How to make .mu files for simple parts?

[juanml82]

I know there are lengthy tutorials over the forum and google is my friend, but I really don't have the time to go through a lengthy process of going through all the modding tutorials.

Basically, what I just want is to make is to retexture the mid and full size 3.75 m tanks and use them to store ore. Or, alternatively, make two cylinders of the appropriate dimensions in 3ds max, texture them and export them as .mu. Is there a quick and dirty way to do this? And what are the dimensions for the fuel tanks? Diameter is, obviously, 3.75m, but which are the lengths?

[Fengist]

I believe the .mu file is not what you're looking for. I believe what you're looking for is something to convert the .dds, .mbm, etc... into something more friendly. And there's a number of converters that do this. Converting back to .dds may be another issue.

While you seem to be adamant about not learning, I'd never the less suggest this SHORT tutorial. It's not horribly long and if you do spend the time, you'll learn how to create simple parts like the one you're looking for. I'm a complete noob and, other than texturing, it would take me about 10 minutes to create the part you're trying to create. (sorry, this is the teach the man to fish theory)

[juanml82]

Well, if I rename the large kerbodyne tank to something like "large ore tank" and change the part.cfg file accordingly, it still has the original texture, and I'd like it to have an ore container like texture (or simply swap the textures). I do know about 3d modelling and texturing, I'm just trying to be as efficient as possible with my free time.

How long are the stock fuel tanks? Ie, if I want to make a tank as long as an orange tank, how long should the cylinder be?

[Fengist]

According to my imprecise measurements, 7.5m

[Kartoffelkuchen]

You can just go into the part cfg and add up the position of the nodes (-> if node_stack_bottom = 0.0, -5.0, 0.0 and node_stack_top = 0.0, 5.0, 0.0, then the length of the tank should be 10m. This works out mostly fine for the stock Parts, though it mustn't be right. You should better be using a .mu converter. As for retexturing, try Paint.net, you can open and save images in .dds format with it.

[juanml82]

According to my imprecise measurements, 7.5m

Thanks!

You can just go into the part cfg and add up the position of the nodes (-> if node_stack_bottom = 0.0, -5.0, 0.0 and node_stack_top = 0.0, 5.0, 0.0, then the length of the tank should be 10m. This works out mostly fine for the stock Parts, though it mustn't be right. You should better be using a .mu converter. As for retexturing, try Paint.net, you can open and save images in .dds format with it.

Thanks!

And, yes, I was making it too complex. While not as good, all I needed was to alter the original texture.

This is rough rather than pretty, but I did want it cheap and dirty

[PB666]

Well, if I rename the large kerbodyne tank to something like "large ore tank" and change the part.cfg file accordingly, it still has the original texture, and I'd like it to have an ore container like texture (or simply swap the textures). I do know about 3d modelling and texturing, I'm just trying to be as efficient as possible with my free time.

How long are the stock fuel tanks? Ie, if I want to make a tank as long as an orange tank, how long should the cylinder be?

Most textures are plotted on a 1024 x 1024 grid or 2048x2048. What you have to do is find a color, if All you are going after is a monotonous color then you need a program that converts PNG to mbm format. Then you can apply the texture in the config file for the part. This is not the best way to do it, because when game updates are made the file is often broken. The best way to do this is blender a cylinder and you can paint it PNG. If you follow the post I made for blender to KSP it gives step by step instructions of how to go from a basic volume in blender to a part in KSP including the very tricky Unity part.

The length of the big orange tank is the difference between the Y values

node_stack_top = 0.0, 3.75, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 2

node_stack_bottom = 0.0, -3.75, 0.0, 0.0, -1.0, 0.0, 2

It is thus 7.5 meter tall is the scale is equal to 1. The node attach (side sticky) is

node_attach = 1.25, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1

Defines the distance along X of the collider mesh from the axis of rotational symmetry as 1.25 meters this is a radius that produces a diameter of 2.5 meters, the scale of the tank.

As a consequence we can be assured the scale is 1 and the length is 3.75 - -3.75 = 7.5 (approximate, it may be slightly more or less depending on the look the devs wanted for the part when snapped, an example of parts that differ from surface would be the F2 nose cone).

If you select an older tank such as the 400 or 200, the bottoms of the tank are often two filled circles on the bottom of a 1024 x 1024 grid, where as the sides are on the top half. You can do a blind coloration and if it works, then use it if it doesn't try flipping the png and repeat. Another way of figuring out where the parts are on the grid is to make a numbered grid of 1024 say 9 verticle lines and 9 horizontal lines, Number the first horizontal row of squares 1a, 1b, . . . . . 1j 2nd row 2a. . . .10th row 10 a, . . . .10j. Then convert and apply the grid and the part will show you were the paints end up.

[juanml82]

Ok, I'm trying to make a tank from scratch. I'm modeling it in 3ds max. IIRC, ksp uses meters, so if I set up 3ds max units to meters and start with a primitive that's 7.5m tall, that should translate to 7.5 meters in the game, right? Because the part ended up being larger than the launchpad...

[JuhaJGamer]

I think that the ksp "meter" might be a 3dsmax "centimeter" or a "millimeter". Try that out.

[juanml82]

Ok, I'm lost. Apparently, a 3dsmax centimeter might be a third of a meter, or so. It resembles the size of the 3.75 tanks if I make it in centimeters and then rescale it by a factor of 3 in unity. Also, that short tutorial mentions 0.20 part tools, which I can't find. Have those been deprecated?

And now the right mouse button menu doesn't work in the VAB either.

Is there a way to troubleshoot this?

[NecroBones]

I don't use 3DS Max, so I can't directly help. But have you checked the import scale on the models in Unity? For my animated parts, I've been importing as FBX format, and for some reason Unity defaults to importing those at a scale of 0.01, so I was always rescaling the parts up by 100x until I figured out where the scale was. Now I'll set the model asset's scale to 1 instead, but I have to remember to do that every time I import in FBX format.

I wonder if 3DS Max files are doing something similar, just with a different scale factor?

[landeTLS]

Inside 3dsmax you can set the units scales in customize->units setup. Set it to meters for working with ksp. Also set system units to meters. I believe the default is inches etc.(1 inch = 2.54 centimeters)

you can also det it to cm but then youll need to import to unity at 0.01 scale.

Another helpful thing is to set the grid spacing to 0.625m so that each grid space from the center represents each ksp size (1.25,2.5,3.75 etc.) You do this by rightclicking on the snaps toggle and choosing homegrid.

When importing fbx files(with meters as unit scale) into unity its important to set its scale to 1 (instead of the default 0.01 etc.)

If you dont want to fiddle with that and dont have any animation rigs you want to get into unity then just export in obj.

its a bit confusing but it comes from the fact that unity works only with meters and everything else is therefore assumed to be in meters on import.

Btw:

every damn time!

Edited June 14, 2015 by landeTLS

[Kartoffelkuchen]

@juanml82: Do you have the parameter 'rescaleFactor = 1' in your part.cfg? If not, the part won't be scaled correctly in the game. And the parameter 'scale = 1' changes nothing.

[juanml82]

Ok, I'm exporting to FBX making sure it exports to meters and checking all the scaling weirdness, it works. The extra size was because of a turbosmooth modifier I had added in Max.

Now, I can't possibly hide the collider. I've unclicked the "Mesh Renderer" box, I've unclicked the "Animator" box just in case, I made sure it's called "Collider" with a capital C, and it keeps showing up instead of the model

[landeTLS]

Youll need to manually remove the meshrenderer component from your collider inside unity

[juanml82]

Youll need to manually remove the meshrenderer component from your collider inside unity

Great! That did it! Now it's working