wasml

The specular shader uses alpha for shinniness - What alpha is used for depends on the shader. If you click on a material that's set to KSP/Specular and look at the inspector - near the top - you'll see "_MainTex (RGB spec(A))". The spec(A) tells you the Alpha channel is specular. I haven't checked but I think many of the KSP shaders use alpha for shine. If you pick KSP/Alpha/Translucent Specular you'll notice it has "MainTex(RGBA)" - I haven't used this but am guessing in this case alpha is translucent (The model I have loaded seems to agree). As I mentioned above - the specular shader looks nice and shiny in the VAB but on the pad it's much duller - I do have the graphics setting turned down - may or may not be the reason. Edit: ShadowMage has an add-on that judging from the screen shots has some spectacular results - I'll post a link here if when I find it.

I'm not sure how you would do this in Unity - I use Gimp for my textures and then drop them into Unity. In Gimp you can right click on your texture and select "Add Layer Mask" that will add a alpha channel.

I haven't touched the default settings in the inspector tab. Are you using the alpha channel in your texture to control the shine?

I've used specular and in the VAB it seems to reflect the windows and door (in a blurry way) but when I get the part out on the pad it's a lot duller. I thought I saw a setting in the setup menu to improve this but haven't gone back to look for it again.

What does your model look like in the Blender outliner?

Quite a thrill no? In the upper left corner of the Unity screen, just under "File", is a hand icon. The buttons to the right of the hand are the various manipulation tools - mouse over for a tool tip. I don't know which shader the Stayputnik uses but would try the LightWrapped/Specular.

@Duke-49thLooking back over your post - I saw you mentioned using Quaternions - I have a dim recollection of seeing a note that the Blender Collada exporter can't handle Quaternions (you may want to double check this). Of course this doesn't explain why the blend file import didn't work.

I've never built an Infernal Robotics part so probably can't be of any help but how are you defining your nodes? Are you using the "node_stack_top = " or the NODE { name = top transform = ...".

I had trouble with the 1.10 parttools too (see this thread)- dropped back to the 1.9 tools. For making parts 1.9 works fine - missing new new 1.10 shaders but I'm not sure if any of these are even for parts. There are a number of things that can cause the part not to show up - hard to say without seeing your config and log file (not that I would necessarily be able to tell even then). Not sure it will help any but I put together a batch of Blender/Unity projects for the parts I've been able to figure out - includes some notes with problems I've run into and figured out. A quick review of that tutorial link - nothing jumped out as out of date - part mods haven't changed much since early on (wheels being the exception)

Welcome to the wonderful and frustrating world of modding! As far as your questions: 1) No you don't need to join them - they can be collected in the .cfg file but I like to create an empty that all the pieces are parented to. When I export from Blender I select that root empty and in the export options I export selected and children. 2) If you parent to an empty you'll only have one model in Unity and one animation. Note that Unity will Add a Animator. You need to remove this and add a Animation. And don't forget to set the animation to Legacy. 3) The thrust vector is a empty you add to you model (I add mine in Blender - You may be able to add in Unity) with the Z (blue) axis pointing in the direction of thrust - in other words out the nozzel. Then in the cfg set the thrustTransform (or whatever it's named) to the name of the empty. A note here - Unity will change the names sometimes - for example A.B in Blender becomes A_B in Unity - you need to use the Unity name. 4) In you .cfg file you add the ModuleDeployablePart and set the "animationName" to the name of your animation - whatever you set it to in Unity. Happy modding!

@Duke-49thThere seems to be a problem with the 1.10 parttools - see this thread. When I use the 1.10 parttools I only have 3 particle shaders, all the others fail to compile, so I'm using the 1.9 parttools. I also don't bother replacing TMP as I'm only making parts (I actually delete the default install TMP) and nothings blown-up yet.

A brief test in 1.10.1 and was able to move a vehicle with the BG scan arm on it!

I missed this when it came out. I had tried to do implement this with a variant at one point but something didn't work (think it was the float curves that didn't change - not a big surprise). Just tried this in 1.10.1 and don't see anything in the PAW to change gear ratios - I'll take a closer look later tonight or tomorrow. Edit: Just realized that install doesn't have ModuleManager - retying... Still no luck - looked through the save file and the wheels don't have the WheelReductionDrive added. I don't have Tweakscale installed - might the "AFTER" in the MM patch not install without Tweakscale? Edit 2: Installed Tweakscale (still KSP 1.10.1) and didn't see anything in the PAW but the WheelReductionDrive did appear in the save file. Revived a copy of KSP 1.4.4, installed Tweakscale and MM - I see some sliders in the PAW! Set the reduction to 0.3 and started up the side of the runway from a dead stop - 3.3 m/s at the top. Did the same with a reduction of 3.0 - 12.7 m/s. Suggestions if you chose to develop this further - Change the max speed along with the torque - 3x the torque, 1/3 the top speed. Allow the reduction to be set in flight - use case would be putting a rover in granny gear to get up a steep hill. Thanks for sharing this!

I would look on the KSP API site and see if the ModuleScienceContainer has any fields suggesting a limitation like size or weight. Happy modding!

I thought I saw (a long time ago) a wearable prop made by nli2work but can't find it now - see his avatar - Kraken parachute

I've also been unable to get Parttools 1.10 to work - after installing parttools I only have three particle shaders. Looking at the shaders in the Unity inspector I see this: Was sure it was some stupid mistake I was making but then I notice the failed source file matches the name of the file you say may be missing. Is there somewhere I can get a copy of that file? A little more detail if it's of any help - the first time I installed parttools the parttool to add to the root GameObject was missing but the shaders were there(???). After removing and reinstalling parttools the parttool was available but only three particle shaders successfully compiled. Re downloading parttools, starting a new project and even Reinstalling Unity (2019.2.2f1) and I was never able to get the shaders, except for the three particle shaders, to show up again. I have no idea why it worked the first time.

Sounds like it could be done mostly or entirely with config files (depending on whether you add new converters). Would recommend you become familiar with Module Manager if you aren't already. The other three look like you'll need to learn some form of 3D modeling - Blender being the most common (I think). I've also seen instructions for wings 3D (another free program) and someone (Beal?) has a tutorial for it. My thought would be to go with Blender as there will be a lot more people that can help when you run into problems(yes - huge learning curve!). If you haven't made any parts before I would recommend starting with something simple like a fuel tank just to run through the processes - fuel tanks don't have animations, pivot transforms, thrust transforms etc to complicate things. As far as the mod folder structure - it's mostly for organization - as long as it's under GameData KSP will try to load it. There are a few exceptions like the plugin folder but for the most part I'd say just follow the standard structure as that's what everyone is familiar with. Just re read your post - the tech tree stuff can be done with Module Manager and config files too. Happy modding!

This it?

Some instructions and a link.

You should be able to do this with a config file. If you modify the part's config file directly you risk accidentally overwriting it when you update the mod. You could save a copy of the config file in your own sub directory and modify that - need to make sure you give your new part a new name (the name = xyz part - usually just under the @PART line). A bit more complex but more versatile would be to write a Module Manager patch - probably the preferred way to go. The down side with any of this is once you realize how easy it is you'll soon find you can't play the game without thinking "I can make that better....".

Drag cubes explained in this thread. Afraid I can't help with the rest. Edit: NathatKell has an explanation in about the ninth post.

I've seen some discussions about this but no mods to actually implement it.

I like the order of parts - seems more sensible. Would you be adjusting the cost for each level too? My concern would be that you have significantly more nodes per level than stock - making the cost for each of your tiers higher. Depending on how things progress this may not be a problem but something that struck me as a potential problem. Edit: Of course this might be seen as an advantage too!

I had seen that but thank you for pointing it out. I believe the 1Km launch was a collider issue and I was able to fix in short order (if memory serves) but the record 2Km was something else. I wish I had kept the model - would have liked to see if I could change the mesh and make a propellantless launch system out of it.