Kerbinside Support

[Decus91]

Is there a Real Antennas Config file for KerbinSide anywhere? If not is there any plan to make one?

[DRVeyl]

There isn't, yet. PR's accepted!

The example config files are in: https://github.com/DRVeyl/RealAntennas/blob/master/GameData/RealAntennas/PlanetPacks You would do something that looks very similar to the Stock config file, except with :NEEDS[KerbinSide].

Just create these nodes:

City2
{
	name = DSNTrackingStation
	objectName = Kerbal Space Center
	isKSC = True
	lat = 0.09694
	lon = -74
	alt = 93.7
	enabled = True
}

Change the lat/lon/alt to where the ground stations should be for Kerbinside's bases. The patches -could- be hosted here, or they could be defined in Kerbinside.

If someone wants to be more clever with MM and detect the Kerbinside stations, that'd be reasonable also.

[Decus91]

Thanks DRVeyl, I've had a look at the config files for KerbinSide and Real Antennas but the locations are specified in different ways, the KerbinSide bases are specified as locations away from the Group Centre locations, i.e. they are relative locations rather than absolute ones. I need these to remain relative so that everything works with Sigma Dimensions and Rescale (I've subbed out the RSS solar system with a real scale/ x10.625 stock one). Is there a way for me to specify positions relative to KerbinSide Group Centres (I think they're PQS centres? Tbh I don't really know what these are) in the config? If so I'll give it a go and supply a config (though that said I'm not actually sure how to submit a Pull Request but I'll figure it out).

[DRVeyl]

KK_GroupCenter
{
	Group = Carrier2
	CelestialBody = Kerbin
	RadialPosition = -91919.6563,281697.219,521725.438
	Orientation = 0,1,0
	RadiusOffset = 0
	RotationAngle = 0
	ModelScale = 1
}

... Oi. I don't imagine that technique plays well with rescaling. Not unless the distances are so short that they would be unaffected by the planet's curvature. But I'm going to make the blind guess that any working rescaler either figures out the lat/lon/alt of the site and then uses that setting to place it in a rescaled instance, or it just multiplies the position offset by the rescaling factor and calls it good -- which it will sort of be if the distances are small enough.

Unfortunately the only mechanic to specify the location of a RA ground station is via lat/lon/alt. They are not anchored to anything else.

My suggestion is to visit each KerbinSide location that you want to put a ground station, gather the lat/lon/alt [MechJeb at least will give this, probably some other tools], and configure a RA ground station there. You can check that this remains correct [I believe it should... ish] by checking your lat/lon/alt in the stock scale version and also the rescaled one.

[Decus91]

Using the stock values wouldn't really work as I believe Sigma Dimensions modified the group centre locations based on the Rescale parameters one has put in, it would need to as it's not just a proportional scaling up of everything but there are also separate parameters for flattening the terrain (so that one doesn't end up with 30km tall mountains for instance), etc. This is why I had hoped to use the relative locations so that Sigma Dimensions could modify them for all Rescale settings rather than just the specific ones I've chosen, otherwise my work would need to be redone by each person depending on the settings they've chosen. Is it not feasible to re-code RA so that it can take relative positions? If not then no worries - I don't want to impose - I'll see if I can find the absolute positions of the sites and if so will probably give this a go at some point, but it will only work for people with these specific Rescale settings: x10.625 rescale, x0.4 terrain height modifier. To anyone else reading that is interested in the result this gives: these settings still give oversized mountains but much less extreme (the tallest reach 16km or so I believe), without washing out the geological features too severely either - it's a compromise between these two efffects).

[DRVeyl]

I don't really see myself coding a separate method to locate ground stations from configs. But I still believe things will remain reasonably correct across different scaling and terrain height, because specifying lat/lon/alt is independent of scale. Note altitude is a delta from the body radius, not the actual radial position -- and so it is correct at any scale. Give it a shot: effectively, translate the Kerbinside locations into that lat/lon/alt, and see if you are actually missing by any significant margin.

[DRVeyl]

Any news?

[Decus91]

Sorry no not yet, I've been working on patching my Kerbal Konstructs install to work with Custom Barn Kit (details here: GER-Space/Kerbal-Konstructs#159). Since then I've been play testing my install to check compatibility between my other installed mods - which is quite extensive as you can see (). The result of all this is that I have put Real Antennas to one side for now, I do still intend on getting around to it at some point but I'm quite busy with other mods and with real life at the moment (I'm preparing to emigrate to Canada!) so I can't really give any kind of ETA. Feel free to take this down if you wish, or leave it up, in either case I'll give an update once I've got around to creating a Real Antennas config, though now that I've got what appears to be a stable and functional KSP install (it's been a while) I might just continue without Real Antennas for now and come back to this at some point in the future. My apologies if I raised your hopes that I might do this immediately or otherwise soon when I may not (though I did originally intend to).

[DRVeyl]

No problem, and no rush. I will leave the issue open.

[DRVeyl]

A year later, probably a reasonable point to ping this again. :)

[darco89]

Hello guys. I've been playing with real antennas for a while, although I don't fully understand everything, but I noticed this mod totally disables the game ground stations (others than KSC, Pluto and Charon antennas (dafault DSN)).

There's an Advanced Setting "Enable extra groundstations" that completely becomes obsolete as soon as I install real Antennas. Am I doing something wrong? is this supposed to be like this?

PS: I always go for satelite relays so I only noticed this after installing Kerbal Konstructs with Kerbin Side, which brought me to this thread!

Thanks for your time in advance!

[Decus91]

Sorry guys, I was going to do this, but didn't. Life has pulled me away from KSP modding and I doubt I will ever get back to it. The above config I was going to make is abandoned.

DRVeyl, shall I keep this open for anyone else that wants to refer to it and who might want to make the config, or shall I close it instead?

[darco89]

Hello guys, Thanks Decus for your status on this. I'm feeling like helping out, I'm a Java developer, but I never modded before. Is that config missing logic and programming or just time put into it? Maybe I could help... Let me know if that's the case. I hope life is treating you well 🙂 Cheers!

…

________________________________ De: Decus91 ***@***.***> Enviado: 13 de novembro de 2023 16:01 Para: DRVeyl/RealAntennas ***@***.***> Cc: darco89 ***@***.***>; Comment ***@***.***> Assunto: Re: [DRVeyl/RealAntennas] Kerbinside Support (#26) Sorry guys, I was going to do this, but didn't. Life has pulled me away from KSP modding and I doubt I will ever get back to it. The above config I was going to make is abandoned. DRVeyl, shall I keep this open for anyone else that wants to refer to it and who might want to make the config, or shall I close it instead? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<#26 (comment)>, or unsubscribe<https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AIIDB62EV5L3RJJAU5A6NX3YEI74FAVCNFSM4MXWAFBKU5DIOJSWCZC7NNSXTN2JONZXKZKDN5WW2ZLOOQ5TCOBQHA2DKMRTGU4A>. You are receiving this because you commented.

[Decus91]

darco, your help would be very welcome. Honestly after 3 years I struggle to remember what was needed to be done here specifically, for a config for a given planet pack I think it was pretty simple, but what I wanted was to create a version that could be used for a whole bunch of different sigma dimensions rescale configurations and would update automatically. I don't recall coming up with a way to do that.

[DRVeyl]

Might as well leave it open. I also have not been actively working on RA for the past while.

For Darco's original question: it is working-as-intended that that difficulty setting no longer does anything. If you would like to add in those extra ground-stations, it's a relatively simple MM patch, and you just need to go look up the locations [or make your own] and assign new sites the same way as the existing ones are done.

After refreshing my memory of the issue [by reading the above]... if someone wants to try to further enable KK support, I think we left off with just trying to pull some new stations and seeing where they end up with lat/lon/alt and various rescale settings. Basically, start from my message on 5 May 2020.