[1.8-1.12] Conformal Decals 0.2.12 - Decals done the right way, now on CKAN!

[cineboxandrew]

Conformal Decals

    

header screenshot by @Zorg, also featuring Bluedog Design Bureau

About

Conformal Decals adds a set of decal stickers to KSP, as well as providing a framework for creating your own decals which conform to the surface of the parts they are attached to.  Instead of static geometry, they project the decal onto the parts they are attached to using a custom projector shader. The system is modular to allow for creating your own decal parts and packs.

How it works

How to make your own decals

This version is the initial release of the mod, and there are many features planned to be added in the future

Features

• CDL-F Flag Decal: Conformal flag decal, which uses either the mission flag or a flag of your choosing.
• CDL-T Custom Text Decal: A customizable text decal with a variety of fonts
• CDL-1 Generic Decal: A set of conformal generic decals for planes and rockets
• CDL-2 Semiotic Standard Decal: A set of conformal decals based on the Semiotic Standard for All Commercial Trans-Stellar Utility Lifter and Transport Spacecraft designed by Ron Cobb for the movie Alien
• CDL-3 Surface Base Decal: A set of conformal decals based on the symbols from the movie Moon (2009) designed by Gavin Rothery

Dependencies

Required:

• KSP (1.8.x to 1.12.x)
• B9 Part Switch (2.19.0). Bundled with release.
• ModuleManager (4.2.1). Bundled with release.
• Shabby (0.2.0 unofficial build). Bundled with release.
  • HarmonyKSP (2.0.4.0). Bundled with release.

Optional:

• Wild Blue Tools. For custom decals category in the VAB and SPH.

Downloads

Release: [GitHub] [SpaceDock]

Source: [GitHub] [Mirror]

Conformal Decals is also available on CKAN

Credits

• Art and Plugin code: Andrew Cassidy (Cineboxandrew)
• Semiotic decal pack based on the work of Ron Cobb
• Munar decal pack based on the work of Gavin Rothery

Installation

Place the contents of the "GameData" folder into the GameData folder for your KSP install. Shabby, B9 Part Switch, and ModuleManager are required.

Licensing

Art assets and configuration files are licensed CC-BY-SA 4.0, as described in the LICENSE-ART.md file. You are free to share and adapt them as long as you provide credit to Andrew Cassidy and share them under the same license.

Plugin code is distributed under the GPL v3, as described in the LICENSE-SOURCE.md file

Any bundled mods are distributed under their own license:

• ModuleManager by blowfish and sarbian is distributed under a Creative Commons Sharealike license. More details, including source code, can be found here.
• B9PartSwitch by blowfish is distributed under the LGPL v3 license.
• Shabby by taniwha is distributed under the GPL v3 license.

Edited October 31, 2022 by cineboxandrew

[xD-FireStriker]

Intresting mod, i have just downloaded and will give it a shot. Been looking for a good decal mod for some time.
How do you make your own decals? 

[Starseeker]

Oooo, this looks really good! Definitely gonna add this to my 1.8.1 install

[έķ νίĻĻάίή]

Sounds interesting. Giving it a try

[Z3R0_0NL1N3]

A gallery of the included decals would be nice, and is there a way to customize this on the user end?

Is this similar to how the ESA parts' decals work? Either way, it is a great time for fans of putting decals on their rockets!

[xD-FireStriker]

2 minutes ago, Z3R0_0NL1N3 said:

A gallery of the included decals would be nice, and is there a way to customize this on the user end?

Is this similar to how the ESA parts' decals work? Either way, it is a great time for fans of putting decals on their rockets!

I have had a quick look and im not sure how to do it but it does say this

2 hours ago, cineboxandrew said:

Conformal Decals adds a set of decal stickers to KSP, as well as providing a framework for creating your own decals

So we should be able to customize the decals i just cant find a readme that tells me how.

[cineboxandrew]

1 hour ago, xD-FireStriker said:

How do you make your own decals? 

I'll add a tutorial on making your own decals to the github wiki soon. In the meantime theres documentation on the module there, and you can look at the decal part configs. You can also just add textures to the flags folder and using the flag part

23 minutes ago, Z3R0_0NL1N3 said:

Is this similar to how the ESA parts' decals work?

I have no idea how the ESA parts in the next version will work, but I think they're just geometry with a texture on them

[xD-FireStriker]

1 minute ago, cineboxandrew said:

I'll add a tutorial on making your own decals to the github wiki soon. In the meantime theres documentation on the module there, and you can look at the decal part configs. You can also just add textures to the flags folder and using the flag part

Thanks i will look at the module, i should be able to revse enginer the config haha.

5 minutes ago, cineboxandrew said:

30 minutes ago, Z3R0_0NL1N3 said:

Is this similar to how the ESA parts' decals work?

I have no idea how the ESA parts in the next version will work, but I think they're just geometry with a texture on them

I also dont know how this ESA decal stuff is gonna work in the next update but i have a feeling it may be limited and would love mods like this to surive the version gap

[Zorg]

Super stoked to see this released! I was shocked at just how effectively the the decals project onto and conform to the part. With other decal mods theres usually a lot of fiddling with the offset tool and scaling to get it to not clip and also not be floating over the part to some extent. This just works! 

The fact that it accounts for features on the normal map (like the ribbing on the tanks) is another very cool feature. 

 

[Clamp-o-Tron]

This is simply awesome. Wow. It's especially great considering how much better it is than the 1.10 decals.

[Beale]

Such a game changer!

[luizsilveira]

Spoiler

Question: is it possible to just write on the parts/crafts? It's be pretty cool if one could have (for example) the name of the craft or mission stamped onto it.

Congrats and thanks for the release!

 

 

 

[adsii1970]

7 hours ago, xD-FireStriker said:

Intresting mod, i have just downloaded and will give it a shot. Been looking for a good decal mod for some time.
How do you make your own decals? 

Make them in some graphics program. I personally use either PhotoShop or Microsoft Publisher, depending on what I am working on.

Then simply save them as a PNG file in your FLAGS folder. You can do this one of two ways:

• GameData\Squad\Flags <--- this saves in the default location.
• GameData\Your special folder name\Flags <---- this saves in a folder of your designation.

Either way will allow the mod to find the flags to use as decals.

[xD-FireStriker]

14 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

Make them in some graphics program. I personally use either PhotoShop or Microsoft Publisher, depending on what I am working on.

Then simply save them as a PNG file in your FLAGS folder. You can do this one of two ways:

• GameData\Squad\Flags <--- this saves in the default location.
• GameData\Your special folder name\Flags <---- this saves in a folder of your designation.

Either way will allow the mod to find the flags to use as decals.

What do you use publisher for? i used to use photoshop but been using gimp more and more. Im currently working on some decals but idk how to add them yet. this mod doesnt check the flags for the decals.

[adsii1970]

Publisher is easy to use to add some basic 3D effects, to alter colors and shading, and text effects. The imag s in my signature were created with Publisher because it's fast and easy. 

Hmm, might have to tinker with the mod. In the past mods always used the Flag folder. 

[Zorg]

59 minutes ago, xD-FireStriker said:

this mod doesnt check the flags for the decals.

 The author of the mod already stated in a reply to you that you can indeed use the flags folder. There is a dedicated part that uses flags and its right there at the top of the features list. In fact both of my screenshots on this page were all made using flag based decals.

If you didn't want to do this (for instance you wanted something with a different aspect ratio and didnt want that in amongst the game flags) , the best thing probably would be to patch in extra subtypes to the generic decal part like so:

the following patch is untested, its based on something I did during a beta test of the mod, i havent had a chance to try the release.

 

@PART[conformaldecals-generic]:AFTER[ConformalDecals]
{
  @MODULE[ModuleB9PartSwitch]
  {
    SUBTYPE
    {
      name = yourdecalname //must be unique to each subtype
      title = yourdecaltitle // visible title
      primaryColor = Black // not functionally important, used for the list in the part action window
      secondaryColor = White

      MODULE 
      {
        IDENTIFIER { name = ModuleConformalDecal }
        DATA 
        { 
          TEXTURE
          {
            name = _Decal //same for all subtypes
            textureUrl = file.path.to.your.texture //path to your textures somewhere in a folder in gamedata
          }      
        }
      }
    }

    SUBTYPE
    {
    .... etc
    }

    SUBTYPE
    {
    .... etc
    }

  }
}

 

Edited June 17, 2020 by Zorg

[xD-FireStriker]

2 minutes ago, Zorg said:

 The author of the mod already stated in a reply to you that you can indeed use the flags folder. There is a dedicated part that uses flags and its right there at the top of the features list. In fact both of my screenshots on this page were all made using flag based decals.

If you didn't want to do this (for instance you wanted something with a different aspect ratio and didnt want that in amongst the game flags) , the best thing probably would be to patch in extra subtypes to the generic decal part like so:

the following patch is untested, its based on something I did during a beta test of the mod, i havent had a chance to try the release.

I more or less ment the 2 other decal sizes which dont refence the flags folder

Edited June 17, 2020 by xD-FireStriker

[hoover2701]

Just installed this with the dependency "Shabby". B9 Part Switch and Module Manager were already in my current "Game Data" folder. Here comes the rather dumb question: How do I put the decals on the parts? I expected to do it via the right mouse button on the part in the VAB (because of the B9 Part Switch dependency) but there is no option to place decals. Or do I have to write my own configs even if I only wanted to use the standard decals coming with this package?

The decals on @Zorg's image look fantastic. This seems to have a lot of potential so please: Enlighten me!

Edit: Aaaahh, I found the decals. Skimmed through the part descriptions. They are under the "Structural" parts... Back to the VAB!

Edited June 17, 2020 by hoover2701
Reading and combining...

[DirtyFace83]

Made this video (in spoiler) using this mod for my Flags, Agencies, and Decals add-on up on Spacedock

The long decals are a little bit shoehorned and require a little bit of fiddling, but it works.

Spoiler

 

 

Edited October 24, 2020 by DirtyFace83
Wednesday...

[DJ Reonic]

This mod is absolutely amazing. I've already been playing with it a bit and it is exactly what I've been wanting from decals. I've already removed all my other decal mods.

[cineboxandrew]

4 hours ago, DirtyFace83 said:

The long decals are a little bit shoehorned and require a little bit of fiddling, but it works.

Ah, I forgot the flag picker works with any size of image. I’ll push a fix soon. 
also, the decals only project onto the part they are attached to. I’m not sure if I should change that

4 hours ago, xD-FireStriker said:

I more or less ment the 2 other decal sizes which dont refence the flags folder

They aren’t different sizes, the two other parts just have different textures to choose from. All the decals are adjustable in size 

8 hours ago, luizsilveira said:

Question: is it possible to just write on the parts/crafts? It's be pretty cool if one could have (for example) the name of the craft or mission stamped onto it.

 

Text decals are something I would like to do, yes. 

[luizsilveira]

9 minutes ago, cineboxandrew said:

Text decals are something I would like to do, yes. 

Fantastic hear, thanks!

Quick question: what happens if I ever remove this mod for whatever reason after having a few vessels with decals on my save?

Great work!

[cineboxandrew]

Just now, luizsilveira said:

what happens if I ever remove this mod for whatever reason after having a few vessels with decals on my save?

Unfortunately the vessels will be unloadable, just like any other part mod. 

[DirtyFace83]

15 minutes ago, cineboxandrew said:

Ah, I forgot the flag picker works with any size of image. I’ll push a fix soon. 
also, the decals only project onto the part they are attached to. I’m not sure if I should change that

Well, if you change the flag picker to only work with Stock flag sized images, then longer-than-the-tank decals would need to be made into a separate part/variant/thing, and would 'need' to be able to cross two/more parts.

Would this potentially lead to decals attaching to things like science parts, radial decouplers, and so on? You would know better on this point.

Also, am I wrong in thinking that changing the images to work with a particular size or range of images could limit the Hi-Res-ability of texturing?

 

[cineboxandrew]

1 minute ago, DirtyFace83 said:

Well, if you change the flag picker to only work with Stock flag sized images,

Oh, no I mean fix the decals not resizing immediately to match the new texture size