[1.1.3] Procedural Parts - Parts the way you want 'em - v1.2.5 July 3

[OtherBarry]

ProceduralParts allows you to procedurally generate a number of different parts in a range of sizes and shapes. The parts are fully tweakable with multiple options for customization of the shape, surface texture, and other parameters.

Now that Procedural Parts has officially released, there are a few changes in ownership. I (OtherBarry) will be maintaining the forum side of things while RadarManFromTheMoon (ItMustBeACamel on github) will be maintaining the mod itself.

Download

Report Bugs

Source GIT

Features

The features include

• Everything accessible by tweaking
• A broad range of shapes including cylinders, truncated cones, filleted cylinders, bezier cones.
• New part shapes are easy to develop and plug in, so cuboid / pill shaped / whatever else you want shaped will be able to be created.
• Most stuff configurable in the config file, including resources and fill ratios, tech levels, available shapes
• Diverse support for career mode - tank shapes, dimensions, and contents all limited by researched tech
• All supplied parts are carefully designed to be as 'stock alike' as possible in their tech level requirements - You can't create a monster tank before you've discovered basic rocketry for example.
• Other mod support - tanks for RealFuels, Kethane, Extraplanetary Launchpads, and TAC. Heat shields for Deadly Reentry. (thanks to OtherBarry)
• Plays nicely with Ferram Aerospace Research
• Multiple textures available for part surfaces. These are fully compatible with StretchySRB textures.
• A Module - TankContentSwitcher that can be applied to existing tanks (with say module manager) and allow their contents to be tweaked. Tweak any tank in the VAB into a Liquid fuel only or oxidizer tank.

Parts available

• Tanks Different parts supplied for different 'groups' of fuels (Liquid fuels, SRBs, Monoprop, Xenon). The multiple part approach is to allow for tech limiting of sizes and volumes.
• SRBs Tweakable thrust (or burn time for real fuels). Tweak between a choice of two bells that are designed for surface or vacuum, with varying ISPs.
• Decoupler Tweakable diameters (with tech defined limits), ejection impulse, and can be in either decoupler or separator mode (again tech dependent).
• Structural Part Good for fuselage, adapters, whatever. Half as light as the equivalent tank.
• Batteries It's a bit rough and ready, but it works well enough.
• Nose Cone Specialized structural part for nose cones. The shape is limited to a smooth cone with a bounded ratio of diameter to length.
• Heat Shield Built to the same specs as Deadly Reentry. Will shield any sized object from heat. (requires deadly reentry)

Screen Shots

Spoiler

 

Installation

Just extract the zip into your KSP folder and you should be away. Some of the integration with other mods requires the latest version of ModuleManager, which is included in the zip.

Known Issues

• Sometimes if the procedural part is the lowest part on the rocket, it may explode on the launch pad. Easily worked around with a launch clamp. This is fixable but will take more effort than its worth.

Custom Textures and Texture Packs

Procedural Parts is compatible with all texture packs for StretchySRBs. It's easy to roll your own texture packs too.

Here's some texture packs that other people have compiled:

Planeguy868

Download.

Installation instructions: download and extract it to KSP's GameData folder.

 

Spoiler

 

Ferram4's Saturn and Nova Textures

Download.

Installation instructions in zip.

 

Spoiler

 

MainSailor's Procedural Textures

Full thread!

Download

 

Spoiler

 

 

blackheart612

Full thread!

 

Spoiler

 

 

Enceos' Procedural Textures

Full Thread

Spoiler

 

Integration with Real Fuels and Modular Fuel Tanks

Integration with Real Fuels and Modular Fuels Tanks is complete. Ensure you have Real Fuels version 6.1 or newer, and Modular Fuel Tanks 5.0.1 or newer. There's one or two bugs still to get through, stay tuned for updates on those two.

For MFT, the existing tank types are turned into the corresponding MFT type.

For RealFuels, there's an SRB which can be switched between low altitude and high altitude versions, plus a tank which can be switched between the various RF tank types.

Integration with other mods

Procedural Parts has built-in support for MFT, RealFuels, Kethane, Extraplanetary Launchpads, and TAC.

There's also a procedural heat-shield for Deadly Reentry.

All part's drag models will automatically update if using Ferram Aerospace Research.

The tank types will automatically appear if the mods are installed. They should be 'fair' compared to their unmodded versions.

How to cheat in career mode have lower tech restrictions

The current tech restrictions have been tailored to closely mimic stock, with a bit of room to alter the original specs. Note that this will not be changed with the out of the box config.

If you'd like more generous limits, you can create a MM patch (ie: cut and paste this into a file called mycheats.cfg in your GameData dir) and tweak to your liking:

@PART[proceduralTank*]
{
@MODULE[ProceduralPart]
{
@TECHLIMIT,*
{
// Increase the max length for all tech levels by 3*
@lengthMax *= 3
// Corresponding volume increase
@volumeMax *= 3

// Increase the max diameter by double
@diameterMax *= 2
// Since volume goes up on diameter^2, need to use increase^2
@volumeMax *= 4
}
}
}

This will affect all procedural tanks and the SRB. The name of the Real Fuels SRB is "proceduralSRBRealFuels" so you'll need to make another similar patch for that one if you want to mess with that too.

If you'd like to be able to use all the shapes from the early game then use the following MM patch:

 

 

@PART
[*]
{
@MODULE[ProceduralShape*]
{
-techRequired = dummy
}
}

This will affect all parts.

 

Future plans

• Cuboid parts, with customizable side lengths
• Extruded parts, such as hexagonal and octagonal pieces
• Add optional mounting pod for surface mounts to pod tank.
• Procedural command module, possibly with rescaling / tweakable IVA.

 

Features That Are Not Planned

• Shapes with 'holes' in them and concave shapes - including toroids.
• Procedural wings, procedural fairings - there's good mods for these already.
• Procedural engines - May happen one day, but not a priority.

Acknowledgements

ProceduralParts has an extended family tree

• StretchyTanks is the original module by the great Ancient Gammoner.
• StretchySRBs was created and updated by NathanKell and e-dog.
• ProceduralParts is a near complete re-write by Swamp Ig.
• ProceduralParts was then maintained by NathanKell
• ProceduralParts is now owned and maintained by RadarManFromTheMoon

Also featuring

• Extensive work on config and mod integration by OtherBarry
• Models by Tiberion
• Further textures by Chestburster and Dante80.
• Config code by jsimmonds

Licence

Remains as CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported.

[Hattivat]

^_____^

[ten characters]

[Czerky]

Thanks for the update!

Just a quick question - I'm playing with Real Fuels and I noticed that the procedural tank associated with that mod doesn't actually cost anything. Is this a bug or WAD?

Edited January 12, 2015 by Czerky

[OtherBarry]

Thanks for the update!

Just a quick question - I'm playing with Real Fuels and I noticed that the procedural tank associated with that mod doesn't actually cost anything. Is this a bug or WAD?

When you say it doesn't cost anything, do you mean it doesn't cost anything in the part list, or that it doesn't cost anything when you launch a rocket with procedural parts?

[Czerky]

When you say it doesn't cost anything, do you mean it doesn't cost anything in the part list, or that it doesn't cost anything when you launch a rocket with procedural parts?

When attached to a vessel, the tank itself doesn't add anything to the VAB cost tally. I just found it strange as other procedural parts have a cost that's added after placement (and adjusted when resizing). With the Real Fuels tank, it is always zero.

[OtherBarry]

When attached to a vessel, the tank itself doesn't add anything to the VAB cost tally. I just found it strange as other procedural parts have a cost that's added after placement (and adjusted when resizing). With the Real Fuels tank, it is always zero.

Ok, so tank costs are handled by Real Fuels itself, so if you don't have a correct cost when you launch the vessel, you should talk to the folks on the RF thread.

[colmo]

In view of Better Buoyancy, I'm trying to think how Procedural Parts can be used to make boat hull shapes.

Perhaps an additional slider which allows a radial segment of a shape would do it? I'm not sure how feasible that is?

[mecki]

• Fixed the "wandering SRB bell" bug
  

Not for me, as it seems…

Though I can't exclude a bug in Real Solar System as of now.

[Azimech]

Probably the most important parts mod of the KSP universe. If it wasn't for this one, I would've stopped playing KSP more than a year ago. Can be used for anything, even art.

[Fizban]

How do this parts compare to KW/Stock as far as cost/unit of fuel is concerned?(In a previous version i had tried they were quite expensive)

I am thinking of deleting all fuel tanks from my save,would you say i could replace them efficiently with this mod?

[Mystique]

Just took quick look in config for EL tanks, they have density of 0.17 now instead of previous 0.325. But, as I remember, EL's own tanks have "density" of dry tank like 0.07, which is still quite significant difference. Is it working as intended?

https://github.com/Swamp-Ig/ProceduralParts/blob/master/ChangeLog.txt - is it correct changelog, that is also included in download? Because I saw this one in old topic:

• Resource amounts are now persistent after loading a craft in editor
  
• Fixed the "wandering SRB bell" bug
  
• Working tech limits in science sandbox mode
  
• Cost and mass adjustments (Extraplanetary and TAC life support tanks)
  
• Version file now uses the correct version format
  

Edited January 13, 2015 by Mystique

[RadarManFromTheMoon]

In view of Better Buoyancy, I'm trying to think how Procedural Parts can be used to make boat hull shapes.

Perhaps an additional slider which allows a radial segment of a shape would do it? I'm not sure how feasible that is?

I'm not sure what you mean. Couldn't you use normal radial attachment?

Not for me, as it seems…

Though I can't exclude a bug in Real Solar System as of now.

Strange... I will do some testing on RSS. Either I have overlooked something, or we are talking about different things. Logs and Screenshots always help

Is the bug appearing on a newly launched, or on a previously existing vessel?

How do this parts compare to KW/Stock as far as cost/unit of fuel is concerned?(In a previous version i had tried they were quite expensive)

I am thinking of deleting all fuel tanks from my save,would you say i could replace them efficiently with this mod?

We try to match stock balancing as good as we can. But it's not 100% possible since PP calculates those parameters in a linear way. Stock parts, however, don't scale linearly. So yes you could delete all stock tanks and use PP instead of them. But it won't be exactly like in stock.

Just took quick look in config for EL tanks, they have density of 0.17 now instead of previous 0.325. But, as I remember, EL's own tanks have "density" of dry tank like 0.07, which is still quite significant difference. Is it working as intended?

https://github.com/Swamp-Ig/ProceduralParts/blob/master/ChangeLog.txt - is it correct changelog, that is also included in download? Because I saw this one in old topic:

• Resource amounts are now persistent after loading a craft in editor
  
• Fixed the "wandering SRB bell" bug
  
• Working tech limits in science sandbox mode
  
• Cost and mass adjustments (Extraplanetary and TAC life support tanks)
  
• Version file now uses the correct version format
  

Yes it should work as intended. (of course) - Not sure how you got to 0.17, but not only the dry density, also the capacity changed. Might that explain the discrepancy?

What I posted on the prevoius thread are the changes since 0.9.21. The changelog in the download contains the changes since 0.9 and is a bit compressed. Maybe a bit too compressed so sorry for the confusion.

A note on the TACLS tanks: These are balanced based on the 1.25 m TACLS tanks and should obey the new ratios. Bigger and smaller tanks might deviate a little bit from their originals because TACLS tanks don't scale in a linear way.

Edited January 13, 2015 by RadarManFromTheMoon

[Mystique]

Yes it should work as intended. (of course) - Not sure how you got to 0.17, but not only the dry density, also the capacity changed. Might that explain the discrepancy?

To be short: EL tank that fits 11900 of RocketParts has dry mass of 4.2 tons. If I make PP tank that can take same quantity of RocketParts, it'll have dry mass of ~17.72 tons (it can actually take 11890 RocketParts, doesn't matter much).

Weight of 11890 RocketParts in PP tank = 29.714 tons; of 11900 in EL tank - 29750 tons, which is quite the same.

That's why I asked - it it intended that PP tank for RocketParts has dry mass/density like 4.2 times bigger than EL one?

Update: seems like EL tanks actually have more efficient dry weight for bigger tanks. If I divide wet weight of EL tanks by number of parts, I'll get:

huge tank - 2.8529

large - 3.2049

normal - 5.1289

PP tank - 3.99

So huge tank is like 1.8 time more efficient than normal one. I always compared PP tank to huge one, that's why I though that dry density was way too high.

So if compared to normal (and tiny) EL tanks, PP is more weight efficient, but when compared to their large and huge tanks - EL is way ahead.

That kinda solved the riddle =\

[RadarManFromTheMoon]

To be short: EL tank that fits 11900 of RocketParts has dry mass of 4.2 tons. If I make PP tank that can take same quantity of RocketParts, it'll have dry mass of ~17.72 tons (it can actually take 11890 RocketParts, doesn't matter much).

Weight of 11890 RocketParts in PP tank = 29.714 tons; of 11900 in EL tank - 29750 tons, which is quite the same.

That's why I asked - it it intended that PP tank for RocketParts has dry mass/density like 4.2 times bigger than EL one?

Update: seems like EL tanks actually have more efficient dry weight for bigger tanks. If I divide wet weight of EL tanks by number of parts, I'll get:

huge tank - 2.8529

large - 3.2049

normal - 5.1289

PP tank - 3.99

So huge tank is like 1.8 time more efficient than normal one. I always compared PP tank to huge one, that's why I though that dry density was way too high.

So if compared to normal (and tiny) EL tanks, PP is more weight efficient, but when compared to their large and huge tanks - EL is way ahead.

That kinda solved the riddle =\

I think the solution to the riddle is that you compare the hex cans with the PP parts. The PP parts are balanced against the cylindric tanks. (no hexagonal shapes in PP)

screenshot1

screenshot2

If EL is inconsistent in itself, there is nothing I can do about it.

[Mystique]

I think the solution to the riddle is that you compare the hex cans with the PP parts. The PP parts are balanced against the cylindric tanks. (no hexagonal shapes in PP)

screenshot1

screenshot2

If EL is inconsistent in itself, there is nothing I can do about it.

Yep, didn't notice that before. So hex tanks will be hex tanks and procedural will be procedural. Totally not a problem compared to 3.3 GB RAM usage =(((

[parrots]

Any plans to include support for Karbonite/Regolith?

[OtherBarry]

Any plans to include support for Karbonite/Regolith?

Depends. If there's much support for it, I'm happy to look into it. Ot better yet, if you, or someone else wants to write their own config with it, I'd be happy to put it in. Feel free to PM me with any questions if you or others choose to.

[colmo]

I'm not sure what you mean. Couldn't you use normal radial attachment?

I meant that instead of producing a cone or cylinder, you can create, say, a 90 degree wedge of one (I.e. a quarter piece).

[RadarManFromTheMoon]

I meant that instead of producing a cone or cylinder, you can create, say, a 90 degree wedge of one (I.e. a quarter piece).

Oh! I see. I don't think thats going to happen. Adding a new shape is not a trivial thing to do. Shouldn't be a problem to use the existing shapes to build pontoons by setting an appropriate density though.

[Yemo]

I m the author of the SETI-BalanceMod (link in signature).

Part of my mods features is the concentration on procedural parts where appropriate.

Eg procedural fuel tanks replace all standard fuel tanks, from mixed tanks, to liquid only, xenon and rcs.

I also replaced all the TAC ls containers (which were a lot) and similar stuff.

Because some of the procedural parts textures were not quite fitting for stock parts, I modded some as stop-gap measures.

My biggest problem was a texture more fitting to stock fuselage parts, if someone has a better one, please tell me!

I also included a very simple texture for batteries and modded procedural parts textures for TAC life support and a "blacker" heat shield.

When using procedural parts, there sometimes appears a small gap between the parts, which is very bright.

In order to at least reduce the brightness of the gap, I modded the "ends" texture to have large black areas instead of the bright white ones.

All changes are of course released under the original procedural parts license. Please feel free to include them in the original, if useful.

Among many other things, I plan to offer Karbonite support for the SETI-BalanceMod, though for the next month or so my time becomes more and more limited and I try to make the mod as complete as possible until then.

So it would be fantastic if someone is willing to add a Karbonite tank to Procedural Parts.

[OtherBarry]

So it would be fantastic if someone is willing to add a Karbonite tank to Procedural Parts.

Well that's 2 for Karbonite tanks. 1 more and i'll get on it. Unless someone else is willing to?

As for your texture questions, have a look at the threads in the OP. They may well have more textures than those shown in the pictures. If they don't have what your looking for, try asking them for it. I don't think core PP intends on getting many more textures.

Edited January 17, 2015 by OtherBarry

[rynak]

It's been a while since i last gave this a try - does it support mk2 part shapes at this point? I didn't find an unambigious answer to that in the description or changelog.

[Yemo]

Well that's 2 for Karbonite tanks. 1 more and i'll get on it. Unless someone else is willing to?

As for your texture questions, have a look at the threads in the OP. They may well have more textures than those shown in the pictures. If they don't have what your looking for, try asking them for it. I don't think core PP intends on getting many more textures.

Well, you could count in many of the people playing the SETI mod ;-).

[terminalmonky]

Well that's 2 for Karbonite tanks. 1 more and i'll get on it. Unless someone else is willing to?

As for your texture questions, have a look at the threads in the OP. They may well have more textures than those shown in the pictures. If they don't have what your looking for, try asking them for it. I don't think core PP intends on getting many more textures.

Do you need an official 3rd? Please! =)

[OtherBarry]

It is done then. Karbonite support will be in the next release. I'll post a config here when I finish too, so you don't have to wait.