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Watched it on the day of You Tube release. I'm not much of a coder, but it was great to see how Squad overcame obstacles and persevered to get the game as far has it has come. I think these guys (Squad) are geniuses! (Moving the universe instead of "you" to reduce errors, wow.)

Hi, This combo pack contains the updated versions of the (rocket) Fueled Adapters and Jet Fueled Adapters & Caps sets. The rocket fueled adapters are translucent so that the simplified internal design may be viewed. The inner oxidizer tank is immersed within the outer fuel tank. Since KSP doesn't yet reward the use of aerodynamic parts (adapters, caps), the drag on these parts has been reduced. Use these instead of stock adapters & caps. Updates tweaked some parts alignment for better SPH use. The files have shorter file path characters so that potential unzip issues for Windows users are addressed. Get them here! http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/combo-adapter-pack/

Wow. I'll need to remember this when I make my next large rocket. No wonder half my debris was struts. Thanks for the info!

Actually, another thing I've done is ADD yet another mesh. (It was for translucency effects.) But sumghai has a good suggestion. One way to offset the planarity is to ever so slightly rotate one of the meshes. I've not needed to do that but its good to know just in case.

Very nice. I'm clearly not the only one interested in some colorful parts or vehicles. Keep up the good work!

Very cool! I was thinking about putting a flag on some of my mod parts (layer in a texture file) but this is much more flexible. Keep up the good work!

Glad you've found them useful! The color came about largely in getting the design to look like there might be fuel in the adapters. A drab gray scale wasn't very convincing. Too little color also wasn't convincing. And too much (actually, not color so much as alpha and shader) made the adapters look like popsicles. I wanted the opaque nose "cones" to go with the set, so that required some color too. My next project will have a look more in line with stock parts, since I'll not be using transparency or translucency on those. They will fit another niche. As for the adapters and caps, I made something which I wanted to use myself. Good luck in your KSP travels!

I suppose that loop the loops after take off, before orbit, don't count? :-0

I'd have no idea what Manley uses but I think his laptop is a MacBook Pro (seen in the video of he and a former astronaut playing KSP). I use Audacity and iMovie (Mac). I don't know what you could use (for free) on a Windows machine but I'm sure somebody will reply on that. What OS? XP? Win 7? Something else?

I see what you mean, Greys. I spent more time waiting for my machine and for KSP than I did actually working on my latest project. Next time I'll try out your suggestions.

That's up to you. It can be done for sure. It doesn't seem to hit my game performance. Check my sig line for pics of parts I modeled and uploaded today. I used KSP/alpha/translucent specular for the outer tank and KSP/bumped specular for the inner structure of my fueled adapters. I just used KSP/specular for my fueled caps. See what you think. Actually you'd get a better idea in game due to the lighting and shadow dynamics.

The Shinatama 7 series of fueled adapters & caps is the result of engineers asking "what if we put fuel in these things?" (Don't ask what happened to the first 6 series.) While the adapters sport a translucent outer structure, cost and mass savings were achieved by getting rid of one of the internal tanks! Seriously. The oxidizer tank is immersed in the outer fuel tank, and both contribute to structural strength. The caps also consist of an inner oxidizer tank within the outer fuel tank, although their composite housings are not translucent. K'lia Industries' highly paid engineers say that the outer tanks are slicker than the old metal housings, so drag is reduced. These Shinatama fueled components may be attached and used "upside down" as well as in the more traditional "right side up" orientation, thanks to the more balanced vertical design of the central pumps and oxidizer tank. While this inner tank is baffled for "slosh control", it also assists in controlling "sloshing" of KlearFuel in the outer tank (currently rather reminiscent of a washing machine tub and agitator). The parts – Fueled Adapters: Nightmare Small-Large Phantasm Medium-Large Shade Small-Medium Fueled Caps: Ghast Large Grendel Medium Banshee Small Find it here! http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/fueled-adapters/ License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ See license details in the Read Me.

Snapz X Pro & iMovie work for me.

Connection nodes are made and controlled by use of the .cfg file, which is a text file. There is no need to try doing anything about nodes in your 3D editor (that I am aware of). Just take the model you make in 3DS Max and put it in Unity in a folder you create, within the Assets folder. Also put any textures you will use in that folder (or another asset folder, whatever you want to do). Open your model folder. Select your model. A menu will open on the right. Click on the Generate Collision Meshes and Generate Lightmap UV check boxes. Then press the Apply button. In a few seconds your model will be ready (replaced by the import). Drag your model to the Part Tools Object (you should have made this when setting up the Part Tools in Unity); this will be in the Hierarchy. Click on the arrows in this object to reveal all the meshes in your model. Select which mesh you want to use as a Collider and set it to Convex. Any other meshes may not need to be set as Colliders. For your render meshes, set them to the KSP shaders you want and select their textures and specular settings, if any. Then select the Part Tools Object which now has your model in it. On the right the menu has changed and is the export menu. Press Write to export. Copy your exported files (.mu and .mbm textures) and put them in your own folder in the KSP GameData folder. While in the GameData folder, open the Squad folder, then Parts, then the folder which has the kind of part you made (engine, for example). Open, for example, an engine folder. Copy its .cfg file. Close the KSP folder and open the .cfg copy with a text editor. Study it and use that file as the basis of your own .cfg file. Once you have changed the copy the way you want it to be, save it and put that .cfg file into the same folder where you put your .mu and .mbm files. Close the folders and play KSP. Your model should appear in the VAB or SPH assembly areas if there were no problems. As for the node vectors, these will be in that .cfg file too. Good luck!

You need to import your model file (.dae or other) into Unity. After that you export your model from Unity (an .mu file) for use in KSP, which uses the Unity engine. But to export from Unity you first need the KSP part tools. There are "stickie" posts at the top of the mod forums which have links for the tools and even for Unity if I recall properly.

I use Steam too. I don't understand why you would remove parts for testing, as you simply don't need to use any parts you don't want to use. I do not use a separate install just for testing parts (as opposed to in game software like auto pilots), however I DO use a separate saved game just for testing mod parts. Each saved game has its own persistent file so if something gets messed up it should not affect your other saved games. But some here do use a vanilla (stock) install as well as another version for use with mods. I defer to their experience with the subject.

I've experienced similar things. Some things I've done which have improved my results: separate the meshes by a short distance (a few cm in Blender) ... or ... experiment with different shaders in Unity ... or ... flip the normals of a problem mesh. There are probably other things but this is what I've experienced. As to cutting meshes, I've not needed to do that, although I've joined meshes. Good luck!

Not exactly the answer you are looking for, but make sure your craft has at least one light (plane landing gear have them built in). You can judge distance from land or liquid using that, regardless of whether or not you have shadows enabled.

"...theres no multiplayer yet." Reliable sources (Squad) have indicated that there will be no multiplayer, even though many people would love to have it. What with Time Warp, we all experience our alternate realities and timelines and I doubt Squad wants to deal with a master server system which keeps track of the goings on in an entire solar system, all before being able to consider any other aspect of multiplayer. I think there are achievement and modding groups and the like, but what you might find to be tolerable substitutes are the challenges set up by forum members in the ... Challenges forum. There are also a lot of video tutorials and "let's play" videos out there. If there are members of any groups reading this thread, they'll weigh in.

Some of the above are executables, so are for Windows only. If you use another operating system, there are alternatives. I use Snapz Pro X (for Mac). Its not free though. But a quick check at the Apple App Store yields a page full of screen recorders, ranging from free to about $40. Linux users can check what's available I think from a command line utility.

PS -- if you are running under another operating system besides Windows, you may use any text editor to read, write and save your .cfg file.

The best way to make a proper .cfg file is to copy a .cfg file from the kind of part you have made, from Squad's part folder. For example, if you made an engine, copy an engine .cfg file from one of Squad's engines. Then once you are out of the game folders, open your new copy of that .cfg file using a text editor. Look at what it has in it and then change the portions that you want to be different. You will of course change the name of the part to something unique and put your name as the author. Once you are done, save your new .cfg and put it in the same folder where your new .mu file (and textures) are. Then get out of the game files and play the KSP and see if or how it works.

You need to use Unity as the bridge between your 3D app and KSP. Unity creates a gameObject from your file(s). Before you can do that, you need the Part Tools shown in the above tutorial. There is a link above for that. You do NOT need to export your model as a .dae (at least not if you use Blender). .blend files are fine for Unity. Drag a 3D file into Unity, as well as any texture files you will be using. Follow the instructions in the tutorial for importing to Unity. Then set your parts up in the Hierarchy the way you want. Your model file needs to be put in the Part Tools Object you set up (as shown above). Then you select that Tools Object and the controls for exporting the model into a .mu file appear on the right, as shown in the tutorial. Once your .mu file and textures (which convert to either .mbm or .tga or whatever you set) are exported, you put them into a new folder in the Game Data folder (but not in Squad's). I hope that helps.

You might try Graphic Converter, but its been a while since I've used it. It may open MBMs and as the name implies, may convert it properly to your format of choice. As to editing textures (and by that I mean texture creation as well as further editing) I use Gimp. Others here will doubtless have their favorite apps. As to how I edit them? I've not encountered your situation before. I'm sure someone else may have something to say on that point.

@ Johnno: thanks for the link to alexmoon's interactive site. The results look like porkchop charts and there is a ton of info with each result. More charting info can be found at http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/mission.php#porkchop but the alexmoon site is all that's needed to calculate the delta V for any particular mission.