Gliding heat shields

Altaïr

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#1
Here is the Gliding heat shields mod made compatible with the official mod loader.


How to install it?

Please go to releases, and download the latest version of the GlidingHeatShields.dll file, then copy it into Spaceflight Simulator Game/Mods. The mod will then be available ingame.

To easily access the Mods folder, launch the game, go into the mod loader menu and click "Open Mods folder".


What is that mod?

That mod gives some limited lift capabilities to heat shields, allowing capsules (or any other stuff!) to glide during reentry:
GlidingDemo.gif


This mod is intended to mimic real capsules, that have such capacity (though it's a bit more complicated), and to give the player some control over his reentry trajectory. You can simply change your trajectory by steering the capsule left and right.

Apart from dodging debris or other capsules, you can use this to glide over the upper atmosphere to limit the heat load of your heat shield, or on the contrary, dive into the lower atmosphere to land faster. Generally speaking, this is useful to adjust your flying altitude if you realize that you didn't put your capsule on a very good trajectory, or if you want to aim for a particular landing zone. This capacity has also an interesting side effect, it makes your capsule more stable during reentry.

However keep in mind that it's still a heat shield, not a wing! Your ships will be closer to a flying brick than a plane, this is not the purpose of this mod.


How do I make my own mod from it?

The source code is available here. You are free to modify the mod as you wish, but if you redistribute it, please credit me for the part you borrowed.


Additional note

Since people keep asking for that no matter how I say it, the intention is NOT and has NEVER been to make wings in SFS. If this is what you need, this is not the mod you are looking for (you may want to check this one instead).
Any message requesting for wings will be ignored.
 
Last edited:

Zeeray13

Merlin Master
#2
Here is the Gliding heat shields mod made compatible with the official mod loader.


How to install it?

Please go to releases, and download the latest version of the GlidingHeatShields.dll file, then copy it in your MODS folder. The mod will then be available ingame.


What is that mod?

That mod gives some limited lift capabilities to heat shields, allowing capsules (or any other stuff!) to glide during reentry:
View attachment 86739

This mod is intended to mimic real capsules, that have such capacity (though it's a bit more complicated), and to give the player some control over his reentry trajectory. You can simply change your trajectory by steering the capsule left and right.

Apart from dodging debris or other capsules, you can use this to glide over the upper atmosphere to limit the heat load of your heat shield, or on the contrary, dive into the lower atmosphere to land faster. Generally speaking, this is useful to adjust your flying altitude if you realize that you didn't put your capsule on a very good trajectory, or if you want to aim for a particular landing zone. This capacity has also an interesting side effect, it makes your capsule more stable during reentry.

However keep in mind that it's still a heat shield, not a wing! Your ships will be closer to a flying brick than a plane, this is not the purpose of this mod.


How do I make my own mod from it?

The source code is available here. You are free to modify the mod as you wish, but if you redistribute it, please credit me for the part you borrowed.
so how does this work does this add lift to the heatshield part or somethin?
 

Altaïr

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so how does this work does this add lift to the heatshield part or somethin?
Yes, that's exactly that. The heat shield now generates some lift depending on how it's oriented with respect to the air flow. The lift is much weaker than what you would expect from a wing though.
 

Altaïr

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#7
so whats stopping u from making wings?
That's simply not the intention.

To be honest I thought about it obviously, but I have a bad feeling about this. I could simply increase the lift generated by heat shields and try to use them as wings, but the result would be very unstable. This is a 2D game, you could only coat your "plane" with lifting surfaces, not place them accurately with respect to the center of mass and so on. This and the total unability to act on some sorts of flaps or any other control surface, it would probably give a very bad result.

That's why I don't want to open that Pandora box, because I know that after this many players will ask me to improve the mod to correct those problems. That was my first project, it was mostly to learn modding, I don't want to go that way.

However I'm not stopping anyone to do it, I've made the code fully available.
 

Zeeray13

Merlin Master
#8
That's simply not the intention.

To be honest I thought about it obviously, but I have a bad feeling about this. I could simply increase the lift generated by heat shields and try to use them as wings, but the result would be very unstable. This is a 2D game, you could only coat your "plane" with lifting surfaces, not place them accurately with respect to the center of mass and so on. This and the total unability to act on some sorts of flaps or any other control surface, it would probably give a very bad result.

That's why I don't want to open that Pandora box, because I know that after this many players will ask me to improve the mod to correct those problems. That was my first project, it was mostly to learn modding, I don't want to go that way.

However I'm not stopping anyone to do it, I've made the code fully available.
Kk
 

Altaïr

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#9
Update

The mod has been ported to the latest mod loader version.
 

Altaïr

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#10
Update!

The mod was broken by the latest update of SFS (V1.5.9.8), causing the removal of heating effects. If you noticed that problem, that was the reason.

The mod is now fully functional again, you can update it as usual.
 
#12
That's simply not the intention.

To be honest I thought about it obviously, but I have a bad feeling about this. I could simply increase the lift generated by heat shields and try to use them as wings, but the result would be very unstable. This is a 2D game, you could only coat your "plane" with lifting surfaces, not place them accurately with respect to the center of mass and so on. This and the total unability to act on some sorts of flaps or any other control surface, it would probably give a very bad result.

That's why I don't want to open that Pandora box, because I know that after this many players will ask me to improve the mod to correct those problems. That was my first project, it was mostly to learn modding, I don't want to go that way.

However I'm not stopping anyone to do it, I've made the code fully available.
could you please for the sake of why not make a version of this mod that makes a part that acts as a wing? for all i care it could have the same model as the heat shield just as long as it generates lift would be AWESOME
 

Altaïr

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#13
could you please for the sake of why not make a version of this mod that makes a part that acts as a wing? for all i care it could have the same model as the heat shield just as long as it generates lift would be AWESOME
For the sake of "why not"? You're precisely answering the post where I explain why not :rolleyes:

Sorry but as I said I won't do it. Because this takes time, the result will be disappointing (because of 2D, no proper way to make controllable flaps and so on), and after that people will ask me to improve it, which means I will have to spend time on it again.

I'm not saying the request is illegitimate (if anybody wants to start from my mod to do this and grab all the glory, they're welcome), but if I do this, it will be to the detriment of my much more advanced navigation mod, and I'm pretty sure that nobody will replace me to maintain it since I'm the only one to do that.
 
#17
Speaking of lift, how could a similar lift be applied but for a piece similar to wings?

I've been thinking about how to make a mod to add wings so people can make realistic planes and shuttles.

For example, that planes can take off horizontally and also that a system like a shuttle or a space plane can land gliding.
 
#19
That's simply not the intention.

To be honest I thought about it obviously, but I have a bad feeling about this. I could simply increase the lift generated by heat shields and try to use them as wings, but the result would be very unstable. This is a 2D game, you could only coat your "plane" with lifting surfaces, not place them accurately with respect to the center of mass and so on. This and the total unability to act on some sorts of flaps or any other control surface, it would probably give a very bad result.

That's why I don't want to open that Pandora box, because I know that after this many players will ask me to improve the mod to correct those problems. That was my first project, it was mostly to learn modding, I don't want to go that way.

However I'm not stopping anyone to do it, I've made the code fully available.
where i download it the wing stuff?or can you give me a link to a mod that puts wings?
 

TheMacTester

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#20
extremely good for space shuttle guidance, XO21 got all the way from 20kmps to land on launch pad with this mod!