trekkie_

thanks. when I try, I can be pretty efficient with lines/faces. It can be a bit tricky though. I still think the reactor needs something more, something that looks like it's reinforced between the ends, otherwise it'll look like the blue tubes are somehow load bearing, and they just don't seem like a load bearing structure. here's the actual face configuration of the part, which is 1746 faces to be exact, and I'd say there'd be more room for reductions with no visual change. pretty smooth in game as well... - I actually have been thinking about making a good blimp model using the same type of procedures.

.............

may or may not be added to the game, but I like it so I thought I'd show it off, but not necessarily final design or textures. I've worked on tons of stuff that never ends up in the game for one reason or another. the first is inspired by the hab mod in development by porkjet, but is meant to be an ultra light inflatable fuel tank, able to store multiple types of fuel, specifically for making large volume kethane refineries or fuel depots in compact payloads. I don't know how to animate it properly though. one bonus is it's a pretty efficient model with about 2,000 faces in total. - - this second one is some kind of high powered reactor or maybe even computer core, although it is a bit high poly with about 14,000 faces in total. it wasn't built with efficiency in mind though, since that dramatically increases the time to create something and have it still look good.

There's a surprising number of mods made from existing official designs, more than you might realize. Sometimes I'll google image something like "concept space craft" to inspire modeling, and often I come across images of stuff that is already in KSP and copied almost exactly down to every contour and color...they don't even add their own twist to it.....many from mods you might not even realize are replica's of designs that exist elsewhere. There's quite a few mods I've come across that I thought were original designs, then later find out they were exact replica's of something else. Of course, there's some great mods out there copy or not, and it is fine to be inspired by something and nice to have some pre-existing designs to play with, but I would take a guess that well over 90% of mods, are these copies I speak of. There's actually very little out there that hasn't been ported into KSP, and very little that is actually original in any sense. I guess what I'm getting at, is to remind people to not get caught up in copying stuff into KSP, but rather putting yourself into KSP. take my trek style nacelle mod for a loose example. simplistic, based on a pre-existing concept, but not an exact copy of anything you'll see anywhere else. http://imageshack.us/a/img802/180/warp7.png

I really wouldn't mind if I did inspire him to make the parts. I've been busy, and have released a couple other mods since this. There are also some really old mods that cover things like junk propulsion, from something like version 0.13. I wouldn't really care at this point though with the time that has passed. It's not like anything he did is a copy of anything I've shown here. so inspired...maybe...copied...nah. If anything, if I get around to it I could release some complimentary stuff. all that really matters is people have some new parts to play with.

if you're gonna change the name you might as well delete the whole thread I am kind of proving a point though. This, gets more views and replies in a couple of seconds.....than even my best modding work. kind of insulting really.

someones obviously disappointed they didn't get a look at any green

Made you look Ah, the art of deception!

I rushed his mouth a bit, but overall, I think he turned out quite well. -

perhaps it's the way you're configuring your animations in the config file.

I wouldn't really consider this a part mod. Seems more like it would belong in the spacecraft exchange section rather than addons.

how about something like this as a model replacement.... - water and o2/food tanks. sunlight (or artificial electrical light, to a lesser degree) hitting plants produce food and air, while uptaking water. a third module could be the actual life support hardware that recycles the air and water and food waste. it could also simulate diminishing returns.

best bet is browsing the addon request forum. if you're good at animating things, you could probably be of more use to other modelers too. while those panels are nice, the extending frame might not be all that visible in game unless viewed from unreasonably close up, or cause jaggys/shimmering, or make it look like the panels are held together by nothing at a normal viewing distance. modding in KSP is kind of a balance between quality and efficiency. it's good to keep in mind that some details may be a lot of extra work for very little difference in what people will notice or care about, so plan around it. another few common elements of KSP modding are 1) edgewear: make your parts look used with wear and tear wherever applicable when texturing. you can see examples in some stock parts like engines. 2) size your textures as small as possible, when possible, to cut down on its memory footprint. 3) keep models at a reasonable amount of polygons. I personally set the limit at around 5000, since that is about the amount in a single half life 2 character model. people are going to be loading tons of parts at once, so requirements can jump sharply. if they say for example, use a 5000 poly model 8 times, they've suddenly got 40,000 poly's on the screen in just that one part. while GPU's are more accurately limited by vertices, that by proxy limits the number of polygons. these visually identical cylinders are a good example of keeping faces down on parts.

I usually put something short along the lines of "cannot be modified without permission" or "can be modified freely"

however, this is not any of the actual NASA logo's, it's just the NASA font spelling 'NASA'.

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/nasa-heat-shield/ License: Non commerical use only. May not be modified or repackaged without authors permission.

the tanks themselves will not be included in the final design, unless I decide to actually put in the effort of detailing them. they were there just to show the complete look (there's plenty of tanks out there already, including spherical)....but there will be hard attachment points where the tanks are, along with the metal bars. the shield will come in 2 sizes, large (suitable for 2.5m and 1.25m parts) and small (suitable for ~1.25m parts). I don't think the heatshield itself will incur any weight penalties at this point, so it's going to be very light so it doesn't mess up balance and require you to carry a bunch of extra fuel to use it since protection from heat is not an actual mechanic in the game, it's all for look now just like re-entry effects. the several hard attachment points should provide enough room to balance the vessel out so the heatshield doesn't end up facing the wrong direction. all I've got left to do is add the attachment node coordinates, and fix an issue with a low poly mesh collider for the shield (it's still showing up in game even though I turned rendering off for it in unity, so the whole bottom of the inside of the shield is texture-less because it's overlapping it) the nasa logo has a really perfect specular to it, almost looks like it has a reflection map at certain angles. thinking maybe I'm going to have to do some planning on how to fix this. it seems the shield, for some reason, doesn't generate re-entry effects along the sides. the metal bars however, do (even though they're not exposed). it does glow nice and hot looking though. maybe just a side effect of the shield shape or high poly count itself, because obviously the shield is glowing from the effects. I don't know if not having a mesh collider on the shield model affects re-entry effects. right now I'm using a decimated low poly copy of the shield as a mesh collider, but it doesn't even act like it has a mesh collider either even though everythings been done properly in unity. I don't think you'd need to jettison these at all after entry. slap a parachute or landing gear on it and land whichever way you want. it could probably serve as a really wide base for landing gear, making it easier to land huge vessels. it should hold up for long trips across the solar system if you design properly, or jettison it whenever you please. it would be cool if these were inflatable, with the nasa logo being an inline part and the shield coming out of it, but I'm not really an animator and it would kill the attachment nodes for balancing the weight. I don't think it's a big issue though. a nicely designed vessel would look even nicer with an always deployed heatshield like this, no matter where it's at, and since it also serves as an attachment hub, it's useful in designing your vessel around its nodes.

static heatshield, always deployed. includes fuel tank nodes, which should help balance it if done correctly. will be done when it's done. just showcasing what I have so far

seems like the original author pretty much did everything they had planned with it. I don't see anything else that could be done with it. the docking port seems to be the only thing not working, and that would take all of 5 minutes to complete, or just use another docking port.

killing time with design. 217 faces only.

I'd like to be able to find a place for my buildings.

A simple two pack of emissive glowing parts. Bling out your crafts, line your stations docking ports, spell words, make shapes and signs, highlight and accent that other worldly base, use your imagination! Great for viewing in the darkness. [Click me for in-game screenshot] Download: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/radlights/

dude. take a chill pill how old are you? 12?

winzip is for noobs. I've been using winrar for probably 15 years or however long its been around. but the irony here, is that winzip can open .rar files.......so what's the problem with .rar? nearly every zip program supports rar. in fact, I'm pretty sure that rar is used more across the internet than zip.