[1.12] Niako's Kopernicus Utilities (Smoother Heightmaps)

[Pkmniako]

This forum post is aimed to share some utilities and tricks that might help with developing custom planets that use Kopernicus.

This page is meant for planet developers, not for regular users.

Mitchell-Netravali Filtered Heightmap (0.3)

Download (and source): Github / CKAN
License: MIT
Comparison Images

PQS similar to the stock's VertexHeightMap, but using cubic filtering instead of bilineal filtering. This yields a generally less pixelated terrain, and far better and smoother cliffs.
Read the wiki for installation and usage.
It's recommended that if you use this PQS in your own mod, you bundle it with your mod, as to avoid annoyance to the users. Bundle it so the folder 000_NiakoUtils is in GameData. The mod is also avaliable on CKAN.
 

Edited October 19, 2022 by Pkmniako

[An Amongus Sussy Player]

The man is back

[ssd21345]

omg he's back

[Pkmniako]

For those who use the Mitchell-Netravali Filtered Heightmap dll. When bundling it, please add it to your download so the folder 000_NiakoUtils sits inside GameData.

Some people thought this meant put the .dll wherever they want. Please don't do this, as duplicate .dlls can yield problems or have things like Zero Mini AVC complain.

[Nightside]

On 4/15/2022 at 11:12 AM, Pkmniako said:

and far better and smoother cliffs

@Pkmniako what do you mean by smoother cliffs? are the 3rd and 4th comparison on the GitHub wiki showing the same terrain at different settings or is that a different location? 
 

[Llamageddon]

"Heightmap" is a very broad term, and I don't know how it works the topography of the surface of planets on such an elaborate scale as it does, so it is not beyond the realm of possibility that it is the same image, though that would raise some questions about fidelity with vanilla when using something like this if so. It would certainly raise my eyebrows if this was the case though. Regardless, going by the first two images, this is quite an astounding leap forward in rendering the surface of bodies in KSP. I would also love to see some more examples though, one point of reference is hardly much to go on.

Unfortunately, the KSP modding community seems far more lax about posting (or maybe just maintaining) images of their work than a lot of other modding communities. Though admittedly, this is often because their work usually speaks for itself once you decide to give it a go regardless. I've just been trying to setting a relatively error free newly modded playthrough of KSP with Other Worlds installed, which I get the impression is one of the more prominent mods that it is using this new mod/feature, so I'll be sure to report back if ther is anything to report. Though I've been away from the game for years, so don't really have a point of reference. I'll try and remember to take some screenshots at least... when I get to the new content without killing too many Kerbals.

If @Pkmniako is around, I'd certainly be interested in either getting some more pics to look at, or some directions to some further reading on this cubic filtering method, as, after doing some searching, I have not been able to find any reliable sources or references for it beyond this specific use in KSP. It certainly looks very promising, and I was thinking about doing some tweaking to a planet pack ( even if just for personal use to start with), that, unwarrantedly, appears to have been left by the wayside for a while; especially considering recent updates and releases, incorporating promising new techniques, like the one being promoted here.

[D4RKN3R]

This seems like it could be useful. I've got a big issue with non-smoothed heightmaps in my mod. Could be useful in a future update!

[The Minmus Derp]

On 5/2/2023 at 3:34 AM, Llamageddon said:

"Heightmap" is a very broad term, and I don't know how it works the topography of the surface of planets on such an elaborate scale as it does, so it is not beyond the realm of possibility that it is the same image, though that would raise some questions about fidelity with vanilla when using something like this if so. It would certainly raise my eyebrows if this was the case though. Regardless, going by the first two images, this is quite an astounding leap forward in rendering the surface of bodies in KSP. I would also love to see some more examples though, one point of reference is hardly much to go on.

Unfortunately, the KSP modding community seems far more lax about posting (or maybe just maintaining) images of their work than a lot of other modding communities. Though admittedly, this is often because their work usually speaks for itself once you decide to give it a go regardless. I've just been trying to setting a relatively error free newly modded playthrough of KSP with Other Worlds installed, which I get the impression is one of the more prominent mods that it is using this new mod/feature, so I'll be sure to report back if ther is anything to report. Though I've been away from the game for years, so don't really have a point of reference. I'll try and remember to take some screenshots at least... when I get to the new content without killing too many Kerbals.

If @Pkmniako is around, I'd certainly be interested in either getting some more pics to look at, or some directions to some further reading on this cubic filtering method, as, after doing some searching, I have not been able to find any reliable sources or references for it beyond this specific use in KSP. It certainly looks very promising, and I was thinking about doing some tweaking to a planet pack ( even if just for personal use to start with), that, unwarrantedly, appears to have been left by the wayside for a while; especially considering recent updates and releases, incorporating promising new techniques, like the one being promoted here.

To my knowledge, this doesn't automatically take effect on all heightmaps, its a dll that contains a new PQS mod that you can use on your own planets. For example, lets say I want my moon Klip to use the mitchellnetravali heightmap. To do that I'd have to bundle this, and then in my mod's kopernicus config I'd do

VertexMitchellNetravaliHeightMap
{
	...
}

instead of the regular VertexHeightMap amongst the PQS mods. It uses all the same values so when I converted my planets to use this literally all I had to do was stick "MitchellNetravali" in the middle of the node titles.