selfish_meme

You can use radial adapters and docking ports, not as good looking as SSTU

Remember I am a newbie too! normal maps can be used, but they are not necessary, it will make your part look better though, really if the texture is setup right and you include a normal map it should look pretty good. In Unity there is a 255 polygon limit for convex mesh colliders (what KSP uses), I breached that the other day. What I did to fix it was to make a second mesh by using decimate on the original mesh until I had a low enough poly count. I added that second mesh to the first high poly mesh in unity (drag and drop) and then added the convex mesh collider to that second mesh instead of the first. It should be approximately the right size and shape, good enough for collisions and attaching parts anyway. I have also heard of people adding low poly meshes and low quality textures to a model as well as the higher quality stuff, maybe you can switch to that when you are further away, that's to learn for another day. It's up to you, the bigger the texture is the more detailed it can be, but it also sucks up more memory

Nvidia has some dds tools https://developer.nvidia.com/legacy-texture-tools Also there is a GIMP dds and normal map plugins http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/normalmap-and-dds-plug-ins-updated-for-gimp-2.8 I am doing my texture painting in gimp, so I use the gimp plugins

png still works fine, you can convert the png to a dds later, there are some rotation things happening with ksp dds images so probably best to leave that till your optimisation pass

That's really good info, and much better than mine, the only advantage mine has is if you are starting with a cube primitive.

Just made this picture so I could see the orientation I should model in using Blender to make sure it will come out right in KSP, I tried with and without the 90' rotation, it made no difference to the end result. I used .blend files because .fbx files give very strange results. Here is the cube .blend file if you want to try it yourself https://drive.google.com/open?id=1NGJ4WKkUXXHd5-8035tWpOZBOJVOFJHc Part Making WorkFlow -> from this thread Blender: - Make a high poly model/mesh - Make a low poly mesh - Make collider mesh - UV unwrap - Bake ambient occlusion Graphics editor: - Import ambient occlusion - Texture model - Export combined Bump/normal map application: - Bake bump/normal map Modelling program (again): - Apply textures - Check and save Unity: - Set-up project file - Set-up KSP PartTools - Create scene with part - Apply bump/normal map - Apply specular - Write part DDS Loader: - Convert textures to fast loading DDS files Kerbal Space Program: - Edit appropriate configuration file - Load up and check

Congrats? I don't have a tutorial, I have seen lots of stuff mentioned all over, also the mk1 command pod has a lot of doco

I ran across the dreaded 255 polygon model limit in Unity (thanks again @SpannerMonkey(smce), I found an old thread where you explained that), so I figured out how to decimate the polygons in blender to create a low poly model and then add that model to the high poly model and add the mesh collider to the low poly model in Unity. Finally seem to be getting somewhere, symmetry is off somehow, but I think I will be able to figure it out.

Thank you very much for this reply, I experimented a bit with rotation in Blender and I think I have it, Hope you feel better.

Tell me about it, it's so hard to find out just simple things

I have recently started as well, there are many more qualified people, but from the stratospheric heights some times they forget to mention the simple things. I can get you to a cube in game with a texture, the rest will be up to you. First get Blender, the latest version will do, the first thing you will want to do is change the units to Metric - KSP parts are metric Delete everything in the scene other than the cube, make sure the cube is selected and Smart UV unwrap it, there are better ways but to start this is adequate save the image file, you will need that file soon. Save the .blend file as well. You have now modeled your first part Now get Unity3D (free is fine), you will need this exact version https://unity3d.com/unity/qa/patch-releases/5.4.0p4 Also download the KSP Part Tools from here and extract them Copy your KSP game without any mods to a new directory (this will allow you to boot fast (you will do a lot of this) and test mods without interference from other mods) Open unity and create your KSP 3D project, add the Text Mesh Pro free bundle from the asset store and then add the part tools Make a directory in your project for your parts and copy the two files you made above in there (drag and drop is fine) Create an Empty Game Object in your scene and drag the cube onto it, click on the cube and then drag the image file onto it Add a Components -> physics -> Mesh Collider and click the convex button in the inspector No you need to click on Tools -> KSP Part Tools you need to go to the setup tab and set the path to your copied KSP GameData folder Make sure the cube is selected and Add Component - KSP - Part Tools If you want, change the model name in the KSP PartTools component You will need to create a new directory for your mod beneath KSP GameData and set that path in the component Change the Texture format to png and click write Copy a .cfg file from the stock parts and put it in your new folder, maybe one of the cube shaped parts Change the name, make sure to get rid of anything that has #autoLOC in it, and just leave the text names, the mesh line must also point to your newly created part Boot KSP and find you new part! *will edit this as mistakes become obvious **you will probably need to google a lot of the steps, also Blender Guru has a great series of tutorials to get you started in Blender

@SpannerMonkey(smce) you commented a lot in the thread I mentioned in the comment above this one, have you got any ideas why the part is upside down, or at least how to orient the lift from a part?

@harrisjosh2711 I was going to go back to this thread I found, in the future, once I got it imported, it has a lot about setting CoM, CoL and CoP

I know about the 90', but this is 180' in the SPH, I tried fixing it by dragging it into an empty GameObject as the Unity doco suggested, here's the Unity screenshot Here it is inside the SPH, I turned on the CoM and CoL indicators Here is my cfg file, it is copied from a lot of stock parts PART { // Venture Star name = Venture Star module = Part author = LeoCadle mesh = VentureStar.mu rescaleFactor = 1.0 node_stack_bottom = 0.0, -1.25, 0.0, 0.0, -1.0, 0.0, 1 TechRequired = supersonicFlight entryCost = 180000 cost = 35000 category = Pods subcategory = 0 title = Venture Star Fuselage manufacturer = Octomax description = Venture Star. // attachment rules: stack, srfAttach, allowStack, allowSrfAttach, allowCollision attachRules = 1,0,1,1,0 // --- standard part parameters --- mass = 10 dragModelType = default maximum_drag = 0.1 minimum_drag = 0.1 angularDrag = 2 crashTolerance = 45 maxTemp = 1400 skinMaxTemp = 2500 emissiveConstant = 0.8 vesselType = Plane CrewCapacity = 6 breakingForce = 50 breakingTorque = 50 tags = aero aircraft cmg command control ?eva fly gyro ?iva moment pilot plane react space stab steer torque MODULE { name = ModuleCommand minimumCrew = 1 } RESOURCE { name = ElectricCharge amount = 500 maxAmount = 500 } MODULE { name = ModuleReactionWheel actionGUIName = Toggle RW PitchTorque = 15 YawTorque = 15 RollTorque = 15 RESOURCE { name = ElectricCharge rate = 0.5 } } MODULE { name = ModuleScienceExperiment experimentID = crewReport experimentActionName = #autoLOC_502009 //#autoLOC_502009 = Crew Report resetActionName = #autoLOC_502010 //#autoLOC_502010 = Discard Crew Report reviewActionName = #autoLOC_502200 //#autoLOC_502200 = Review Report useStaging = False useActionGroups = True hideUIwhenUnavailable = True rerunnable = True xmitDataScalar = 1.0 usageReqMaskInternal = 5 usageReqMaskExternal = -1 } MODULE { name = ModuleScienceContainer reviewActionName = #autoLOC_502201 //#autoLOC_502201 = Review Stored Data storeActionName = #autoLOC_502202 //#autoLOC_502202 = Store Experiments evaOnlyStorage = True storageRange = 3.0 } RESOURCE { name = MonoPropellant amount = 100 maxAmount = 100 } MODULE { name = FlagDecal textureQuadName = FLAG } MODULE { name = ModuleAnimateGeneric animationName = CockpitStandardLight actionGUIName = Toggle Lights defaultActionGroup = Light startEventGUIName = Lights On endEventGUIName = Lights Off } MODULE { name = ModuleLiftingSurface useInternalDragModel = True deflectionLiftCoeff = 10.0 // 16,5m^2 dragAtMaxAoA = 0.6 dragAtMinAoA = 0.0 } MODULE { name = ModuleDataTransmitter antennaType = INTERNAL packetInterval = 1.0 packetSize = 2 packetResourceCost = 12.0 requiredResource = ElectricCharge antennaPower = 5000 optimumRange = 2500 packetFloor = .1 packetCeiling = 5 } } Thanks for taking a look

One way might be to use Textures Unlimited and firespitter to slowly change/tint the texture. You would need to write the code backend to do this over time and remember steps.

@harrisjosh2711 I am in the same position you were, newbie to blender, unity etc. I can make my cube in blender with meters as the units, export it to FBX (though I understand now I could do it via .blend) the scale of the object shows as 100 in Unity 5.4, I add a mesh collider with convex selected and add part tools, I then gave it a modified stock station hub cfg, but when I add it in the VAB it is miniscule, I need to rescale it by 100 for it to be normal size. I am missing some simple elementary step, are you able to help me, since you have done the same journey recently? Edit: OK, it was some weirdness in .fbx export, using the .blend instead fixed it, now I just have to figure out why it is upside down.

I haven't tried it yet, but DCK swaps the texture using Firespitter, or their version of same, it is possible TU will work with it, if there is a config for the part, like Electrocutors Stock parts configs, but it may mess up, or look better than the stock parts.

Install Textures Unlimited and then get the VSR config from Electorcutors thread, stick the config in GameData and you are good to go

Some test footage (this scene is not in the movie anymore)

I am using a few mods, obviously, EVE, scatterer and TextureReplacerReplaced, and additionally now the metallic textures are from @Electrocutor's configs (and a couple of my own) for Textures Unlimited, on the top of that I am using the KS3P mod which does post processing, bloom, camera dirt, etc.

I have not had anything to report so far, all has been good

@Electrocutor is the person to talk to

@Avera9eJoe, have you looked at Textures Unlimited, the window reflections in that with the full PBR shaders are very nice

Yeah, they have a Venture Star in the intro

I have been watching Enterprise, this makes me drool every time I see it