Kerbal Cities Pack

[amankd]

KERBAL CITIES PACK

Finally quick and simple and INFINITY various cities are upon us, thanks to the blender city plugin "Scene City" which the Facebook community of ksp were kind enough to crowd fund the purchase of, this plugin allows me to model say 11 different building types of different sizes along with a set of roads, i click generate with some perameters and BOOM we have a city! BUT the bad news ("how can there be bad news with something this awesome" i hear you cry!) the process of turning this into a city is fairly long ( about a days work on and off with bug testing) so i cant have THAT many city variants in the game so im aiming for about 20 of varying sizes to be getting on with, possibly adding more later.

 

what this mod contains

right now? not very much, it is basically my test city, integrated with KSC, to allow people to gauge the performance hit, see what it looks like and how it works and to get an awesom city to play around in

 

 

 

 

some info

 

My codevelopers! I'm happy to be co-developing this mod primarily with Fast_de_la_speed, the developer of the Fastcorp line or mods and a little on the side from Jatwaa, better known as Billy Winn Jr and announced by the ksp FB page for having the best laugh in the business! you should follow him closely on youtube for any big releases as he will be the first to know!

 

this mod utilises Kerbal Konstructs, but is incompatible with kerbinside (for the simple fact that at this momnent it spawns in the same place) you can move it around using the Ctrl+K key menu if you so desire

 

features: both implemented and planned

basic proceduraly generated city with a variety of buildings and road networks

network of interconnected cites spread over the entirety of kerbin at approx 20km intervals (minimal rendering hit)

destructible KK (this may get released sparately) the ability to have the collision of a vehicle with a building cause it to alter the transforms of the static, despawn it and spawn a damage model with lots of FX similar to the ksp stock method ( i have no idea where to start so if anyone wants t help out do gimme a ping)

 

 

FAQ

why is the city where it is? in my opinion a race that would build its VAB less than 100 meters from the launch pad isnt gonna sweat about building a major city just the other side of it, kerbals hate commute times, but you are more than welcome to up-sticks and move them where ever you like as detailed above! it is mostly there because as im testing it i don't want to drive miles and miles!

what is the performance hit? ksp is a very poorly optimised game in reality, and despite the low poly count of my buildings they still take up alot of processor so the hit is quite heavy but i have no idea how heavy as ive only ever played it on my pc and i need a wide spectum to put a spec together (more on that later)

 

what YOU can do!

 

Bugs we arnt many are we so you guys are our major bug finders! find something that doesn't look right let us know! is there a step in the ajoining roads? is there a texture out of place? is the city inexplicably floating 2km above the ground? let us know where it occured and we will get on to it

Performance! this is possible a first, a mod with recommended specs! what we are after is a wide number of people with specs varying from the ludicrus to the potato to let us know how it runs and on what settings, so we can put together a min on max quality a min on med and a min on low settings and so people know what to expect

Ideas if you have any ideas for features, improvements or how to complete my ambitious goals please do give a comment 

models if you have any ideas for ksp buildings, houses ect please let me know, or better yet give them a  model, and i will see what i can do with them, more variety is allwasy better (buildings are 10, 20, and 40 meter square tiles)

placers  and finally if you have a passion for placing cities and roads over the entirety of kerbin give us a shout! its a tiresom and ardous job to be doing when we could be creating more and better cities

 

 

contributers

 these are the amazing few who have donated and supported this mod so far through the gofundme campaign linked as the donation link on the space dock page:


Nathan Johnson-- £10

Billy Winn--£20

Anon--£70 you are amazing

 

and FINALLY the mod link!

 

Get Kerbal Cities Pack Here!

 

 

p.s. i will get an image album and some decent vids up here as soon as ive got a decent internet connection!

 

Edited August 7, 2016 by amankd

[DasBananenbrot]

Congrats on the first realease I like what I see so far and will definetely follow this. Take a like 

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

Hi, You should really mention that loading this will make the loading bar stop as though it has encountered a problem, I almost quit to check the log,

Also if you want the city visible at all times including space center view, it should be added to the KSCUpgrades group.

I think there should be some roads that run to the edge of the tile or as near as you can get, yes i know that the city is on a raised platform so as to deal with uneven terrain but even so it looks a bit odd at present, I think Lack had an exact grass match in his LLL ksc extras mod,  your current grass texture seems a touch too dark and coarse.

[amankd]

yeah ive noticed that, i did not know about adding it to the groupings and it has puzzled me a fair bit, i do intend to have better transitions to the city as well but my main focus right now is to get a simple road network linking several cities together so i can see how it works, the txture i used for the grass came from kerbinside i belive named "ksc texture" but it is more of a placeholder than anything else

thanks for the help

[amankd]

V0.1.5 just gone put fixing bugs regarding textures and normals and the similar, see spacedock for full change log

[Aerospacer]

17 hours ago, amankd said:

V0.1.5 just gone put fixing bugs regarding textures and normals and the similar, see spacedock for full change log

Thanks for update.

And look - review Kerbal Cities from Kottabos. =>

 

[Kottabos]

Ah you beat me to posting my vid lol.

And @amankd just my luck you update the mod the day after I record my video, just my luck.  and on the mod you guys have done some great work on this so far and I can't wait to see how it moves from here. keep up the great work

 

[Kalkuhthoroui]

@amankd, I understand that it has been mentioned that you are in the market for individuals whom have experience 3D modeling to help design new structures and cityscapes. That is quite literally what i do, just for nasa, and aircraft; however simplified geometric structures cannot be that complicated. I've already brainstormed ideas for exotic skyscrapers or even procedural park systems with paths and foliage. With your consideration, I'd appreciate being a part of your team.

Edited July 25, 2016 by Kalkuhthoroui
Typo

[Micro753]

I think it would be neat if each company that offers contracts got their flag design put on one of the tall buildings as if the building was their HQ. Or, maybe have the flag designs on billboards.

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

Hi, sorry to have to report a slight problem. i had a quick run up the coast placing cities as i went, added 6, returned to ksc to collect aircraft to fly over and make sure all was good, was flying over city at 400mtrs when the aircraft struck an invisible object , presumably an errant collider, See images of wrecked aircraft at 300mtr+ with zero ms, and the game told me it was legitimately landed and recoverable.

(cfgs with added placements)

[theonegalen]

I feel like the scale is too small. Everything feels tiny compared to the Space Center, like every dimension should be multiplied by 2. Also, how about some hut villages? I am quite a fan of @KSK's classic story First Flight and it would be really cool to see some of his Kermol Villages show up in the world.

Any plans to make this compatible with the last releases of Kerbin-Side and KSC+? That is, to move the city a little further away from the KSC and make sure it isn't in the way of those mods? Also, I can't believe that even Kerbals would locate a space center so close to a population center.

Otherwise, brilliant work!

Edited July 23, 2016 by theonegalen

[KSK]

Wow - I think this is the first time my stuff has ever been linked to from the Add-ons forum. Thanks for the shout-out theonegalen!

For those that don't fancy wading through all of First Flight, you could just try these chapters:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/30718-first-flight/&do=findComment&comment=510059

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/30718-first-flight/&do=findComment&comment=605319

The first one describes one of the kermol villages that theonegalen mentioned and the second one goes into a bit of detail about how the basic kermol hut has been expanded into a lot of mainstream kerbal architecture. Many, many internet points to any 3D modeller who takes a stab at the Capital Building! And if you don't mind mass spoilers but want to know a bit more about these 'kermol' and why they're so important (in my version of Kerbin at any rate  ), you could try this chapter: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/30718-first-flight/&do=findComment&comment=1061716, which is basically an overview of kerbal history and how modern day kerbal society has evolved.

 

Edited July 23, 2016 by KSK

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

16 hours ago, theonegalen said:

I feel like the scale is too small. Everything feels tiny compared to the Space Center, like every dimension should be multiplied by 2.

I have to agree with this, at present the streets are so narrow that impossible to fly even the smallest (well maybe  the smallest smallest) aircraft between the buildings. Kerbal scale is 65% of human scale, not 50% which is where i feel it is now

[theonegalen]

13 hours ago, KSK said:

The first one describes one of the kermol villages that theonegalen mentioned and the second one goes into a bit of detail about how the basic kermol hut has been expanded into a lot of mainstream kerbal architecture. Many, many internet points to any 3D modeller who takes a stab at the Capital Building! And if you don't mind mass spoilers but want to know a bit more about these 'kermol' and why they're so important (in my version of Kerbin at any rate  ), you could try this chapter: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/30718-first-flight/&do=findComment&comment=1061716, which is basically an overview of kerbal history and how modern day kerbal society has evolved.

 

The chapter in that link may be my favorite.

[Kalkuhthoroui]

Also, @amankd, when I've completed my first models, where would the files need to be sent? How would you come to receive them?

Edited July 25, 2016 by Kalkuhthoroui

[amankd]

6 hours ago, Kalkuhthoroui said:

Also, @amankd, when I've completed my first models, where would the files need to be sent? How would you come to receive them?

do you by anychance have a facebook account? this is where we do most of our organisation

On 23/07/2016 at 8:04 PM, SpannerMonkey(smce) said:

I have to agree with this, at present the streets are so narrow that impossible to fly even the smallest (well maybe  the smallest smallest) aircraft between the buildings. Kerbal scale is 65% of human scale, not 50% which is where i feel it is now

 

On 23/07/2016 at 3:07 AM, theonegalen said:

I feel like the scale is too small. Everything feels tiny compared to the Space Center, like every dimension should be multiplied by 2. Also, how about some hut villages? I am quite a fan of @KSK's classic story First Flight and it would be really cool to see some of his Kermol Villages show up in the world.

Any plans to make this compatible with the last releases of Kerbin-Side and KSC+? That is, to move the city a little further away from the KSC and make sure it isn't in the way of those mods? Also, I can't believe that even Kerbals would locate a space center so close to a population center.

Otherwise, brilliant work!

 the scale iv been working on is 1.5 times the default scale but i think on the last release it didnt save my scaling, and  remmebr the buildings are kerbal size, just everything is big when compared to kerbals so it feels small

 

[amankd]

On 22/07/2016 at 6:22 PM, Kottabos said:

Ah you beat me to posting my vid lol.

And @amankd just my luck you update the mod the day after I record my video, just my luck.  and on the mod you guys have done some great work on this so far and I can't wait to see how it moves from here. keep up the great work

 

i would like to thank you for taking the time to revieew my mod, it allways brings up alot of good points for improvments/developments, IE there is now a larger, more coherent city about 2km west of the ksc just peaking over the hills (close enough to be visible but not in the way, i have also improved the grass texture too, the next planned release will start the network with 10 cities branching out from ksp, an interesting point to note is that i am planning to sell off some of the cities, i am in the process of making a website that will hol all the city data similar to the kerbalmaps.com website and on there people who have purchased a ton for the princely sum of £1 get to name it, control details about it and are put down as mayor on the website, and when fast-de-la-speed gets on to the roads these names will be on the signposts and similar directing you to the towns ect, the aim for me is to make it so that no matter where you land the likelihood of not seeing a piece of road or a city is slim!, i have made a map i will upload in a sec, fast-de-la-speed is currently working on  sketching out the road networks that will link them, by current count there is going to be 600 cities, with 300 open to community naming

[amankd]

On 22/07/2016 at 8:47 PM, SpannerMonkey(smce) said:

Hi, sorry to have to report a slight problem. i had a quick run up the coast placing cities as i went, added 6, returned to ksc to collect aircraft to fly over and make sure all was good, was flying over city at 400mtrs when the aircraft struck an invisible object , presumably an errant collider, See images of wrecked aircraft at 300mtr+ with zero ms, and the game told me it was legitimately landed and recoverable.

(cfgs with added placements)

this is an well known issue with kk, reun to space center or in bad cases restart the game and the convex colliders go away and the correct colliders spawn, its Unity 5's fault

[amankd]

On 25/07/2016 at 5:36 AM, Kalkuhthoroui said:

Also, @amankd, when I've completed my first models, where would the files need to be sent? How would you come to receive them?

i sent you a PM find me on FB here, thats where we plan  most of our stuff https://www.facebook.com/Lemlurkerman

[amankd]

okay ive got somthing very special for you all... its taken alot of work to get online and hoasted but its finally here and you can see the scope of what we want to do with this mod! http://kerbalcitiesmaps.com/

 

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

4 hours ago, amankd said:

okay ive got somthing very special for you all... its taken alot of work to get online and hoasted but its finally here and you can see the scope of what we want to do with this mod! http://kerbalcitiesmaps.com/

 

Hi, while appreciating your efforts and endeavors , I have to ask whats the loading time expectation for something like that proposal? As each city model  takes individually x time to load,  the time to load for that map would be (from my experience) astronomical, there being a notable hang up in loading even on a stripped out (for dev)  game,  when loading just one city model.

[amankd]

i have no idea, it does hang but so far ive not seen a marked increase from 2 cities over 1

5 minutes ago, SpannerMonkey(smce) said:

Hi, while appreciating your efforts and endeavors , I have to ask whats the loading time expectation for something like that proposal? As each city model  takes individually x time to load,  the time to load for that map would be (from my experience) astronomical, there being a notable hang up in loading even on a stripped out (for dev)  game,  when loading just one city model.

not to mention that there will be only about 20 city types, the duplicated all over

 

[Z3R0_0NL1N3]

Your Spacedock entry should link to the forum thread here. Regardless, this seems ambitious and I love that. Obviously, though, it does seem almost too ambitious, especially considering the RAM load on the game. Is it possible to set a range that it spawns/despawns depending on where the player is? Maybe only having a finite amount of city types will make it not as intensive. Hopefully, whatever you do, I'm looking forward to this. Any chance to take over the old Kerbin City mod and incorporate it into here? Or maybe make some of these cities nearby to Kerbin-Side's bases?

[UnionPacific1983WP]

I'm looking forward to the roads connecting cities. I need somewhere to use all of those cars and trucks people make, and this will be perfect for that!

[Core]

I have yet to try a cities mod, but this sounds good.

Already, from my munar tank, I can hear the sound of assault quadrotors storming the cities and fighting the lunar rebels in my bid for keeping the term Mun.