Part modules

A few of the modules in the package are actually part modules and go into part.cfg to support the function of IVA components:

JSIExternalCameraSelector

It may often be desirable to provide the user with an option to place a camera elsewhere on the vessel, but then you have to provide a part for it, since cameras require a named transform to work from. If you want to have a lot of cameras, as many people seem to prefer, it would require creating lots of parts with individual models, which feels like kind of a waste. This PartModule permits the user to switch the camera ID between a set of predefined names by right-clicking the camera part itself. The selected IDs will persist.

To work, the module requires the camera object to have a named transform, which either has a child transform you don't care about, or doesn't have any children. If it has any, they will be cruelly twisted and consumed, so beware. That child transform is getting renamed as soon as the vessel loads, and it's orientation and position is forcibly set to that of it's parent transform. Configuration:

• cameraContainer -- Name of the parent transform that has a child transform that will be the actual camera transform.
• cameraIDPrefix -- Defaults to "ExtCam"
• maximum -- Maximum camera ID the user will be permitted, defaults to 8.
• rotateCamera -- Additional rotation vector to be applied to the child transform after it's position and rotation are slaved to that of the parent transform, around X,Y,Z, in degrees. Unity rotates them in reverse order, so remember that first rotation around Z will be applied, then around Y. Using this is only recommended if you have no other option and are forced to use a model that you can't edit for whatever reason -- it is always better to just correctly orient the parent transform if you can.
• translateCamera -- Additional offset vector to be applied to the child transform. Note that it is applied in the local scale, so may need quite a bit of tuning to get right.
• showRay -- Boolean, defaults to true. If it is false, the visibility cone will not be turned on automatically when the camera is picked up.

The generated camera names will have the form <cameraIDPrefix><number>, camera numbering starts with 1, so on the first launch of the vessel the camera will by default be named "ExtCam1" and allow switching all the way up to "ExtCam8". You probably want to have your own name prefix.

In editor, the part with this module enabled will display a light cone indicating the general direction of what it will be seeing, with the default field of view angle of 60 degrees. Selecting the camera ID in the editor can be accomplished through tweakables. Holding down U (or whatever the light toggle button is mapped to) will display the field of view of all cameras at once.