Need a tiny bit of help getting started

[Tokamak]

3 minutes ago, TiktaalikDreaming said:

I normally use a mod-light dev install of KSP.  AKA KSP without much mod.  I actually use my base Steam install, as it forces me to update things fairly quickly.  :-)  If the exceptions aren't stopping anything, then just ignore them.  The first blob looks to be regarding tweak scale, and I'd lay odds that it just won't matter.

So, basically you've highlighted the reasons for pointing PartTools at an active KSP GameData.  It needs that to see assets like the IVA props.  I'd assume it's the same for the packaged UI elements introduced in 1.1 that no-one uses (as in, modders, and mostly, OK I haven't touched them).  Like the KSPedia stuff.

But you *could* create a fresh folder, and maybe just copy in elements you want to use.  But then there's a lot of messing around when you get to testing as well.

The errors do stop everything, and completely break parttools. The problem is that I want to make parts that interact with some of the mods that break parttools, so I've just copied my Squad folder over, and that seems to be working well enough.

[Van Disaster]

Polycount: use as many as you think you need, put the part in game, and then remove some & see if you notice any difference. For KSP you don't need many at all, usually, a lot of even quite coarse detail on these models is in the texture. Personally I think people could put a lot more detail in the mesh rather than trying to fake it with paint & normal maps, but that does make unwrapping more complex. You only have to do that once, though...

Avoid auto-smoothing and similar though, learning where to cut more polys manually is an essential skill.

tl;dr just build the model.

[Tokamak]

Whee... I didn't expect to dive headfirst into 3d stuff like this @.@

 

I've been able to go from raw blender assets to a working part WITH an IVA, so that's good. I may need to make a tutorial covering the things that messed me up on the way that other tutorials didn't mention... and to make sure I know what all I've done myself XD

I'm trying to make a point of not just asking for help until I've hammered away at something for a while, so as not to be a pest. One thing, however, has me unsure what term to even google for. It's this sort of thing:

 

So, I get transparency. I mostly get normals. I get how some polys are only textured from one direction, and invisible on the other side.

 

But what is THIS wizardry? There is a full model of the interior, but whatever has been done to the inner walls makes it so when you are looking at the backside (outside) of them, you don't see that wall OR anything behind it. 

I see how this is useful for making IVAs that have a nice cutaway, instead of just seeing everything inside overlayed on top of the external part model... but I don't even know what term I'm supposed to google for to find out how to do this. And since I only see this when spawning an established interior space with parttools, I can't see the actual properties of the meshes. I did import the mu into blender, but the effect does not seem to be present there.

Pointers?

[TiktaalikDreaming]

Quote

But what is THIS wizardry? There is a full model of the interior, but whatever has been done to the inner walls makes it so when you are looking at the backside (outside) of them, you don't see that wall OR anything behind it.

Um,.. I have zero idea.  I always figured the stock IVAs were done with a cut-away external to get those windows, and never loaded one up (at least, not since 0.9 days, and those didn't have the windows) to see such wizardry.

... runs off to load an IVA into Blender ...

 

It seems there's a separate folder full of overlay masks that are referred to by the config file as extra models.  Most appear to be a simple mesh with normals facing outward, and gaps where the windows are.  They're layer 16, untagged, so I guess KSP knows secondary meshes on IVAs are masks.

Edited August 7, 2016 by TiktaalikDreaming
checking...

[Tokamak]

Thank you guys for all of your help. I have working parts with properly aligned IVAs. This is going well.  

One more question for now, though: Whenever I write my IVA's props config with part tools, it always resets the internal config to have only two seats, Seat1 and Seat2, even when the config previously specified more seats. Is this just a thing that will happen, or is there a way around it?

[TiktaalikDreaming]

1 hour ago, Tokamak said:

Thank you guys for all of your help. I have working parts with properly aligned IVAs. This is going well.  

One more question for now, though: Whenever I write my IVA's props config with part tools, it always resets the internal config to have only two seats, Seat1 and Seat2, even when the config previously specified more seats. Is this just a thing that will happen, or is there a way around it?

The seats in the config need to match transforms in the model, aka empty unity objects. If there's only two seat transforms then the part tools may be trimming the config to fit. 

[Tokamak]

35 minutes ago, TiktaalikDreaming said:

The seats in the config need to match transforms in the model, aka empty unity objects. If there's only two seat transforms then the part tools may be trimming the config to fit. 

Yup, got that. It still trims them town to Seat1 and Seat2. If I have no seat transforms, then it also still writes Seat1 and Seat2. It seems to want to do that no matter what is or is not in the model.

[TiktaalikDreaming]

47 minutes ago, Tokamak said:

Yup, got that. It still trims them town to Seat1 and Seat2. If I have no seat transforms, then it also still writes Seat1 and Seat2. It seems to want to do that no matter what is or is not in the model.

Um... I've never seen that.  Hopefully someone will have an idea.  Part tools + Unity really seem to hate you.  It could be an issue with a specific version of Unity.  The recommended version to match Squad's stuff in KSP 1.1 is not the latest (I'm at work and can't easily check right now), so maybe there's a bad interaction between your Unity version and PartTools

[Tokamak]

9 minutes ago, TiktaalikDreaming said:

Part tools + Unity really seem to hate you. 

Ah well, no worries. I'm making lots of progress anyway, and having a blast. That is easy enough to work around.

[Tokamak]

Is there a way to precisely position objects with the keyboard in Unity? I know how to do that in Blender, but props get placed in Unity, and I've not been able to find any option for that

 

[Van Disaster]

Type numbers into the transform every gameobject has. Just pull the numbers out of Blender.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Van Disaster

[Tokamak]

27 minutes ago, Van Disaster said:

Type numbers into the transform every gameobject has. Just pull the numbers out of Blender.

Typing them is what I had been doing, but I had not thought to get positions out of blender. thanks!

[Tokamak]

A bit of googling has not been fruitful, so I assume I am looking for the wrong terms. Can anyone point me in the direction of information on how to make a shroud/fairing that detaches when a part is decoupled from? The sort of thing most engines have.

 

Edit: And of course, NOW I find it. I think.

 

 

Edited August 22, 2016 by Tokamak

[TiktaalikDreaming]

4 hours ago, Tokamak said:

A bit of googling has not been fruitful, so I assume I am looking for the wrong terms. Can anyone point me in the direction of information on how to make a shroud/fairing that detaches when a part is decoupled from? The sort of thing most engines have.

 

Edit: And of course, NOW I find it. I think.

 

 

Yep, ModuleJettison.  The key element being "jettisonName = " which should be the name of the mesh for the shroud.

I keep adding them, and then deciding they don't really fit with the intended use.