[1.8 - 1.12.x] Distant Object Enhancement Continued v2.0.3.1 (29 September, 2021)

[TheDarkBadger]

 

This page is no longer being updated!

@Lisias has continued development here

KSP 1.12.x

Distant Object Enhancement Continued [2.0.3.1] Last updated September 24th, 2021

Distant Object Enhancement Continued is a visual enhancement mod that makes objects realistically visible over large distances. It is an update of MOARdv's Distant Object Enhancement bis v1.9.1.1, which is a update of Rubber Ducky's Distant Object Enhancement. I have adopted the mod with permission of MOARdv

Downloads

CKAN

SpaceDock

GitHub

 

_{This version keeps Ducktopia's CC Attribution 4.0 International license.}

_{Source code here: Github source}

Edited September 30, 2021 by TheDarkBadger

[Logicsol]

!!

Awesome, thanks for continuing work on this.

[Beetlecat]

Oh, yay!

Cheers, TheDarkBadger!

Couldn't the name also have been DOE bis-bis?

[Goody1981]

Omg yes.... this is in my top 2 mods of all time. Thank you!!!!

[Motokid600]

Ty so much for continuing this. Something ive always wondered. Is it possible to make it so that the dimming feature can be automatically applied whether or not the craft is in the sunlight? Sunlight-no stars. Shade - Full stars. As opposed to or even in replace of the camera just looking at a planet or sun.

Edited November 13, 2019 by Motokid600

[Gordon Dry]

I also would like to see stars if on the launchpad in the middle of the night, also during ascent as long as no trace of sunlight is visible at the horizon.

Edited November 13, 2019 by Gordon Dry

[Stone Blue]

Yeah, thanx for picking this up, Badger.

14 hours ago, Beetlecat said:

Couldn't the name also have been DOE bis-bis?

Ooff... i already have MOARdVs .zips named as "Continued" in my archives..
Have to figure out something to differentiate between this takeover and those, nao... lol

[Motokid600]

2 hours ago, Gordon Dry said:

I also would like to see stars if on the launchpad in the middle of the night (and no clouds ofc), also during ascent as long as no trace of sunlight is visible at the horizon.

"middle of the night" ? You should see stars. Even with DOE. However there is a problem with KSP in that the stars will not naturally fade in/out during dusk/dawn. The stars just instantly appear and disappear after certain hours. I always hated it and I hope KSP2 doesn't have that issue. But as far the "middle of the night" goes you should see stars.

Edited November 13, 2019 by Motokid600

[Drew Kerman]

8 hours ago, Gordon Dry said:

and no clouds ofc

why should DOE have any effect on near objects like clouds? or are you just saying when there happen to be no EVE clouds in the way? Also I agree with Motokid that there's no reason you shouldn't see stars unless you have the DOE settings for sky dim enabled and turned down low or all the way to 0

[Gordon Dry]

2 minutes ago, Drew Kerman said:

why should DOE have any effect on near objects like clouds? or are you just saying when there happen to be no EVE clouds in the way? Also I agree with Motokid that there's no reason you shouldn't see stars unless you have the DOE settings for sky dim enabled and turned down low or all the way to 0

Misunderstood.

I meant that stars should only be visible at night when the sky is clear. But that is mandatory, I should have not mentioned it ...

[Cynor]

Thanks for picking this up and making sure it's all updated/working right.

Did you leave in the optional dimming stuff though in the menus? While I can understand the realism aspect, I wont lie and say that I feel like I still want the stars showing like in the older version, especially as otherwise the sky just looks kinda blah/bland to me. Doubly so when you have a custom skybox.

[TheDarkBadger]

@Cynor no functionality has been changed from MOARdv's newest version, it's currently just been recompiled for 1.8.1

[infinite_monkey]

Nice to see this being adopted. Do you just want to keep it working for new KSP versions or do you plan other improvements too? The "issue" that bothers me most with this mod is visible in the screenshots in the OP: skybox is completely dimmed, but the rendered bodies are not. It's quite weid to see only planets, but no stars.

I think for the most realistically possible look, we's need specialized skymaps. Currently, these are just images with larger and smaller dots. In reality, only planets are "larger" (i.e. cover a measurable angle of the sky), but all the stars are just brighter and dimmer dots. This is what I'd love to see in KSP. Not total darkness - slightly dimmed image (but still with all the stars visible) - undimmed skybox, but more and more stars getting brighter and brighter.

[Drew Kerman]

Just now, infinite_monkey said:

The "issue" that bothers me most with this mod is visible in the screenshots in the OP: skybox is completely dimmed, but the rendered bodies are not. It's quite weid to see only planets, but no stars.

Unless you have the settings manually configured to dim the skybox, the only time you see planets and not stars is at dusk or dawn, when the stars in the skybox normally disappear just like they do in the stock game. As in real life, planets are visible well before even the brightest stars at dusk and well after you can no longer see stars at dawn. I've never seen an issue with this mod where the skybox stars are not visible when they should be

[infinite_monkey]

1 hour ago, Drew Kerman said:

Unless you have the settings manually configured to dim the skybox, the only time you see planets and not stars is at dusk or dawn, when the stars in the skybox normally disappear just like they do in the stock game. As in real life, planets are visible well before even the brightest stars at dusk and well after you can no longer see stars at dawn. I've never seen an issue with this mod where the skybox stars are not visible when they should be

This is only partly true. For once, you can see Venus more or less immediately after sunset, when it's still quite bright. Sirius is brighter than Saturn. And the brightness of the planets varies with their distance and their angle to the sun. There are quite a few stars that are usually brighter than Mars, although has a brighter maximum. Anyway, in a picture like in the OP, where the sky is pitch black, you'll NEVER just see planets.

Edited November 17, 2019 by infinite_monkey

[Nikolai]

10 hours ago, infinite_monkey said:

skybox is completely dimmed, but the rendered bodies are not. It's quite weid to see only planets, but no stars.

If you're seeing this when it's supposed to be really dark (and not at dusk or dawn), and you're using the default skybox, make sure that the "changeSkybox" variable is set to "False" in <KSP Installation Folder>/GameData/DistantObject/PhuginData/settings.cfg (you can open it with a text editor).  Otherwise, you'll just get a blank, black skybox (because the computer will think you want to replace the skybox, but won't have anything to replace it with).  The planets and distant spacecraft will still show up.

[Logicsol]

Changing the max sky brightness in setting massively effects this.

If you go into the mods config files, you can also set this higher than the 100% allowed by the control panel (1 = 100%, 1.5 = 150% etc)

 

I find this helpful if running a mod like KS3P that darkens things.

Edited November 18, 2019 by Logicsol
more info

[Damon]

Love to see this mod being continued! Thank you!

[Tegmil]

Thanks for updating this mod !

I was a bit surprised to see that the PluginData/Settings.cfg file is different in the zip file than on GitHub

Are those changes intended ? The "maxBrightness = 0" setting means that the skybox is completely black by default ! I thought it was a bug, and I see infinite_monkey above had the same issue.

It may be better to set the default to 0.25 like on GitHub ?

Edited November 25, 2019 by Tegmil

[TheDarkBadger]

7 hours ago, Tegmil said:

Thanks for updating this mod !

I was a bit surprised to see that the PluginData/Settings.cfg file is different in the zip file than on GitHub

Are those changes intended ? The "maxBrightness = 0" setting means that the skybox is completely black by default ! I thought it was a bug, and I see infinite_monkey above had the same issue.

It may be better to set the default to 0.25 like on GitHub ?

Good catch, my apologies that's the settings i used when testing the build - i'll update the file so the settings defaults are normal

[MechBFP]

10 hours ago, Tegmil said:

Thanks for updating this mod !

I was a bit surprised to see that the PluginData/Settings.cfg file is different in the zip file than on GitHub

Are those changes intended ? The "maxBrightness = 0" setting means that the skybox is completely black by default ! I thought it was a bug, and I see infinite_monkey above had the same issue.

It may be better to set the default to 0.25 like on GitHub ?

Well that explains why space looked so dark recently.... lol

[TheDarkBadger]

15 hours ago, MechBFP said:

Well that explains why space looked so dark recently.... lol

You can edit the value it uses in the settings for the mod, so you can make the skybox as light or dark as you want

[purpleivan]

Is the way to access the settings different to earlier versions? I can't see the old cog wheels button in the HUD with this version.

Definitely running as I can see the planets rendered by the mod... just no button.

Edited November 30, 2019 by purpleivan

[TheDarkBadger]

2 hours ago, purpleivan said:

Is the way to access the settings different to earlier versions? I can't see the old cog wheels button in the HUD with this version.

Definitely running as I can see the planets rendered by the mod... just no button.

Nope, its not been changed.

 

The icon should appear in both the Stock Toolbar and the Toolbar mod (if installed) by default. There is also a setting where the button only appears when you are at the Space Center screen, maybe this is enabled?

[purpleivan]

3 hours ago, TheDarkBadger said:

There is also a setting where the button only appears when you are at the Space Center screen, maybe this is enabled?

Bingo... the setting to only show in the Space Center view was on for some reason. I'd not opened the GUI since installing KSP 1.8.1, so wierd that this setting was turned on, but all working now.

Thanks.