[1.12.x] Alcubierre Warp Drive (Stand-alone)

[jd284]

Is it possible to reduce the volume of the warp sound effect? It seems to be extremely loud compared to other sounds in the game. I basically have to turn off my speakers when warp is active.

[edit]

So after looking into this a bit more, I changed the drives to ModuleEnginesFX and defined an EFFECTS section accordingly. If anyone wants to try, download the files from https://github.com/jd284/WarpDrive/tree/patch-1/FOR_RELEASE/GameData/UmbraSpaceIndustries/WarpDrive/Parts

I noticed the older parts have some particle effects which I left alone, not sure if they still work or if they also need an entry in the EFFECTS section now. But if so I don't know how to do this correctly.

Should I make a PR for this anyway?

Edited September 15, 2019 by jd284
new info

[zit]

So I tried this thing, and it isn't working. Engine shuts down immediately after I try to activate it.

And when I do get it to work, I start accelerating and the entire thing soon explodes afterwards.

Any way I can troubleshoot this? I'm starting off with the small warp engine because as of now I'm dipping my toes in.

[capi3101]

2 hours ago, zit said:

So I tried this thing, and it isn't working. Engine shuts down immediately after I try to activate it.

And when I do get it to work, I start accelerating and the entire thing soon explodes afterwards.

Any way I can troubleshoot this? I'm starting off with the small warp engine because as of now I'm dipping my toes in.

First, welcome to the forums.

Second, I'ma gonna point you to my YouTube tutorial video. It's a little old at this point but the principles in it are still solid. Apologies for the low res; I'm playing KSP on an office laptop these days...

Third, I'm guessing you're attempting to use the drive below the failsafe altitude. For all bodies, the failsafe altitude is one-half a planetary radius; for example, Kerbin's radius is 600,000 m, so the failsafe altitude is at 300,000 m; below the failsafe, the drive automatically shuts off to keep you from warping right into whatever it is you're orbiting. The failsafe altitude principle catches most persons new to the mod. Also, I'll guess that you're trying to use the exotic matter generator and warp at the same time - that'll burn your batts faster than anything I've ever seen in the game so far. Even if that's not what you're doing, the Alcubierre Drive is a power-hungry jackhole, especially if you've got other power production mods.

Seriously, check the video. If you've got questions afterwards, I'll be around off and on through the weekend, and there are others that might be willing to help you as well.  

Edited October 5, 2019 by capi3101
didn't realize the forum software considered that a swear...

[goldenpsp]

6 hours ago, zit said:

So I tried this thing, and it isn't working. Engine shuts down immediately after I try to activate it.

And when I do get it to work, I start accelerating and the entire thing soon explodes afterwards.

Any way I can troubleshoot this? I'm starting off with the small warp engine because as of now I'm dipping my toes in.

You can also read through this thread.  Lot's of people encounter the same issues.  All of the answers are in this thread.

[Mortimer Kerman]

6 hours ago, goldenpsp said:

You can also read through this thread.  Lot's of people encounter the same issues.  All of the answers are in this thread.

You are too close of the planet 

Can we merge the effects of several reactors? Because even the most powerful of the reactors can not encompass my huge MKS ship...

[Quoniam Kerman]

No, if you overlap several warp bubbles, the ship will explode upon activation.

[Mortimer Kerman]

On 10/6/2019 at 4:27 PM, Quoniam Kerman said:

No, if you overlap several warp bubbles, the ship will explode upon activation.

So beyond a certain size, we can say goodbye to the aclubierre drive or mod its made to measure reactor?

Edited October 20, 2019 by Trolol29

[TiktaalikDreaming]

26 minutes ago, Trolol29 said:

So beyond a certain size, we can say goodbye to the aclubierre drive

Beyond the large drive's bubble, you'll need different mods.  If you mean in reality, then there's no clear idea of the limits, but seeing as we can't even begin to build one, that's not an issue.

 

Quote

or mod its made to measure reactor?

I'm going to assume autocorrect did nasty things there.

[Mortimer Kerman]

17 minutes ago, TiktaalikDreaming said:

I'm going to assume autocorrect did nasty things there.

Yes, I'm french 

[TiktaalikDreaming]

31 minutes ago, Trolol29 said:

Yes, I'm french 

You don't need to have English ss a non primary language to have autocorrect turn a sentence into gibberish. Look at anyone's twitter feed.

I have no idea if it still works, but my space opera mod has a larger bubble that uses this mod's code. So, you install this, and space opera. It's very cheaty so I made it a bit more awkward to use.

[capi3101]

Hey y'all. Trying to work out some Alcubierre Drive-related math this morning. 

So, I figured out a while ago that while you're out over Kerbol in interplanetary space, if you switch over to your target relative velocity display you can check to see how close you are to being able to warp directly into orbit over the target; that value will match your orbital velocity reading upon arrival. Lately though I've taken to using Jool as a transfer station to other worlds; you can get closer to Jool than you can to Kerbol resulting in higher gravitational accelerations without the associated "parts getting hot enough to explode" risk. Having trouble grokking the math needed to pull off the same shenanigans though, i.e. figuring out what the target relative velocity needs to be reading in order to warp directly into orbit at the target. I think there's a dot product involved there somewhere but I'm not sure.

Example time: I recently warped from Kerbin to Jool. At departure, my target relative velocity read about 2600 m/s; orbital speed around Kerbin was around 1700. When I got into interplanetary space, the target relative velocity jumped to 10,025.8. Jool was directly overhead at departure, and the two planets were at roughly a 90 degree angle with one another. There's a maximum of 1.304° difference in the inclination of the planes of the two bodies; don't know what it was. Kerbin's orbital velocity was 9,284.5 m/s at departure; Jool's was 4,287.5. If I wanted to arrive at Jool at a velocity of 4,852.2 m/s (to enter a 6,000 kilometer orbit directly), what should my target relative velocity indicator have been?

Not necessarily looking for a solution to this specific problem (though that would be nice) so much as I'm looking for the methodology needed to find the solution.

 

[Atlessa]

On 12/9/2018 at 12:19 PM, RoverDude said:

Custom drag cube would be the way to do it.    In theory rings are not draggy (it's why in stock we have to tweak decouplers and tubes and give them custom cubes), though this one is probably related to the bubble guide.  Possibly fixable by removing the reference to the bubble guide model (or just making it super tiny), deleting partdatabase.cfg, letting the drag cube regenerate, then toss the new values into the part config itself (so it overrides the values).   Should even work for the animated warp engines as well.

Toss a github issue and it will be added to the stack, or if someone gets industrious, a pull request will get it added a lot sooner.

 

Has this ever been done?  If so it's broken.  If not... please do? 

I can't get any version of the Warp Drive into orbit without MASSIVELY overbuilding the booster in terms of dV, and flying it on any of my spaceplanes is right out.

[JadeOfMaar]

@Atlessa I know your pain very well, but at the time I used this mod (back in roughly KSP 1.2) I wasn't yet aware of the drag cube system and the fact that the warp bubble counted as drag surface. The suggestion by @RoverDude is spot on. The drag area numbers have dropped by several orders of magnitude. Save this as a new .CFG file anywhere in your GameData and let us know how things go.

Spoiler

@PART[USI_WarpDrive]:AFTER[WarpEngine]
{
	DRAG_CUBE
	{
		cube = Default, 22.78,0.6854,9.189, 22.78,0.6868,5.621, 37.88,0.7918,1.859, 37.88,0.7952,3.237, 33.9,0.722,7.88, 33.9,0.7211,8.04, 9.537E-07,-0.686,0, 11.18,4.896,10
	}
}
@PART[USI_WarpDrive_625]:AFTER[WarpEngine]
{
	DRAG_CUBE
	{
		cube = Default, 2.785,0.7694,2.61, 2.785,0.7695,2.61, 2.346,0.9225,0.9314, 2.346,0.9256,1.051, 2.785,0.7637,2.61, 2.785,0.7667,2.61, -7.153E-07,0,0, 5.04,1.7,5.04
	}
}
@PART[ZWarpDrive125]:AFTER[WarpEngine]
{
	DRAG_CUBE
	{
		cube = Default, 1.722,0.7475,5.544, 1.722,0.7193,5.21, 4.503,0.7099,2.785, 4.503,0.7275,2.762, 4.066,0.8477,2.588, 4.066,0.8406,2.535, 0.02606,-0.6895,-0.004442, 5.478,2.772,3.202
	}
}
@PART[ZWarpDrive25]:AFTER[WarpEngine]
{
	DRAG_CUBE
	{
		cube = Default, 6.889,0.7476,10.98, 6.889,0.7193,10.32, 18.01,0.7099,5.473, 18.01,0.7275,5.428, 16.27,0.8477,5.077, 16.27,0.8406,4.973, 0.05213,-1.379,-0.008885, 10.96,5.543,6.405
	}
}
@PART[ZWarpDrive375]:AFTER[WarpEngine]
{
	DRAG_CUBE
	{
		cube = Default, 15.5,0.7475,16.44, 15.5,0.7193,15.46, 40.53,0.7099,8.148, 40.53,0.7275,8.081, 36.6,0.8477,7.576, 36.6,0.8406,7.384, 0.07819,-2.069,-0.01333, 16.43,8.315,9.607
	}
}

 

 

Edited December 17, 2019 by JadeOfMaar

[Atlessa]

8 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

@Atlessa I know your pain very well, but at the time I used this mod (back in roughly KSP 1.2) I wasn't yet aware of the drag cube system and the fact that the warp bubble counted as drag surface. The suggestion by @RoverDude is spot on. The drag area numbers have dropped by several orders of magnitude. Save this as a new .CFG file anywhere in your GameData and let us know how things go.

  Hide contents

@PART[USI_WarpDrive]:AFTER[WarpEngine]
{
	DRAG_CUBE
	{
		cube = Default, 22.78,0.6854,9.189, 22.78,0.6868,5.621, 37.88,0.7918,1.859, 37.88,0.7952,3.237, 33.9,0.722,7.88, 33.9,0.7211,8.04, 9.537E-07,-0.686,0, 11.18,4.896,10
	}
}
@PART[USI_WarpDrive_625]:AFTER[WarpEngine]
{
	DRAG_CUBE
	{
		cube = Default, 2.785,0.7694,2.61, 2.785,0.7695,2.61, 2.346,0.9225,0.9314, 2.346,0.9256,1.051, 2.785,0.7637,2.61, 2.785,0.7667,2.61, -7.153E-07,0,0, 5.04,1.7,5.04
	}
}
@PART[ZWarpDrive125]:AFTER[WarpEngine]
{
	DRAG_CUBE
	{
		cube = Default, 1.722,0.7475,5.544, 1.722,0.7193,5.21, 4.503,0.7099,2.785, 4.503,0.7275,2.762, 4.066,0.8477,2.588, 4.066,0.8406,2.535, 0.02606,-0.6895,-0.004442, 5.478,2.772,3.202
	}
}
@PART[ZWarpDrive25]:AFTER[WarpEngine]
{
	DRAG_CUBE
	{
		cube = Default, 6.889,0.7476,10.98, 6.889,0.7193,10.32, 18.01,0.7099,5.473, 18.01,0.7275,5.428, 16.27,0.8477,5.077, 16.27,0.8406,4.973, 0.05213,-1.379,-0.008885, 10.96,5.543,6.405
	}
}
@PART[ZWarpDrive375]:AFTER[WarpEngine]
{
	DRAG_CUBE
	{
		cube = Default, 15.5,0.7475,16.44, 15.5,0.7193,15.46, 40.53,0.7099,8.148, 40.53,0.7275,8.081, 36.6,0.8477,7.576, 36.6,0.8406,7.384, 0.07819,-2.069,-0.01333, 16.43,8.315,9.607
	}
}

 

 

Thanks a bunch, I will try it out in a bit.

Edit: This worked so well, I ended up warping around the system for 8 hours straight.  Sorry for the delayed response, and MANY thanks for the drag-cube config.  Maybe that could be included in the next release?

Edited December 18, 2019 by Atlessa

[Francois424]

Okay, I tried this for the first time today.  It works, but it does not.

I set my target:  Uranus
I get away from Kerbin over 300km
I point to target (Uranus)
I activate the engine... it works
I pump the throttle to the max ... it works

Then it DOES NOT go to Uranus.  In fact I ended up very, very far away... Navigation of the thing seems next to impossible.
Either there's something I'm not understanding, or it does not work very well in KSP 1.7.3
If anyone wanna help, thanks.

[goldenpsp]

11 hours ago, Francois424 said:

Okay, I tried this for the first time today.  It works, but it does not.

I set my target:  Uranus
I get away from Kerbin over 300km
I point to target (Uranus)
I activate the engine... it works
I pump the throttle to the max ... it works

Then it DOES NOT go to Uranus.  In fact I ended up very, very far away... Navigation of the thing seems next to impossible.
Either there's something I'm not understanding, or it does not work very well in KSP 1.7.3
If anyone wanna help, thanks.

Read back through the thread.  There are many replies that explain how to use this drive.  It is not easy to master (I never have).  It is not like a point click and arrive at your destination drive.

[capi3101]

11 hours ago, Francois424 said:

Okay, I tried this for the first time today.  It works, but it does not.

I set my target:  Uranus
I get away from Kerbin over 300km
I point to target (Uranus)
I activate the engine... it works
I pump the throttle to the max ... it works

Then it DOES NOT go to Uranus.  In fact I ended up very, very far away... Navigation of the thing seems next to impossible.
Either there's something I'm not understanding, or it does not work very well in KSP 1.7.3
If anyone wanna help, thanks.

Hmm. Some screenies of what's happening to you would be helpful here, I think; I'm a little confused with Kerbin being your source and Uranus being your destination, unless you've got both the Kerbol star system and the Sol star system in your build. 

I've never had issues with the drive not going where I want it to - that's just a matter of setting your target body, setting your autopilot at 'point to target' (assuming you've got a pilot or a good probe core aboard your craft, which you need), engaging the drive/shutting off the exotic matter generator, and throttling up. The big trick is entering orbit at the target body - you either have to set things up so that you either arrive at the destination at a velocity slow enough to enter orbit above the drive's failsafe or can maneuver to a position so that you're headed directly away from the target body so you can warp back towards that body and slow down the rest of the way. Switch to target relative velocity once you're over its primary to tell before you get there.

Are you at least able to enter Uranus's SOI, or is something else going on? If you can enter Uranus's SOI, give me its gravitational parameter (mass will work if you don't have that information) and it's planetary radius and I'll calculate your needed speed to enter orbit for you. I might even be able to grab the data myself if you tell me which mod you're using.

Meanwhile, there's this for general purposes. The video is a little old but the mod hasn't changed all that much since it was made.

 

[Francois424]

@goldenpsp @capi3101

Ok, I figured out what the problem was...  A stupid thing.
Would you believe the engine was mounted backwards? 

Works like a charm now.  

[TOMMY (JEB 2.0)]

far compatibility?

[capi3101]

32 minutes ago, TOMMY (JEB 2.0) said:

far compatibility?

None, last I checked. Last time I attempted to de-orbit an Alcubierre-capable probe, the thing's speed increased as it got deeper into Kerbin's atmosphere...this with a pair of 10 meter heat shields attached, mind you. It's all about the difference in the way FAR calculates drag.

That said, I do have both mods installed - FAR works just fine for my planes, and my warp ships fly without issue between planets and moons all the time. Just don't expect to be able to make a warp-capable spaceplane if you're using FAR.

Edited February 14, 2020 by capi3101

[TOMMY (JEB 2.0)]

Just now, capi3101 said:

None, last I checked. Last time I attempted to de-orbit an Alcubierre-capable probe, the thing's speed increased as it got deeper into the atmosphere...this with a pair of 10 meter heat shields attached, mind you. It's all about the difference in the way FAR calculates drag.

That said, I do have both mods installed - FAR works just fine for my planes, and my warp ships fly without issue between planets and moons all the time. Just don't expect to be able to make a warp-capable spaceplane if you're using FAR.

i was trying to do just that

[capi3101]

1 hour ago, TOMMY (JEB 2.0) said:

i was trying to do just that

Well, I hate to tell you this, but that's not going to work. Best you could probably do is put in a belly docking port on the plane (preferably somewhere amidships) and launch a separate Alcubierre carrier craft with as much space as you can manage for it either forward or aft of the Alcubierre Drive proper. The size of the Alcubierre engine you choose is going to limit how big your plane can physically be. For example, if you base the carrier on a 2.5 meter drive and you have nothing forward of it except perhaps the control module and a docking port for the plane, you've got in the neighborhood of 15-20 meters in all three dimensions in which to fit the plane. With a big plane, you're going to want the three meter z-drive model. Smaller planes, you can't really go wrong with the 2.5 meter drive.

Make sure the entire plane fits inside the bubble. Nothing worse than taking a plane at warp someplace, getting there and finding the tail fin sheared off during warp. Speaking from personal experience here - that really increases the tendency for the plane to want to sideslip...

Edited February 14, 2020 by capi3101

[budda]

is it possible to g get a cfg to use a warpdrive in mk2 part ?

[goldenpsp]

16 hours ago, budda said:

is it possible to g get a cfg to use a warpdrive in mk2 part ?

You could try making one with a modulmanager config.  You won't get any cool animations but it could work from a functionality standpoint.

[Jdrui]

I couldn't make the parts show up in my game. I put the WarpDrive folder that has the assets and parts, etc. stuffs in it in my GameData folder just like my other mods but for some reason the warp drive parts doesn't show up even on a new Sandbox save. I'm still on 1.8.1 if that matters. I don't think the mod shows up in CKAN so I couldn't install it that way.

 

edit: nvm, turns out it's supposed to be the entire USI folder.

Edited February 20, 2020 by Jdrui