Kerbal Space Program

[Data4]

So I had a pristine .90 install I had backed up to separate directory and decided to go full blown Realism Overhaul with it.

Holy fuckballs...

The wiki says to forget everything you learned playing stock KSP, and that's a huge understatement. Never since I first installed the game have I been so happy to get something into LK (actually E right now)O.

The cool thing is, if you can find real world specs on a rocket, you can pretty much stick build it in RO. I decided to go with the Delta 4 Heavy I was playing with in regular KSP, and rebuild it in RO using a reference, and it gets to a LEO of 400 km just fine using the best approximation I could find of a typical profile for this launch system.

Spoiler

The payload in this instance is pretty tiny. Just a communications satellite typical of what you'd use for a relay constellation for Remote Tech. I plan on installing that once I have a handle on Rocket Building 101 in RO. Need to try a few things, like sending probes out to Mars and beyond before I go whole hog with RT.

And then there's the attempt at building and successfully launching a shuttle to orbit. Ha!

 

[Drax]

I tried to play with RO with the Real Fuels mod and, boy I was out of my league....

 

[Data4]

I tried to play with RO with the Real Fuels mod and, boy I was out of my league....

Having a reference does help. For instance, this is the main one I used for the D4. The main thing I had to figure out is how to tweak the utilization slider in the tank right click menu to get the propellant weights right. For instance, a tank may be 5.1 by 4 meters in dimension, but when you account for supporting hardware like pumps, etc., it could be that only 80% of that volume is actual tank capacity. The next thing that messed with me is selecting the right fuels. It's actually pretty easy for the engines. Stick one on an empty tank, and its right click menu will give you options of what you can use at the click of a button. Same goes with RCS.

Launching is a different matter. It's either trial and error, or you try to find typical mission profiles for whatever you're launching. You can still brute force your way to space by slapping engines under a ton of fuel, but I'm getting more satisfaction in trying to keep it close to real world and actually pulling it off.

 

[Data4]

Just played around with 64 bit on Linux. Daaaamn! Running RO with full res textures, and a silly amount of parts mods. MET clock is green, with the one of exception of when I rotate the view over land, and even then it's only yellow when the view is moving. There are normal mapped rivets around the collar of the tiny engine on the satellite I just launched that I've never seen before.

Spoiler

Just to compare, for Win32, I have to run 1/4 res textures, lights at 2, no scattering, no anti-aliasing, and still run the risk of crashing when RAM use creeps over 3 Gig. Looking at the system monitor while orbiting, I'm sitting at 8.6 Gigs in use and smooth as silk.

If you've got hard drive space and a couple hours to get everything sorted, try it out. Mint is a nice distro for someone stuck on Windows conventions, and setting up for dual boot is a piece of cake.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Linux FTW. Though I really hate how nvidia isn't updating their official OpenSuse repos on time.

 

[Data4]

I got it to stumble a little by loading up all the Astronomer's visual packs. It cranked up the ram usage to 10+ Gigs and dropped the frames, but damned if it ain't pretty. Now I just need to find the right balance.

Spoiler

From geostationary orbit

 

[titus]

Just played around with 64 bit on Linux. Daaaamn! Running RO with full res textures, and a silly amount of parts mods. MET clock is green, with the one of exception of when I rotate the view over land, and even then it's only yellow when the view is moving. There are normal mapped rivets around the collar of the tiny engine on the satellite I just launched that I've never seen before.

Just to compare, for Win32, I have to run 1/4 res textures, lights at 2, no scattering, no anti-aliasing, and still run the risk of crashing when RAM use creeps over 3 Gig. Looking at the system monitor while orbiting, I'm sitting at 8.6 Gigs in use and smooth as silk.

If you've got hard drive space and a couple hours to get everything sorted, try it out. Mint is a nice distro for someone stuck on Windows conventions, and setting up for dual boot is a piece of cake.

I thought the 64 bit version is not recommended by most mods. Or that doesn't apply to the linux version?

 

[Data4]

Just played around with 64 bit on Linux. Daaaamn! Running RO with full res textures, and a silly amount of parts mods. MET clock is green, with the one of exception of when I rotate the view over land, and even then it's only yellow when the view is moving. There are normal mapped rivets around the collar of the tiny engine on the satellite I just launched that I've never seen before.

Just to compare, for Win32, I have to run 1/4 res textures, lights at 2, no scattering, no anti-aliasing, and still run the risk of crashing when RAM use creeps over 3 Gig. Looking at the system monitor while orbiting, I'm sitting at 8.6 Gigs in use and smooth as silk.

If you've got hard drive space and a couple hours to get everything sorted, try it out. Mint is a nice distro for someone stuck on Windows conventions, and setting up for dual boot is a piece of cake.

I thought the 64 bit version is not recommended by most mods. Or that doesn't apply to the linux version?

I think there might be a handful of mods that don't play well with Linux, but I've yet to run into them. The 64 bit warning is for Windows.

 

[Ulminati]

Kerbal Attachment System had some srs issues with 64bit Linux in .24. Ships blowing up and parts flying off.

 

[Drax]

I sure hope that with Unity 5 they can make a more stable x64 build, my "standard" install is already pushing it, crashing every hour or so...
Thankfully some of the mods I'm testing are pretty lightweight (Modular Rocket Whatever and the awesome Tantares mods)

 

[potatojohn]

So I tried it again after a long time, and I have to ask, why do my ships keep tumbling on ascent now?

Like, at 10km or so, they just flip and tumble completely uncontrollably. Doesn't matter if my engines have vectoring or if I add winglets

 

[Raapys]

Yah I had the same thing. Eventually figured out that speed was the problem. Lower your ascent speed a lot(until reaching 30k or so) and you'll get up there. It's pretty much a must now to restrain your speed to terminal velocity. I think 200m/s or so is the trick, slowly increasing as you ascend.

 

[Ulminati]

Welcome to the new aerodynamics engine. Try not to go supersonic in lower atmosphere or fun things may happen if you don't have large stabilising surfaces

 

[Drax]

And now you need to start the grav turn a lot earlier than before. Pretty much as soon as you pick up some speed, turn and try to get a 45° angle at about 10km, then just follow the prograde indicator.

 

[potatojohn]

Well I mucked around on kerbin until I unlocked the little SAS. Now it's mostly controllable.

 

[potatojohn]

My first rover. Fell apart when I ran out of fuel landing and crashed at 50m/s. Still works on two wheels - SAS keeps it upright and steerable, wheels provide forward movement. The deloyed solar panels survived too

 

[Drax]

 

[Ulminati]

Mechjeb is degenerate.


If you're just in it for the extra information windows, you can get the same functionality with Kerbal Engineer while spending less system resources.

 

[Data4]

Mechjeb is only degenerate for degenerates who refuse to figure out manoeuvring, rendezvousing, docking, etc. by hand first. Mechjeb is life once you grok these things and just want to get on with the business of flinging shit into spess.

 

[Burning Bridges]

I am designing a planetary mission right now. I want to do something like Voyager (outer planets mod).

My question is, which scientific instruments should I take? I have not played the game for ca 1 1/2 years, so I don't know a whole lot about surface scanners, radio antennas and so on.

So please give me some suggestions for the science loadout.

I play sandbox mode, so science/cost does not interest me.

Minimum weight is of importance, but I have a margin.

Like Voyager I want to have the option to extend the mission, and to visit as many objects as much as possible. Power will be a radiosisotope generator.

I have the basic probe ready. It is extremely simple and directionally very stable (should allow very precise burns).

Here are the specs

Basically just fuel, generator, reaction wheels and engine.

Mind that 3568 is the deltaV of the probe, which is for the planetary mission. The lower rocket stages (which give the initial interplanetary burn) are not included.

 

[Ulminati]

Burning Bridges

Consider the DMagic Orbital Science mod. It has a nice magnetometer boom, a telescope and a solar particle collector.

SCANSat is also a solid choice if you want to look for anomalies. You needn't worry about antennas beyond aesthetics. Unless you're a REAL MAN and play with Remotetech 2.0

 

[Burning Bridges]

Also, I probably need communications.
It would help me a lot if someone could give a brief outline how communication works.

 

[Ulminati]

Also, I probably need communications.
It would help me a lot if someone could give a brief outline how communication works.

Antenna + power = you can send data home. But if you're in sandbox mode, you can't gather science anyway, so that's moot.

It gets more hardcore if you install Remotetech. With Remotetech, antennas will have different ranges, and some will only work in a narrow cone. Furthermore, you need to have an uplink back to a control center (either a space station manned by kerbals or kerbal space center). Furthermore, planets can block your signal, so you will need (at least) 3 sattelites in geosynchronous orbit around berbin to bounce the signal through:

For ultimate hardcore mode, there's an option to introduce signal delay. So that instructions sent to a probe are delayed by the actual time it takes the signal to bounce between planets.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Communications seems easy, thanks.

So in sandbox mode, what do scientific instruments do?

Let's say I want to put some things like a scanner on my probe (orbiter mostly), but don't want to figure out everything by trial error. What will the instruments give me that is no possible without them?

What about the unidentified objects between Kerbin and Duna, are they asteroids?

I also thought about putting on as much as I can and see what it does, but somehow that's not the scientific way.

I hope you understand that I did so much try and error with previous versions, I just can't handle that any more.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Also what is the best (and simplest) mod to have athmospheres? I would like clouds and dense fog on Eve and planets with gas athmospheres, if possible.

EDIT: I got this to work. The HighRes was just giving me opaque textures, but the Low res version works fine!
https://github.com/rbray89/EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements/releases/tag/7-4