Gameplay Advanced Flight Computer

[Maxi]

AdvancedFlightComputer is my attempt at improving orbital maneuver planning in KSA.

The first (currently implemented) feature enables the Transfer Planner to target interstellar objects on hyperbolic orbits (Oumuamua, 2I/Borisov, 3I/ATLAS, etc.).

More features currently planned: BetterBurnTime, Oberth Maneuver.

License: MIT
Source: https://github.com/Maximilian-Nesslauer/KSA-AdvancedFlightComputer
Downloads: https://github.com/Maximilian-Nesslauer/KSA-AdvancedFlightComputer/releases
Requires: StarMap, KittenExtensions

 

[Maxi]

I've been experimenting with auto-staging in a pre-release https://github.com/Maximilian-Nesslauer/KSA-AdvancedFlightComputer/releases/tag/v0.2.0-pre.1

The mod now:

• Adds an AUTOSTAGE toggle button to the BurnControl gauge
• Automatically stages when engines run out of propellant during an auto-burn (instead of aborting the autoburn)
• Handles cascading stages (decoupler + engine in separate stages)

It only works with auto-burns for now, manual throttle support planned.

I did it to solve that when a multi-stage burn runs out of fuel mid-burn, the auto-burn aborts and you have to manually stage and restart. That gap without thrust throws off your planned trajectory since the burn timing was calculated assuming continuous thrust / an impulse.
(Demo video in https://discord.com/channels/1260011486735241329/1260011487905189897/1474767224156852379)

 

[Maxi]

I've been working on per-stage info display in a pre-release of my mod (https://github.com/Maximilian-Nesslauer/KSA-AdvancedFlightComputer/releases/tag/v0.2.0-pre.2)

The mod now also:
- Shows a fuel progress bar on each stage in the Staging window
- Displays real-time Delta V, TWR, Burn Time, and ISP when you expand a stage
- Shows total Delta V and Burn Time at the bottom

I did it because the game currently has no per-stage delta v breakdown overview. You can only see the total delta v for all engines or click around part by part to take a look at the fuel levels using the part selector. This overview makes it easier to plan multi-stage burns or tell at a glance how much fuel each stage has left.

 

[Maxi]

I updated the mod to https://github.com/Maximilian-Nesslauer/KSA-AdvancedFlightComputer/releases/tag/v0.2.0 and it now also:
- Shows how much Delta V each stage contributes to a planned burn ("needs X m/s") with a green/yellow/red gradient
- Warns when a planned burn exceeds available Delta V
- Corrects the BURN TIME and START BURN IN gauges to show the actual multi-stage burn time instead of the single-stage estimate

A video showcasing this is available here: https://discord.com/channels/1260011486735241329/1260011487905189897/1474861353754693683

 

[Maxi]

For context on why the burn time correction matters:
the game currently calculates burn duration assuming only your currently active engines will provide all the Delta V.
For a single-stage vehicle that's correct, but for multi-stage vehicles it's wrong. It tries to solve the entire burn with just the first stage's engines, even if that stage doesn't have nearly enough fuel.
This means the displayed burn time can be way off, and since the game computes ignition timing as "burn midpoint minus half the burn duration", the auto-burn also starts at the wrong time.

 

[Maxi]

This evening I played around with adding atmospheric thrust calculation info to my mod (release: https://github.com/Maximilian-Nesslauer/KSA-AdvancedFlightComputer/releases/tag/v0.2.3), because I saw gravhoek's message about the game's TWR indicator (at least in this version) only using vacuum thrust values a few days ago (https://discord.com/channels/1260011486735241329/1265141847676682240/1474907048637632543).
The biggest impact is that especially vacuum-optimized engines show overly optimistic numbers for TWR, ISP and Delta-V when you're flying through atmosphere.

So I added atmospheric awareness to the Stage Info panel. As you can see in the video (https://discord.com/channels/1260011486735241329/1260011487905189897/1476718838556000409), there's now a display mode selector at the top of the staging window:

- Auto - shows the sea level performance while in any atmosphere and automatically switches to vacuum values once you leave the atmosphere. (end of the video)
- ASL - always shows sea-level performance of whatever body you're orbiting, even from orbit. It could useful for planning descent/landing burns
- VAC + ASL - shows both vacuum and atmospheric values side by side, with the one matching your current situation highlighted and the other one dimmed
- Planning - lets you select any celestial body (or just "vacuum") from a dropdown to see what your stage performance would look like there, including TWR adjusted for that body's surface gravity