Ring Matter

[JadeOfMaar]

Pandemon, a gas giant in @StarCrusher96's Galaxies Unbound. Screenshot by @ballisticfox0

A handful of separate ideas with roughly the same intention. Since JNSQ, other planet mods have picked up and featured a grain effect in their ringed planets' rings. But quite a few months have passed now and nothing has turned up that tries to bring substance to Kopernicus rings. There is one solution that can be done and that's simply to create an asteroid field that clips the ring, but it's far from impressive, and has no option for balancing abundance (when you want asteroids) and performance (when you don't want them-- when you're in every situation other than actively cruising through rings).

So here are my ideas (well, not entirely mine, or grown with input from others) for ring matter solutions, or for features that can be rolled together for one complex, feature rich solution:

• Localized Dense Debris
  The main feature, with similarities to the stock asteroid spawner and the ground scatter loader. Here, when you approach a detailed ring, rocks of various sizes (and adjustable colors and resource configurations, see: Custom Asteroids mod) spawn. These rocks are basically parts and they have their own size class system, and size curves just like stock. However, they have their own physics range. They will load in (without physics) at 15km or further, but only have physics at the basic 150m roughly. They can and will be spawned with great density by default, and so, will have many orbits for KSP to track and will take a bite out of performance. However, they only persist until they leave their physics range or will persist permanently if you interact with them, just like when you go to the Tracking Station and start tracking an unknown object, making it a known asteroid. Once you're far enough from the field, they all despawn, except the ones you chose to keep, and KSP no longer carries their weight.
  Ideally, this spawner should be able to accept single parts and even craft files (mostly for the purpose of spawning multi-part asteroids that can break up if you happen to ram into them, but also for the secondary purpose of sneaking in alien artefacts or a new breed of magic boulder-- the parts for these would need to be hidden from the VAB and R&D). Science-able ones would have their own unique experiment module in them and you could use these like usual-- a new opportunity for science gameplay.
   
• Space Dust
  (yes, this is a play on Nertea's mod) Kopernicus rings are basically 2D. Rings can be wide and tall/thick, not just wide and flat, which makes for the opportunity to add some meat to black hole accretion disks, proto-system dust disks, and settled planetary rings that are mostly pebbles and droplets (like, say, the rings of Jupiter and Uranus?). In comes basically the EVE volumetric clouds effect, just for that feeling of stealth (or being blinded) while cruising through a dusty ring. The haze effect could partially be helped by a translucent square that's near to, and covers the camera to potentially reduce the need for particles when inside an especially volumetric ring. This would pair absolutely well with Nertea's mod and add wow factor to harvesting belts and rings.
  Luminance/Emissive should also be available, which would add to the immersion of passing through a fiery disc around a black hole or proto-star.
   
• Impact Hazards
  This leads back to my complex  idea for environmental hazards, titled Structural Integrity. If nothing else, there ought to at least be the danger of crashing into pebbles at great speed and breaking stuff off, forcing the player to armor their ship or plan in advance to go around the rings or through their larger gaps and never through the opque regions.

 

Edited January 27, 2021 by JadeOfMaar

[Shbibe]

Pretty interesting. It'd be a cool addition to the game with KSP2 so long of a wait ahead.

[WarriorSabe]

2 minutes ago, JadeOfMaar said:

This leads back to my complex  idea for environmental hazards, titled Structural Integrity. If nothing else, there ought to at least be the danger of crashing into pebbles at great speed and breaking stuff off, forcing the player to armor their ship or plan in advance to go around the rings or through their larger gaps and never through the opque regions.

Wll, the main hazard in passing through a ring system is not actually the boulders or rocks within, or even the pebbles - they're just too infrequent for collisions to be likely outside of large, manned vessels (and even then you'd probably only hit a  handful). It's the ever-present dust that will try and sandblast the hull off your craft you really have to worry about - when Cassini went through Saturn's rings (and through a gap at that) it had to use its comm dish as a shield to block the dust from wearing away anything fragile or sensitive.

[JadeOfMaar]

Seriously?! I did not know that. That would definitely need some form of failure mod integration (say, shaving down the MTTF while you're in the ring) for such a fine detail.

[Spaceman.Spiff]

That's an interesting concept....

Maybe I can grab some ore now so I can have choice of fuel from exospheric harvesting.

1 hour ago, JadeOfMaar said:

These rocks are basically parts and they have their own size class system, and size curves just like stock. However, they have their own physics range. They will load in (without physics) at 15km or further, but only have physics at the basic 150m roughly.

I still feel like that would cause TONS of lag.

If they were like parts I wonder if they could use TU for PBR shading.

1 hour ago, JadeOfMaar said:

Rings can be wide and tall/thick

That would be amazing

[theJesuit]

These things do sound good.  It was almost as if you had coded already...   but no download button you tease.

I like the idea of opaque areas in the rings as light should diffuse theough them.

Also that the scatter effect works well, but I'd remove completely on a scene change if it isnt attached to a command probe.  Debris should also be auto deleted if they swing through a ring system.  Lost in the noise perhaps.

Peace.

[An Amongus Sussy Player]

Well there is another way :
Make rings with "Dust" and the rest is transparent
then add thickness to the rings....
somehow its making things realisticish