Does Welding need to be a part? Could it be held in the ship file?

[SyberSmoke]

First, let me start by saying I am aware of part welding and what it does. It is a good idea, but makes a mess that you can not clean up if you want your ships to remain valid.

So I am curios (being a layman about all this), could a system be made that allows the player to designate parts to be welded or baked together in the VAB. And then with out making an entirely new part, place that information into the ship file. This way the parts can have the benefits of being welded with out the clutter?

OR...(this just popped in my head) Could a mod alter how joints function. So instead of being a breaking point, they instead become a node in a spline. That way the ship does not come apart at the node but instead flexes across the model. After all everything has some flex...it is when the flex becomes to much that things break.

Edited September 15, 2014 by SyberSmoke

[Kerbart]

First, let me start by saying I am aware of part welding and what it does. It is a good idea, but makes a mess that you can not clean up if you want your ships to remain valid.

(...)

OR...(this just popped in my head) Could a mod alter how joints function. So instead of being a breaking point, they instead become a node in a spline. That way the ship does not come apart at the node but instead flexes across the model. After all everything has some flex...it is when the flex becomes to much that things break.

To my knowledge the big deal about part welding is not to make a composition of parts stronger, but to make it a single part, as part count is one of the bigger factors in low frame rates. A space station made of 1000 parts might result in horrible frame rates, but if you can reduce that same station to 200 parts or less through part welding it moves around smoothly.

[SyberSmoke]

To my knowledge the big deal about part welding is not to make a composition of parts stronger, but to make it a single part, as part count is one of the bigger factors in low frame rates. A space station made of 1000 parts might result in horrible frame rates, but if you can reduce that same station to 200 parts or less through part welding it moves around smoothly.

True, the second part though was more off the top of my head. Since KSP treats parts as rigid bodies and the joints are the flex points. The thought was to take those nodes that each get a calculation and merge them to make a single spline. The spline then gets the calculation based on node an part values. That way your only messing with one larger value instead of numerous smaller ones.

[pellinor]

From my understanding the physics-part of welding would pretty much the same as a non-physics joint. Then I guess it could be replaced by storing physics significance for each (instance of a) part in the craft file and fixing the way insignificant parts are calculated (i.e. applying the collective mass and CoM to their root part). In any case colliders stay the same so you'll keep any lag from collision checking.

Another part of welding is the merging of part modules, especially RESOURCE nodes. I used welding a lot for joining tanks, so that there is only one tank to refuel, which is easy to find, and the CoM of the fuel is constant without need for any fuel-flow or -balancing voodoo. It would be quite convenient to have this happen in the craft file instead of creating clutter in the part catalog each time you use it. Nice to have, though probably not a priority feature.

Edit: flexing joints would be the same as thre 'unbreakable joint' cheat option. But as soon as the joint is allowed any flex, you probably need the full physics calculation. I doubt that you can find a simple spline-like model that handles any sort of weld. What is more important, this probably is something that would need to happen inside unity and not ksp or a mod.

Edited September 15, 2014 by pellinor