[1.6.1] Reentry Particle Effect 1.4 (2019-02-12)

[MrMeeb]

23 hours ago, pizzaoverhead said:

Please.

[Wjolcz]

On 7/4/2016 at 1:00 AM, MK3424 said:

Free IVA is now partially stock.

Whaaaaaaa? Is it really? I though you can click on things to relocate the camera only? Is there something else?

Back on topic: how FPS intensive is this mod? Seems like a lot of particles and my laptop is not that good.

[Cyrious]

6 hours ago, Veeltch said:

Whaaaaaaa? Is it really? I though you can click on things to relocate the camera only? Is there something else?

Back on topic: how FPS intensive is this mod? Seems like a lot of particles and my laptop is not that good.

It doesnt have that much of a hit, I think having the re-entry flame SFX turned up to normal is a higher impact to framerate than this does. If you saw my screenshot on the previous page, I had 26 reentry trails going and it was smooth as butter the entire way in.

[Guest]

This mod makes for one heck of a light show!

[plausse]

I love it

[MK3424]

On 8-7-2016 at 0:07 AM, Veeltch said:

Whaaaaaaa? Is it really? I though you can click on things to relocate the camera only? Is there something else?

Back on topic: how FPS intensive is this mod? Seems like a lot of particles and my laptop is not that good.

Only the cutaway function of FreeIVA is implemented.

[Guest]

[Cyrious]

Oh yeah, reentry trails should remain for a bit after their host vessel/part/what-have-you has burned up. They kinda snap off when the host vessel dies.

[XB-70A]

If this may help some, I affirm that this awesome mod runs perfectly under the older 1.0.5.

 

[Guest]

9 hours ago, Cyrious said:

Oh yeah, reentry trails should remain for a bit after their host vessel/part/what-have-you has burned up. They kinda snap off when the host vessel dies.

No doubt that's a limitation of Unity. When a source object is destroyed, everything associated with it is removed.

[ClLaw]

Gave this a whirl in RSS yesterday. Didn't expect it not to work but you never know with so many mods involved. In the last picture you can see the tiniest and faintest of dots. It's just a probe and 2 goo canisters on a heatshield - amazing effects! 

http://imgur.com/a/5M4pX

Edited July 11, 2016 by ClLaw

[Speadge]

jey.. @Kottabos did a review:

 

 

[AlamoVampire]

oh come on SQUAD, why wont you turn this effect on? @pizzaoverhead you are a god. hey um @Squelch any chance you guys can just go ahead and turn this on? I mean yall did code it in there according people who found the code... please?

[ClLaw]

The reason they don't want to turn it on is probably because of the way the effect occurs during launch too. I'd love this addition to the re-entries but I think I'd also want this little effect to be perfect too before 'turning it on'. Having a re-entry effect during launch just isn't right, not even for KSP

Edited July 14, 2016 by ClLaw

[Alshain]

1 hour ago, ClLaw said:

The reason they don't want to turn it on is probably because of the way the effect occurs during launch too. I'd love this addition to the re-entries but I think I'd also want this little effect to be perfect too before 'turning it on'. Having a re-entry effect during launch just isn't right, not even for KSP

Nah, a little extra code can easily determine vertical speed.  It will be either negative or positive, so if you are going up, don't turn it on.

[xNeil Armstrong]

My only problem is that the trail is to long, in the dev video its just a slight trail. If you could maybe add some kind of tweakable version, or just a second version for people that don't want a massive plasma trail.

Other than that it's great, I've been wanting something like this for a while.

Edited July 15, 2016 by xNeil Armstrong

[pizzaoverhead]

13 hours ago, ClLaw said:

The reason they don't want to turn it on is probably because of the way the effect occurs during launch too. I'd love this addition to the re-entries but I think I'd also want this little effect to be perfect too before 'turning it on'. Having a re-entry effect during launch just isn't right, not even for KSP

The problem is, if something's going fast enough that its parts are exploding on take-off, it will be trailing a cloud of plasma behind it.

For example. here's a plasma trail from a propellant-less railgun firing; 2,520 m/s at sea level:

Reaching 3,100 m/s, you can see sparks coming from the vessel:

 

 

[Nightside]

Thanks for this @pizzaoverhead, I'm really enjoying it.

So based on the above, it is a pretty accurate portrayal. 

Why does the effect start so far behind the pod? Is that also accurate? I think I'd like to see the fireball start on or immediately behind the vessel. 

Also, is there anyway to use something like @sarbian's Smokescreen mod to alter the effects?

[Whovian41110]

I've noticed that the title says 1.0.5 but there is nothing for a download for the 1.0.5 version.  Does the original version have 1.0.5 compatibility.

[Wraith977]

 

7 minutes ago, Whovian41110 said:

I've noticed that the title says 1.0.5 but there is nothing for a download for the 1.0.5 version.  Does the original version have 1.0.5 compatibility.

 

On 11/07/2016 at 2:58 AM, XB-70A said:

If this may help some, I affirm that this awesome mod runs perfectly under the older 1.0.5.

[HerrGeneral]

Reentry plasma trails are also incredibly long. Check this video:

 

[Nightside]

Great video, I would exchange the stock effect for a white hot fireball around the reentering parts.

Also, the cockpit audio sounds like they are munching on some snacks on the way down!

[ClLaw]

10 hours ago, pizzaoverhead said:

The problem is, if something's going fast enough that its parts are exploding on take-off, it will be trailing a cloud of plasma behind it.

For example. here's a plasma trail from a propellant-less railgun firing; 2,520 m/s at sea level:

Reaching 3,100 m/s, you can see sparks coming from the vessel:

 

 

Ok, I goofed . Apologies 

[pizzaoverhead]

5 hours ago, Nightside said:

Thanks for this @pizzaoverhead, I'm really enjoying it.

So based on the above, it is a pretty accurate portrayal. 

Why does the effect start so far behind the pod? Is that also accurate? I think I'd like to see the fireball start on or immediately behind the vessel. 

Also, is there anyway to use something like @sarbian's Smokescreen mod to alter the effects?

There's a pretty big gap between the pod and both the sparks and the trail. It's the way the effect is set up, and I'm not sure why. I have a suspicion that it's due to the fact that vessel sizes and shapes can vary dramatically, and you don't want the effect starting in front of them.

It could also be that the flame effect was much longer when the particle effect was made, meaning that it matched up better. Longer flame effects are very costly in terms of performance, particularly as craft size goes up, so the flames we have now are much shorter than the ones originally demoed in 2013 on a single-part craft.

The other reason relates to Unity: These particle effects use Unity's new Shuriken particle system, which offers a huge degree of customisation in the Unity Editor. However, unlike the legacy particle emitter system that's currently used for KSP's engine effects, very few of these customisations are available to be edited while the game is running. This means that you can't change the size or distance of the effect to match the size of the craft and you can't change the colour or density of the trail to depend on the vessel's temperature or the density of the atmosphere through which it is travelling. The trail doesn't fade out smoothly in this mod, it just gradually emits fewer and fewer puffs of plasma and sparks. A newer version of Unity added the ability to modify these settings mid-game, so once KSP changes to this Unity version, there will be huge opportunities for impressive particle effects that can blend into each other and change smoothly, such as atmospheric expansion of engine trails. Here are a few examples I've put together:

 

5 hours ago, Whovian41110 said:

I've noticed that the title says 1.0.5 but there is nothing for a download for the 1.0.5 version.  Does the original version have 1.0.5 compatibility.

It works for everything from 1.0.5 to 1.1.3. It might even work with versions as far back as 0.90, but nobody has tested it yet.

4 hours ago, HerrGeneral said:

Reentry plasma trails are also incredibly long. Check this video:

 

Wow, that's amazing! I've been looking around everywhere for videos of re-entry, but I didn't find anything like this! Thanks!

1 hour ago, ClLaw said:

Ok, I goofed . Apologies 

It has been a learning experience for me too! I've often found that when I try to research something in enough detail to recreate it in code, reality frequently doesn't do what I expected. It's an interesting journey! That Trident launch in the album above has a blue line running through the rocket's exhaust. It doesn't look realistic at all! Air gets colder the higher you go, right? KSP's thermometer temperature drops as you rise, then suddenly stops dropping for a while before eventually starting to rise? Yep, KSP models the tropopause. Part of the reason I posted this mod was in the hopes that people would be able to point out the ways it was inaccurate so that it can be made as realistic as possible in the future, so I'm grateful for your comments and the discussion that they provoked

Edited July 15, 2016 by pizzaoverhead

[xNeil Armstrong]

I've noticed in some of the examples above (like this image and the shuttle video) that the plasma trail in real life tends to thin out and fade as as it gets further from the craft, but in the mod it gets wider and brighter towards the end and then just kind of cuts off. Is there a specific reason for that, or would it be possible to change that?

Edited July 15, 2016 by xNeil Armstrong