"Stock alike" style guide?

[Buster Charlie]

While I love the detail and realism of some of the mods I've downloaded, I always feel there is a stark contrast between some mods and the stock parts. I really enjoy when some mod authors try and keep in the style of KSP, but also have noticed that style has evolved over the versions,  and some stock assets may yet be updated in the future.

Maybe such a thing exists and I am ignorant of it, but I'd love to see an official style guide,  similar to say the stuff valve releases for team fortress 2, covering certain design philosophies and art direction choices and guidelines.

Maybe some technical stuff regarding poly counts, texture size and density,  and related info.

Squad is not a large company, I feel like without the mods people have made for free KSP would feel very empty compared to the vast amount of parts available now. 

 

I'd like to see more parts mods that integrate seamlessly with the stock asthetic, I think an official style guide would help with that, although let's face it people have done some great work without it.

 

[Pds314]

Well, an unofficial guide might help as well. Heck, maybe even Squad could benefit from it... Looking at the difference between new and old parts...

[Buster Charlie]

1 minute ago, Pds314 said:

Well, an unofficial guide might help as well. Heck, maybe even Squad could benefit from it... Looking at the difference between new and old parts...

That's kinda my point, they've updated some parts as they bring new artists on board? So if we just try to copy what's in game, we might be copying styles or features that squad is trying to phase out, which in turn makes our mods out of date.

 

If anyone with an artistic eye wants to write an unofficial community guide, be my guest! 

 

[Wjolcz]

Sooooooooo unified stock look? I agree.

[legoclone09]

I think Porkjet's style is the new stockalike, Stock Replacement Assets and Tantares(LV) are Porkalike and fit very nicely with the spaceplane parts.

[rkman]

On 11-2-2016 at 4:25 PM, Buster Charlie said:

have noticed that style has evolved over the versions...

Squad is not a large company...

From a PR company one might expect they have graphics artists. Otoh it's not a given that a PR graphics artists is necessarily up for designing a graphics style for a computer game.  Still, the game could use a little help wrt graphics style.

 

[Buster Charlie]

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/ArtyomZuev/20130731/197365/Environment_art_and_modeling_in_Kerbal_Space_Program.php

[BloodDusk]

Well, what could you expect from a company that incentives mod making but doesn't even have proper documentation for mod making?

[Waxing_Kibbous]

@Nertea's and @Necrobone's parts fit well also. I would say that in general most part packs fit in pretty well. What is stock alike though? For the most part pretty utilitarian, but more importantly a specific color palette. I think having a color palette for Gimp and PS available would help a ton. I would also like to see some asset packs, hatch doors, ladder rungs, windows, IVA stuff- things that are commonly used and would keep consistency across 3rd party parts.

 

How do you make the usernames highlighted?

Edited February 14, 2016 by Waxing_Kibbous

[Matuchkin]

Tip: Colour everything in shades of light gray. Except of the engine fairings. Make 'em look like hammered cans.

Edited February 14, 2016 by Matuchkin

[Buster Charlie]

7 hours ago, Waxing_Kibbous said:

@Nertea's and @Necrobone's parts fit well also. I would say that in general most part packs fit in pretty well. What is stock alike though? For the most part pretty utilitarian, but more importantly a specific color palette. I think having a color palette for Gimp and PS available would help a ton. I would also like to see some asset packs, hatch doors, ladder rungs, windows, IVA stuff- things that are commonly used and would keep consistency across 3rd party parts.

 

How do you make the usernames highlighted?

I've been using a lot of stuff from Nertea, Necrobones, Roverdude, and RLA stockalike  really fir the asthetic to some degree, I think Nertas stuff can border too realistic and they look GORGEOUS but sometimes I think borderline too phototrealistic in the detail and proportions. Which is fine for a mod. USI Stuff tends to be more colorful, I think if you compare the USI nuclear rockets & Reactors to the near future ones you'll notice the near future ones have more fine realistic details and textures, roverdude's stuff tends to look more 'stock' to my eye but with his own personal style.

 

Necrobones stuff is pretty damn close, but some stuff looks a bit more realistic (and again, this is nod a bad thing at all).

 

Like the "Stock alike" Space station addon pack is amazingly good look. I Agree we need stuff like hatches, connectors, rails, etc. COmmon stuff that ties it all together.

 

 

 

Edited February 15, 2016 by Buster Charlie

[nikokespprfan]

12 hours ago, Waxing_Kibbous said:

How do you make the usernames highlighted?

You do the @ symbol, and then type enough letters of the name you want. The forum will give a list of possible candidate forumusers, and you have to click the one you want and there you go. I guess you have copy pasted it in, because then it doesn't work.

Edited February 15, 2016 by nikokespprfan

[Wjolcz]

On 14.02.2016 at 3:55 PM, Buster Charlie said:

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/ArtyomZuev/20130731/197365/Environment_art_and_modeling_in_Kerbal_Space_Program.php

It's a real shame bac9 isn't working with SQUAD anymore. I'm still not sure what was the reason behind him leaving. The game could benefit a lot if he got back.

[BloodDusk]

4 minutes ago, Veeltch said:

It's a real shame bac9 isn't working with SQUAD anymore. I'm still not sure what was the reason behind him leaving. The game could benefit a lot if he got back.

Who knows what happened behind the marketing's curtains. I remember someone also saying they either couldn't get a hold of the creator of Mechjeb or he didn't want to be part of the noted marketing company.

[Wjolcz]

1 minute ago, BloodDusk said:

Who knows what happened behind the marketing's curtains. I remember someone also saying they either couldn't get a hold of the creator of Mechjeb or he didn't want to be part of the noted marketing company.

Why did hey want to work with him?

[BloodDusk]

Just now, Veeltch said:

Why did hey want to work with him?

That I don't know. I remember Scott Manley doing a sort of small talk with someone associated with the noted marketing company and the person said somethiing along these lines when asked about Mechjeb:

No, no. We want <creator of Mechjeb> to work with us, but we can't get a hold of him.

[Wjolcz]

Just now, BloodDusk said:

That I don't know. I remember Scott Manley doing a sort of small talk with someone associated with the noted marketing company and the person said somethiing along these lines when asked about Mechjeb:
 

 

Sounds like a highly unconfirmed rumour. Scott never was a part of SQUAD. Only a youtuber supporting it.

[BloodDusk]

8 minutes ago, Veeltch said:

Sounds like a highly unconfirmed rumour. Scott never was a part of SQUAD. Only a youtuber supporting it.

I didn't say that Scott Manley was part of SQUAD, ever. Pay attention.

[adsii1970]

2 minutes ago, BloodDusk said:

I didn't say that Scott Manley was part of SQUAD, ever. Pay attention.

Good luck with that. Half of the users on this forum respond in knee-jerk fashion, never bothering to read the entire post for context...

[BloodDusk]

2 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

Good luck with that. Half of the users on this forum respond in knee-jerk fashion, never bothering to read the entire post for context...

I noticed that all over the board, from the president down to the gate keeper, but thanks for the reminder anyways.

[Wjolcz]

7 minutes ago, BloodDusk said:

I didn't say that Scott Manley was part of SQUAD, ever. Pay attention.

By saying that SQUAD wanted to do something and then quoting Scott you automatically imply that he was a decisive person, or at least he knew about the inside development. What you did is either: spreading misinformation, or being informed not well enough to discuss such matters. Maybe you are the one who should pay more attention?

[BloodDusk]

3 minutes ago, Veeltch said:

By saying that SQUAD wanted to do something and then quoting Scott you automatically imply that he was a decisive person, or at least he knew about the inside development. What you did is either: spreading misinformation, or being informed not well enough to discuss such matters. Maybe you are the one who should pay more attention?

My, my. Are you sure you know more about the messages I typed than myself?

27 minutes ago, BloodDusk said:

That I don't know. I remember Scott Manley doing a sort of small talk with someone associated with the noted marketing company and the person said somethiing along these lines when asked about Mechjeb:

I don't think so. Stop putting words in my mouth.

Edited February 15, 2016 by BloodDusk

[Wjolcz]

8 minutes ago, BloodDusk said:

My, my. Are you sure you know more about the messages I typed than myself?

I don't think so. Stop putting words that I never said in my mouth.

Oh crap. I goofed hard then. My mistake.

Damn. How did I even miss that information I have no idea. I am seriously ashamed of myself now.

Edited February 15, 2016 by Veeltch

[hoojiwana]

Hopefully I can answer some of the questions raised in here!

On 11/02/2016 at 3:25 PM, Buster Charlie said:

While I love the detail and realism of some of the mods I've downloaded, I always feel there is a stark contrast between some mods and the stock parts. I really enjoy when some mod authors try and keep in the style of KSP, but also have noticed that style has evolved over the versions,  and some stock assets may yet be updated in the future.

I'd like to see more parts mods that integrate seamlessly with the stock asthetic, I think an official style guide would help with that, although let's face it people have done some great work without it.

No style guide exists because the art style has been constantly evolving and changing due to the fairly large number of different artists who have contributed;

1. The original art made by Squad staff whose names I do not know off the top of my head.
2. The replacement art for those parts done by @NovaSilisko , who practically defined the artstyle that "stockalike" mods emulated (starting with KSPX ^{_{the original thread is gone now I think}})
3. C7 made the original space plane parts, as well as some assorted science parts (lab, materials bay etc.), the Rapier and the Size 3 Kerboodyne rocket parts.
4. Claira Lyrae (author of KSPX) then added some parts from the mod to the stock game (and some other art like a redone launchpad sans launch tower).
5. Bac9 who made the majority of the Tier 3 space center and island runway revamp (dev blog already linked).
6. Hugo Gutierrez redid the Mk1 spaceplane parts and made one or two other bits (monoprop engine).
7. DanRosas and some other artists whose names I forget did the Tier 1 and 2 KSC as well as the destruction states and Tier 3 admin building.
8. @RoverDude who has made some of the ISRU parts, the radiators and heatshields
9. @frizzankcreated some IVAs, one of which is the science lab.
10. And most recently we have @Porkjet who has redone (almost) every spaceplane part and is working on redoing the rocket parts.

With that many artists all adding their own touches to an existing game, its easy to see why there isn't a single stock style modders can easily follow. "Stockalike" mods all look a little different depending on how the individual artists wanted to make their parts look. My stockalike looks a little different to @Nerteas stockalike for example, mine is lower fidelity and less realistic. Both of ours looks different to the way @RoverDude has developed his style for his mods and for stock since he errs strongly towards lower memory usage and a brighter colour palette.

As for the future, we have Porkjet working on redoing the rocket parts for stock. How far he goes with that is entirely up to speculation, but even replacing the fuel tanks and engines will be a good step towards a unifying art style across all the parts, especially since there is only the one artist working on the project. Maybe he'll have the time to make a style guide or dev blog post-1.2 (or whenever the rocket parts are done), but for now it seems the mod community is left up to its own devices.

[bsquiklehausen]

I feel like once we see some of @Porkjet's rocket parts in devnotes or Squadcasts or wherever, it'd be a reasonably safe time to attempt a community-made style sheet. Even without Squad's official support, I feel like a lot of modders have gotten close enough to stock style (you absolutely included, @hoojiwana) to contribute to a style guide. Since the art style is so disjointed at the moment, the guide would only be able to cover some styles of parts (I think we can do well with a section for Porkalike and for Claira-alike/old stock), and while it's imperfect, it's definitely not a total waste of time.

If some people want to start now with a Classic Stock style guide or a Porkjet's planes style guide, I personally think either would be extremely useful.