[1.12.x] Parallax - PBR Terrain and Surface Objects [2.0.8]

[physicsnerd]

I'm running into a similar installation issue as a couple of people ( @Alioth81 @Zensei) where the ground texture is turning white, and I have the correct versions (Kopernicus, Parallax, Parallax Stock Textures) installed as far as I can tell. It seems the game is running into an issue where it can't find the stock textures- my debug menu is showing a "texture doesn't exist, skipping:". Could be an issue with the reference it's trying to do- the debug menu says it validates the texture with a file path including KSP.app,  which I don't think it should be doing.

 

[Gameslinx]

Hey all, I'm going to be releasing an update some time in the coming days that addresses a few issues with collisions and various other miscellaneous bugs. Here is a list of things that I have fixed - Please let me know if there is anything I've missed:

• Parallax will no longer attempt to set the _PlanetOpacity of the Sun's terrain (which is null, because the sun has no terrain) when in orbit around it. This fixes the log spam when orbiting a star or gas giant
• Corrected logic error in trueLighting config setting that affected trueLighting when set to true and false. Adaptive is unaffected, and should be used by default
• Prevented Kerbals from moving the collision plane underneath another part such that when jumping, walking or EVAing over other parts, they are not jostled about
• Fixed landing gear violently moving about when deploying them and landing on a body (most of you were looking for this one)
• Kerbals are now able to jump off of the parallax terrain without getting stuck in the air and floating
• Added a smoothing function that stops sudden changes in displacement from causing your ship to bounce into the air. At high speeds, this smoothing is reduced and the terrain will be more dangerous.
• Coming out of time warp sets the damping frames back by 50 instead of 10 so that the wheel suspension kicking in doesn't cause your craft to bounce
• Deployable experiments use a bigger collision plane so they don't fall over and through the terrain
• On exiting time warp, deployable experiments no longer bounce into the air
• Damping now always takes 3 seconds regardless of framerate. This can be sped up with physics warp, but is not recommended.

I am also currently working on a way to increase the placement altitude for the surface experiments so that they can be easily and reliably placed on the ground.

[vinix]

Really excited about the new stuff coming 

I also had a question related to the configs of parallax. What does "edgeLength" in TessellationSettings do ? For some reason, setting it to 1  seemed to break Eve's surface, with terrain sections overlapping themselves and landed rovers blowing up on loading. (Not really a bug report since it lacks proper logs and screenshot, but wanted to learn more about the potential causes of it)

[Gameslinx]

7 hours ago, vinix said:

What does "edgeLength" in TessellationSettings do

Triangles are tessellated according to their length on the screen. If their length is very small (below the edge length) they are not tessellated. If they are above the edge length, they are split. Low values for edgeLength results in more tessellation further away from the camera. Higher values result in less, which improves performance, but you may notice the tessellation changing as you move the camera around. I chose a value of 8 for default because it's a good balance between the two.

7 hours ago, vinix said:

setting it to 1  seemed to break Eve's surface

I have just set it to 1 and can't reproduce this

[Drupegod02]

what does "flatMinmus" in global settings do?

[PowderPhysics]

I'm having some issues with Parallax for 1.11.2. I've been through the last few pages here and a few reddit posts already

The Parallax terrain is slightly above the terrain collider. If collisions are on then kerbals can walk on it but all the parts fall through (I have Restock installed so I'm guessing Restock legs aren't supported)

Screenshots and display settings: https://imgur.com/a/WmGysN5

[Gameslinx]

On 3/26/2021 at 5:42 PM, Drupegod02 said:

what does "flatMinmus" in global settings do?

Disables collisions for Minmus

1 hour ago, PowderPhysics said:

I'm having some issues with Parallax for 1.11.2. I've been through the last few pages here and a few reddit posts already

First screenshot - Parallax not installed correctly, so this is not a bug report - it's user error.

Second screenshot - Will investigate, but I think this is due to the same bug that causes the landing gear to jostle around where the collider plane is in the wrong place. This should be fixed in the next update

Third screenshot - You turned colliders off. Obviously that's gonna happen  

[Motokid600]

Forgive me if this is a FAQ, but ive not been able to find info on it. Using the rugged wheels Im getting stuck in the terrain. Collision works. But its as if Im running into a run-away truck ramp as soon as I leave the runway. Craft quickly comes to a halt and gets stuck. Steering doesn't work. Ill work on a log asap if need be encase its not a frequent question.

Edited March 28, 2021 by Motokid600

[Spaceman.Spiff]

1 hour ago, Motokid600 said:

Forgive me if this is a FAQ, but ive not been able to find info on it. Using the rugged wheels Im getting stuck in the terrain. Collision works. But its as if Im running into a run-away truck ramp as soon as I leave the runway. Craft quickly comes to a halt and gets stuck. Steering doesn't work. Ill work on a log asap if need be encase its not a frequent question.

I think a screenshot of this happening would be helpful. 

[Motokid600]

1 hour ago, Spaceman.Spiff said:

I think a screenshot of this happening would be helpful. 

ReStock issue maybe?

[JanHHH]

9 hours ago, Spaceman.Spiff said:

I think a screenshot of this happening would be helpful. 

I think this is the same issue that I reported in my post on the bottom of p.37 (screenshot included). Even though I mention TweakScale in that post, I did some more experimenting and found that the Ruggedized Vehicular Wheels do not work with Parallax ground collisions as soon as you leave the runway, even with the wheels in their original size. I think it's the wheel root point that is touching the ground, not their wheel surface. Thus they just block everything, even external thrust from jet engines. Hopefully this will be fixed with the coming update, as my Laythe Mining Rover is now basically immobile and it's a bit annoying to drive my Tanker Planes around instead of the rover. As of now I just RP it, but still...

 

[Ayzen]

@Gameslinx, is it possible to make grass on Kerbin greener? If yes, how can I do it?

[vinix]

On 3/26/2021 at 4:39 PM, Gameslinx said:

I have just set it to 1 and can't reproduce this

you're right, it wasn't related

I have collected a bit of information, though on a modded save, so maybe not parallax's fault

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B7AqzEtNMvjjgkW5v-sZBhu3hjCSgRhx/view?usp=sharing

^Here is the bug when zoomed out

https://drive.google.com/file/d/165d7f9QvycXX9ghSpwPHAV0gaLk8TNHJ/view?usp=sharing

^then zooming in

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14PD6jAEBGVUhdgs0a--qonivdGw9QDqW/view?usp=sharing

^now on the side

It appeared only on EVE, the other planets I have tested so far are working fine. It occurs once you get close to the surface, below 1-ish km, and it destroys your FPS (from >60 to ~10).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O3SLH1Xdm7Fbm-DEmt7m-bXV4CuP7qw5/view?usp=sharing

^here is my log, though polluted by errors from other mods.

I will try to get more info, and reproduce the bug on a clean install

EDIT:

On a clean install with default parameters, the bug does not happen. Changing the parallax's config appears to trigger the bug however. My config:

Spoiler

ParallaxGlobalConfig
{
    //These are global settings - Do not include a version of this in your own mod
    
    TessellationSettings                        //Control quality of tessellation
    {
        edgeLength = 8                            //Default = 25 (Close). Set it to 1 for the best quality.
        range = 250                                //Default = 99 (First zoom level fade start)
        maxTessellation = 64                    //Default = 64 (Max = 64)
        tessellationQuality = Higher            //Default = Normal
                                                //Options are: Low / Normal / High / Higher
    }
    ReflectionSettings                            //Control quality of reflections
    {
        reflections = false                     //true or false
        refreshRate = 1                            //FPS value or "realtime"
        timeSlicing = IndividualFaces            //"Instantly", "AllFacesAtOnce", "IndividualFaces"
        resolution = 1024                            //64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048
    }
    LightingSettings
    {
        tessellateLighting = true                //Flat lighting or accurate lighting
        tessellateShadows = true                //Flat shadows or accurate shadows
        tessellate = true                        //Turning this off will disable tessellation entirely
        
        trueLighting = adaptive                    //true, false or adaptive
    }                                            //false: ambient light everywhere
                                                //true: no ambient light - shadows are stronger, and night time is pitch black
                                                //adaptive: proper lighting - ambient light in atmosphere, pure black on vacuum planets
    CollisionSettings
    {
        collide = true
        flatMinmus = false
    }
}                                                
 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ma0qh8q14dYoC22M9_LX2a1pmtN81jJI/view?usp=sharing

^corresponding log

Will try to do more digging tomorrow 

EDIT2:

I found the culprit: on a fresh install of ksp 1.11.2 with parallax 1.2.2, setting tessellationQuality to High or Higher causes Eve terrain and collider to glitch. I will open an issue on github

EDIT3:

my bad, it already is, sorry

Edited March 30, 2021 by vinix
o0psi

[akkhor]

Hey, having a little issue. Just before landing on a surface the textures suddenly get darker in blocks and it absolutely kills the performance. Like it goes from 50fps to 20fps and the game goes into that physics slow motion mode. Any idea what could be causing it. Attached a screenshot and modlist.

https://imgur.com/a/EfN7r3V

modlist - Pastebin.com

 

[Gameslinx]

34 minutes ago, akkhor said:

Hey, having a little issue. Just before landing on a surface the textures suddenly get darker in blocks and it absolutely kills the performance. Like it goes from 50fps to 20fps and the game goes into that physics slow motion mode. Any idea what could be causing it. Attached a screenshot and modlist.

https://imgur.com/a/EfN7r3V

modlist - Pastebin.com

 

Try removing planetshine or at least set it to Vertex mode and let me know if that helps 

[akkhor]

@Gameslinx that did it! Thank you so much!!! (Setting it to medium and vertex mode was good for me if anyone is wondering.)

Another small issue, there are levitating rocks all over the mun. I turned off ground scatter in KSP settings but they're still there.

[Alioth81]

On 3/25/2021 at 11:38 PM, physicsnerd said:

I'm running into a similar installation issue as a couple of people ( @Alioth81 @Zensei) where the ground texture is turning white, and I have the correct versions (Kopernicus, Parallax, Parallax Stock Textures) installed as far as I can tell. It seems the game is running into an issue where it can't find the stock textures- my debug menu is showing a "texture doesn't exist, skipping:". Could be an issue with the reference it's trying to do- the debug menu says it validates the texture with a file path including KSP.app,  which I don't think it should be doing.

 

@physicsnerd and @SpaceFace545 I opened an issue at github and it was closed again solving my problem with the textures not correctly displaying.

It was a mistake on my side but its resolution might help you as well as you experienced something similar.

I was missing ModularFlightIntgerator (which is required by kopernicus)

When upgrading from an older KSP version I installed Parallax (and kopernicus) but uninstalled FAR. Somehow I managed to confuse my CKAN and it still had the checkbox from modularflightintegrator ticked although the folder was not present anymore!

For me uninstalling everything and then starting again with parallax letting CKAN install all dependencies properly worked and I can enjoy the mod in all its beauty

 

Edited March 30, 2021 by Alioth81

[RW-1]

@Gameslinx

This totally has revamped my experience! Awesome work!

Just when I have made my rovers 20m/s capable, you had to ruin it with rough terrain 

I too, like akkhor have floating areas of rocks on mun, but I'm just going to wait for  your next update to enjoy, it's not yet anywhere a deal breaker for me.

[rovers now crawling at 2m/s to not destroy wheels, there are only so many repair packs I brought  hehehehe]

 

 

[hendrack]

6 minutes ago, RW-1 said:

@Gameslinx

This totally has revamped my experience! Awesome work!

Just when I have made my rovers 20m/s capable, you had to ruin it with rough terrain 

I too, like akkhor have floating areas of rocks on mun, but I'm just going to wait for  your next update to enjoy, it's not yet anywhere a deal breaker for me.

[rovers now crawling at 2m/s to not destroy wheels, there are only so many repair packs I brought  hehehehe]

 

 

KerbalFoundries has some nice stuff for hovercraft, my little probe was speeding at comfortable 40 m/s. Brakes not included.

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/27292-what-did-you-do-in-ksp-today/&do=findComment&comment=3946573

Edited April 1, 2021 by hendrack

[Gameslinx]

On 3/29/2021 at 8:12 PM, vinix said:

I found the culprit: on a fresh install of ksp 1.11.2 with parallax 1.2.2, setting tessellationQuality to High or Higher causes Eve terrain and collider to glitch. I will open an issue on github

Thanks! For now, I'm leaving this issue open. I'm working on something that will replace the current subdivision system (which might allow for RSS Parallax and more detail at better performance)

38 minutes ago, RW-1 said:

rovers now crawling at 2m/s to not destroy wheels, there are only so many repair packs I brought  hehehehe

I'm about to release an update to remedy this  

[Spaceman.Spiff]

20 minutes ago, Gameslinx said:

I'm about to release an update to remedy this  

I hope it’s not April fools 

[Gameslinx]

Parallax 1.2.3

This is a live release. Please submit issues via GitHub's issues page https://github.com/Gameslinx/Tessellation/issues

Changelog:

Changes:

• Parallax will no longer attempt to set the _PlanetOpacity of the Sun's terrain
• Corrected logic error in trueLighting config setting that affected trueLighting when set to true and false
• Prevented Kerbals from moving the collision plane underneath another part such that when jumping, walking or EVAing over other parts, they are not jostled about
• Added a smoothing function that stops sudden changes in displacement from causing your ship to bounce into the air
• Coming out of time warp sets the damping frames back by 50 instead of 10 so that the wheel suspension kicking in doesn't cause your craft to bounce
• Deployable experiments use a bigger collision plane so they don't fall over and through the terrain
• On exiting time warp, deployable experiments no longer bounce into the air
• Damping now always takes 3 seconds regardless of framerate. This can be sped up with physics warp, but is not recommended.

Fixes:

• Kerbals are now able to jump off of the parallax terrain without getting stuck in the air and floating
• Fixed landing gear violently moving about when deploying them and landing on a body

Special Thanks

• Thank you to Ondřej Chmelař, Armadous, Michael Armida, Jon Medders, Philipp Schlier, Matthew Tarbet, Raymond Beehler, Kalle Anttila, Robert Griffith Moore, Emmanuel Lnd, Enzo Roncoletta, Cordell mitchell, Jollicent, Austin Dean, Sebastien Deyres and Morphisor who are all active Patrons as of April 1st 2021
• Thank you to Blackrack who has been supporting and, at times, assisting with development since its beginning
• Thank you to R-T-B who helped fix a large variety of bugs via GitHub.
• Thank you for downloading Parallax.

Most importantly, thank you for downloading Parallax. If you would like to support this project's development (or simply want to buy me a coffee!) you can support me via Patreon or Paypal:

• Patreon
• Paypal

[AccidentalDisassembly]

Took the new version for a spin! Noticed some slightly odd behavior with some exceptions in the log as well. KSP 1.11.2, not too many mods (dev-ish install). I think (hope) it's installed correctly w/ Kopernicus and whatnot.

In Kerbin's deserts, this happens - the vehicle looks visually like it's going over terrain that is more undulating and uneven than appears in the image; when it's going "up" some invisible terrain, it rises up as shown:

Log with exceptions: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ganwdxhi67loxp9/KSPLog_parallax_exc.log?dl=0

The exceptions didn't seem to correspond to any particular behavior, but.. well, there they are.

[Bursoma]

On 3/28/2021 at 9:01 AM, JanHHH said:

I think this is the same issue that I reported in my post on the bottom of p.37 (screenshot included). Even though I mention TweakScale in that post, I did some more experimenting and found that the Ruggedized Vehicular Wheels do not work with Parallax ground collisions as soon as you leave the runway, even with the wheels in their original size. I think it's the wheel root point that is touching the ground, not their wheel surface. Thus they just block everything, even external thrust from jet engines. Hopefully this will be fixed with the coming update, as my Laythe Mining Rover is now basically immobile and it's a bit annoying to drive my Tanker Planes around instead of the rover. As of now I just RP it, but still...

 

 

I've also encountered this issue. I did a test with the MKS Karibou rover wheels. Everything works fine with the stock wheels. I've never worked on KSP mods before but I will look into a fix.

https://imgur.com/YqZY05k

[RW-1]

9 hours ago, hendrack said:

KerbalFoundries has some nice stuff for hovercraft, my little probe was speeding at comfortable 40 m/s. Brakes not included.

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/27292-what-did-you-do-in-ksp-today/&do=findComment&comment=3946573

sweet!

8 hours ago, Gameslinx said:

Thanks! For now, I'm leaving this issue open. I'm working on something that will replace the current subdivision system (which might allow for RSS Parallax and more detail at better performance)

I'm about to release an update to remedy this  

I knew that   I didn't know you'd do it today hehehehehehe ...

 

Ooooh, much nicer driving now, Jeb Approves!

Edited April 1, 2021 by RW-1