[KSP 1.12.3] Astronomer's Visual Pack - Beyond (v4.13 - July 17th, 2022)

[The Flying Kerbal]

Good question echpachmacc, and one that I can't answer.  Unfortunately reading your post had me go check my own KSP with AVP, and I too have white clouds in the night sky over Duna. 

[echpachmacc]

Ok. Thank you. 

Edited October 18, 2020 by echpachmacc

[ottomatic]

Got the pack, everything works, either then the fact that none of the other planets have the fancy, good looking textures. Kerbin looks fantastic, absolutely beautiful, but minmus, the moon, eve, jool, all of them, nothing. 

Any suggestions? 

[Ruahrc]

Getting back into KSP and this has been great!  I do have a question though- is it expected to see absolutely titanic performance drops when using this addon?  I have a pretty respectable rig and even on my setup I am seeing fps drop of 50% or more compared to stock KSP.  My KSP install is currently really lean, only mechjeb, modulemanager, scatterer, EVE, and AVP.  Basically the only mod I have right now that is not required for this pack is Mechjeb, so there should be minimum or no impact from other addons affecting performance.  Here are some details and performance numbers I measured:

My setup:

9900KS @ 5GHz all-core

32GB RAM

2080ti GPU

Running with maxed graphic setting and 3840x1600 @ 144fps monitor

 

Loading a 215-part stock Saturn V replica I have the following fps:

On Launchpad: 90fps

After launch at 5km altitude: 70fps

87km low kerbin orbit and looking directly down at Kerbin (using cheats, so all 215 parts still there): 110fps

1087km high kerbin orbit (again using cheats): 130fps

 

AVP w/4k textures

On Launchpad: 40fps

After launch at 5km altitude: 30fps

87km low kerbin orbit and looking directly down at Kerbin (using cheats, so all 215 parts still there): 40fps

1087km high kerbin orbit (again using cheats): 90fps

 

As you can see there are absolutely massive drops in fps just from running the AVP.  I noticed some small but overall not huge impacts by changing around between 2k, 4k, and 8k texture sets.  Are there some things I can do to  improve the performance I am seeing, to make the launch and LKO experience a little smoother?  Are these levels of performance drops expected?  Are my expectations too high for KSP (40fps on a 215 part craft is it just maxing out the practical limitations of the engine on current hardware)?

Thanks!

Ruahrc

[Arco123]

@Ruahrc

AVP is the most intensive and best looking cloud mod out there.  (RSS is another thing but this is stock.)

There are many ways to improve fps.  Provided you install manually. 

Downloading EVE-redux will help with volumetric clouds. (The most intensive thing in atmosphere.) 

Do not turn on the anti-aliasing settings. If you want AA then please use KS3P as there are much more options and it's generally better. (For 1440p AA is more of a legacy since moar pixels.) 

Please don't use max settings. KSP is not optimized really. Disable reflection and things that won't effect the game much.  Below is a list of the things you can turn down. 

Spoiler

Graphics

• Render Quality Level
  • Default: Fantastic (Helps a lot but be careful as sometimes mods need certain levels.) 
• Texture Quality
  • Default: Half Res - (Doesn't matter for your case.)
• Aerodynamic FX Quality
  • Default: Normal - Depends (Low is best overall.)
• Surface FX
  • Default: On (Turn off if you want more fps.)
• Underwater FX
  • Default: On (Kinda useless.)
• Pixel Light Count
  • Default: 8 (Doesn't matter much.)
• Shadow Cascades
  • Default: 4 - Change to 0-2 (VERY HEAVY) 

And if you want moar. Well. You can change scatterer settings and eve settings.  

Will explain later when I get more time. 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Arco123
Some more info.

[Arco123]

On 10/15/2020 at 7:36 AM, echpachmacc said:

Hello there! I'm really thank you for this cinematic experience! 

But I have a problem. There are white clouds at the night side of Duna. (screenshot)

 

Is there a solution to this problem? 

Use a dark KS3P/TUFX config. (I'll get photos and a config at noon.)

[Ruahrc]

On 10/22/2020 at 6:45 PM, Arco123 said:

@Ruahrc

AVP is the most intensive and best looking cloud mod out there.  (RSS is another thing but this is stock.)

There are many ways to improve fps.  Provided you install manually. 

Downloading EVE-redux will help with volumetric clouds. (The most intensive thing in atmosphere.) 

Do not turn on the anti-aliasing settings. If you want AA then please use KS3P as there are much more options and it's generally better. (For 1440p AA is more of a legacy since moar pixels.) 

Please don't use max settings. KSP is not optimized really. Disable reflection and things that won't effect the game much.  Below is a list of the things you can turn down. 

  Reveal hidden contents

Graphics

• Render Quality Level
  • Default: Fantastic (Helps a lot but be careful as sometimes mods need certain levels.) 
• Texture Quality
  • Default: Half Res - (Doesn't matter for your case.)
• Aerodynamic FX Quality
  • Default: Normal - Depends (Low is best overall.)
• Surface FX
  • Default: On (Turn off if you want more fps.)
• Underwater FX
  • Default: On (Kinda useless.)
• Pixel Light Count
  • Default: 8 (Doesn't matter much.)
• Shadow Cascades
  • Default: 4 - Change to 0-2 (VERY HEAVY) 

And if you want moar. Well. You can change scatterer settings and eve settings.  

Will explain later when I get more time. 

Thanks for your suggestions!  Based on your comments I did some further tweaking and found out that the reflection size and quality are MAJOR impactors to performance.  Previously I had them on "every frame" and 2048x2048 (the maximum for both).  Cutting just those 2 settings down to "medium" and 512x512 improve my performance significantly, almost to stock levels even with AVP + scatterer active.  Now I can enjoy good levels  of performance and also enjoy the enhanced visuals of AVP .

Ruahrc

 

Same tests- ran after tweaks

On Launchpad: 70fps

After launch at 5km altitude: 65fps

87km low kerbin orbit and looking directly down at Kerbin (using cheats, so all 215 parts still there): 65fps

1087km high kerbin orbit (again using cheats): 120fps

[Croquedure]

hi, i have a little problem, clound on the Mun. I have EVE, Astronomer Visual Pack and scatter and idk what i miss

 

[The Flying Kerbal]

4 hours ago, Croquedure said:

hi, i have a little problem, clound on the Mun. I have EVE, Astronomer Visual Pack and scatter and idk what i miss

 

Those are no clouds... they're dust storms!  I had the same problem too, but the fix is easy enough.

Open up the AVP folder in the GameData folder in you KSP install.  Then open AVP_Configs, followed by the Duststorms folder.  Then just delete whatever relates to the moons and planets you don't want to have affected by these.  Personally I just left Duna and Moho, removing everything else.  Duna - similar to Mars - would have these normally in my opinion, while I've read somewhere that the effect around Moho represents ablation as it's so close to Kerbol.

Hope this helps. 

[Arco123]

On 10/23/2020 at 10:27 PM, Ruahrc said:

Thanks for your suggestions!  Based on your comments I did some further tweaking and found out that the reflection size and quality are MAJOR impactors to performance.  Previously I had them on "every frame" and 2048x2048 (the maximum for both).  Cutting just those 2 settings down to "medium" and 512x512 improve my performance significantly, almost to stock levels even with AVP + scatterer active.  Now I can enjoy good levels  of performance and also enjoy the enhanced visuals of AVP .

Ruahrc

 

Same tests- ran after tweaks

On Launchpad: 70fps

After launch at 5km altitude: 65fps

87km low kerbin orbit and looking directly down at Kerbin (using cheats, so all 215 parts still there): 65fps

1087km high kerbin orbit (again using cheats): 120fps

Now we don't stop there.  (This is all my opinion.) 

          Reflection settings don't give any thing really unless the texture unlimited mod with some configs is installed. Change those to the lowest you can go unless you use reflection mods. Texture Replacer (The newest version.) has reflections for the suit visor if you turn it on in site view settings. But it doesn't care about res. Only refresh. You can spend a bit more tweaking here on stock settings. But really, it just hits a boundary. Unless you install custom stock settings by someone. 

This is where mod menus and tweaks come into play. (And where people usually go on a rampage and go try to get the best graphics out there.) 

I'll share configs and stuff soon as well tips to modify stuff for mods.  <--- Me after forgetting after to add stuff. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Croquedure]

On 11/5/2020 at 1:21 AM, The Flying Kerbal said:

Those are no clouds... they're dust storms!  I had the same problem too, but the fix is easy enough.

Open up the AVP folder in the GameData folder in you KSP install.  Then open AVP_Configs, followed by the Duststorms folder.  Then just delete whatever relates to the moons and planets you don't want to have affected by these.  Personally I just left Duna and Moho, removing everything else.  Duna - similar to Mars - would have these normally in my opinion, while I've read somewhere that the effect around Moho represents ablation as it's so close to Kerbol.

Hope this helps. 

THANK YOU!!! this is stupid to have dustsotrm on the Mun... no astmosphere
you make my day <3

[The Flying Kerbal]

2 hours ago, Croquedure said:

THANK YOU!!! this is stupid to have dustsotrm on the Mun... no astmosphere
you make my day <3

I think the idea was for it to represent the dust kicked up by the lander's engines.

Maybe some people like it, but like just like you, it isn't for me.

[Arco123]

Thanks for this amazing mod. 

[hemeac]

@Croquedure and @The Flying Kerbal, I was reading about LADEE recently which I think is relevant to your comments about the Mun "dust storms" in AVP: https://www.nasa.gov/ames/ladee

 

"The LADEE mission revealed that tiny meteoroids contribute to the Moon’s exosphere, including by delivering it water. Like bugs on a car windshield, these grains of rocky material traveling through space pelt the lunar surface almost constantly as the Moon makes its way around the Sun. On Earth, they burn up in the atmosphere as meteors, but with the almost negligible atmosphere on the Moon, the particles smash into the surface with tremendous speed. Although the grains are mostly smaller than the head of a pin, they can hit at speeds greater than 21 miles per second, releasing immense heat and vaporizing part of the soil and the meteoroids themselves. The resulting gases can then enter the lunar atmosphere.

When the number of these impacts went up – for instance, if the Moon passed through a relatively dense stream of micrometeoroids – LADEE’s instruments recorded a corresponding increase in certain gases in the exosphere. Researchers used that data to study what the fate of these additional materials might be: Would they fly off into space? Or, heated by the Sun, would they hop around the lunar surface?

...

Addressing a longstanding mystery from the Apollo era was also on LADEE’s to-do list. Astronauts in orbit around the Moon reported seeing a glow on the horizon before sunrise. One possible explanation was that lunar dust, electrically charged by the Sun’s ultraviolet light, was levitating above the surface. However, the spacecraft’s instruments found no evidence of any effect that could be seen by the human eye. "

[The Flying Kerbal]

Thanks for the post @hemeac.  I read about this myself a short time back, and all very interesting.  I was unaware that LADEE instruments detected the increase in gas as the number of impacts increased.

[themaster401]

Just a few shots I've particularly been proud of...

 

[TheDicko]

Seems a totally awesome mod. Just a quick one - it made my Thatmo look like kerbin on the surface. I installed from CKAN, is there any tweaking i need to do or should it just work fine out of the box?

[Arco123]

@themaster401What tufx-reshade-ks3p-anyother config are you using because wow. 

[rudemario]

 

Who took my ground?

Landed on Laythe with an SSTO and this happened. Very strange . Any ideas? Or is this a known missing piece of Laythe, lol.

[Adoelrome]

okay people, I see a disclaimer that it is incompatible with other atmospheric enhancements, but right there I see a link to AD ASTRA without any explanation.
Can someone please clarify this, should I use it with AD ASTRA, or should I avoid AD ASTRA and only use AVP?

Edited November 23, 2020 by Adoelrome

[SRiley77]

Hello all, 

I'm new to AVP, haven't been around KSP much for the last few years.

I'm not sure if this is correct.. it doesn't look like the screenshots that have been posted elsewhere.

It looks a little bit white compared to other screenshots.. which is why I'm asking if it's supposed to look like this.

 

I'm running 1.10.1 with default settings.  AVP (with 4K Textures), Scatterer, EVE, & Module Manager installed via CKAN.  No other mods installed.

 

I have looked at previous posts, but have not been able to figure out what may be going on based on those old posts.  Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Dropbox link to Player Log

 

Edited November 24, 2020 by SRiley77

[themaster401]

On 11/25/2020 at 1:45 AM, SRiley77 said:

Hello all, 

I'm new to AVP, haven't been around KSP much for the last few years.

I'm not sure if this is correct.. it doesn't look like the screenshots that have been posted elsewhere.

It looks a little bit white compared to other screenshots.. which is why I'm asking if it's supposed to look like this.

 

I'm running 1.10.1 with default settings.  AVP (with 4K Textures), Scatterer, EVE, & Module Manager installed via CKAN.  No other mods installed.

 

I have looked at previous posts, but have not been able to figure out what may be going on based on those old posts.  Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Dropbox link to Player Log

 

To yield the dark, vivid visuals seen in most screenshots and videos using AVP, you must use a post-processing mod as detailed in the installation section of the OP.

[Kerbl101]

Where did the lightning go

[Caerfinon]

13 hours ago, Kerbl101 said:

Where did the lightning go

I'm using version 4.05 and I get lightning effects. 

Edited December 7, 2020 by Caerfinon

[GrimT]

Does this add the dust clouds to Minmus?