Questions for modders from a non-coder

[Klapaucius]

I see all sorts of amazing mods being developed regularly.  As someone who has only started learning the very rudimentary basics of coding (ironically, time spent on KSP has forced me to put that on the backburner),  I'd love to learn more about how you all go about it.

 

If you are a modder, I am curious to know:

1. Are you a professional programmer?

2. Did you learn coding specifically because of KSP or another game?

3. Is there a specific coding language that lends itself to this type of work?

4. What motivates you?

5. For those building parts, how are you modeling them? Do you use Blender, for example?

6. Any other thoughts about the process...

 

Thanks for your input. I am sure the answers will be quite varied, but I imagine quite interesting.

Edited June 4, 2018 by Klapaucius
typos

[HebaruSan]

3 minutes ago, Klapaucius said:

1. Are you a professional programmer?

Yes.

3 minutes ago, Klapaucius said:

2. Did you learn coding specifically because of KSP or another game?

I first learned coding in ROM BASIC on the Atari 130XE, then in Turbo Pascal via a summer correspondence course, then in a tutorial program for MS-DOS called "Master C", many years before KSP was a thing.

3 minutes ago, Klapaucius said:

3. Is there a specific coding language that lends itself to this type of work?

Almost all KSP mods use C#.

3 minutes ago, Klapaucius said:

4. What motivates you?

I guess I like to feel like I've made something worthwhile by bedtime that didn't exist when I got up.

3 minutes ago, Klapaucius said:

6. Any other thoughts about the process...

The API docs are invaluable:  https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/api/index.html

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

1 hour ago, Klapaucius said:

4. What motivates you?

5. For those building parts, how are you modeling them? Do you use Blender, for example?

6. Any other thoughts about the process...

Hi from this part mod makers point of view

4. What motivates you?       I want new things to play with , I'd make them anyway, however it seems that other people like using them too, who'd have guessed. May sound a bit simplistic and off hand , but it's not,  it's how it is for me. Oh and I love machinery, KSP has stopped being about space a long time ago  ksp version 0.90 it turns out . and in the mods i choose to make the real world, is constantly dreaming up new and exciting toys, and I like new toys, did I mention that 

5. For those building parts, how are you modeling them?      I'm somewhat in the minority here , as I'm a 3dsMax user, for no other reason  than, the way that  Max works is something my brain can use, I've used blender, still do a little bit, and numerous other little modelling tools, but I can do it all in Max. Textures come via UV mapping in Max and textures sorted in Gimp and of course good old Unity to get into KSP , whichever version works best for whatever I'm doing,  Add on a dash of Notepad++ , and not even i escape a little bit of code work, so Visual Studio is ideal for me.   So that's pretty much my full tool kit right there

6. Any other thoughts about the process?  It takes an awful lot longer than many people realise,  sometimes it's not really fun,  when it all comes together it's bloody brilliant,  thank someone( insert diety of you choice)  I've an understanding Wife 

Although you don't ask about part mod makers, and how they came to learn/ be mod makers ,  like most of those i speak to , it's because I wanted X , nobody made X, so I made X myself,  admittedly i had to learn the ways of KSP , Max and all the others,  but hey  that's what you do when you really want something. 

Giving you a like, because i really expected another, "why do modders not update instantly" post

Edited June 4, 2018 by SpannerMonkey(smce)

[Klapaucius]

1 hour ago, HebaruSan said:

I first learned coding in ROM BASIC on the Atari 130XE, then in Turbo Pascal via a summer correspondence course, then in a tutorial program for MS-DOS called "Master C", many years before KSP was a thing.

 

The one and only programming course I took in college was an intro course using Turbo Pascal. It was cool, but I just did not do any more with it.  That was, ahem, 1988....

[Klapaucius]

1 hour ago, SpannerMonkey(smce) said:

5. For those building parts, how are you modeling them?      I'm somewhat in the minority here , as I'm a 3dsMax user, for no other reason  than, the way that  Max works is something my brain can use, I've used blender, still do a little bit, and numerous other little modelling tools, but I can do it all in Max. Textures come via UV mapping in Max and textures sorted in Gimp and of course good old Unity to get into KSP , whichever version works best for whatever I'm doing,  Add on a dash of Notepad++ , and not even i escape a little bit of code work, so Visual Studio is ideal for me.   So that's pretty much my full tool kit right there

I do video editing, and by extension, have started noodling around with Blender, though I've got a long way on Lynda.com to go.  Having said that, your post implies that one can create parts without a full-on coding background.  Am I reading that correctly?  After seeing your response I did a bit of searching and came across this tutorial. It would actually be a cool step to try out, and it would get me back into Blender, but if the coding is too heavy, I will have to remain an observer and consumer for the foreseeable future. 

[severedsolo]

13 hours ago, Klapaucius said:

1. Are you a professional programmer?

Nope. I've been a computer enthusiast since I was about 11 (I was one of the lucky kids who were at the right age when personal computing and the internet really took off, so I got plenty of exposure to it at school/home). Coding was one of those things that I always wanted to learn, but never really got the hang of until KSP came along.

13 hours ago, Klapaucius said:

2. Did you learn coding specifically because of KSP or another game?

I learnt coding specifically for KSP, but as I said above, I've always been interested, I'd just never actually taken that plunge.

13 hours ago, Klapaucius said:

3. Is there a specific coding language that lends itself to this type of work?

C# is pretty much the only game in town for KSP.

13 hours ago, Klapaucius said:

4. What motivates you?

It depends. Mostly it's "I want this in the game. This doesn't exist in the game. I'm going to make it (Monthly Budgets)" - sometimes it's "I've never done this before, I want to learn a new thing" (Oh Scrap) - but mostly the first one (I really only have the motivation to keep things going that I actually want to use. Monthly Budgets happened to fill both of those itches).

13 hours ago, Klapaucius said:

6. Any other thoughts about the process... 

Make stuff you want. Everyone wants different things, and if you react to every feature request, you are giving yourself a headache (I learnt that one the hard way).

12 hours ago, HebaruSan said:

The API docs are invaluable:  https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/api/index.html

Not 100% sure I agree with that - I never seem to be able to find documentation for the thing I want. YMMV of course.

I find it much more informative to read other peoples code. Usually I find a class/method that looks like it's basically doing what I'm looking for, and paste it into Github's "Search all" feature. Most of the time that gives me a bunch of examples to use. (Although last time I checked, that feature wasn't working).

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

10 hours ago, Klapaucius said:

  Having said that, your post implies that one can create parts without a full-on coding background.

Hi, while i do make extensive use of some great plugins (code) (non of them my own creation)   there is no requirement for a purely part mod maker to have any clue about code of any sort.  Don't confuse  the code used in plugins with part cfg;s . Cfg script  when compared to c#  is a child's Christmas list to Santa  . If you spend a lot of  time mod making, it's good to know how things work under the hood,   Not caring or knowing  how it works, is no better or worse  than being the car owner  who doesn't know how the engine works ,  not knowing will not stop you from driving , but it may leave you scratching your head one one day the car doesn't start .  It's usually enough for many to just get to grips with the myriad of cfg options and modules. .
What exactly do you need in order to be able to make parts?  A modelling application,  don't matter what as long as it exports in a unity acceptable format.  A paint app of some sort,  a good text editor,  and Unity, with the exception of Unity, you can use whatever tools work best for you.  How to start, first part fuel tank, similar size and shape to a stock tank, for which you can borrow the cfg from a stock part and edit to suit. Next pod a pod , same deal, similar form to a stock pod, borrow and edit the cfg from a similar stock pod.  Once you can get those parts in game and working, aside from specific rules as to how thing are oriented , it's all just rinse and repeat,  the shapes and textures change, but the method never does.

[Shadowmage]

14 hours ago, Klapaucius said:

I see all sorts of amazing mods being developed regularly.  As someone who has only started learning the very rudimentary basics of coding (ironically, time spent on KSP has forced me to put that on the backburner),  I'd love to learn more about how you all go about it.

 

If you are a modder, I am curious to know:

1. Are you a professional programmer?

2. Did you learn coding specifically because of KSP or another game?

3. Is there a specific coding language that lends itself to this type of work?

4. What motivates you?

5. For those building parts, how are you modeling them? Do you use Blender, for example?

6. Any other thoughts about the process...

 

Thanks for your input. I am sure the answers will be quite varied, but I imagine quite interesting.

To answer the seemingly unspoken question:  No, you do not need coding experience to do most KSP 'parts' mods.  Those consist mostly of modeling and texturing work, with a little bit of text-based configuration file manipulation.  Only if you are wanting to add new features that are not supported in stock would you need plugins; and even then... many features already exist in one mod or another that you could use their plugin easily enough.

On to the actual questions:

1.) Yes, it is what I do for a living, though unfortunately I don't get paid to work on games.
2.) Yes and no.  Minecraft modding drove me to learn Java.  KSP modding drove me to learn C# (so similar to Java, could almost be the same lang).  But I had my degree in CS/Programming long before I started modding games (which mostly focused on C++).
3.) C# is pretty much the only choice or KSP modding.  It is also one of the 'easier' languages I've worked with, and now would say it is probably my favored language for most stand-alone projects as well.   Good support for GUI libraries, wide range of system and utility libraries available, excellent IDE support in VisualStudio (which is now free; used to cost $$$ for the usable 'professional' editions).  The code is also mostly portable between various OS's (though Ide likely still use Java for Android development).
4.) Adding new options to the game for craft design and fixing what I would call 'oversights' or poor design choices in the game.
5.) Blender + GIMP (or Photoshop, though I've recently started using Substance Painter/Substance Designer for PBR work) + lots and lots of patience and practice.
6.) Don't get discouraged   Modding isn't something you can pick up overnight, or even over a few weeks.  Have been doing it for years now, and I still learn new things every day (about modeling, coding, and the game structure itself).