Quadcopter/Extra Small Probe Parts. FIRST RELEASE AVAILABLE (fixed now...I think)

[electronicfox]

I will be keeping the invite open for someone to get this into the game. I dont know if its me brain farting on me today, or I'm missing obvious stuff, but I tend to have a lot of trouble beyong modelling and rigging stuff.

[Konnor]

I've been dreaming of a cargo quadcopter just recently, to haul land base components around (I'm bad at pinpoint landings on atmospheric bodies)

A dedicated quadcopter mod would be awesome, even though it's smaller and not intended to carry anything.

Also, what problems do you have with importing?

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

Hi again don't know if you're still having issues setting up the props, if so this image may help ,

To have a NICE working prop you need , a hub, blades and for the extra touch a prop disc, this is translucent and is replaces the blades for nice high speed effect.

The blades are individual parts not attached to the hub/spinner, but are set as a child of the hub object

Props are aligned axis Z up, also the prop disc has the same axis alignment,

I believe that it's possible to run 8 blades but never made anything with more than 5.

Not hard to set up at all, and all the cfg you need is in the firespitter docs, you may need to mess around with various rpm,s etc to get the effect you want but should be quite simple

Edited November 4, 2014 by SpannerMonkey(smce)

[electronicfox]

I've been dreaming of a cargo quadcopter just recently, to haul land base components around (I'm bad at pinpoint landings on atmospheric bodies)

http://i.imgur.com/9aMoDZZ.jpg

A dedicated quadcopter mod would be awesome, even though it's smaller and not intended to carry anything.

Also, what problems do you have with importing?

I can get simple stuff, like a fuel/rcs tank, or battery and structural parts in-game. The probe core seems to work fine too. Its engines Im having issues with. Once in-game, they'll trigger like an engine, and they'll register as having thrust (when right-clicking, it states there are xKn of thrust), but they wont actually do anything. I have used a copy of one of the stock engine CFG's, and tried making my own.

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

Hi re above post have you set a thrust transform in unity? no transform produces symptoms you describe. Also make sure that thrust transform is not inside a collider, colliders block thrust.

[electronicfox]

Hi re above post have you set a thrust transform in unity? no transform produces symptoms you describe. Also make sure that thrust transform is not inside a collider, colliders block thrust.

Didnt I tell you I was missing something obvious There is no flippin' thrust transform!

I'll be fixing that and getting back to this right after doing some client work. (There is a huge reason I only ever make models for games xD).

[Gaalidas]

I can already see myself flying a bunch of these with that formation-flying mod (whatever it's called, my brain is soup right now) all together. It'll be awesome... and then my laptop will melt. But it'll be awesome still!

[electronicfox]

I have this fixed for the most part. Engines are now acting like engines. I just cant get the propellers to spin.

As far as I can tell I have everything set up correctly, and the module calling all the right parts in the config.

----EDIT

After some messing, I finally have it sorted The propellers are now working as intended.

Edited November 4, 2014 by electronicfox

[lo-fi]

Maybe the space and pipe character after Spinner in the config?

[angusmcbeth]

Very nifty mate!

I like the colour scheme, the parts look cool. Looking forward to messing around with this.

Best Regards

Angus

[Tommygun]

If you make it KAS compatible we can make our own Amazon delivery system.

[electronicfox]

If you make it KAS compatible we can make our own Amazon delivery system.

A KAS winch will fit to the bottom of the central parts very snuggly. I've thought how brilliant it would be to have a swarm of these lifting larger objects and hauling them around.

[electronicfox]

Time for more problems!

The parts are all getting into the game nicely now, I'm just having troubles with the texture sharing. The path to the texture is correct, and I have dummy textures in the same folder as the mesh.

MODEL

{

model = GameData\PunyProbes\Arm1\Arm1

texture = Diffuse , GameData\PunyProbes\Texture\Diffuse

}

PART

{

name = StructuralArmMount

module = Part

author = ElectronicFox

node_Stack_top = 0, 0, 0, 0, -1, 0, 1

node_Stack_bottom = 0, 0, 0.269, 0, 1, 0, 1

TechRequired = composites

entryCost = 6200

cost = 14

category = Structural

subcategory = 0

title = Small Arm Mount

manufacturer = PunyProbes RC Toy Emporium

description = Size doesnt always matter, eh guys?

attachRules = 1,1,1,1,1

// --- standard part parameters ---

mass = 0.01

dragModelType = default

maximum_drag = 0.2

minimum_drag = 0.2

angularDrag = 1

crashTolerance = 80

breakingForce = 200

breakingTorque = 200

maxTemp = 3200

fuelCrossFeed = False

}

[Konnor]

The path to the texture is correct, and I have dummy textures in the same folder as the mesh.

model = GameData\PunyProbes\Arm1\Arm1
texture = Diffuse , GameData\PunyProbes\Texture\Diffuse

I'm not 100% sure about this, but I've heard these types of references only work if the texture in question is loaded into memory earlier than the model itself. And they are being loaded in alphabetical order, so if your current part is in Arm1 subfolder, and the texture is in Texture subfolder, the latter is not yet available.

[electronicfox]

I'm not 100% sure about this, but I've heard these types of references only work if the texture in question is loaded into memory earlier than the model itself. And they are being loaded in alphabetical order, so if your current part is in Arm1 subfolder, and the texture is in Texture subfolder, the latter is not yet available.

I have just tried this again with another method. The textures are now assigned by default to the first part loaded in the game, but now I am trying to call those same textures on the 2nd part I have. The texture is definately loaded in the game now, so its likely something wrong with the CFG.

[Konnor]

The texture is definately loaded in the game now, so its likely something wrong with the CFG.

Hmm, maybe it is because your paths start from GameData. In the previous post it should have been

model = PunyProbes/Arm1/Arm1
texture = Diffuse , PunyProbes/Texture/Diffuse

(I've never seen any actual documentation to that, wiki page seems outdated, but maybe I'm missing some obvious link?)

And backslashes seem suspicious too, IIRC Unity/KSP uses / as path separator.

Edited November 5, 2014 by Konnor

[comham]

Really nice texturing.

[electronicfox]

Really nice texturing.

Thanks The texturing has been updated a little since.

[electronicfox]

After much fiddling, figuring bits out and learning, the parts are now in-game and functional. Everything works. It all just needs balancing now, but this bit is over (till I make more parts).

Have some images of the probes built and flying.

Things to do now: Make a spinnydisk part for the propellers for visual appeal, remember that I forgot to bring in the small RTG, figure out the correct stats for these parts, make some floaties that can attach to the legs, remember how I did everything.

Edited November 5, 2014 by electronicfox

[Gaalidas]

Hmm, maybe it is because your paths start from GameData. In the previous post it should have been

model = PunyProbes/Arm1/Arm1
texture = Diffuse , PunyProbes/Texture/Diffuse

(I've never seen any actual documentation to that, wiki page seems outdated, but maybe I'm missing some obvious link?)

And backslashes seem suspicious too, IIRC Unity/KSP uses / as path separator.

This person speaks the truth. Paths for models/textures/you-name-it should begin from the gamedata folder, which means that "Gamedata" is not included in the path. You need to pretend that the root of your path is "Gamedata" much like the root of your hard drive is "C" (or whatever you use). When referencing something relative to the root, you do not reiterate the root in the path. The final piece of the puzzle is that you need to use forward slashes, and not the backslash like we are used to using on windows/dos-based operating systems.

EDIT: Awesome, that looks very usable. One thing I wonder about is if you could mount both the props and the mini-engines for flexibility within a single flight. I'm sure with part-clipping you could make it happen, though I am unsure if both engines would work correctly in that case (taking the visual impact out of the equation for the time being).

EDIT #2: Okay, my mind is going nuts now. I could see those arms and props being up-scaled a bunch and used on kerbal-sized crafts. Sure, we have ducted fans already out there somewhere, but you can never have too many option on the visual side of things. I suppose one could just rid a command seat on a few beams to the bottom of that thing and turn it into a prop-powered flight-pack.

Edited November 5, 2014 by Gaalidas

[nli2work]

very nice! don't be afraid to add more divisions to the rotor rings. won't be a problem

[electronicfox]

Awesome, that looks very usable. One thing I wonder about is if you could mount both the props and the mini-engines for flexibility within a single flight. I'm sure with part-clipping you could make it happen, though I am unsure if both engines would work correctly in that case (taking the visual impact out of the equation for the time being).

The engines together do work alright visually, but some part-clipping is needed if you want to keep the RCS tanks on their mounts. You could just use an alternate RCS tank though.

- - - Updated - - -

very nice! don't be afraid to add more divisions to the rotor rings. won't be a problem

I freelance as a low-poly artist, so I have a nasty habit of saving polygons EVERYWHERE!

I'll be going over a few parts and smoothing them out later on.

[nli2work]

I freelance as a low-poly artist, so I have a nasty habit of saving polygons EVERYWHERE!

haha yeah I hear ya. tough habit to get out of... everything more than 1k triangles feels so clunky and inelegant.

[mike9606]

I can't wait to try this thing out, it looks great.

[zekes]

i do want... and big props, so we can make Avatar- like dropships!