KSP is Dull

[karolus10]

I think, that parts could be even more similar/unified in colors and patters, so they will easier to blend with each other, no matter how they would be used together.

Paint jobs would even increase impression of vehicle being an single entity, not just bunch of parts stitched together.

Shuttle ET isn't painted at all - orange color is from insulation foam covering tank walls.

EDIT_1:

White color is mostly used because of it's lower heat absorption, this is why wearing white/bright clothes in sunny day is better than wearing black T-shirt.

For example black stripes (used for ease tracking by cameras and for seeing roll movement) painted on Saturn V rockets cause many heat issues, because this bits of rocket was overheating on pad from sun, so some black paint stripes (like black ring on first stage) has been removed.

Edited May 15, 2013 by karolus10

[Nibb31]

Yea, thats why most airlines use white paint and "light" paints. It is to save weight. Boeing, when they heard about Air New Zealand's all black 777, they were hesitant.

No. There is no reason why white paint should be lighter than black paint. However, if you add 500 Kg of black paint over a layer of standard white paint, then of course there is a weight penalty.

They use white paint mainly for thermal considerations and because white paint is cheaper than coloured paint. Industrial paint shops buy white paint in bulk and add pigments to make the other colours.

As for space applications, either white or black are used mainly for thermal considerations and visibility.

Interesting bit of trivia: the Apollo CMs used for Skylab were painted white on one side and silver mylar on the other side because they spent most of their time attached to Skylab with one side facing the sun. This wasn't necessary on the Moon missions, because on their way to Moon, the CSM/LM did a "barbecue roll" to minimize exposure, so the lunar CMs were uniformly silver mylar.

Edited May 15, 2013 by Nibb31

[comham]

KSP looks like most current space programs look (without so much gold foil, which is a pity, because that's awesome). Chris Foss, while clearly a talented and tasteful scifi artist, just isn't painting the same kind of stuff that will ever be in KSP. He's painting far-future spaceships-and-lasers stuff.

If you want, take his drawings as a reference and make a 3d model, texture and animate it, and put it in KSP. People seem to love putting unrealistic scifi ships in an unsuitable engine, and that's fine, do what you want.

[PakledHostage]

No. There is no reason why white paint should be lighter than black paint. However, if you add 500 Kg of black paint over a layer of standard white paint, then of course there is a weight penalty.

Another consideration is that a lot of commercial aircraft are leased, and a lot of lease contracts require aircraft to be painted white at the end of the lease. If your livery is white then you can just strip your airline's fuselage and tail markings at the end of the contract and repaint just those areas white. That's a lot cheaper than stripping the whole fuselage and repainting it.

And as to the weight issue, it is also significant: So significant that in some circumstances the control surfaces (i.e. rudder, elevator, ailerons) need to be removed and rebalanced after painting. It depends on the aircraft type and the degree of certainty required.

[Noticeably FAT]

I kinda like the clean white look. I would like to see a little more gold and silver foil, but beyond that white is good.

[merchant_mariner]

Yeah. I'm surprised at the lack of gold foil. Nova's old prop kit mod had all sorts of gold covered doodads. But I love the new 1.25 m parts look in blacks, grays and whites as opposed to the old ones.

[lobsterbark]

Eh? they would have painted it white for aesthetic reasons surely and then realised what a waste of money it was when it was being thrown away every time so they stopped it to save some cash. I honestly cannot see any weight issue with a layer of paint? And protection from what - the weather it will receive from a few days on the launch pad? Methinks you are making things up.

As for the op message no I wouldnt like bright colours. I also love Chris Foss but I wouldnt like that kind of thing here. This is meant to be representative of NASA and a real space program, not science fiction. If you want bright sci-fi ships wait for Elite Dangerous or Star Citizen next year.

I agree with a poster above that for me there is too much variation in colours already - I like the white, the grey, and the black, and perhaps a little bit of the yellow/red to enhance areas of interest such as SAS or RCS. But no I wouldnt like to see bright coloured ships - I grew up with 2001, Star Wars, Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica - I love white and grey ships!

Although having said all that I must admit the inside of the cockpits are a little too dullish grey for my liking - noticed that in the new KSP Weekly shots. I would prefer them to be whiter.

Do you not realise that the protection on ships, often via paint, is really important? The shuttle didn't need the paint on the tank, because no rocket exhaust ever was in the position to damage it. Also, the classic white with black stripes is because it is the easiest to track, and tell the pitch, roll rate, etc. on the ground. Also, a lot of rockets appear white on certain places, because the super cold lox causes ice to form on the tanks.

[Uncle Mort]

KSP looks like most current space programs look (without so much gold foil, which is a pity, because that's awesome). Chris Foss, while clearly a talented and tasteful scifi artist, just isn't painting the same kind of stuff that will ever be in KSP. He's painting far-future spaceships-and-lasers stuff.

If you want, take his drawings as a reference and make a 3d model, texture and animate it, and put it in KSP. People seem to love putting unrealistic scifi ships in an unsuitable engine, and that's fine, do what you want.

I realise that; I don't want to build Foss style ships, I was just using his art as an example of colour schemes. Oddly enough KSP is and isn't a realistic space program. You only have to look at some of the giant boosters people develop on the game to see that. It doesn't have to look like the real thing.

[birrhan]

Damn. I remember a book that looked a lot like Foss' stuff, back around '89 or so. That was inspiring. Had several alien spacewrecks towards the end (a la Alien). Good stuff.

Definitely an element of that sense of exploration from his work in Kerbal, if not the actual colors or forms. I feel like the ad hoc nature of a lot of our ships reflect the built-to-purpose sense of Foss' (in that form reflects what a ship is built for, and much less for aesthetics). Generally.

[diegzumillo]

That artist on the first post is pretty awesome! thanks for sharing, I love sci fi art and I didn't know this guy. And it's strange, usually sci fi art isn't that colorful, it looks great.

I thought the OP was talking about graphics at first, like how the planets are monochromatic and there ain't much to see. This will probably improve with time though.

[nats]

Damn. I remember a book that looked a lot like Foss' stuff, back around '89 or so. That was inspiring. Had several alien spacewrecks towards the end (a la Alien). Good stuff.

Definitely an element of that sense of exploration from his work in Kerbal, if not the actual colors or forms. I feel like the ad hoc nature of a lot of our ships reflect the built-to-purpose sense of Foss' (in that form reflects what a ship is built for, and much less for aesthetics). Generally.

Maybe it was called Spacewreck?

http://www.digitalwaterfalls.co.uk/spacewreck.jpg

I had this book but sold it, but I think I've still got one of these types of books that I couldnt sell. Quite a few of thse types of scifi art filled story books came out around the same time, usually including art by lesser known scifi artists like Peter Elson (my favourite - other than Foss) and Tony Roberts. They had a pretty ropey story throughout that tried to connect all the art pictures, without much success. The story was about the Terran Trade Authority:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terran_Trade_Authority

But I just got them all for the superb art.

[Specialist290]

I think Squad has its eye on greater aesthetic customization options in the future, even if they're mostly on the back burner for now. I know that, in the old old demo, KSP had a "decals" tab that was never actually used for anything, and I think the newly-announced custom flags feature is a small step in that direction.

[Malaugrym]

I honestly couldn't care less how things look, as long as I can tell an objects function from its shape.

[comham]

I realise that; I don't want to build Foss style ships, I was just using his art as an example of colour schemes. Oddly enough KSP is and isn't a realistic space program. You only have to look at some of the giant boosters people develop on the game to see that. It doesn't have to look like the real thing.

It is intended to be realistic though, imo those people are not playing in the spirit of the game. If/when the aerodynamics are fixed, ludicrous launch vehicles like that will not be possible.

[Storm1]

KSP could use with some minor rocked/plane retexturing but really I don't mind that KSP is that "dull"

[rakutenshi]

Isn't that Space Shuttle's tank is unpainted? And most of the spacecrafts I saw IRL are either white or gray. Or gold-ish something.

The Goldish-something is Multi-Layer Insulation, made of Mylar, Kapton, Silver and/or Aluminum sandwiched together.

The orange of the space shuttle's external tank is just the colour of the insulation they use on it, though the first two space shuttle missions, the external tank *was* painted white.

There is a reason for spacecraft primarily being painted in black or white patterns. It has to do with the thermal reflection properties of the two colours. Having a ship painted half black and half white, if you point the white side at the sun, it helps keep it cooler, rotating the ship slowly helps keep the surface temperature balanced much more passively.

There's some details that I don't fully understand, but they pay the people who do fully understand it a bit more money than I make playing KSP.. heh..

And, also as was mentioned earlier while I was typing out this mess, the ease of tracking visual telemetry on a rotating white and black striped craft, does make that useful to.

Edited May 16, 2013 by rakutenshi
More info...

[Reavermyst]

Eh sorta dull at times. I do wish you could color your craft! Do things like use UV projection to add logos and paint on the ship! That would be an epic feature

[Brabbit1987]

Eh sorta dull at times. I do wish you could color your craft! Do things like use UV projection to add logos and paint on the ship! That would be an epic feature

Adding personal logos to ships would be great. It also seems like a feature that would make sense to be put in the game.

[shadowsutekh]

Adding personal logos to ships would be great. It also seems like a feature that would make sense to be put in the game.

While not stock, and I don't have a link handy, there is a mod that does just that, and it's out currently.

[bonyetty]

KSP DMC horse armor for a single player game? Kerbalizer is here and with this thread maybe a Rocketizer is comming. Pritty but with no function no $ from me. How would SQUAD consider this if it were to happen, an update, expansion or a separate application? poke that stick in the ant nest bonyetty

Btw IMHO Kerbal Space Program is the best value for money computer game that I have ever payed for and will probably buy it a third time soon.

[Lunarjax]

Eh? they would have painted it white for aesthetic reasons surely and then realised what a waste of money it was when it was being thrown away every time so they stopped it to save some cash. I honestly cannot see any weight issue with a layer of paint? And protection from what - the weather it will receive from a few days on the launch pad? Methinks you are making things up.

Even dry paint weighs something. Just doing a quick search on the internet will reveal that a gallon of paint weighs between 9 and 11 pounds. A little further searching and I found a paint company with a FAQ that had a topic about the weight of dry paint in aircraft applications. They referred to a Material Safety Data Sheet to consult your paint's "percent weight solids".

Their Example:

Suppose the % Wt solids is 60% and the weight of the paint is 9.0 lbs/gal, then the weight of the solid paint will be 5.4 lbs/gal. If you intend to spray apply the coating to the aircraft using an HVLP spray gun, you can guesstimate that your transfer efficiency will be about 50%. In other words for every gallon of paint that you use, only 2.7 lbs of solid paint is deposited on the aircraft. The remainder falls to the floor or goes into the filters of a spray booth. Hence, if you know approximately how many gallons of paint you will need to purchase, you can estimate the weight of the solid paint that will be deposited.

Also i found this wiki article that claims that when removing the paint from early models of the Space Shuttle External Tank it dropped approximately 600 pounds. I know you can't believe everything you read on Wikipedia, but it stands as a fact that even dry paint does weigh something.

Every little bit counts!

[NeoMorph]

Like others have said, it's all to do with heat management. The whites, gold and silver mylar are to reflect heat while the black absorbs heat. Hell, the Apollo craft had to roll continuously to stop the one side baking and the other side freezing. They called it the barbecue roll. It's also known as Passive Thermal Control.

Also KSP is closer to Science Faction than Science Fiction of Foss's work. I used to love his covers on the Lensmen series books.