Looking Through Parts in KSP: "Spooky!"

[BagelRabbit]

Hey everyone! It's UpsilonAerospace.

So, I'm not sure whether this is a known "bug"* or not, but I haven't seen it before. Plus, it's rather spooky, which means it's perfect for this Halloween!

*More of a feature than a bug, and I don't want it fixed! Please don't add this to the bug-reporting section.

'X-Ray Vision' in KSP!

So, you can make this effect work within both the VAB and the SPH. (I used the SPH in my examples.)

I'll start off with a relatively tame version of this effect.

If you take the Mk3 Cockpit or Mk 1-2 Cockpit and select it as the root part, you can look at the attachment node and see through it. The result will allow you to see the walls of the VAB and the Kerbals on the floor... but the trucks that drive about on the floor are invisible! You can, however, still see their lights, casting a ghostly glow upon the floor as they spin. Creepy!

~~~

Fig. 1: Looking through the cockpit. Witness the buildings beyond!

...but it gets even weirder.

If you take a "ghost" part, created by putting any part over to the side of the vehicle so it isn't connected... you can see certain types of parts on the vehicle, but not others.

This semi-transparency makes for some very interesting effects:

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Fig. 2: A Ravenspear plane, sans fuselage. Look at all of those RCS ports!

I can't say for certain which parts make other parts invisible, but I can say for certain that this is worth more experimentation! You can do a variety of special tricks, too.

As you can see, this could show you the location of parts 'hidden' within the airframe, including RCS ports and batteries. If you're as much of a fanatic about clipping as I am, this could come in handy for designs where you can't remember where you placed some of your parts.

Perhaps more spookily, it can even be used to create hidden messages! If you spell out words with parachutes before hiding them away under thermal panels, a medium-sized Ore tank will reveal the original statement.

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Fig. 3: Look at my hidden message! It's not very exciting, actually.

...and I'll end with a video, restating all that's just been said.

This merits a bit more attention, in my opinion! Hopefully others can figure out even better ways of messing around with this effect.

Enjoy, and have a great Halloween!

-Upsilon

[Majorjim!]

He he, I've used this effect many times before. It is definetely known.

In fact there was a thread about this an age ago. I will see if I can find it. It would be more than a year old though..

First search, I cannot find it. It was discussing it as a method of assistance when building. I use it occasionally but it's limited by what parts do not show up.

Edited October 31, 2015 by Majorjim

[BagelRabbit]

He he, I've used this effect many times before. It is definetely known.

In fact there was a thread about this an age ago. I will see if I can find it. It would be more than a year old though..

First search, I cannot find it. It was discussing it as a method of assistance when building. I use it occasionally but it's limited by what parts do not show up.

Heh. I'm not surprised that other people with a lot of knowledge of the game know about this. I couldn't find a thread on it either, though, and I feel like some newbies could have fun with it!

...I do think that the root-part-transparency thing has never been discovered before though.Come to think of it, I'm wondering whether the CoM/CoT/CoL indicators make trucks invisible. I don't have the time to play with this... hopefully someone else can give it a try

-Upsilon

[Majorjim!]

Heh. I'm not surprised that other people with a lot of knowledge of the game know about this. I couldn't find a thread on it either, though, and I feel like some newbies could have fun with it!

...I do think that the root-part-transparency thing has never been discovered before though.Come to think of it, I'm wondering whether the CoM/CoT/CoL indicators make trucks invisible. I don't have the time to play with this... hopefully someone else can give it a try

-Upsilon

Agreed! I'm sure someone could take it further or have fun with it. It was a good idea to share it.

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

Neat! I've noticed this, but never thought of it as much more than an interesting thing.

[KerbMav]

Similar to my improvised nightvision - moving windows (from quite a few mods) over the screen lets you see quite a bit more at night, good for navigating kerbonauts over mountains in total darkness.

[The Optimist]

4spoopy8me

[TrainEngie]

It's not just KSP that does this.

In the Trainz series, you can do similar things using fences and housing objects while making maps to drive trains around. With that... you could see through windmills!