Are there any tutuorials or instructions for Kopernicus?

[DAL59]

I am interested in making a planet mod for KSP.  I know how to get the textures from SpaceEngine, but are there any Kopernicus tutorials for 1.2.2?  

[OhioBob]

Here's one that can help get you started...

There are others as well.  You just need to look around for them.

 

[UranianBlue]

You sure can make a planet using Kopernicus. However, the best planets in the community aren't made with 100% PQS. In order to make the best possible planets, you have to draw the texture yourself in either GiMP or Photoshop. The textures that you make in your image editor are usually enhanced and improved using minor adjustments in PQS Mods. I find that the best way to learn about PQS Mods is to either contact @Thomas P., the developer of Kopernicus, or to look at everybody else's code. If you have any questions regarding Kopernicus, you can ask me directly, or you can ask another modder.

[Mrcarrot]

Here are @The White Guardian's other tutorials:

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/132622-advanced-kopernicus-textures-from-pqsmods/

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/132484-a-beginners-guide-to-kopernicus-pqsmods/

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/131655-a-beginners-guide-to-kopernicus-gas-giant-edition/

Also, 1.3.1 is out. I suggest you make a planet mod for that instead.

Edited October 9, 2017 by Mrcarrot

[The White Guardian]

On 10/6/2017 at 9:06 PM, DAL59 said:

get the textures from SpaceEngine

That's very, very bad practice. I personally recommend cloning Gilly as a first project, and messing with its PQSMods. It'll show you that no maps are needed for working planets.

Of course, the best possible way is handpainting textures, which may seem a bit daunting at first so it may not be the best way to start a planet pack, but knowledge of Photoshop/GIMP will certainly help in the end.

[Gyrfalcon5]

22 hours ago, The White Guardian said:

That's very, very bad practice. I personally recommend cloning Gilly as a first project, and messing with its PQSMods. It'll show you that no maps are needed for working planets.

Of course, the best possible way is handpainting textures, which may seem a bit daunting at first so it may not be the best way to start a planet pack, but knowledge of Photoshop/GIMP will certainly help in the end.

Are there any certain methods are techniques you recommend to use for something like GIMP? 

[Mrcarrot]

On 10/10/2017 at 1:42 PM, Gyrfalcon5 said:

Are there any certain methods are techniques you recommend to use for something like GIMP? 

I personally(for gas giants) make some stripes, then I repeatedly Gaussian Blur, Sharpen, Gaussian Blur, Sharpen, Gaussian Blur, Sharpen, IWarp.

[DAL59]

On 10/9/2017 at 4:28 PM, The White Guardian said:

That's very, very bad practice.

Why?  You can set resolution arbitrarily high.  I also meant using your own custom planets.    

[Mrcarrot]

3 hours ago, DAL59 said:

Why?  You can set resolution arbitrarily high.  I also meant using your own custom planets.    

SpaceEngine textures (I'm told) don't look good in KSP. You should use GIMP or another image editor to make your own custom textures.

[Galileo]

Space engine textures can look good and are a good jumping off point, but they tend to all look the same to me. What I would recommend is a mix of what you see above. Take the space engine textures and modify them to make them your own. The gas giants in SE are total crap though in my opinion.

this is a super simple tutorial for gas giant textures by @ModerndayLink that I found. The tutorial is for Space Engine I think, but it can be used for KSP as well.