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[WIP][1.8.x] SSTULabs - Low Part Count Solutions (Orbiters, Landers, Lifters) - Dev Thread [11-18-18]

Shadowmage

By Shadowmage
in KSP1 Mod Development

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vossiewulf

vossiewulf

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  On 11/16/2017 at 3:34 PM, Shadowmage said:

I'm about 50-50 on the back-lit effect.  It is certainly novel, and interesting at first view (and even second view).  But I also feel it looks a bit tacky -- like its missing something (probably bloom/hdr/actual light-emission from the emissives).  Tempted to make it an optional patch (regular = subdued or no glow, enabled = as in screenshot above).

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What it is missing is in the real one each cell has its own slightly variable gradient, what is bothering you (I think, it's what I see) is the excessive consistency compared to our picture showing the ISS' panels. Go back and look at that, the cells aren't perfectly aligned flat with each other and we have bands of brightness and individual cells much brighter than the surrounding cells, and we can also see that in the specular reflections on the non-glowing panels.

When you get close like this the remaining sticking points are almost some aspect of excessive consistency in the scene, something is lacking the inherent variability of reality. Your panels have captured the effect almost exactly, but it looks amazingly smooth and unified, and that's only possible if each one of those cells is exactly identical and aligned perfectly flat with each other. An observant visual system is bothered by that.

I'm pretty sure I don't have to mention this, but I can think of a couple possible ways to either create a mask with cell by cell variability or better to procedurally modify the normal map so that all the effects of a correct variability in flatness will fall out naturally everywhere it's supposed to. Bah that's not going to be easy, what you really want is each panel having a unique normal map and that's not practical. At best you could have a few normal maps and some logic to randomly choose between them, but not even sure KSP supports identical objects with differing core maps.

  On 11/16/2017 at 3:34 PM, Shadowmage said:

That image also shows the back-lit effect on the DOS panels -- which with their non overly-boosted emissive, look a bit more natural and believable.  Might still tone those down slightly as well; at least make their textures a bit less lower contrast.

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I assume the real available panels range all over in terms of this effect from glowy yellow to glowy white or blueish to no transmissivity at all. You'll need a default and with your panels at least you could go check pictures of what they're modeled after and get it exactly right.

  On 11/14/2017 at 8:56 PM, Shadowmage said:

The upcoming ModularHeatShield part will be my first attempt at using the SP workflow from start to finish, including lots of use of baking from a high-poly model.  So far it has all gone fairly well; some oddities with NRM baking, but I understand the technical 'why' of it, and height-map/displacement baking still works well.  Between the two, I'm sure I can find a working setup to bake out the details form a high-poly model. 

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I had missed this post, just saw it and it made me laugh. You are very much one of those guys where one can say hey I think this might work for you and they go no, no, impossible, way too hard, weeks of coding fingers to the bone, blood raining from the skies... well unless I did this, and then did that....  At that point you can walk away because they've already forgotten you're there, and you just need to come back in an hour and they have it working much better than the original suggestion :)

 

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Shadowmage

Shadowmage

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  On 11/16/2017 at 5:31 PM, vossiewulf said:

Bah that's not going to be easy, what you really want is each panel having a unique normal map and that's not practical.

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Yeah, especially since the entire thing is really only 2 'panels' duplicated over and over again.  Any attempts to make them unique... will be duplicated across all the copies of that panel.

The down-side of texture-space optimization... is that you lose a lot of control over the unique-ness of the textures.  But otherwise the already large texture would be too large to actually use in Unity (or end up being split up into lots of smaller, but still large, textures).

  On 11/16/2017 at 6:45 PM, korych said:

Hi everyone.

I have last version SSTU & SSTU-PBR.

No window lights. See screenshot.

Help me, please.

 

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Logs please;  you are missing at least some UI options on that part (it should have some texture set selection buttons).  Likely there is something plugin related that is not loading properly.

You can find the KSP.log file in the same directory as the KSP executable.

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korych

korych

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  On 11/16/2017 at 7:50 PM, Shadowmage said:

Logs please;  you are missing at least some UI options on that part (it should have some texture set selection buttons).  Likely there is something plugin related that is not loading properly.

You can find the KSP.log file in the same directory as the KSP executable.

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Shadowmage

Shadowmage

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@korych

Apologies, I thought you were using the SC-B-CM (Apollo), in which I know that the lights work (and which does have texture switching).

On the SC-C-CM -- apparently the texture/shader setup for that part has been broken at some point.  It will have to be fixed in a future release.  (looks like the shader is actually lacking the emissive support)

 

Hopefully I can get that fixed up for this weekends' release.

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korych

korych

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  On 11/16/2017 at 8:20 PM, Shadowmage said:

@korych

Apologies, I thought you were using the SC-B-CM (Apollo), in which I know that the lights work (and which does have texture switching).

On the SC-C-CM -- apparently the texture/shader setup for that part has been broken at some point.  It will have to be fixed in a future release.  (looks like the shader is actually lacking the emissive support)

 

Hopefully I can get that fixed up for this weekends' release.

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Many thank's!

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Shadowmage

Shadowmage

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Busy week around here, and just to keep things rolling...

SSTU Docking Ports now feature a built-in optional back-plate, that also supports scaling of the back-plate and texture set functionality.  Will soon support recoloring as well (where applicable).  No more having to use fuel tanks/etc to make your docking ports look nice when surface attached.

cDGk0fF.png

(and also fixed the SC-C cabin lights with an updated shader w/emissive support)

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Shadowmage

Shadowmage

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  On 11/17/2017 at 11:15 AM, korych said:

And this module :)

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Should be fixed as well in dev versions, as the problems were both caused by the same lack of shader support for emissives.  The shader now supports emissives, so the window glow should work.

Hopefully it will all be available tomorrow or sunday.

 

(From your screenshot it also looks like you are using the PBR expansion under DX9 -- you'll get much better visuals if you swap to DX11 or OpenGL -- try starting KSP with the '-force-d3d11' command line option)

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Shadowmage

Shadowmage

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Huh, did the forum font change, or are my eyes going bad?

 

This weekends' update's main new feature will be the creation of a proper model (and texture sets) for the stand-alone Modular Heat Shield part.  It will still include all of its previous functionality, as well as also now supporting texture switching and recoloring (when used in the stand-alone configuration).  In the upcoming weeks I am going to retrofit this new heat-shield model onto the existing heat-shield equipped pods, including the recoloring/texture switch support.  When this happens there will be some (hopefully minor and non-problem causing) changes to the overall shape/fit of the heat-shields -- the geometry is slightly different than exists on the current SC-A/B/C pods (is based on the SC-V heat-shield).  This is a good change for the long-run though, as it will free-up UV space on the texture-sheets used by those models, and allow for any new pod-parts that are created to use the existing heat-shield model (less geometry and textures to create = faster part creation).

The second new feature is the previously discussed docking-port backplates.  Still working on adding a few more model/texture options for them, but there will be at least two usable/stable variants available (in addition to the 'no backplate' default variant).  These are added by a new ModelSwitch module that fully supports texture-switching, rescaling, as well as slew of other features (likely this module will see a lot of use in the future).

 

Still debating as to what the next set of new/reworked parts should be.  There is some very real need for some usable landing legs for the MFT-LV tank; the stock ones and even the KF ones are... not very well suited for use there.  This is another spot where the new ModelSwitch module could see some use -- switchable mounting systems for the landing legs, possibly with the ability to scale and reposition the mounting setup relative to the rest of the model (as well as having a selection of mounting systems).

The timeline on the wiki is probably about right as far as the ordering that I should do things in --

  • ModularRCS - Standoff models
  • ModularDecoupler/ControlCore - static-modeled decoupler and probe-core, with model-switch, scaling, etc.
  • Vertical LanderCore refresh
    • Update geometry on pods - few more details, add recoloring support (or maybe just entirely new models)
    • New pod -- vertical Altair version - ~2.5m cylindrical lander pod
    • New pod -- Boeing lander
    • Landing Legs - at least two variants, with single and quad-leg configurations.

As I'm nearing the completion of the PBR-recoloring work (high-res PBR work will be ongoing), I will likely be able to start on some models next week, whichever ones are up next.

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Shadowmage

Shadowmage

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LSAM (current horizontal models) vs. Altair (proposed new vertical models).

Why not have both?  (is what I had planned)

The existing IVA can still be used for the updated horizontal lander(s).  One of the stock lander-pod IVAs can be used for the vertical version(s) (probably patched to add more seats).

The one existing model that I'm fairly certain will see major changes/complete replacement is the LC5-POD -- it will likely become an analogue to that Boeing concept you had posted (just the pod part, not the hab stuff).

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Temeter

Temeter

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Cool thing is, that vertical altair lander looks like it would fit 100% into a KSP 1.25m (2.5m?) stack.

Just thinking about it, having an SSTO plane with a cockpit at the front, but a tankless lander IVA at it's end to do vertical landings on the moon/mars/whatever... I wonder, how hard is it to switch from ballistic reentry to vertical landing position? Sounds like an interesting maneuver, to say the least.

edit: Also, I have no clue why the top text is so huge. I like it, tho.

Wanna try something like this once (yes, that is a nuclear driven moonlander spaceplane :D ):

starlight04.jpg

Edited by Temeter
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T-10a

T-10a

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Looking at all these screenshots of cool reflective textures makes me jealous, because us Linux users get spacecraft coated in black because the shaders don't support OpenGL 3.0

(Shadowmage seems to be aware of this, and a compatibility patch may be in the works. I don't know.)

 

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Kablob

Kablob

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  On 11/17/2017 at 9:43 PM, tater said:

Cool. Honestly for me it’s all about airless landers, it’s probably the result of having Apollo as an early memory, lol.

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SSTU really has some of the best airless lander parts, I can't wait until the pods get the art pass that everything else has! This mod is fantastic all-around, I'd say it's a must-have.

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Shadowmage

Shadowmage

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  On 11/18/2017 at 9:46 PM, BlaZe119 said:

Is TextureUnlimited a required mod?

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Yes.  (It consists of SSTU code that was moved to an external plugin, to allow easier adoption of that code by other mods)

 

 

qQFsuBE.png

Edit: Minor adjustments to height/nrm..

JQAA1xn.png

Edited by Shadowmage
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