Experimental Admiral Kuznetsov Accessory Pack 0.6

What is it?
It's a set of the following accessories for the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier:

• Tunable force engines that obey the "Cruise Control" UI app.
• Navigation lights
• Landing lights
• Deck lights
• Bow thrusters* for better turning
• OLS
• Paint Design slot for skins
• Automatic helm control system
• Aft cargo elevator

*Be careful with the bow thrusters. If their force setting is too high, then they could capsize the ship.

Awesome! How do I use it?

1. Download the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier.
2. Down load this accessory pack.
3. Spawn an Adm. Kuznetsov carrier.
4. In the "Additional Modification" slot, equip the "Std Light Holder". All lights are equipped by default.
5. In the "Thrusters" slot, equip the "Variable Thrusters".
6. Set the desired fwd/rev and steering thrust in the "Tuning" menu.
7. Equip the "Cruise Control" UI app.
8. Use the normal headlight and fog light controls to control the navigation, landing and deck flood lights.
9. Additional controls will need to be mapped for the superbright headlight and to change OLS angles.
10. The auto-helm is equipped by default when the variable thrusters are selected. However, a route must be constructed for auto-helm to follow. See the Auto-Helm section below for details.
11. The cargo elevator is not equipped by default. It can be selected into a new slot on the "Std Light Holder" part. Controls need to be mapped to raise and lower the elevator.
12. Enjoy!

The deck flood lights are good for unloading cargo aircraft during underway replenishment at night.


OLS? What's that?
The Optical Landing System. It's a set of lights that will help align your aircraft to the glideslope during night landings. The OLS lights are wired to turn on with the runway lights. Here's the OLS installed on the port side of the carrier:

The cross-track angle and glide slope angle of the OLS can be adjusted with controls mapped to those functions.

When the meatball is properly aligned with the datum, the pilot's POV should look like this on landing:

If your glide slope is too steep, the meatball will appear above the datum. If your glide slope is too shallow, the meatball will appear below the datum.

As of v0.5, the datum lights are selectable between green or blue. Here are the blue datum lights:


Aft Cargo Elevator (v0.6+)
The aft cargo elevator can move between the height of the flight deck and the height of the deck of the Flat Top Barge mod. The trailing edge of the elevator platform has couplers to dock with the leading edge of the flat top barge. The following video demos the cargo elevator:


Auto-Helm (v0.5+)
The auto-helm system allows the carrier to follow a route constructed from player-defined waypoints. For a a basic intro to the auto-helm's capabilities, watch the video below, then continue reading for more details:


The interface to control the auto-helm is a rich set of waypoint management and helm control functions entered via the command line interface on the debug console window. No graphical UI is available (because I don't know how to build UIs yet). The auto-helm uses the bow thrusters and expects the bow thruster force to be set to 3 in the Tuning menu. When using the functions listed below, be sure the subject carrier is selected in the drop-down box to the left of the command line. All functions are prefixed by controller.getController("HighBeam9000_AutoHelm"). so a function named MyFunction() would expand to controller.getController("HighBeam9000_AutoHelm").MyFunction()

• Append waypoint to end of waypoint list; One of these two functions must be the first waypoint management function to be called in order to add the first waypoint to the list.
  • appendCamPos() -- Appends a waypoint set to the x,y coordinates of the current camera. The waypoint z coordinate is always set to the carrier z coordinate.
    
  • appendVehPos() -- Appends a waypoint set to the current carrier position.
• Insert waypoint into waypoint list
  • insertIndexCamPos(n) -- Insert a waypoint at the current camera position. The new waypoint will be inserted before the waypoint at index n, where n is an integer from 1 to the total number of waypoints entered.
    
  • insertIndexVehPos(n) -- Insert a waypoint at the current carrier position. The new waypoint will be inserted before the waypoint at index n, where n is an integer from 1 to the total number of waypoints entered.
• Edit waypoint positions
  • editClosestCamPos() -- Moves a waypoint to the camera position. The edited waypoint will be the waypoint closest to the camera
    
  • editClosestVehPos() -- Moves a waypoint to the carrier position. The edited waypoint will be the waypoint closest to the carrier.
    
  • editIndexCamPos(n) -- Moves a waypoint to the camera position. The edited waypoint will be the waypoint at index n, where n is an integer from 1 to the total number of waypoints entered.
    
  • editIndexVehPos(n) -- Moves a waypoint to the carrier position. The edited waypoint will be the waypoint at index n, where n is an integer from 1 to the total number of waypoints entered.
• Remove waypoints
  • deleteWaypoint(n) -- Removes the waypoint at index n, where n is an integer from 1 to the total number of waypoints entered.
    
  • clearWaypointList() -- Removes all waypoints.
• Load or save routes
  • saveCourse("MyCourseName.helm") -- Saves the current waypoint list into a file named MyCourseName.helm. The file can have just about any name. Be sure to remember to put quotes around the file name in the function call.
    
  • loadCourse("MyCourseName.helm") -- Loads a waypoint list from the file named MyCourseName.helm. If the file doesn't exist, nothing is loaded. Be sure to remember to put quotes around the file name in the function call.
• Loop or reverse a route
  • setCourseReversed(true/false) -- Sets a route as reversed or not. If the route is not reversed, the carrier will progress through the waypoint list in the order that the waypoints were entered. If the route is reversed, then the carrier will progress through the waypoints in the opposite order. Specify true as the function argument to reverse the route, or specify false to set the route to normal order.
  • setCourseLooped(true/false) -- Sets a route as looped or not. If the route is looped, then the carrier will navigate back to the first waypoint on the list after it reaches the last waypoint. If the route is not looped, the carrier will stop after reaching the last waypoint. Specify true as the function argument to loop the route, or specify false to unloop the route.
• View waypoint/route information
  • showWaypoints(true/false) -- Shows or hides the currently entered waypoints. Numbers in red will appear in the 3D viewport. The numbers are the indices of the currently entered waypoints. Specify true as the function argument to show the waypoints or specify false to hide them. The waypoints disappear when the game is paused due to the way the numbers are drawn.
    
  • dumpWaypointList() -- Dumps the current waypoint list in the debug console window with attributes such as looped or reversed.
  • showTargetInfo(true/false) -- Shows or hides information about the waypoint the carrier is currently trying to reach. Specify true as the function argument to show the information or specify false to hide it.
• Auto-helm control
  • setAutoHelmActive(true/false) -- Activates or deactivates the auto-helm. Specify true as the function argument to activate the auto-helm or specify false to deactivate it. Activating or deactivating the auto-helm will also activate or deactivate cruise control. When auto-helm is activated, it will select the closest waypoint in front of the carrier. If no waypoints exist in front of the carrier, it will select the closest waypoint behind the carrier.
    
  • getTargetReachRange() -- Gets the range to the current waypoint the carrier must reach to be considered to have reached that waypoint. This distance is in meters. The default is 50 meters.
    
  • setTargetReachRange(d) -- Sets the range to the current waypoint the carrier must reach to be considered to have reached that waypoint. The range argument d is specified in meters.
• Technical functions -- You should never have to call any of these functions unless you really want to retune the PID auto-helm controller. It should already be well-tuned for most applications at speeds from 30 mph to 60 mph. The PID constants are dynamic and will vary with speed. Each of the PID constants are multiplied by the current speed in mph before they're used.
  • getPID() -- Prints the current PID constants in the debug console window.
    
  • setKp(kP) -- Sets the proportional controller constant to kP, which is a floating-point number.
    
  • setKi(kI) -- Sets the integral controller constant to kI, which is a floating-point number.
    
  • setKd(kD) -- Sets the derivative controller constant to kD, which is a floating-point number.
    
  • showSimpleGraph(true/false) -- Sends or doesn't send error angle and steering angle information to the Generic Graph (Simple) UI app. Specify true as the function argument to send the info or specify false to not send the info. Be sure to load the Generic Graph (Simple) UI app to see the info. This has not been tested with the Generic Graph (Advanced) UI app.

Saved Routes
Saved routes appear in the directory shown below:


These files can be shared between players. It's easiest to store all helm files in this location so that no other path information is required other than the file name. The file can be edited directly in a text editor: