cmet24

@linuxgurugamer there shouldn't be much impact on the CPU. Since the weather simulation is offline and pre-calculated the most complex calculations performed by KWP are trilinear and bilinear interpolation. I've performed some preliminary performance testing on my desktop PC with the following specs: CPU: Intel Core i5 7600K GPU: GeForce GTX 1060 6GB RAM: 16GB DDR4 Storage: Kingston 240 GB SSD For performance testing I setup a repeat scenario wherein I took the Aeris 3A up to 1 km ASL and set atmospheric autopilot to fly east at a fixed speed of 330 m/s. I repeated this scenario with and without KWP. Modlist without KWP: Atmospheric Autopilot Module Manager Modlist with KWP: Atmospheric Autopilot Module Manager Zero MiniAVC Click Through Blocker Kerbal Weather Project ModularFlightIntegrator Toolbar Controller The results were as follows: No KWP: With KWP: At the point where there is a dip in GPU and CPU usage I swapped KWP from climatology to point weather. I found little difference in CPU and GPU usage between each mode. *Note that the CPU and GPU % values don't match the screenshot from in-game as the tool used in game shows the total usage for all processes not just KSP. Ignoring the noisy instantaneous values (under the bars on the left) and looking at the average position of the line on the filled charts, the results suggest that the impact of KWP on the CPU and GPU are not significant. Just to be sure, I also tested KWP on my Acer Aspire A515 Laptop: i5-1035G1 CPU @ 1.00 GHz 8GB DDR3 RAM Intel UHD Graphics G1 240GB SSD No KWP: KWP: On my laptop and on my desktop there appeared to be, at most, an increase in CPU usage by 1-2%. On my desktop there was a slight increase in GPU usage with KWP. On my laptop the GPU was overwhelmed regardless of whether KWP was installed or not (it struggles even with the stock game). All said, KWP shouldn't be a significant burden on any computer that has no problem running stock KSP.

As a newbie, I didn't do my homework to ensure KerBalloons was no longer being maintained. That's completely my fault and I apologize for the duplicate mod release. I've updated my original post for KerBalloons, as well as all references to KerBalloons on KWP pages to point towards @linuxgurugamer update of KerBalloons. His work is a significant improvement over previous iterations of the mod and should be the go to release for users looking to add balloons to KSP. Also, thank you for pointing out the missing dependency! I've since added Click Through Blocker to the list of required mods.

@linuxgurugamer my sincere apologizes. I didn't do my homework to check to see if someone had taken up KerBalloons. I've since followed you so I won't miss future updates and make the same mistake again! By the way, I've updated my original post for KerBalloons to point towards this forum page. Your work is a significant improvement over previous iterations of the mod and should be the go to release for users looking to add balloons to KSP.

@WarriorSabe Honestly, Its cheaper than it looks . My setup is pretty similar to this build from polyfractal. The total cost of my 2-node cluster was around $550 USD per node, making it a little cheaper than a macbook pro. Most of the components were second-hand and purchased through Ebay. I built the server around three years ago, before the cryptocurrency boom, so I'm not sure what the going price for an open compute setup would be today. You bring up an excellent point. Making KWP more modular would be a great way to democratize it. At present KWP reads binary files containing multi-dimensional arrays of climate and weather data. These binary files are created from NetCDF files. In the future, I plan on producing a GitHub repository containing python jupyter-notebooks demonstrating how to read and analyze Kerbin weather and climate data. Other creators could then use Python or their preferred language to create 3-D weather datasets in NetCDF format which could be written to binary files readable by KWP. Regarding Beyond Home, if I read the config file correct, Rhode has 0.78x Kerbin gravity and a rotation rate of ~13 hrs. It would be interesting to see how a reduction in gravitational acceleration and rotation rate would affect climate simulations. Kaspi and Showman (2015) suggest that decreasing gravitational acceleration and slowing the rotation rate would tend to weaken the general circulation of the atmosphere and produce a smaller equator-to-pole temperature gradient.

@Snark: Started working on this mod back in March 2020 at the start of quarantine. I’ve been working on it every other weekend since. @Kerminator K-100: the KWP GUI can be accessed anytime you are in flight on Kerbin or in orbit of Kerbin. So basically, any craft you build will “experience” weather, even Kerbal parachutes! I haven't tested the mod with Kerbalism so I'm unsure of its compatibility. The only conflicts I've discovered are with mods that also uses modularflightintegrator to override stock aerodynamics and thermodynamics. @WarriorSabe: The MPAS model used to simulate Kerbin’s weather for KWP is extremely complex and is primarily designed to run on supercomputers. That said, it can be run at coarse resolution on cheap clusters (@Shawn Kerman) like the one I built, for a little under the price of a mid-range MacBook pro. If there was sufficient interest in adding weather to a particular planet pack, I might consider running MPAS for a Kerbin-like planet with a different terrain/biome configuration. MPAS works well for Kerbin because Kerbin’s atmospheric constituents and sea level pressure are identical or similar to Earth’s. There is a NASA model called ROCKE-3D that is capable of simulating atmospheres like those of Venus, Mars, and Titan (to some extent). I actually got the model running last Spring, but it would have required quite a bit of additional FORTRAN code to adapt it to Kerbin due to the presence of oceans. That said, perhaps in the future a model like ROCKE-3D could be used to create a climatology for Eve or Duna. The hardest part of KWP was getting wind to work with stock and figuring out how to shrink the 1TB of model data from MPAS simulations into a small enough dataset that would still provide enjoyable gameplay without straining memory and load times. @FreeThinker: I need to work on a wiki for the climate/weather API. As you can see from my limited post history, I’m fairly new to KSP modding. So, if you are aware of any good examples of mod API’s or have any suggestions on how to better design one that’d be great! @Clamp-o-Tron: Especially at the Woomerang Launch Site. Some strong mid-latitude cyclones sweep across that peninsula from time to time producing hurricane force winds at the launch site (when point weather data is used). @oliverstr: the climatology repeats daily (as its an hourly climatology - weather data averaged each hour). Weather data at fixed launch sites will repeat every five years (or every year) depending on whether you've installed the KWP or (KWP-Lite). @Daniel Prates and @Stone Blue I've created a "lite", pared down, version of KWP that is significantly smaller in size (13 MB) than the full version (84 MB). I'm not sure if the lite version will significantly improve your performance, but it should hopefully constrain storage and memory usage. I've tested the mod on a desktop and a cheap laptop with Intel HD Graphics. My laptop struggles to run stock KSP with decent framerates (@1080p), so adding KWP has little impact on performance overall for me. @Stone BlueI'll be organizing much of the content of the website in a power-point (for an upcoming presentation next month). I might convert that presentation into a PDF.

KerBalloons !!! Please see this page for an up to date and improved version of this mod!!! Description Designed to gather scientific data in a more controlled fashion than a sounding rocket, KerBalloons are compact, light and can easily be packed with a probe and sent to any planet with an atmosphere. When coupled with Kerbal Weather Project, KerBalloons can emulate real-world weather balloons by collecting in-situ atmospheric data on Kerbin. Version Compatibility KerBalloons was updated and recompiled for KSP 1.11x. This release of KerBalloons has been tested in KSP 1.10x and KSP 1.11. Download and Installation KerBalloons is now available on CKAN. To install KerBalloons manually, or view the source code, check out the mod on GitHub or SpaceDock. Acknowledgements Forked from an original work by @JoePatrick1 and an update by @Fengist. License: MIT Uncrewed KerBalloon, with attached sensor package, drifting southeasterly with the wind as it rises above the launchpad. Crewed KerBalloon scraping the mountain tops southeast of the Woomerang Launch Site. Bob Kerman, center, collects in-situ measurements of pressure and temperature as the KerBalloons rises and drifts westward with the jet stream.

While KSP simulates atmospheres with variable depths and densities it lacks dynamic weather limiting its utility as tool for exploring concepts in atmospheric science. Kerbal Weather Project was developed to remedy this. In KWP, weather and climate data from a state-of-the-art global circulation model was incorporated into KSP gameplay. This was accomplished through a global hourly climatology, enabling players to experience diurnal and spatial variations in atmospheric conditions. In addition, point weather data is provided for Kerbin launch sites, giving players the option of experiencing dynamic weather conditions that change from day to day. KWP features a text-based GUI showing remotely sensed weather data (in space) and in situ weather data (in the atmosphere). Compatibility KWP works with stock KSP and should work with the vast majority of KSP mods. KWP has been tested, without major issues, in a KSP 1.10 playthrough with 220 other popular KSP mods. That said, KWP may conflict with mods like real heat that modify the stock game's aerodynamic or thermodynamic system. KWP can still be used with these mods as KWP's override of the stock thermodynamic system can be disabled in the settings menu. KWP is compatible with the aerodynamics overhaul: Ferram Aerospace Research (FAR). Note that since FAR overrides KSP's thermodynamic system, pressure and temperature data from KWP will not affect flight dynamics when FAR is installed. Note that FAR may not be compatible with the latest version of KSP. Background Kerbin weather and climate analyses were produced using the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS; Skamarock et al., 2012) a state-of-the-art atmospheric general circulation model developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). MPAS was run for six-years (1st year: spin-up) at a resolution of 2 x 2 decimal degrees. Fortunately, Kerbin’s atmosphere has the same chemical composition as Earth’s. In MPAS, terrain and biome data from KSP were used to classify land use, vegetation type, green fraction, and other geographical datasets. In addition to land surface modifications, several changes to MPAS were made to enable more realistic simulations of Kerbin's atmosphere. These changes are listed below: Axial obliquity was set to zero. Orbital eccentricity was set to zero. The solar constant was set to 1360 W/m2 The day length was set to six hours (21600 s) The Coriolis parameter was multiplied by four. An hourly global climatology of Kerbin was developed by averaging the results of the five-year MPAS simulation, by the hour. Results from this simulation were incorporated into the game via KWP. Required Mods Toolbar Controller Click Through Blocker ModularFlightIntegrator Recommended Mods Kerbinside Remastered - adds launch sites compatible with KWP. Note that the lite version of KWP does not include weather data at Kerbinside launch sites. KerBalloons - Launch weather balloons! Atmospheric Autopilot - makes flying during windy conditions a little easier. Downloads and Installation Instructions Full Version (84 MB): High resolution climatology, 5-years of weather data at stock and Kerbinside launch sites. GitHub: https://github.com/cmac994/KerbalWeatherProject/tree/master Spacedock: https://spacedock.info/mod/2607/Kerbal Weather Project Lite Version (13 MB): Low resolution climatology, 1-year of weather data at stock launch sites. GitHub: https://github.com/cmac994/KerbalWeatherProject/tree/lite Spacedock: https://spacedock.info/mod/2611/Kerbal Weather Project - Lite See the links above for information on how to install KWP. Alternatively, you can just use CKAN. KWP Animations Weather Animations Simulated Infrared (IR) Satellite Imagery for Kerbin (Each Frame = 1 day) Light colors = high clouds or cold surface; Dark colors = low clouds or warm surface Precipitable Water (PW) on Kerbin (Each Frame = 1 day) Note vortices of high PW in tropics... those are tropical cyclones (hurricanes)! Upper level winds on Kerbin (Each Frame = 1 day) Surface Temperature on Kerbin (Each Frame = 1 day) Climatological Animations Average Temperature by Height Average Wind Speed by Height If the above charts are bit challenging to decipher check out the chart interpretation page on the mod webpage. KWP Gameplay A crewed weather balloon being carried away from the launchpad by northeasterly trade winds. An uncrewed glider flies into a strong headwind and ends up traveling retrograde! A polar orbiting satellite passes over the KSC providing remote sensing weather data along its track SRB Recovery with and without wind. Additional Information For more screenshots, animations, and information about KWP check out the official mod webpage. The science behind KWP, as well as its potential as an educational tool, will be presented at the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) in January 2021. A link to the AMS poster presentation is provided here. In addition to weather and climate analysis, the mod webpage provides several demonstrations detailing the effects of KWP on atmospheric flight and reentry. A series of short-stories are also included to highlight how KWP can be used for both shenanigans and serious science! What KWP Does: Adds climate and weather data to the stock game Climate data varies geographically, vertically, and diurnally. Point weather data varies with height and time and is valid only for a fixed location. Modifies air pressure, density, and temperature on Kerbin affecting the aerodynamics and thermodynamics of flight. The scale height of the KWP atmosphere is higher (8.5 km) than in the stock atmosphere (5.6 km). Consequently, air pressure and density will decrease more slowly with height when playing with KWP enabled. This makes re-entry and SSTOs a little more challenging. As noted above, if you'd prefer KWP not affect KSP aerodynamic and thermodynamics this can be selected in the KWP settings menu. Provides a text-based GUI for visualizing ambient weather, vehicle velocity, ground track, vehicle relative winds, and aerodynamic variables (e.g. mach number, shock temperature, etc.) What KWP Does NOT Do: At present, KWP does not add any parts or new visual effects to the game. KWP provides a framework for understanding what the weather on a planet with Kerbin's geography and orbital characteristics might look like. The results of the MPAS simulations (detailed on the mod webpage) could provide inspiration for fellow modders to create more realistic cloud cover and visual effects for Kerbin. KWP does not include orographic circulations or other small-scale circulations (e.g. thunderstorm cells). This is a limitation of the coarse resolution MPAS simulations from which KWP was derived. In KWP vertical wind speeds are typically very small (< 1 m/s) so unfortunately, aspiring glider pilots will not be able to stay aloft indefinitely by riding the wind. Future Work KWP provides a framework for implementing weather in the stock game. A rudimentary weather and climate API has been included with KWP. With this foundation laid it is my hope that real-world science missions, like the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission (GPM) and the Geostationary Operational Environment Satellite (GOES-R), could one day be emulated in KSP or KSP2. Mods such as SCANSat and Orbital Survey Plus may be one way to realize this concept in KSP, by facilitating the mapping and visualization of climate data for science. Other possibilities include real-time charting or logging of weather balloon sounding data, similar to what is performed twice daily here on Earth. These pursuits could serve as educational tools for teaching basic concepts in atmospheric science. Acknowledgements KSP Developer Squad and KSP creator Felipe Falanghe. KSP modding community - specifically forum users @linuxgurugamer, @JoePatrick1, @Fengist, @DaMichel, @NathanKell, and @DMagic. These mod developers, by publishing their code publicly, provided a valuable teaching tool which facilitated many of the advancements implemented in KWP. Without their prior work, incorporating weather data into KSP would have been exceedingly difficult. License: MIT