More Terrain scatters, anyone?

[The Dressian Exploder]

Now, I know a lot of us (including me!) want to see a little more life on kerbin than just the space center. I think this could be achieved by introducing a new terrain scatter: a small neighbourhood, which would spawn on flat ground a bit like the trees but in clusters. I don't know if it'd be possible to make them light up at night? If they did, it'd make some pretty cool city lights from orbit.(perhaps toggle-able for potatoes like my laptop)

I have seen the mod Kerbal Cities Pack before, and I think it's a good idea, but I think we need them more spread out, like the terrain scatters, which is what led me to this idea. Other possibilities for new terrain scatters would be farms and forests (basically a massive clump of the tree scatters) to make Kerbin seem like an actually populated planet rather than a space center  and some trees. 

Ok, so I don't really know how this would all work, how hard it is to create terrain scatters or how laggy a terrain scatter as large as the neighbourhood scatter I'm suggesting would be, but that's my idea. Tell me what you guys think!

 

(Also we'd probably need scatters to have colliders for this to work)

[KerikBalm]

I agree, it would liven up kerbin, but from making mods with kopernicus, it seems that terrain scatters are uniformly distributed within a specified lattitude/longitude/altitude range.

So each populated area would have to be specified, or you accept a mix of trees and houses, with no clear forrests and cities

[KerbolExplorer]

I like the idea,It could help aswell for other planets if squad one day decides to add lore to the game

as for the colliders could lag the game

When i play with SVT wich adds colliders to scatters i hardly notice any lag.But they should add a slider to allow us to set the render distance of scaters(If its not rendered it doesnt have colliders thus making the game run better)

[OHara]

The scattered rocks and trees are not rendered when they are beyond a certain distance from the craft under control, so as they work now they would not serve as city lights visible from orbit.  Some other mechanism to make patches of Kerbin's land luminous, would be welcome of course.  

The trees do clump a bit, and there are entries in configuration files for Kopernicus  that seem to indicate that clumping can be configured (noiseSimplex and coverageSimplex) but I have not experimented with that.

It is Kopernicus that adds colliders to scattered rocks and trees; SVT is just one texture-pack that enables them in its configuration files.  With just Kopernicus and the configuration below we can climb on rocks and crash into trees.  

Spoiler

@Kopernicus:AFTER[Kopernicus] {
 @Body[Eve]    { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters { %Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } } } } } }
 @Body[Gilly]  { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters { %Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } } } } } }
 @Body[Kerbin] { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters {
	Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } //maple
	Scatter { %Components { } } //grass
	Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } //boulder
	Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } //pine
	Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } //cactus
} } } } }
 @Body[Minmus] { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters { %Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } } } } } }
 @Body[Mun]    { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters { %Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } } } } } }
 @Body[Duna]   { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters {
	Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } // boulder
	Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } // iceboulder
} } } } }
 @Body[Ike]    { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters { %Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } } } } } }
 @Body[Laythe] { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters { %Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } } } } } }
 @Body[Vall]   { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters { %Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } } } } } }
 @Body[Tylo]   { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters { %Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } } } } } }
 @Body[Pol]    { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters {
	Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } //boulder
	Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } //stalactite (sic)
} } } } }
 @Body[Bop]    { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters { %Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } } } } } }
 @Body[Eeloo]  { @PQS { %Mods { %LandControl { %Scatters { %Scatter { %Components { %ScatterColliders { } } } } } } } }
}

 

[Edit: @Poodmund now has a fleshed-out version of this on github, thread here

For me, with a decent CPU and weak GPU, enabling full-density scatters with these colliders makes no noticeable difference in performance.

[Edit:  Kopernicus-continued releases 1.9.1-10 and 1.9.1-11 fail to load the collision meshes, but the configuration file works again with Kopernicus 1.9.1-12]

Edited November 1, 2020 by OHara
there now exists a mod thread

[The Dressian Exploder]

So, I don't really know if bunching a butt ton of terrain scatters in one group would be laggier than having them distributed evenly across your load range or what, but I think somebody could perhaps use Kopernicus to create a scatter similar to what I'm describing to give idea a sort of "trial run" I also don't really know how someone would do this but I'm looking at the Beyond Home planet pack's Hydrus and its floating islands as a proof it's possible to make custom terrain scatters

[Xurkitree]

I would love more terrain scatters beyond the usual rocks. Something that more precisely matches the environmental conditions of the planet. Take Pol for example - those spikes are an actual real-world phenomenon called  Penitentes - spikes of ice which form in very dry and cold areas. Such ice formations have been observed in other Solar System bodies, such as Europa and Pluto. 

I would love to see more interesting terrain scatter, with some lore or logic, rather than random rocks the color of the planet dictated by LandControl. 

[lajoswinkler]

Great idea many pondered in the past. I gave your thread five stars not only because it's a good one, but also to repair the damage done by annoying people who abuse this rating system by rating threads they don't like with one star. I've seen too much of that behaviour lately and it's downright annoying.