[1.3.1-1.5.1] SunFixer 1.0.1 [obsolete]

[taniwha]

KSP 1.3.0 "fixed" vessel shadows on the ground by "breaking" the position of the sun in the sky (as a workaround for a Unity bug). 1.3.1 fixed the sun's position but the shadows it cast were still highly granular in their motion. KSP 1.4.0 brought a new version of Unity which fixed the bug 1.3 worked around, but the workaround remains in effect in KSP, thus the shadows continue to jerk across the terrain.

This tiny mod (seriously: other than some setup and sanity checking code, it's one line) mitigates the workaround, bringing back shadows that move smoothly with the position of the sun in the sky.

Download: SunFixer 1.0.1

License: GPLv3

Source: github

There is no configuration or tuning.

The release was compiled for 1.5.1, but my testing included using a version for 1.4.x in 1.5.1, and the mod is so simple it's difficult to break, so it should work on any KSP that needs it.

Or was so simple: now with support for Kopernicus (thanks to @Thomas P.)

Many thanks to @5thHorseman for a video showing off SunFixer:

 

Edited January 24, 2019 by taniwha

[Nightside]

Thanks @taniwha!

 

[theJesuit]

Thanks @taniwha.

My god... it's full of shadows!

Seriously... with ALL the suggestions or which mods should be stock, surely you have to agree @SQUAD that this is the one!

Peace.

[avalancha]

You wouldn't have by any chance a video comparison before and after the mod? Because for me in 1.5.1 the shadows are... Fine? 

[woeller]

7 hours ago, avalancha said:

You wouldn't have by any chance a video comparison before and after the mod? Because for me in 1.5.1 the shadows are... Fine? 

The shadows are fine. The shadow movement isn't. This mod will fix it.

[Superfluous J]

I'll try to make a quick video. If I'm super up for it I'll try to make it a gif.

But that won't be until tomorrow.

[taniwha]

I have released version 1.0.1 of SunCatcher. Many thanks to @Thomas P. for the Kopernicus patch: all suns get the tweak.

[Superfluous J]

8 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

I'll try to make a quick video. If I'm super up for it I'll try to make it a gif.

But that won't be until tomorrow.

Actually I may need more of an explanation of what this does, because I just did a close (like less than 100 meters at orbital velocity) Minmus flyby and the shadow looked exactly the same with and without the mod.

EDIT: OH it's the sun moving, not the ship. Okay yeah I see that. I thought this fixed how your shadow vanished on descent or something like that

EDIT: Nope, still not seeing it. I reinstate my request.

Edited November 22, 2018 by 5thHorseman

[vardicd]

41 minutes ago, 5thHorseman said:

Actually I may need more of an explanation of what this does, because I just did a close (like less than 100 meters at orbital velocity) Minmus flyby and the shadow looked exactly the same with and without the mod.

EDIT: OH it's the sun moving, not the ship. Okay yeah I see that. I thought this fixed how your shadow vanished on descent or something like that

I believe this has more to do with the jerkiness of shadows moving across the ground, due to the movement of the sun in the sky. if you watch the shadows of the KSC moving across the ground as the day passes in a relatively low time warp, then install this mod and watch again, you should see a big difference. See below, though I'm sure you can do a much better job showing it:

 

Edited November 22, 2018 by vardicd

[taniwha]

6 minutes ago, vardicd said:

I believe this has more to do with the jerkiness of shadows moving across the ground, due to the movement of the sun in the sky. if you watch the shadows of the KSC moving across the ground as the day passes in a relatively low time warp, then install this mod and watch again, you should see a big difference. See below, though I'm sure you can do a much better job showing it:

Yes, this is the issue that SunFixer fixes. The issue that KSP 1.3 fixed is the ship's shadow fading in and out as it moves with the ship across the terrain.

[vardicd]

1 minute ago, taniwha said:

Yes, this is the issue that SunFixer fixes. The issue that KSP 1.3 fixed is the ship's shadow fading in and out as it moves with the ship across the terrain.

Really that got fixed? I swear it still happens when I play. I'll have to look closer next time I play.

[taniwha]

Well, ok, "fixed" :) (more likely improved)

[avalancha]

3 hours ago, vardicd said:

See below, though I'm sure you can do a much better job showing it:

 

Ahaaaa now that's what I call helpful, thank you! Installing tonight after work

[vardicd]

5 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

Actually I may need more of an explanation of what this does, because I just did a close (like less than 100 meters at orbital velocity) Minmus flyby and the shadow looked exactly the same with and without the mod.

EDIT: OH it's the sun moving, not the ship. Okay yeah I see that. I thought this fixed how your shadow vanished on descent or something like that

EDIT: Nope, still not seeing it. I reinstate my request.

 

4 hours ago, vardicd said:

I believe this has more to do with the jerkiness of shadows moving across the ground, due to the movement of the sun in the sky. if you watch the shadows of the KSC moving across the ground as the day passes in a relatively low time warp, then install this mod and watch again, you should see a big difference. See below, though I'm sure you can do a much better job showing it:

 

 

4 hours ago, taniwha said:

Yes, this is the issue that SunFixer fixes.

@5thHorseman The issue this mod affects is the movement of shadows across the ground, due to the movement of the sun [time of day] I posted a video above, relinked in this post, that shows the movement of the building shadows across the ground at KSC. the first 17 seconds of video show the shadows moving in a very jerky, stop and go fashion. This is without Sunfixer. the remaining 10 seconds of video shows the same shadows moving across the ground much smoother, with Sunfixer installed. Both videos are recorded at 100x time warp. This mod doesn't actually make any changes to the Sun itself, so far as I understand it.

[Superfluous J]

5 hours ago, vardicd said:

The issue this mod affects is the movement of shadows across the ground, due to the movement of the sun [time of day] I posted a video above, relinked in this post, that shows the movement of the building shadows across the ground at KSC. the first 17 seconds of video show the shadows moving in a very jerky, stop and go fashion. This is without Sunfixer. the remaining 10 seconds of video shows the same shadows moving across the ground much smoother, with Sunfixer installed. Both videos are recorded at 100x time warp.

Yeah the problem was I tried it on Mun, where the sun moves much slower across the sky, so the jerkiness was hidden in the fact that the shadows weren't changing much. When I did it at the KSC it was much more pronounced.

[vardicd]

11 minutes ago, 5thHorseman said:

Yeah the problem was I tried it on Mun, where the sun moves much slower across the sky, so the jerkiness was hidden in the fact that the shadows weren't changing much. When I did it at the KSC it was much more pronounced.

Understandable, was just trying to help, and clear up any confusion you may have had.

[Superfluous J]

Okay the gif was ridiculously large in file size, or ridiculously small on the screen. There was no middle ground. So, I made a regular video that would fit on a 3.5" floppy if those still existed.

@taniwha feel free to put this in the first post. Or not. No bigs

 

 

[taniwha]

@5thHorseman: Thank you. I'll do that after I get some sleep (been streaming for about 8 hours, a mix of KSP, blender and coding).

[taniwha]

It is with mixed feelings (though mostly pleased) that I hereby mothball SunFixer now that KSP is fixed.

[Nightside]

 

On 1/24/2019 at 2:45 AM, taniwha said:

It is with mixed feelings (though mostly pleased) that I hereby mothball SunFixer now that KSP is fixed.

Thanks for this @taniwha, your work is always appreciated! Why mixed feeling though?

[taniwha]

Mixed because it's sad to see a mod fade away for any reason.