Show and Tell - New engine exhaust effects

[Poodmund]

1 hour ago, linecrafter said:

Is it possible to get the original video file? Youtube compression ruins it quite a lot

30 minutes ago, Pulstar said:

Is it me or is the video quality a bit blurry even when picking 1080p on youtube?

16 minutes ago, Elthy said:

Same problem for me. I dont think its Youtubes fault, since the video posted on Reddit has the same issue.

Yeah I don't think its a YouTube issue, it seems like either the video has rendered at a much lower resolution and/or bitrate than intended. I'd wager that we might see a 'corrected' video up at some point.

[K^2]

Good visuals. What I would really like to see is the exhaust adjusting dynamically as ambient pressure changes. Mach diamonds getting further and further spaced until they disappear, following by the expanding plume, and then the characteristic bell of the overexpanded exhaust.

[Nate Simpson]

7 minutes ago, K^2 said:

Good visuals. What I would really like to see is the exhaust adjusting dynamically as ambient pressure changes. Mach diamonds getting further and further spaced until they disappear, following by the expanding plume, and then the characteristic bell of the overexpanded exhaust.

Exhaust does adjust dynamically as ambient pressure changes! Yay!

32 minutes ago, Poodmund said:

Yeah I don't think its a YouTube issue, it seems like either the video has rendered at a much lower resolution and/or bitrate than intended. I'd wager that we might see a 'corrected' video up at some point.

Alas, this is shown at the resolution at which it was captured. It was shared at a recent internal show and tell and I thought it was cool enough to show to you all. We're going to try to do a better job of keeping in the backs of our minds that any internal show and tell asset is a potential future public show and tell asset! In the meantime, pardon our pixels...

[PlutoISaPlanet]

Well, I should have saw this coming... it is.... FRIDAY!!!!

Ok ok, calm down... THAT EAR CANDY *MWA!*

ROCKET ROCKET ROCKET!!!!!

I am impressed as always!

[Nate Simpson]

2 hours ago, whatsupsevensup said:

Will the engine exhast change between spreading out when it leaves the nozzle or staying in the coneish shape when it leaves the nozzle depending on whether or not you are in a vaccum or not?

Yes indeed. Exhausts look radically different depending on their environmental context.

[Starhelperdude]

maybe the video quality has been downgraded so that we can't figure out better what secret engine that is xD (jk)

[Nate Simpson]

1 hour ago, Knight of St John said:

This is looking promising. You guys might be interested in @Nertea's Waterfall mod for KSP1. @Zorg and myself have been creating some wonderful exhaust plumes with said mod that look very similar to what Aaron has been making.
As an example, this is my most recent plume design for the aerospike. it shows throttling up, then expansion due to decreasing atmospheric pressure.

 

Holy mackerel, that's gorgeous! Nice work!

Just now, Starhelperdude said:

maybe the video quality has been downgraded so that we can't figure out better what secret engine that is xD (jk)

Uh... yeah, right! THAT'S why! 

[Spaceman.Spiff]

2 minutes ago, Nate Simpson said:

Holy mackerel, that's gorgeous! Nice work!

It is, isn't it?

You should look at the FFT plumes for inspiration!

Edited March 5, 2021 by Spaceman.Spiff

[Dr. Kerbal]

3 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

That purple pink exhaust looks like methane. Love the effects, reminds me of Nertea’s Waterfall!

It also reminds of of !atallic Hydrogen!

[Knight of St John]

2 minutes ago, Nate Simpson said:

Holy mackerel, that's gorgeous! Nice work!

Thank you :-)
Nertea is the real hero here though. He's been working tirelessly on developing this mod, so that us ksp-players can make our own plumes like the one above.
There's more where that one came from ;-)

[Lo.M]

I think each pixel was painted by Da Vinci

[Nate Simpson]

7 minutes ago, Knight of St John said:

Thank you :-)
Nertea is the real hero here though. He's been working tirelessly on developing this mod, so that us ksp-players can make our own plumes like the one above.
There's more where that one came from ;-)

Many of us are huge Nertea fans. In many ways he's been trying to turn KSP1 into KSP2 for years, and I for one am here for it.

[Knight of St John]

4 minutes ago, Nate Simpson said:

Many of us are huge Nertea fans. In many ways he's been trying to turn KSP1 into KSP2 for years, and I for one am here for it.

Well, the fact that you guys have a Nertea-fan-club over there is making me more confident that KSP2 is on track to being exceedingly awesome.
You all certainly know the community well, which shows the level of dedication the KSP2 team has for the game.
It's been great to see the awesome WIP stuff being released.

[Sesshaku]

Arguably the best song so far. Those DRUMS. I love drums. And the melody, reminds me of Mass Effect Virgil.

Edited March 5, 2021 by Sesshaku

[Spaceman.Spiff]

1 hour ago, Nate Simpson said:

Many of us are huge Nertea fans. In many ways he's been trying to turn KSP1 into KSP2 for years, and I for one am here for it.

I think much of the community is as well.

All of his stuff is the gold standard for KSP mods. 

I'm glad you guys are looking at his stuff for inspiration 

[JSlone]

As a relatively new KSP'er in respect to the veterans ( only about 2k hours played ) I was amazed to find out that one of the best and well known modders rover dude is an actual person who works in the KSP team and is now in some way part of the KSP 2 team. So i figured with how well known and amazing Nertea is that he'd probably be involved in KSP 2 in some way also, i'm surprised he's not! But gee wiz is this game going to be downright amazing! release date set for tomorrow? i think soooooooo lolol jk Can't wait for this bad boy. But i appreciate the need to take your time on it!

[K^2]

24 minutes ago, JSlone said:

i'm surprised he's not!

Honestly, modders working in game dev is an exception more often than the rule. A lot of people start out their game dev careers from making mods, sure, but you rarely go to work for the same company. (Funnily enough, I did contribute to modding of one of the games made by a company I work for now. Many, many years ago... It's more of a coincidence thing, though.) And when you see serious game dev vets making mods, usually, they are the ones that took a job in non-gaming tech and are now bored and/or missing making games. Because otherwise, it's like doing more of your day job and not even being payed. I know there are exceptions, people who have so much passion for making games that they'll do it as a job and a hobby, but most of us can only handle one or the other. Personally, if I see a cool idea, I'll help set it up, I'll give advice, and I can even jump in to fix some tricky code occasionally, but I can't put in the kind of time that making an interesting and/or complex mod requires.

[Wubslin]

6 hours ago, KSPStar said:

Our VFX artist Aaron Lundquist continues to create new engine exhaust effects. The first of these engines runs on an as-yet-announced fuel (guesses welcome)! The other two are metallic hydrogen and jet engine.

We're all really proud of Aaron's shock diamonds! The score, as always, is by the incomparable Howard Mostrom.

Oh wow, these are pretty! And fast. Really fast! One of my biggest nitpicks over Realplume was that the particle effects felt like they were going only 40 miles per hour. These clearly don't have that problem. The second stage cams on the 100+ odd Falcon 9 launches there have been have really imbued the spaceflight community with an excellent expectation of what a real engine looks like when it's screaming into the void. And this is it!

That said, now I'm brimming with questions about these plumes, and specifically about atmospheric deflection.

This guy is clearly a magnetic nozzle, right? That paraboloid shape is a result of magnetic field lines using whatever evil Maxwell's equation dark magic and right hand rule incantations to continue to squeeze down on a charged exhaust even though it has left the physical part of the nozzle.

But that's quite a lot of squeezing. Magnetic fields drop off with the inverse cube, which is to say incredibly fast. Perhaps this engine is also at altitude and air is helping out?

(Here's that other, delightfully more leaky and flamboyant nozzle from earlier media. The field can be seen to be of similar size but much weaker.)

How about that other plume?

Again amazingly beautiful. A column of perfect white (salt o' the nuclear saltwater seas?) plasma pounding down and illuminating what appears to be the vaporized remnants of the inert layer of water which is applied to the outside of the propellant flow. The layer that's doped with x-ray absorbing material and provides film cooling to keep the engine from vaporizing, of course. But is this plume also in a thin atmosphere? The exhaust does seem to have climbed back up the rocket as it does in thin atmosphere and vacuum in real life. However, I can still make out out faint dregs of that classic in-atmosphere revolved parabola shape.

For reference here's some really old art of a Falcon 9 performing SECO-1. It's pretty evident the artist was depicting some ambient pressure.

And here's actual footage of a Falcon 9 immediately after fairing deploy, which is very soon after SECO-1. The vehicle is still very much in atmosphere and that paraboloid effect is definitely apparent at massive scales (see 3:20 on this video, gorgeous: )

But on the close up you've basically got that unimpeded Prandtl-Meyer expansion with the exhaust pressure layers beautifully diverging and peeling off in all directions. 

Again, I love the work and have no problem with any tiny amounts of license that would be taken with the rocket exhausts (who would? A wise man once said "It's only game.") But the fact that these are all animations and set to a space background is a little confusing. That turbojet plume certainly wasn't in vacuum!

Edited March 5, 2021 by Wubslin

[Nertea]

3 hours ago, Nate Simpson said:

Many of us are huge Nertea fans. In many ways he's been trying to turn KSP1 into KSP2 for years, and I for one am here for it.

I for one am very excited that a professional development studio seems to have basically decided to make my game without me having to invest more than $70 or so!

Looking great though, hope to see a vast array exciting and interesting plumes in the future.  Interesting beats realism anytime :P. 

1 hour ago, JSlone said:

So i figured with how well known and amazing Nertea is that he'd probably be involved in KSP 2 in some way also, i'm surprised he's not!

I fundamentally prefer my day job to any kind of development game design, so nah.

Happy to drive down to Seattle when this whole global situation allows and hang out though :). 

Edited March 5, 2021 by Nertea

[JSlone]

2 hours ago, Nertea said:

I fundamentally prefer my day job to any kind of development game design, so nah.

Not saying you should work on it or anything, just that your mods are so good i'm surprised you're not one of the devs XD do what makes ya happy!  Still tho, Can't express how much i love the models in your mods pahah.

Either way KSP 2! Gonna be great!

[Dr. Kerbal]

10 hours ago, KSPStar said:

Our VFX artist Aaron Lundquist continues to create new engine exhaust effects. The first of these engines runs on an as-yet-announced fuel (guesses welcome)! The other two are metallic hydrogen and jet engine.

We're all really proud of Aaron's shock diamonds! The score, as always, is by the incomparable Howard Mostrom.

I can’t imagine. My mind has been blown like a lot. This is such a beautiful and fancy game. (But they maybe because I play really old games)

[linecrafter]

19 hours ago, Nate Simpson said:

Exhaust does adjust dynamically as ambient pressure changes! Yay!

Alas, this is shown at the resolution at which it was captured. It was shared at a recent internal show and tell and I thought it was cool enough to show to you all. We're going to try to do a better job of keeping in the backs of our minds that any internal show and tell asset is a potential future public show and tell asset! In the meantime, pardon our pixels...

can you lower your cool threshhold so we could potentially see more development stuff?

[Nate Simpson]

18 hours ago, Wubslin said:

Oh wow, these are pretty! And fast. Really fast! One of my biggest nitpicks over Realplume was that the particle effects felt like they were going only 40 miles per hour. These clearly don't have that problem. The second stage cams on the 100+ odd Falcon 9 launches there have been have really imbued the spaceflight community with an excellent expectation of what a real engine looks like when it's screaming into the void. And this is it!

That said, now I'm brimming with questions about these plumes, and specifically about atmospheric deflection.

This guy is clearly a magnetic nozzle, right? That paraboloid shape is a result of magnetic field lines using whatever evil Maxwell's equation dark magic and right hand rule incantations to continue to squeeze down on a charged exhaust even though it has left the physical part of the nozzle.

But that's quite a lot of squeezing. Magnetic fields drop off with the inverse cube, which is to say incredibly fast. Perhaps this engine is also at altitude and air is helping out?

(Here's that other, delightfully more leaky and flamboyant nozzle from earlier media. The field can be seen to be of similar size but much weaker.)

How about that other plume?

Again amazingly beautiful. A column of perfect white (salt o' the nuclear saltwater seas?) plasma pounding down and illuminating what appears to be the vaporized remnants of the inert layer of water which is applied to the outside of the propellant flow. The layer that's doped with x-ray absorbing material and provides film cooling to keep the engine from vaporizing, of course. But is this plume also in a thin atmosphere? The exhaust does seem to have climbed back up the rocket as it does in thin atmosphere and vacuum in real life. However, I can still make out out faint dregs of that classic in-atmosphere revolved parabola shape.

For reference here's some really old art of a Falcon 9 performing SECO-1. It's pretty evident the artist was depicting some ambient pressure.

And here's actual footage of a Falcon 9 immediately after fairing deploy, which is very soon after SECO-1. The vehicle is still very much in atmosphere and that paraboloid effect is definitely apparent at massive scales (see 3:20 on this video, gorgeous: )

But on the close up you've basically got that unimpeded Prandtl-Meyer expansion with the exhaust pressure layers beautifully diverging and peeling off in all directions. 

Again, I love the work and have no problem with any tiny amounts of license that would be taken with the rocket exhausts (who would? A wise man once said "It's only game.") But the fact that these are all animations and set to a space background is a little confusing. That turbojet plume certainly wasn't in vacuum!

The space background is just the test scene skybox that Aaron uses to display in-progress effects, so no worries there. But where did you get those last two b/w images? These are INSANELY helpful. Are these from a particular paper? I want to learn more!

[TLTay]

3 hours ago, linecrafter said:

can you lower your cool threshhold so we could potentially see more development stuff?

I think they have to be careful not to emit so much coolness that they cause an unplanned gaming media story. When it's time for media, you want to blow them away with carefully crafted visuals and narrative. They have to be careful when letting info out, especially pics and videos during dev phase.

Rocket plume info seems to be from here: https://wodeshu.gitee.io/roprop/text00023.html

On a side note: Personal thanks to the dev team for the amazing work you are all doing! This project will influence the life and career choices of many, many people over its long lifespan. Science has never been this much fun.

Edited March 6, 2021 by TLTay
link added

[TBenz]

59 minutes ago, Nate Simpson said:

The space background is just the test scene skybox that Aaron uses to display in-progress effects, so no worries there. But where did you get those last two b/w images? These are INSANELY helpful. Are these from a particular paper? I want to learn more!

A quick reverse image search turned up this little number:

https://wodeshu.gitee.io/roprop/text00023.html