[1.12.2]Sci-Fi Visual Enchancements V-1.6 (high performance alt to SVE)

[panzer1b]

25 minutes ago, qromodynmc said:

Looks great! but there are three different files in download link, which one i should download? i think lite version is even more stripped down but im not sure since it's most recent one.

The lite version has no clouds for those that want to squeeze even more performance out of the game.  Not really recommended if you can handle 1.1, but its there if you dont like to have clouds for personal preference or performance reasons.  For extra performance (or if you prefer no dust effects) consider disabling the surface effects as well (thats enabled by default in the lite edition because personally i cant seem to play KSP without em , detailed instructions are in readme file).

Also, if anyone is following im close to releasing 1.2 version which has custom made and much better cloud layers, much better duna storms (which are also nolonger present on the poles where there is snow thanks to a new texture that limits the effects to the equatorial region that is actually sand colored), and a few tweaks here and there too.  Please bear with me while i put a few more touches on it (and fix bloody photoshop that died on me yestreday before i can finish it)...

Edited November 27, 2016 by panzer1b

[Rabada]

1 hour ago, panzer1b said:

Also, if anyone is following im close to releasing 1.2 version which has custom made and much better cloud layers, much better duna storms (which are also nolonger present on the poles where there is snow thanks to a new texture that limits the effects to the equatorial region that is actually sand colored), and a few tweaks here and there too.  Please bear with me while i put a few more touches on it (and fix bloody photoshop that died on me yestreday before i can finish it)...

That sounds awesome to me! While I have a very nice PC that can run SVE just fine, I much prefer the artistic direction of your mod. I just installed your mod and KSP is booting up as I type this. I can't wait to check out your mod!

 

Edit: My impressions: So I ran KSP for about 20 minutes, I finished a quick mission to drop off supplies at my colony on the mun, and I took a peek at Duna, Jool, and Laythe. I must say that you have done a very nice job with the aesthetics of this mod! My framerate did feel a bit smoother, I'm not sure what it was before, but fraps says I was running above 50 fps at 1440p. I definitely believe that your mod runs a lot smoother than SVE, but its hard for me to tell because I have a lot of mods bottle-necking my CPU. Open Hardware monitor said I only used 53% of my GPU at its peak. Great job! keep up the awesome work!!!

Edited November 27, 2016 by Rabada

[idamoofus]

I enjoy the look of this a lot, especially Duna. My only gripe is that Kerbin is a little too blue.

[panzer1b]

8 minutes ago, MrLake said:

I enjoy the look of this a lot, especially Duna. My only gripe is that Kerbin is a little too blue.

I can always return it to 1.0 levels, might be a good idea to give laythe and kerbin a tad more contrast but ill do that once i have all the new textures finished and implemented and i usually leave touch ups till last minute.  I still need to make a very thin cloud coverage layer for duna (i always envisioned duna as something with very few actual clouds and thickish dust storms on the surface that were not continuous) and possibly a upper layer of kerbin (reuse texture here) if it doesnt end up a performance concern since kerbin perf is a utmost priority, given that most of us actually launch at least 50% of flights from kerbin.

Spoiler

Also for anyone interested, this is what i made the duna storms look like when in full force.  I made sure to balance it well with some very thick and almost opaque clouds but something around 50% actual coverage of the planet surface (so you dont end up swimming in dust storms the entire time you are on duna, but its common enough that you actually get to experience the nightmare of trying to land in this sort of thing, the second picture doesnt show but i actually tore my engines off since i couldnt really see where the ground was and i burned too late).  Also worth mentioning is that teh storms are very minimal with just a few grazing clouds near the surface at higher elevations, you only see this sort of insanity in the valleys and lower elevated areas.

[Waxing_Kibbous]

1 hour ago, MrLake said:

I enjoy the look of this a lot, especially Duna. My only gripe is that Kerbin is a little too blue.

Recently I've played with the glow.cfg removed for this reason, Kerbin looks normal but the other glow effects are gone. I'd like to see Kerbin toned down to a normal level yet retain the other bodies more interesting look.

[LaytheDragon]

On 11/27/2016 at 5:07 PM, Waxing_Kibbous said:

Recently I've played with the glow.cfg removed for this reason, Kerbin looks normal but the other glow effects are gone. I'd like to see Kerbin toned down to a normal level yet retain the other bodies more interesting look.

You could always just change the color yourself with a text editor in the glow.cfg. It uses RGBA with values between 0 and 255, and so I recommend this tool for finding a color: http://www.rapidtables.com/web/color/RGB_Color.htm. You can also use the alt + 0 in-game EVE editor, under the glow.cfg tab on Kerbin, to edit Kerbin's only layer in the glow.cfg, to see immediate results for your new color, upon clicking the "Apply" (and "Save") button(s).

 

After removing Scatterer and re-adding the atmosphere colors to allow better-but-still-terrible-due-to-smoke-effects-when-running-the-engines performance on a 1500 part craft, I slightly tweaked the Kerbin color to be lighter (and Eve to be more violet, but I think I am going to revert its color to the default). It looks nice, but not too unlike what is visible in the OP.

(note: EVE doesn't render layers on the Mun in the main menu screen, so its glow isn't visible)

Edited December 4, 2016 by LaytheDragon
Missing word inserted

[LaytheDragon]

For the atmosphere layer here in the top .gif below, for the glow layer Kerbin-Atmo, the RGBA values I have set are 58,137,225,90 . This provides a lighter version of the original Kerbin atmosphere layer color (which is 0,100,225,90) that retains a noticeable blueness while not being as strong of a blue. I personally both like this and the color in the download and the bottom .gif below, but others may like the new top .gif's setting much better. 

Top (below top): New, Lighter Color (58,137,225,90)

Bottom (above bottom): Original, Bluer Color (0,100,225,90)

Edited December 4, 2016 by LaytheDragon

[Azimech]

I really like it!

There's only one little thing for me: dust and snow storms "jump" from one place to the next, is there a way that I can configure it so it looks seamless?

[panzer1b]

On 12/6/2016 at 6:53 AM, Azimech said:

I really like it!

There's only one little thing for me: dust and snow storms "jump" from one place to the next, is there a way that I can configure it so it looks seamless?

I believe that in an inherent EVE bug, and the only way i know off the top of my head to fix it now is to increase cloud layer density and give said clouds lower alpha levels as to keep the overall thickness similar, concealing but not exactly eliminating said effect.  Reason you dont see it much if at all in mods like SVE is that they have either highly thick particle layers (clouds), or in the case of the dust from that mod, the alpha is so low that for all intents and purposes you can barely see the dust anyway.

Ill be sure to both update this mod with the new textures ive been working on as well as take a good look into possibly fixing this bug (or at least lowering its effects) once finals are over.  For the next 2 weeks the little if any freetime i get goes entirely to playing games and relaxing, modding, despite being quite enjoyable in its own way imo, isnt exactly as relaxing as blowing up starships in KSP and i kinda need the rest/sleep to do well in my classes...

[Freshmeat]

We are already happy with your work, it is the only EVE config that has not burned down my rig. Focus on the important stuff, return to this when you feel for it.

[Whovian41110]

Is the 1.0 version of this mod 1.1.3 compatible?

[panzer1b]

4 hours ago, Whovian41110 said:

Is the 1.0 version of this mod 1.1.3 compatible?

The configs are compatible for 1.0 or later, but you most likely will need to install EVE separately from this mod and then just install the "scifivisualenchancements" folder into gamedata after removing boulderco folder (that has stock EVE configs).  It should be fairly trivial to get to work with older versions of KSP, but if you have any more issues ill compile a 1.1.3 version (itll take me like 5 mins or so)...

[Whovian41110]

12 hours ago, panzer1b said:

The configs are compatible for 1.0 or later, but you most likely will need to install EVE separately from this mod and then just install the "scifivisualenchancements" folder into gamedata after removing boulderco folder (that has stock EVE configs).  It should be fairly trivial to get to work with older versions of KSP, but if you have any more issues ill compile a 1.1.3 version (itll take me like 5 mins or so)...

Is the 1.0 version of this mod 1.1.3 compatible?

I tried both 1.0 version and 1.1 version of the configs but neither works so please do make a 1.1.3 compatible version.

[Whovian41110]

with some troubleshooting has determined that the textures are missing

[HafCoJoe]

Hm... might be experimenting with this tonight. Looks very nice

[HafCoJoe]

Sorry to double post (first one one from my phone), but @panzer1b, what's the difference between the SiFiVE and the SiFiVE-Lite downloads? I see that the lite download is more recent by about two weeks.

[Waxing_Kibbous]

1 hour ago, Avera9eJoe said:

Sorry to double post (first one one from my phone), but @panzer1b, what's the difference between the SiFiVE and the SiFiVE-Lite downloads? I see that the lite download is more recent by about two weeks.

Check the top post on this page, looks like no clouds in lite

[HafCoJoe]

14 minutes ago, Waxing_Kibbous said:

Check the top post on this page, looks like no clouds in lite

If that's it, that's fantastic then. I'm trying to combine this with Scatterer to create tinted atmosphere edges the same way that was possible in old Eve. Give Eve a green edge and Duna purple once again.

[HafCoJoe]

After some initial testing, it appears as though this isn't compatible with Kopernicus.

[panzer1b]

16 hours ago, Avera9eJoe said:

After some initial testing, it appears as though this isn't compatible with Kopernicus.

If i am correct (i dont use kopernicus myself so i cant be certain) kopernicus actually modifies the planet names and thus you need to change the names in the .cfgs located in the atmospheres folder to correspond to whatever name the kopernicus mod uses.  Every EVE based mod needs this to be done for each custom solar system, but considering how many different kopernicus packs there are, it doesnt make sense for me to release versions of SciFiVE to work with all of em (i just dont have the time to download all the different planet packs and make custom configs for em).  That said, once finals are over on tuesday and i can actually spend more then a few hours a day on non work related crap, and i actually get the base mod finished to a state im happy with i might look into configuring this for a few of the popular koipernicus mods like OPM or Galileios planet pack (not that what i have now is bad or anything, but some of the textures arent quite up to my standards and will all be overhauled eventually).

Anyways, under a week until finals are over and you guys can expect some more development with this...

18 hours ago, Avera9eJoe said:

Sorry to double post (first one one from my phone), but @panzer1b, what's the difference between the SiFiVE and the SiFiVE-Lite downloads? I see that the lite download is more recent by about two weeks.

Lite version doesnt have any cloud textures or layers (and doesnt come with the corresponding textures to save ram).  Use it when you either dont like the clouds for whatever reason, or cant handle the slight performance decrease they come with.

Newest standard version is 1.1, lite version is only the glow layers, atmo scatter, and some ground effects (personal thing, i just dont find planets anywhere near as interesting or pretty without a good amount of dust/fog/whatnot).

Edited December 16, 2016 by panzer1b

[HafCoJoe]

1 hour ago, panzer1b said:

If i am correct (i dont use kopernicus myself so i cant be certain) kopernicus actually modifies the planet names and thus you need to change the names in the .cfgs located in the atmospheres folder to correspond to whatever name the kopernicus mod uses.  Every EVE based mod needs this to be done for each custom solar system, but considering how many different kopernicus packs there are, it doesnt make sense for me to release versions of SciFiVE to work with all of em (i just dont have the time to download all the different planet packs and make custom configs for em).  That said, once finals are over on tuesday and i can actually spend more then a few hours a day on non work related crap, and i actually get the base mod finished to a state im happy with i might look into configuring this for a few of the popular koipernicus mods like OPM or Galileios planet pack (not that what i have now is bad or anything, but some of the textures arent quite up to my standards and will all be overhauled eventually).

Anyways, under a week until finals are over and you guys can expect some more development with this...

Lite version doesnt have any cloud textures or layers (and doesnt come with the corresponding textures to save ram).  Use it when you either dont like the clouds for whatever reason, or cant handle the slight performance decrease they come with.

Newest standard version is 1.1, lite version is only the glow layers, atmo scatter, and some ground effects (personal thing, i just dont find planets anywhere near as interesting or pretty without a good amount of dust/fog/whatnot).

I'm sorry to take back what I said at first, but it appears as though Kopernicus (More specifically SVT) *is* compatible. The mod that was causing my troubles was actually *Quickstart* of all things. For some reason when Quickstart is installed, I no longer get any effects from Sci Fi. Odd... I'll be posting some images on the SVE thread and I'll link them here too, but I've been blending old cloud packs (KSPRC, Astronomer's Interstellar, and Better Atmospheres) with both SVE, SVT, and your sci fi pack. The way you added planet glow is pretty unique in what's currently out and because it's compatible with Scatterer I can use it to make multicolored atmospheres I.E. Duna with a blue rim around it, Jool with pink, Eve with green, Laythe with green.

- as a note to textures, the only one I don't particularly like is your snow texture. That was the only one I noticed looking particularly odd.

- as a note to development, I'd actually urge you to not rush - I've seen far too many modders get burned out over deadlines. Take your time

[Whovian41110]

I cannot get these configs to work here's my log

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

On 16/12/2016 at 6:26 PM, Avera9eJoe said:

The mod that was causing my troubles was actually *Quickstart* of all things. For some reason when Quickstart is installed, I no longer get any effects from Sci Fi.

Hi I was having similar problems and it wasn't until I read your post that i twigged what was happening, although I'm no coder i believe it is because quickstart skips too quickly through the loading sequence for EVE to load any extraneous textures, rather than uninstalling I found that simply disabling quickstart from the loading screen lets the clouds and FX spawn correctly, QS is simply too useful in dev to remove it , I can just load without when i want pretty pictures.  Cheers

 

[panzer1b]

Well now that finals are done (managed to finish a project earlier then expected so i get tuesday off :D), i can FINALLY enjoy myself and finish working on this mod.

Im taking a look at the cloud textures and i have to say i dont know what the hell i was thinking by calling this mod release worthy in the current state?  Currently working on making every single texture from ground up since EVE's defaults, while functional, are plain and simply ugly looking without heavy particle density and low alpha (im not willing to jack up the particle densities since lag is bad enough as is).  Id like some imput on what you guys think of kerbin and laythe's new cloud textures. 

Suggestions are welcome, id love to know what you guys think and whether i should alter this in any way (cloud layers arent done, particles are done if you guys approve)?  Also, since im currently doing the cloud maps as well from scratch, what level of cloud coverage do you guys want in the game?  Im leaning towards relatively low coverage especially on kerbin and duna, with somewhat thicker on laythe and very thick on eve with a few gaps here and there to allow one to see the planet, but before i finalize my plans id like some feedback if possible.  Also worth noting is that im redoing the planetary dust from ground up as well, im gonan have a few planets be foggy like now, but im actually gonna have the dust particles on most planets have visiable particles floating around and not just a massive opaque cloud of smoke.  And finally, i made MUCH better looking snow particles so that will be upgraded as well in V1.2 which should be out by the end of the week (if i dont come across any issues that is).

[Waxing_Kibbous]

These ideas sound good to me, I like Kerbin's current coverage in that it is nicely varied. You are asking for opinions but at the same time are doing a great job at it. Currently my only critique is that Jool is a bit harsh, but you already mentioned that is on the todo list.

Is it possible to add cloud shadows? What is a good setting to get some low budget shadows? I also think it would be neat to have solar panels get obscured by the various vapors but that may be beyond the scope of the code being used.