Show and Tell - Clouds

[wpetula]

On 4/2/2021 at 12:00 PM, KSPStar said:

Wait till you see how they look on Jool!

Descending through layers upon layers of swirling clouds toward inevitable doom...I've never been so excited for release day! 

[Kerminator K-100]

I like the old clouds better

[Pthigrivi]

On 4/3/2021 at 4:13 PM, K^2 said:

There's also marketing, including indirect via streamers and YouTubers, so there's a lot of value in making hard-to-reach places purty in particular because they are hard to reach places and will attract a lot of attention because of it.

That said, floating colonies would be awesome. If they aren't in the game, I hope the modding system is flexible enough that it can be added.

Me too. Ive built a few floating Laythe bases and it was a blast. 

[IsuckatKSP]

On 4/3/2021 at 11:43 PM, TLTay said:

So there are docks... realistic bathymetry... and something in the puff ocean... 

Do I smell underwater exploration? It could just be the beans from earlier...

So Subnautica, Microsoft Flight Simulator and Space Exploration all in one?  Sign me up!

[rhZhao]

Maybe we can also make venting out of this effect?

[PlutoISaPlanet]

So... Jool clouds this Friday?  PLEASE!

[Wubslin]

11 hours ago, PlutoISaPlanet said:

So... Jool clouds this Friday?  PLEASE!

More clouds? Naw. How about... constant thrust maneuver node UI. Or what IVA looks like. Or [gasp] multiplayer functionality!

[PlutoISaPlanet]

8 minutes ago, Wubslin said:

More clouds? Naw. How about... constant thrust maneuver node UI. Or what IVA looks like. Or [gasp] multiplayer functionality!

Or... Jool clouds. UI would be cool though!

[Pthigrivi]

Seeing those landing pads Im also hugely interested in what stage recovery could look like and how that might tie into automation generally speaking. KSP1's physics range is one thing, but the other part is that you can't simultaneously be guiding your second stage to orbit while landing your 1st. There's the 'proof of concept' model for stage recovery, where successfully landing a stage would mean in the future you could drop that component and the game would assume it to be recovered. Or it could be that after a successful landing an autopilot could repeat that maneuver in a fully modeled way. Mech jeb is already reasonably okay at this kind of thing, so it seems plausible. The other thing is pinpoint landings in atmo are notoriously difficult manually. It took me 2-3 years of playing before I could reliably land a tail-sitter on the grounds of KSC let alone accurate down to 10m. So maybe its wise to build in some level autopilot capabilities into the tech tree right from the beginning? And then use them for automated supply runs and lots of things we might not want to be bogged down babysitting with a solar system full of colonies? 

Edited April 12, 2021 by Pthigrivi

[PlutoISaPlanet]

4 more days till.... FRIDAYYYYYY

[PlutoISaPlanet]

3 more days till.... FRIDAYYYYY

[Dientus]

33 minutes ago, PlutoISaPlanet said:

3 more days till.... FRIDAYYYYY

Maybe you should go ahead and make a thread for Friday countdown

 

[PlutoISaPlanet]

10 minutes ago, Dientus said:

Maybe you should go ahead and make a thread for Friday countdown

 

You are a GENIUS!

[ZinkBot]

Is that a new KSC?

With multiple launch sites?

[JB182]

i see something lik elaunchpads there, its more than one

[areallyFATcow]

On 4/15/2021 at 1:36 PM, ZinkBot said:

Is that a new KSC?

With multiple launch sites?

Possibly, the new KSC show and tell that was released recently didn't give a full view of the space center, so those landing pads could still be there. If something similar to KOS becomes stock, it would make a lot of sense. 

[mcwaffles2003]

Hey devs, @Nate Simpson @KSPStar

I don't know if I'm adding new info or reference or not and I hope this doesn't come off as a complaint because the job you've done is over the top with what I see. Sincerely, I thank you for your efforts.

I noticed that the clouds seem to scoot along with dissipating trails behind them. I feel like this artistic impression comes from the idea that clouds, at least cumulus clouds (the lowest ones typically), are solitary creatures moving through the atmosphere, but this is not the case. I think a better way to think about clouds is that they are iceberg tips. Idk how many others have noticed this or wondered about it, but if you look at cumulus clouds they have fairly flat bottoms, I like to think of them as fluffy dough balls on lumpy glass in the sky .

Anyways, the iceberg analogy comes in understanding that the bottoms of these clouds are at a thermal limit where humidity reaches 100%+ causing condensation and the lumpy glass is the thermal limit critical point for condensation to occur. The body that makes the cloud actually extends well below the bottom of the cloud and the cloud is just a thermal updraft carrying moist air beyond the critical point where condensation occurs. In short, there shouldn't be trails behind clouds, they aren't moving through the air so much as they are just part (a visible part) of the air and leaving trails implies motion through the air as opposed to with the air. If the updraft is great enough a cumulous cloud becomes a cumulonimbus cloud generating one of these beautiful creatures:

Spoiler

At the tropopause barrier there is a sheer wind that generates trailing and the excessive updraft causes the overshoooting top. If the iceberg analogy doesn't stick here then hopefully the idea of a lava lamp may. 

Some nice places to look for intuition into the physical origins of natural looking cloud formations would be a quick look at Rayleigh–Taylor instability at different reynolds numbers, and Hadley Cells (looking up "fluid-instabilities" overall is a good time in my opinion). 

If the clouds remain as they are I would be beyond happy as they currently put current EVE and scatterer to shame (no offense meant to the devs of these mods, I am beyond grateful for their work and bringing character to the atmospheres in KSP). But hopefully the information I provide here can be of use to your artists on the matter for their inspiration on their design of clouds. Thank you for all the work you guys have put in so far and I cannot wait to play your game :). 

Edited June 6, 2021 by mcwaffles2003

[Minmus Taster]

I wonder what Eve's clouds will look like.

[Vexillar]

1 minute ago, Minmus Taster said:

I wonder what Eve's clouds will look like.

Erm... Purple perhaps?

[Minmus Taster]

3 minutes ago, Vexillar said:

Erm... Purple perhaps?

But will they be THIC

[Dr. Kerbal]

On 4/2/2021 at 9:24 AM, Spaceman.Spiff said:

Will craft passing through them create wake and vortices?

You mean like airless that just go throuhg the clouds and sometimes the clouds follow? 

On 6/11/2021 at 7:44 AM, Minmus Taster said:

I wonder what Eve's clouds will look like.

Well. Eve is supposed to be Venus but purple. So maybe they will be very purple and thick. That would make leaving and landing on Eve even harder! 

[Minmus Taster]

5 minutes ago, Dr. Kerbal said:

 

Well. Eve is supposed to be Venus but purple. So maybe they will be very purple and thick. That would make leaving and landing on Eve even harder! 

*Cough cough EVE clouds Cooough

[Terminal Velocity]

On 4/2/2021 at 12:00 PM, KSPStar said:

Oh, before we forget – we’ve been working on some proper clouds as well. Wait till you see how they look on Jool!



Special thanks to the cloud team:
Graphic Engineer - Zeng Rui
3D Environment Artist - Li Bo
Technical Artist - Wang Jiangtao
Art Director - Chan Cheekin
Technical Director - Shi Qiang
Technical Art Director - Akram Parvez
Producer - Huang Zhilin
Intercept Art Lead - Steve Suhy
 

its amazing how many mods are becoming stock.. No, its not bad, its better now i dont have to install as many mods,more compataible, less lag

[editor99]

Finally, after all these years...

[Admiral Fluffy]

On 4/3/2021 at 2:13 PM, K^2 said:

lot of value in making hard-to-reach places purty in particular because they are hard to reach places and will attract a lot of attention because of it.

The sole reason I went to Laythe is because Kerbals could breathe there.