[1.2.2] [WIP] INSTANTIATOR - a plugin that allows you to create accretion disks, custom star coronas, nebulas & even more!

[Artyomka15]

About

INSTANTIATOR is the plugin that allows you to place primitives and billboards around the celestial bodies and do a lot of manipulations with them.

 

How to use it?

1. Drop everything from the .zip file to your GameData folder

2. Open the file "Object.cfg" in any text editor (Notepad++ for example)

This file contains the list of the objects and its parameters.

The object config node looks like this:

SCALED_OBJECT
{
          name = ExampleSphere
	  type = sphere             
	  scale = 12000, 12000, 12000   
	  shader = Unlit/Transparent   
	  main_tex = /example_tex            
	  rotation = 0, 0, 0        
	  bodyName = Kerbin          
	  invertNormals = false    
}

Let's break it down!

name - the name of GameObject

type  - for now there's 3 object types - "cube", "sphere" and "billboard". 

                        NOTE: the objects of type billboard can be applied to the bodies that has the Sun template (or to The Sun itself)  ONLY.

scale - the scale of the GameObject (x,y,z)

shader - You can use any shader that is present in Unity.

main_tex - path to the texture 

rotation - the rotation of the GameObject (x,y,z)

bodyName - the name of the parent body

invertNormals - inverts the normals of the mesh

 

 

DOWNLOAD:

Compiled (An example is included)

Source

 

 

 

Planet packs that uses it:

Gameslinx's Planet Pack by @Gameslinx

Kargantua System

 

Warning! It's the alpha version and it may contain a lot of glitches. If you find a one, please let me know.

Planned features:

 -Edit all the material parameters

 -Load custom .mu files

 

 

 

Edited March 18, 2017 by Artyomka15
Add-on Posting Rules

[Gameslinx]

You can do things like this:

 

Also, is there a way to add 'depth' to the accretion disks? It's 2d at the moment  

 

And a suggestion: At the moment the effects rotate along with the initial body's rotation. Would it be possible to separate this out and provide a rotation axis independent to the parent body? 

Edited March 18, 2017 by Gameslinx

[Artyomka15]

20 minutes ago, Gameslinx said:

You can do things like this:

 

Also, is there a way to add 'depth' to the accretion disks? It's 2d at the moment  

 

And a suggestion: At the moment the effects rotate along with the initial body's rotation. Would it be possible to separate this out and provide a rotation axis independent to the parent body? 

For the depth - you can adjust the scale along the Y axis, but the disk will look, well, pretty strange...

 

And for the rotation - for now i didn't find the way to do that...  

 

Edited March 18, 2017 by Artyomka15

[EnriqueBNew]

Compatibility with 1.2.1?

[daniel l.]

Now THIS!!! This is what I'm talking about! You've just made modding history here @Artyomka15! Now... I would like to make a suggestion, I noticed that the Instantiator effects tend to unload with the parent body. Can you fix this so we can makes these effects work at massive distances?

[daniel l.]

Also can you add XYZ coordinates to this? So we can make our objects hold different locations relative to the central body if we wish.

[Artyomka15]

On 19.03.2017 at 3:05 AM, EnriqueBNew said:

Compatibility with 1.2.1?

It's should be compatible with any version that came out after the release.

16 hours ago, daniel l. said:

Also can you add XYZ coordinates to this? So we can make our objects hold different locations relative to the central body if we wish.

I'll soon release an update which will include this feature  

[OldLost]

Don't often see [WIP] mods here. Usually they're in the Add-on Development forum. Regardless, looks interesting.

[daniel l.]

How is the project going?

[Gameslinx]

Gonna report a bug. When looking at the accretion disk from above it spins the correct way, however looking at the disk from below reverses the texture and looks like it's spinning the wrong way.

[Gameslinx]

May I ask @Artyomka15 how am I able to create a nebula? I'm intrigued because I've been looking into how space engine does it, but it's not written in the same programming language as KSP (for unity - probably C#)

If you have a moment, are you able to explain how I can create a nebula?

[Gameslinx]

Another issue with the pulsarloader. I'm not trying to use any of the pulsar features of the mod, so I have no entry for it (whatsoever) in the Objects.cfg config.

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at INSTANTIATOR.PulsarLoader.Update () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
 
(Filename:  Line: -1)

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at INSTANTIATOR.PulsarLoader.Update () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

^ That gets spammed over and over in the output log during the loading of the game, slowing down load times.

[Adstri]

I can finally do dynamic rings

Edited April 22, 2017 by Adstriduum

[The White Guardian]

What exactly are the limitations to INSTANTIATOR's config file? More specifically:

- Must it be placed in INSTANTIATOR or can it be placed in a different folder?

- Can it be altered by a Module Manager patch? (Like @Body in Kopernicus)

[Gameslinx]

On 04/05/2017 at 4:33 PM, The White Guardian said:

What exactly are the limitations to INSTANTIATOR's config file? More specifically:

- Must it be placed in INSTANTIATOR or can it be placed in a different folder?

- Can it be altered by a Module Manager patch? (Like @Body in Kopernicus)

I checked the code when I first got it and Instantiator.DLL looks for the objects CFG in Instantiator/Objects.cfg. So I belive the file path can't be changed, but the textures can.

For MM patches (I think this is for compatibility reasons) I'm not sure.

[The White Guardian]

@Artyomka15 could a detail texture system be added? I'm a Unity/C# scrub so at this point I'm not sure how much work that would be.

[The White Guardian]

Looking at the source code I don't see filepath support for detail textures. Would simply adding that and writing a filepath to a detail texture do the trick?

[Sigma88]

this looks pretty cool

[Matchlight]

This is fantastic, I might use it to create a wormhole! 

[Nailed it!]

How can you make different kinds of acreetion disks? I'm trying to make a water one...

[Gameslinx]

On 09/06/2017 at 11:11 PM, Nailed it! said:

How can you make different kinds of acreetion disks? I'm trying to make a water one...

Draw it yourself!

Or apply rotation filters over textures and centre them. That's what I did for my gas giant.

 

[Andi K.]

Could it be possible for you to increase the size limit on how large the objects can be? Because right now, if you make the object too large, it glitches out, the same way with large rings created in Kopernicus.

Also, could you add some sort of ability to change the orientation of the object? I am creating a 3D Helix Nebula for one of my mods and I want it to be properly pointed towards Earth.

[Clonos]

Oh boy this is great! But as AndrewDrawsPrettyPictures said, the size limit needs to be bigger. I'm gonna use this to create a GALAXY. Also, can you update this to 1.3 pls?

Edited July 22, 2017 by GenesisPlayz

[Gameslinx]

@AndrewDrawsPrettyPictures you could create a 'barycentre' for the nebula, and apply a type "sphere" around it to make it look 3d.

@GenesisPlayz it works on 1.3 but DO NOT apply it to stars. There's a bug where it causes lag and output log bloating. I've wittered on about this for a while now so I'll stop

[Clonos]

Ok thank you Gameslinx. I just found out i messed with Kopernicus... to make the sun a black hole.