Making Mods

[Woj]

Hi all,

Where would someone start if they wanted to make a mod for kerbal?  Some sort of science module for example, like an infrared telescope.  Is there any documentation for making mods that anyone knows of.

 

Thanks in advance!

[Chel]

If you wanted advice about modding, then I would go to the 'Add-on Development' or 'Add-on Discussion' subforums. If you want help in creating a mod, then go to the 'Development' forum, and if you want to request a mod, then go to the 'Discussion' forum.

Edited September 5, 2017 by The_Cat_In_Space

[technicalfool]

8 hours ago, The_Cat_In_Space said:

If you wanted advice about modding, then I would go to the 'Add-on Development' or 'Add-on Discussion' subforums. If you want help in creating a mod, then go to the 'Development' forum, and if you want to request a mod, then go to the 'Discussion' forum.

Eh, probably.

Movinated.

[Benjamin Kerman]

9 hours ago, Woj said:

Hi all,

Where would someone start if they wanted to make a mod for kerbal?  Some sort of science module for example, like an infrared telescope.  Is there any documentation for making mods that anyone knows of.

 

Thanks in advance!

Start with cfg editing, then move on to simple plugins. Learn what the different stock modules do, and then start making your own through plugins and doing other stuff.

[technicalfool]

9 minutes ago, Benjamin Kerman said:

Start with cfg editing, then move on to simple plugins. Learn what the different stock modules do, and then start making your own through plugins and doing other stuff.

Speaking of that, learning ModuleManager (a kind of meta-mod in itself) will allow you to do CFG edits without actually clobbering the stock CFG files. It also means that if you make something awesome, you can distribute it as your own mod (without clobbering everyone's stock CFG files).

[Woj]

Thanks for the advice everyone.  I started looking at the .cfg files.  can anyone tell me what the format that these files are in is called? 

In the file I find things like this "allowCrewHelmet = false"  Where is allowcrewhelmet defined and what are items like this named.  What I mean is allowcrewhelmet called a parameter or a variable or what?

 I can assume what it means pretty easy but how does the game know what to do with it. 

Also, where would you find what other choices other than "false" are valid for entry here.

I also found  .mu and .dds What are these called and what do you use to edit or open them?

It was also suggested to learn what the different stock modules do.  I look in the squad folder and started digging.   I noticed that the stock parts seem to have more parameters or selections or whatever they are called than most of the modded modules I looked at.  How do you know what all of those things mean?  Some are obvious, but others like "node_stack_bottom01"  Im stumped with.  Is there like a list or something of what these things do or do you just mess around? 

 

Sorry for all the questions, I really don't know the answers though

 

I appreciate any help!

[Benjamin Kerman]

Well, lets see. 

The format is ConfigNode. They implement different modules and charecteristics based on what they do. 

I've never see allowCrewHelmet before, so i cant answer that. What file was it in? It sounds like it would be a parameter. 

If it says false, it is probably a boolean variable, either true or false. Anything with munbers is either int, double, or float. 

.mu and .dds files are the models and textures respectively. 

If you want to know what a specific module does, just ask! We are more than happy to help you out. The main PART{ } node that all the parts start out with defines that the thing is a part. Inside of that there are nodes such as MODULE{ }. There are many nodes in PART that give the game information about size, mass, scale, name, and so on. The MODULE nodes add the specific behaviors to the part, such as ModuleEngine, ModuleLiftingSurface, ModuleResourceConverter, and so on. 

NodeStackBottom_1 defines where one of the attachment points are on the part. 

If you have any more questions, just ask and/or send me a PM. 

[Phineas Freak]

7 hours ago, Woj said:

"allowCrewHelmet = false"

This is used by the IVA config files to define whether a crew seat should allow a helmet or not. If you are making IVAs for command modules (capsules) then this is usually set to "True". For simple habitation modules this is more likely to be set to "False".

7 hours ago, Woj said:

"node_stack_bottom01"

This is just a stack attachment node called "bottom01". You could name it "bottom", "bottom1", "bottom000", "middle", "mylittlepony" or whatever you want. It is just an ID. Similar for "node_stack_top".

Digging around is just the best way to learn about KSP modding. Start simple by copying stock parts and making custom ones. Learn the Module Manager syntax so that you can create the same parts but without reusing models and textures. Then, the sky is the limit: making your own models and textures, writing code for adding custom functionality to them, conquering the world with your mods!

[technicalfool]

18 hours ago, Woj said:

I also found  .mu and .dds What are these called and what do you use to edit or open them?

In addition to what other people have replied with wrt cfg files, these are fairly easy to answer. .mu files are meshes - the actual 3D shape of the parts themselves. There is an export tool to convert from a Blender 3D mesh to .mu, or you can use the Unity editor.

Textures and other bitmap images are stored (mostly) in the .dds or "DirectDraw Surface" format. Unity will also understand .png, but .dds is very much preferred wherever possible for various reasons. From the end-user's perspective, they load faster and take up less RAM. You can open up and save dds using The GIMP plus a dds plugin, and there are various other image editors.