What part of KSP looks good already?

[ThatGuyWithALongUsername]

So many people are always complaining about the ugly parts, lack of clouds, this looks bad, etc, etc. The problem is, 1.2 is going to be a visuals update (unless I'm mistaken). What will you do if those are added? What would you post if not "add clouds pls"?

Obviously, we need a different approach.

What do you think looks best in the game? What doesn't need to be changed? What parts look great already? Which planet doesn't need clouds? Which feature already looks good?

For me, it would probably be the space center (specifically tier 3) and everything porkjet has done so far. 

[Renegrade]

Well, the texture on Minmus somehow seems to sparkle to my eyes.  Very artfully done if it's intentional.

[Sandworm]

"Which planet doesn't need clouds?"  Well, all those without atmo.  Everyone else needs clouds of some sort.

As for the rest, I do not agree with the art style.  It's too camp, too loony-toons for my taste.  Any one part that I would like would stand out too much against the cartoon backdrop.  I leave it to the mod/re-texture community.  By the time all my favorite mods have been installed, very few of the pixels actually come from Squad.

[Delfinus]

Spaceplane parts, KSP has so many of them it's practically become Kerbal Spaceplane Program.

[bewing]

What's good? The explosions! Kaboooom! Explosions > clouds.

[Temeter]

Spaceplane parts obviously! (since they've alread been redone^^)

IMO many engines actually look pretty good. Maybe a mainsail doesn't have very high texture detail, but I like the model a lot. Although I'd still be curious what things Porkjet, Roverdude&Co could do to them!

 

Also, the Mun. It's currently probably the most exciting place to travel on, even if it's only a grey rock. Environment on Kerbin also looks quite  good after it's update (just a bit of scatterer, SVE, and it even looks phenomenal!).

Edited April 21, 2016 by Temeter

[LayZboy]

The current final tier buildings look pretty nice at KSC.

[Kosmognome]

I think the parts have a good art style and do very well. They are not overly reaslistic, but a bit cartoonish, which works very well imho.

 

Things that desperately need an overhaul is the environment.

 

- Better water / oceans

- Clouds

- Proper Terrain shadows

- Atmospheric Scattering

- Engine smoke (look at Real Plume)

Explosions need rework

 

And, from an immersion point of view, some small cities. But not as simple terrain textures, but instead with actual collidable meshes. Simple procedural generated ones (with L-Grpahs) would suffice for "big" cities, and some hand-crafted things like small towns and farms in the countryside. We don't need many, but a few should be there.

 

And maybe re-visit the old, abandoned storyline (with the SSTV and such...).

Edited April 21, 2016 by Kosmognome

[StarStreak2109]

39 minutes ago, Kosmognome said:

I think the parts have a good art style and do very well. They are not overly reaslistic, but a bit cartoonish, which works very well imho.

 

Things that desperately need an overhaul is the environment.

 

- Better water / oceans

- Clouds

- Proper Terrain shadows

- Atmospheric Scattering

- Engine smoke (look at Real Plume)

Explosions need rework

 

And, from an immersion point of view, some small cities. But not as simple terrain textures, but instead with actual collidable meshes. Simple procedural generated ones (with L-Grpahs) would suffice for "big" cities, and some hand-crafted things like small towns and farms in the countryside. We don't need many, but a few should be there.

 

And maybe re-visit the old, abandoned storyline (with the SSTV and such...).

All your bullet points above save the last one can be achieved via mods.

Regarding cities and other surface detail, I agree, those would be nice. Maybe a technology similar to how surface detail was generated in MS Flight Simulator or so. However they'd need pretty decent LODs, so that they dont drag us down from orbit.

And again, I know that it is one the "what-not-to-suggest" list, but I want precipitation and fog along with my clouds, to give me that extra Venus-feeling, when landing on Eve...

[Kosmognome]

2 hours ago, StarStreak2109 said:

All your bullet points above save the last one can be achieved via mods.

Which is completely irrelevant for the question at hand. Yes, I know it can be done with mods, but I rather have it in the stock game.

[Superfluous J]

7 minutes ago, Kosmognome said:

Which is completely irrelevant for the question at hand. Yes, I know it can be done with mods, but I rather have it in the stock game.

Actually most replies in this thread are irrelevant to the question at hand, which is what do you LIKE, not what do you WANT.

I really like the new haze for faraway mountains.

[Kosmognome]

Well, I said that I like the visuals of the parts and elaborated why I do so. Maybe you missed that, it is directly at the beginning of my post...

[ag3nt108]

I think KSP look fine as it is but then I play on a macbook so visual are hardly my focus.  In fact if asked what I wanted to see added I would appeal for better manoeuvre nodes long before I asked for any visuals

[luinux]

I would like to have amazing places. Not the procedural planet surfaces we have now. I would love to have really steep cannons, awesome landscapes, rough valleys, dry lake beds with dry rivers, lots of different soils and textures, with boulders and rocks and so on. I do thing the current planets and moons are extremely boring and could be much better.

[Superfluous J]

52 minutes ago, Kosmognome said:

Well, I said that I like the visuals of the parts and elaborated why I do so. Maybe you missed that, it is directly at the beginning of my post...

I didn't miss it, overshadowed as it was by the bulleted list of what you didn't like.

[Curveball Anders]

The most good looking part in KSP is the Mk.1 pod.

It reminds me of all the stuff I can do in this game.

Clouds and better ground I usually turn off if they interfere with my game.

[Superfluous J]

3 minutes ago, 5thHorseman said:

I didn't miss it, overshadowed as it was by the bulleted list of what you didn't like.

Also, I apologize for the above. I know I'm being a bit crabby and pedantic. There are about 3 main types of threads on this forum and they each generate their own set of predictable responses. A few times a day an interesting question is asked and when those ALSO generate the SAME canned responses, it irks me.

[Dafni]

I like the navball, always did, and now in 1.1 I like it even more after I found the right resolution settings for my system.

It is not bigger than before for me, and the numbers are fine, crisp, I dont get the issues that other people report.

I just love that thing, the markers and all. Maybe a setting for opcacity would be nice, but other than that it is perfect.

KSP and all the maneuvers suddenly made a lot of sense after I learned how to use that Navball properly, and you find yourself staring a lot at that thing.

 

I do like the Kerbals a lot too.

[jpinard]

8 hours ago, StarStreak2109 said:

All your bullet points above save the last one can be achieved via mods.

Regarding cities and other surface detail, I agree, those would be nice. Maybe a technology similar to how surface detail was generated in MS Flight Simulator or so. However they'd need pretty decent LODs, so that they dont drag us down from orbit.

And again, I know that it is one the "what-not-to-suggest" list, but I want precipitation and fog along with my clouds, to give me that extra Venus-feeling, when landing on Eve...

Someone did a better looking water mod?  Can you post a link?

[StarStreak2109]

Here you go!

[Mahnarch]

I was on an early morning science flight, returning to KSC over the mountains to the west - when the sun is low and the shadow of the VAB is nearly touching the mountains - at about 3500m and I took a look around.

 

I know Slurtibartfast likes to do the coastlines, but whoever did those mountains did a really gorgeous job.

[Hobbes Novakoff]

Couple of things that KSP excels at visually:

While a lot of people fawn over the space plane parts, I also really love some of the old rocket parts. Also, the way that the Mk1 capsule sits in the decoupler gives me special feelings 

[spacebrick3]

I like the ground scatter. It looks really nice and complements the flat ground well.

[ThatGuyWithALongUsername]

2 hours ago, Mahnarch said:

I was on an early morning science flight, returning to KSC over the mountains to the west - when the sun is low and the shadow of the VAB is nearly touching the mountains - at about 3500m and I took a look around.

 

I know Slurtibartfast likes to do the coastlines, but whoever did those mountains did a really gorgeous job.

I like Kerbin's mountains too! Almost forgot about that.

And I like your Hitchhiker's guide reference 

[Raideur Ng]

One thing that needs some attention are the terrain textures. They do not scale at distance so the tiles become painfully obvious. This occurs in the main game, regardless of mods. Most things have quite good textures and the map itself looks fine, but when you're landing, you see it, everytime.

Also, we're playing a game with little green men, it's as looney toons rocketry as you can get and we wouldn't have it any other way.