Mod that makes planets and moons (except for close-side of moon) whited out until you explore it.

[HoloYolo]

I think someone should do this. It would be fun and a tad bit more realistic.

[Superfluous J]

I'd like this. Also what you can see is pixelated to a level based on how close you've ever been to the planet. So Kerbin, Mun's near side, and all of Minmus you can see. Duna is super pixelated (Like, 6 pixels worth, just 4 reds and 2 whites). Eve is solid purple, Jool is just green and the moons are a single pixel of their primary color.

[Slam_Jones]

I fully support this.

I think it would be rather funny (and possibly in-tune with the current tone of the game) if instead of pixelated, they were crude crayon drawings or something similar

[HoloYolo]

LOL I imagine that.

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I'd like this. Also what you can see is pixelated to a level based on how close you've ever been to the planet. So Kerbin, Mun's near side, and all of Minmus you can see. Duna is super pixelated (Like, 6 pixels worth, just 4 reds and 2 whites). Eve is solid purple, Jool is just green and the moons are a single pixel of their primary color.

Much better. I loved your astro-glider video! Quite cool. I'll see if I can find a modder to do this.

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Oh man, this would be so nice. Specially for the new player that has never been there and seen the planet (hence, should be stock). When I started playing I tried my best not to look at them before I got there. Worked at the beginning but once I learned how to properly do transfers I just wanted/needed to look at them closer so I could get a better intercept, so the last planets I visited was a so-so experience I think.

[ilo]

I really love the idea.. I thought of that when I started playing the game too.. Here is my best achievement for now in this..

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I started working on this at the same time I was playing around with SCANSat for the first time.. I finally came to the conclusion that the best approach would be great to have scansat images as planet textures if SCANSat is available, or use the lowest resolution depending how close the player gets a manned ship / unmanned with camera probe into that.

I'd like to also introduce the idea of update the planets information according to experimental research.. why showing if a planet has atmosphere or not, or the gravity if we never sent a probe to check for it?

Now that I see some interest is around, we might want to have a brainstorm, isn't it?

[RainDreamer]

Hmm...idk, while this is potentially a good idea, it would make telescope mods like CactEye2 pretty boring and not making sense. I mean, if I have a powerful enough telescope, I should be able to visually see the planets and bodies from where I am, right? And isn't it how we figure out a lot of things within our solar system? Pointing telescopes and other instruments at places from Earth and see what data we get from them. And heck, someone with really good eyes would probably be able to make out some details of the moon at the right time. I would save the probes for more advanced things that require on site interaction like resource scanning, which is coming soon to stock game, and SCANsat data for detail mapping of a planet, allowing me to plan bases and such.

Maybe instead of making it a probe-based things, we would need it to be a telescope-based. Sending a probe to a place without having a telescope to check it out first, and without camera on it, would mean you are flying blind. But if you have already examine it through your available technology it would be possible to see things, albeit in low res.

Edited March 7, 2015 by RainDreamer

[Astrofox]

I agree with this Idea, considering that I want to create a plugin and some parts for hunting ksp Extrasolar planets, like that of Kepler, or smaller ones that are about 10cm^3, and yes, I want to be able to randomly generate "systems" that will then create sky biomes and when you point a telescope at them, then do science, there will be a science random science experiment for each.

[ilo]

It should make a difference with 'what is visible' and what is not.. Humans were unable to see the far side of the mun until we sent a probe.. No telescope was invented for that purpose.. it is like having a scansat or a camera, you might need to get there 'somehow' before you know what colour is it, and what about the atmosphere/gravity/etc.. eyes and telescopes can't tell, just guessing and inference from previous knowledge.

So, the mun, as -re-textured- with the existing 'visible' information will only show the craters of the visible side from Kerbin, the rest of the mun is to be uncertain.

Other planets information can be limited using the current tracking building level.. when you achieve a level you should be able to track orbits or even with certain tech, see 'raw' images of them etc.. but not being able to see its information unless you have studied it. The game assumes the whole kerbol system is already discovered.. what would make it discoverable mean?

So yes, I agree that a camera would show the body surface.. but gravity, mass, even atmosphere.. would make sense require previous analysis before being shown in the knowledge base window.

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Hmm...idk, while this is potentially a good idea, it would make telescope mods like CactEye2 pretty boring and not making sense.

I forgot to say.. On the contrary, I think this idea would bring up the fact that telescopes could be usefull at all, as you will not be able to 'know' the planet's surface (and therefore plan a landing) unless you have observed it.

Cheers

[Astrofox]

Well, they would be transit cameras, and planets will not be visible (maybe a simple texture for them, but no exploration).

Also stellar oscillation cameras to detect the movement of the planet, and infrared cameras to scan the temp. of said worlds.

Take Exoplanetsat in mind, as well as Kepler, Corot, and Spitzer.

[ilo]

If we are able to collect some more basic ideas on how to move forward I will love to develop it.

[maltesh]

So yes, I agree that a camera would show the body surface.. but gravity, mass, even atmosphere.. would make sense require previous analysis before being shown in the knowledge base window.

Mass is trivial to get from ground-based observations if the body has a satellite. If the civilization has observed the body long enough, they'll be able to observe a transit of a star. That'll get both radius and surface gravity, and atmospheric composition.

[ilo]

This is what I think the Mun (manually edited image) should be until a probe or camera scans the far side. The same principle applies for other bodies (depending on a config, obviously), but I like the idea of retexturing the bodies with information from cameras/scansats or eva visualisation, lets see if it is useful or not.

Well, if it has an atmosphere it may happen that the surface will not be known because it is covered, and mass/gravity even the orbit (distance etc) could be approximate, but exact values might not be guessed from regular 'observation' unless a special event happens.

I think a good idea could be to provide more information of the bodies according to the tracking station building level and the tech tree, BUT, if the player gets a probe close to a body he might not need to upgrade the building or the tech and get the information on-site. Additional parts like cameras (custom or using CactEye2) can also add information to the knowledge base, and that info may require having a camera pointing a body for a whole kerbal year.

I will have to install CactEye2 again to get a better idea on how is it now. Any regular user of that mod that could drop some knowledge or ideas on possible integration is welcome.

[ilo]

A direct mapping of SCANSat information to the celestial bodies seems to be easy, but somehow tricky, but unfortunatelly there is not direct 'surface map' available from SCANSat that could be used as the body texture. With all the processing and SCANSat internals required I think this 'draw surface from scansat information' should go as a SCANSat feature actually, or SCANSat will need to provide more information for other mods to use it.

Here is the result of mapping (no texture rotating) on the kerbin surface. (yes, it is updated in realtime as the planet information gets updated (even if the SCAN window is closed).

Anyway, I'd like to focus more about what information is known from the planets and what planets are visible, how become 'prensent', when the player is allowed to track them and we the player is allowed to center the camera, target it or not depending on the information, research and construction levels.

I've also tried with StarSystem and seems to be working fine (at least planetfactory). The two big stars are visible but far from being reachable at the begining. I have a doubt now.. what is the future of this or kopernicus mods? apparently they both seems to be messing around and none of them finish working at all.. I've seen people releasing planets for PlanetFactory promissing an update to integrate with Kopernicus when it is finished, but then two posts later they realise that Kopernicus seems to be limited in how they create the planets/systems/etc.. I'm confused

[SmallFatFetus]

I knocked this together in history class today. I really like the idea of "discovering" planets as the game progresses. You could have contracts to scan Eve so you can see what's under the clouds and all. I think it could be very cool, especially when integrated with Cacteye or something. I'm going to make some more of these pics now.

EDIT: Heres Eve and Gilly. More on the way.

EDIT 2: Here's Jool and friends. Probably not to scale but hey, I tried.

SmallFatFetus

Edited March 11, 2015 by SmallFatFetus
adding MOAR