Parallax 2.0

[Vl3d]

Linx (and the whole modding community) did an amazing job with the new release and have set the bar very high for KSP2. Are you impressed, do you think KSP2 will go in this direction and be even more dense and amazing?

 

[t_v]

We’ve seen the grass, which looks just as dense (although a bit lower), and we’ve seen the work on the rock scattering system, which looks more sparse. I don’t think that the density of features will be due to a technical or feature limitation, but rather due to artistic decisions on how the planets should look. 
 

However, one thing that Parallax can’t (yet) do that we’ve seen in KSP 2 is the large-scale bumpy terrain visible from much further away. KSP’s terrain is still very smooth with scatters on it, and the jagged bumps that we’ve seen in KSP 2 indicate that planets might be even more interesting to navigate. 
 

Also, congrats to Gameslinx on this amazing update to Parallax. If this is the first time you have heard about this mod or this update, download it now, it is very much worth it. 

[Bej Kerman]

30 minutes ago, Vl3d said:

set the bar very high for KSP2

This does not have to be a competition, Vlad. Please acknowledge that. Intercept has a lot more on their plate than just the density of grass.

[intelliCom]

4 hours ago, Vl3d said:

Linx (and the whole modding community) did an amazing job with the new release and have set the bar very high for KSP2. Are you impressed, do you think KSP2 will go in this direction and be even more dense and amazing?

 

To be honest, I'm not so keen on vegetation on worlds beyond Kerbin. Sure, it looks nice, but it doesn't feel right. I hope there's a configuration that replaces them with something more realistic, like Venus-like, smooth terrain for Eve.

[intelliCom]

4 hours ago, Bej Kerman said:

This does not have to be a competition, Vlad. Please acknowledge that. Intercept has a lot more on their plate than just the density of grass.

Besides, KSP 2 doesn't serve the purpose of looking nicer than the best stuff; just looking like how a AAA game should look today. Anything beyond would be done with a mod like Parallax (II?)

[TLTay]

Wow, that is exceptional work. I doubt they will be able to do something like that for stock KSP2, just due to it being too demanding for old consoles and little Timmy's hand-me-down optiplex.

So basically, does it run smoothly at 1080p on a 10 year old i5 and GTX1050ti or so? If not, it probably won't be seen in KSP2 from the factory, is my guess... That doesn't mean it won't look good on release, just that it might not look quite that good due to realistic limitations.

[The Aziz]

25 minutes ago, TLTay said:

too demanding for old consoles

Have you seen what old consoles are capable of rendering? Of course it limits to 30 frames, but that assures no or very little frame drops regardless of situation. Unless of course the developer doesn't know what he's doing.

Also worth mentioning that KSP2 will have much more detailed ground itself, not only rocks, grass and trees. Spamming same-ish textures and small 3D models on an eh-quality terrain won't hurt the resources that much.

But then, if a 9 year console can render that and keep stable framerate, I have nothing more to say.

[TLTay]

1 hour ago, The Aziz said:

Have you seen what old consoles are capable of rendering? Of course it limits to 30 frames, but that assures no or very little frame drops regardless of situation. Unless of course the developer doesn't know what he's doing.

Also worth mentioning that KSP2 will have much more detailed ground itself, not only rocks, grass and trees. Spamming same-ish textures and small 3D models on an eh-quality terrain won't hurt the resources that much.

But then, if a 9 year console can render that and keep stable framerate, I have nothing more to say.

Well, I'll be glad to be wrong. I really hope to not feel the need to wait for mods before exploring the cosmos.

[Pthigrivi]

Congrats to Gameslinx this looks incredible and definitely sets a high bar (though of course performance needs to be considered). Out of curiosity does this contain collidable objects?

Edited September 10, 2022 by Pthigrivi

[Just a random person]

8 minutes ago, Pthigrivi said:

Out of curiosity does this contain collidable objects?

Yes, but you have to enable collisions manually

[EpicRaisin]

On 9/5/2022 at 7:19 PM, intelliCom said:

To be honest, I'm not so keen on vegetation on worlds beyond Kerbin. Sure, it looks nice, but it doesn't feel right. I hope there's a configuration that replaces them with something more realistic, like Venus-like, smooth terrain for Eve.

I'm kinda inclined to agree. The bubbles just dont really seem to fit Eve in my opinion.

[The Aziz]

Oh great now it turned into a parallax support thread.

[t_v]

I was worried this would happen, which is why I didn’t make a post mentioning parallax myself. Anyone looking for Parallax, the actual thread is here:

 

[18Watt]

On 9/11/2022 at 7:12 AM, The Aziz said:

Oh great now it turned into a parallax support thread.

Parallax support posts are being moved into the Parallax thread here:  

 

[SciMan]

Did the forum just break somehow? Because all those "the parallax thread can be found here" links are coming up as a white box with a sad face saying "Sorry, this content is no longer available."

But from what I saw on the OP, Parallax looks great, at least on Kerbin.
I'll echo the thoughts of some others here when I say that maybe things that look like "life" shouldn't be found on other planets in the Kerbol system, not on Even and not on Laythe.

The atmosphere has no oxygen on Eve, and there's far too much radiation on Laythe thanks to it orbiting Jool with Jool's theoretically immense Van Allen radiation belts that Laythe should be right in the middle of (tho I suppose some form of radiotrophic microbe that somehow puts out oxygen would make some sort of sense there)

[Pthigrivi]

48 minutes ago, SciMan said:

The atmosphere has no oxygen on Eve, and there's far too much radiation on Laythe thanks to it orbiting Jool with Jool's theoretically immense Van Allen radiation belts that Laythe should be right in the middle of (tho I suppose some form of radiotrophic microbe that somehow puts out oxygen would make some sort of sense there)

I think mossy green stromatolites along the shores could be cool on Laythe. But yeah save wild multicellular stuff for other systems. 

[miklkit]

Why is Parallax 2 in the KSP2 forum?  And why did AVG block a phishing attempt?

[Bej Kerman]

46 minutes ago, miklkit said:

Why is Parallax 2 in the KSP2 forum?  And why did AVG block a phishing attempt?

Because Vl3d is trying to compare it to KSP2.

[miklkit]

The phishing that was blocked made me wonder why it is here. 

Comparing Parallax2 to KSP2?  Mods can go where games can't as they can be more specialized.  Personally will not use it as all my rovers would need to be redesigned and long journeys would be quite tedious.

[mcwaffles2003]

Really hoping KSP 2 gets this level of scatter

[Streetwind]

Independent of how KSP2 looks compared to modded KSP1, don't forget that KSP2 itself can be modded.

Indeed, it should be easier to make graphics mods for KSP2 than it is for KSP1. Development with an eye towards moddability from the get-go, a more modern rendering engine, and leaving behind a lot of legacy cruft and idiosyncracies. I don't need a magic crystal ball to predict that there will certainly be modders who will take it upon themselves to crank the visuals up several more steps. Doesn't matter how good it already looks unmodded. There's always room for moar visuals, just like there is always room for moar boosters

[Gargamel]

A number of posts related to Parallax Tech support have been moved here:

 

Seeing as all we are getting in this thread, which is about a mod, that doesn't exist yet, for a game that hasn't been released yet, is tech support requests for the mod that does exist for the game that has been released, we can lock this one for the time being.