Graphical Improvements - Overhauled Game Lighting and Better Explosions

[Astro648]

Explosions!

The current explosions of the game look pretty good, but they could be a lot better. Here's an example screenshot of when something goes terribly wrong from brickfarmer10 on Discord:

 

Currently, most of the explosions we see look very similar, with only a small amount of randomness and size difference. They also disappear very quickly after they show up, which isn't very realistic. Here's some ideas I have to make them look a lot better:

1. Better volumetric effects: currently, they feel less like a 3D effect and more like a 2D effect put into the environment. This screenshot from the first feature video shows what a better volumetric smoke cloud from the explosion would look like

2. Longer-lasting explosions - Explosions, especially larger ones, should take more time to dissipate than what we have right now

3. Sparks and debris coming off of the explosion - you can see this around the explosion in the screenshot above

4. Shock wave - a small, quick effect that adds some "impact" to the explosion, maybe this could only happen for the largest explosions?

5. Darker smoke - This might apply to SRB plumes too

6. Amount of fuel and fuel type in fuel tanks affects the overall look of the explosion coming from them, and an explosion of one fuel tank should lead to another one exploding

7. MORE RANDOMNESS!! Nate said that every explosion should be a unique snowflake, and with more randomness, it could truly be like that.

Lighting!

The game looks fantastic right now, but it could look even better with some better lighting. Here are several ideas on how this could be approached:

1. BETTER REFLECTIONS: I've noticed a lot of things such as the ocean, terrain, and metallic parts are too reflective of sunlight. Perhaps this could be toned down to look more realistic. Some screenshots throughout development which show some fantastic reflections are here:

This one, captured from episode 1, shows some really nice reflections - we can see the solar panels are reflecting the light from the planets very realistically and the legs, although metallic, aren't reflecting an insane amount of sunlight. The devs have addressed the fact that some parts look "plasticky", hopefully they look better in the near future.

This screenshot was captured from episode 6.

1. We can see the sunlight's reflection on a metallic part is not overblown and looks quite nice. Compared with 2...

2. The sunlight's reflection on a painted part is also not overblown and looks nice and matte compared to 1.

3. This is the best part of this scene in my opinion, the reflections here are insanely good. If reflections of this level were added to the game, I think vistas on surfaces would look quite a lot better. We can see the reflection of Jool is not insanely bright which looks quite good.

Here is an example of some nice-looking metallic parts. You can see the reflections of the sun are not overkill and they look nice and metallic still.

2. BETTER LIGHTING: This could make the game look better if done properly. This (in my opinion) is done wonderfully in Episode 6 and I think it looks fantastic, so let me share it here.

In episode 6, we could see that the game looked a bit "glowier" than before which definitely made it look quite fantastic. I feel like this is a better solution than making all the reflections super bright, as it makes the game world look brighter and more vivid while not burning our eyes with overblown reflections

With a bit of bloom and better reflections, the lighting on the terrain, vehicle, and Kerbal looks quite fantastic. The little bit of lens dust just adds to the look, and I think that this could be great as a subtle detail.

This image shows it off quite nicely too.

Back on Kerbin, we can see that the brighter lighting makes the whiter smoke plume compared to Episode 1 seem less out of place. The colors look quite good with this effect.

 

What do you think about this? Is there anything you would change or add to my suggestions?

Edited April 15 by Astro648
Fixed broken image links

[Jaypeg]

Bop does look glowy rn, but not every planet sadly. Also clouds need to be a lot better. And in-atmosphere plumes are wayyy too bright vs irl. They have a lot of detail but you just can't see it because its too bright!

[Astro648]

Just now, Jaypeg said:

Bop does look glowy rn, but not every planet sadly. Also clouds need to be a lot better. And in-atmosphere plumes are wayyy too bright vs irl. They have a lot of detail but you just can't see it because its too bright!

Ooh, I missed those. Good points!

[Jaypeg]

I also think planets are a little bit too bright on their sun-facing side. Your example is much better than ingame in my opinion.

[Astro648]

Just now, Jaypeg said:

I also think planets are a little bit too bright on their sun-facing side. Your example is much better than ingame in my opinion.

Yeah, that's also an issue. Toning it down a bit and adding bloom like my later examples would probably help in making the game even better.

[The Aziz]

2 hours ago, Astro648 said:

The little bit of lens dust just adds to the look, and I think that this could be great as a subtle detail.

No. Hard no.

Also, has anyone thought that we have what we have because they needed something that worked on barely crawling 0.1.0? "Better" things are more computationally expensive, and it will improve as further optimizations are implemented.

[Spicat]

Big yes, while really pretty in some situation in some other it's very subpar. I made a topic some time ago about the lightning on the terrain being weird.  They addressed some of my complaints but I still think the lighting on sunset look weird.

4 hours ago, The Aziz said:

No. Hard no.

I think it's a good idea when you orient the camera down to the wheels that produce particle effects.

Spoiler

 

It could disappear shortly after you pan the camera up, no big deal.

[The Aziz]

As a temporary detail related to particle effects, sure, maybe. As permanent overlay, never. I'd never know what's dirty, my screen or the camera. It was presented when Early Access was announced and I'm glad it didn't make it to production.

Some people never had to wear glasses and it shows.

[Astro648]

10 hours ago, The Aziz said:

No. Hard no.

Also, has anyone thought that we have what we have because they needed something that worked on barely crawling 0.1.0? "Better" things are more computationally expensive, and it will improve as further optimizations are implemented.

Sorry, to clarify I don't mean this being there ALL the time - just a small detail that shows up every so often when there are lots of bright things in the screen.

We'll just have to wait and see what the devs do after they optimize the game a lot better - hopefully, we'll get an insanely good looking game once 1.0 drops

5 hours ago, Spicat said:

Big yes, while really pretty in some situation in some other it's very subpar. I made a topic some time ago about the lightning on the terrain being weird.  They addressed some of my complaints but I still think the lighting on sunset look weird.

I think it's a good idea when you orient the camera down to the wheels that produce particle effects.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

It could disappear shortly after you pan the camera up, no big deal.

Ness did address the plasticky terrain look on her AMA if I remember correctly - hopefully this will be completely fixed as time goes on.

[Stephensan]

the thing i dislike about the graphics (besides the lack of good clouds and weather etc.) is the inconsistency of the game looking good or not, high quality textures or not etc..

 

avg texture for most of my landings, either due to location or "geolocation" on the planet/moon..
 

Spoiler

for flat terrains, you can count the pixels for the terrain even at a decent distance..

 

then you have craft parts look blurry for anything about 1440p. (mind you i play max settings 4k)

 

yes i quite understand and know that textures increase resource requirements but let that be an option for users to turn off and on, but some of these textures feel like a 8k wii game upscale when playing at high resolutions.

 

Then the issue of well, hate me, clouds, and the lack of them for me in kerbin.. i rarely see clouds thicker than a "bottom of a lava lamp"  example

Spoiler

then you might get "some" thick clouds but its such a rare moment for me, a person that just stays around kerbin that i have only really gotten four photos with anything that would be considered a cloud.

 

but in RARE few moments you can get some of the best photos you have ever gotten.

 

and then also just for giggles, you need to go around 7.5kms at around 35km in kerbin to be able not to see your craft.

I spoiled cause like a lot of photos..

there is just some hope that we get weather with better clouds, reentry effects tweaked a little, perhaps slightly better textures for certain areas on planets, colored reentry, sparks on reentry and shock cones for atmosphere flight..

 

a lot of small things, but we have a lot of work to be done

 

also, i really do not want to go to laythe to see good clouds/atmosphereic effects, i just want some decent large clouds on kerbin, lava lamps just don't suit the game with everything else being so dramatic

[Astro648]

1 hour ago, Stephensan said:

the thing i dislike about the graphics (besides the lack of good clouds and weather etc.) is the inconsistency of the game looking good or not, high quality textures or not etc..

 

avg texture for most of my landings, either due to location or "geolocation" on the planet/moon..
 

  Reveal hidden contents

for flat terrains, you can count the pixels for the terrain even at a decent distance..

 

then you have craft parts look blurry for anything about 1440p. (mind you i play max settings 4k)

 

yes i quite understand and know that textures increase resource requirements but let that be an option for users to turn off and on, but some of these textures feel like a 8k wii game upscale when playing at high resolutions.

 

Then the issue of well, hate me, clouds, and the lack of them for me in kerbin.. i rarely see clouds thicker than a "bottom of a lava lamp"  example

  Reveal hidden contents

then you might get "some" thick clouds but its such a rare moment for me, a person that just stays around kerbin that i have only really gotten four photos with anything that would be considered a cloud.

 

but in RARE few moments you can get some of the best photos you have ever gotten.

 

and then also just for giggles, you need to go around 7.5kms at around 35km in kerbin to be able not to see your craft.

I spoiled cause like a lot of photos..

there is just some hope that we get weather with better clouds, reentry effects tweaked a little, perhaps slightly better textures for certain areas on planets, colored reentry, sparks on reentry and shock cones for atmosphere flight..

 

a lot of small things, but we have a lot of work to be done

 

also, i really do not want to go to laythe to see good clouds/atmosphereic effects, i just want some decent large clouds on kerbin, lava lamps just don't suit the game with everything else being so dramatic

Lots of great suggestions, thanks for your comment!

[Jaypeg]

On 2/18/2024 at 7:03 PM, The Aziz said:

No. Hard no.

Also, has anyone thought that we have what we have because they needed something that worked on barely crawling 0.1.0? "Better" things are more computationally expensive, and it will improve as further optimizations are implemented.

 

On 2/19/2024 at 6:42 AM, Stephensan said:

the thing i dislike about the graphics (besides the lack of good clouds and weather etc.) is the inconsistency of the game looking good or not, high quality textures or not etc..

 

avg texture for most of my landings, either due to location or "geolocation" on the planet/moon..
 

  Hide contents

for flat terrains, you can count the pixels for the terrain even at a decent distance..

 

then you have craft parts look blurry for anything about 1440p. (mind you i play max settings 4k)

 

yes i quite understand and know that textures increase resource requirements but let that be an option for users to turn off and on, but some of these textures feel like a 8k wii game upscale when playing at high resolutions.

 

Then the issue of well, hate me, clouds, and the lack of them for me in kerbin.. i rarely see clouds thicker than a "bottom of a lava lamp"  example

  Reveal hidden contents

then you might get "some" thick clouds but its such a rare moment for me, a person that just stays around kerbin that i have only really gotten four photos with anything that would be considered a cloud.

 

but in RARE few moments you can get some of the best photos you have ever gotten.

 

and then also just for giggles, you need to go around 7.5kms at around 35km in kerbin to be able not to see your craft.

I spoiled cause like a lot of photos..

there is just some hope that we get weather with better clouds, reentry effects tweaked a little, perhaps slightly better textures for certain areas on planets, colored reentry, sparks on reentry and shock cones for atmosphere flight..

 

a lot of small things, but we have a lot of work to be done

 

also, i really do not want to go to laythe to see good clouds/atmosphereic effects, i just want some decent large clouds on kerbin, lava lamps just don't suit the game with everything else being so dramatic

Seems like 70% of this is just issues with the AA system

On 2/19/2024 at 1:23 AM, The Aziz said:

As a temporary detail related to particle effects, sure, maybe. As permanent overlay, never. I'd never know what's dirty, my screen or the camera. It was presented when Early Access was announced and I'm glad it didn't make it to production.

Some people never had to wear glasses and it shows.

Maybe an option? Also I think they might mean more like the overexaggerated fuel effects in war thunder

[Brody.mack]

I also feel like currently, it is hard to appreciate explosions when they do happen. I know it is kinda hard to reduce the lag spike when explosions happen but when my large rocket inevitably explodes I want to watch it. I'm glad they added a delay before the "Uh oh!" screen pops up so I can better view the explosion, but I still feel like there's some improvements to be made there.

[Aaron VFX]

Great feedback in this thread. Thanks for the detailed post Astro648!

*image links broken.  would love to see instances to go along with the descriptions

[Spicat]

Also, do not use discord link, they expire

[Astro648]

Thank you @Aaron VFX! Sorry for the late response. I'll make sure to dig up the images again and reupload them sometime these few days.

[Astro648]

@Aaron VFX I have fixed the image links, thank you Aaron and thank you @Spicat for telling me about it!