[0.90] Lazor System v35 (Dec 17)

[sal_vager]

You are more than welcome to try it, I think I made it .5 meters wide

It has simple node_colliders and is as low poly as I could make it without it starting to look weird, maybe it\'ll be useful as a multi lazor system on a single mount like you say.

[Romfarer]

Here is a small update to the project. I added angle and rotation readouts to the interface and some buttons to control what lazors will rotate when movement keys are activated. The readout represents the angle and rotation of the 'leader' which is the lazor attached on top of the module. It is also possible to set the direction by changing the numbers in the display.

If you look closely you will see the interface IAimable has been added. The plan is to use this as one of the interfaces you can implement to connect modules to the system. However the system is not actually set to update these yet as i\'m not 100% sure about the structure.

[sal_vager]

Coming along nicely Romfarar, having those angle and rotation boxes make aiming the beam much faster

Have you decided what effect you will work on first?

Also, it should be simple to alter that turret I made for you, perhaps if you delete all but one lens, you could have your code rotate the ball with the lens attached so it is always has the beam coming out of it.

Or if you\'d like, sketch something out and I\'ll see if I can model it, I need the practice anyway.

[Romfarer]

I promised Tosh i would have some interfacing mechanic finished by friday but im starting to realize i might have to delay that. To get that finished i have to create a new aimable device and connect it to the system. That\'s not a problem in it self, the thing is, im starting to realize that we have to put aimables in different categories. In lack of better terms:

• 
  [li]Target Tracking aimables. Such as the lazors i have in the system. Constantly tracking a direction. [/li]
  [li]Target-Lock aimables. For example Tosh\'s sunbeam. The aimable gets a target and fires.[/li]
  [li]Devices that do both of the above?[/li]
  [li]Devices that don\'t strictly need to aim but require a target? I.e. heat seeking missiles.[/li]
  

So basically its necessary to complete this list and thoroughly classify the device types. Additionaly the interaction with the system has to be done in at least two different ways: passive and active.

• 
  [li]Passive: The system provides constantly updated lists of available targets etc. Attached modules can plug-in to the system and get this info without the system needing to know they are there.[/li]
  [li]Active: The module registers for control with the system and the system takes over its movement.[/li]
  

And to get targeting for the system, the system needs a targeting system. And i dont do magic so the targets has to be acquired somehow. By lazor power! 8) And to achieve that, a whole lot of lazor systems has to be implemented. This is also why i have held back on the modelling/texturing for the parts, i\'m just not 100% sure if the whole 'lazor attaches to color crystal' approach will work.

[sal_vager]

Goodluck Romfarar, it sounds complicated, maybe Tosh can help you as he has already found a way to aim his laser, I think he uses physics_raytrace, as the beam only needs to know if it\'s hit something and what.

His other targeting method seems to just step through the craft entry in the persistence file (or in memory)

[Romfarer]

Goodluck Romfarar, it sounds complicated, maybe Tosh can help you as he has already found a way to aim his laser, I think he uses physics_raytrace, as the beam only needs to know if it\'s hit something and what.

His other targeting method seems to just step through the craft entry in the persistence file (or in memory)

I think you missunderstand me, getting a target is no problem. I already have raytrace\'s in the system to make the beams reflect and stuff. The point is that just tabbing and getting a target don\'t make sense. You need some kind of radar for the system to know the target is actually there, then you need some kind of device to pinpoint the exact direction of the target. So in terms of LazorSystem, i need a scanning device and a tracking device, both spawned by putting different colored lazors on your ship.

[sal_vager]

Okay, I see you want a realistic system to scan for a target, you could try a radar system but it\'d not be impressive, so I suggest a system where the Lazor itself can sweep an area of space chosen by the user, and record each object it hits to an array, checking for duplicate parts as it does so.

You could have the beam sweep left to right once then raise 1 degree, then sweep again, to cover an area in degrees set in the control panel, once it has finished the area sweep a target box in the control panel could show the first 5 results, with up/down arrows to scroll through the list of targets, clicking a target would select it.

Edit: Of course, LIDAR, I completely forgot it but it\'s essentially the same thing, sweeping a laser instead of a radio beam, thanks Lazurkri.

[Lazurkri]

Okay, I see you want a realistic system to scan for a target, you could try a radar system but it\'d not be impressive, so I suggest a system where the Lazor itself can sweep an area of space chosen by the user, and record each object it hits to an array, checking for duplicate parts as it does so.

You could have the beam sweep left to right once then raise 1 degree, then sweep again, to cover an area in degrees set in the control panel, once it has finished the area sweep a target box in the control panel could show the first 5 results, with up/down arrows to scroll through the list of targets, clicking a target would select it.

Look up LIDAR, I\'d assumed that Rom would have something like it in the works.

[Romfarer]

Thanks for the tips. For now i have found a much more elegant method to acquire targets 8)

Seen the big antenna at the launch area? Turns out i can just connect to that with a blue lazor and i get this cool interface up.... =P

[sal_vager]

Scanning the scanner with a scanning beam to scan for contacts? Very nice, but how will I do this from orbit or the Mun?

[Romfarer]

So basically the idea is, just connect to the huge antenna with a communication/blue lazor. Then you will see what the antenna is tracking. This sounds very realistic to me. ...However there is a catch. To connect to the antenna you need line of sight. Meaning if you are behind the moon or on the dark side of kerbin you wont get connection. Hopefully one day in the future you will be able to send up a satellite with blue beams you can connect to and relay this signal. And the antenna wont see anything so it will never render scanners obsolete.

[Romfarer]

I found a bug in the system and pulled alpha2-1. :-[

It is purely a visual bug, NOT harmful to your computer.

[sal_vager]

Ahh I better delete it then, you do have to be careful, and the programming guidelines are not released yet, these plugins have the potential to do a lot of harm.

[Romfarer]

No no no its not Harmful. Oh dear i guess i worded that wrong.

[sal_vager]

Relax it\'s fine, I doubt you\'d have made a dangerous plugin, we simply don\'t have proper guidelines yet on whats allowed and what should be avoided, as the plugin system is very powerful and could access external programs.

The Lazor is still just a brilliant multicolour spotlight for me at this point, I\'m looking forwards to seeing what it becomes, but you must be prepared to do some recoding once the guidelines are released just in case there are any issues you didn\'t account for.

[Romfarer]

I\'m constantly recoding and improving the stability. And yes there is a lot of harmful stuff that can be put in the plugins, but i would never do that sort of thing.

Soon the first functional system other than blinky lights and reflecting lazors will be ready.

[Romfarer]

Sneak peek at Alpha 2-2. Its not possible to connect to the Tracking Station and get a list of targets you can...target. I\'ve also added some functionality that will make it possible to run several lazor systems at the same time.

[sal_vager]

Looks pretty good, can you have the plugun read the persistence file to find targets? Scanning the radar dish is only needed for show, otherwise you could try the Lidar system mentioned before.

[Romfarer]

The tracking station actually doesn\'t have any information stored in it at all, so i could just as well connect to the water tower =P But to the player it will look like it has info. I plan to add a connection meter to it so if you have too few lazors connected on your ship so they wont hit correctly when you spin the ship around, or you are on the dark side of kerbin, you will loose the connection. And this is where the LIDAR system can take over.

[Lazurkri]

The tracking station actually doesn\'t have any information stored in it at all, so i could just as well connect to the water tower =P But to the player it will look like it has info. I plan to add a connection meter to it so if you have too few lazors connected on your ship so they wont hit correctly when you spin the ship around, or you are on the dark side of kerbin, you will loose the connection. And this is where the LIDAR system can take over.

wait, I was assuming that the Laser Connection was something along the lines of the Satellite relay Plugin we already have (BTW, lasers would make far more sense for the whole LOS thing for that plugin, as radio waves are usually not as uni-directional as that Plugin would suggest....) were as long as we had a good LOS to a relay that had a good LOS to the KSP ( or a relay to a relay blah blah blah) we could control the spacecraft.

Am I getting my assumption wrong? because now looking it over, I\'m not sure what to think, mostly because LIDAR is used to scan objects more accurately than Radar; its not a communication methodology. I was thinking of the LIDAR like the Mapping plugin is, only with a visible 'scanning' component and more 'detailed' to boot; you\'d slap on a laser module, go into a low orbit of the Mun (say 10KM or so) and start scanning.

[sal_vager]

Lidar is not a communication technology you are right, but laser communication is a very real thing, what Romfarar is doing is making an extremely versatile laser based device that can perform many functions, targeting, comms, weapon, anything you need.

[Romfarer]

I just uploaded Alpha 2-2. The main thing in this update is the communication system which is spawned by putting blue lazors on your craft. The lazor on the top of the module has also been changed and is now part of a grouping system. This is the only lazor that can change color outside the VAB. Soon it will be possible to have several tasks running by changing the color of this lazor.

There is a funny bug in the system that makes you able to remote control the lazor system of your craft. Can you find it? If you find other bugs or have comments, you are welcome to post i there.

enjoy...

[Romfarer]

I was out testing my new distance measuring lazor and i came across this! Apparently i am hitting something called 'Mun' and it is 1900 meter away. How can this be? If you look closely you can even see the lazor reflecting.

It\'s worth mentioning that this particular system sends out a lazor that goes 2500 meter. It is based on raycasting. So it cant possibly hit or detect things further away than 2500 meter.

[sal_vager]

Much of the game is smoke and mirrors, that is not the Mun we land on but an impostor to make rendering the game simpler, also when we are far enough above Kerbin, what we are actually seeing is a scaled down version.

Maybe you can check for 'Mun' and work out the 'correct' distance, and display that instead?

[Tosh]

I was out testing my new distance measuring lazor and i came across this! Apparently i am hitting something called 'Mun' and it is 1900 meter away. How can this be? If you look closely you can even see the lazor reflecting.

Get the gameObject associated with this \'Mun\' and output GameObject.layer for it. Probably it can be filtered out using layerMask parameter of Physics.Raycast...

AFAIK terrain and vessel parts are in layers 0, 15 and 19 (layer 16 is kerbonauts\' faces, layer 12 is for UI icons, and I\'m not sure about the rest).