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Major changes:
fully replaced OLM with model by Ryan Hansen
including deluge plate, that can also be destroyed
the outer booster engines can now only be fired when the booster sits on the OLM and the Raptor QDs are connected (fully extended)
small additions to API (see full changelog below), including fix of game crashing when spawning something
added OLM and Tower vents (cosmetic)
Else there is not much to say about this update. I’m very happy and thankful that Ryan provided his model to us, where he spent so much time on. I can talk a lot about this model though, because it is so awesome!
The model
The most important part is that everything is super accurate. You don’t see this level of attention to detail and accuracy often. Also because it takes a lot of time and effort of course. Best example, is how Nick’s booster almost perfectly fits in between the clamps and Raptor QDs:
No modifications were necessary. That saved me some time. But there was still quite a bit to do on optimization of the model. I could get it down from about 3 million verts to 900k. This is to a big part from removing most of the bevel modifiers which make the edges look nicer, but add a ton of verts. You’ll usually don’t notice it from far away anyway. So that’s an easy save always.
The other big part was the deluge plate which had 1.4m verts alone. It was not easy to simplify it without breaking it. But I managed to get it down to less than 200k verts. A texture would make more sense, but might have taken much longer to do, for me at least. You can see parts of the deluge plate from the original model with highlighted verts in this one:
You can also see the details on the Raptor QDs here with all the hoses that are also animated in his model. But I decided to not do that for the game to save on some performance as you won’t really be able to see that unless you are inside the OLM anyway. Animating the two big hoses on the BQD was hard enough.
Another thing that I didn’t include are the deck stabilizer pins and the actual hold down clamps on the clamp arms. These would have probably required quite a bit of extra work to make them usable. Besides, I was also desperate to find some things to safe on verts
Performance
So that’s quite a lot of additional verts with this model and a bunch of additional textures as well. So GPU memory requirement went up again. You might notice it when you are close to the OLM and there is a booster and ship nearby as well. If you were close to the limits of your RAM before, you might get frame rate drops now. At least that’s what happened to me and you can see that in the video. Then you have to reduce graphics quality or get a new GPU.
Outlook
So there are still some things left to do on this OLM. Also the materials could need some more love. But I don’t think I will touch it for a while. Next up should be Pad B anyway. The problem with this one is, that this would also need at least the new booster version to be able to use it with its new QDs.
Even though, the bigger issue is that development will slow down now, likely substantially, due to personal circumstances. More about that later.
Full changelog
added option to remove OLM shielding (cosmetic)
default files in local user data are now only copied the first time starting a game after updating it
fixed pusher toggles bugging out pusher movement
added OLM deluge plate
added OLM and Tower vents (cosmetic for now)
added option to switch between clean and dirty OLM textures
adjusted tank farm vents a little
adjusted position of stacking indicator
adjusted alignment of Ship static fire adapter on OLM
fixed script runs commands twice and script button not stopping it
fixed when client spawns ship stand on OLM it can’t be despawned anymore
fixed some issues with engine firing logic
added more of Ryan’s Pad A OLM
the OLM clamps now have functioning RQD’s (need to be connected to fire the outer booster engines!)
added more API data that is sent by the rocket: oxidizerGasMass, fuelGasMass, TurbopumpTemperature, Throttle
added API commands: PadAOLMClampsExtend, PadAOLMRQDExtend, PadASpawnStack
renamed API example file to API_Example.py
rocket explosions got a small touch-up (booster also spawns grid fins and some engines now)
made it so that decals don’t appear on player character anymore
fixed drag indicator in wrong position when switching it on before target indicator
fixed game crashing when spawning a rocket while API client is connected and data is sent to it