[WIP][1.9.x-1.12.x] Scatterer-atmospheric scattering (0.0838 - 14/08/2022) Scattering improvements, in-game atmo generation and multi-sun support

[Ghosty141]

Did you try making your own config with the config tool ? But yeah, I encountered that problem too :/

[Alshain]

Did you try making your own config with the config tool ? But yeah, I encountered that problem too :/

I don't understand the config tool. It's a bit above my head.

[gerishnakov]

I've tried Scatterer for the first time today, having been using the atmospheric scattering from AVP throughout 1.0.4. Unfortunately when I go start a game as soon as the space centre loads my FPS drops to 1 and memory usage starts climbing fast and steady until I get a crash. Scatterer is definitely the cause of this; I've just tried again to start a game, this time without it, and now everything is fine.

[blackrack]

I'm trying this mod again, and every time I do I keep deleting it because the planet looks wrong from space. It looks beautiful near the ground but when you get up in space, well my neighbor has a power blue Prius that is darker blue than the planet and the land masses are way to washed out.

So, is there any way to adjust this so that the planet looks more like Earth or Astronomers Visual Pack instead of this. I really want to use this mod for the effects near the surface (plus Astronomers isn't being updated anymore and I want to use nuEVE), I know it seems small but it just drives me crazy for some reason.

Did you try tweaking the UI settings to make a new config? You can just fade the effect out by the time you get to orbit if you don't like it.

It looks like you're in the weird area between PQS and scaledspace, that one looks pretty bad right now but I'll be making the transition better soon.

Also, the washed-out landmasses have always been a problem, I have a couple new settings, but I'm also working on custom textures that compensate for the scatterer effects so it may look better in the next version.

Pictured texture is a WIP by another modder that I tweaked the contrast and colors for, you can see it already works better.

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Edited November 11, 2015 by blackrack

[Alshain]

Did you try tweaking the UI settings to make a new config? You can just fade the effect out by the time you get to orbit if you don't like it.

It looks like you're in the weird area between PQS and scaledspace, that one looks pretty bad right now but I'll be making the transition better soon.

Also, the washed-out landmasses have always been a problem, I have a couple new settings, but I'm also working on custom textures that compensate for the scatterer effects so it may look better in the next version.

Pictured texture is a WIP by another modder that I tweaked the contrast and colors for, you can see it already works better.

http://imgur.com/a/75EN5

That looks beautiful, exactly what I want. I looked at the config tool, I didn't know there was a UI in game, there is no button I can see. I understand this is a WIP and you may still be tuning it, but AVP and oldEVE are getting more "crashy" with every KSP patch so I'm out looking for alternatives.

EDIT: Oh, I just saw the second to last line in the original post. I'll take a look at that.

[blackrack]

Tried to add more detail to Kerbin by compositing it's texture with real satellite images, not fully satisfied with the results, will do more testing tomorrow

[sDaZe]

Tried to add more detail to Kerbin by compositing it's texture with real satellite images, not fully satisfied with the results, will do more testing tomorrow

http://i.imgur.com/vS0rtnH.jpg

OMG Cant wait to make a video

[V8jester]

Holy great mother of popsicle sticks!

[HerrGeneral]

Tried to add more detail to Kerbin by compositing it's texture with real satellite images, not fully satisfied with the results, will do more testing tomorrow

http://i.imgur.com/vS0rtnH.jpg

Hmm, yes. I believe the correct term for this particular development is "holy ****."

[tkw]

the kerbal space program has been changed evolution

[CalculusWarrior]

Tried to add more detail to Kerbin by compositing it's texture with real satellite images, not fully satisfied with the results, will do more testing tomorrow

http://i.imgur.com/vS0rtnH.jpg

That is absolutely gorgeous. Well done, blackrack! XD

[sashan]

Tried to add more detail to Kerbin by compositing it's texture with real satellite images, not fully satisfied with the results, will do more testing tomorrow

http://i.imgur.com/vS0rtnH.jpg

OMG that's awesome!

Now that brings up an old question - what about that water overhaul? Water is one of the main things that drags KSP graphics down.

[Jovzin]

Tried to add more detail to Kerbin by compositing it's texture with real satellite images, not fully satisfied with the results, will do more testing tomorrow

http://i.imgur.com/vS0rtnH.jpg

I think Archelle Kerman on that picture is showing my expression right now

[blackrack]

OMG that's awesome!

Now that brings up an old question - what about that water overhaul? Water is one of the main things that drags KSP graphics down.

Probably next after multiplanets or godrays.

[blackrack]

Another quick try I made today:

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The features I added may not really match the terrain or make sense geographically, but bear with me here, I'm just trying to valdiate this approach.

The biggest problem right now is that I don't know how to create matching normalmaps for the features I added. I'm assuming there are tools out there that do this automatically but something tells me these won't really do a good job at it. Any ideas?

Edited: Trying with crazybump right now, seems pretty good.

Edited November 12, 2015 by blackrack

[pingopete]

Another quick try I made today:

http://imgur.com/a/sZ4Bv

The features I added may not really match the terrain or make sense geographically, but bear with me here, I'm just trying to valdiate this approach.

The biggest problem right now is that I don't know how to create matching normalmaps for the features I added. I'm assuming there are tools out there that do this automatically but something tells me these won't really do a good job at it. Any ideas?

I've been wondering about this too. You can make SE export multi layered terrain maps so like bump, normals and colour, maybe the best bet.

Also what are you using to put in those textures? Cos EVE's terrain normals aren't working yet

[HafCoJoe]

I might even try asking one of the texture modders out there to create a detailed surface map for the various planets. I'm not skilled enough but I bet Proot is. - This might be an unrelated response though.

[V8jester]

Hey have you used the NVidia normal map tool for Photoshop? Works pretty good really. I used it when I bump mapped a texture pack in minecraft - look up "Minecraft Rain" on Youtube if you want to see what I mean. I copied that guys texture bump map method.

[blackrack]

Also what are you using to put in those textures? Cos EVE's terrain normals aren't working yet

Using good old textureReplacer and photoshop

Currently generating normalmaps with crazybump, will layer them at the same time I layer on some detail so in theory it should work ok. I really want to try using satellite images for this so probably will keep away from exporting SE terrain.

I might even try asking one of the texture modders out there to create a detailed surface map for the various planets. I'm not skilled enough but I bet Proot is. - This might be an unrelated response though.

Hey have you used the NVidia normal map tool for Photoshop? Works pretty good really. I used it when I bump mapped a texture pack in minecraft - look up "Minecraft Rain" on Youtube if you want to see what I mean. I copied that guys texture bump map method.

Proot gave me some good pointers already. Let me try this method then we'll see.

Edited: Anyone knows how to convert from KSP's normalmaps format (weird gray with alpha channel) to regular RGB normalmap? This would ease the editing process.

Edited November 12, 2015 by blackrack

[HafCoJoe]

What you're looking for is a bump map to normal map converter. I haven't tested this site out too much but I've messed with it in the past. Is this what you're looking for?

http://cpetry.github.io/NormalMap-Online/

[blackrack]

What you're looking for is a bump map to normal map converter. I haven't tested this site out too much but I've messed with it in the past. Is this what you're looking for?

http://cpetry.github.io/NormalMap-Online/

Not sure actually, but that website doesn't seem to convert bump/whatever to normalmap

Edited: normalmaps are working, but they're kinda weird because they are tool generated and they don't reallymake that much of a difference. The process was also a pain.

Anyway:

Also, reaslitically speaking, how overkill would it be to have a 16k kerbin texture? That should be about 160mb as a .dds file.

Edited November 12, 2015 by blackrack

[rbray89]

Not sure actually, but that website doesn't seem to convert bump/whatever to normalmap

Edited: normalmaps are working, but they're kinda weird because they are tool generated and they don't reallymake that much of a difference. The process was also a pain.

Anyway:

http://i.imgur.com/MxJT87s.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/WJdgaRM.jpg

Also, reaslitically speaking, how overkill would it be to have a 16k kerbin texture? That should be about 160mb as a .dds file.

There would be a limit... I think it is 8K for unity (and most hardware) but I could be wrong.

[The-Bean]

That looks awesome. The colors remind me of false color images from Earth orbit.

Regarding texture sizes--is it possible to split a single planet texture into multiple pieces? Having, say, 4 separate 4k textures and having any texture(s) on the other side of the planet not being rendered in full quality (while not in view)?

[rbray89]

That looks awesome. The colors remind me of false color images from Earth orbit.

Regarding texture sizes--is it possible to split a single planet texture into multiple pieces? Having, say, 4 separate 4k textures and having any texture(s) on the other side of the planet not being rendered in full quality (while not in view)?

Very possible. You'd have to create a special shader to do this though.

[blackrack]

Very possible. You'd have to create a special shader to do this though.

Btw I noticed something really weird the other day, while testing multiplanet support I noticed memory was never freed after unloading a planet (from scatterer). I was doing everything correctly so this was completely weird. I decided to just call the collector myself after each unload operation and it just worked, memory was being freed correctly and everything. So what the hell, does KSP never call the collector on it's own?

Edited November 12, 2015 by blackrack