Modder question about 3d formats

[PGTART]

Hi people,



I'm an blender 3d artist, and just recently wondered how do people extend Kerbal Space program.
I have a few questions about extending KSP

Question 1
What i wondered about first are the 3d formats, what i understand is that KSP, understands Collada, which Blender can Export.
But i noticed that most Addon's dont seam to use that format.
I only found the Hooligan_Labs_Airships mod to be using Collada, another popular format in use, seams to be,   .dds (as used by karbonite)
I'm not sure where the abbreviation stands for, and i do wonder what software is used to create .dds files.  ?

Question 2
To keep in style with other existing kerbal stuff, what are the colors of  windows, white/gray hulls.

Question 3
Is there a vertex face limit on models, or texture size limit ?.
What is considered round in KSP ea a tupe with 24 faces or 32 or 64 ... what is generally used ?. 

Question 4
Also i am wondered about, how to create mechanics in models, doors that open or landing gear that extends.
As for the moment see above i'm building a large size rocket pod a 6 kerbal pod, and it would be nice to have some things extending or opening
The idea for it was a pad that never came into existence, but hat a remarkable flat looking appearance.
However once this works i could create some more pods and interesting parts.

PS i have no intentions to install unity (in fact i am going to deinstall it; as it takes to much HD space ), so any answer relating to unity i cannt use

[Bonus Eventus]

1. 3d formats are whatever is compatible with unity (collada, blend, fbx)
2. Um...I'd just take some screenshots while playing the game.
3. This has been asked before several times so there are many threads that address this, but I'll just say that generally try to keep texture resolution as low as you can, as well as triangle counts as low as you can. Geo is less important than textures for mem usage.
4. There is no way to mod ksp without unity. Ksp requires that you install the ksp unity part tools lib to export .mu model files. The mu files are binary and have custom shaders built into them. The .mu format is proprietary so...

P.S. all of the answers you were looking for could have been found here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/85372-mod-development-links-compilation-some-links-do-not-work-formatting-broken/

Also, you'd have been better off posting in addon development or modeling and texturing discussion. 

[PGTART]

thanks for the link, to bad for unity then there will be no new pod then..

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

1 hour ago, PGTART said:

PS i have no intentions to install unity (in fact i am going to deinstall it; as it takes to much HD space ), so any answer relating to unity i cannt use

No unity = no modding of KSP, like most game engines , it requires a specific file format that can only be generated using the unity software,

the days of dropping a dae in the gamedata folder are long gone

[PGTART]

Yes i understand its no big problem
I just wont create stuff for KSP then, no hard feelings, its OK to me

I allready had to deinstall unity as it eats up to much HD space here, 15Gig only to convert something from blender is a bit overkill  

 

[PGTART]

oh just found an mu exporter/importer for blender maybe it will not require unity

 

[sumghai]

[MOD - Moved to Modelling and Texturing Discussion subforums]

@PGTART, while I personally use taniwha's Blender add-on for importing models from KSP regularly, in the long run you will have to learn to use Unity, in order to properly setup animations and KSP-specific part shaders.

If your main concern with Unity is that it take too much hard drive space, do note that hard drive upgrades are getting much cheaper by the day - a quick look on newegg.com shows that 500GB~2TB drives from good manufacturers like Western Digital and Samsung cost just under $100.