[WIP] Coatl Aerospace ProbesPlus Dev Thread [Beta] 10/19/2020 (1.8-1.10)

[fs10inator]

18 hours ago, akron said:

Update

Thank to everyone who stopped by the stream and chat and for all the continued feedback. KEEP IT COMING! We ended up getting on a discord channel, and I think we'll continue to, so you can provide some pretty direct feedback and ask questions.

Progress continued to re-organize the older textures and touch up details whenever possible. Quetzal got a lot of its panels re-done in 3D, but I didn't do any texture updates. Barquetta saw a lot of work, including new textures that increase the detail of the CF piece near the top. The new remapped UVs allow for easier changes to the main foil texture, which makes it possible to easily provide alternate textures which will provide via in-game texture switch. I also tweaked my foil texture so that it can be applied to other colors with a little bit of tweaking so I can have different color palettes while still using the same foil style so that the design stays consistent. After some color experimentation, here is the WIP of the slightly updated Barquetta (more to come) and some quick alternate textures (no specular map)

~Cheers

 

EDIT: Sorry it's a little dark. My Monitor is a lot brighter so I don't notice it right away. I will try better screenshots 

lel

[akron]

Quick little update. This weekend was a bust on mod work due to work and the subsequent exhaustion. I did get to update Quetzal to prep for the new texture layout. Torekka got some work done too, but nothing to show yet.Hopefully this week will be more productive. I am eager to get to the new stuff already!

[CptRichardson]

I'd kind of like to see a gold electroplated probe, maybe. It'd make sense, electroplate the casing with gold for radiation reflectivity, insulate the interior with padding or something. Or a gold-titanium alloy (since it turns out that's actually a thing)

[Jeb1969]

Neat, these alternative probe core textures look tremendous, I couldn't help but grin at fs10inator's texture, better break out the milk and OJ 

A scientific part of this complete breakfast 

I always guessed that eventually the feature of alternative textures would be implemented. 

 

[akron]

1 hour ago, CptRichardson said:

I'd kind of like to see a gold electroplated probe, maybe. It'd make sense, electroplate the casing with gold for radiation reflectivity, insulate the interior with padding or something. Or a gold-titanium alloy (since it turns out that's actually a thing)

I'd love to as well. I think if I do something like this it will be a side thing and not in the main mod for two reasons: First, KSP does not simulate any sort of (non-heat) radiation so it would be purely cosmetic. Second, because it is purely cosmetic, I may have to sacrifice that texture for something that is either more common or more generic, such as the ones seen above.

The way I am doing texture (Or trying to) isolates the side panels of each probe to a separate 512px texture sheet, making it easy for anyone to add additional panel textures and alternate colors. This reminds me, if anyone has a probe texture that they've made or want to be included, let me know. The four above are not final. I'll include whichever are the most popular.

1 hour ago, Jeb1969 said:

Neat, these alternative probe core textures look tremendous, I couldn't help but grin at fs10inator's texture, better break out the milk and OJ 

A scientific part of this complete breakfast 

I always guessed that eventually the feature of alternative textures would be implemented. 

Thanks! I always debate heavily before doing anything that makes the mod larger, more complex, or adds a new dependency. Alternate texture and remade parts should have been down the line, but after several questions and class-action feedback on the foil texture, I decided to escalate it. I may actually release these as soon as they are done as BETA 14 instead, pushing the rest of the propulsion stuff to BETA 15. I am almost certain that I will implement it with Firespitter instead of B9 partSwitch, but I am open to pros/cons if anyone is familiar with both. I feel Firespitter will open up additional functionality that may come in handy for animated parts, engines, and lander parts.

~Cheers

[komodo]

Potentially a user error question here, but is there a 'intended' mounting position for the Quetzal Extended Service Module? I can attach it fine, but that's just it; I can't see how its intended to attach to the parent Quetzal. I thought initially that it mounted underneath, and this seems closest, but it clips a fair bit. I then thought maybe it attaches around the rim, but... clips even worse. Am I just that uncreative? (Probably!, but I thought I would ask all the same.)

Thanks much!

[CobaltWolf]

20 minutes ago, komodo said:

Potentially a user error question here, but is there a 'intended' mounting position for the Quetzal Extended Service Module? I can attach it fine, but that's just it; I can't see how its intended to attach to the parent Quetzal. I thought initially that it mounted underneath, and this seems closest, but it clips a fair bit. I then thought maybe it attaches around the rim, but... clips even worse. Am I just that uncreative? (Probably!, but I thought I would ask all the same.)

Thanks much!

its there on the butt

[komodo]

2 minutes ago, CobaltWolf said:

its there on the butt

Huh. So it is. It makes sense upon seeing the actual article. I think my brain saw the shape and tried to mount it á la universal storage wedge style    

[akron]

Thanks CW! I haven't gotten on until today.

Quick update on the Friday stream. I've got some stuff going on tonight so I will not be doing an "official" stream. However, if I got done early and aren't super tired, I'll pop something online when I do any work. If I do not go out to visit my parent this weekend, I'll have another impromptu stream during the weekend as well to make up for the week and catch up!

~Cheers

Edited July 29, 2016 by akron

[CobaltWolf]

1 hour ago, akron said:

Thanks CW! I haven't gotten on until today.

Quick update on the Friday stream. I've got some stuff going on tonight so I will not be doing an "official" stream. However, if I got done early and aren't super tired, I'll pop something online when I do any work. If I do not go out to visit my parent this weekend, I'll have another impromptu stream during the weekend as well to make up for the week and catch up!

~Cheers

I can cover 4 u fam

[akron]

Just now, CobaltWolf said:

I can cover 4 u fam

Thanks. Go for it! If I get on later today, I'll just hop on your stream. I can't wait to see how much more you get done with Kane!

[CobaltWolf]

2 minutes ago, akron said:

Thanks. Go for it! If I get on later today, I'll just hop on your stream. I can't wait to see how much more you get done with Kane!

*Kanye

[komodo]

On July 20, 2016 at 9:21 AM, akron said:

Thank you. I should hopefully have time to do some mod work tonight. I will give it a try.

Other than the ISP, were there any other concerns or suggestions for the new RCS? I am thinking that I will ninja them into the the next patch for BETA 13 instead, to go along with the DM contract fix. Linkor/Fregat will wait for BETA 14 though.

I'm trying this patch (below); it ought to work, but it seems like it is snagging up somewhere... could someone else with DMagic installed give it a go, and see if it works? Or, am I typoing something blatantly obvious and i'm just blind. (This is an often occurrence!)

Spoiler

@DMContracts
{
	@DMMag
	{
		@Magnetometer_Parts ^= :$:,ca_magneto2
		@RPWS_Parts ^= :$:,ca_RPWS
	}
}

 

 

[akron]

54 minutes ago, komodo said:

I'm trying this patch (below); it ought to work, but it seems like it is snagging up somewhere... could someone else with DMagic installed give it a go, and see if it works? Or, am I typoing something blatantly obvious and i'm just blind. (This is an often occurrence!)

  Hide contents

@DMContracts
{
	@DMMag
	{
		@Magnetometer_Parts ^= :$:,ca_magneto2
		@RPWS_Parts ^= :$:,ca_RPWS
	}
}

 

 

I started testing this. Thanks @komodo!

EDIT: According to a MM_config dump, it works, but I haven't been able to recreate the contracts in-game

Edited August 2, 2016 by akron

[akron]

Quick Update:

Here is an initial pass on Torekka to make the panel texture interchangeable. I also got to thinking about what I will do with other parts. It will be quite a lot of work to make the science parts and utility parts also have this switching design, so at least for the time being, they will not. I will commit to this panel design for all current and future probe cores and large parts. If it works great and there is good feedback on it, I will consider re-doing the science and utility parts. What I will do though, is a quick pass on some to reduce the use of the "Coatl" foil if I can so you can mix other mods a little better. I am trying not to dwell on this too much though, so I can move on to new parts and get a release ready.

~Cheers

[akron]

We'll have a Twitch Dev Stream again tonight, at the usual 6:30p - 7p ish EST start time. I'll be having my first attempt at making these multi-texture parts work in-game. Time to figure out Firespitter!

~Cheers

[akron]

Stream is up!!

[akron]

Update

So I made a lot of progress towards getting the updated probes in-game. They're actually all in Unity but only Torekka made it in-game because it was the prototype for texture switching, which I did after a LOT of tweaking and figuring out Firespitter. But, it works! The panels now have both specualr and normal maps, but the CarbonFiber appears far too strong (noticeable in space) so I will have to tweak it.

There are a lot of tweaks to textures and models, with more poly detail added to all. Specially Torekka on the inside of the avionics ring. The new probes mean that textures are broken for a lot of parts, I'll be working to fix those so I can them in-game! Here are some progress shots. Sorry for the number of single pics, imgur is still broken!

~Cheers!

[Siege]

Posted information about this mod missing from CKAN to the CKAN thread.

Also, I have a little bit of extra free time these days, so if you need some assistance texturing (I used to be the lead texture artist for Mechwarrior: Living Legends, and run my own game studio these days - sorry about the website, we have other priorities right now), I might be able to help out. I can do a little modelling, but I'd prefer to stick primarily to textures, unwraps, and minor fixes to broken geometry. My software (Photoshop CC2015, 3DStudio Max 2014, Ultimate Unwrap 3D Pro) is all fully licensed to me through my company.

[akron]

Awesome! I will keep the offer in mind. My texture methods are very unorthodox and a little disorganized. It will be a little tough to collaborate with my current stuff. I looked at your moddb stuff very briefly. Nice normal maps!

Also, nice to see another Atlanta-area modder! Cheers!

 

On mod news, I have been working on the new "MAVEN" probe. Might do some more tonight. I'll post some screenshots once it looks good  Stream tomorrow for sure! Although it may be a little later due to work schedule. I will post an updated time tomorrow.

[Siege]

Lol, and here I thought you might have been from Akron, Ohio (where I have family).

I hear you on the disorganized texturing: I'm almost entirely self-taught (learned on the fly working for MW:LL, with a little help from the previous texture art lead, who vanished a month or two after I started learning it) and as a result, my methods too are a little... unorthodox - my .PSD's are a positive mess by some standards, but I manage to get it done anyway. Unfortunately, a lot of what I've done lately (aside from recoloring some maps for KSP) has been work on contract which, as a result, I don't own the rights to any longer, so I don't really have much recent to show for myself, but I think that "fun-grenade" on my ModDB profile does a decent job of showing where I'm at with it these days. Have also been considering picking up a copy of either the Quixel Suite or Substance Painter to use.

Anyway, if it gets to the point where you feel you could use some help, don't worry about methods and organization, just throw me what you have, tell me what you need, and I'll see what I can do to help. I prefer to have High- and Low-poly models in .OBJ or .MAX form, as well as an unwrap, though I can do without the highs and fake a normal map if I have to (KSP doesn't seem terribly reliant on normals anyway), and I can do the unwrapping if needed (it's not my favorite thing, but a necessary evil and one I'm used to doing). Everything else is a matter of taste and keeping the flavor with existing assets, I'd imagine, so if you have source material for things like the gold foil or whatever, or a specific color palette, just toss a .PSD or w/e for an already-extant similar asset, and I'll see what I can do to help.

ETA: I do have some ulterior motives for volunteering thus, namely to enable you to do more modding/modeling

And yes, very cool to find out you're a fellow ATLien  

Edited August 12, 2016 by Siege

[CobaltWolf]

3 hours ago, akron said:

On mod news, I have been working on the new "MAVEN" probe. Might do some more tonight. I'll post some screenshots once it looks good  Stream tomorrow for sure! Although it may be a little later due to work schedule. I will post an updated time tomorrow.

When are you gonna have that in game?

2 hours ago, Siege said:

ETA: I do have some ulterior motives for volunteering thus, namely to enable you to do more modding/modeling

And yes, very cool to find out you're a fellow ATLien  

@akron let's see how far we can go! Now we need to overwork @Siege and get someone to give THEM help!

@Siege that moddb stuff is nice, I never played any MW stuff - I was an Armored Core kid thru-and-thru.

Edited August 12, 2016 by CobaltWolf

[Stone Blue]

4 minutes ago, CobaltWolf said:

When are you gonna have that in game?

Soon™, of course... lol

[akron]

57 minutes ago, Stone Blue said:

Soon™, of course... lol

Indeed

It took a backseat to the other stuff. I still need to redo the RTG, batteries and reaction wheels. Actually, pretty much anything that uses or used the Probes_a_D texture needs to be remade, so I concentrated on those first.

[akron]

4 hours ago, Siege said:

Lol, and here I thought you might have been from Akron, Ohio (where I have family).

I hear you on the disorganized texturing: I'm almost entirely self-taught (learned on the fly working for MW:LL, with a little help from the previous texture art lead, who vanished a month or two after I started learning it) and as a result, my methods too are a little... unorthodox - my .PSD's are a positive mess by some standards, but I manage to get it done anyway. Unfortunately, a lot of what I've done lately (aside from recoloring some maps for KSP) has been work on contract which, as a result, I don't own the rights to any longer, so I don't really have much recent to show for myself, but I think that "fun-grenade" on my ModDB profile does a decent job of showing where I'm at with it these days. Have also been considering picking up a copy of either the Quixel Suite or Substance Painter to use.

Anyway, if it gets to the point where you feel you could use some help, don't worry about methods and organization, just throw me what you have, tell me what you need, and I'll see what I can do to help. I prefer to have High- and Low-poly models in .OBJ or .MAX form, as well as an unwrap, though I can do without the highs and fake a normal map if I have to (KSP doesn't seem terribly reliant on normals anyway), and I can do the unwrapping if needed (it's not my favorite thing, but a necessary evil and one I'm used to doing). Everything else is a matter of taste and keeping the flavor with existing assets, I'd imagine, so if you have source material for things like the gold foil or whatever, or a specific color palette, just toss a .PSD or w/e for an already-extant similar asset, and I'll see what I can do to help.

ETA: I do have some ulterior motives for volunteering thus, namely to enable you to do more modding/modeling

And yes, very cool to find out you're a fellow ATLien  

You know, my texture method actually streamlines the need for new stuff so that I can be lazy. I re-use a LOT of texture space. Pretty much every time I UV something, I do it looking for ways to re-use textures I already have such as to reduce the workload. This makes it hard to do proper shader mapping as done in other games or other mods. You'll actually find that I do not do high-poly meshes to render maps and the textures are 90% hand-drawn. I haven't done proper shader maps since school. I tried getting @CobaltWolf to do it on Kane/Apollo but he chickened out  found it best to continue his traditional methods.  

I'd love to collab on stuff though! Let me see what I can do. Even though you don't normally like to model the full mesh, if you want to make one of the probe parts from something you really like, I can work it in the mod. Maybe even the lander stuff. Stop by the stream tomorrow night, if you can. I'll show you what I mean on my texture work.

Edited August 12, 2016 by akron