Problem Vinka Orbiter 2016 Surface contact

[statickid]

I am aware that Vinka SC3/4 has limited compatibility with Orbiter 2016...

I have some vessels that CTD immediately and some that seem to work "fine."

I don't really care about the crashing ones, but the ones that are working at 95% only have one problem: the vessels have either limited or non-existent collision detection with the ground surface. I have a Delta-glider that only contacts on the back two landing gear and not the nose gear (?) very odd. Really the nose gear falling through the surface and sucking the vessel underground is the only problem with the craft. The other ship I have is a Jedi Starfighter that flies great, all sounds animations, etc is perfect--EXCEPT the ground collision detection. So on the Starfighter no portion of the vessel makes a solid connection with the ground, whether the landing gear is up or down. However, it does become uncontrollable when it sinks under the surface.... so there is some recognition that it is underground.

So really what I was wondering was if anyone has found a work around for this. It seems like there must be some kind of solution since the DG seems to have two gears that work correctly and one that does not seems indicate that maybe there is a solution? I'm fiddling with it myself, I'll update if I figure something out, but I thought I'd just ask if anyone else has already done so.

---------- Post added at 03:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:19 AM ----------

UPDATE:

Well I'm out of ideas! I guess this is just one aspect of incompatibility that is here to stay.

Things I tried:

flat planet- no change
reformatting the .ini file so that it was identical to the example in the documentation - no change
adding "landing gear" parameters as described in documentation - no change
updating the reference to spacecraft4 (I realized it was still running on 3) - no change

ah well still fun to fly the starfighter even if it can't land :facepalm:

 

[Face]

I am aware that Vinka SC3/4 has limited compatibility with Orbiter 2016...

To me it does not have "limited compatibility", it is not fully compatible and therefore incompatible. The fact that it does not crash at first sight is not making it "compatible, but then some". I bet you will find more and more of this little annoying things with it.

If anything, you can give the compatible stamp to certain addons using it if they do not show problems in 2016, but certainly not the middle-ware itself. And come to think with your report here, not even that will be possible for most of them, if they all have the gear problem. Well, satellites maybe.

The topic at hand is a rather hard one, BTW. I've tried my hands on the landing gear problem for an old addon as well, and it is not trivial to find the right spring load factors.

My advice would be to avoid SC3/4 on 2016 and wait for SC5, which is in the making since over a year. Should be any moment now. :lol:

 

[boogabooga]

Have you tried turning off the terrain elevation?

 

[statickid]

@boogabooga
Hmm no I only tried landing the vessel on a body with no terrain data... :hmm:. I suppose that is definitely not the same.

@Face
Ok I see what you mean.
Well I had no idea SC5 was in the works! That's fantastic news!

Well the Starfighter in question is one of my favorite add-ons and offers a unique sci-fi flight experience that I really enjoy from time to time. (Not even considering the fact that it's a friggin' Jedi Starfighter)

It isn't the stock version though, it's a vessel that I retuned the flight characteristics for and I can pilot it with maneuverability similar to any arcade Starwars shooter. I enjoy this because I've gotten a sense for what actual "unobtainium drive" forces would be involved in say, an orbital combat dog fight. Anyways, not to get off topic, mainly I'm just happy that it loads and flies. Not being able to Land is a bummer but it's good enough until SC5 comes out!! Woohooooo!!

 

[4throck]

I've done a LOT of experiments with spacecraft.dll vessels in 2016.
And yes, some work and some don't.

Try the scenario Vinka's spacecraft » Vertical Take Off - Horizontal Landing, it will work.
If you land with realistic low speed and orientation, no major problems. You won't come to a full stop though.

Meaning that a vinka's spacecraft works for landings on 2016 if:
- mass is similar to the DeltaGlider
- landing and lift-off points are defined (can be similar, but both sets need to be defined)
- points define a valid vector (on some 2010 add-ons they don't' seem to...)
- landing gear is defined and extended
- vessel is using SC4, not some older version.


I took the Jedi Starfighter and just put in some the GL-VH numbers:

starf.ini (relevant parts)

[CONFIG]
MESHNAME="starf"
SIZE=9.
EMPTY_MASS=12000
FUEL_MASS=10000
MAIN_THRUST=5.0e6
HOVER_THRUST=500000
ATTITUDE_THRUST=100e3
ISP=100e3
PMI=(15.5,22.1,7.7)
CW_Z_POS=0.09
CW_Z_NEG=0.09
CW_X=2
CW_Y=1.4
CROSS_SECTION=(53.0,186.9,25.9)
COG=2.47
PITCH_MOMENT_SCALE=0.00005
BANK_MOMENT_SCALE=0.00005
ROT_DRAG=(0.10,0.13,0.04)
WING_ASPECT=0.7
WING_EFFECTIVENESS=2.5

LAUNCH_PT1=(0,-2.57,9)
LAUNCH_PT2=(-4,-2.57,-5)
LAUNCH_PT3=(4,-2.57,-5)

LAND_PT1=(0,-2.57,9)
LAND_PT2=(-4,-2.57,-5)
LAND_PT3=(4,-2.57,-5)

VISIBLE=0
CAMERA=(0,0.35,-2.5)

REENTRY_PSTREAM=LLRVexe

[LANDING_GEAR]
WHEEL_FRICTION=10
BELLY_FRICTION=1000
BRAKE_FORCE=2000
SEQ=0

STARFIGHTER to KSC.scn (relevant part)

starf:Spacecraft\Spacecraft

And bingo, it takes-off and lands!
Sure, it's a bit above the surface and all that, but good for me!

 

[statickid]

Cool!! When I get back to my machine I'll try putting that in my edited vessel file and see if it works!! Thanks!!!

 

[4throck]

You may need to scale the engine strength to get the same sci-fi performance as before, because now your ship has a different mass.

But start with that Vertical Take Off - Horizontal Landing scenario it's a good starting point.