[1.4] SpaceY Heavy-Lifter Parts Pack v1.17.1 (2018-04-02)

[NecroBones]

Wow, love the detail on the the tank butt! Are the girders real parts of the model or texture magic?

Yep, those are 3D modeled.

[SmashBrown]

I do like the girders, nice touch.

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Are you thinking of adding some extra piping and fancy bits to the engine bells? I don't if that's the correct term but it's what i call 'em

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Just to greeble it up a bit.

[NecroBones]

Are you thinking of adding some extra piping and fancy bits to the engine bells? I don't if that's the correct term but it's what i call 'em

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https://studentsuborbit.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/img_20141225_144237.jpg

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Just to greeble it up a bit.

Well right now it's a larger cluster of R1 engines, like the 5m R5 cluster. So for consistency that one will likely stay as it is. Though I'm thinking of a beefier engine too, which I might detail up a bit.

[Wolf Baginski]

Continued kudos for what I consider to be the most useful parts pack out there.

One small request - is there any possibility of a 1.5x or 2x version of the largest 5m tank, either as part of this mod or as part of FTP? I've been using the 2x 2.5m and 3.75m tanks a lot as a first stage tank, and it helps a lot with avoiding the downward CoM shifts that happen with stacked tanks. It would be great if the 5m tanks had something similar.

Thanks again for all your efforts.

I would have to check which add-on does it, and how it gets applied to a tank. but wouldn't a partial solution to the CoM shift to be one tank mostly oxidizer and the other all fuel. So you approximate this.

Now, the stages have different fuels, and I did a quick check of the densities.

LH2 70.85 kg/m³

LOX 1141 kg/m³

RP-1 806 kg/m³

Of course, you have to figure in the mass flow, but the physically-smaller tanks are nearest the engine. That huge volume of LH2 has a low density. For balance you have to figure in bother the change of mass and the change of moment-arm, though I am not sure if KSP models the shift of mass within the tank. Anyway, stick with the fuel/oxidiser balance standard in the game. The upper tank would be all oxidiser, the lower would be the same size, split 10% oxidizer, 90% fuel, and you're close to the mass distribution of that first stage. Or would you reverse the stacking order, so the 10% oxidiser would go first, and neither tank would then empty first.

[E.Nygma]

Oookay...what's the poly count of that tank. I tried something similar but couldn't prune down the faces enough to get under the recommended ~1000 polys...

Thanks

[NecroBones]

Oookay...what's the poly count of that tank. I tried something similar but couldn't prune down the faces enough to get under the recommended ~1000 polys...

Thanks

At the moment, in total (including the flag decal, end-shrouds, collider, etc) it's sitting at 3240 faces (6448 triangles). 1000 polys really isn't that important, not like the 256 limit on the colliders. People have done tests with something like 90,000 polygons and had it work pretty well. In general, I think for more detailed parts, coming in anywhere under 10,000 is probably fine. (I think I've seen 10k given as a rule of thumb in other threads too)

Also, part of the idea here is part-count reduction. Fewer, larger tanks can afford more polys, I think. But it's the number of draw-calls that's more impacting on performance than number of polygons, so part-count reduction will probably show a greater performance gain, even with a higher triangle count.

Edited August 14, 2015 by NecroBones

[SmashBrown]

Is it possible to get raid of the "grainy" effect on some of the white/grey textures? Or is this just the way they are? Sorry if this seems rude, i'm fussy

Like this:

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^I think that's from your colour coded canisters pack.

[E.Nygma]

Thank you for the valuable information! I became rather frustrated with modelling cause of this, so maybe I try it again some time in the near future...

[NecroBones]

Is it possible to get raid of the "grainy" effect on some of the white/grey textures? Or is this just the way they are? Sorry if this seems rude, i'm fussy

Like this:http://i.imgur.com/XSDSp7y.png

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^I think that's from your colour coded canisters pack.

Heh, you don't like that? Actually it's something I'm intentionally adding, to give the surface a sort of painted "brushed metal" appearance. One thing that drives me nuts is when a mod pack lacks surface detail. There needs to be some variation in the surface, or else it looks like a cheaply thrown together texture.

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Thank you for the valuable information! I became rather frustrated with modelling cause of this, so maybe I try it again some time in the near future...

My pleasure.

[Vahal]

Near future is another thread!

Well, ok, it's a bad joke

@Norcalplanner, stacking 2 longest 5m fuel tanks? It's quite inefficient. Radial staging is the way, plus some main hull staging too. Long an thin rockets are the best way to have some "interresting" acrobatic events plus you keep dead weight too long.

About the texture, I really like the brushed look of the fuel tanks wich is close to the vanilla look so I have no problem to mix your fuel tanks and squad ones. My only concern being "damn I can't use those Jumbo witht he boosters, it looks so horrible!" And then you came with the white jumbo, ALLELIUA!

no more... this:

Arghhhh my eyes! My eyes are bleeding again! I'm so sorry I built this...

Edited August 14, 2015 by Vahal
more content

[SmashBrown]

Heh, you don't like that? Actually it's something I'm intentionally adding, to give the surface a sort of painted "brushed metal" appearance. One thing that drives me nuts is when a mod pack lacks surface detail. There needs to be some variation in the surface, or else it looks like a cheaply thrown together texture.

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My pleasure.

Hmmm that's true i didn't think of that. hmmm. It looks a bit dullish in comparison to other textures to me. Maybe a "cleaner" texture with some scratches/dirt marks overlayed? Like i said, i'm fussy. Still love your parts though.

[Norcalplanner]

Near future is another thread!

Well, ok, it's a bad joke

@Norcalplanner, stacking 2 longest 5m fuel tanks? It's quite inefficient. Radial staging is the way, plus some main hull staging too. Long an thin rockets are the best way to have some "interresting" acrobatic events plus you keep dead weight too long.

http://i61.tinypic.com/op7jmb.png

About the texture, I really like the brushed look of the fuel tanks wich is close to the vanilla look so I have no problem to mix your fuel tanks and squad ones. My only concern being "damn I can't use those Jumbo witht he boosters, it looks so horrible!" And then you came with the white jumbo, ALLELIUA!

no more... this:

http://i61.tinypic.com/24orj4k.png

Arghhhh my eyes! My eyes are bleeding again! I'm so sorry I built this...

Vahal, trust me - I know radial staging quite well, and have used it extensively in some very large craft. Having the larger tank mainly helps keep the part count down.

[NecroBones]

Made some progress. I'm still working out some bugs with the tech-tree customizations, but I have a tank + engine combo working. This will be the small engine, with 9x Ratites for 19,800 thrust. One of the images shows a 5m tank with the R5 cluster for comparison, and also there's the FL-T800 tank for size comparison as well.

Hmmm that's true i didn't think of that. hmmm. It looks a bit dullish in comparison to other textures to me. Maybe a "cleaner" texture with some scratches/dirt marks overlayed? Like i said, i'm fussy. Still love your parts though.

Yeah, the "scratches & dirt" thing that the stock parts use won't work here. I'm heavily repeating the textures to save memory, and pack a lot of stuff into the same texture files. Anything that stands out will repeat all the way around the tank and look terrible.

[Comm Cody]

That's the SMALL engine?

Paging Whackjob, we have something for you.

[NecroBones]

Also have a size adapter, 7.5m -> 5m, fueled.

That's the SMALL engine?

Paging Whackjob, we have something for you.

lol, yep. It's technically slightly underpowered, when you compare the height of fuel tanks that it's capable of lifting, as compared to the 5m engines. I'm aiming probably in the ballpark of 24,000 thrust for the next engine up, but it'll be heavy and inefficient.

[E.Nygma]

So, basically...run...

Ahem. I mean, nice to have a size for lifting an ISS in one go

[Vahal]

Mouahahah a cluster of 6 radial 7.5m LFO boosters! To put in orbit a class E asteroid previously landed

But short 7.5m fuel tank could be useful for spacecrafts, reducing length. shorter = less wobbling space noodle

[Norcalplanner]

Mouahahah a cluster of 6 radial 7.5m LFO boosters! To put in orbit a class E asteroid previously landed

But short 7.5m fuel tank could be useful for spacecrafts, reducing length. shorter = less wobbling space noodle

Why only 6? ;-)

[Whackjob]

Consider me paged.

369,600 thrust. I'm working on one with four times as many engines in there.

[Jodo42]

The hype for 7.5m parts is real.

Some small part of me is bugged that there won't be any 6.25m parts. It's the next step up! But I totally understand why. There's just not enough of a performance difference between them and 5m parts.

Although... if 10 meter parts were introduced, then maybe that part of me would be satisfied. 1.25m steps up until 5m, and then 2.5m steps. Plus, then we could build full size Saturn V replicas!

But that's just madness.

[cantab]

With the tank diameters getting so large, have you thought about some N-1 inspired stuff? I'm imagining conical frustrum tanks with a similar slope to the N1 tanks, and then maybe some "hot stage decouplers" with the frameworks that include the dome over the tank below. The aim I think should be parts that are versatile, useful equally for an N-1 design and for completely original stuff.

[Wolf Baginski]

The hype for 7.5m parts is real.

Some small part of me is bugged that there won't be any 6.25m parts. It's the next step up! But I totally understand why. There's just not enough of a performance difference between them and 5m parts.

Although... if 10 meter parts were introduced, then maybe that part of me would be satisfied. 1.25m steps up until 5m, and then 2.5m steps. Plus, then we could build full size Saturn V replicas!

But that's just madness.

With the Behemoth mod elsewhere, maybe there isn't the urgency. In the v0.90 days we had three mods giving us 5m tanks. Two seem to have largely faded away. There are design choices, it's not the same look, but it is an answer. I did a trial with one of the Space-Y multi-engine adaptors, inverted and tweakscaled, do deliver several 2.5m station components Drag was a problem, and maybe a big fairing should be the priority.

[NecroBones]

Oh man, some great stuff getting posted in this thread now.

I didn't get a lot of time so far this weekend, but I got a decoupler together (not exciting, but a necessity):

[Overlocker]

Here's some inspirational images about NOVA variants for the 7.5m or more pack:

[Jodo42]

That ROOST in the first image is absolutely insane. Over 150m tall, almost 140,000kN of thrust, 20m diameter, and over 1mil lbs to orbit. Oh, and it's an SSTO.