Are you excited of PBR in KSP 1.1?

[*Aqua*]

Hi Kerbals!

Are you as excited as I am about the PBR in KSP 1.1? PBR is short for physical based rendering, it's a (supposedly more realistic) method to render textures which is new in Unity 5.

Spoiler

 Afaik KSP's assets won't be converted to this in 1.1 but I expect gradual replacement during the next updates.
Because 1.1's also comes in a 64 bits version we can have a lot more textures in a higher resolution. The downside is that textures need more work to create (seems like double or triple the amount).

But the visuals look very good!

[Johnny Wishbone]

They are putting Pabst Blue Ribbon beer in KSP? I'm not a hipster, but I am old enough to remember when all it was good for was conditioning your hair.

Wait...what were we talking about again?

[Trentendegreth]

well Johnny i thought it too. as for the op, no i don't think they'll take advantage of it. not even down the line. they are talking about a rocket part revamp, but as space-planes have already been done i don't see it happening as a full re texture again. the Dev-Manpower just isn't there. though i could be misinterpreting the tech too... i do that alot...

[KerbMav]

Photorealistic graphics were never planned or intended for KSP.

[katateochi]

PBR isn't something I know much (anything) about, but from what I've just read it sounds like it could imply quite a large performance overhead.

53 minutes ago, Trentendegreth said:

the Dev-Manpower just isn't there

That probably is the case regarding this, maybe this is something a modder might pick up as a stock visual enhancement technique?

[John FX]

47 minutes ago, KerbMav said:

Photorealistic graphics were never planned or intended for KSP.

A lot of things currently in the game were never planned or intended for KSP until they started to be implemented...

[Death Engineering]

Not sure how Professional Bull Riding will fit into the KSP niche.

[steuben]

Peanut butter and raisins? The best on bread and in celery.  the cousin of gorp. new snacks \o/.

As for physical based rendering not really excited. sure they look pretty, <southern drawl> but pretty don't make no game </southern drawl>.  Those old enough to remember will recall the FMV games of the 90's when CD-ROM hit their strides. They were pretty, compared to what was before, but didn't have the game play value.

 

 

 

 

[DangerouslyDave]

1 hour ago, katateochi said:

PBR isn't something I know much (anything) about, but from what I've just read it sounds like it could imply quite a large performance overhead.

The hit on performance won't actually be as bad as you think. Without knowing the details of the KSP shader, map for map the performance of a PBR shader should be pretty much the same as a traditional specular shader. You're essentially just trading diffuse/gloss/specular/normal maps for albedo/gloss/metalness/normal maps. So in comparison to the KSP shader specifically, you'll need an additional 1-2 maps, but as @*Aqua* mentioned, the hope is that the gains from moving to 64bit will offset that requirement. Also, with smart re-use of texture maps between parts, you can really get away with a lot lower resource footprints.

Allegorithmic has a fantastic PBR primer online for anyone interested in learning more.

2 hours ago, KerbMav said:

Photorealistic graphics were never planned or intended for KSP.

Photorealism isn't so much the goal as supporting things like reflective materials and the ability to blur reflections. The main benefit of a PBR shader over a traditional one is that it reacts correctly to drastically different lighting conditions. So whereas a traditional shader might only look great under a specific lighting scenario, a PBR shader will look great whether it's midday on the launch pad or in orbit on the darkside of the Mun.

[Randazzo]

No. Too much work to convert all my existing textures and I'm not even sure I have the chops to actually tackle it.

[StarManta]

My (pretty confident) guess is that we're going to see no visual changes (besides UI) in 1.1, if ever. I say this for two reasons. One, if they were changing anything visually, we'd see pretty pictures in the devnotes, because pretty pictures make attractive devnotes. Two, making all those new texture maps is a LOT of work - I've used PBR before, or should I say attempted to use, and it is not natural for someone who's been working with classic 3D rendering previously. There's no straightforward texture conversion - you have to remake every texture, from scratch. (Wild ballpark estimate, all the textures in KSP, it's probably a man-year or more worth of work.) Converting to PBR would be an enormous investment of labor, and I can easily see Squad looking at the numbers and deciding it's just not worth it.

[*Aqua*]

2 hours ago, katateochi said:

maybe this is something a modder might pick up as a stock visual enhancement technique?

The first one is already working on it: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/127810-stock-part-replacements-for-a-new-shader/

[StrandedonEarth]

I was a little mixed up, I confused PBR with PBY...

[regex]

If it opens the door for the rest of the game to look better, great.  The planets are totally bland right now and the lack of clouds is disturbing.  Hopefully they get serious about it for 1.2.

Not sure if my poor, battered laptop is going to be happy, though.

[StrandedonEarth]

On 14/01/2016 at 3:54 PM, regex said:

The planets are totally bland right now and the lack of clouds is disturbing.

 

I find your lack of clouds disturbing...

 

[InsaneDruid]

4 hours ago, KerbMav said:

Photorealistic graphics were never planned or intended for KSP.

PBR is not a synonym for photorealism. Its just a technique that can be used, like a pencil can be used to draw ultra-realistic images or for ultra-simle outlines.

I'm quite exited of it.^^

[Vermil]

Nope!

I don't care. I want a 64-bit version, so I can continue with my Orpheus expedition to Eve.

 

[Slam_Jones]

Someone already made the Pabst Blue Ribbon joke... Darn...

But if that's the official drink of KSP, then all the explosions start making a lot more sense...

Edited January 15, 2016 by Slam_Jones

[problemecium]

Exciting and then some!

Not only that, but some of the other rendering features in Unity 5 bode well for a mod I have planned. Teaser:

[qromodynmc]

War thunder got PBR 2 patchs ago, it looked great on planes to be honest;

But pbr needs bit of work, Im not even sure it'd look different in ksp.

[WWEdeadman]

I don't know whether it's gonna be officially used, but I'm sure there's gonna be a bunch of awesome mods using it.

[monophonic]

On 15/01/2016 at 10:10 PM, parameciumkid said:

Exciting and then some!

Not only that, but some of the other rendering features in Unity 5 bode well for a mod I have planned. Teaser:

You are going to add shiny screw holes and streaks of rust in the steel plating of default parts? 

[TonyC]

Is there a way to make some kind of script to put a basic form of PBR onto all parts universally (including mods) ?

I don't know anything on how this works, so this question might be stupid.

[*Aqua*]

No, a script won't really help. You essentially have to redo all textures to make use of all PBR capatibilities. Afaik the KSP devs won't do that (yet) as it's too much work.

[Evanitis]

On 2016. 01. 15. at 9:10 PM, parameciumkid said:

a mod I have planned

OMG! That looks like a Kraken-nest! Abort! Abort!