[1.2] Para-Sci High-Performance Atmosphere Pack v1.1 - 27 October 2016

[problemecium]

PARA-SCI HIGH-PERFORMANCE ATMOSPHERE PACK

For use with KSP 1.2 and the EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements mod

Since many of us are sometimes, or always, forced to play KSP on laptops and other devices with weak GPUs or otherwise not optimized for gaming, I present the Para-Sci High-Performance Atmosphere Pack, wherein I have done my best to combine good visuals with minimal graphics demand.

FULL PREVIEW ALBUM: http://imgur.com/a/pKsCk

Notes:
- Most bodies, with the exception of Kerbol and the particularly lumpy minor moons, include a "glow" layer that enhances their appearance at long distances and fades away on approach.
- Many of the glow layers make use of the original KSP planet textures; naturally credit goes to SQUAD for these and I advise against attempting to redistribute them or use them for things other than KSP, KSP mods, or KSP fanart.
- None of the cloud layers have a "layer3D" (volumetric clouds) component. While this does cause us to miss out on that feature, the numerous large particles it involved rendering tend to be a major performance drain and thus they have been left out.
- None of the cloud layers cast shadows either.
- All bodies have a maximum of three cloud layers; most have only one.
- The pack currently does not include aurorae, noctilucent clouds, or dust storms, although some of these may be added in the future if I feel up to it.
- Some textures are the original textures packaged alongside the main EVE installation. Like the SQUAD textures, I advise against violating their licensing terms, etc.
- Jool's glow layer uses the beautiful Jool texture painted by @Felsmak. Naturally credit goes to him for that, don't steal it, etc. etc. etc.

DOWNLOAD

Edited April 23, 2017 by problemecium
Fixed 404 error in Dropbox link

[Galileo]

WOOT! Would you mind if i linked this thread in the SVE op? 

This is awesome and definitely a needed pack for those who cant run SVE or KSPRC or any other visual pack for that matter. Thanks for this!

Edited October 20, 2016 by Galileo

[problemecium]

Yes, please do! I made this pack for all those poor people, so by all means get the signal out!

[BigFatStupidHead]

Ooh ooh ooh! This sounds really good. I'm going to try it out ASAP.

[jlcarneiro]

4 hours ago, parameciumkid said:

PARA-SCI HIGH-PERFORMANCE ATMOSPHERE PACK

For use with KSP 1.2 and the EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements mod

Since many of us are sometimes, or always, forced to play KSP on laptops and other devices with weak GPUs or otherwise not optimized for gaming, I present the Para-Sci High-Performance Atmopshere Pack, wherein I have done my best to combine good visuals with minimal graphics demand.

[...]

Notes:
[...]
- The pack currently does not include aurorae, noctilucent clouds, or dust storms, although some of these may be added in the future if I feel up to it.
[...]

Thank you very much!

I'm eagerly waiting on those aurorae and dust storms, though! They would be great!

EDIT: Two questions and a suggestion...

Q1. your pack doesn't provide cloud shadows, does it? Performance issues?

Q2. what's the explanation for Eeloo's wispy dust clouds?

S1. Doesn't Duna's atmosphere have too many clouds? Shouldn't its atmosphere be less dense than Kerbin's?

Edited October 20, 2016 by jlcarneiro

[problemecium]

Ah yes, I turned off shadows too. In addition to performance constraints I didn't really like them all that much to begin with.

Eeloo's dust clouds are there to make Eeloo more interesting xD

And Duna will have less cloud cover whenever I end up having a new cloud texture for Duna, but for now I just reused Kerbin's.

[Fwiffo]

Another dumb question (for the benefit of myself and any others who stumble upon this and may be wondering the same): Any nighttime city lights?

[Wjolcz]

Wowowow! You are the best! Thanks!

The pack includes the shadow casting effects like in the picture with Jool and Laythe, right? It's not a separate mod?

Edited October 20, 2016 by Veeltch

[Waz]

This is a great idea! Visual-but-performant! Is it in CKAN? I'd like to add it to my list of test configs and link it from the EVE firstpost, if you think it's stable enough.

[TheSaint]

I would have killed for this nine months ago, before I upgraded my computer.  But it's all good, great work! 

[problemecium]

Yes, please link it anywhere you like!

I have not made it available on CKAN myself as I do not use CKAN.

And yes, it does include the shadow effects, as they come with EVE. I imagine they are somewhat of a performance drain, but I liked them so I kept them in ^^

[tater]

I plan on messing with this tonight combined with SSTU.

[Just Your Average Ogre]

How do I install it?

[orangewarning]

do I need to install EVE separately?

[problemecium]

Yes, you do need to install EVE separately:

Download EVE from the main EVE thread. Then open the archive in which this is packed. Inside is a "BoulderCo" folder; extract that into your GameData folder and overwrite the existing BoulderCo folder if there is one.

[tater]

 

[Leafbaron]

This mod is perfect!

[monstah]

11 hours ago, parameciumkid said:

Yes, you do need to install EVE separately:

Download EVE from the main EVE thread. Then open the archive in which this is packed. Inside is a "BoulderCo" folder; extract that into your GameData folder and overwrite the existing BoulderCo folder if there is one.

Can I just delete the BoulderCo that comes with EVE before installing this one to reduce the textures loaded, or do you use any of its textures unaltered?

Oh, and THANK YOU. I've been downloading the lowest resolutions on EVE and still my computer suffers.

[problemecium]

For now you can feel free to delete the existing one. I was lazy and didn't trim out all the default textures I used - in fact most of the textures I used are the default textures ^^;

I did resize some of the default textures and save them under the same filenames, so those will end up being overwritten rather than duplicated, and thus whether you erase the original one or not won't make much difference on your total file size.

Edited October 21, 2016 by parameciumkid
elaboration

[HafCoJoe]

This is fantastic! Is the glow configurable? I'm away from my PC and can't check right now, but I'm theorizing some things with combining your glow effect with scatterer and use it as a bloom effect since that hasn't been doable with new EVE yet. Your pack looks great

Edited October 23, 2016 by Avera9eJoe

[donkeystealing1]

New to modding, running a 4670 4ghz 760GTX 8GB 64bit windows 7. Should I be running this over SVE? Does this look better than stock unmodded game? Currently got scatterer, planetshine, EVE with SVE (medium res enhancement), texture replacer. CPU isn't being affected much at this moment (212 cooling), but my graphics card is working hard.

[ZentroCatson]

Awesome, a great thing for those who can't afford proper gaming hardware! I might install this on my Mac Air so I can play KSP when travelling and still enjoy nice viusals 

[problemecium]

- Yes, everything is configurable. This entire "mod" is nothing but a bunch of configuration settings for EVE and a few extra textures. Anything you can change in EVE can be changed.
The way I made the glow effects is actually by just making an opaque cloud layer for each body at a high altitude and setting it to only be visible at long distances.

- As a rule, visual mods are going to attack your GPU rather than your CPU, so your current situation makes sense.
This does look better than the stock game, but if you can run KSP fine with all those other visual mods this isn't for you
However, if you are concerned about overworking your GPU, this would help as a replacement for SVE and Scatterer, not an addition. The atmospheric glow effects I faked aren't going to look very good on top of Scatterer's realistic atmospheres. You can keep Planetshine (I have it too) and Texture Replacer though.

[Skalou]

great mod

what could be great is a step by step idiot proof installation guide.

Edited October 25, 2016 by Skalou

[Flamingo]

This is just what i needed to get even more joy out of KSP on my Macbook Air that couldn't take EVE.

But i have one question, is it me who have done something wrong, or does the clouds not move on purpose?