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[WIP][1.8.x] SSTULabs - Low Part Count Solutions (Orbiters, Landers, Lifters) - Dev Thread [11-18-18]

Shadowmage

By Shadowmage
in KSP1 Mod Development

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Shadowmage

Shadowmage

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45 minutes ago, Temeter said:

Man, now I'm envious for tater!

So Shadowmage, do you, uh, accidently have taters link lying around for... testing... yes, testing it was? :D

Sadly I don't really feel comfortable sharing the testing release; it is quite unstable, and much is still in flux.  Certainly it works enough to grab some screenshots, but isn't really usable.

The good news is that I'm planning on pushing out a release tomorrow or sunday (likely Sunday).  I'm nearly finished with setting up the stand-alone shader-tools / texture-tools / model-tools mod/api (the platform/OS testing was the last big missing piece), so once that is done its just a matter of texture and config work.  Aiming to have all of the recolorable parts working with the PBR shader for this release, though there might be a few holdouts (problematic mask setups...).

(EDIT:  if truly interested -- all of the stuff is available on the Github 'recoloringExpansion' branch; its use however is unsupported... you are on your own :))

 

12 hours ago, vossiewulf said:

Everything you're saying about your CM is right on track. The tape is a bit too obvious but you're correct that KSP is the actual standard and you have to work to the results you see there.

A thin layer of inconsistent dust is a good idea on everything, I'm sure that's exactly what it had when it flew, and about 10 seconds after it started flying the nice white CM cover was probably coated in smashed bugs.

I was a bit concerned with adding grunge/etc to the textures originally, but after playing around with the settings... its the only proper way to do it.  Previously I had some rather strong and noisy AO bakes that added a bit of grunge to stuff, but with the new rendering the AO is much subdued;  along with a thin-layer of universal dust, a slightly stronger layer of AO-based dust/dirt also helps things look much more connected.  Might even be something resembling some scratches and dings showing up in the textures (though certainly not to the extent seen in stock textures).

12 hours ago, vossiewulf said:

Confused about the text comment though, as I remember putting arbitrary text on my SP models and I didn't bring in any special filters, there are fonts in the alphas part of the shelf. I might have had to do it letter by letter, that what you mean?

I actually did find some text tools in one of the folders eventually (after I had made the comment / already made my multi-font-capable text setup).  I think they were under Alphas?   So yes, apparently some text-tools do exist in SP now, my original statement was in error.

12 hours ago, vossiewulf said:

Also I was wondering why I don't see more people using GMAX, it's 10 years old now but you know how much has changed in the core modeling functions of MAX in the last 10 years?

Probably, mostly, lack of advertisement?  The first time I had heard of it was when you mentioned it in one of our conversations.  Apparently the only way to get it anymore is from TurboSquid, and it is entirely unsupported, and undocumented.

 

12 hours ago, vossiewulf said:

Everything you're saying about your CM is right on track. The tape is a bit too obvious but you're correct that KSP is the actual standard and you have to work to the results you see there.

Yeah, I've removed the normals from the tape seams entirely (they were already at the lowest difference that the height-map can support), as well as reducing the normal intensity for the warp and wrinkle.  I left in place a bit of roughness/metallic/diffuse on the tape-seams though.  As a result they are nearly invisible except for under certain lighting and view angles -- which is about right.  Regardless of angle, they disappear entirely when zoomed out past a certain point... which is exactly what I was going for.

I also did adjust the coloring on the heat-shield a bit, brought it to much closer to the color swatch you had posted.  Less brown, more red, slightly less saturated. (can be seen a tiny bit in the last pic I posted).  Have one more pass to do on the SM, as the metal for the body is still not quite right (that SM is... HARD... to figure out; such complex lighting results from a seemingly simple material setup).

 

Edited by Shadowmage
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Shadowmage

Shadowmage

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Hmm... thoughts on the name for the upcoming stand-alone shader utility mod?

Textures Unlimited

As it is much more than just a shader-pack, and encompasses quite a bit of texture-related functionality.  I think the name is quite appropriate as it really removes the limitations regarding textures that exist in the stock game setup, and more people are familiar with the word 'textures' than 'shaders'.  It also has some asset-bundle-based model-loading functions that are not expressed in that name... but they are kind of a 'bonus' feature.

(open to other suggestions if anyone has some; the functions of the add-on will be loading shaders and texture-set handling; need to decide on name before I can release it, and need to get it released before I can do the next SSTU update)

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Temeter

Temeter

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7 hours ago, Shadowmage said:

Sadly I don't really feel comfortable sharing the testing release; it is quite unstable, and much is still in flux.  Certainly it works enough to grab some screenshots, but isn't really usable.

The good news is that I'm planning on pushing out a release tomorrow or sunday (likely Sunday).  I'm nearly finished with setting up the stand-alone shader-tools / texture-tools / model-tools mod/api (the platform/OS testing was the last big missing piece), so once that is done its just a matter of texture and config work.  Aiming to have all of the recolorable parts working with the PBR shader for this release, though there might be a few holdouts (problematic mask setups...).

(EDIT:  if truly interested -- all of the stuff is available on the Github 'recoloringExpansion' branch; its use however is unsupported... you are on your own :))

Haha, only if you don't mind of course; i imagine every dev has it's own ethos and I want to respect that. I really just wanted to attempt a fun screenshot, trying if it's workable (dependant on the state of implementation ofc).

I was checking the dev expansion originally, but that's ofc just the prerelease. Not sure how silly me missed the recoloringExpansion.^^

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Temeter

Temeter

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Question, how do I allow greater scales? Eg, to take a circular tank and make it more than 10m diameter.

I tried to change the number in the research, but that won't work. Basically this,  SC-MFT-S.cfg:

Quote

        UPGRADE
        {
            name__ = SSTU-MFT-D6
            maxTankDiameter = 50
        }

Doesn't seem to be enough. What am I doing wrong? Is there a hardcoded limit?

Edited by Temeter
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White Owl

White Owl

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18 hours ago, Shadowmage said:

Hmm... thoughts on the name for the upcoming stand-alone shader utility mod?

Chrome Everything

It's Soooo Shiny

Eye of the Beholder

Sunglasses Required

Magic Mirror

Shinier Than Sputnik

Polished Metal

Bling yo Rocket

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Shadowmage

Shadowmage

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23 minutes ago, Temeter said:

Question, how do I allow greater scales? Eg, to take a circular tank and make it more than 10m diameter.

I tried to change the number in the research, but that won't work. Basically this,  SC-MFT-S.cfg:

Doesn't seem to be enough. What am I doing wrong? Is there a hardcoded limit?

That should work (if I'm reading it properly).  But... you need to pull a new tank out of the editor window.  I do not believe the upgrades are applied a 2n'd time to existing tanks/craft.

 

14 minutes ago, White Owl said:

Magic Mirror

If there wasn't already a ModuleManager with those initials, I would so use that name :)

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Shadowmage

Shadowmage

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20 minutes ago, tater said:

Wow, that looks really nice.

Still much more improvement to come; the solar panels are still using legacy rendering, as are the trusses and a few other parts.  Certainly a few steps up from what you can achieve with stock parts and shaders though.

Sadly, it doesn't look nearly as good without scatterer/eve; the nice light blue hue is replaced by a bit darker blue from the stock planet coloring.

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Temeter

Temeter

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Gotta say I was surprised how much freedom to have in recoloring stuff. Neat!

6 hours ago, Shadowmage said:

That should work (if I'm reading it properly).  But... you need to pull a new tank out of the editor window.  I do not believe the upgrades are applied a 2n'd time to existing tanks/craft.

I restarted the game and even started a new savefile. I dunno *head scratch*

edit: Nvm, apparently I made a safety copy of the .cfg, but didn't change the ending xD

Edited by Temeter
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