[old thread] Trajectories : atmospheric predictions

[Roofmoord]

Hello! I love this mod but i have a problem with it since 1.1.3 launched. If i try to re-enter and use the trajectories mod, it will give me th right information for about 0.3 seconds and after that deisplay a message saying: "trajectory predicting stopped, too many itterations". Is this a frequent bug and can i do anything about it?

[Youen]

10 hours ago, Roofmoord said:

Hello! I love this mod but i have a problem with it since 1.1.3 launched. If i try to re-enter and use the trajectories mod, it will give me th right information for about 0.3 seconds and after that deisplay a message saying: "trajectory predicting stopped, too many itterations". Is this a frequent bug and can i do anything about it?

This message should appear when you have a shallow entry, that results in a very long atmospheric path. At some point during the prediction, the mod gives up because it takes too much time to compute the whole path. A prediction of a very long path wouldn't be very precise anyway.

But if it happens for a "regular" entry (path of 90° around the planet for example), then it looks like a bug indeed.

I've not tested the mod with KSP 1.1.3, so I don't have feedback about that yet.

21 hours ago, dlrk said:

Is there a way to see a numerical display of predicted landing distance from target? If not, could this be added in the future?

Not at this time. It could be added, any contribution is welcome. I personally don't plan to add features any time soon.

On 03/07/2016 at 0:53 PM, parachutingturtle said:

When you say "This wouldn't directly work for FAR", are you referring to predictions based on a cache generated in a different flight, or 5thHorseman's suggestion about the user specifying another .craft file?

"This wouldn't directly work for FAR": I was referring to using an external .craft file. I'm not saying it's impossible, but the current system doesn't work this way.

On the other hand, using an aerodynamic profile recorded during a previous flight should work. Actually, all is needed is to have the craft flying in atmosphere, or orbiting around the planet, to record the complete aerodynamic profile (the process takes some time, so it can either be spread on multiple frames, or freeze the game for a while to get it all at once). But with the current system you have to be flying the craft to record anything about it.

[Roofmoord]

18 hours ago, Youen said:

This message should appear when you have a shallow entry, that results in a very long atmospheric path. At some point during the prediction, the mod gives up because it takes too much time to compute the whole path. A prediction of a very long path wouldn't be very precise anyway.

But if it happens for a "regular" entry (path of 90° around the planet for example), then it looks like a bug indeed.

I've not tested the mod with KSP 1.1.3, so I don't have feedback about that yet.

 

Aight thanks m8. That's indeed what I've been doing. Trying to deorbit from the Ap or Pe 

[CatastrophicFailure]

Retracting this. Seems some of my savegames actually were corrupted, probably from cloning the multi-dozen-gig folder in the first place. All is well now. 

Mods, you can take this post out behind the barn & shoot it if need be, I can't seem to delete it. 

Edited July 15, 2016 by CatastrophicFailure
I have saved the universe. At least my own little one.

[Kobymaru]

I'm getting the same Exception in 1.1.3:

 

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at Trajectories.Trajectory.get_AerodynamicModelName () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

  at Trajectories.MapGUI.MainWindow (Int32 id) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

  at UnityEngine.GUILayout+LayoutedWindow.DoWindow (Int32 windowID) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

  at UnityEngine.GUI.CallWindowDelegate (UnityEngine.WindowFunction func, Int32 id, UnityEngine.GUISkin _skin, Int32 forceRect, Single width, Single height, UnityEngine.GUIStyle style) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

 

Can anyone actually run this in KSP 1.1.3?

 

I just found that a workaround is to use Blizzy's toolbar. @CatastrophicFailure , maybe you can install Blizzy's toolbar temporarily to fix your save?

Edited July 14, 2016 by Kobymaru

[dlrk]

Works completely fine for me in 1.1.3

[Kobymaru]

10 hours ago, dlrk said:

Works completely fine for me in 1.1.3

Do you use blizzy's toolbar?

[angrybold]

Hmm i ran into trouble. The trouble being that the mod just doesn't pop a button anywhere, neither in the stock toolbar, nor in blizzy's. In the OP i read, it is supposed to be on by default, however i do not get any trajectories when going into athmosphere. Im using RSS, RO, FAR etc. Did it not load? Did i miss something? Helps plx

[Youen]

On 19/07/2016 at 7:42 PM, angrybold said:

Hmm i ran into trouble. The trouble being that the mod just doesn't pop a button anywhere, neither in the stock toolbar, nor in blizzy's. In the OP i read, it is supposed to be on by default, however i do not get any trajectories when going into athmosphere. Im using RSS, RO, FAR etc. Did it not load? Did i miss something? Helps plx

Are you playing with KSP 1.1.3 ? I haven't tested the mod with this version yet, but some people have reported it works only when using blizzy's toolbar (probably because the stock toolbar API has changed). Maybe installing it would solve your problem, but as I said, I haven't tested myself. Let us know if it does (or doesn't), might help other players.

EDIT: sorry, didn't see you tried with Blizzy's toolbar already the first time I read your message. I'm out of ideas right now then.

Edited July 20, 2016 by Youen

[angrybold]

Yes Blizzy's Toolbar is installed and running. It's not not working....it's just not showing up for some reason

 

XmlException: Document element did not appear. file:///C:/games/Kerbal Space Program/GameData/Trajectories/Plugin/PluginData/Trajectories/config.xml Line 1, position 1.

 

Maybe related to this?

 

EDIT: pls respond?

Edited July 26, 2016 by angrybold

[undercoveryankee]

On 7/20/2016 at 5:10 PM, angrybold said:

Yes Blizzy's Toolbar is installed and running. It's not not working....it's just not showing up for some reason

 

XmlException: Document element did not appear. file:///C:/games/Kerbal Space Program/GameData/Trajectories/Plugin/PluginData/Trajectories/config.xml Line 1, position 1.

 

Maybe related to this?

 

EDIT: pls respond?

Sounds like the configuration file config.xml is empty or missing. If there's an empty file at the path in the error message, try deleting it and see if the plugin will re-create it. If the file does not exist at all, or if deleting doesn't work, see if you can find the original config.xml in the Trajectories download and put that version of the file in that location.

[Mark Tempe]

I've been running the mod in 1.1.3 (no Blizzy toolbar, stock aerodynamics) and while it seems to be operating normally I'm not sure it's accurate at the moment. I'm finding it a lot more difficult to get a craft down somewhere precisely than I could a while back.

 

Part of it is just my reentry capsules having different trajectories after I jettison engines and service modules (I'm still running Apollo-style missions rather than spaceplanes or interplanetary aerocaptures). I'm pretty sure that's to be expected.

 

The weird part is that when the atmosphere is slowing me down the predicted landing site seems to drift a lot like the stock orbital path does as you decelerate. I don't remember that happening in 1.1/1.1.2.

 

Anyone else notice it or do I just have a fuzzy memory? I didn't use the mod for very long before the last updates.

Edited August 1, 2016 by Mark Tempe

[h0yer]

52 minutes ago, Mark Tempe said:

I've been running the mod in 1.1.3 (no Blizzy toolbar, stock aerodynamics) and while it seems to be operating normally I'm not sure it's accurate at the moment. I'm finding it a lot more difficult to get a craft down somewhere precisely than I could a while back.

 

Part of it is just my reentry capsules having different trajectories after I jettison engines and service modules (I'm still running Apollo-style missions rather than spaceplanes or interplanetary aerocaptures). I'm pretty sure that's to be expected.

 

The weird part is that when the atmosphere is slowing me down the predicted landing site seems to drift a lot like the stock orbital path does as you decelerate. I don't remember that happening in 1.1/1.1.2.

 

Anyone else notice it or do I just have a fuzzy memory? I didn't use the mod for very long before the last updates.

The first issue with changing trajectories after decoupling your CM from the SM probably comes from the changed mass, something that TJ cannot model (yet, calculating mass and drag of a to-be-staged stage)

The second issue might come from not angling the capsule properly during reentry, sounds strongly like a ballistic reentry. And changed stock-aerodynamics. Although that's mostly a guess^^

About the accuracy:

It's so damn accurate, I managed to do a prograde Venusian aerocapture in one pass, ending with an Ap of 550km and needing to puff just a few dozen m/s to get the Pe out of the atmosphere. (I may quote TaylorRaiz: "Oh geez, the ablator is deminishing at prodigious rates")

First time tried, first time succeeded, thanks to Youen's super bombad Trajectories mod (I'm still amazed)

And always check the 'prograde/retrograde' setting in the TJ window, when having the map open.

 

Edited August 1, 2016 by h0yer
Some neat extra-babble...

[Mark Tempe]

11 hours ago, h0yer said:

The first issue with changing trajectories after decoupling your CM from the SM probably comes from the changed mass, something that TJ cannot model (yet, calculating mass and drag of a to-be-staged stage)

Oh absolutely. Apart from mentioning it, I'm not complaining and don't expect the mod to be taking care of that.

 

11 hours ago, h0yer said:

The second issue might come from not angling the capsule properly during reentry, sounds strongly like a ballistic reentry. And changed stock-aerodynamics. Although that's mostly a guess^^

 

I need to test it some more. All my reentries so far are ballistic; aerodynamically stable capsules with no body lift and no thrust or attitude control used. I just point them the right way at 70km and turn off SAS.

It's definitely been accurate before; for a while I was dropping my pods into the ocean right next to the KSC. I'm doing more high-speed returns from Mun/Minmus now, so maybe I'm just imagining the difference.

 

[meyerweb]

On 7/26/2016 at 10:04 PM, undercoveryankee said:

Sounds like the configuration file config.xml is empty or missing. If there's an empty file at the path in the error message, try deleting it and see if the plugin will re-create it. If the file does not exist at all, or if deleting doesn't work, see if you can find the original config.xml in the Trajectories download and put that version of the file in that location.

I’m having the same problem.  I can see that Trajectories is set as a visible button in Blizzy’s, but it doesn’t actually appear; see attached screenshot.  It also doesn’t show up in the stock toolbar.  I deleted the config.xml file, and the plugin recreated it when I relaunched KSP, but the situation stayed the same: no Blizzy’s, no stock.  Also, no trajectory forecasting in flight.

CKAN shows the version of Trajectories as v1.6.2, as does the Trajectories.version file.  This is the config.xml file that was created by the plugin:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<config>
    <bool name="DisplayTargetGUI">0</bool>
    <bool name="DisplayDescentProfileGUI">0</bool>
    <bool name="DisplaySettingsGUI">0</bool>
    <bool name="UseBlizzyToolbar">1</bool>
    <bool name="DisplayTrajectories">1</bool>
    <bool name="DisplayCompleteTrajectory">0</bool>
    <bool name="BodyFixedMode">0</bool>
    <bool name="AutoUpdateAerodynamicModel">1</bool>
    <rect name="MapGUIWindowPos">
        <xmin>0</xmin>
        <xmax>1</xmax>
        <ymin>0</ymin>
        <ymax>0</ymax>
    </rect>
    <bool name="GUIEnabled">0</bool>
    <int name="MaxPatchCount">4</int>
    <int name="MaxFramesPerPatch">15</int>
    <bool name="UseCache">1</bool>
</config>

 

[Youen]

14 minutes ago, meyerweb said:

    <rect name="MapGUIWindowPos">
        <xmin>0</xmin>
        <xmax>1</xmax>
        <ymin>0</ymin>
        <ymax>0</ymax>
    </rect>

This part of your config is wrong, though I don't know why. I don't have the exact numbers in mind, but xmax should be like 200 more than xmin, and the same for ymax and ymin. As it is now, the GUI window is one pixel large, and 0 pixel high, so it doesn't surprise me when you say you don't see any. However, I don't know what's the cause of the bug, so maybe fixing the numbers could help, but not sure at all.

Edited August 5, 2016 by Youen

[meyerweb]

20 hours ago, Youen said:

This part of your config is wrong, though I don't know why. I don't have the exact numbers in mind, but xmax should be like 200 more than xmin, and the same for ymax and ymin. As it is now, the GUI window is one pixel large, and 0 pixel high, so it doesn't surprise me when you say you don't see any. However, I don't know what's the cause of the bug, so maybe fixing the numbers could help, but not sure at all.

I hand-edited it to read:

        <xmin>1</xmin>
        <xmax>301</xmax>
        <ymin>1</ymin>
        <ymax>301</ymax>

Then I launched KSP and tried to get the button to appear in a toolbar.  It still didn’t appear in either Blizzy’s or stock.  What interests me is that I quit out of KSP (by quitting out to the main menu, then hitting ⌘Q) and opened config.xml, and it now reads:

        <xmin>1</xmin>
        <xmax>2</xmax>
        <ymin>1</ymin>
        <ymax>301</ymax>

 

[Youen]

OK, actually I didn't read all your message and didn't understand that the button was missing in the toolbar. The window size would be unrelated to that. If I get some time to reinstall KSP I'll take a look to see if something is wrong with the latest version, but right now I have no clue. What's weird is that some players are reporting it works, and others report it doesn't...

[meyerweb]

54 minutes ago, Youen said:

OK, actually I didn't read all your message and didn't understand that the button was missing in the toolbar. The window size would be unrelated to that. If I get some time to reinstall KSP I'll take a look to see if something is wrong with the latest version, but right now I have no clue. What's weird is that some players are reporting it works, and others report it doesn't...

Yeah, definitely seems to be a Heisenbug.  I have one thing to add: Trajectories does seem to be working now that the config.xml has been regenerated.  I had a suborbital launch show impact forecast.  It just doesn’t show any toolbar buttons.

[Deimos Rast]

@meyerweb

Mod authors can set which scenes their mods are available in with the toolbar, irrelevant of whether or not you have the button configured to be displayed.

Currently, Trajectories is only available in the flight scene, specifically the map mode of the flight scene.

It works fine for me in 1.1.3. With toolbar.

[meyerweb]

16 minutes ago, Deimos Rast said:

@meyerweb

Mod authors can set which scenes their mods are available in with the toolbar, irrelevant of whether or not you have the button configured to be displayed.

Currently, Trajectories is only available in the flight scene, specifically the map mode of the flight scene.

It works fine for me in 1.1.3. With toolbar.

…well slap my hams and call me Porky, there it is.  I see it in Blizzy’s toolbar in the map scene, and I can call up the settings screen without incident.  I had no idea this was a thing!  Thanks, Deimos.

[Youen]

Do'h. So simple I didn't think about that

[jeancallisti]

On 25/05/2016 at 9:23 PM, Youen said:

Can you test with only Trajectories, without any other mod?

I apologize for not trying this. I'm in this typical scenario of "I already went crazy trying to play the damn game, now that stuff works I'm too lazy to try anything, and I'm just not using the mode". Sorry. And that's coming from someone who was in the line of work of spotting bugs and answering calls in a call center, so I know the frustration.

[dlrk]

Is any work being done on the API? I see it in the pull requests.

[Youen]

On 10/08/2016 at 10:15 PM, dlrk said:

Is any work being done on the API? I see it in the pull requests.

The API is very likely to get merged in the next release, but I don't know when that will be.