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[DEV HALTED][0.90] ActiveStruts - Create & Remove Struts in Flight [v1.1.1 2014-12-31]


marce

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Hey, one thing I'd really like to see. Is there a way to add a actiongroup button to change strut grouping?

Do you mean "Group+" & "Group-" actions or the logic invert? The first I can do, the second not really.

hmm very odd. your mod does not show up on my KSP-AVC list.

Version file is in the folder? Any problems reported in the log (KSP-AVC prints a warning if a version file is invalid)?

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The first one. Group +/- would be great. I actually would like to use this for my crane so the IR Crane-arm is a bit more stable while moving a base part. Some of these parts get really heavy

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The first one. Group +/- would be great. I actually would like to use this for my crane so the IR Crane-arm is a bit more stable while moving a base part. Some of these parts get really heavy

Created an issue for that so it should be in the next release.

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Glad to see this finally out in the open :D. Again, apologies for not getting around to finishing my parts. I'll probably look at integrating them back into the IR Rework's Struts package since the styling is still quite nice.

Thanks!

I'm confident we all hope to see your parts some day :)

In other news:

v1.0.5 released

Changelog:

  • Added Actions for the Autostrutter
  • Fixed AttachNode orientation of Autostrutter
  • Added KAS grab configs for Target, Targeter & Autostrutter

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Giving it a download now. Awesome work. I don't do many in-space construction projects (mostly because of the strutting problems.) I never liked QS (it just never felt like it belonged) and using KAS and going EVA was just too tedious. Perhaps with this mod I will finally build a massive interplanetary ship.

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Hi, it looks cool but, may I know what is the difference with the KAS struts?

These are stronger (if you use the strong ones) and don't require EVA. They also (unless you have KAS installed I guess) aren't attached and detached, you place them in the VAB ahead of time, for planned future connections once (say) you're attaching the parts of your station or interplanetary ship.

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Congratulations on being featured on Modding Mondays!

Thanks! I seriously didn't expect that :D

Giving it a download now. Awesome work. I don't do many in-space construction projects (mostly because of the strutting problems.) I never liked QS (it just never felt like it belonged) and using KAS and going EVA was just too tedious. Perhaps with this mod I will finally build a massive interplanetary ship.

That's what it meant for, build big, have fun!

Hi, it looks cool but, may I know what is the difference with the KAS struts?
These are stronger (if you use the strong ones) and don't require EVA. They also (unless you have KAS installed I guess) aren't attached and detached, you place them in the VAB ahead of time, for planned future connections once (say) you're attaching the parts of your station or interplanetary ship.

Correct, there is also a "difference to KAS" explanation in the OP.

To celebrate ModdingModay I'll attempt to fix the broken video and add some pictures later today :wink:

Thanks also to all testers, you went through quite some pain to help me get this released!

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Hi Marce

Would you be interested in making a standalone variation of your tether that can only attach to specific empty game objects on a part? This would allow modders to create more immersive station and ship components that have functional tether attachments like on the ISS.

196806main_110907_handrail.jpg

Edited by Cpt. Kipard
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Hi Marce

Would you be interested in making a standalone variation of your tether that can only attach to specific empty game objects on a part? This would allow modders to create more immersive station and ship components that have functional tether attachments like on the ISS.

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/196806main_110907_handrail.jpg

Is the eva tether meant to be used in orbit? When I tried it the anchor point didn't stick to the crasft but remained fixed in space dragging my poor Kerbal away! XD

Both your questions are related, the answer has a few layers, though:

  • The problems with the tether (or FreeAttach strut) being connected to the wrong part (space, the kerbal, etc.) are based on the same requirement of having to spawn a new part connected to the selected part at the mousepointer position (happening in the background), and randomly this position info goes crazy sometimes (I fiddled a lot and finally resorted to blaming Unity)
  • In general I want to keep the option of being able to attach everywhere (at least most of the time, if it goes funky, unlinking and trying again from a bit of a different view angle usually works)
  • On the other hand I'm activly (well, a bit less active atm because I have lots of projetcs, but it's still on the back fire) investigating a good way to define "attachment points" on parts and allowing to connect to those via the action menu (or a dedicated GUI, not decided yet). Main problem is that I also need a dedicated rigidbody. My vision is that a part can define a number of transforms (by name and offset from their position) which are possible anchor points for some other parts/modules (or Kerbals) also listed. The AS plugin would then inject a gameobject with a rigidgbody at this position and link to it. This way the models don't have to change in Unity every time. And we also get very proper targeting since the position desn't have to be sorcered from weird mouse positions. I'm on it but still have a long way to go to be honest. I'm pretty sure it should be possible, but if not I'll resort to requiring what Kipard suggested: adding an empty gameobject at the proper position as a child in Unity and I'll just add a rigidbody to it once needed, this should work almost certainly.
  • I'm not planning on making this feature standalone though, since I want to resuse a bunch of code which logically belongs to AS. However, bundling only the plugin is fine with me and I can certainly add a config option to turn of unwanted features (there is a bunch of them already anyway), so you shouldn't have a problem since dll sizes are practically irrelevant anyway.

Slightly confuse but hopefully useful :wink:

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I tried this because of the Modding Monday article, but the EVA tether problem happens always not at random, and when I added these struts to a rocket and went to launch the game froze with the message "Waiting for Unity to catch up" displayed. I waited for about 20 mins (went and walked the dog :) ) and then gave up, forcing a close via the taskbar and uninstalled the mod.

It seems like a good idea, but for my install at least, it didn't work.

I also have:

KSP: 0.25 (Win32) - Unity: 4.5.2f1 - OS: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (6.1.7601) 64bit

Chatterer - 0.7.1.86

Kerbal Engineer Redux - 0.6.2.11

KSP-AVC Plugin - 1.1.5

RCS Build Aid - 0.5.2

RealChute - 1.2.5.2

SCANsat - 1.0.8

TAC Self Destruct - 1.4.0.6

TextureReplacer - 1.8

and a few others that don't use KSP-AVC...

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I had the same eternal "waiting for unity to catch up" with the prior version but haven't had a chance to try the new one. I'll try it with the current one when I get a chance and put a log up :)

I was never able to reproduce this, but put in a safeguard that will abort the operation after (iirc) less than 5 seconds if it fails all the time.

So I hope it's gone, otherwise I'm looking forward to a log.

@tg626: sounds like something is really broken for you, please give me your log or I can't help.

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I was never able to reproduce this, but put in a safeguard that will abort the operation after (iirc) less than 5 seconds if it fails all the time.

So I hope it's gone, otherwise I'm looking forward to a log.

I've only used this mod a short time, so my experience with this particular message is limited. I have seen it, almost every time when trying to free-straight line attach two huge fuel tanks I've just docked together. The message pops up and in that instant I noticed the tanks are actually moving. After a second or two the strut kicks in and the message goes away.

I likened this message to the game message where you can't enter timewarp because the ship is still moving around.

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I've only used this mod a short time, so my experience with this particular message is limited. I have seen it, almost every time when trying to free-straight line attach two huge fuel tanks I've just docked together. The message pops up and in that instant I noticed the tanks are actually moving. After a second or two the strut kicks in and the message goes away.

I likened this message to the game message where you can't enter timewarp because the ship is still moving around.

Yes, that's the default behavior. It's meant as feedback for the user that I'm waiting for Unity and that the creation of the strut didn't fail yet but is still in progress.

I only see it for a second or so as well, as I said, never could reproduce the effect of it showing forever.

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Haven't had time to test 1.06 yet but one thing I noticed was when docking multiple vessels, I have this issue where I have a couple of satellites attached with radial decouplers and each time I restart the game, those struts are turned off. I was guessing it had to do with the decouplers because all the other active strtuts are still fine. I have 7 different vessels docked to make one large ship and all the parts linked together with active struts are just fine, but the ones whose only attachment to the rest of the ship is via those radial decouplers won't stay attached :)

One other thing I noticed was this weird little jiggle. All the struts on this ship are Targeter to Targeter and when you zoom in and look, they stutter and jiggle around :)

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Haven't had time to test 1.06 yet but one thing I noticed was when docking multiple vessels, I have this issue where I have a couple of satellites attached with radial decouplers and each time I restart the game, those struts are turned off. I was guessing it had to do with the decouplers because all the other active strtuts are still fine. I have 7 different vessels docked to make one large ship and all the parts linked together with active struts are just fine, but the ones whose only attachment to the rest of the ship is via those radial decouplers won't stay attached :)

One other thing I noticed was this weird little jiggle. All the struts on this ship are Targeter to Targeter and when you zoom in and look, they stutter and jiggle around :)

I have to check why/if the decouplers make problems. Wrt jiggle: I think I know what you mean and it's quite possible the last version improved that (in case you mean what I think you mean :confused:)

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This behemoth is held together with Active Struts. It's solid as a rock, I could never get that stability with KAS or QS, thanks! (BTW there is a rover with lander, 2 satellites, a lander with two stages to and a science lab on this beast)

GZaV0YQ.png

Here is a pic of the struts that deactivate. It's imposible to get a shot of the decoupler and struts together but the tank the 2 struts are attached to is part of a satellite that is attached to the rest of the ship with a radial decoupler.

i5YCuLP.png

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Silly question: are the struts supposed to jitter back and forth if you move relative to them? If I'm perfectly stationary next to my station they look fine, if I puff the RCS to go left slowly all active strut lines start moving left-right what looks like 10x~ their width before snapping back to where they should be at a pretty high speed making it somewhat strobeish.

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