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[1.9-1.10] Throttle Controlled Avionics

allista

By allista
in KSP1 Mod Releases

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  • 2 weeks later...
Zuranamee

Zuranamee

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So I've got TCA mostly working as intended (I think), it can make my craft hover fine, navigate to targets, follow cruise control, and balance my engines automatically. The only problem I have is using the altitude control or terrain following causes it to scream 'Obstacle on Course' and continually gain altitude until I turn the system off. I can't seem to find any way to avoid this other than to sit completely still with the VTOL, any attempt at moving causes it to detect a collision is imminent and try to avoid it.

ldKxa3j.png

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Tacombel

Tacombel

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Lately I am having a lot of crashes landing. Is there a recommended minimum TWR that TCA needs?

 

After more tests, it seems the problem occurs when I start from a low orbit (15km for the Mun)  and more pronounced when moving away from the equator. The resulting landing orbit is very flat and TCA seems to wait until being nearly in the vertical of the landing target, and then it is too low and late to brake.

Edited by Tacombel
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  • 3 weeks later...
ss8913

ss8913

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On 10/22/2019 at 3:41 PM, OddPieOut said:

Does this work in 1.8?

I'm guessing not, since it depends on configurable containers (core), which last time I checked, is not updated and will keep 1.8 from loading.  So we shall wait for Allista to update his suite of stuff (TCA also requires ATUtils, also not yet updated).

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alexandruast

alexandruast

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On 5/14/2019 at 10:07 PM, allista said:

I want to stress this here, in TCA's thread, because most requests for this feature came from TCA users.

Not surprisingly, considering how heavily I use color-coded UI elements in TCA.

So, next time you want to change the way TCA buttons and labels look...

Just right-click on TCA's toolbar button and enjoy! :cool:

TZF2VKJ.png

 

Right clicking on the TCA icon in the toolbar does nothing for me.

There must be something I'm missing.

I feel really dumb :)

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allista

allista

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6 minutes ago, alexandruast said:

Right clicking on the TCA icon in the toolbar does nothing for me.

There must be something I'm missing.

I feel really dumb :)

All of my mods (TCA including) are yet to be release for KSP-1.8+, so if you're using the latest KSP, nothing would work.

In any case you'll have to wait for the release for 1.8, because I won't be able to support multiple KSP versions.

The good thing is: I'm almost done with the updates :science:

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Acvila

Acvila

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3 hours ago, allista said:

All of my mods (TCA including) are yet to be release for KSP-1.8+, so if you're using the latest KSP, nothing would work.

In any case you'll have to wait for the release for 1.8, because I won't be able to support multiple KSP versions.

The good thing is: I'm almost done with the updates :science:

it's so funny to land my plane like ships on they're tail and so unrealistic... waiting for this mod

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allista

allista

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Version 3.5.8 for Kerbal Space Program 1.8.1

Released on 2019-11-14

  • Supports KSP-1.8
  • Improved engine balancing and attitude control with high-vectoring engines.
  • In Rendezvous autopilot: if target is already in plane with the vessel on the ground, launch immediately.
  • Added RP-1 patch for tech tree parts by @Gordon Dry
  • TCA AppLauncher button is now visible in mapview.
  • Bug fixes: #68 #69 #71 #78

 Download 

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allista

allista

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Version 3.5.9 for Kerbal Space Program 1.8.1

Released on 2019-11-17

  • Fixed ToOrbit AP (autopilot)
  • Increased maximum auto time warp factor to 100k.
  • Fixed several bugs in trajectory optimizer that where caused by the same not obvious incompatibility with KSP-1.8.
  • Do not allow to use orbital landing AP from unstable (discontinuous) orbits. Because in general you can't land at a ground target with only one fly-by.
  • Fixed game freeze when trying to find NearestApproach from discontinuous orbit.
  • Added "Max Days to Start" option for in-orbit rendezvous to shorten transfer search on huge orbits (like kerbolcentric). To use: enable the "Max Days to Start" switch and set the desired time span (in days) within which you wish to start the first maneuver.

 Download 

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allista

allista

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On 6/10/2019 at 10:40 PM, MaxPeck said:

About the only thing I would change is the problem annunciator - it sometimes flips through error modes faster than I can interpret them.  Maybe a small caution/warning UI would help.  Not alarms that have to be acknowledged, but something that can show multiple problems at once - (low control authority and terrain warnings in particular).  Maybe if you could create a small, unobtrusive indicator light on the UI that shows when a low control authority condition is happening, or a terrain light, or both?  Don't know how hard that would be, just a thought.  Also, from time to time my aircraft, as I'm trying to maneuver near a ground target or manually land, will go into a panic and start a climb up to a couple of hundred meters.  It would be nice to know why.  I usually just end up turning off CPS when that happens, but it would be nice to know why the system is panicking instead of suddenly finding myself going ballistic.

So, finally trying to make this one.

So far I've made a separate HUD panel with 12 indicators that show all existing TCA statuses. I even added blinking for some and even the alarm sound for important ones.

There are several problems, though:

  1. Most of the time most of the indicators stay off, because they indicate problems, not the nominal state.
  2. In orbit only 4 of the 12 are relevant at all. But hiding them would live the panel mostly empty, and removing them would cause the remaining to  jump from place to place depending on the in-orbit/on-planet situation.
  3. Some of the indicators clearly duplicate corresponding switches, which looks redundant. But I'm not sure if it's a good idea to mix switches with indicators on the same panel.

Would be grateful for any thoughts on the matter.

Here's a short demo video:

 

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MaxPeck

MaxPeck

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1 hour ago, allista said:

So, finally trying to make this one.

So far I've made a separate HUD panel with 12 indicators that show all existing TCA statuses. I even added blinking for some and even the alarm sound for important ones.

There are several problems, though:

  1. Most of the time most of the indicators stay off, because they indicate problems, not the nominal state.
  2. In orbit only 4 of the 12 are relevant at all. But hiding them would live the panel mostly empty, and removing them would cause the remaining to  jump from place to place depending on the in-orbit/on-planet situation.
  3. Some of the indicators clearly duplicate corresponding switches, which looks redundant. But I'm not sure if it's a good idea to mix switches with indicators on the same panel.

Would be grateful for any thoughts on the matter.

Here's a short demo video:

 

I like that A LOT. I have 2 immediate suggestions just from watching the demo...

1. I like the audible alarms a lot. It’s a nice touch and very useful.  If you haven’t already, maybe consider a click-to-silence option so that if we’re in a deliberate unusual attitude or doing something that upsets the system we’re not barraged with whoops and clangs.  Don’t know if it is or could be a factor, but just from a usability standpoint that jumped out at me. 
 

2 as for your concern about inapplicable alarm modes— maybe you could “barber pole” or gray them out?   It would be a nice touch for them to roll to black-and-yellow barber poles (or black and gray if you like the Apollo style) when they aren’t active. 

As for your concerns about duplications, that’s actually a good thing.  In aircraft cockpits, there a fair amount of this, for example my landing gear switch can tell me whether my gear is set to up or down, but I also have 3 annunciator lights that indicate their status as well.  Ditto for flaps, the flap handle shows the setting, but there’s also a corresponding indicator to show feedback from the system.  I like the idea that I can set the condition and then get some feedback from the system beyond my own input.  It’s good the way you’ve done it.   

So yeah, from a UX/UI perspective, I really like where you’re going with this, and it looks a lot more informative and useful than the old scheme.  Nice work!

Edited by MaxPeck
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allista

allista

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1 minute ago, MaxPeck said:

1. I like the audible alarms a lot. It’s a nice touch and very useful.  If you haven’t already, maybe consider a click-to-silence option so that if we’re in a deliberate unusual attitude or doing something that upsets the system we’re not barraged with whoops and clangs.  Don’t know if it is or could be a factor, but just from a usability standpoint that jumped out at me. 

Does the switch with the "speaker" icon to the right counts? It toggles the alarm sounds.

17 minutes ago, MaxPeck said:

2 as for your concern about inapplicable alarm modes— maybe you could “barber pole” or gray them out?   It would be a nice touch for them to roll to black-and-yellow barber poles (or black and gray if you like the Apollo style) when they aren’t active.

I already make invisible the indicators that belong to TCA modules that are not installed in the current vessel.

I can make the irrelevant ones almost transparent (it'll cost some per-frame checks, though).

But regardless, I'm afraid that the whole panel takes too much real screen estate just to display a dozen indicators that seldom if ever light up.

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allista

allista

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5 hours ago, MaxPeck said:

Can you make the panel resizable or toggleable?  

Resizable - yes, but that'll cost some work, and will make all my UI panels resizable. Seeing as this is not the common case (none of the UI windows I see in the stock and mods are resizable), I'm not sure this is a good idea. But I can make it a little smaller; say, 32px per indicator instead of 40px. Then again, that may upset those with huge monitors...

Togglable - easy; but as it's not the on-planet-only status panel, I also want to display status text (from the bottom of the main window) as part of that panel below indicators. Which would make hiding it undesirable.

Edited by allista
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allista

allista

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@MaxPeck maybe rearrange the indicators into rows of uneven length, so that one row may be hidden completely when in orbit?

Like this:

https://mega.nz/#!20ozSATJ!Vo0MmKxFRpE9RX0nrB7AD_DXbY5i1JDs335a8OcKdsI

I'm not sure if it looks terrible or not... But if I will be adding more indicators in the future (which is quite possible), arranging then nearly would become more and more of a problem.

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