CaptRobau

The standard definition normal maps are all done. As you've seen in a previous post, they look a lot better than previous versions. Now I'm moving on to the biome overhaul. I decided on this before 1.2 redid the stock biomes. That did a few good things, that I've since incorporated into my concept for the biome overhaul. So what is this biome overhaul: A different take on biomes. KSP started out with very bland terrain-based biomes: plains, hills, mountains, craters, etc. As the biome maps were expanded Squad added some more unique area based, but in the end it's still quite a mixed bag. So I decided on making biome maps that are more grounded in reality. Instead of being full of generic terrains, it'll be based more on unique areas. As an example, a biome map of Mars wouldn't be Plains, Mountains, Craters and so on, but contain Mariner Valley, Utopia Planitia, Hellas Basin, Olympus Mons, etc. Being less generic, the number of biomes will increase but science output will be balanced on a body-per-body, or even biome-per-biome, basis to keep the science output balanced. More named/specific biomes. Having 30 Plains or Highlands biomes is very bland and uninteresting. Memorable stock biomes have cool and unique names and add a lot more to the history of a planet or moon than the standard hills, mountains and craters biomes do. Higher resolution. All biome maps were 1K, but that was a bit too low-res for bigger bodies. Like KSP 1.2, I'm making the biome maps for bigger bodies in a higher resolution. The color palettes were a bit too vibrant and too high contrast. KSP 1.2 introduced color palettes that are still well readable but have much more calm color palettes. OPM will use similar pleasant, more natural, palettes. Ovok biome map Top is the old one. The bottom is the new one. You can see that the biome complexity has been simplified a bit. Finding a biome shouldn't be hunting a single pixel on a map. You can also the improved palette. Tekto biome map Again, top is old and bottom is new. The old one has a lower resolution, ugly colors and very complex biome borders. In the new one, this has been changed (except for the new palette, that's still forthcoming). This biome map is very much directed to forcing players to go a lot of different places if they want to get all the science. They have to really explore the moon. These biomes will all have unique names. Some are already done. I've gone for descriptive names (Twin Lakes, Polar Rifts), names honoring (former) devs ( Silisko Sea) and for other bodies I have names based on fellow modders, OPM contributors as well as names from fiction (Slate will have some Middle-Earth inspired biome names). You're always welcome to pitch ideas for biome names. If I like them, I'll use them.

Kopernicus/HyperEdit devs are looking into it. @Rainbowd4sh Very nice!

@Thomas P. We noticed an issue with HyperEdit 1.5.3 and Kopernicus latest. New bodies freak out when both are installed. My way to reproduce it: And the HyperEdit dev did some testing:

Yes

This is how I could reproduce it just now. Have nothing installed but Kopernicus 1.2.0-2, Outer Planets Mod 1.2 and HyperEdit 1.5.3 Load up a sandbox save Launch or goto a vessel on the pad Warp this vessel to Hale (15k orbit is safe) For good measure, I ran the Windows 64-bit version of KSP on Steam.

Hi @Ezriilc, Just wanted to let you know that your mod might conflict with Kopernicus (the base mod for all planet packs). I've been testing my planet pack mod with HyperEdit and since I started using it this sometimes happens: One other person has reported the same behavior with the HyperEdit 1.5.3/Kopernicus 1.2.0-2 combo and another one hasn't yet confirmed, but was running HyperEdit.

Stock KSP now has similar functionality. Press Alt-F12. In the Cheats tab you can set the orbit now. It was introduced in 1.2 I think three people is enough to warrant me reporting this to the HyperEdit devs.

Do you have HyperEdit installed. I've been getting similar issues and I've tried loading the game with and without HyperEdit installed and it seems that without it I don't get that issue but with it I do. Could try with and without HyperEdit?

Of course not. I'd be happy to have them. These are just the normal-sized ones. Stumbled on it 5 min after it was uploaded. Was just about to ask Thomas if there had been progress.

I used the new Kittopia.

Been regenerating the normal maps for the OPM bodies, to fix the ugly ones that were in 1.2. Good results so far. http://imgur.com/a/THMRg Same resolution. P.S. Does anyone know how to embed Imgur albums these days?

Awesome! Was just about to tell you it didn't work in 1.2

Hi, OPM does indeed seems to work with 1.2 and the new Kopernicus. Started work on an update that's really designed for 1.2 though. KittopiaTech isn't updated yet, so I can't do anything I want yet but I've already started on making the biomes a bit prettier just like stock did with 1.2. I'll also add a config to make antennas work more sufficiently at the increased distances.

Could you send me some of the various resolutions you made, just for me to check out how it looks and what the impact would be, etc.?

Super cool. I've only done mission by HyperEditing to far away orbits like that for testing. It's so cool to see someone actually doing a real rover mission that far out! It's as random as normal KSP is. It only disables resources for the same kind of environments as stock KSP: gas giant and oceans. If you have the following mod though it's more varied, as is the idea of that mod. If you have the following mod you get procedural asteroids spawning in the rings of Saturn, and to a lesser degree Urlum.

That would've been for quite a while now. Can't remember clearly because it was so long ago, but I think I made this change in June 2015 looking at the logs. Why I made the atmosphere a bit shorter? To make the descent less tedious, as at it's very thick and slows you down a lot. No fun in spending who knows how many minutes descending at max physical warp. It's still not short, due to design of the moon, but it's just a little bit less tedious than before.

@Dstaal is right. If 1.2 is to be released the day after I might hold off on it but otherwise I'll release it when it'should done

Quick update: I just finished building my new PC. After downloading the GPU drivers KSP loaded and ran like a dream. An easy 60 FPS with everything maxed out. At this point in development actively developing was a chore on my old computer. It took ages to load up the game plus mod, which is okay if you want to play for an extended period of time, but not if you want to test, quit, change something, restart and so on. Other related tasks also took forever. With my new PC running smoothly I can start developing again without being bored and frustrated within 5 minutes. Give me a week too get up to speed though, as I've been dying to play GTA V which was unplayable on my old computer. After that, start looking forward to a OPM 2.1 update that solves all the issues that have accumulated over the past months as well as some actual progress on Inner Planets Mod.

Very nice!

Priax is a Trojan moon of Polta. So yes it is intended. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_(astronomy)

Quite a realistic looking moon you've made there. Good job on the excellent use of the procedural generation features.

http://imgur.com/a/dSI8H I tried that once before. Unless you have a really good texture you're going to get very noticeable pinching at the poles. Cloud_normal is a pretty good texture, which is why I used it. Your post did make try an experiment with rectangular normal maps. The result is quick and super exaggerated, but it show that it might be possible to make something that subtlety hints at there being different layers. Like here with this Cassini closeup of Saturn. I'll experiment with it.

No idea. I've been busy IRL and I've run into the same problem as you. It just takes forever and my system is a bit unstable, so I never get it done. I do agree that the textures I exported (did it with hacky version of another mod, as Kopernicus export didn't work then) don't have the same quality as the rest of the mod, If you get this done, I'll gladly implement these textures into the base game.

I'm planning on making Eve more like Venus, but still keep some of it's Eve-ness. No new planets. I haven't thought about size reductions yet. It wasn't part of the original concept for the mod, but I'll look into it. No new planets/moons. The mod is more about realizing a more fleshed out/interesting version of the original bodies, rather than really mixing stuff up with new orbits and radically different planets/moons.

I'm going on a short vacation this week. After that I'll look into updating this mod.