[1.12.x] Stock Waterfall Effects (SWE) - A Waterfall config set for realistic rocket exhaust plumes for the stock engines

[Knight of St John]

 

S  t  o  c  k   W  a  t  e  r  f  a  l  l   E  f  f  e  c  t  s

 

This mod contains a set of template and engine configuration files, that give amazing waterfall effects to the stock engines.

 

 

Downloads:

Primary:              https://github.com/KnightofStJohn/StockWaterfallEffects/releases
 

Dependencies:

You will of course need to install the Waterfall mod for this to work:
https://github.com/post-kerbin-mining-corporation/Waterfall/releases
Make sure you install the latest version of Waterfall when updating Stock Waterfall Effects

Module Manager 4.1.4 is already included with waterfall.

As of version 0.6.0, you will also need B9PartSwitch:
https://github.com/blowfishpro/B9PartSwitch/releases

 

 Known Issues & Workarounds:

Issue: Some engines might lag your game if you use too many of them.                                                  
Workaround: Waterfall has some options available in the WaterfallSettings.cfg file:                    
Set the "EnableLights" and "EnableDistortion" options to "false".

Issue: For a very limited amount of people, some plumes can show through parts.                                 
This is a Waterfall base mod bug that affects some older hardware and some Linux or Mac users.
We are going to look into this bug in the near future.                                                                                                 

New in 0.8.0: Compatibility fixes with ReStock and WaterfallRestock:

I am currently working to iron out a number of loose ends. For a detailed list, see the github release notes.
This first update targets some plume misalignments that were still happening with the ReStock model of the Rapier, for instance.
I also added some of my plumes to other ReStocked engines. These will in other words "override" the plumes configured by WaterfallRestock.
I decided to do this for a limited set of engines because these specific plumes in WaterfallRestock seemed far less refined than my own... sorry Nertea 
The other engines configured by WaterfallRestock, I left alone for now.
 

Future work:

• Fixing the z-fighting inside some engine bells
• More ReStock compatibility
• Fixing the "plumes showing through parts" bug
• Some Waterfall base mod work... if I have time 

Plume selection Feature:

Spoiler

A new feature as of 0.6.0 is the ability to select a plume of your choice from multiple options. These are available in the right click menu in the editor, or in flight. For now, only the vector and mammoth engines have this feature.

 

 

 

 

My goal with this mod is to give the stock engines a realistic looking exhaust plume. This means that I try to give the engines that are inspired by real life engines, the correct type of plume. For example the Vector is based on the Space Shuttle Main Engine, the RS25, and therefore has a very similar looking hydrolox plume in this mod:

However, some engines in the stock game were designed to look like certain real-life engines, but do not have similar stats in the game. I have to strike a balance between realism in engine performance, or realism in real-life inspiration.I chose to focus on giving the engines the correct plumes according to their performance. This is a list of the configured engines and the type of plume they have in this mod:

• Vector & Mammoth: Lower stage hydrolox / Lower stage methalox

• Poodle & Terrier: Upper stage methalox
         the reasoning here is that the Wolfhound and Cheetah are also both vacuum engines, but with even better ISP. Therefore they will be hydrolox engines, while the terrier and poodle will be methalox.

• Rapier: Lower stage methalox & Methane-air

• Rhino & Skiff: Mid-range hydrolox

• Nerv: Upper stage nuclear hydrogen

• Reliant, Swivel, Skipper, Mainsail, Twin Boar, Kodiak & Mastodon: Lower stage kerolox
         These kerolox plumes were originally designed by @Zorg for the Bluedog Design Bureau, and altered by me. Some more than others.

• Spark & Cub: kerolox sustainer.

• Cheetah & Wolfhound: Upper stage hydrolox
         Although the models for these engines are based on real hypergolic engines, I still made these two hydrolox engines because they have exceptionally high Isp.

• Bobcat, Thud, Twitch & Spider: Lower stage Hydrazine 50 (hypergolic).
         This plume was originally designed by @Zorg for the Bluedog Design Bureau, and altered by me.

• Puff & Ant: Upper stage Hydrazine 50 (hypergolic).

• Dart: hydrolox aerospike.

• Dawn: Xenon Hall-effect ion plume.

• Goliath, Juno, Wheesley: Kerosene turbofan.

• Panther: Kerosene turbofan & generic kerosene afterburner.

• Whiplash: Blackbird J58 type kerosene afterburner.

 

Eye Candy:

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

Licensing:

• All content is distributed under a CC-BY-SA-NC-4 License

 

 

And if you happen to have some free time to fill, go check out my youtube channel : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoJWYYRrzVDmap8uzhHsj_A

Edited July 8 by Knight of St John

[MotokiKuN]

Will it conflict with WaterfallRestock?

[Spaceman.Spiff]

23 minutes ago, MotokiKuN said:

Will it conflict with WaterfallRestock?

This mod is intended for use with stock parts. WFRS has plumes for ReStock engines, I have no idea what would happen if they were used together. If you have Restock though, use WFRS. 

I don’t entirely understand the logic of using great plumes on average models, but that’s my opinion. 

[Zorg]

The previews look great! 

7 hours ago, Knight of St John said:

@Zorg's amazing Bluedog Design Bureau (a collection of plumes for stock-alike modded engines)

Just a clarification, CobaltWolf is the primary author of Bluedog Design Bureau though I'm part of a growing team, and the mod is more properly described a giant parts pack of historical US rockets  The plumes I've been working on are compatibility files for BDB's own engines and not other stockalike mods though they will be made available.

6 hours ago, MotokiKuN said:

Will it conflict with WaterfallRestock?

This should be considered not compatible with Restock although it can be made safer by adding :NEEDS[!ReStock] to the patches so it wont cause issues even if accidentally installed together. (this is how realplume handles separate configs for stock and restock).

Additionally if it is added to CKAN in the future you can ask the CKAN people to mark it as incompatible with restock thus saving Knight of St John and the ReStock authors queries from confused users.

[Lt_Duckweed]

7 hours ago, Spaceman.Spiff said:

This mod is intended for use with stock parts. WFRS has plumes for ReStock engines, I have no idea what would happen if they were used together. If you have Restock though, use WFRS. 

I don’t entirely understand the logic of using great plumes on average models, but that’s my opinion. 

The reason being that restock very slightly changes the colliders and the drag cubes and thus is technically not stock physics.  So this mod is for people like me (I run and film stock missions). I want good looking plumes, but need to stick with the stock parts & models.

Edited February 14, 2021 by Lt_Duckweed

[RyanRising]

Plus there are a few engines that Restock doesn't touch - the Making History 1.875m engines and the aerospike come to mind.

[RealKerbal3x]

@Knight of St John Nice to see that you're planning on releasing this as a mod!

I know I already said a lot of this in the main Waterfall thread, but in my opinion you should keep the plumes accurate to the engines' real-life inspiration, with the exception of the Mainsail (as it's always been the powerful kerolox booster engine in KSP, and it should stay that way - just because it looks like a hydrolox engine doesn't mean it needs to be one). So even if the Isp's don't technically line up, maybe keep the Poodle as a hydrolox engine and the Wolfhound/Cheetah as AZ50/N₂0₄ engines.

Of course, it's entirely up to you in the end. But that's just my two cents.

[Knight of St John]

4 hours ago, Zorg said:

The previews look great! 

Just a clarification, CobaltWolf is the primary author of Bluedog Design Bureau though I'm part of a growing team, and the mod is more properly described a giant parts pack of historical US rockets  The plumes I've been working on are compatibility files for BDB's own engines and not other stockalike mods though they will be made available.

This should be considered not compatible with Restock although it can be made safer by adding :NEEDS[!ReStock] to the patches so it wont cause issues even if accidentally installed together. (this is how realplume handles separate configs for stock and restock).

Additionally if it is added to CKAN in the future you can ask the CKAN people to mark it as incompatible with restock thus saving Knight of St John and the ReStock authors queries from confused users.

Thanks a lot for the clarification. Yea, I'll rewrite the part about BDB. I guess I overlooked that because I'm only concentrating on plumes :-)

 

11 hours ago, MotokiKuN said:

Will it conflict with WaterfallRestock?

Well, you sort of can't expect to run both mods at the same time, since Restock remodels the original parts, and this mod is intended to work with the original models...
But as Zorg neatly explained above, I'll try and include as many checks as I can, so the user won't experience any issues when they mistakenly install both.

 

3 hours ago, Lt_Duckweed said:

The reason being that restock very slightly changes the colliders and the drag cubes and thus is technically not stock physics.  So this mod is for people like me (I run and film stock missions). I want good looking plumes, but need to stick with the stock parts & models.

Yes exactly. Many KSP players want to keep their gameplay pure stock. Especially when they play the game in a very technical way, where small differences in the aero-physics could determine the success of the mission. (think about Eve ssto's) And of course, these people also want the good waterfall looks.

 

1 hour ago, RealKerbal3x said:

Of course, it's entirely up to you in the end. But that's just my two cents.

Right, thanks for repeating that here. I think I agree with your opinion, but t the same time I know some others who think differently, so that's why I'll keep this matter open for a bit until I can be sure I'm not making a mistake.

[RealKerbal3x]

35 minutes ago, Knight of St John said:

Right, thanks for repeating that here. I think I agree with your opinion, but t the same time I know some others who think differently, so that's why I'll keep this matter open for a bit until I can be sure I'm not making a mistake.

If this becomes an issue that nobody can agree on, then you could always just create an optional patch that applies Isp-based plumes instead.

[dok_377]

@Knight of St John Just downloaded the first set of configs and I must say, they look amazing. 

Edited February 18, 2021 by dok_377
I thought that configs did something they don't do. Woops.

[Knight of St John]

1 hour ago, dok_377 said:

@Knight of St John Just downloaded the first set of configs and I must say, they look amazing. One thing though, you should probably remove "!ReStock" from :NEEDS[Waterfall&!ReStock]:FINAL in all your patches, since you are stating that this set of configs isn't compatible. With this line in place it will look for ReStock and configs will probably not apply to stock engines, just like in my case. I needed to remove them myself just to see the plumes. 

Well, yes. It isn't compatible with restock. that's the whole reason I put it there. It also says that in the main post under "compatibility"
The reason is that the restock models are different from the stock ones, so that the plumes don't line up with the engine bells well.
If you want Restock and waterfall effects, go and download WaterfallReStock.
Or did I misinterpret your post?

I just tested it on my own KSP again, just to make sure and everything works fine. I don't have ReStock installed.

[dok_377]

19 minutes ago, Knight of St John said:

Well, yes. It isn't compatible with restock. that's the whole reason I put it there. It also says that in the main post under "compatibility"
The reason is that the restock models are different from the stock ones, so that the plumes don't line up with the engine bells well.
If you want Restock and waterfall effects, go and download WaterfallReStock.
Or did I misinterpret your post?

I just tested it on my own KSP again, just to make sure and everything works fine. I don't have ReStock installed.

Never mind. I confused myself hard. All good here. 

Edited February 18, 2021 by dok_377

[RealKerbal3x]

@Knight of St John I must say, these plumes are looking great! And your decision to base the plumes on engine performance is probably wise.

When you do the MH engines, I assume you're going to keep the Skiff hydrolox? Its Isp seems to fall within that bracket and it's based on a hydrolox engine as well.

[Knight of St John]

5 hours ago, RealKerbal3x said:

@Knight of St John I must say, these plumes are looking great! And your decision to base the plumes on engine performance is probably wise.

Thanks :-) I put a lot of effort in them.
 

5 hours ago, RealKerbal3x said:

When you do the MH engines, I assume you're going to keep the Skiff hydrolox? Its Isp seems to fall within that bracket and it's based on a hydrolox engine as well.

Honestly, I haven't thought that far ahead. But what you're proposing sounds completely logical.

[RyanRising]

OK, so I know you said not to use this with Restock, but I had to give at least the RAPIER plume a go, cause the restock RAPIER is still on that old-n-busted particle system. Pretty parts should have pretty plumes to complement them, yeah?

Here're some pictures. I should be clear to anyone else seeing this, the mod does not do this by default. I edited the configuration slightly to allow some compatibility, and if you download the mod with Restock installed, it will do nothing, as intended.

Spoiler

In case you're wondering what that thing is and why it's so ugly, it's a JNSQ SSTO spaceplane. Those are a bit harder to do than a stock Kerbin one, and you can't really afford too many of the draggy Mk2 parts.

 

Edited February 20, 2021 by RyanRising
Disclaimer to avoid fanning the Restock flames. Sorry dude.

[Stone Blue]

So I havent gotten around to trying Waterfall yet, but as soon as I saw *this*, it was reason to try it out.

However, i dont now if I am doing something wrong, or havent explored it enuff, but on first launch of something, I see no difference between this/waterfall & stock.

Do you have to manually setup Waterfall upon initial install or soemthing?

 

[RyanRising]

25 minutes ago, Stone Blue said:

So I havent gotten around to trying Waterfall yet, but as soon as I saw *this*, it was reason to try it out.

However, i dont now if I am doing something wrong, or havent explored it enuff, but on first launch of something, I see no difference between this/waterfall & stock.

Do you have to manually setup Waterfall upon initial install or soemthing?

 

Not beyond installing Waterfall alongside the mod. Not all the engines are configured yet, is it possible you're just using ones that aren't? Also, what version of Waterfall and KSP are you using alongside any other mods you might have installed?

Edited February 20, 2021 by RyanRising

[Stone Blue]

41 minutes ago, RyanRising said:

Not beyond installing Waterfall alongside the mod. Not all the engines are configured yet, is it possible you're just using ones that aren't? Also, what version of Waterfall and KSP are you using alongside any other mods you might have installed?

Hmm.. could be I havent come across the right engine yet, then... I only tried a couple of the pre-built stoc craft.

I wasnt really looing for support, just wanted to now if there was something else I needed to do, first

but, 1.11.1, and most definately *every* mod up-to-date

[SpaceFace545]

Would these overlap and replace the waterfall effects bundled with restock, these are much nicer looking

[RyanRising]

44 minutes ago, SpaceFace545 said:

Would these overlap and replace the waterfall effects bundled with restock, these are much nicer looking

From the first post of this thread:

On 2/13/2021 at 4:21 PM, Knight of St John said:

However this mod is incompatible with ReStock, since ReStock remodels the engines, this is only logical. But also, ReStock has its own Waterfall config mod: WaterfallReStock.

 

Edited February 20, 2021 by RyanRising

[SpaceFace545]

16 minutes ago, RyanRising said:

From the first post of this thread:

 

thats what i was expecting, I guess Ill have to make my own

[RyanRising]

5 minutes ago, SpaceFace545 said:

thats what i was expecting, I guess Ill have to make my own

You can modify the configuration of the plumes here so they'll fit with Restock parts, but this probably isn't the place to discuss that. The Waterfall GitHub wiki should get you started, though it is incomplete. Once you've read through that and done your best to understand, any remaining questions about configuration are probably best answered in the Waterfall thread. There might be answers to your questions there already as well! Learning about how ModuleManager works would probably be a good idea as well.

Edited February 20, 2021 by RyanRising

[IsaQuest]

Great Work! Do you plan on making plumes for all stock engines or just for most of them?

[Knight of St John]

On 2/20/2021 at 4:33 PM, RyanRising said:

Here're some pictures. I should be clear to anyone else seeing this, the mod does not do this by default. I edited the configuration slightly to allow some compatibility, and if you download the mod with Restock installed, it will do nothing, as intended.

Oh that looks really nice. I've never tested them on actual craft before hah.

 

On 2/20/2021 at 5:24 PM, Stone Blue said:

However, i dont now if I am doing something wrong, or havent explored it enuff, but on first launch of something, I see no difference between this/waterfall & stock.

That's indeed probably because you didn't try the right engines. Read the entire main post. There's a list of the engines that have been configured already.

On 2/20/2021 at 5:24 PM, Stone Blue said:

Do you have to manually setup Waterfall upon initial install or soemthing?

You should just copy the Waterfall mod folder andthe StockWaterfallEffects mod folder into your GameData folder, and then it should already work.
Of course, you shouldn't have ReStock installed, because it's incompatible with my mod and therefore it won't show my effects.

 

On 2/20/2021 at 8:28 PM, SpaceFace545 said:

thats what i was expecting, I guess Ill have to make my own

Actually, Nertea and I are talking about adding some of my plumes to the WaterfallReStock mod as well. So with some patience, you'll be able to have my effects on ReStock as well.

 

18 hours ago, IsaQuest said:

Great Work! Do you plan on making plumes for all stock engines or just for most of them?

I'm planning on making configs for all the stock (and DLC) engines, yes.

[SpaceFace545]

49 minutes ago, Knight of St John said:

Actually, Nertea and I are talking about adding some of my plumes to the WaterfallReStock mod as well. So with some patience, you'll be able to have my effects on ReStock as well.

awsome