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[WIP] Dangerously Shaded Stock Refresh


DangerouslyDave

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A recent Devnote revealed that the upcoming, ever looming 1.1 update will bring with it an overhaul to the part shaders, and will be using the Unity 5 standard shader:

Quote

The two shaders are very different though, the new standard shader is a physical based rendering model, which means different inputs (for example smoothness and gloss) and outputs (such as metalness and occlusion) are now required and given. Reworking all the textures from scratch is out of the question because it would simply take far too much time, so a conversion had to be worked out and it ended up working quite well. 

Given that the default parts won't have reworked textures, I decided this was an opportunity to create a set of parts tailored specifically to the new shader and render model. Of course, since they will be created for the new shader, these parts won't be available for use in-game until soon after the update is released. I figured this will provide me with a window of time to get ahead of the game, so to speak.

Without further ado, here are the parts in progress so far:

This project is in very early development, and as such it's very flexible to feedback as I go along. Please speak up if you have ideas, I'd love to include as much input from the community as possible!

 

DOWNLOAD:

Github

 

An extra big thanks to @Shadowmage for the use of thier SSTU plugin for parachutes and heat shields!

 

Edited by DangerouslyDave
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It looks stellar, but you'd really need to either make it look more stockish, or provide us with a pack of many many parts, as one issue with many mods is that they do kinda clash with stock parts, to the point that it ruins immersion if you have 1 mod part and then the rest of your rocket is stock (looks very weird).  Even mods i used to use in the past had this issue, for example B9 had a different art style then stock, and thus you really couldnt combine the 2 and maintain a good look.  Your new pod has that same issue, it just does not fit in with stock parts well.

Aside from that, it looks a tad too high detail for implementation.  I dont know exactly what the average poly-count is for a stock KSP part, but yours looks like it came out of a super HD game, and not KSP.  I think you should try to lower polys, maybee not too the point of being as bad as stock with detail, but at least enough so that it wouldnt be like 5 times the polycount of current parts.

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I don't care much for how the stock parts look, at all. So this is a very very welcome mod in my opinion. Almost all the stock parts in the game should have gotten a texture overhaul ages ago. I usually go ahead and delete all stock parts from the game as a soon as a new version is released, and then cram it full of parts from other mods that does the exact same job and looks a whole lot better.

If your goal is to overhaul the textures for all stock parts, I might just leave them in the game for once :) Keep up the great work! Looks amazing

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I don't think 3k triangles is very high (an orange tank, for instance, has almost 2k). I'm guessing a lot of that count comes from the details, those ladder rungs, the doodads on the top, etc... but regardless, triangle count is not really a concern unless you're getting to something like 10k or above (and that's only really a problem for parts that you expect to have a lot of).

Edited by DMagic
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Wow, I wasn't expecting such a great reaction That definitely kicks me into gear.

On 12/13/2015, 8:35:05, wasml said:

That is very nice, detail is fantastic - whats the texture size on that?

The textures in the screenshots above are 4K and 2K respectively (that's 3 maps- albedo, metalness, and normal), but I'm open to generating multiple sizes to fit different memory budgets.

23 hours ago, curtquarquesso said:

This is probably the best looking part I've ever seen. I cannot wait for new shaders. 

Do you actually plan on going through each and every part, or are you just dabbling?

I'm trying to stay realistic for now. Given the reaction, I'd love to keep at this and see how far I can get. Initially, I'm hoping to work towards completing a set of 1.25m parts, as well as a few utilities to fit with them. Any specific requests?

15 hours ago, panzer1b said:

It looks stellar, but you'd really need to either make it look more stockish, or provide us with a pack of many many parts...

...I think you should try to lower polys, maybee not too the point of being as bad as stock with detail, but at least enough so that it wouldnt be like 5 times the polycount of current parts.

Your points are well taken. I was trying to go for an uprezzed stock look, but I may have missed the mark a little. I'm currently working on the next part, but I'll circle back around and see if I can simplify some of the shapes. I do think this will require a delicate balance of fitting with the stock parts, but maintaining the quality I'm hoping to hit.

11 hours ago, NathanKell said:

As to the tricount, 3k is totally fine IMO. As long as your colliders are cheap, the visual geometry can be plenty complex.

Thanks for the tip! It sounds like I'll need to do a little reading up about what the limits really are. In trying to maintain a stock-alike look, one of the things I tried to do was keep the silhouette very simple, which seems like it will lend itself well to a simple colllider mesh.

 

On to what I'm working on now. I'd like to provide an upgrade path for specific parts as you progress through the science tree. With a command pod, for instance, the first pod would have the barebone functions like SAS. Later, you would unlock a part that replaces the initial pod with upgraded features, such as built in RCS thrusters and/or parachutes. These additional features would come in at roughly the same cost and weight, chalked up to advancements in "science". Let me know if this sounds like something you all would be interested in.

So here's that second pod I mentioned. As the last one was loosely based off of the Mercury spacecraft, this one is inspired by the Dragon capsule. You're seeing this much earlier in development, so take it with a grain of salt. 

6HPQ98u.gif

This is a quick animation test of a potential option for parachute deployment. The pod is symmetrical, so a parachute would deploy from either side, and would be repack-able upon landing (triggering the hatches to return inward).

Hopefully this wasn't too large a wall of text. Let me know what you think. These early posts are a great opportunity to correct course if things are heading in the wrong direction.

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Amazing! Why would high tris-count be a problem anyway? Its not like KSP needs lots of GPU power, so its time my graphics card earns its money. Also high resolution textures shouldnt be a problem with 1.1, which you will wait for anyway.

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Your pod with the new shaders looks great!

 

7 hours ago, DangerouslyDave said:

This is a quick animation test of a potential option for parachute deployment. The pod is symmetrical, so a parachute would deploy from either side, and would be repack-able upon landing (triggering the hatches to return inward).

 

The pod will very likely flip upside down when those chutes deploy, since the attachments is below the center of gravity. Probably want to relocate them towards the top.

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17 hours ago, cxg2827 said:

The pod will very likely flip upside down when those chutes deploy, since the attachments is below the center of gravity. Probably want to relocate them towards the top.

Whoops! Good catch. I was using the real life Dragon's parachute location as a guide, but apparently the parachute cords tear through its heat protection layer and attach up top like you mentioned.

Anywho, here's an update on the second pod:

FC6Y787.png

This is with the normal and material definition passes done. I still need to add some decals, details, and weathering around things like the RCS ports. Anything specific you all would like to see printed on this guy? Also, I'm considering adding a couple ladder rungs to this pod as well... let me know what you think.

By the way, if anyone knows, I'd like to update the imgur album on the first post as parts get added, but the additions aren't being propagated to the post. Is there some way I can force it to refresh without creating a whole new album each time?

Edited by DangerouslyDave
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Alright, so the first engine high-poly is tentatively finished. This is based off of the Redstone engine, and I've gone through and tried to simplify the form as much as possible to match the stock KSP aesthetic. I am not very well versed in the mechanics of these engines, however.

I would love some feedback regarding the functionality of this thing. Are there any major pieces absent or misplaced?

5NjAb8C.png

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  • 4 weeks later...

Got back into the swing of things this week after the holidays. I wasn't really happy with the Redstone engine, so I wen't back and revised it. Taking inspiration from Ven's jaw-dropping work, I decided to add a ring to smooth the transition from fuel tanks, and squished the engine to fit the stock bounding box. The proportions aren't 100% to the real counterpart, but I think it looks a lot more Kerbal now. I also took a closer look at some engine flow diagrams, and the fuel lines/steam turbine should all be in the right spot now. Also took the opportunity to play with emissives.

01SSVUs.png

By the way, this engine is meant to replace the LV-T30. Next, I'll be working on an LR-105 Sustainer Engine to replace the LV-T45.

As always, critiques are more than welcome. Specifically, the upper ring is devoid of detail right now, any ideas on what you'd like to see up there?

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These look very nice! One thing though - if your going for realism I believe the hottest part of the engine would be the constriction at the base of the nozzle so the glow should be brightest there.

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4 hours ago, wasml said:

These look very nice! One thing though - if your going for realism I believe the hottest part of the engine would be the constriction at the base of the nozzle so the glow should be brightest there.

Thanks for the tip! I'll update the emissives next. Unfortunately I was just finishing up the Atlas Sustainer before I read that so I'll have to make the change here as well. 

Here's the next engine out of the assembly line:

moXB5LR.png

I'll be playing with the gimbal animations next. 

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That.

 

On emissives, yep, the issue here is that the combustion chamber is where it gets hottest, but that's very strongly regeneratively cooled. The nozzle throat has a bit less cooling and glows, and the glow gradually fades out as you go down the nozzle because the flow expands and cools, thus doubly reducing heating. Indeed, that's why the base of a nozzle is often black (see e.g. RL10B or Merlin 1D Vac), because it's cool enough there you can get away with using radiatively cooled RCC rather than fully regeneratively cooling all the way down.

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