Errol

@610yesnolovely Hello, I'm using ckan to manage three separate installs. Two of them are completely fine, but one of them keeps saying that MM has 2 errors in Gamedata/Reviva/DE_MAS.cfg during loading of KSP. I've double and triple checked that install has all the correct dependencies, all through ckan. I've got over a hundred mods on that install, and this is driving me a little crazy, I really don't want to have to rebuild it from scratch. I managed to find this in my KSP.log, but I don't know what it means. edit: nvm found a conflict with another IVA patch that is WIP prerelease

This is an interesting thought. I will repeat my tests from a higher altitude and see what I get. edit: Ok, so I just fired up my 'minimal' modded install and used the cheat menu to gradually increase my orbit until I was about halfway between the mun and minmus. I never saw any weird gray box appear around kerbin. It did seem like case 2. "When the Camera is looking into a Planet's illuminated side, the Sky shall dim" stopped working at a much lower altitude, and more suddenly than I would have expected it to, around 1000km altitude (circular orbit) the targetColorScalar number jumps from about 0.4xxxx to 1.00000...i need to repeat this in my clean install to see if it's the same. Also, when above this altitude, the targetColorScalar value stays at 1.00000 regardless of where the camera is pointed, and case 1. "When the Camera is looking into the Sun, the Sky shall dim" still works. edit2: Just tried repeating this test in my clean install and got the exact same results. Got a more precise altitude this time. The sudden jump from ~0.4 to 1.0 for targetColorScalar happens just before 1100km altitude.

@linuxgurugamerDo you think you could add support for Smart Docking Aid (two new SAS modes) along with the other SAS actions this mod adds to command parts?

@ValiZocktDo you think it would be possible to either add keybindings for this or compatibility with modActions?

Reaction wheels are not an option for me for the exact reason you listed. I also play with engine ignitor and ullage simulation. Anyway, upon further investigation I've figured out that precision mode doesn't actually cut all thrust for rotation. It just seems to reduce all rotation thrust inputs down to about 10% from what I can tell. I like precision mode for how it makes my aero-control surfaces handle when using the keyboard for input, but yeah, I didn't realize before that it was also going to nerf my RCS control so hard for when I reach space. Guess I just have to remember to switch out of precision control once I'm out of the atmosphere, and also maybe think about investing in an analogue controller, so that I'm not so heavily reliant on precision mode for aerodynamic flight. Thanks for the replies guys.

I'm not sure if this is a bug or not, but it is certainly not what I expected to happen, unless I missed something. If not, is there any way to make precision mode not completely disable all my rcs thrusters?

@Lisias OK, more big progress today (lots of uninstalling mods one at a time to check for compatibility issues/bugs). First, I have to say there was definitely some user error going on. Bit of a learning curve. I figured out a few things that were causing me issues. The DOE settings seem to save only when the DOE window gets closed; if you return to main menu with the dialogue still open your settings will not be saved. So, with that in mind, I also have no idea what the skybox dimmer options actually do. I had previously been trying all sorts of things with the sliders (max and min for each) when there were missing updated .DLLs in the first EXPERIMENTAL release. So at first I didn't realize that it was these extreme DOE settings I had that was causing the unexpected behavior in my modded install. Now that I have that figured out (and the settings returned to sensible values), I believe I've managed to get the rc-03 release (listed as 2.2.1.3 RC 2 in-game...) working the same in both my clean install and modded install. I will post my KSP.log after triggering the map view bug on github. As far as things that affect the sun and rendering, the modded install is tested with scatterer, deffered, parallax, kopernicus, shabby, shaddy, KSPBurst and texture replacer. To recap, these are the test results:

I agree that this type of joke is in bad taste, ̷b̷u̷t̷ ̷I̷'̷d̷ ̷l̷i̷k̷e̷ ̷t̷o̷ ̷a̷d̷d̷ ̷t̷o̷ ̷t̷h̷i̷s̷ ̷t̷h̷a̷t̷ ̷t̷h̷e̷ ̷g̷r̷o̷u̷n̷d̷ ̷e̷f̷f̷e̷c̷t̷ ̷m̷o̷d̷ ̷s̷p̷a̷m̷s̷ ̷t̷h̷e̷ ̷l̷o̷g̷ ̷w̷i̷t̷h̷ ̷m̷e̷s̷s̷a̷g̷e̷s̷ ̷a̷b̷o̷u̷t̷ ̷i̷t̷'̷s̷ ̷s̷t̷a̷t̷u̷s̷.̷ ̷T̷h̷i̷s̷ ̷i̷s̷ ̷r̷e̷a̷l̷l̷y̷ ̷a̷n̷n̷o̷y̷i̷n̷g̷ ̷i̷n̷ ̷a̷ ̷h̷e̷a̷v̷i̷l̷y̷ ̷m̷o̷d̷d̷e̷d̷ ̷i̷n̷s̷t̷a̷l̷l̷ ̷w̷h̷e̷n̷ ̷I̷ ̷a̷m̷ ̷t̷r̷y̷i̷n̷g̷ ̷t̷o̷ ̷t̷r̷a̷c̷k̷ ̷d̷o̷w̷n̷ ̷e̷r̷r̷o̷r̷s̷,̷ ̷b̷u̷t̷ ̷m̷y̷ ̷l̷o̷g̷ ̷f̷i̷l̷e̷ ̷e̷n̷d̷s̷ ̷u̷p̷ ̷b̷e̷i̷n̷g̷ ̷m̷i̷l̷l̷i̷o̷n̷s̷ ̷o̷f̷ ̷l̷i̷n̷e̷s̷ ̷l̷o̷n̷g̷.̷ ̷I̷ ̷r̷e̷a̷l̷l̷y̷ ̷w̷i̷s̷h̷ ̷t̷h̷e̷r̷e̷ ̷w̷a̷s̷ ̷a̷ ̷w̷a̷y̷ ̷t̷o̷ ̷d̷i̷s̷a̷b̷l̷e̷ ̷t̷h̷a̷t̷.̷ ̷

OK! This is feeling like some real progress now! Log spam is gone now. Just an fyi before I get to my test results; the version reported in-game and the label on the download .zip don't match: installed version: 2.2.1.2-EXPERIMENTAL-RC-3.zip version reported ingame: 2.2.1.3/L EXPERIMENTAL RC 2 Anyway, the targetColorScalar seems to be working now. Not sure if it is working as intended though, it does not seem to change with the skybox dimming, it reads 0.000000 when facing the planet and 1.000000 when facing the sun, with gradual decimal values in between. As for what the mod is actually doing...functionality seems to all be correct until you go to map view, then things still seem to be getting messed up. I also added an extra case to check for (landed on atmosphereless body and looking at sun) For freshly loaded vessels, seemingly from anywhere (VAB, tracking station, even from the map screen while controlling another vessel) appears to be fully functional! When the Camera is looking into the Sun, the Sky shall dim. Working on rc-3 When the Camera is looking into a Planet's illuminated side, the Sky shall dim. *WORKING* correctly on rc-3 When the Camera is looking into a Planet's dark side, the Sky shall be visible. Working on rc-3 When the Camera is looking away from the Sun and from any planet, the Sky shall be visible. Working on rc-3 When the Camera is "landed" on an atmosphereless body, the Sky shall dim when the ground is being illuminated. *WORKING* correctly on rc-3 When the Camera is "landed" on an atmosphereless body, the Sky shall dim when looking at the sun. Working correctly on rc-3 But as soon as you switch from the flight scene to the map screen and back (without switching vessels), the behavior changes to this: When the Camera is looking into the Sun, the Sky shall dim. Working *partially* (stars still faintly visible, they still do some sort of logarithmic dimming) on rc-3 When the Camera is looking into a Planet's illuminated side, the Sky shall dim. *WORKING* correctly on rc-3 When the Camera is looking into a Planet's dark side, the Sky shall be visible. Working on rc-3 When the Camera is looking away from the Sun and from any planet, the Sky shall be visible. Working on rc-3 When the Camera is "landed" on an atmosphereless body, the Sky shall dim when the ground is being illuminated. *WORKING* correctly on rc-3 When the Camera is "landed" on an atmosphereless body, the Sky shall dim when looking at the sun. Working *partially* (stars still faintly visible, they still do some sort of logarithmic dimming) on rc-3 ̷W̷o̷u̷l̷d̷ ̷y̷o̷u̷ ̷l̷i̷k̷e̷ ̷a̷ ̷l̷o̷g̷ ̷a̷g̷a̷i̷n̷?̷ EDIT: Ok, so I was optimistic and decided to do some testing in an install with more other visual enhancements, and I immediately noticed some weird behaviors. For case #3 before looking at map, it was not working UNTIL I opened the DOE dialogue window(?? very weird thing to see). And then when I opened the map and went back case #2 was screwed. This install has over 100 mods though, so I wouldn't be surprised if there is a conflict somewhere...

@Lisias Ok, started testing today and clearly something is off between our setups. I'm using a freshly unzipped copy of ksp 1.12.5 (new sandbox save), module manager 4.2.3 (from ckan), windows 11, AMD64 (smt turned off) and an nVidia GPU. All drivers are up to date. I'm manually installing DOE 2.2.1.2 from zip, then manually installing rc-01 from zip and replacing the .DLLs the version for DOE listed in-game is 2.2.1.3/L EXPERIMENTAL RC-0....I even removed toolbar and clickthrough blocker so now it's literally just DOE, squad and MM in my gamedata folder. In game I am able to open the new debug window, but the targetColorScalar stays at 0.000000 no matter what is happening. Behavior is the same as I described in my last test post where I discovered the map screen breaks the functionality partially. Since the debug window output isn't working for me, here is an imgur album to show all the states. In the that previous test post I made a couple of mistakes, I've corrected them in that post for clarity as well. https://imgur.com/a/VtWeoZd I've noticed some log spam as well. [EXC 18:23:56.220] AlreadyLoadedException: The Assembly SolarSystemStock is already loaded! KSPe.Util.SystemTools+Assembly+Loader.LoadAndStartup (System.String assemblyName) (at <afd2f6694f9b4edcab4e21c3406dce44>:0) DistantObject.Contract.SolarSystemEngine.Create () (at <238038e99bd849ee843bb5a00531d699>:0) DistantObject.Contract.SolarSystemEngine.get_Instance () (at <238038e99bd849ee843bb5a00531d699>:0) DistantObject.DarkenSky.Update () (at <238038e99bd849ee843bb5a00531d699>:0) UnityEngine.DebugLogHandler:LogException(Exception, Object) ModuleManager.UnityLogHandle.InterceptLogHandler:LogException(Exception, Object) UnityEngine.Debug:CallOverridenDebugHandler(Exception, Object) ̷H̷e̷r̷e̷'̷s̷ ̷a̷ ̷s̷n̷a̷p̷s̷h̷o̷t̷ ̷o̷f̷ ̷t̷h̷e̷ ̷b̷e̷g̷i̷n̷n̷i̷n̷g̷ ̷o̷f̷ ̷m̷y̷ ̷K̷S̷P̷.̷l̷o̷g̷ ̷u̷p̷ ̷t̷o̷ ̷t̷h̷e̷ ̷p̷a̷r̷t̷ ̷w̷h̷e̷r̷e̷ ̷t̷h̷e̷ ̷e̷x̷c̷e̷p̷t̷i̷o̷n̷ ̷s̷p̷a̷m̷ ̷b̷e̷g̷i̷n̷s̷.̷.̷.̷.̷t̷h̷e̷ ̷.̷t̷x̷t̷ ̷f̷i̷l̷e̷ ̷i̷s̷ ̷a̷b̷o̷u̷t̷ ̷2̷5̷0̷m̷g̷b̷

@Lisias Yeah, sorry, today is not a great day for me for testing. I will try to get an early start tomorrow and do testing with screenshots, and logs. Should I wait for a version with a debugger option?

@Lisias Ok, I've got another interesting datapoint for you on experiemtnal-rc-0. This time I tried flying to orbit from the ground, loading crafts already in orbit from tracking station, and switching between vessels in orbit from map view. At first I thought the problem was scene change/vessel loading. But after flying to orbit, loading crafts a few times, and just generally playing the flight scene for a bit I figured this out: For freshly loaded vessels, seemingly from anywhere (VAB, tracking station, even from the map screen while controlling another vessel) it works similar to 2.2.1.2 When the Camera is looking into the Sun, the Sky shall dim. Working correctly (sky goes fully dim, solid black) on rc-0 When the Camera is looking into a Planet's illuminated side, the Sky shall dim. Screwed on rc-0 When the Camera is looking into a Planet's dark side, the Sky shall be visible. Working correctly (̷s̷k̷y̷ ̷g̷o̷e̷s̷ ̷f̷u̷l̷l̷y̷ ̷d̷i̷m̷,̷ ̷s̷o̷l̷i̷d̷ ̷b̷l̷a̷c̷k̷) on rc-0 When the Camera is looking away from the Sun and from any planet, the Sky shall be visible. Working on rc-0 When the Camera is "landed" on an atmosphereless body, the Sky shall dim when the ground is being illuminated. Screwed on rc-0 But as soon as you switch from the flight scene to the map screen and back (without switching vessels), the behavior changes to this: When the Camera is looking into the Sun, the Sky shall dim. Working *partially* (stars still faintly visible) on rc-0 When the Camera is looking into a Planet's illuminated side, the Sky shall dim. Screwed on rc-0 When the Camera is looking into a Planet's dark side, the Sky shall be visible. Working correctly *̷p̷a̷r̷t̷i̷a̷l̷l̷y̷*̷ ̷(̷s̷t̷a̷r̷s̷ ̷s̷t̷i̷l̷l̷ ̷f̷a̷i̷n̷t̷l̷y̷ ̷v̷i̷s̷i̷b̷l̷e̷) on rc-0 When the Camera is looking away from the Sun and from any planet, the Sky shall be visible. Working on rc-0 When the Camera is "landed" on an atmosphereless body, the Sky shall dim when the ground is being illuminated. Screwed on 2.2.1.2

Not sure what you mean by "collateral effect" but yes, these five game/camera states and if the are working on 2.2.1.2 seem to be what I am getting on my clean install tests.

Hate to report this, but it seems like this version is not working correctly. Here is what I observed. (tested both loading a ship already in orbit, and flying a ship to orbit from the pad; no cheat menu) -Skybox dimming seems to not be working at all when looking at the day side of the planet. -skybox dimming seems to be only partially applied/not fully darkening when looking towards the sun, similar to the bug state after using the cheat menu to get to orbit in pre-release 2.2.1.1

WOW! Something really weird now. I went back to 2.2.1.1 to test going to the Mun as you suggested. This time I already had a vessel in orbit, so I just went straight to it from the tracking center and SURPRISE, skybox dimming was working correctly when looking towards the sun! At first I had two terrible thoughts, either the bug is *dun dun dun* intermittent OR I was tripping before I wasn't remembering what I saw accurately. Decided to proceed on with testing how mun looks, because I haven't been there in a while anyway. Used the cheat menu to put myself in Mun orbit and BLAM, same bug as before, skybox only partially dimming when looking towards the sun. So I can report that something about scene change/cheat menu is involved, and your new code does seem to work properly in some circumstances. (EDIT: using cheat menu to go back to kerbin causes the bug to persist)

Tested; skybox dimming is able to go just as dark facing the sun as it can looking at the planet in low orbit (that is to say the effect looks the same for both in low orbit). This looks correct/good enough to me as far as min and max skybox brightness caps are concerned, and also the log-gradual dimming seems good too. It would seem that 2.2.1.1 does introduce a bug that prevents skybox dimming from being fully applied when looking towards the sun. I just want to say thank you for your efforts on this. Seeing the improvements from 2.2.1.1 despite the new bug was hugely gratifying. It's one of those subtle but hugely impactful things when you know about it. Along with having just gotten city lights working with the new scatterer true volumetric clouds the night side of LKO is significantly more visually interesting and much more similar to real orbital photography. I'm very excited, sunrise from orbit is about to get a whole lot more dramatic.

I think I understand what you saying here. When you say FoV to affect vision, are talking about the angle as the camera rotates where the effect begins to be applied? I think I agree with what you are describing here, but it still feels wrong to me. Even with the camera pointed almost straight at the sun, so the vessel is right next to the sun, there are still stars visible all around. There does not seem to be any angle I can look with the sun in view (and no planet) that will make the skybox as black as it gets when looking at the planet in low orbit. Could you artificially increase the "angular size" of the sun for this mod to make it more likely to get a completely black skybox when looking towards the sun? The fact that not much light is needed to completely mess up your night vision makes me feel like as soon as the sun is on screen at all the skybox should be solid black....so the angular size affecting the amount of dimming when the camera points towards the sun almost feels unnecessary, except that I guess this is required for the logarithmic dimming? Edit, and yes, I agree about the diminishing returns on things like persistence of vision on undimming and stuff. I'm mostly concerned with being able to capture screenshots and stuff with the correct look.

@Lisias Ok, ran a quick test and here are my observations. -Skybox dimming when the day side of the planet comes into view makes the stars go completely black. No skybox visible at all. -Skybox dimming when looking towards the sun is not as dark....you can still faintly see the stars. Dimming does get properly disabled when shadowed by a celestial body though. I tried playing with all the sliders in the distant object settings under dimming, but none of them seemed to affect this. Not sure how difficult this would be to address, but I'll mention I feel like this would be less noticeable if it were the other way around. The sun is the brighter object, it should make the skybox harder to see.

Tried installing this in my regular testing install with only visual enhancements and QoL mods and it seemed like it was not installed, no setting dialogue in blizzy's toolbar or the stock app launcher and no effect from the mod in flight. So I tried switching to a clean install with only module manager, blizzy's toolbar, toolbar controller and clickthrough blocker....and double and triple checked that I had the distant object folder properly in the gamedata folder. I also verified that it has all the files in it that were present in the previous version. Then I check my log and found this, not sure if it is helpful, but yeah, sorry, I was unable to test because I'm not sure if I messed up installing somehow, or if there's something wrong with the pre-release...

I just had a thought which is more of a QoL work-around. Could you give us a key-binding for enabling/disabling skybox dimming? I wouldn't mind having to manually turn it on and off myself when appropriate, but I'd like to be able to do it without having the settings dialogue up, for screen recording purposes. I'd like to be able to capture a nice sunrise from LKO with the HUD completely turned off. I realize that there are very few keys left that aren't already used by other mods or something, so perhaps a binding with a modifier key? Something like alt + U?

For those trying to get the ckan listing for KSPRC citylights working with newer scatterer true volumetric clouds and blackrack's release of EVE I was able to get it working for myself by downloading the .zip in ckan, extracting just the KSPRC/CityLights folder and then manually dropping it into my GameData folder without all the other stuff that comes in the .zip (ckan wants to replace EVE with an older version of EVE redux).

For those trying to get the ckan listing for KSPRC citylights working with newer scatterer true volumetric clouds and blackrack's release of EVE I was able to get it working for myself by downloading the .zip in ckan, extracting just the KSPRC/CityLights folder and then manually dropping it into my GameData folder without all the other stuff that comes in the .zip (ckan wants to replace EVE with an older version of EVE redux).

Any progress on this at all? I saw there was some more discussion around edge cases related to this in issue #50.....honestly though I think that even a janky solution that only works in most simple cases (LKO) would be better than nothing. Even if the stars all snap off instantly as soon as any sunlight hits your vessel, regardless of camera position or if you are orbiting a moon.

I'm getting a purple box instead of the proper icon in blizzy's toolbar for this mod...

Yeah, I can't seem to find this version in ckan either, despite the icon/link in the OP...