What are the best and most compatible add ons to make Kerbal look better?

[WalterWhite]

I've tried the renaissance pack but it currently isn't 100% compatible due to Kopernicus I think. What is the best way to go about getting the best textures etc? Is there a specific pack?

Cheers 

[Streetwind]

The thing you need to understand is that there are actually very few mods that do the legwork. "Packs" like Renaissance Compilation are sets of custom textures, sounds and configs for those mods.

The mods in question are:
- Environmental Visual Enhancements (EVE): clouds, ground effects and city lights, weather and atmosphere effects, lighting
- Scatterer: does water effects, atmosphere effects, lighting (but in different ways than, and compatible with, EVE)
- Texture Replacer: does exactly what it says on the tin. Also, relfection effects
- Kopernicus and Kopernicus Expansion: can replace planet textures, and is probably the preferred method to do so; can also add comet tails and stuff
- SmokeScreen: engine flame and smoke effects
- Module Manager: everything relies on Module Manager in some shape or form

The following content packs make use of those six base mods in order to deliver their content:
- KSP Renaissance Compilation
- Stock Visual Enhancements
- Stock Visual Terrain
- RealPlume and RealPlume Stock Configs
- KASE
- Various skyboxes, sunflares and Kerbal heads/suits for Texture Replacer
- Probably others...

Then, there are a few minor mods that just do stuff on their own, and don't usually need/use third party configurations:
- Planetshine: tweaks ambient light in space, planets reflect light of their own color
- Distant Object Enhancement: you can see Jool and its moons all the way from Kerbin orbit (if you know where to look and squint really hard!)
- Reentry Particle Effect: makes going down in flames look prettier
- Collision FX: makes crashes and lithobraking look prettier (but doesn't appear to be updated... maybe someone knows an alternative?)
- Engine Lighting: firing an engine illuminates the spacecraft and anything near it. May or may not be redundant together with RealPlume, not sure

Of note here is that Planetshine appears to need a small manual tweak in order to run under KSP 1.1.3. And also that KSP Renaissance Compilation wants you to install Planetshine. If KSPRC doesn't work for you, maybe it's only because you need to fix Planetshine.

Edited September 9, 2016 by Streetwind

[sarbian]

19 hours ago, WalterWhite said:

I've tried the renaissance pack but it currently isn't 100% compatible due to Kopernicus I think.

Isn't 100% compatible with what? 

[Hydrothermalventclam]

I have not used it, but stock visual enhancements looks great.  It has a cloud part, which uses EVE and scatterer, and a terrain part, which uses kopernicus, so it might not work for you.  Also, planetshine, windowshine, Distant Object enhancement, and a better skybox will make the game look so much greater.