Suggested best practices for implementation of cargo bays.

[Behrooz]

As I was reading the dev notes today, one of the specific notes Harvester had is that v1.0 cargo bays will become more useful because they will now properly shield their contents from aerodynamic forces when closed.

I think this concept should be extended to include cargo tie-downs. It makes sense that part of the standard gear of a cargo bay should be equipment for securing a load under any reasonable conditions-- anything up to where the cargo bay itself is in danger of structural failure. This leads to the following conclusions:

• While a cargo bay is closed, it should no longer be necessary to simulate the individual parts that it contains.
  All of its contents can and should be treated as physics-less, and their mass distribution summed and aggregated, calculated for physics purposes as a single virtual part locked to the cargo bay part they are contained within. Fuel use or other mass redistributions for shielded parts should be calculated to affect the aggregate.

• We don't need to render or calculate collisions for parts that are contained within cargo bays.
  The potential for performance improvements is excellent, especially during launch when part counts and lag are highest, and cargo bays will nearly always be closed.

• The above improvements can also apply to mods with ejectable fairings or other parts that aero-shield.
  After all, ejectable fairings are just a special case where the cargo bay starts closed and opens irreversibly. Procedural fairings is a must-have mod, and would become even better with these features.

• Linked open-ended cargo bays should operate their doors as a single unit, and should be closed off at their ends.
  Cargo bays should be tweakable to be open-ended or not, and link or not at either end. Right now, you have to terminate a cargo bay with another similar-shaped part or the end will be open to space-- make everyone's lives easier.

• Cargo bay structural failure could become substantially more exciting.
  Under the right kinds of stress or after taking enough damage, the bay doors should fail, popping open and causing the contents to Kerbalize rapidly.

Used properly, implementation of cargo bays has the potential to reduce micromanagement worry about game-y structural problems, improve performance, and make game mechanics more intuitive. I think these features would be worth the coding time.

[tater]

^^^ Nothing to add, great post.

[Whirligig Girl]

Well what if there's a Kerbal inside the cargo-bay, or several crafts not directly connected to the bay?

[Behrooz]

Well what if there's a Kerbal inside the cargo-bay, or several crafts not directly connected to the bay?

This edge case already exists within the current system. Ideally, closing the cargo bay around something that fits entirely inside auto-docks and simulates it as part of the cargo bay until the bay is re-opened, same as attached parts inside the bay. Worst case, ignore it and accept the clipping/collision problems you'd encounter with the same scenario in the existing implementation.

[tntristan12]

I like how Harvester approached the problem in his dev blog today!