strut shall be connected to. "In Flight" u can activate the cannon then, which just strengthens the connection to the part it is "shooting" at, as long as its the same vessel.

Edited by Speadge
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6 minutes ago, Speadge said:

its a part-pack, so u might be fine in just copying it to ur install. Even in 1.2

to use it, u have a few new parts like a strut-cannon.

attach it to ur ship, pointing to where the strut shall be connected to. "In Flight" u can activate the cannon then, which just strengthes the connection to the part it is "shooting" at, as long as its the same vessel.

The parts require on the included dll. As far as I can see it will just need a recompile

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1 hour ago, Olympic1 said:

The parts require on the included dll. As far as I can see it will just need a recompile

Maybe. I know some other mods were having some trouble with struts so something more may be necessary. However, the new autostrut ability reduces the need for Quantum struts. 

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Has anyone recompiled for 1.2 (and if so can we update CKAN)?

I have a mega-craft for which AutoStruts is not sufficient and am hoping these might help.

Edited by Fwiffo
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One thing that this mod is absolutely vital for is for cargo planes where your goal is to pick something up from the surface of another world and bring it home.  Why?  Because of the way docking ports work.  I have "smart" Kontainers which are 3.75m in size and can  be filled with all sorts of things by a mining rig on the Mun for example.  They have wheels, power, and a probe core, so I can drive them back into the tail cargo bay (usually with OPT or Mr4 size planes).  Now, if I take off with one of these Kontainers already docked, KSP sees this as a normal part connection and thus is very strong and rigid.  When I drive the thing back in and re-dock it with the clamp-o-tron Senior, however, it sees this as a different type of connection, which is floppy, and also the wheels and the floor of the cargo bay no longer apply colliders between them since it's now the same vessel.  as a result the cargo rover flops through the bottom of the plane and usually summons the Kraken.
 

If, however, I put quantum struts in the bay so that they turn on and hold the Kontainer in place as soon as the docking sequence completes, it's now rigid and stable and I can fly it home for profit, thus 100% solving my entire problem.  It has to happen at the moment of docking, though, which is why only Quantum Struts can accomplish what I want to accomplish here.

That said, if I can help get this updated for 1.2 in any way, either by recompiling, researching, testing, etc (I'm a software developer), please let me know and I will devote some time to it.  Thanks!

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1 hour ago, ss8913 said:

<SNIP> If, however, I put quantum struts in the bay so that they turn on and hold the Kontainer in place as soon as the docking sequence completes, it's now rigid and stable and I can fly it home for profit, thus 100% solving my entire problem.  It has to happen at the moment of docking, though, which is why only Quantum Struts can accomplish what I want to accomplish here.

That said, if I can help get this updated for 1.2 in any way, either by recompiling, researching, testing, etc (I'm a software developer), please let me know and I will devote some time to it.  Thanks!

Would 1.2 autostrutting solve this? clicking on your Kontainer's docking port and choosing "Grandparent" or "Root" should (I think?) connect it firmly to the main craft.

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1 hour ago, tjt said:

Would 1.2 autostrutting solve this? clicking on your Kontainer's docking port and choosing "Grandparent" or "Root" should (I think?) connect it firmly to the main craft.

hm. maybe?  I haven't tried yet since I've been grounded pending FAR's release for 1.2.  I'll give it a shot once I'm flying again though.

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is the source available?  Is there a good link on what tools/procedures are needed to compile KSP mods for Win64?  I'm more of a linux/unix programmer and I'm not sure that Windows has gcc and make, at least not without cygwin, and I don't think that would work :)

I'd like to at least try a straight-across compile for 1.2 based on the current HEAD in github and hope for the best.  Don't think anyone's picked it up officially though, and I'm likely not the right person to do so.

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On 11/2/2016 at 0:51 AM, ss8913 said:

is the source available?  Is there a good link on what tools/procedures are needed to compile KSP mods for Win64?  I'm more of a linux/unix programmer and I'm not sure that Windows has gcc and make, at least not without cygwin, and I don't think that would work :)

I'd like to at least try a straight-across compile for 1.2 based on the current HEAD in github and hope for the best.  Don't think anyone's picked it up officially though, and I'm likely not the right person to do so.

There's good howtos here

And you don't use make or GCC, KSP is not written in C++ but MONO C#. So basically all you need are the Mono SDK and MonoDevelop (now Xamarin), if you also want to make parts you'll additionally need the Unity 5.x SDK and a 3D modelling software like Blender and a bitmap editor like GIMP. But its all explained quite well in the tutorials, even though they use M$ Visual Studio, Xamarin studio is so much alike it you hardly notice the difference.

i got it all to work on MacOS X, and i'm sure you could make a development environment on a Linux desktop just as well (so no need for buggy ol' Redmond software).

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3 hours ago, Denko666 said:

There's good howtos here

And you don't use make or GCC, KSP is not written in C++ but MONO C#. So basically all you need are the Mono SDK and MonoDevelop (now Xamarin), if you also want to make parts you'll additionally need the Unity 5.x SDK and a 3D modelling software like Blender and a bitmap editor like GIMP. But its all explained quite well in the tutorials, even though they use M$ Visual Studio, Xamarin studio is so much alike it you hardly notice the difference.

i got it all to work on MacOS X, and i'm sure you could make a development environment on a Linux desktop just as well (so no need for buggy ol' Redmond software).

well, until I need to compile it for Windows, which I do, since I play KSP on Windows... even though I am a linux systems engineer/programmer in my professional life.  I only have ONE 40" monitor and one gaming-class PC, after all :wink:  is MS Visual Studio required to compile mods for windows or is there an open-source/otherwise-free C# compiler for Win64?

Sadly however the source for this mod does not seem to be available.

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8 minutes ago, ss8913 said:

well, until I need to compile it for Windows, which I do, since I play KSP on Windows... even though I am a linux systems engineer/programmer in my professional life.  I only have ONE 40" monitor and one gaming-class PC, after all :wink:  is MS Visual Studio required to compile mods for windows or is there an open-source/otherwise-free C# compiler for Win64?

Sadly however the source for this mod does not seem to be available.

Mono is the open source version of .Net, but with actual frameworks for Windows,MacOS X and Linux. But it's not compatible with .Net. You don't need to recompile for different operating systems, kinda like Java. So you only need the Mono SDK and Xamarin for makin .dll files; which exist for Windows, MacOS X and Linux.

 

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hm, maybe i should install mono and just compile it on linux, since I'm more familiar with that environment... thanks for the tip.  Have done almost no C# previously.  I'm still used to platform-dependent executables and libraries :)

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On 05/11/2016 at 7:39 PM, Denko666 said:

Mono is the open source version of .Net, but with actual frameworks for Windows,MacOS X and Linux. But it's not compatible with .Net. You don't need to recompile for different operating systems, kinda like Java. So you only need the Mono SDK and Xamarin for makin .dll files; which exist for Windows, MacOS X and Linux.

 

A bit late but "it's not compatible with .Net.". Uh, What ?? They are perfectly compatible. What mono lacks is the all the WinForms stuff used fro graphics. But a cmd line software build on .net works fine on mono.

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11 hours ago, sarbian said:

A bit late but "it's not compatible with .Net.". Uh, What ?? They are perfectly compatible. What mono lacks is the all the WinForms stuff used fro graphics. But a cmd line software build on .net works fine on mono.

It is? i always remembered that you couldn't just drop .Net source code into a Mono compiler and have it build just like that. Or have a Mono application and run it on a .Net framework. But if you say so, i'll gladly take your word for it; i have to admit i'm basing myself on what i remembered what i had courses in VS.Net  But that's easily 4-6 years ago.

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I"m just curious but, if your a person that knows what they are doing, far as code and the tools necessary to make a mod like this function, how long does it actually take to update Quantum Struts?  Yes I want this Mod again for my game, but I'm am genuinely interested in the process for something like this that isn't just a cfg fix, but has a dll file, and compiling.  I have adjusted cfg's for my own game, but never any further than that.  I would like to start contributing to KSP as opposed to just being a "consumer".  Could you guys tell me where the best place would be to start?  Maybe even a link or two, for specifically maintaining Quantum Struts? Maybe if I can teach myself enough to do one part, of one mod, I can move on to helping other people that need basic helpers.  Oh, and someone fix Quantum struts.... :cool:

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12 hours ago, ArkaelDren said:

I"m just curious but, if your a person that knows what they are doing, far as code and the tools necessary to make a mod like this function, how long does it actually take to update Quantum Struts?  Yes I want this Mod again for my game, but I'm am genuinely interested in the process for something like this that isn't just a cfg fix, but has a dll file, and compiling.  I have adjusted cfg's for my own game, but never any further than that.  I would like to start contributing to KSP as opposed to just being a "consumer".  Could you guys tell me where the best place would be to start?  Maybe even a link or two, for specifically maintaining Quantum Struts? Maybe if I can teach myself enough to do one part, of one mod, I can move on to helping other people that need basic helpers.  Oh, and someone fix Quantum struts.... :cool:

I'm going to try to compile it against 1.2 this weekend; however my designs that used to need it, no longer seem to, so this mod may be functionally obsolete.  The struts look cool, though, so it might be worth having it just for that alone.

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Hi all,

I was recently made aware of this mod, so have gotten it working.

Beta available here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/e37iscdhf3671q7/QuantumStructsContinued2-1.7-beta.zip?dl=0

Please let me know of any problems, I'll do a formal release in a few days

Before I do a full release, I'll be updating the parts with tags and whatever else will be needed to bring them up-to-date with 1.2.1

Edited by linuxgurugamer
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