Help with Airlocks and Ladders

[jfjohnny5]

Airlocks and Ladders are going to be the death of me...

I've gone through the tutorial at http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Adding_Airlocks_and_Ladders_to_Parts and I've been digging through a couple threads including http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/25493-Airlock-and-Ladder. Part of the problem is that the threads I find end with "ok I fixed it" without an explanation of how.

I started by creating my colliders as objects in 3ds Max, then bringing them in with my model, adding the various tags and setting everything up. I made sure Positive Y was up and Positive Z was pointing in to the model. And that actually mostly worked. I was able to get in and out of the airlock, and climb up and down the ladder I had defined. But the problem was I couldn't transition to ladders on other parts. I noticed my Kerbal was very close to the pod when exiting the airlock, the ends of his hands were actually clipping. I tried moving the colliders away, but it didn't seem to make a difference.

So I decided to switch to just using box colliders straight in Unity. I tried having them intersect the model, stand off from the model, so many things my head is spinning. I could exit the hatch, but I couldn't get back in. When I did get the "Grab" indicator, my Kerbal tried to grab something a good ways off the side of the object, and was immediately thrown off. I wasn't even getting as far as I was with the imported geometry that I had turned into mesh colliders, despite the fact that box colliders seem like they should actually be simpler.

The bottom line is that the tutorial on the wiki, while a nice start, is lacking some key details. It also has some information that is just plain contradictory to what I've read in threads. So, with that in mind:

Can someone answer the following questions?

Do the airlock and ladder collider pivots need to share the same coordinates?

Do either of the airlock or ladder colliders need to intersect the mesh colliders for the model at all?

How does the size of the collider affect anything; specifically it's depth (not height or width, relative to the hatch, but the amount of space out in front of the hatch)?

What defines how far away from an object a Kerbal will hold while on a ladder; the center of the collider, the near face, the far face?

fwiw: I really wish Squad would release the model and unity file for the MK 1 capsule. Being able to dissect that would answer so many questions...

Edited December 23, 2014 by jfjohnny5

[lo-fi]

I can't answer them directly, but Nli2work's tutorials cover pretty much everything you'll need to get to grips with that sort of stuff: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/94871

[raidernick]

1) no they don't need to share coordinates

2) They need to intersect the mesh collider

3) How far the ladder extends out of the mesh doesn't matter, the airlock does the further the depth the greater distance you can enter the airlock from

4) The kerbals hold from the center of the ladder collider.

[jfjohnny5]

Thanks a lot! Those 4 answers combined with watching IVA Part 1 video (the bit on ladders and airlocks starts at 15:42) was HUGELY helpful. I've got them both working and the Kerbals can even transition to ladders on other parts. Awesome!

[noonespecial]

fwiw: I really wish Squad would release the model and unity file for the MK 1 capsule. Being able to dissect that would answer so many questions...

You can always use the Mu importer found here.