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[KSP >= 1.3.1] Distant Object Enhancement (DOE) /L - Under new Management - 2.2.0.2 - 2024-0803


Lisias

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ANNOUNCE

Release 2.1.1.16 is available for downloading, with the following changes:

  • Updates KSPe.Light to the latest, mitigating that pesky collateral effect on KSP when users brute-force their way into the Steam's Launcher options trying to get rid of the infamous PD-Launcher.

Additionally, this release also includes (obviously) the fixes from 2.1.1.15 that wasn't announced here on Forum:

  • Closes issues:
    • #37 Parallax may be inducing DOE to bork the Flares (invalid)
    • #32 Body Flares are being deactivated when Dynamic Dimming Skies are

See OP for the links.

KeepWalking.jpg

— — — — —

This Release will be published using the following Schedule:

  • GitHub. Right Now.
  • CurseForge. Right Now.
  • SpaceDock.  Right Now.

Being a simple fix release, I published it on everything and the kitchen's sink at the same time.

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  • 2 weeks later...

@LisiasThank you so much for your continued support of this amazing mod.

I have a feature request. At first I thought this was a bug, perhaps a mod conflict with kopernicus or scatterer because I know they mess with how suns work (kopernicus has to even replace stuff for solar panels to be able to work in multi sun systems)... So I tried DOE in a clean install with nothing else to observe if this is expected behavior, and it seems like it is.

Anyway, the issue I'm having/noticing is that dynamic skybox dimming seems to be getting applied whenever the camera is pointed at the sun, regardless of if you are being occluded by a celestial body. So in low orbit near sunrise and sunset you don't get to see the stars at all, you are just in complete blackness if you point the camera where the sun is being hidden. On higher orbits when you are being eclipsed briefly, again if you look towards the planet/eclipse the whole sky goes black. I tried fiddling with all the DOE settings, but none of them seemed to be able to make the star visible behind planets, but not visible when just looking at the sun unobstructed.

I'm not sure how difficult it would be to detect when your craft is being shadowed rather than lit up by the sun due to a celestial body in order to disable dynamic skybox dimming, but this would go a long way on improving visuals. It would make scatterer eclipses way more dramatic.

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5 minutes ago, Errol said:

@LisiasThank you so much for your continued support of this amazing mod.

I have a feature request. At first I thought this was a bug, perhaps a mod conflict with kopernicus or scatterer because I know they mess with how suns work (kopernicus has to even replace stuff for solar panels to be able to work in multi sun systems)... So I tried DOE in a clean install with nothing else to observe if this is expected behavior, and it seems like it is.

Anyway, the issue I'm having/noticing is that dynamic skybox dimming seems to be getting applied whenever the camera is pointed at the sun, regardless of if you are being occluded by a celestial body. So in low orbit near sunrise and sunset you don't get to see the stars at all, you are just in complete blackness if you point the camera where the sun is being hidden. On higher orbits when you are being eclipsed briefly, again if you look towards the planet/eclipse the whole sky goes black. I tried fiddling with all the DOE settings, but none of them seemed to be able to make the star visible behind planets, but not visible when just looking at the sun unobstructed.

I'm not sure how difficult it would be to detect when your craft is being shadowed rather than lit up by the sun due to a celestial body in order to disable dynamic skybox dimming, but this would go a long way on improving visuals. It would make scatterer eclipses way more dramatic.

Yep, it's a known issue: https://github.com/net-lisias-ksp/DistantObject/issues/31

I tried some stunts, but got unhappy with the results. On one, I did too many raycasts trying to figure out how much part of the Sun is covered by something, on another I tried to calculate projections of the Sun over whatever is between me and the Sun and see how much of it would be covered. These stunts kinda worked, but I found them clumsy or too computing intensive to be used on the Unity's Update.

I'm currently looking for a shortcut - I'm betting something in the game already calculated something that could be reused, saving me the trouble to do it again.

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I mean, the transitions are generally pretty short, why not just make it binary? Like, on or off, is any part of the sun exposed or not? And then just have the dimming fade in or out as a (relatively short/quick) fixed time animation?

As for what is in the game already, what about the shadows? Like, the planets cast shadows on the vessels, can you detect when that is happening?

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34 minutes ago, Errol said:

I mean, the transitions are generally pretty short, why not just make it binary? Like, on or off, is any part of the sun exposed or not? And then just have the dimming fade in or out as a (relatively short/quick) fixed time animation

This is not a problem (it's already implemented), except by being too fast. There's an issue about it here: https://github.com/net-lisias-ksp/DistantObject/issues/26

This #26 is on the backburning, because I think there's things more important on queue, but perhaps I should prioritize it as a low hanging fruit.

 

37 minutes ago, Errol said:

As for what is in the game already, what about the shadows? Like, the planets cast shadows on the vessels, can you detect when that is happening?

Considered that, but on a "thought experiment", it would create some visually awkward situations:

  • The sky not dimming while orbiting/passing by big asteriods (that are "crafts" in the game); and/or
  • The sky dimming while orbiting/passing by small asteroids (ditto)

Additionally, using something that would be tied to the Sun itself would allow the thing to be easily "ported" to Kopernicus.

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6 hours ago, Lisias said:

I'm currently looking for a shortcut - I'm betting something in the game already calculated something that could be reused, saving me the trouble to do it again.

Real wild guess here, but is there anything to do with solar panels that could be repurposed?  Both the angle of direction to the Sun as well as eclipsing?  Or are those functions not exposed to reuse?

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Jacke said:

Real wild guess here, but is there anything to do with solar panels that could be repurposed?  Both the angle of direction to the Sun as well as eclipsing?  Or are those functions not exposed to reuse?

You know, the idea is not bad - but I would do some calculations the same just for it, and I think I found a dirty trick to get it for free.

I don't have the time to try it in the short term (things are somewhat hairy on DayJob©), so I'm reticent to open my big mouth without proper grounds (I had to eat my words recently on MM/L on something about :HAS, I think it's a good idea to try to avoid doing it again! :sticktongue:)

Edited by Lisias
Better phrasing. Some idiomatics from my language translate badly to EN!! (sorry)
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Posted (edited)
5 hours ago, Lisias said:

... so I'm reticent to open my big mouth without proper grounds...

Too late, all aboard the hype train!!!! Woo Woo!!

I only jest. But on a more serious note....@Lisias  do you have a patreon or something?

Also, not sure if this is helpful, but the solar panel suggestion made me think that there's also the comm net planetary occlusion thingie. Could set up the sun as a hidden really long range transmitter, and all vessels as hidden receivers of this hidden transmitter. This could(?) have the advantage of not caring about orientation of the vessel at all.

Edited by Errol
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23 hours ago, Errol said:

@Lisias  do you have a patreon or something?

Yep! They are in the project's github page, on the section "Sponsor this Project".

https://github.com/net-lisias-ksp/distantobject

However... There're some inconveniences while trying to sponsor a Brazilian, the fees are... hummm... inconvenient.

(it's the reason I like CurseForge - I can accumulate the points and take them every a year or two, making just one transaction and saving a ton of money in the process)

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...
33 minutes ago, Ace76inDC said:

Love this mod!  Question, I can't seem to get settings to persist after a close and restart.  Am I doing something wrong?

What settings? It's only a few of them, or it's everything?

If only a few, it's probably my fault - tell me what's nor persisting and I will try to reproduce here and see what happens.

If everything is lost, then I'm inclined to think it's something environmental. In this case, please:

  • Send me your KSP log
  • Tell me how you are launching the game
    • CKAN
    • Steam
      • It's the launch command line the default or did you customized it?
    • By a shortcut in the desktop
    • Others?
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I'm having the same issue as Ace76inDC, no matter if I open the in-game dialog or manipulate the Settings.cfg within the game data directory for DistantObject, the desired settings do not persist (it reverts in-game to the default, regardless of the config). It seems to effect every option, mostly enabling Distant Vessel Rendering and turning up the Maximum Sky Brightness to 1.0.

My KSP.log file doesn't seem to be working, the last edit time was years ago. Here's my MiniAVC.log instead, if that helps: https://pastebin.com/1NpR3eVw.

I launch the game via Steam with the launcher bypass command line.

Hope this helps!

Edited by SimplePhysics
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7 hours ago, SimplePhysics said:

I'm having the same issue as Ace76inDC, no matter if I open the in-game dialog or manipulate the Settings.cfg within the game data directory for DistantObject, the desired settings do not persist (it reverts in-game to the default, regardless of the config). It seems to effect every option, mostly enabling Distant Vessel Rendering and turning up the Maximum Sky Brightness to 1.0.

My KSP.log file doesn't seem to be working, the last edit time was years ago. Here's my MiniAVC.log instead, if that helps: https://pastebin.com/1NpR3eVw.

I launch the game via Steam with the launcher bypass command line.

Hope this helps!

The <KSP_Root>/GameData/DistantObject/PluginData/Settings.cfg file is a template, it's used only when no working settings is found. The real settings, once you change something and click on the Apply button, can be found on <KSP_Root>/PluginData/DistantObject/Settings.cfg.

You not being able to find your KSP.log means that you are launching KSP using that Steam launcher unfortunate hack. Please don't do that, KSP itself dosn't behaves correctly when you do that.

Without the KSP.log, my hands are tied anyway. The MiniAVC.log is useless, I do't maintain MiniAVC. In true, you should delete all instances of the MiniAVC.dll file in your GameData. There's just on need for it nowadays.

Since I'm guessing you are using the PD-Launcher override (mis)stunt, I think you may find it inside the PDLauncher directory. Check it, please.

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On 7/5/2024 at 7:29 AM, Lisias said:

What settings? It's only a few of them, or it's everything?

If only a few, it's probably my fault - tell me what's nor persisting and I will try to reproduce here and see what happens.

If everything is lost, then I'm inclined to think it's something environmental. In this case, please:

  • Send me your KSP log
  • Tell me how you are launching the game
    • CKAN
    • Steam
      • It's the launch command line the default or did you customized it?
    • By a shortcut in the desktop
    • Others?

Oh wow before I pulled my logs I checked deleting my steam command line edit "G:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Kerbal Space Program\KSP_x64.exe" %command%" that deletes the Private Division launcher.

Distant Object settings are back!  what a strange bug.  I figure I like your mod settings better than I hate the Private Division launcher so I went that direction :)

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1 minute ago, Ace76inDC said:

Oh wow before I pulled my logs I checked deleting my steam command line edit "G:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Kerbal Space Program\KSP_x64.exe" %command%" that deletes the Private Division launcher.

Distant Object settings are back!  what a strange bug.  I figure I like your mod settings better than I hate the Private Division launcher so I went that direction :)

Oukey, so now I know what to do.

This launcher stunt used to work in the past, but PDLauncher screwed even this trick.

Currently, the less worst option is to use KSSL.

 

Better solutions are possible, however. But I'm not seeing people willing to implement them, unfortunately. 

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1 hour ago, Ace76inDC said:

Amazing.  Looks like the command line trick was also screwing up Rocket Sounds and maybe Blackrack's Cloud mod

Yes. This is happening since the first time that horrible perversity called PD-Launcher. Some people just don't grasp the idea that you just can't launch a program from a different directory it was meant to be launched...

Private Division didn't helped neither, as they were the first ones to change the CWD on KSP (that were the same for more than 10 years).

What add'ons authors are doing (and what I'm going to do with DOE too on the next release) is to just sweep the dirty under the rug, doing some shenanigans to find the right place instead of trusting KSP will tell us the correct place (as it is being fooled by the problem itself), and call it a day. Not because this is a good fix, because it's not - it's terrible, because KSP will still misbehave shoving files on the wrong place - but because no one is going to really fix the problem, and most people just blames the add'on author instead of understanding where the problem really is.

Thank you very much, by the way, for being one of the people that really understand the problem instead of shooting the messenger! :)

There's a pretty complete essay on :

 

1 hour ago, Ace76inDC said:

Your mod is incredible and thanks so much for what you do!

DOE is the result of the efforts of many people, and in the name of @Rubber Ducky, @MOARdV and @TheDarkBadger (the previous authors before me), I thank you. :)

Cheers!

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Thanks for the pointers in the right direction for modern launchers and plugins! It's been years since I played KSP and I'm just getting back to it so I'm a bit rusty and out of the loop! I took the first fix I came across for that horrendous PD launcher :confused: Appreciate your replies! I'll make those changes and see what happens!

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4 hours ago, SimplePhysics said:

I also didn't see the apply button, that's my bad! It was off the bottom of my screen below the debug & ui config options...

Ugh... You are right, I remember cursing this once but completely forgot about.... :blush:

Well, I will not forget it again! https://github.com/net-lisias-ksp/DistantObject/issues/43

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 7/11/2024 at 7:31 AM, Lisias said:

nes to change the CWD on KSP (that were the same for more than 10 years).

What add'ons authors are doing (and what I'm going to do with DOE too on the next release) is to just sweep the dirty under the rug, doing some shenanigans to find the right place instead of trusting KSP will tell us the correct place (as it is being fooled by the problem itself), and call it a day. Not because this is a good fix, because it's not - it's terrible, because KSP will still misbehave shoving files on the wrong place - but because no one is going to really fix the problem, and most people just blames the add'on author instead of understanding where the problem really is

The good news I see that the PD launcher is no more in KSP...

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Posted (edited)

ANNOUNCE

Release 2.2.0.0 is available for downloading, with the following changes:

  • Add's (transparent) support for Kopernicus
  • Adds a blacklist to prevent some bodies from being flared (and labeled)
  • Allows customising the Fly Over Labels for vessels and bodies
  • Allows per savegame settings
  • Finally fix that pesky Settings Dialog being too tall.

Kopernicus support wasn't tested yet, but Stock is still working fine. [Tested on Kopernicus!! #HURRAY!!!]

Being able to choose the Fly Over Labels size and font is nice! :)

See OP for the links.

KeepWalking.jpg

— — — — —

This Release will be published using the following Schedule:

  • GitHub. Right Now.
  • CurseForge. Right Now.
  • SpaceDock.  Right Now.
Edited by Lisias
Distribution channels updated.
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