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

[RoverDude]

Just stuff hanging on the vessel - removed the physics range explosiveness a while back

[NotAgain]

1 hour ago, RoverDude said:

Just stuff hanging on the vessel - removed the physics range explosiveness a while back

You tha best. You may want to edit the descriptions of the parts, then.

[RoverDude]

I take pull requests 

[Fireheart318]

Do I copy the UmbraSpaceIndustries folder or the WarpDrive folder into GameData?

[Merkov]

2 hours ago, Fireheart318 said:

Do I copy the UmbraSpaceIndustries folder or the WarpDrive folder into GameData?

the UmbraSpaceIndustries one. If you have any other USI mods installed, then you copy the contents of their UmbraSpaceIndustries folder into the one in your GameData folder. The exception to this is the USI Tools folder, which goes separately into your GameData folder. 

Basically, you should have GameData -> UmbraSpaceIndustries ->(all USI mods EXCEPT USI TOOLS)

[Fireheart318]

This may've been asked before, but what's the difference between angular momentum and velocity with the drives? If I'm trying to adjust my orbital velocity before a jump to automatically be in orbit around the target body when I arrive, which one should I use?

[TiktaalikDreaming]

I'm doing up a Science Fantasy/Space Opera type mod (see http://imgur.com/gallery/OjtI1 there's no forum post yet, very early days) with engines for ludicrous speed, and maybe even plaid.  And I'm looking for an existing module I can use for warp engines.  Mostly because my knowledge of C# starts and ends with how to type the name of the language.

So, before asking silly things like how to arrange animations and so on, I'm gonna ask if that's OK.  Ie; Are you OK with me pillaging the module and making new parts.  I'd obviously be adhering to the license etc etc, but I want to make sure you're actually OK with it as well (license terms are a bit locked in, so it's possible to not be happy with re-use, although the license says you are).

[RoverDude]

Since you just want to use the module (i.e. not change it), the best way to do that is to use it as a dependency (similar to how other folks who've made alternate models do it).  Prevents weirdness with conflicts and such.

(By dependency I mean 'using X requires installing the Alcubierre Drive mod').

[TiktaalikDreaming]

22 hours ago, RoverDude said:

Since you just want to use the module (i.e. not change it), the best way to do that is to use it as a dependency (similar to how other folks who've made alternate models do it).  Prevents weirdness with conflicts and such.

(By dependency I mean 'using X requires installing the Alcubierre Drive mod').

Done.  Thanks

[rohanguard1]

On 11/25/2014 at 8:08 PM, RoverDude said:

Bear in mind that no mod I am aware of deals with those kinds of distances, since unity gets downright wonky due to floating point precision issues.

Show me a mod where there's a use case for faster speed and we'll talk as it is I can go anywhere in the kerbal system in under five minutes.

I may have found a mod which would require LUDICROUS SPEEDS!!!

In RSS it already takes me a few minutes to get to Pluto in your mod. I want FASTER!!!!!!!11!!!!one!!!!!111!

[helaeon]

You know even in Star Trek we're looking at days or weeks between star systems. Warp 5 gets you Neptune in about 20 minutes.

If you want faster one needs is to have the drive's speed scale with proximity to a gravitational body... kind of like the frame shift drive in Elite. I don't think it would be that hard but, I just haven't been into testing and refining it. Anyone is welcome to use this starting point. Formula I'd start with is
Speed = WarpFactorBase * ((((altitude)/(planetary radius))^2)/GM) * c
WarpFactorBase being a dual constant that makes it so your top speed is an appropriate fraction of c for that drive based on your current altitude. Could even build the safety switch in this function by making large warp factors impossible too far inside the gravity well. 

Reason I've been thinking about this is actually to go slower when you get closer to planets and the sun. Reason I haven't done it is... not feeling the load & unload & load testing in KSP to make it right and I think there will be some major SOI handoff issues where you leave say Jool, then suddenly you can go really really fast suddenly and that will be hard to keep control of, it's jumpy enough at SOI transitions. I don't have an elegant solution to that problem. Only thing I can think of is alter the formula to compare distance^2/GM of the parent body, and your current body, and use whichever one is smaller.

This also doesn't fix floating point issues, but maybe would be less of a problem as your velocities would be much, much lower closer to things you might want to orbit.

[rohanguard1]

On 1/12/2017 at 8:48 PM, helaeon said:

You know even in Star Trek we're looking at days or weeks between star systems. Warp 5 gets you Neptune in about 20 minutes.

If you want faster one needs is to have the drive's speed scale with proximity to a gravitational body... kind of like the frame shift drive in Elite. I don't think it would be that hard but, I just haven't been into testing and refining it. Anyone is welcome to use this starting point. Formula I'd start with is
Speed = WarpFactorBase * ((((altitude)/(planetary radius))^2)/GM) * c
WarpFactorBase being a dual constant that makes it so your top speed is an appropriate fraction of c for that drive based on your current altitude. Could even build the safety switch in this function by making large warp factors impossible too far inside the gravity well. 

Reason I've been thinking about this is actually to go slower when you get closer to planets and the sun. Reason I haven't done it is... not feeling the load & unload & load testing in KSP to make it right and I think there will be some major SOI handoff issues where you leave say Jool, then suddenly you can go really really fast suddenly and that will be hard to keep control of, it's jumpy enough at SOI transitions. I don't have an elegant solution to that problem. Only thing I can think of is alter the formula to compare distance^2/GM of the parent body, and your current body, and use whichever one is smaller.

This also doesn't fix floating point issues, but maybe would be less of a problem as your velocities would be much, much lower closer to things you might want to orbit.

I think this is a good idea, and if implemented, would easily solve my problem.

[A sad frog]

I downloaded this and when im using it and activate the engine, it removes all of my GUI and just kind of wobbles there. the "bubble" appears for a brief second then vanishes. please help

[goldenpsp]

57 minutes ago, A sad frog said:

I downloaded this and when im using it and activate the engine, it removes all of my GUI and just kind of wobbles there. the "bubble" appears for a brief second then vanishes. please help

Are you far enough away?  You have to be pretty high in orbit for the engine to work.  Most common problem.

[Darth Jeb]

On 24/11/2014 at 2:16 AM, Space Scumbag said:

Hey RoverDude,

any chance you can/want to modify your mod to create a defelctor shield mod? I think it is a nice idea. Here a video I made:

 

 

pos0k

Can you/anyone else  tell what "config editing" you did for achieving this ?

[jd284]

So I finally had enough science to afford this node with the CTT. That was a huge amount of science.

But this warp drive is a really cool thing.

I built my ship on the Moon (RSS) with MKS+EL. My plan was to rendezvous with my transfer station in LEO, but I guess that's not as straightforward as expected with some 6000 m/s difference in velocity and the minimum altitude of 6400 km for the warp drive.

So I suppose the idea is to use the Moon and/or Earth gravity to adjust the velocity of my warp ship until I have the right velocity vector, and then warp as close as I can get without invoking the failsafe?

Are there any tools for doing the necessary calculations, like if I have X velocity now and want Y velocity, what altitude should I warp to? Or do I have to do it the hard way? Or do you just wing it by trial-and-error? For the speed it's rather trivial with conservation of energy but velocity is a lot harder. Also SOI transitions, ugh.

I now have a new respect for Geordi...

 

PS: Would be nice if the VAB description mentioned that I need to be at a high enough altitude to operate the warp drive, i.e. the planet radius.

PPS: At high warp speed, the failsafe altitude isn't very failsafe, the warp "steps" are so large that it's rather easy to warp straight into Earth. I wonder if I could abuse this to warp to LEO, if I tune the final step so that it occurs there and the warp drive shuts down before actually warping into magma.

[SpaceMouse]

On Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 11:48 PM, helaeon said:

You know even in Star Trek we're looking at days or weeks between star systems. Warp 5 gets you Neptune in about 20 minutes.

If you want faster one needs is to have the drive's speed scale with proximity to a gravitational body... kind of like the frame shift drive in Elite. I don't think it would be that hard but, I just haven't been into testing and refining it. Anyone is welcome to use this starting point. Formula I'd start with is
Speed = WarpFactorBase * ((((altitude)/(planetary radius))^2)/GM) * c
WarpFactorBase being a dual constant that makes it so your top speed is an appropriate fraction of c for that drive based on your current altitude. Could even build the safety switch in this function by making large warp factors impossible too far inside the gravity well. 

I love the frameshift drive in Elite. It's balanced well enough to properly convey the vastness of space without feeling 'slow'.

[Thegamer211]

Is there any way to make the warp bubble bigger?

 

[jd284]

Not with the mod on its own. Though I'm sure a Tweakscale patch could be made...

[jd284]

Alright, I played with the Warpdrive for a while now. I've learned some fun new maneuvers to do rendezvous using nothing but the Warpdrive (except for going below the safe altitude of course).

To go Mars, I let the sun change my velocity until it matched that of Mars, the jumped there and visited Deimos and Phobos on the way in.

So if there's any demand, I'd like to make some sort of tutorial on doing Warpdrive orbital maneuvers without expending any (conventional) fuel, basically how to move my orbit around so that the following gets accomplished for free:

• how to brake or get faster as needed
• how to change direction only
• changing inclination to match a target
• in general matching velocities with a target (planet or ship)
• how to achieve low orbit from interplanetary speeds

Where would be a good place to put this information? In the forums it'd easily get overlooked. Maybe the official wiki? Or start a wiki on the Warpdrive github?

Or would it be more fun for people to be forced to learn this on their own? Is that why there's no wiki yet?

[RoverDude]

I would love to get something like this, and could either link it in the OP and/or add it to a wiki (that I can enable on the project when you're ready).  Or even KSPedia

[goldenpsp]

@jd284 Umm yes please!  I have struggled with this engine.  I have read the written instructions/tips but a video is worth 10000000 words.

[jd284]

Um videos aren't really my thing, I'm sure other people could do those better. So it would just be words from me...

[daniel l.]

2 hours ago, jd284 said:

Um videos aren't really my thing, I'm sure other people could do those better. So it would just be words from me...

How about writing a manual? Maybe @RoverDude can package it in the next release.

[jd284]

For now I just cloned the repository and added a wiki to my copy. You can check the progress at https://github.com/jd284/WarpDrive/wiki

At the moment it's just words but I'll be adding some pictures to explain the concepts eventually.

Then when it's reasonably complete we can merge it into Roverdude's repo with a pull request, or just manually copy the page content.