[PLUGIN, PART, 0.17] Bigtrak KSP Edition v.30 Liltrak

[CrashnBurn]

I think it might be a carts and bigtrak plugin conflict, they both define the same classes both of which are slightly different, I think I have a solution to fix both carts and bigtrak but its just finding the time and motivation to sit down and do it (I'm thinking one universal plugin that covers both bigtrak and existing carts at once)

I agree, I think one dll is better, deleting the cartcommand plugin fixes the lag.

EDIT: I did some further testing and determined that it is the lights that cause the greatest lag for me, I also get quite a bit of lag using lights with the standard cart.dll. So this isn't just a BigTrak problem.

Edited September 4, 2012 by CrashnBurn
additional testing

[Edamski]

I'm sure this has been mentioned previously but I don't know where to start to look, but I'm having an issue installing the mod. I've put the parts and the plugin in the correct folder but what do I do with the Source/CartCommand file? I've read the read me and unfortunately it doesn't make any sense to me.

Any help appreciated

[chickenplucker]

The source files are only there in case you feel like poking around with the Plugin's code. Only the plugin and parts are needed for the mod to work.

[haydn1997]

Finally broke my first BigTrak (sort of); i was driving (read: tumbling) and during a mid-air combo-thing the puddle-jumper, its fuel tank and the SAS simply fell off the back of the BigTrak

EDIT: oh and when i EVA'd a kerbal over to the puddle-jumper remains the engine part exploded

[Lead_poisoning]

Am I reading something incorrectly, or does the latest version not include a handbrake?

That should probably be a priority, because without a brake that can be engaged while the player isn't controlling the vehicle, it rolls backward and forward just under the force of kerbals walking across it to go on EVA.

Add in trying to jump that little ledge to reach the hatch, and kerbals on EVA can get poofed by colliding with the moving vehicle.

[haydn1997]

Am I reading something incorrectly, or does the latest version not include a handbrake?

That should probably be a priority, because without a brake that can be engaged while the player isn't controlling the vehicle, it rolls backward and forward just under the force of kerbals walking across it to go on EVA.

Add in trying to jump that little ledge to reach the hatch, and kerbals on EVA can get poofed by colliding with the moving vehicle.

I'm fairly certain that the latest version has a handbrake in it, but one feature it is missing is cruise control

and for getting into the hatch while in motion; use the EVA jetpack and simply get near the hatch, it has a decently sized board area

EDIT: oh and be careful as rarely the handbrake will disengage while on EVA, so be prepared should it ever happen and try to park perpendicular to hills if possible

Edited September 15, 2012 by haydn1997
cant spell

[G Addict]

Is there a puddle jumper in the latest dowload? People are talking about it, but it wasn't in my downloaded zip file.

[6677]

Is there a puddle jumper in the latest dowload? People are talking about it, but it wasn't in my downloaded zip file.

You have to download the old version and copy the puddle jumper from there

[Lead_poisoning]

I'm fairly certain that the latest version has a handbrake in it, but one feature it is missing is cruise control

and for getting into the hatch while in motion; use the EVA jetpack and simply get near the hatch, it has a decently sized board area

EDIT: oh and be careful as rarely the handbrake will disengage while on EVA, so be prepared should it ever happen and try to park perpendicular to hills if possible

I suppose the jetpack would work for re-entering the rover on the Mun or Minmus. My kerbals were being poofed specifically while I was trying to test deployment methods on Kerbin, where the jetpack won't lift them.

[Timmah]

Fold out lights would be really cool, but I\'m not the best with code so it may be a while before anything like that gets made.

New floodlights and floodlight pod out now. The pod is just a stand for the lights that matches the digital camera add on for the Bigtrak Jr. that I don\'t think was ever sold. The floodlights are seprate parts that you can stick on anything as long as you have the Cart plugin installed.

Fun to stick on rockets

Lights stuck on the pod.

They light up a fairly large area

Remember that none of this would be possible without Tosh\'s Cart plugin and all the hard work he put into that, so if you like the lights and the Bigtrak make sure to let him know

I need the BigTrak Flood Lights for a .craft file I downloaded... and I can't seem to find them anywhere, but I found you designed them... Any chance you could link them to me?

[haydn1997]

I suppose the jetpack would work for re-entering the rover on the Mun or Minmus. My kerbals were being poofed specifically while I was trying to test deployment methods on Kerbin, where the jetpack won't lift them.

for atmospheric purposes I'd recommend ladders, lots of ladders

[G Addict]

I've had a peek and come up with nothing, but apologies if chickenplucker's already explained. Why does the Bigtrak require cartcommand.dll instead of tosh's cart.dll? All it seems to do is cause clashes with the other cart mods. Something to do with the Bigtrak/Liltrak being command pods? And can I modify cart.dll based rovers to work with cartcommand?

Is development still ongoing with this mod? Not a lot's happened in quite a while...

On a more KSPish note, I've landed a Bigtrak on both Duna and Eve, both using a landing system based on RCS. After asking about it before, I completely forgot about the Puddle Jumper so used RCS in its place. Eve is really hard on the bigtrak - I was crawling up a 6km mountain at a painstaking 14m/s from my landing site, and my thrusters had been decimated by a hard landing. It was night, and everything was a deep purple. Very atmospheric. I also have one on Duna, whose RCS lander engines worked a lot better and touched down intact but were knocked off by my bad driving before long. That one's rendesvoused with my first interplanetary lander.

[chickenplucker]

Cartcommand.dll turns the Bigtrak/Liltraks into command pods/carts. This allows them to be carts but to also have the torque/sas options of a command pod which can help you roll them back on their wheels if they happen to flip over. Another thing that may not work if the Bigtrak is just a Cart would be the puddle jumper, but its still having collision issues with the Bigtraks airlock that still need to be resolved. I have yet to reproduce the lag issues that people have been reporting with the plugin, which is a modifed version of Cart 1.33. I'm not saying that there isn't a problem with it, but just that I have piled up 25 diffrent types of Carts around the the space center with no lag or issues encountered. I was using my old Vostro laptop for this which is not a high end machine with its aging 8600GT video card, so if there was any problems they should have shown. One temp solution to this if you do not wish to use the cartcommand.dll is to just change the module the rovers are using in the .cfg.

For example, from the Bigtraks .cfg file:

// --- general parameters ---

name = KSP Bigtrak

module = Cartcommand

Change it to:

// --- general parameters ---

name = KSP Bigtrak

module = Cart

I'm still working on the mod, progress has been a bit slow since I have been short on free time for the last month or so. Currently I'm working on refreshing the Cuttlefish now that we have actual planets to visit. I'll have more pics up once the outer shell is finished up, right now the only finished part is the decoupler base and half of the new lander petal.

[SciMan]

One quick request regarding the Cuttlefish lander, would it be possible to get 2 new versions of the decoupler that goes between the Cuttlefish lander and the rest of the rocket? Specifically, I think that one for 3m diameter and one for 5m diameter would go great with the tanks from NovaPunch, and would make the launchers that I typically build for it not look like they will snap in half right at that joint, because they (especially the 1m version) make the whole rocket look a bit... more unstable than usual, even by kerbal standards

[chickenplucker]

Sure I can do that. Should make the rockets look a lot nicer. For the next version I'm thinking about removing the 1m adapter now that we have stock 2m tanks, unless anyone objects. The 1m adapter just looks... odd, its like an egg balancing on a pencil.

[Werwolf]

I've been farting around allll day with this thing! So much friggin fun, what a fantastic mod! Thank you for this incredible contribution to the KSP community chicken!

[Herak]

I'm trying to download the mod but i get a "service unavailable message" anyone have a mirror?

[RadiatorArray]

I have one of these IRL. Pretty cool mod.

[AlteranEmpire]

Do the lights still function in 0.17?

[chickenplucker]

Depends on what lights your talking about but they should still work. The actual floodlights from the old pack will work with any version of the cart plugin. The lights on the Bigtrak and Liltrak work with the U key.

Small progress bump, pics are nothing exciting to look at but the improments should be noticiable in game.

Last part to redo is the crewpod for the Cuttlefish and then I can get to work on importing these into the game. I'm thinking about taking some inspiration from Bobcat and just making the Bigtrak and Liltrak use the standard cart plugin and making the crewpod a command pod. That way you could have your Kerbal's jump back in the Cuttlefish when done exploring and head back home, and it would clear up any issues people may have with the conflicting plugins. More work on this later, time to catch up on Doctor Who.

[Rabblerouser]

So this works with 0.17? I've held off downloading since it still reads 0.16.

[chickenplucker]

Yuppers it works fine with .17. Some people are reporting that it doesnt play nice with Tosh's Carts (lag, missing context menu) but I haven't been able to reproduce the issues yet.

[Turnip199]

Does this/will this have IVA?

[6677]

I do believe I may have tracked down the cause of the bug people are experiencing but have been lacking the time and motivation to fix it. Both the bigtrak and cart plugins define the same class structure however the classes in the cart plugin have context menu's whereas the ones in the bigtrak plugin do not. That in itself isn't the problem though. KSP loads the plugins alphabetically. The bigtrak plugin being CartCommand.dll under the mono string sorting would come after Cart.dll. Once again not a problem, the issue is that cart.dll goes off and defines a set of classes making up the plugin (including context menu's). CartCommand then comes along and over-rides the same classes with versions excluding the context menu's. End result, even with the 1.34 cart plugin installed you end up running 1.33 instead.

Thought of a few fixes.

1) Rename CartCommand.dll to bigtrak.dll so it loads first.

2) Rename all the classes in the bigtrak plugin so they don't over-ride/aren't over-ridden by the cart plugin.

3) Create a universal plugin. Basically you would take the cart source, add a copy of the main Cart class and apply the changes of the bigtrak to it. This way you have both CartCommand and cart in 1 working .dll file with 1 set of classes, no over-writes anywhere.

4) Just update the bigtrak plugin to 1.34, should solve most problems straight off the beat. If your going to that effort though you might aswell apply patches 2 or 3 at the same time.

Patch 1 can be done by end users, ie everyone already running this plugin just rename the .dll to bigtrak.dll and it should run fine. I haven't tested this so cannot guarantee a successful result and will not be liable for any damages to persistances files etc.

[6677]

I fixed the plugins incompatibility with vanilla carts:

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/22801-0-17-0-14-in-theory-untested-Bigtrak-Plugin-Conflict-FIX