Project MoonBaseAlpha for 2016

[gattispilot]

Going to be updating Moon Base Alpha to 2016.
Most work. The big issues are UMMU doesn't work. And need to update the craft with touchdown points. And need a true flat area for the Moon Base to sit.

As far as UMMU replacement. I like UACS. BUT things that UMMU had that UACS doesn't is the control area. Where a guy could move to airlock and press a key and then something does something. For MBA. airlocks/doors was what moved. I am still trying to get some features in UACS to work. Like scroll thru airlocks and crew/stations.

Touchdown points: The vessels will need to recoded to allow the new touchdown system to work. I have got that to work

Flat area. The MBA is a vessel with a floor. So the base needs to be on a flat area. Else the terrain sticks thru base's floor.
I have a flt file: Ellipse -2523 -9.3 51.599998 500 500 0 0

but there is a slight elevation. In the image the terrain should be even around the front/aft pods

Can you have sunken places? We had a repair hangar under a crater mesh.

Another challenge is the TCAR. It was a displacement vessel. Basically the UMMU got into a car and attached to the vessel (CAR) and then you selected a place to go to and the Displacement vessel moved to there. We used this to simulated the travel tubes. I don't think it works in 2016.

 

[gamer19]

do we need any additional files now ?

 

[gattispilot]

I think just new modules. I haven't started the base. I hope to have an eagle and passenger modules converted. For the MBA need a true flat area.

 

[gattispilot]

I got the EAgle3 and the buggy and passenger converted for 2016. and UACS

But when the eagle gear is up and detach the module it is higher than the frame. But if the gear is up and you drop the module is just bounces all around. May need to adjust something

 

[gattispilot]

So I just add the mesh in Vesselbuilder. The pads have a floor just slightly above the surface. BUT because the are is not flat even with the flat file. the surface sticks thru. I can raise the TD points but then the guys may sink thru. or raise the non suited meshes slightly?

 

[gattispilot]

Looking at the MBA for 2016 is going to need more I can do. or something is just wrong.

You can see the MBA is above the surface. I have changed the height above ground in the touchdown code and doesn't seem to do anything. Being a non moving vessel I wonder if it needs all the dampness,.....

What seems to help is adjusting the alt in the scn
But then I move the base in the scn editor and then is goes way below the surface.

Here is the before
MBA2016:MBAUACS STATUS Landed Moon POS -9.3000000 51.6000000 HEADING 0.00 ALT 0.32 AROT 79.742 50.852 76.199 AFCMODE 7 NAVFREQ 0 0 XPDR 468 END and then I just changed the heading:
MBA2016:MBAUACS STATUS Landed Moon POS -9.3000000 51.6000000 HEADING 0.01 ALT -143456533693.624 AROT 78.461 50.657 75.220 AFCMODE 7 NAVFREQ 0 0 XPDR 468 END

Because the base as a floor. I needs a flatten area. not sure this is not truely flatten the area?
I have this for the flat file
Ellipse -2523 -9.3 51.599998 500 500 0 0

 

[gattispilot]

After playing with touchdown points and FLT file. I think I have a working MBA for 2016.

 

[gattispilot]

Got more modules working. Really need action area so the doors,... work

 

[gattispilot]

More areas, This is the computer section. Without the actions areas the doors will not open

 

[gattispilot]

Easy to get lost.

 

[gattispilot]

Trying to get this FLAT feature to work.
AS I see it :
Ellipse -2534 -9.3 51.599998 650 650 0 0

This should create a flat area Perfectly flat?
an Ellipse shape of 650x 650 meters
at -9.3 51.599998
-2534 should be

Height values are altitude(in meters) relative to mean surface level. For Earth for example, a value of 8 means "8 meters above mean sea level"(MSL). To get a starting value for , one can use the altitude value provided by "Surface MFD".

I removed the Flat file. and placed a DG there. I get the alt as -2.52km So shouldn't he flat be -2520 if we want a flat area at the surface?

@Face @LordCroussette

 

[LordCroussette]

Finding the right altitude can be a bit finicky. Really, you need to experiment with the values by changing them a bit until you get the level you want.
Or, alternatively, you add something to the last value to make the flat terrain blend in better with the vanilla terrain.

Also, 650x650 is rather small. Even if your base isn't bigger than this, I would still suggest you increase it to something like - say - 1000x1000 at the very least if you can.
Or, you put a second line in the same file. You can put as many lines as you want, so if there is one spot in the base where it isn't flat, then you can just copy your original like and change the coordinates to that of the spot which isn't flat.

 

[gattispilot]

Thanks. What I might do. I is grab the floor of the base as a mesh. Place it at the location. And see what it looks like. I remember when we did this in 2010 we had to adjust the mesh due to curvature of the moon. It sounds like with flattening. No adjustment will be needed, right?

 

[gattispilot]

So the floor on the circle have all the same y value.
but as you can see about 1/2 of the floor is below the surface.


BEGIN_SHIPS
SPACE1999:UACS\Astronauts\SPACE1999
STATUS Landed Moon
POS -9.3199357 51.5878504
HEADING 265.82
ALT 1.181
AROT -177.391 6.037 141.937
RCSMODE 0
AFCMODE 7
PRPLEVEL 0:1.000000 1:0.981486
NAVFREQ 0 0
NAME ROBBY
ROLE Pilot
MASS 70.000000
ALIVE 1
SUIT_ON 1
HUD_MODE 0
HEADLIGHT 0
END
alpharing:VesselBuilder1\alpharingtest
STATUS Landed Moon
POS -9.3205206 51.5887861
HEADING 66.56
ALT 0.007
AROT 14.500 9.140 38.389
AFCMODE 7
NAVFREQ 0 0
END
END_SHIPS



Ellipse -2520 -9.3 51.599998 1000 1000 0 0
Ellipse -2520 -9.3199357 51.5878504 1000 1000 0 0

 

[Face]

The flattening feature - at least the one I wrote ages ago - is dependent on the resolution of the tiles at your location. If you are in an area with only low-level (elevation) tiles, your flattening is very coarse. If you have high-level tiles there, it gets better.

 

[gattispilot]

Thanks. How to tell. Sure I can raise the touchdown points to raise the floor. But should not it be the same height./elevation

I am using VB and adding the meshes of the interior and adjusting the TD point so the floor show thru

 

[LordCroussette]

The flattening feature - at least the one I wrote ages ago - is dependent on the resolution of the tiles at your location. If you are in an area with only low-level (elevation) tiles, your flattening is very coarse. If you have high-level tiles there, it gets better.

uh, I didn't know that. good to know.

 

[gattispilot]

I use VB to set TD points. And then transferred them to the DLL version. But Here the floor is ok. The shoe is above the floor. Move to the other side of the ring and now the floor is above the shoe. It seems some areas don't have a floor. The missing floor can be fixed. But not sure about the different levels. The floor of the ring is all the same height in the mesh.

 

[Boxx]

Why not building an spherical floor (radius = Moon's radius = 1736.7km) in your mesh design tool and, on this reference floor, you would adjust the heights of the parts of the station. If the height is too high somewhere, add there some high walls around to make sure they go down to the lunar surface as seen from outside. At the end you remove your reference floor from the mesh... The station is so large that you cannot avoid adjusting heights from the center to an edge

 

[gattispilot]

Thanks. Basically we built this for 2010. The planets were flat. We raised the floor slightly above the surface. So the ALPHAring. has a floor that is at the same level on the mesh model. So the eva guy follows the terrain. Which I though was flat. But it is not. As in some areas he is just above the floor and other places he is below. So how to get perfectly flat?