Bluegobln

The textures export to the directory ABOVE the directory you set. So if you set: - Example1\Example2\model.mu That's where the model exports, but the textures will export to: - Example1\<partname>model000.png This is a common problem for people and I don't know why it does that, but it does.

You can add more stack nodes in the CFG easily, if desired. I would not be surprised if there are major performance issues with that shield, as it happens to have quite a few individual parts and is likely stressing KSP pretty hard. I simply don't know a solution to that however, other than simplifying the model in ways that make it look kinda cheese. Only very little can actually be done about the folding panels though. I think I will go through and update all of my parts to make tweaks, minor fixes, and add things like the attach nodes you just mentioned. No sense in leaving things broken. Also, I am partway through modeling the 200m shield, but it's challenging.

I made a crappy video that may or may not be helpful. Feel free to scan through it to see what steps I take for getting a part from 3d model to in game animated and textured part. The video shows the entire process start to finish for the part. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/31251-The-Icarus-Project?p=411792&viewfull=1#post411792 I don't show anything about setting up your modeling program or Unity, but that's thoroughly covered elsewhere. Most people seem to get hung up on the Unity settings, on things like texture unwrapping, and sometimes CFG files.

Texturing, like all things in art, requires a bit of practice to move from the elementary to the advanced stages. The more you practice the more you'll do the things that seem difficult or tedious now automatically, and you'll find your textures look twice as good for what seems like no extra effort. Flipping normals has to do with your model not your texture. I typically handle this while modeling when I create new faces that are not correct. I don't know what program you're using, but in 3ds Max there is an option to "unify" normals, as well as flip them, so you can make all of your selected faces the same and if they are still wrong then you can flip them all at once. I imagine Blender has fairly similar options somewhere. In 3ds the indication of whether a polygon is facing inward or outward is indicated by it being darkened and greyed when inward facing. You can also just make a quick render to see exactly what is happening with your model. Another trick that probably works in almost any program is to make your materials double sided. This might not work in games, though. What software are you using?

Fantastic! That may just be the problem here, and also some other parts that have been driving me absolutely nuts in my own launches. Like, every time I launch a rocket SOME part is breaking off mid flight and I lose control (but of course the rocket keeps going).

That's the exact technique I was considering trying for this once I finished all my other endeavors, fantastic work. I was thinking of trying to use emissives on the scoop for even more cool effect but I don't know if the shaders will allow it with transparency. At a certain velocity it should provide its own fuel completely. But the energy requirement would probably be immense for the magnetic field. The weirdest part is your throttle should affect the scoop, but not the engine. The scoop can be adjusted, the engine runs based on how much hydrogen is being picked up (which is determined by the size of the scoop and your velocity). At least that's how I think its should work... *shrug*

In what way or under what situation are they breaking off for you? Does anything else fall apart on you during flights? Are you under heavy physics time slowdown during launch? The picture in the post directly above yours shows one in space... Even so, I want to fix it if there is a problem. But I need more info.

Honestly, from what I have seen, you can pull off parts with quite a bit larger poly counts than that (I've made as high as 8000 I think). Poly count isn't a huge limiter in most GPU's nowadays I'm pretty sure, it's the textures, the other graphic effects, those are what matter. If you have a large part with LOTS of little intricate details, one trick I've quickly learned is a huge part of how a part performs (especially if animated) is whether shadows are enabled for smaller parts. For example: I recently made a large animated folding shield thing, the hinges are there but they caused HUGE lag when animated because they had shadows. I disabled both shadows and specular highlights on them and now they perform considerably better (they still accept other object's shadows since that appears to be much less demanding on GPU). It is important if you have a complex model that you use either convex collision or a much simpler collision mesh. If you want some examples of really rather high poly parts, check out the THSS pack linked in my sig. The parts are all pretty high poly, especially the adapters with round attach points. For the most part there are no actual textures used on them, they're just models with color.

Hehehe, that shield isn't meant for re-entry of course. But cool.

This is a video I just made in a little over an hour that shows a part being modeled, animated, textured, exported, set up in Unity, CFG file settings, and loaded up in the game. It's a little wonky but it might help someone, so here it is. Posted it in my project thread: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/31251-The-Icarus-Project?p=411792&viewfull=1#post411792

You don't have to anything. They're non-functional until they're set up to use Puffin Tech's temperature plugin anyway. They do look kinda cool, I think, but eh. I'm hoping the video will help some people a little. Obviously if you don't have access to 3ds or Photoshop it might be more of a problem, but a lot of what I do is comparable in Blender and Gimp. If I had any experience with those I'd probably just do the guide over again and fix the problems. Sorry!

So I spent a little over an hour just now modeling, animating, texturing, export, import, unity settings, cfg file, and straight into KSP for a single part. The whole process basically for a model with animation. I'm a bit slow as I am on occasion explaining things, and I goof a bit with how I am doing things (I didn't really plan the part out I just had an idea of it in my head). But hopefully this helps some people who'd like to make their own parts and are a bit lost. I apologize for the gap on the left and bottom of the screen, I forgot the desktop camera was set smaller than full size. If you get lost in a step because of that feel free to send me a PM. I do not have experience with Blender for this process, sorry! Also I got lucky and the part worked on the first try. Lol! Here is the video: Quality is much lower than it was in the actual video file.... *grumble* Here is the part: GE-150 Heat Sink You can see where if I wanted to spend a little more time on the part I could have done some more neato things, added more detail, but I was doing two things here of course: the guide, and the part. I may update the part in the future.

I'm working on a small parts pack that should be both 2.5m and 1.25m scaled that will have small shields like that for re-entry and solar shielding. However... there are other packs out there! Since that is part of the purpose of this thread, I'll show you one of the cooler ones I've run into for heat shields: Heatshield CollectionYou can also use the heat shields (3 sizes) in the THSS pack linked in my signature. I understand they're not precisely what you're looking for, but as I said, workin on it!

Someone in the THSS thread asked for these, so I made them. Since Lack contributed specifics for matching his parts I hope he doesn't mind me posting these here as well. If there is a desire for more pieces, I can probably throw them together pretty quick. Try to make it with these and existing adapters from both kits, but if it just can't work let me know and I'll make another (PM is preferred so I don't miss it). Goblin Enterprises - THSS / LLL Adapters!

Late night goodies again! Thanks again to Lack for contributing his piece sizes. They weren't exactly what I thought, so it would have taken me some time without! If there is a desire for more pieces, I can probably throw them together pretty quick. Try to make it with these and existing adapters from both kits, but if it just can't work let me know and I'll make another. Goblin Enterprises - THSS / LLL Adapters!

They're meant to be panels that you simply place on the appropriate pieces where you want them, rather than having pre-paneled parts. This way gives you more control over the placement of those panels, but it does increase part count. Because he understands some people may prefer the other way for reduced part count, I think he made the old versions available in the main post. The link is here. No worries if you didn't spot it, its sorta hidden in the update list. *salute* Takes away from the "here's money so you can not be broke" part too.

Whats strange is according to my plans while making the 16m shield, I measured it to be 16m, but it is apparently 15m. How do I know this? Because the inside of the 45m shield is absolutely 15m... it simply HAS to be or the folding won't work. So my 16m shield is actually 15m... That's why there is a gap. I assumed the 1m would cover it just fine... incorrectly so. Prototypes lol... ----- Ok so "concrete" design plans for the 200m heat shield: *ba dum tss* - It's going to be 200m diameter, because I want it BIG, but I don't want it 2km big. - It will INITIALLY require no resource to unfold, but in the future I would like to have it require mining material from the Mun or an asteroid. - It will only be one way, once the animation plays you can't fold it back up. This is because it's made of an as yet unspecific "concrete" or heat brick made from Munar soil, water, etc. - I will need it to act as a fuel tank, and fill with resource, so that it is low mass when launched and high mass after being built on the Mun or asteroid. That should make for some fun Mun launches! (Who goes to the Mun and then launches a triple digit ton payload!?! Has it been done?) - You still have to ship up part of the mixture, just much less of it. Probably like 1/4 to 1/3 of the total volume, so a lot still. O.o Concrete, as I've been reading, has actually been largely overlooked for use in space. It's uniquely suited for it though! As far as it's strength under the heat of the sun, I'm going with it's just a structural material and the heat transfer systems and reflective material of the bags will take care of the majority of the heat itself.

Here's my list then: - Octo -> (2) LLL standard 2x1 - Octo -> (3) LLL standard 2x1 - Octo -> (1) LLL standard 4x2 (horizontally) - THSS -> (1) LLL standard 2x1 - (2) THSS -> (1) LLL standard 2x1 (similar to my 2.5m to 2x THSS) - Flat LLL style piece with a THSS mount for placing on the sides of LLL pieces Same thing as the below part lol... - THSS -> LLL standard 1x1 Please note that these may take some time. I'm now working on something like 3 simultaneous projects (sort of). I will probably release several at a time and put the whole thing on Spaceport when its done. Thanks Lack for sharing the specifics so the parts will match up perfecto!

Once you're closer to the sun the solar panels become incredibly powerful. Similarly, I imagine it shouldn't be difficult to extract power from the heat shield (though which method for doing so is a good question to ask). Because power is available once CLOSE to Kerbol, but not so much when further out, I think I will use nuclear rockets for the orbital phase and ions for the final adjustments when in close. This is also good because I can mount ions along the length of the ship at the CoM of each module, which should keep thrust well balanced once all the modules are connected. Then there is the problem of alignment. Indeed, I've already been working on such a project, but it has just become relevant: Here. It seems I should solve that problem before launching my primary Kerbol station lest having misaligned parts' engines screwing up my orbit. Great pics. Edit: So wait, that's a "probe" with a 16m shield? *cackle* Ah, just wait till I release the 100m and 200m shields. I've decided they're too big to be built anywhere except on the Mun, and launched from there. Besides, we can use the lunar soil for the main substance of the shield. Just have to send up water, or extract it from the Mun somehow.

I'd be happy to, just need the approximate measurements of the piece. I can rough it out if I need to but its easier if I just know it. Wanna ask for me? lol

Thank you for testing. I didn't actually launch one lol *cackles maniacally* I'm working on the telescope lens but I'm not sure how to do transparency. Apparently the game doesn't allow it, but I've seen parts that have it, so I'm like.. HUH!? Maybe they're using some trick with cutoff shaders? If nothing else I can "simulate" the lens with textures decently well. The lens is actually intended to use a kind of Fresnel design, which I can give the general effect of by using a few little texture tricks. Eh, it will happen eventually. Even if I got it done, there's no way to use it. The telescope would be so powerful you'd be able to see an ant on a hill on Duna from Kerbin orbit (well not really but, it has incredible imaging ability apparently, like 100x the power of the Hubble).

How is this a necro... when I opened it the last post was the one that now shows as being posted on the 19th of October... lol!? It clearly said today... now it's different. *sigh*

Precisely. But then that's getting into the realm of plugins and such so it's a bit out of my skill range. I'd love if someone decided to tackle it though!

I've come up with an idea for how to make a 200m shield (or hell, MUCH bigger if desired), have it be decently thick and high mass not just a flimsy cloth, and be able to fit it in a very small space. - First a scaffolding is extended. This will form a "net" like shape similar to the final shield shape. - Empty bags are unfolded and pulled out to "fill" the scaffolding net. - A specialized mixture of material in grain form (sand basically) is pushed out into the bags through sleeves, filling them relatively tightly. The final shape is a relatively thin shield, probably 5-10cm thick. - As heat builds the material in the shield melts together, and as it does thermal conductivity is increased and special cooling systems are turned on, dropping temperature in the shield again. - As heat dissipates again the shield hardens. Bam, solid shield, 200m diameter, extremely compact form at launch. What do you think? Biggest problems: - It's going to be HEAVY. But then, so would any solid shield material. This one might be theoretically made from lunar soil or something though, or harvested from an asteroid which would make it quite a bit simpler to launch this shield. This also would make for much more interesting and fun missions! - Do the bags just get fried when the shield first heats up? They have to be able to keep it's shape through incredible amounts of heat. If we're using flexible bag material that can withstand that kind of heat... why fill it with sand at all? *ponders* --- Edit: On another note, since we're basically doing it this way anyway, maybe some kind of concrete... lmao *duh* There are other ways to harden a grainy material. It could also use magnetic fields from planets to generate electricity to melt the material with more control, and be able to turn it off when the process is complete.

Ah, here we go. GE-Solar Shields Includes: - GE-4500: 45m shield with a 2.5m base. - GE-2250: Resized shield to 1.25m base, the unfolded diameter is about 23m And of course included it in the main zip file as well. For re-texturing you can use either the UV PNG file or the PSD file downloaded here. On another note: I made the thing QUITE heavy lol... too much? What should it be? The same goes for my other parts.