[1.02] KW Rocketry v2.7 Available - 1.02 Compatibility! - 16/05/2015

[FlexGunship]

Special request: I'd love to see more "unpainted" tanks (i.e. shorter 2.5m and 3.75m tanks). Making them lighter then the painted ones is a really neat idea. REALISM FTW!

Also I'd like larger versions of the 1.25m tanks. I know these are "bland" but I love the authentic look I get when building with them.

[rodion]

does anyone know what software the KW guys use to create and manage their MBM files? i was going to look at some compression options since KW is a fairly big chunk of my mod memory demand but i can't find a good suite to do so with.

[blowfish]

does anyone know what software the KW guys use to create and manage their MBM files? i was going to look at some compression options since KW is a fairly big chunk of my mod memory demand but i can't find a good suite to do so with.

The MBMs are probably created by Unity. If you want to mess with them yourself you might try mbm2png. However, there are several slightly more automated options to make your life easier. Active Texture Management will compress them to DDS (which can be decompressed natively by your GPU) on game load (KSP already does this to an extent but it's not very consistent). Alternatively, you could convert them all to DDS externally using something like Lilleman's tool and then install DDSLoader to allow them to load. This approach requires a bit more work but you get the memory savings of ATM and significantly decreased loading time.

[rodion]

thanks, i just found the mbm2png suite independently a couple of minutes ago, works great. i mostly just wanted to have more control over file formats and compression than ATM can give me, so i can experiment with what works best.

P.S.: who on earth thought bitmaps for textures would be a great idea in a 32-bit program?

Edited December 10, 2014 by rodion

[undercoveryankee]

P.S.: who on earth thought bitmaps for textures would be a great idea in a 32-bit program?

Procedural shading can't deliver the same level of detail as hand-assembled textures without more code and GPU power than most games have to spare. And because the GPU often needs to access texels out of order depending on how the geometry is laid out in the scene, there's only so much you can do to compress the in-memory representation and still be efficient.

Most compressed formats that you would use on disk get decompressed on load to the same few in-memory formats. Barring bugs in the texture loader (of which we have a few), MBM, TGA, and PNG should deliver the same result in memory. DDS uses the DXT family of compressed encodings, which can be used in-memory, so depending on details of the texture loader a DDS is more likely to get a DXT-compressed in-memory representation as opposed to an uncompressed one than a format that has to be converted.

Most games that deal with this many textures are capable of loading and unloading on demand to stay within the memory limit. As long as the stock textures fit in 32 bits, though, Squad may continue to find that the stock game is more responsive with the current naive approach.

[wasmic]

does anyone know what software the KW guys use to create and manage their MBM files? i was going to look at some compression options since KW is a fairly big chunk of my mod memory demand but i can't find a good suite to do so with.

Actually, you might want to keep the textures as .mbm format. .png files will not generate mipmaps (and therefore won't look as good at a distance, IIRC) and .tga files have a bug causing them to use more than twice as much memory as other files. A .mbm file takes up a lot of space on disc, but much less when it has been loaded to RAM. The best thing you can do is to convert everything to .dds format - this format will load faster than all other formats and will not result in any quality loss. It can also be edited with tools like paint.NET, and probably also GIMP and Photoshop. You'll need Sarbian's .dds loader plugin (or ATM) to use this format, though.

[Olympic1]

Actually, you might want to keep the textures as .mbm format. .png files will not generate mipmaps (and therefore won't look as good at a distance, IIRC) and .tga files have a bug causing them to use more than twice as much memory as other files. A .mbm file takes up a lot of space on disc, but much less when it has been loaded to RAM. The best thing you can do is to convert everything to .dds format - this format will load faster than all other formats and will not result in any quality loss. It can also be edited with tools like paint.NET, and probably also GIMP and Photoshop. You'll need Sarbian's .dds loader plugin (or ATM) to use this format, though.

This little program converts all textures automatically to .dds without using external programs: DDS Converter

[Tic-Tac]

Hi, i'm having some issues here with KSP.

The game launches fine, but weird things start to happen in the Assembly buildings (buttons disappear, the space around parts in the menu gets white, some parts disappear(those from kw), and other buttons also disappear(contract building)

The issue present wether I use OpenGL mode(to lower RAM usage) or not, and I tried uninstalling some other mods but can't seem to find the problem here.

Help?

Here is my modlist:

[wasmic]

This little program converts all textures automatically to .dds without using external programs: DDS Converter

And on that note, your textures will get really messed up if you try to convert by hand - .dds flips the texture on load for some reason, so you have to flip the texture during conversion too. The plugin that Olympic1 linked will do that automatically.

[Kickasskyle]

And on that note, your textures will get really messed up if you try to convert by hand - .dds flips the texture on load for some reason, so you have to flip the texture during conversion too. The plugin that Olympic1 linked will do that automatically.

Has anyone benchmarked and determined the rough gains you get by using .dds in ksp with the previously mentioned loaders?

If it's reasonable I might think about converting all the textures on my end and doing some release magic when I get some time (dissertations and coursework up the yazoo n all that).

Edited December 14, 2014 by Kickasskyle

[BLUAV8R]

Has anyone benchmarked and determined the rough gains you get by using .dds in ksp with the previously mentioned loaders?

If it's reasonable I might think about converting all the textures on my end and doing some release magic when I get some time (dissertations and coursework up the yazoo n all that).

I don't have any actualy numbers to give but I've been converting all my textures from mods to .dds and (for the most part) it saves a BUNCH. HOWEVER, sometimes there are mods that it actually increases space for some reason???? NovaPunch did this, and HUGE textures like skyboxes or stuff also get larger in conversion, but with your pack I believe it save a metric crap-tonne of memory, again though, no numbers

EDIT: hey this was my pi post! (314)

Edited December 14, 2014 by Sippyfrog

[BudgetHedgehog]

My side of things - before dds and latest ATM, I was running at around 2.2Gb (this is with OpenGL and the aggressive ATM). After a bit of DDSing and updating ATM, I'm running at about 1.8Gb max. Not to mention load time has decreased severely - it's probably worth converting to DDS just for that, tbh. Like, I'm talking from about 10 minutes to less than, let me check real quick.. less than 5. It's certainly worth giving it a go.

[biohazard15]

Two things about 0.90 compatibility:

- You should add KW Rocketry agency, in order for KW parts to be available for "Sort by Manufacturer" function.

- You should edit your struts to use new CompoundPart module.

[ebigunso]

is it possible to make the Petal Adapter Tweakscale compatible? I'd really love to use it in one of my bigger designs. Thanks

[skyfire322]

I love the mod, but since the 0.90 update, I can't get it to work. The flags will show, but none of the parts are available.

I took the following steps to try to get it working again, but to no avail:

1.) Delete the mod

2.) Re-install KSP without KW Rocketry

3.) Update Mod Manager to 2.5.4

4.) Re-install KSP KW Rocketry (I should note that I did merge folders properly)

Still no parts, but I still get the flags. Can this be an compatibility issue? Every other mod that I'm currently using works perfectly fine though.

[BNSF1995]

KW Rocketry works just fine for me in 0.90.0, as do MechJeb, Station Science, and HGR.

[KilrBe3]

Also works fine for me, Maybe don't update mod manager 2.5.4, i just used whatever was in the RAR. Just be nicer for sorting in .90 once updated

[skyfire322]

Also works fine for me, Maybe don't update mod manager 2.5.4, i just used whatever was in the RAR. Just be nicer for sorting in .90 once updated

Maybe roll back to 2.5.1 and see if that works? I'm just baffled that everything else works.

[Katalliaan]

I'm using MM 2.5.4 here, and the parts show up when I filter by everything but Manufacturer. As biohazard15 pointed out, the lack of a KW "Agent" means that KW won't show up as a manufacturer.

[Fly Angry]

Has anyone benchmarked and determined the rough gains you get by using .dds in ksp with the previously mentioned loaders?

Using DDS4KSP (default settings) and DDSLoader 1.8 on Stock install + KW 2.62d2

Stock + KW = 2212MB

Stock + DDS'd KW Folder = 2113MB

Entire GameData Folder DDS'd = 1807MB

edit: Just to be clear, this is only KW on and otherwise stock install. No ATM, no TextureReplacer etc.

Edited December 18, 2014 by Fly Angry

[RobotsAndSpaceships]

is it possible to make the Petal Adapter Tweakscale compatible? I'd really love to use it in one of my bigger designs. Thanks

It's super easy just to copy and paste the tweakscale module into the parts .cfg

[Anexgohan]

Hi,

Will you be updating this to 0.90 I love this mod cannot play 0.90 without it because of love for it.

Oh! hey and KW Rocketry agency, to "Sort by Manufacturer" function is a great idea will you implement this please.

[Virtualgenius]

This works in 0.90 its a parts only pack

[mciann]

I've found a problem with 2.6d2 on 0.90 involving radial boosters built with KWRocketry tanks

This is a problem I'd always had in .25 and earlier, but before now, it only affected the hydraulic manifold decouplers. Now it seems to be affecting all of the radial decouplers. When I attempt to stage in flight, every part on the boosters experiences a structural failure and they disassemble.

http://imgur.com/a/Mkgqf#0

It works fine on the ground with empty tanks. The problem occurs whether the separatrons are staging with the decouplers or not.

If I use stock tanks on the boosters, I don't have this problem. KWRocketry 2.6d2 on KSP 0.90

[Sampa]

so, what's the story about getting an official .90 update? When may we expect this?