Best graphics mods for 1.3

[Ulico]

I know this question had probably been asked many times, but I want to know what graphical mods I should get for my 1.3 install. I've seen many great mods, but I've had lots of trouble getting them to work with the latest version. What are you guys using? Thanks for the help!

[TronX33]

In my opinion, the basic must-have visual mods are Scatterer, Environmental Visual Enhancements, Kopernicus, and  Stock Visual Terrain. Scatterer for some beautiful atmospheric scattering, and much better looking ocean, EVE for clouds, city lights, etc. Now Kopernicus is more of a dependency for some these visual mods, but it makes it possible for modders to add things like rings to Jools. Stock Visual Terrain improves the terrain textures for the game and make it look better.

Now, if your PC isn't a potato like mine, Stock Visual Enhancements are configs for EVE and Scatterer (I think Kopernicus?) that add even higher quality clouds, atmospheres, atmosphere designs (like a really thick cloudy more pinkish Eve) but is pretty demanding.

A slightly not as demanding config would probably be Astronomer's visual pack or the Kerbal Renaissance pack.

Edit 7/31/17: I have been informed by the current developer of Astronomer's Visual Pack @themaster401 thatAstronomer's pack and KSPRC are more demanding than Stock Visual Enhancements, so it might jsut be an issue on my end. As such, what I said before is wrong. I don't want to be spreading false information.

Edited July 31, 2017 by TronX33
Incorrect statement

[Clonos]

I recommend using Astronomers Visual Pack, KSPRC and something like Better Atmospheres. But be warned, these 3 mods take a metric-ton of memory and stuff.

 

Or, take it easy, and use Andromeda Visuals: Daydream. Nice mod, but remember to update Scatterer to 1.3, or flying tiles will occur.

Edited July 24, 2017 by GenesisPlayz

[ModerndayLink]

If you want to use a visual mod that looks good without scatterer, I would recommend sci-if visual enhancements or para sci visual enhancements.

Edited July 24, 2017 by ModerndayLink64

[KerbMav]

Never forget TextureReplacer(Replaced) (new version, already working) and a nice box of different Kerbal heads and a new skybox.

[Clonos]

On ‎24‎-‎7‎-‎2017 at 4:33 PM, KerbMav said:

Never forget TextureReplacer(Replaced) (new version, already working) and a nice box of different Kerbal heads and a new skybox.

Indeed! As i said, about that Andromeda Visuals, it includes a 1.3 offical TextureReplacer.

[SamBelanger]

@Ulico I advise you to go see my mod OptionalAtmosphere

 

 

[Spaceception]

I recommend Andromeda daydream, that's a great visual pack. It's in Addon releases, and has a really amazing overhaul coming in the few couple months,

Seriously, it's incredible.

Edited July 29, 2017 by Spaceception

[themaster401]

On 7/23/2017 at 11:45 PM, TronX33 said:

In my opinion, the basic must-have visual mods are Scatterer, Environmental Visual Enhancements, Kopernicus, and  Stock Visual Terrain. Scatterer for some beautiful atmospheric scattering, and much better looking ocean, EVE for clouds, city lights, etc. Now Kopernicus is more of a dependency for some these visual mods, but it makes it possible for modders to add things like rings to Jools. Stock Visual Terrain improves the terrain textures for the game and make it look better.

Now, if your PC isn't a potato like mine, Stock Visual Enhancements are configs for EVE and Scatterer (I think Kopernicus?) that add even higher quality clouds, atmospheres, atmosphere designs (like a really thick cloudy more pinkish Eve) but is pretty demanding.

A slightly not as demanding config would probably be Astronomer's visual pack or the Kerbal Renaissance pack.

Both my pack and KSPRC demand much more from a system than SVE because of many extra features and textures.

Andromeda Visuals is mostly the same as AVP (at one time, exactly the same), though it currently misses out on newer features and benefited visuals as a result of using an E.V.E. 7-4 port. AVP has a version running on this E.V.E. 7-4 port for lower-end systems that runs alongside the main branch.

Edited July 29, 2017 by themaster401

[Ulico]

On 7/29/2017 at 3:20 PM, SamBelanger said:

@Ulico I advise you to go see my mod OptionalAtmosphere

 

 

Looks cool, but I don't really want to change how the game works, just how it looks!

[SamBelanger]

12 minutes ago, Ulico said:

Looks cool, but I don't really want to change how the game works, just how it looks!

it's correct

[TronX33]

On 7/29/2017 at 4:29 PM, themaster401 said:

Both my pack and KSPRC demand much more from a system than SVE because of many extra features and textures.

Andromeda Visuals is mostly the same as AVP (at one time, exactly the same), though it currently misses out on newer features and benefited visuals as a result of using an E.V.E. 7-4 port. AVP has a version running on this E.V.E. 7-4 port for lower-end systems that runs alongside the main branch.

Interesting. When I installed SVE my frames dropped quite a bit. I'll edit my post to reflect your insights however. Thanks for the correction.

[Matchlight]

On 7/28/2017 at 2:24 AM, GenesisPlayz said:

Indeed! As i said, about that Andromeda Visuals, it includes a 1.3 offical TextureReplacer.

eyyy good to see it still lives on despite my absence. If I can get a hold of someone who's good with this stuff then the mod can easily be revived since I have the next 2 months free and I'm getting a kick-ass PC so it may return!

[Galileo]

Scatterer is dropping EVE 7-4 compatibility in the next release, so there is that...

Edited November 30, 2017 by Galileo

[Not Sure]

I have a high end Mac but that doesn’t mean I can run AVP without 8fps. My current visuals are Scatterer and SciFi Visuals, I seriously suggest giving sci-fi a try, just because it’s made for low end machines doesn’t mean it’s worse in any way. However if you use scatter as well you should remove the atmo.cfg just to get rid of the light glaze that scatterer does better. (I highly recommend turning off ocean shaders to gain FPS, it’s just not worth it imo)

SVT is optional but recommended from me, as most planets don’t have atmospheres so it’s nice to have a refresh on every body. 

Distant object enhancement makes anything in space look more cinematic with very little FPS loss. 

Getting kopernicus and taking only the Jool rings from SVE will add some very nice rings to jool with proper shadows thanks to scatterer.

[Galileo]

5 minutes ago, Not Sure said:

However if you use scatter as well you should remove the atmo.cfg just to get rid of the light glaze that scatterer does better. (I highly recommend turning off ocean shaders to gain FPS, it’s just not worth it imo)

I would not delete the atmo cfg. That will spam your console with null ref as the scatterer dll will be searching for, and not finding the information it needs. Turning off the ocean shaders is recommended if you you need to squeeze more performance out of your game.

[Not Sure]

2 minutes ago, Galileo said:

I would not delete the atmo cfg. That will spam your console with null ref as the scatterer dll will be searching for, and not finding the information it needs. Turning off the ocean shaders is recommended if you you need to squeeze more performance out of your game.

Is it? I thought it was that glaze that planets had for if you don’t have scatterer installed, I’ll have to mess with it when I get home.

Edited November 30, 2017 by Not Sure

[Galileo]

2 minutes ago, Not Sure said:

Is it? I thought it was that glaze that planets had for if you don’t have scatterer installed, I’ll have to mess with it when I get home.

The scatterer atmo cfg is what renders the visual atmospheres for scatterer..

[Not Sure]

Just now, Galileo said:

The scatterer atmo cfg is what renders the visual atmospheres for scatterer..

Right, but the cfg in sci-fi does not need scatterer to take effect, I’m not even sure if it’s called atmo.cfg again I’ll have to dig around when I’m home, you may be correct.

[Gameslinx]

15 minutes ago, Not Sure said:

you may be correct.

Meaning... he IS correct, since he knows what he's talking about.

[Not Sure]

1 hour ago, Gameslinx said:

Meaning... he IS correct, since he knows what he's talking about.

hey, never said he wasn't, i just cant agree for the time being.

1 hour ago, Galileo said:

The scatterer atmo cfg is what renders the visual atmospheres for scatterer..

actually, you can find that i was correct by looking at the scifi visuals readme, it says 

Quote

Note for scatterer users:
*You may want to disable the "atmosphere" effects because they are kinda redundant and scatterer does it better anyways.  To do this go into the scifivisualenchancements/atmosphere folder and delete the "atmo.cfg" file located there.

 

[MoridinUK]

I'm in an early career game and just tried scatterer! It all looked awesome but trying to put down in a specific kerbal bio (I need to be splashed down in tundra!) is impossible due to the the clouds! I've removed the mod so I can try to complete the mission, but any suggestions? I couldn't see how to turn the clouds on or off?

 

Or should I be trying something else like a different mod? My pc isn't grand, i5 46somethignsomething and an old 2gb gtx 560 Ti

 

Edited December 7, 2017 by MoridinUK

[Galileo]

4 minutes ago, MoridinUK said:

I'm in an early career game and just tried scatterer! It all looked awesome but trying to put down in a specific kerbal bio (I need to be splashed down in tundra!) is impossible due to the the clouds! I've removed the mod so I can try to complete the mission, but any suggestions? I couldn't see how to turn the clouds on or off?

 

Gee, I wonder how NASA ever landed on a body with clouds. I’m sure they turned off the clouds...  

 

Edited December 7, 2017 by Galileo

[MoridinUK]

While that's a valid response, NASA does this full time, I get less than an hour a day to play at it!  And both my maths and launches are way too rusty to manage it blind!  I can't even figure out where I want to try to land! lmao...

Edit: without trajectories mod I'm not sure I'd ever land where I wanted too...

Edited December 7, 2017 by MoridinUK

[Not Sure]

45 minutes ago, MoridinUK said:

While that's a valid response, NASA does this full time, I get less than an hour a day to play at it!  And both my maths and launches are way too rusty to manage it blind!  I can't even figure out where I want to try to land! lmao...

Edit: without trajectories mod I'm not sure I'd ever land where I wanted too...

You could place a satilite in orbit and use whatever that new function is that they brought into 1.2 (just forgot the name) and toggle it so that it displays biomes then just set a waypoint in that biome and land as close as you can to there.