0.90 Kerbal Weather Systems! Alpha 0.5.3 WIP! (Jan 2)

[colmo]

I'm sure @blackrack and @rbray89 will be salivating at the chance to hook Scatterer and EVE into this mod. It's perhaps the most ambitious mod for KSP (or tied with the n-body physics one).

[diomedea]

So, another improvement to the Weather System is done (though will require a lot of internal testing to be sure it works as expected). This was about how precipitations are computed/managed. Droplets start by nucleation of excess vapor (beyond saturation) over some condensation nuclei (like salt, dirt particles) or, if temperature goes really low (below ~233°K for water), they form spontaneusly; then increase in size as condensation proceeds over their surface (on Earth, the main mechanic involves a mix of ice and water, as Ice has a lower saturation point for vapor so attracts water molecules from water droplets); when droplets grow large enough, their weight makes them fall increasingly fast (relative to the air current) so they collide with smaller and slower droplets (coalescence), further increasing in size. The model had the characteristic droplet size (for when droplets were falling faster then the air up current) as the limit telling when those would make in precipitations (as rain, hail or snow, based on temperature and time spent in the air current); however the intensity was tied to only the amount of condensed water/ice in those droplets. With this latest improvement, parameters were introduced and managed to represent the variation in time of the droplets size (each "sample" of droplets falls when it increases beyond the limit size, but smaller droplets don't unless collided by larger ones); this will allow to have continuous precipitations for a long time or very intense but short-lived (and all the different shades in between).

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

Can't wait to try this out with high altitude balloons, eagerly awaiting test version

Spoiler

This plus wind would be erm awesome i think is the appropriate word

 

[diomedea]

10 hours ago, SpannerMonkey(smce) said:

Can't wait to try this out with high altitude balloons, eagerly awaiting test version

  Reveal hidden contents

This plus wind would be erm awesome i think is the appropriate word

 

Eh, nice idea. That shows beyond winds, WeatherSystem will have to allow public use of the air density at any altitude, so buoyancy with balloons can be accurately computed (air density in KWS is a bit different than in stock KSP: it includes humidity, so the more humid, the less dense air is under same pressure and temperature).

[silverfox8124]

12 hours ago, SpannerMonkey(smce) said:

Can't wait to try this out with high altitude balloons, eagerly awaiting test version

  Reveal hidden contents

This plus wind would be erm awesome i think is the appropriate word

 

Depends on how "high" you go because KWS doesnt simulate much of the weather in the stratosphere, and that level changes in altitude depending on your latitude. So don't take your balloons too high

[ss8913]

Would it be possible to have AWOS stations reporting the weather like in RL?  Maybe tie in with the KerbinSide tracking stations as reporting points?

[silverfox8124]

25 minutes ago, ss8913 said:

Would it be possible to have AWOS stations reporting the weather like in RL?  Maybe tie in with the KerbinSide tracking stations as reporting points?

Most likely.

[ss8913]

6 hours ago, silverfox8124 said:

Most likely.

nice!  Maybe if there's say an MKS Pioneer Module on, say, Laythe.. we could have offworld AWOS as well?

[silverfox8124]

1 minute ago, ss8913 said:

nice!  Maybe if there's say an MKS Pioneer Module on, say, Laythe.. we could have offworld AWOS as well?

Maybe someday

[Pilotmaster]

I cant wait for it to release!

Edited May 21, 2016 by Pilotmaster
Remove some content

[CaptRobau]

I'm glad this mod is still in development. I was looking at the Astroneer Reveal Trailer and it shows the awesome stuff that could happen if we could have storms and the like interfering with our bases and missions.

[Deizelpunk]

Is this compatable with the most recent version? I really want to have to worry about wind, maybe even make realistic gliders!

[silverfox8124]

4 minutes ago, Deizelpunk said:

Is this compatable with the most recent version? I really want to have to worry about wind, maybe even make realistic gliders!

Read the title of this thread... the first 4 characters are the ksp version its compatible with...

Edited May 23, 2016 by silverfox8124

[silverfox8124]

Dev Update! So recently we've been working on more of the wind, as that's a really touchy thing in the sim apparently, and it likes to excrements itself quite often. So we've been dealing with that

. In the meantime I've also been going over saving and loading states, however a newer problem arises, in that time revert is a thing, and so is quicksaving and loading, both of which screw with the timing of the model.

So i've been going over theories of how to deal with this in the best way possible.

further updates to come!

[Deizelpunk]

1 hour ago, silverfox8124 said:

Dev Update! So recently we've been working on more of the wind, as that's a really touchy thing in the sim apparently, and it likes to excrements itself quite often. So we've been dealing with that

. In the meantime I've also been going over saving and loading states, however a newer problem arises, in that time revert is a thing, and so is quicksaving and loading, both of which screw with the timing of the model.

So i've been going over theories of how to deal with this in the best way possible.

further updates to come!

Awesome! Im hype! (never used far but im gunna make it work lol)

[diomedea]

On 26/5/2016 at 8:57 PM, silverfox8124 said:

Dev Update! So recently we've been working on more of the wind, as that's a really touchy thing in the sim apparently ...

Wind is really a difficult beast to tame. But had I better insight on what was the issue, taming it wouldn't have taken so many days. However, even with all the tests we kept doing, the bug was real slippery to catch. I'm therefore glad to announce this nasty one is now squashed, so on with the next now!

(had to do with the effect of vertical wind on pressure, that is computed for each layer separately. However, pressure updates for upper layers work using the pressure of the lower layer and the barometric equation, and that made the wind effect with lower layers be included even with upper layers, which already had their own wind effect).

[silverfox8124]

Dev Update! So far the sim itself is in the later stages of testing currently(Could be pulled back at any time's notice, so yeah), and I am focusing on getting some features down and ready for the release, however currently we are experiencing difficulties with how KSP does save stuff and config nodes are giving us a bit of trouble as well.

Progress is being made, don't worry

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

 

6 minutes ago, silverfox8124 said:

good stuff

Great to hear you're creeping slowly towards a positive result. my expectation meter seized up years ago so no rush., as if you could   Can't wait to check my sail theory though

[colmo]

54 minutes ago, SpannerMonkey(smce) said:

 

Great to hear you're creeping slowly towards a positive result. my expectation meter seized up years ago so no rush., as if you could   Can't wait to check my sail theory though

Are you working on a sail part based on parachute code?

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

9 minutes ago, colmo said:

Are you working on a sail part based on parachute code?

That I think could be made to work,  the key here is that a sail is an aerofoil that produces lift, stopping that lift pushing you sideways is what propels you forwards,  so with big enough and light enough aerofoils, given that the wind is likely to be a constant (ish?) force then that force acting upon said aerofoil should (fingers crossed) exert a force,. And even if that fails to be the case or so small that it's irrelevant I have been experimenting with rotor sails and the results even without wind are encouraging (but heavy on struts lols) .  I used to build small multihull versions as a youngling and have always wanted to put one in a game ( given that the number of games with wind water and real ish physics can be counted on fingers of one foot I've been waiting a long while)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingsail  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_axis_wind_turbine

[colmo]

4 hours ago, SpannerMonkey(smce) said:

Sails and stuff

This sounds like FAR country to me. You might want to have a word with Ferram. I see no problem using one of the several procedural wing mods to mock up your wingsail.

[silverfox8124]

Dev Update! So I have been working on the saving and loading system for the past few days, and it's been one problem after the other, but I should have most of the problems fixed (for confignodes). However, good news so far, I let the sim run overnight and it lasted a bit over 2 hours in game(gametime->realtime was slower because I was running almost 2x the recommended cells, on a laptop, with 100% load already on the processor) before  the sim reached an error. And even though it was winds this time, it wasn't the vertical winds as we normally have issues with. It was the horizontal winds. Which reached peak of 200km/h and was causing massive pressure drops (as so much wind was leaving the cell), which triggered a "pressure too low" warning. Hopefully we'll get this fixed soon enough.

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

55 minutes ago, silverfox8124 said:

Which reached peak of 200km/h and was causing massive pressure drops

Dear god i never expected such ferocity and i bet it was causing pressure drops, that's a simulation and a half. Keep it up

[silverfox8124]

On 6/6/2016 at 2:31 PM, SpannerMonkey(smce) said:

Dear god i never expected such ferocity and i bet it was causing pressure drops, that's a simulation and a half. Keep it up

Thank you! we appreciate the encouragement. However here at KWS we always expect crazy excrements to go down, because we're used to seeing the sim in a crazy state. However the fix for the horizontal winds *should* be an easy one, but ya never know. Anyways, if all goes well I'll have a very special announcement.

 

Very Soon(tm)

[Nightside]

10 minutes ago, silverfox8124 said:

Thank you! we appreciate the encouragement. However here at KWS we always expect crazy excrements to go down, because we're used to seeing the sim in a crazy state. However the fix for the horizontal winds *should* be an easy one, but ya never know. Anyways, if all goes well I'll have a very special announcement.

 

Very Soon(tm)

Uh oh! Someone better get a KIS attachable umbrella ready!