[Tutorial] RCS Ports

[Yarbrough08]

I have gotten a few requests for help with RCS ports over the past year, and considering that there is no real documentation on them; I thought that I would post the information I have been sharing so that it is available to everyone who needs it. I do not precisely know where to put this, so if I've put it in the wrong place; I apologize - mods please relocate this tutorial to the proper section.

RCS ports are quite easy to create, however; people that are not as familiar with KSP may not understand how dependent Unity is on transforms (a.k.a. Empty or Empty gameobject; whatever you want to call it).

I will not be covering modeling or texturing as that is already covered extensively.

So, without further adieu:

RCS Transform Tutorial

Can you explain to me, perhaps even with pictures, how you made the RCS ports work?

Thanks in advance

Ok, RCS ports are just named transforms (empties in blender) with the LOCAL Y Axis pointed in the direction of thrust. (one for each "thruster" that you want to fire in a particular direction)

You can name these transforms anything you want, because you will specify this name in the cfg.

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Optional, but makes life easier: rename all of these RCS transforms to the same name. Otherwise you will have to add a separate module in the cfg for each transform name.

Then in the cfg, add this information:

MODULE
{
	name = ModuleRCS
	thrusterTransformName = RCS    //This is the name of the transform.
	thrusterPower = 1    //self explanatory, this is your thrust produced
	resourceName = MonoPropellant
	resourceFlowMode = STAGE_PRIORITY_FLOW
	atmosphereCurve
 	{
   	 key = 0 260
  	 key = 1 100
 	}
}

Again, if you did not rename all of your transforms to the same name, you will have to add this module for every thrusterTranformName that is named differently.

i.e.

MODULE
{
	name = ModuleRCS
	thrusterTransformName = RCS.001
	thrusterPower = 1
	resourceName = MonoPropellant
	resourceFlowMode = STAGE_PRIORITY_FLOW
	atmosphereCurve
 	{
   	 key = 0 260
  	 key = 1 100
 	}
}
MODULE
{
	name = ModuleRCS
	thrusterTransformName = RCS.002
	thrusterPower = 1    
	resourceName = MonoPropellant
	resourceFlowMode = STAGE_PRIORITY_FLOW
	atmosphereCurve
 	{
   	 key = 0 260
  	 key = 1 100
 	}
}
etc.

This is bad practice, and way more work than if you just renamed all of the transforms to the same name.

I hope that I have provided enough information to be helpful. Remember that THIS THREAD is your best friend as a modder! Soar safely, and happy blending.

Edited October 28, 2014 by Yarbrough08
Typo

[lo-fi]

Thank you, this will be really helpful

[-ctn-]

So I've gotten the RCS transforms to work, however my piece spins wildly out of control. Does anyone have tips for adding RCS ports? Specifically for angling them (like in the OP's photos)?