[WIP] [Kopernicus] The Death Star v0.3

[Slamnam]

On 8/25/2016 at 11:08 PM, cubinator said:

That's odd...must be the tractor beam. 

Did any of those contracts involve Ike, perchance? Ike is the template in the Kopernicus config file.

Ah...

Ah yes they did. I was planning to visit Ike next in career.

[Whirligig Girl]

I would recommend lowering the resolution of the heightmap, so that the superlaser crater isn't so pixelated. I would recommend splitting it into two heightmaps, one for the main body of death star, and one for the crater. Otherwise, great work. I've always wanted to see someone make a death star mod.

[cubinator]

1 hour ago, GregroxMun said:

I would recommend lowering the resolution of the heightmap, so that the superlaser crater isn't so pixelated.

I think I can smooth it out with PQS mods.

1 hour ago, GregroxMun said:

I would recommend splitting it into two heightmaps, one for the main body of death star, and one for the crater. 

I didn't know that was possible!  The small trench I tried to make was V-shaped instead of square, and although it was one pixel wide it might have been a little too big still so I think making the "body" heightmap higher resolution would be beneficial. Please elaborate, I've got much to learn still!

1 hour ago, GregroxMun said:

Otherwise, great work. I've always wanted to see someone make a death star mod.

Thanks! I've always wanted a proper set of Star Wars ships, including the gigantic starships like the Star Destroyers and maybe even Executor. If you put one of those at the height of the ISS, it'd be quite distinct and really give a sense of scale in both directions; You'd think "Whoa, that thing is huge" but you'd also think "Huh, it's in space but space isn't too far away that I can't see it". I'm honestly surprised no one's done it already, given the bunch of space nerds we are. But, I don't know how to do parts so I can't do all that.  I do know enough about Kopernicus to clobber this thing together, though, in what may well be the most ironic small moon ever made in Kopernicus.

[Whirligig Girl]

9 hours ago, cubinator said:

I think I can smooth it out with PQS mods.

There are no PQSmods that can smooth it out, but there are other parts of PQS that might do it.

Body
{
	PQS
	{
		minLevel = 2
		maxLevel = 6
		Mods
		{
		}
	}
}

I'm not sure what template you've used, so I don't know what maxLevel you have set. Minmus' radius is the same as your death star, and its maxLevel is 6. Lowering the maxLevel should reduce pixelation dramatically.

9 hours ago, cubinator said:

I didn't know that was possible!  The small trench I tried to make was V-shaped instead of square, and although it was one pixel wide it might have been a little too big still so I think making the "body" heightmap higher resolution would be beneficial. Please elaborate, I've got much to learn still!

Contrary to common sense, lower resolution heightmaps (and color maps or any other textures) will go into the game looking less pixelated than higher res ones. What you could do is make a topology map and a detail map.

9 hours ago, cubinator said:

Thanks! I've always wanted a proper set of Star Wars ships, including the gigantic starships like the Star Destroyers and maybe even Executor. If you put one of those at the height of the ISS, it'd be quite distinct and really give a sense of scale in both directions; You'd think "Whoa, that thing is huge" but you'd also think "Huh, it's in space but space isn't too far away that I can't see it". I'm honestly surprised no one's done it already, given the bunch of space nerds we are. But, I don't know how to do parts so I can't do all that.  I do know enough about Kopernicus to clobber this thing together, though, in what may well be the most ironic small moon ever made in Kopernicus.

I wanted to make a Death Star, but since I'm not really a Star Wars fan and I couldn't find any good map, I abandoned the project.

By the way, the Death Star would totally have much much lower gravity than Minmus, or much much higher gravity. Because it's not nearly as dense as Minmus, or even Mimas . It would probably have sub-gilly surface gravity. Or it could have 1 gee of gravity due to sci-fi gravity generators on the hull.

[cubinator]

1 hour ago, GregroxMun said:

There are no PQSmods that can smooth it out, but there are other parts of PQS that might do it.

Body
{
	PQS
	{
		minLevel = 2
		maxLevel = 6
		Mods
		{
		}
	}
}

Thanks, I'll try this.

1 hour ago, GregroxMun said:

I'm not sure what template you've used, so I don't know what maxLevel you have set. Minmus' radius is the same as your death star, and its maxLevel is 6. Lowering the maxLevel should reduce pixelation dramatically.

Ike is the template right now.

1 hour ago, GregroxMun said:

Contrary to common sense, lower resolution heightmaps (and color maps or any other textures) will go into the game looking less pixelated than higher res ones. What you could do is make a topology map and a detail map.

Ok, and I could just have two heightmap links in the config file? One for the crater and one for the trenches?

1 hour ago, GregroxMun said:

I wanted to make a Death Star, but since I'm not really a Star Wars fan and I couldn't find any good map, I abandoned the project.

I'm making all my textures from scratch, so it'll be a while before it starts looking really detailed.

1 hour ago, GregroxMun said:

By the way, the Death Star would totally have much much lower gravity than Minmus, or much much higher gravity. Because it's not nearly as dense as Minmus, or even Mimas . It would probably have sub-gilly surface gravity. Or it could have 1 gee of gravity due to sci-fi gravity generators on the hull.

Yeah, I know, but if I gave it realistic gravity it would take waaay too long to fall to the surface when I wanted to inspect something. And the gravity generators on the Death Star point not "normal" down, but "movie" down, which means objects on the southern hemisphere would fall off, and there's no way to make that happen in a realistic-style space sim. I'll just assume those don't have influence outside the hull.

I'm also thinking of adding an invisible atmosphere just for effect, because in the movie ships fly like they're in the atmosphere even though they're in space. The engines are running full blast all the time even though if you did that in space you'd escape pretty quickly, and ships turn like the force acting on them is aerodynamic, not just the push of the engines.

[cubinator]

On 9/1/2016 at 7:37 AM, GregroxMun said:

There are no PQSmods that can smooth it out, but there are other parts of PQS that might do it.

Body
{
	PQS
	{
		minLevel = 2
		maxLevel = 6
		Mods
		{
		}
	}
}

 

I set minLevel to 2 and maxLevel to 3 and it was much smoother, but still not perfect. I'll try setting them both to 2 and see whether it fixes it and/or breaks everything else.

I still don't know if there's anything special I need to do for the two heightmaps...From what you've said it seems I should place both maps in deathstar/textures (with different names) and specify both of them in the config by having two VertexHeightMaps in PQS.

Edited September 2, 2016 by cubinator
specified folder

[Whirligig Girl]

2 hours ago, cubinator said:

I set minLevel to 2 and maxLevel to 3 and it was much smoother, but still not perfect. I'll try setting them both to 2 and see whether it fixes it and/or breaks everything else.

I still don't know if there's anything special I need to do for the two heightmaps...From what you've said it seems I should place both maps in deathstar/textures (with different names) and specify both of them in the config by having two VertexHeightMaps in PQS.

Yes, two VertexHeightMap mods, and make sure you use a "name = " in each PQSMod to make sure MM doesn't confuse them for one.

 

I would suggest one 512x1024 map for the superlaser, one 4096x2048 or 2048x1024 map for the rest of the planet, and a maxLevel of 4 or 5 as needed. If the level is too low or too high, things fall through other things.

[cubinator]

12 minutes ago, GregroxMun said:

Yes, two VertexHeightMap mods, and make sure you use a "name = " in each PQSMod to make sure MM doesn't confuse them for one.

 

I would suggest one 512x1024 map for the superlaser, one 4096x2048 or 2048x1024 map for the rest of the planet, and a maxLevel of 4 or 5 as needed. If the level is too low or too high, things fall through other things.

Will do! Thanks for the advice! I shall hopefully reward you and all the rest to come with a better, more awesome Death Star!

[GiantTank]

Mine isn't working for some reason. Clean version of KSP, Kopernicus installed, and it does not show up anywhere. Any suggestions?

[cubinator]

6 hours ago, GiantTank said:

Mine isn't working for some reason. Clean version of KSP, Kopernicus installed, and it does not show up anywhere. Any suggestions?

Try deleting the "deathstar" folder and replacing it with a fresh copy of version 0.2. Is this the first time you've installed it or did you ever get 0.1? I've got the latest version of Kopernicus and mine is working as well as I make it (the trench is being annoying still...) Glad to help!  

[Darth Jeb]

I am glad that you made this. Well i knew already that you would and i was waiting for you to complete it.

Now i can exploit its thermal exhaust ports.

Edited September 14, 2016 by Darth Jeb

[cubinator]

Kudos to @linuxgurugamer for making a CKAN entry for this mod! Now you can download and update it with the click of a single (ok fine two) buttons!

[Turtles4Life]

Someone needs to bring back that old Death Star mod, so we can actually blow up a death star

[Kosmonaut]

I'm not a big fan of star wars, but this... this...

OH. MY. GOD. that is SO cool.

[cubinator]

Death Star version 0.3 has now been released for KSP 1.2.1! New features:

• Added an option to move the Death Star to a low orbit of Jool, in the perfect spot to strike the rebel base on Laythe!
• Slightly-kinda-sorta-not-really-but-a-little-bit fixed the crater blockiness, I've got to figure out how to do multiple heightmaps to actually fix it. 

Here's a pic of the new and exciting:

[FunnelVortex]

On 12/2/2016 at 8:40 PM, cubinator said:

Death Star version 0.3 has now been released for KSP 1.2.1! New features:

• Added an option to move the Death Star to a low orbit of Jool, in the perfect spot to strike the rebel base on Laythe!
• Slightly-kinda-sorta-not-really-but-a-little-bit fixed the crater blockiness, I've got to figure out how to do multiple heightmaps to actually fix it. 

Here's a pic of the new and exciting:

I play with the New Horizons planet pack by @KillAshley so I simply reparented the Death Star to Serran using the config file.  

 

But also responding to an old comment you made about the Death Star's gravity, the gravity should actually be 1G at the surface. While the interior of the Death Star has it's gravity pointing "movie down", the Death Star actually has concentricly-layered outer decks near the surface so their gravity generators should be producing radial gravity. 

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/7/7d/Death_Star_Owner's_Technical_Manual_blueprints.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20131105191248

[cubinator]

2 hours ago, FunnelVortex said:

 

But also responding to an old comment you made about the Death Star's gravity, the gravity should actually be 1G at the surface. While the interior of the Death Star has it's gravity pointing "movie down", the Death Star actually has concentricly-layered outer decks near the surface so their gravity generators should be producing radial gravity. 

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/7/7d/Death_Star_Owner's_Technical_Manual_blueprints.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20131105191248

I see. I might take that into consideration in the future, depends on how hard it makes it to fly things near the surface. I may add an invisible atmosphere in the future as well.

 

[Fireheart318]

On 8/26/2016 at 1:05 AM, ZooNamedGames said:

What's it's diameter? Gravity?

If I can, I'd love to help create a map of sorts and help do the fine details. I can't mod but I do know Star Wars  ! 

I think we should figure that out by calculating the velocity of an X-Wing relative to the surface of the Death Star. They can "fly" in space, but that isn't possible, so orbital velocity in a trench should be the speed they were flying at

[ZooNamedGames]

Just now, Fireheart318 said:

I think we should figure that out by calculating the velocity of an X-Wing relative to the surface of the Death Star. They can "fly" in space, but that isn't possible, so orbital velocity in a trench should be the speed they were flying at

Issue is that they 'fly' like fighter jets and not like spacecrafts  

[cubinator]

32 minutes ago, Fireheart318 said:

I think we should figure that out by calculating the velocity of an X-Wing relative to the surface of the Death Star. They can "fly" in space, but that isn't possible, so orbital velocity in a trench should be the speed they were flying at

Based on my flights around it, trench velocity tends to be higher than orbital velocity.

[Bosun]

On 4/7/2017 at 11:58 AM, Fireheart318 said:

I think we should figure that out by calculating the velocity of an X-Wing relative to the surface of the Death Star. They can "fly" in space, but that isn't possible, so orbital velocity in a trench should be the speed they were flying at

African or European X-Wings?  Were they unladen?   If two X-Wings were flying together would it increase the lift and allow them to fly?   

[Fireheart318]

Uhhkay so I done did some thinkin' 'bout dis and ah think ah should get ridda dis dum accent now...

Okay, so I did some thinking about this and I think the Death Star should have Kerbin's gravity in the trenches because people in the movies don't bounce around like they would on the moon or some other place, nor are they human pancakes like they'd be on... ummm... I don't know. Some bigass hunk of lead or something. Anyway, that's done with. Now for the hard part -

The planet(?) should be scaled to the point where orbital velocity would be equal with that of an X-Wing in flight in the famous Death Star destruction scene. That may or may not be possible without seriously messing with the size of the "planet" to the point where it's bigger than Jool, or maybe even Kerbol. This DOES keep in mind that KSP is scaled down 10% but I don't think that would really change much of anything

[cubinator]

21 minutes ago, Fireheart318 said:

Uhhkay so I done did some thinkin' 'bout dis and ah think ah should get ridda dis dum accent now...

Okay, so I did some thinking about this and I think the Death Star should have Kerbin's gravity in the trenches because people in the movies don't bounce around like they would on the moon or some other place, nor are they human pancakes like they'd be on... ummm... I don't know. Some bigass hunk of lead or something. Anyway, that's done with. Now for the hard part -

The planet(?) should be scaled to the point where orbital velocity would be equal with that of an X-Wing in flight in the famous Death Star destruction scene. That may or may not be possible without seriously messing with the size of the "planet" to the point where it's bigger than Jool, or maybe even Kerbol. This DOES keep in mind that KSP is scaled down 10% but I don't think that would really change much of anything

I think it wouldn't have to have much more gravity to get the velocity to match, the trench is pretty small. The problem is I only have the large equatorial trench, and the one with the exhaust port is a polar trench.

[DonHoot]

Hello, I was wondering if and how this will work with the Real Solar System mod? I tried changing the .cfg file to read "Io" and "Jupiter" but it seems to not do anything! Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

 

[cubinator]

10 hours ago, DonHoot said:

Hello, I was wondering if and how this will work with the Real Solar System mod? I tried changing the .cfg file to read "Io" and "Jupiter" but it seems to not do anything! Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

 

You probably need to change the height of the orbit so that it's not inside the moon. Navigate to the part of deathstar.cfg that says:

Orbit
		{
			referenceBody = Jool
			color = 0.5,0.5,0.5,1
			inclination = 0
			eccentricity = 0
			semiMajorAxis = 10000000
			longitudeOfAscendingNode = 0
			argumentOfPeriapsis = 0
			meanAnomalyAtEpoch = 0
			epoch = 0
		}

Set referenceBody to the body you want it to orbit, and then make sure the semiMajorAxis value is bigger than parent radius + atmosphere + 600, otherwise the Death Star will be either partially or completely inside the other planet. In this example (which has the default setting for Jool orbit) the Death Star's center will be 10000 km above Jool's center. If you were to switch it to orbit Jupiter with no other changes, it would end up over 50000 km below the surface, because Jupiter's radius is about 70000 km. With no other information to go off of, I think this may help.