Page 7 of 29

Intergalactic trip in preparation

Posted: 26 Jul 2021 14:26
by A-L-E-X
versus here in Warp mode, is it -4.34 m/sec (and why is there a negative sign here, am I going in reverse lol?)  How do I increase the speed and make sure it's going forwards?  By the way I see both here and in Hor mode I need to use the numpad as the cursor keys snap me back to where I was.
scr02181.jpg

Intergalactic trip in preparation

Posted: 26 Jul 2021 14:42
by A-L-E-X
I'm just playing around with this no idea how but I got the speed to increase using the numpad.  But now the numpad also snaps to the middle whenever I try to change my direction.  But even so now both in Warp and Hor mode I just hold the numpad or cursor keys down until I'm going in the direction I want and in both modes the speed was around 200 m/sec and I had to enable leveling mode (hold altitude) to keep from flying off the surface and then I cut main engines down to 4 to slow down the speed to 91.67 m/sec.

Why is it that sometimes hold altitude cuts my engines down to 0 and prevents me from moving?  It isn't doing that right now.
scr02187.jpg

Intergalactic trip in preparation

Posted: 26 Jul 2021 14:45
by A-L-E-X
I like Hor mode better near the surface because it shows the grid lines.  Glad that levelling altitude isn't cutting off my main engines, but I'd like to figure out why that happens when it does and how to prevent that.  The speed in both modes is slowly increasing and I've been clicking on the planet but it still wont show me how far above the surface I am, but based on the pressure info to the right I'm going up in spite of levelling being activated.  I'll cut the engines down to 2 to see if that helps.  edit- it's slowing me down but I'm still in ascent, how do I level off?  Edit- cutting engines to 1 did it and then shutting off levelling and then turning it back on.  Now my speed is around 50.85 m/sec.
scr02195.jpg

Intergalactic trip in preparation

Posted: 26 Jul 2021 16:00
by Mr. Abner
Flying ships in atmosphere can be tricky. As I mentioned earlier, the flight model is very rudimentary at this time.  Flying in denser atmospheres causes more problems, and you are on a planet with over six times the Earth's atmospheric density. The faster you fly, the more lift you generate. You will go up. The denser the atmosphere, the more pronounced the effect. Also, when flying fast in atmosphere it may be difficult to turn. Aircraft are more or less designed like a dart, to keep the nose pointing into the wind. So... slow down.

And using the Warp HUD mode in-atmosphere is not very useful.

The waterline mark (looks like a W) shows where the nose of your ship is pointing.

The velocity tadpole (velocity vector — looks like a scope sight here) shows your actual direction of travel and velocity.

Upper left:
Distance: distance from the centre of the planet
Altitude: altitude above sea level (air density will change with altitude, not necessarily with elevation)
Elevation: altitude above terrain (don't crash!)
VS: vertical speed — negative number, you are descending (velocity vector will be below the horizon), positive number you are climbing (velocity vector will be above the horizon).

Upper right shows speeds. I believe True Air Speed, possibly surface speed(?) (TSS), and your current Mach speed, relative to the speed of sound, of course. And the speed of sound will vary with atmospheric density.

I'm not sure the angle of attack and slip angle numbers are at all accurate at this point. They sure don't look right.

Did you check out the Flight School section on this website? I linked to it earlier.

Intergalactic trip in preparation

Posted: 26 Jul 2021 16:05
by longname
I see the grid lines for direction in Hor mode but not in Warp mode.  I'm using Warp mode because it seems to be faster, but I'm not sure what the exact speed is because there are various indicators for it.
Why are you using Warp mode in the atmosphere? You should only use Warp mode for interstellar travel as it changes how the autopilot functions.

Intergalactic trip in preparation

Posted: 26 Jul 2021 16:12
by A-L-E-X
I see the grid lines for direction in Hor mode but not in Warp mode.  I'm using Warp mode because it seems to be faster, but I'm not sure what the exact speed is because there are various indicators for it.
Why are you using Warp mode in the atmosphere? You should only use Warp mode for interstellar travel as it changes how the autopilot functions.
Well I was trying to get the ship to go faster than the paltry 1.85 m/sec I was getting.  I tried using the mouse scroll wheel to increase the speed but it had no effect.  I also tried to use the arrow keys to increase speed but it just snaps back to what it was before.  I managed to increase it (too much actually, the ship started to rise so I had to keep decreasing engines until I had them down at 1, like in the last screenshot.)  So now my speeds are stable around 50 m/sec and I'm no longer ascending (now slightly descending based on my air density and pressure readings- still can't get the planet HUD to show up.  Is there a shortcut for doing that?)  I dont know what I did to make the speed actually increase.....I think I had to turn off altitude levelling and use the numpad to rise higher up from the ground and then turn altitude levelling back on?  But either way, the mouse scroll wheel doesn't increase speed for me lol.  Also, it doesn't do it right now, but sometimes the altitude levelling button when turned on turns off my main engines, why is that?

Intergalactic trip in preparation

Posted: 26 Jul 2021 16:14
by Mr. Abner
Hey, what kind of troubles have you gotten into with ships in 0.990? I haven't noticed any big change since 0.998 (although there are obvious issues), what did you see break?
Oh! Another thing that bugs me with the ships — and it is also an issue in .9.8.0, but not fixed in .9.9.0 — when you use the scaling function for a module in the .sss file, it also has the effect of making a shadow-casting object (a planet) smaller. Or perhaps the effect of making the larger module seem to be further away from the shadow-casting object. For example, if I make a module on a ship in orbit about a planet twice as big by scaling it, it will stay lit up by sunshine long after the rest of the ship is in shadow.

Oh yes.... the ships-in-atmosphere effect! Will that ever happen? Might not be so bad with ships, as you are pretty much always very near your ship (unless making screen shots), but with surface bases, it is very much immersion-breaking when a base you are flying down to is off in the distance, the terrain and mountains surrounding the base are in the atmospheric haze, and then the base is pasted clear as day right on top of it. :(

Intergalactic trip in preparation

Posted: 26 Jul 2021 16:16
by Mr. Abner
Well I was trying to get the ship to go faster than the paltry 1.85 m/sec I was getting.  I tried using the mouse scroll wheel to increase the speed but it had no effect.
Looks like you were on the ground. Use the hover jets first to get off the ground.

Planet HUD? Hor (horizon) mode is what you use in-atmosphere.

Intergalactic trip in preparation

Posted: 26 Jul 2021 16:18
by A-L-E-X
Flying ships in atmosphere can be tricky. As I mentioned earlier, the flight model is very rudimentary at this time.  Flying in denser atmospheres causes more problems, and you are on a planet with over six times the Earth's atmospheric density. The faster you fly, the more lift you generate. You will go up. The denser the atmosphere, the more pronounced the effect. Also, when flying fast in atmosphere it may be difficult to turn. Aircraft are more or less designed like a dart, to keep the nose pointing into the wind. So... slow down.

And using the Warp HUD mode in-atmosphere is not very useful.

The waterline mark (looks like a W) shows where the nose of your ship is pointing.

The velocity tadpole (velocity vector — looks like a scope sight here) shows your actual direction of travel and velocity.

Upper left:
Distance: distance from the centre of the planet
Altitude: altitude above sea level (air density will change with altitude, not necessarily with elevation)
Elevation: altitude above terrain (don't crash!)
VS: vertical speed — negative number, you are descending (velocity vector will be below the horizon), positive number you are climbing (velocity vector will be above the horizon).

Upper right shows speeds. I believe True Air Speed, possibly surface speed(?) (TSS), and your current Mach speed, relative to the speed of sound, of course. And the speed of sound will vary with atmospheric density.

I'm not sure the angle of attack and slip angle numbers are at all accurate at this point. They sure don't look right.

Did you check out the Flight School section on this website? I linked to it earlier.
Yes, I'm slowly getting the hang of it.  Sometimes it does one thing and other times it does something different and I'm trying to figure out why.  I'm going to just use Hor mode near the ground from now on and figure out some other way to increase speed than using Warp mode, since that clearly isn't doing much to that effect.  Mouse scroll wheel and arrow keys dont increase speed for me either.  I think the method I outlined in my previous post worked (turning off altitude levelling and then nosing up, reaching a higher altitude and then turning altitude levelling back on- although even altitude levelling sometimes cuts off my engines and I don't know why.)  I'm trying to keep the waterline mark and the target hairs lined up - tadpole lol? (easier to do with altitude levelled of course.)
Yes, I'm looking at the flight school and the manual too.  Haven't even tried landing or docking yet.  Taking off happens on its own lol.  My planet HUD which shows my elevation has disappeared from the left side of the screen and I can't get it to come back- is there a shortcut to turn that on?  Thanks!

Intergalactic trip in preparation

Posted: 26 Jul 2021 16:22
by A-L-E-X
Well I was trying to get the ship to go faster than the paltry 1.85 m/sec I was getting.  I tried using the mouse scroll wheel to increase the speed but it had no effect.
Looks like you were on the ground. Use the hover jets first to get off the ground.

Planet HUD? Hor (horizon) mode is what you use in-atmosphere.
Yes, I accidentally figured that out when I turned off altitude levelling and took off a little above the ground.

Planet HUD- you know the thing on the left side that shows the name of the planet and the temperature and how high you're up above the ground?  I can't find it now, there should be a key combo to turn it on I think?

Intergalactic trip in preparation

Posted: 26 Jul 2021 16:25
by A-L-E-X
Hey, what kind of troubles have you gotten into with ships in 0.990? I haven't noticed any big change since 0.998 (although there are obvious issues), what did you see break?
Oh! Another thing that bugs me with the ships — and it is also an issue in .9.8.0, but not fixed in .9.9.0 — when you use the scaling function for a module in the .sss file, it also has the effect of making a shadow-casting object (a planet) smaller. Or perhaps the effect of making the larger module seem to be further away from the shadow-casting object. For example, if I make a module on a ship in orbit about a planet twice as big by scaling it, it will stay lit up by sunshine long after the rest of the ship is in shadow.

Oh yes.... the ships-in-atmosphere effect! Will that ever happen? Might not be so bad with ships, as you are pretty much always very near your ship (unless making screen shots), but with surface bases, it is very much immersion-breaking when a base you are flying down to is off in the distance, the terrain and mountains surrounding the base are in the atmospheric haze, and then the base is pasted clear as day right on top of it. :(
So we can fly ships upside down and close to the ground Top Gun style?  I did that earlier and posted a screenshot of it (I also made a video about that.)
I want to see if there is a way to fly a ship fast and tilt it on its side while flying through a very narrow passage in between mountains.  Have you ever tried that before?
The rotating bases you mentioned in the other thread, are they actual Workshop add-ons or do you have to construct them yourself using the tools you mentioned?

Intergalactic trip in preparation

Posted: 26 Jul 2021 16:44
by Mr. Abner
Pick a planet with less dense atmosphere to practice.

The scroll wheel will increase your main engines, but if you are on the ground, you will likely not go anywhere (unless you are pointing up, at a reasonably steep angle). And keeping auto-level on will prevent you from making pitch adjustments. The auto-pilot functions can be nice, but they may prevent you from doing certain things you want to do. You will have to turn them off when necessary.

If the auto-pilot shuts off your engine, you are going too fast and generating lift. The hold-altitude auto-pilot only uses hover jets and cannot push you downwards.
My planet HUD which shows my elevation has disappeared from the left side of the screen and I can't get it to come back- is there a shortcut to turn that on?
Do you mean the selected object info panel in the very top left corner of the screen? Because the Hor HUD has the altitude and speed info just below the heading tape. If it's the object info, click on the "Center ship" button (the "X") just under the Hor mode button.

If that doesn't do it, you'll have to bring up the ship menu, select the ship you're using, and click on the "Take control" button.

Intergalactic trip in preparation

Posted: 26 Jul 2021 16:57
by Mr. Abner
The rotating bases you mentioned in the other thread, are they actual Workshop add-ons or do you have to construct them yourself using the tools you mentioned?
Here.
And as far as I know, there are no ships with rotating parts while other parts remain stationary. I do not believe that is possible in S.E. yet.

Intergalactic trip in preparation

Posted: 27 Jul 2021 16:55
by A-L-E-X
Pick a planet with less dense atmosphere to practice.

The scroll wheel will increase your main engines, but if you are on the ground, you will likely not go anywhere (unless you are pointing up, at a reasonably steep angle). And keeping auto-level on will prevent you from making pitch adjustments. The auto-pilot functions can be nice, but they may prevent you from doing certain things you want to do. You will have to turn them off when necessary.

If the auto-pilot shuts off your engine, you are going too fast and generating lift. The hold-altitude auto-pilot only uses hover jets and cannot push you downwards.
My planet HUD which shows my elevation has disappeared from the left side of the screen and I can't get it to come back- is there a shortcut to turn that on?
Do you mean the selected object info panel in the very top left corner of the screen? Because the Hor HUD has the altitude and speed info just below the heading tape. If it's the object info, click on the "Center ship" button (the "X") just under the Hor mode button.

If that doesn't do it, you'll have to bring up the ship menu, select the ship you're using, and click on the "Take control" button.
Everything is working well now :)  I even got to plant some trees on a planet that already has grass on it :P  I am having trouble keeping my altitude though even with Hold altitude implemented.  It turns out that when I set Main engines to 2 it slowly but surely flies me off the planet (how? I'm going at 95 m/sec and the planet's gravity is 0.91 that of Earth), but if I set Main engines to 1 it slowly but slowly crashes me to the grass (when the speed is 68 m/sec).  But Hold altitude is on the entire time so why is this happening?  I've having to alternate between setting Main engines to 1 or 2 to keep from either crashing or flying off into space.
Oh and here are the trees I've planted on the planet :)  The leaves even wave in the breeze!
scr02284.jpg

Intergalactic trip in preparation

Posted: 27 Jul 2021 16:58
by A-L-E-X
And here is a view of the vegetation I planted from inside the cockpit.
scr02292.jpg