DrDima

Soo, hm. It's been a while since I've played KSP, a year now since I really tried it again. I basically went trough the same process I did when I first started playing and what made me stop in my tracks was the same thing that made me stop playing a year ago. The performance of the game is still awful. I have a 200 part big ship in orbit and I'm getting regular frameskips. To me this is what kills it. Personally I don't care much for career mode, because I like the creative aspect of the game. Yet again though I'm getting limited by part count and I feel like the game loses its appeal. I can't help but think that Squad is being a little misguided as to what they prioritize. They're focusing on content, when the core of the game is just as messy as it was before. With one more year of software development experience(event though I'm only a student) I feel they should clean up and optimize their code, and offer more mod support. Career mode could've easily been made by a modder if the tools were there, and currently it's impossible to my knowledge for modders to do what Squad needs to do - optimization. Oh and I also remember seeing a resource system diagram by squad that was shown as in-development back then too. Hmm why am I still using Kethane? I don't think Unity 5 will fix this. Slow code stays slow code no matter how many cores you put behind it. If the underlying idea of simulating every part anytime it's loaded stays I don't think I'll revisit the game a lot. I still stand by my purchase and think it's a great concept, but the way it's going I've only become more cautious about buying unfinished games.

So I'm willing to be the bad guy and impose a reality check on the dev team(including myself). Does anyone have know-how of developing server-side, or peer-to-peer networking architecture for games or other software? If not this might just be too much of a challenge learning this from scratch. I have experience with implementing database functionality into client-side software, but that's about it. Basically what I'm asking is if anyone has an idea of how to start. Also I do recommend using github, or either tfs(visual studio) for source control if this goes trough, dropbox is an impossible mess when working in a team and mine's already full.

I probably won't be able to help, but if you could document how you're doing it that would be awesome.

So I've been looking at the docking node code, but I just can't seem to find where the docking port magnetism is implemented. I'll keep looking, but by any chance, does anyone know where this happens?

Are people really that lazy? Or is it that hard to open a text file on MacOS? Maybe I just don't get it...

I've been playing around with that for a bit and it seems you would need to write a plugin. For the exact methods to use I'm not sure, I'm still clueless about a lot of the code. I might be wrong though.

Thanks, I haven't made up my mind yet as to what I want to make. I'll see when my exams are over. Maybe a docking port that discriminates rotation for people with OCD like me.

So what you mean is that I could extend the partmodule class and have the same functionality? I'm very new to unity and C# btw, so sorry if I'm asking obvious questions.

OHMYGOD thank you so much!! Finally I got it working. using System; using UnityEngine; using System.Collections.Generic; namespace KSPTestMod { public class TestMod : Part { protected override void onEditorUpdate() { PDebug.Log(name); if(Input.GetKeyDown("space")){ Renderer[] r = this.FindModelComponents<Renderer>(); PDebug.Log(r.Length); for(int i = 0; i < r.Length; i++){ r[i].material.mainTexture = null; r[i].material.color = Color.black; } } base.onEditorUpdate(); } } } The problem I'm facing now is that it resets the renderer's color and texture upon launch. If someone could explain to me why that is I'd be extremely grateful.

So I've been trying to modify a part's material at runtime. Unsuccessfully. I tried things like this: using System; using UnityEngine; using System.Collections.Generic; namespace KSPTestMod { public class TestMod : Part { protected override void onEditorUpdate() { if(Input.GetKeyDown("space")){ renderer.material.color = Color.black; } base.onEditorUpdate(); } } } It gives me a Nullreference exception in the debug.

That would be awesome. If anyone knows if it's possible to interchange textures for models during load to the launch pad that would be great. I'll look into it myself. Failing that I'll add some variety within the textures for each tank. The next planned additions are tank sizes though. I'm looking to make sizes 3, 2.5, 2, 1.25, 1 and 0.625 diameter tanks. This shouldn't be too hard since I already have the meshes and just need to do minor texture adjustments.

1 and 2 meter diameter tanks are ready. Just need to figure out the fuel capacity. Removed the wear and tear, most ppl probably don't want that anyway.

So after a weekend of checking out tutorials on texturing I had a change of heart and decided to scrap my previous models. I figured out specular and bump mapping and my texturing got a bit better. So I present to you the second-hand 2m fuel tank. You'll notice it's a bit scrappy, but at least it's still usable. I'll be keeping with this style for now.

I tried out normal mapping and this is what occured. There's a glare coming from the normal lower points. Does anyone know how to fix this? Or does it just happen when using specular?

Yeah didn't get it at first. I guess the KSP shaders are similar in how you use them as the unity shaders. I guess I just need to read up on shader types. But cool you can do normal mapping!

So I'm new to modeling, but I saw the parttools plugin has a whole bunch of options. My question would be: What kind of options do I have when it comes to texturing and materials in KSP? I know this is a broad question, but I couldn't find any information on the subject.

Michael Crichton and Asimov for me. Started reading Hyperion, it's fun but not 'hard' sci-fi.

Looks cool. By the way this mod is purely aesthetic, so I won't make steam resource mods. I'll probably get the smaller tanks done this weekend, after which I'll look into making some engines. As far as reflectivity goes, its a choice between the effect in the first post or the later ones. I tried some texturing on the metal, but it just ended up looking bad. If you have any reference material please post.

The adapter to 1M tanks is now done I'm quite happy with how the texture turned out. Tell me what you think.

'Sentient' is an illusion. It's semantics for human beings asking a lot of questions. The human brain is nothing more than one of the most complex things ever to exist and one of its byproducts is that we feel we are in control of our actions and feel we are capable of independent thinking. Theoretically we could simulate a human brain from a computer, however we lack the knowledge and technology. Most of the basic functions of the human brain, the 'basics', we understand. A lot of research has been done in artificial intelligence using something called 'nodes'(this is a software implementation). But the real limitation of a computer is that it's built binary, in contrast with the human brain which has thousands of connections per neuron and can change those synapses to learn. So yeah, science is far from developing real sentience. I will reference on of my favorite scifi authors here again, Michael Crichton: Prey.

Those are some very nice textures on the corridor and hub. Love how it looks.

Added the big guy of the family. Next I'll look into making 1 and 3m tanks and adapters.

You are DEAD ON :DDDDDD I love the steampunk genre.

Added some 'bolts'. Also changed the material to specular, it seems to look nicer.

So it took me a couple days, but I finally managed to make a semi-decent looking part. But I'm new to modeling and all that stuff, so I'm looking to do better. If you have any tips for improving my models I'd be glad to hear them. EDIT: It's a 2m width, 2m height fuel tank Download: Mediafire Pics below