PolecatEZ

Its no problem, I'll hold off until you're done and put it back on the table much later if its called for.

Please do, sounds like a bug to me with the textures...can you check all the chutes while you're at it? I just remember mucking with one parachute file, but there may be more referencing it. The "space" between the shroud strings I didn't think about when trying to imagine what clear areas there would be in game. ========================================= B9 Aerospace Texture Pack is up - savings is 200mb for RAM. Cheers. I love that warm, cuddly, prolific feeling. It looks like Fustek is next on the docket. I looked at NovaPunch, but that seems like the textures are already crunched pretty good.

Actually, I can put a suicide switch on the file. To undo then you'd just erase the /squad folder and reload it from Steam as instructed. Next update I'll do that. Also, it doesn't really matter how many times you run it, just that you need to either copy the folder from the .zip again or have Steam repair it.

Will dos-shell .bat files not run properly on MacOS? It seems simple enough, and they left the capability in Windows. If not, what would be the equivalent to do a conversion? I would like to have alternative Mac and Unix installers up and running if anyone want to volunteer to do the .bat conversion. ------------------- Next project is B9 texture redux pack. If anyone has any other requests, let me know.

Update is UP. Thanks to Somnabulance's previous work, I figured out why the internals weren't responding to my romantic overtures in the form of MODEL command sets. Now they're mostly peachy and everything works fine. Total shrinkage is now 400mb. I would be very hard-pressed to get it more than this. There may be room to squish it 20mb more or so, but the effort to benefit ratio on this is extreme. If someone else wants to tackle the 3mb .mbm files, I'll include them in the next release. Enjoy in good health.

I did take some shots while it was in development, but every time I found a major difference that would show up in a screenshot, I just upped that texture to the next level and it looked identical again. It would be a little strange to just show two identical screenshots. On anything but the highest graphic settings, they will be functionally identical to the originals. If anyone has comparison photos of things that look different, feel free to post them.

Happens to me also. If you're logged into spaceport, everything shows up normal. If you aren't logged in, you don't see the photo, download count, and it tells you to Buy instead of Download. I'll hold my breath and wait for the check to arrive. Could you also tell me your OS and graphics card? I doesn't look like you're pushing your RAM very hard so that probably isn't the issue. If we could figure out what those having issues have in common, it would probably help. The only thing I can think of is that a texture isn't being properly overwritten, that maybe 2 textures exist for the same thing that are confusing the system. However, this already happens for the Mk1Cockpit in the stock game. Anyways, more info would be cool. If you would be so kind as to post your save game also, that may help. I'll see if I can lock it up also.

I think the .mbm format is a Unity engine product and not necessarily a reflection of Squad's intelligence. A little tact goes a long way, just sayin'. I tend to save my illustrious vocabulary and sharp-tongued wit for those that deserve it more. The only drawback I've noticed is things like transparent windows and such. If anyone sees any issues let me know. The gray maps I thought were normal as that's exactly how they turn out with the same process as the normal textures, and I haven't seen any issues yet with that either. If anyone notices anything funny, please let me know and I'll tinker some more. I did finally figure out what I was doing wrong with the spaces, and its Somnabulance's empty placeholder textures. Apparently Spaces need them while regular parts don't when you change the texture pointers with the "Model" line command set. Going one space at a time now, and testing thoroughly. I should have another 200mb shaved off tomorrow or Friday.

It looks like both B9 and NovaPunch have open license, so I'll put it on my docket. This one is pretty straight forward, .png's are easy to shrinkalate and he's already done a lot of consolidation. If the original author wants to do this though, I'll hold off for a few days and let him respond.

I actually tried this exact same thing 2 days ago, and couldn't get it to work. It even looks like he did the exact same thing...the file screenshot looks exactly like mine, except I put all the shared assets into a "common" folder and tried loading things from there. I'll dig out my own files and keep working on them that way also, but the two test models I looked at were both pretty borked, and I assumed what Greys said in that threat, that model is only a sub-function of PART. Somn demonstrated different though, and now I need to figure out why/how. I may have just coincidentally picked the two to test that he also said were borked. Between texture reduction and this method, the "Spaces" folder could become very squished. Either way, I'll take those back out of my archive and mess with them. The texture re-makes are done, but I think I'll hold off until I can figure that out. =================== I see where the memory thing happens, but using his pack just removes all my internal spaces entirely. Using dummy .mbm's like he does with my own config files just gives me blue parts instead of white parts. There was another guy that said that it would work on my own mod pre-release post, and he never got back to me afterwards to say if he could get it to work. Scratch the dead again comment...its now working again...until it doesn't.

I think it depends also heavily on the size of the object. 1024x1024 stretched over a Rockomax 64 would be far more noticeable when shrunk compared to something that's already tiny (like that darned throttle handle). That's why on the resize you sort of have to eyeball it on the bigger objects to make sure you don't get too fuzzy. Another drawback is when modders "stretch" or resize them to a larger size, it becomes quite noticeable.

So far I've been doing this: - Copy out the Squad folder. - In that working folder, delete all files that are NOT of a specific size (4mb, 1mb, etc). - Make a .tga template for that file size with the matching channels, etc. in Photoshop. File size should be close to identical. - Open it with Hex editor, copy the first 18 characters to clipboard. - Run through and paste over the first 20 characters on every .mbm file of the appropriate size. - batch rename every file to .tga - In photoshop, flip the red and blue channels (I have a saved profile for this), and kill the alpha channel. Then resize and save (no easy shortcut for this, but with practice I can do it manually while watching marathon Breaking Bad). - Unless there's insane details, normal maps don't need to be bigger than 256x256 - Textures on small objects (.5m parts or smaller) can be 256 (512 with fine letters/writing) - Medium objects generally are 512 or so. - Highly detailed or large objects should stay at 1024, but this process still knocks them down 25%. - Done. It is possible to run through with Hexedit and change them back to .mbm's, but then its a PITA when you want to edit them later if you messed something up. Its also possible to convert to .png's, but this makes the space savings a little obscure, as the game still re-bloats them to .tga sizes when it loads, and it may increase loading time (no idea). It also kills a bit of detail. As you can see, its a lot of grunt work and not exactly skilled labor. I thought about drafting my 6 year old kid to doing some tedious parts but he started grumbling when I even mentioned it. Darn it, when I was his age I was losing a finger every week for 2 years in the textile mills...

I have updated the wildly different spelling of the batch file, good catch. However, all it still does is delete things. After this, you must then follow steps 3 and 4 (annotated by the 3rd and 4th "-" on the list) in the instructions. Step 4 is actually entirely optional, and useful really only if you can, in fact, profit from this particular listing of actions. At least by step 3 you should have accomplished most of the useful actions you can take, however, be sure to precede step 3 by performing steps 1 and 2, but with the mispelled .bat file (the only .bat file in the .zip). Do not perform these steps out of order or something may explode. I hope this was clear. B9 is mostly in .png's, so its easy to resize yourself if you really want. If the creator lets me though, I'd be happy to run it through the pipeline and make a texture redux pack. I gave up asking to fix people's stuff though, I always end up being the beggar - how the conversation usually goes: - "Please let me fix your stuff...pah-leease! At least update it so it works with 21.1, here, I've already done the work just take it and post the fix." - "No." Hence why I've vowed that everything I ever create/do for this game will have the MIT license.

I saw that they had a thread addressing this, and the idea was that this feature was pushed back quite a ways. I saw in a folder or two where some experiments with file size and formats were attempted, but it looks like they didn't pursue it. -------------------------- I've almost got the internals done in testing. It looks like another 200mb are saved. The windows for 2 of the pods are whitewash though, I need to figure out which texture it is.

Wait for someone to translate the batch file to be mac friendly...I have no idea how those commie hipster boxes work. If another user posts it I'll put it in the first thread.

If you overwrote it without running the batch file (following directions), you have duplicate textures that may or may not play nice. You can delete the Squad folder entirely and do a "local file cache verification" and Steam will fix it. I can almost guarantee that this mod, installed as instructed, did not do that to your game. It doesn't change any code. At worst, it may show up as a bright white empty texture on a part or lines going in the wrong direction for an improperly rotated texture/normal map. Let me know about these bugs if you find them. I could revert them back to .mbm, but its unnecessary and may be the source of possible extra bugs (though it is more idiot-proof for installing). .MU files are the model meshes, and are already fairly compressed. The only way to shrink those would be to re-make the entire model with less detail, but they are a very miniscule load compared to the textures.

~200mb isn't much, but it is a start to putting a serious dent in the Squad folder. For 200mb savings though, you could now add NovaPunch for "free", for example.

Squad Texture Reduction Pack - UPDATED Update - Still works with 0.23, newer objects don't have the reduced textures, but that doesn't make the mod any less efficient. Internal Spaces are done. Total savings is 400mb almost exactly. RAM usage savings is ~340mb for me, your mileage may vary. Please uninstall all previous versions per instructions before downloading - though it should work just to run the new Debloat.bat and Copy over again. ------------------------------------------------ All Stock 1mb and 4mb textures have been “debloated†by between 25 and 90%, leading to a 400mb reduction in size for your “Parts†and "Spaces" folder. Later improvements will take another 50-100mb off that number, and 100-150 from the “Spaces†folder. I'll make a pass at the internal spaces as well as the 3mb textures probably in a day or two. So far I haven’t noticed any loss in quality, but I have seen a slightly smoother gameplay with a little less VAB and SPH lag. My RAM usage dropped by about 140mb or so, your mileage may vary. If other mods are pushing the 3.5GB limit, and causing crashes, this is definitely for you. â€â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€- To install this mod: - Place the Debloat.bat in your /GameData folder - Double-click Debloat.bat to run it. - Overwrite your Squad folder with the one from the .zip - Profit. To remove (sounds complicated, very easy): - Run Debloat.bat again. - Delete Debloat.bat - In Steam, Right-click “Kerbal Space Programâ€Â, select Properties at the bottom. - Select “Local Files†and then click “Verify Integrity of Local Game Cache†- No more profit. -------------------------------- I did the install this way to save space on the download and just give you the de-bloated textures, and also not to re-distribute Squad’s unaltered original files. MIT license – means I don’t care what you do with this, don’t even ask, do what you want...just don't hold me liable. Original Textures are/were subject to Squad's EULA, where it is implied modification and redistribution of items in the "Parts" folder is fully allowed for use in KSP. Download Here Questions/Comments/Concerns can be posted below. =============================================================== B9 Aerospace Texture Pack now available. Reduces RAM footprint by around 200mb, reduces B9 lag in VAB/SPH. Distributed under GPL3 license in the original B9 Pack, see Spaceport link for details. =============================================================== KW Rocketry Texture Pack Reduces RAM footprint by around 200mb for KW Rocketry, about 65% off the original load. Distributed under GPL3 license in the original KW Rocketry Pack, see Spaceport link for details. =============================================================== Mac and Unix Users, take a gander below: ------------ ------------- I will happily provide the full size .tga textures that are in this pack to other modders upon request, provided their licensing is GPL-3 or MIT for their works.

And that's what I'm trying to say about game design being a critical skill, case in point. In this example, mod creator assumes that things later along on the tech tree would necessarily obsolete earlier items and that simply placing more powerful or imbalanced stuff toward the end would be "balancing." A "tier" system where tech levels continuously obsolete certain parts and relegate them to just clogging up your catalog wouldn't be very desirable and doesn't fit this form of open game play. Restricting use of mods in a brand new area temporarily while they balance out a new and shiny game play feature would not be unreasonable in any way. Players will still happily download your mods on their own merits and happily tick along in sandbox mode...and with all the more reason to do so unless they really like just playing stock in "career mode." This won't hurt your millions of dollars in profits from making your mods.

Some parts magically change their mass when they leave the hangar, such as landing gear shows up as .5 tons per gear, but is completely weightless in the launchpad/runway. This is why you balance your aircraft and look at TWR and dV before you put the gear on. Other things may be launch clamps, and possibly other landing gear or ladders. I have no idea what else has this "feature".

I interpreted the idea to mean that they would restrict what went into the career mode while they were themselves balancing the system, as the presence of popular mods that will inevitably show up may heavily skew their test results when trying to construct campaign play. This makes perfect sense from a game design testing perspective. Its hard enough to balance your own catalog of parts without random additions. Mod makers may need to be satisfied with having their parts-based stuff in sandbox mode for at least the start of the testing period. Global mods may be a different animal, or they may also be restricted.

I would have to agree with Squad on this one. Some mod-makers can code well, some can model well, some can texture well, but I have seen precious few that can balance their mods well for game play. This is all fine and well in sandbox, but in campaign mode with comparative results in the community, I can see their point of view where they would like to keep a little more control over what goes. A lot of people (modders) can do wondrous technical things, but very few have cracked a game design textbook open and taken a look. Many companies often pass game design to someone's nephew thinking its an easy job, when really it could do the most damage if done poorly. Without some kind of balancing rubric in place and documented, I shudder to think where most mod-makers would put their stuff on a legitimate tech tree.

I haven't hit a weird crash yet since installing. My only issue now since installing the latest version with all the fixings is that I can't make heads or tails out of the nose cone fairing system. Procedural fairings makes them a moot point, but I would still like the look. Maybe a deal can be cut for including them in KW style.

You might want to reduce the tonnage on the Atlas V, as 150 tons before fuel is taken into consideration is a bit much for the Unity engine. If you need it to be that heavy for any reason, invent another dummy resource and add it and keep the base tonnage under 10 tons. Still though, 150 tons? BTW...did you work on Blazing Angels (I or II) projects also?

Jetpacks based on being attached to your kerbal's back, or pseudo jetpacks with the command chair logic?