Where is the Launch Screen?

[Pickelhaube808]

We've all looked at it for years, but have any of us landed here on purpose?

 

I know I do...

 

Where is it?

 

don't mind the fact that it's 0.22  

[JERONIMO]

That's... quite... TRUE! Maybe we need to land on all planets, say "1-2-3 kerbals come on here!" then go to sleep and during sleep you'l hear explosion, say "Oh Jeb. I need your help!" and wait. if he approved, tomorrow you'l find it

 

this post was made by the squad fairy transformation inc.

[klesh]

For Kerbin to be in that position (and not 90° on its side), the main menu location should be in the north polar region of the Mun, yeah?

[ZooNamedGames]

4 minutes ago, klesh said:

For Kerbin to be in that position (and not 90° on its side), the main menu location should be in the north polar region of the Mun, yeah?

Which is extremely hilly.

 

In all seriousness- I can't confirm this, this is more conjecture as to KSP's design architecture- but I believe that particular region is a custom area loaded in for the purpose of the main menu. It doesn't correspond to any real munar location, and as such, cannot be visited. I'm also confident that it probably wouldn't have much in the way of colliders or collision, meaning even if you could somehow spawn a vessel on that screen, and could control it; you likely couldn't land on the surface or anything else for that matter. That said, I do believe that the Kerbin is in fact the real orbital version you would see from the Mun, since I don't see any reason why they would create another model of Kerbin when it serves the same purpose.

Just my thoughts.

[purpleivan]

8 hours ago, ZooNamedGames said:

Which is extremely hilly.

 

In all seriousness- I can't confirm this, this is more conjecture as to KSP's design architecture- but I believe that particular region is a custom area loaded in for the purpose of the main menu. It doesn't correspond to any real munar location, and as such, cannot be visited. I'm also confident that it probably wouldn't have much in the way of colliders or collision, meaning even if you could somehow spawn a vessel on that screen, and could control it; you likely couldn't land on the surface or anything else for that matter. That said, I do believe that the Kerbin is in fact the real orbital version you would see from the Mun, since I don't see any reason why they would create another model of Kerbin when it serves the same purpose.

Just my thoughts.

Agree completely with that. To be honest I'd be amazed if they loaded the full Mun, just to show a tiny patch of it. Actually I'm surprised that they load Kerbin as well, which they seem to do as visual mods change the appearance of it correctly.

On that last point, do visual mods change the appearance of the surface of the Mun scene on the loading screen... if not, then it probably ain't the Mun.

It's the kind thing that's been done on most games I've worked on, whether it's just part of a scene, character, or vehicle that's loaded and rendered. Save time and memory by only loading what you need to.

[ZooNamedGames]

11 hours ago, purpleivan said:

Agree completely with that. To be honest I'd be amazed if they loaded the full Mun, just to show a tiny patch of it. Actually I'm surprised that they load Kerbin as well, which they seem to do as visual mods change the appearance of it correctly.

On that last point, do visual mods change the appearance of the surface of the Mun scene on the loading screen... if not, then it probably ain't the Mun.

It's the kind thing that's been done on most games I've worked on, whether it's just part of a scene, character, or vehicle that's loaded and rendered. Save time and memory by only loading what you need to.

The terrain texture does change with visual mods though I think this is because the main menu loads the same assets for the lunar texture and lighting as it does when the Mun is actually loaded.

[purpleivan]

10 hours ago, ZooNamedGames said:

The terrain texture does change with visual mods though I think this is because the main menu loads the same assets for the lunar texture and lighting as it does when the Mun is actually loaded.

I did wonder about the possibility of the scene getting treated as the Mun for rendering purposes, even if it wasn't the full Mun data. Lack of change would most likely mean it's not the Mun, but the presence of change wouldn't mean that it is.

[razark]

If I am recalling correctly from previous versions of this discussion, someone worked it out that to see that view of Kerbin, the site must be somewhere not on the Mun.

[Loskene]

Here is what it actually looks like viewing Kerbin from the surface of the Mun for comparison:

Probably have to be about 90 degrees further along the Mun's orbit to get that daytime lighting but the relative size of Kerbin appears roughly the same, if maybe seen from a slightly lower altitude in the menu screen. The horizon also suggests a smaller Mun or the camera being in a depression atop a mountain peak rather than seeing to the edge of the Mun's curvature. You could probably recreate this by editing a retextured Gilly into cismunar orbit of Kerbin, though the polar regions of the Mun itself should suffice well enough. Perhaps that could be a challenge idea, seeing who could find the most suitable placement and terrain features to recreate the menu screen with live Kerbals and whatever other decoration you bring.

Bonus points for bringing a signpost holding up the main menu text 

Edited May 7, 2019 by Loskene