About the color of Duna's atmosphere

[Cesrate]

When you look up at noon on Duna… You'll get an almost black sky. The Mar's sky doesn't like that, according to documentary films... Will this be moderated?

Edit: Osh, it seems that few ones look up Duna's sky. I'm sure the game is not broken, since 0.19 I've noticed the atmospheric glow near the horizon is orange, however on the top of the sky is less-colored and near-black. Maybe the atmosphere lighting need to be adjusted.

Edited May 25, 2013 by Cesrate

[katyjsst]

Nope. Duna's noon is pink.

[biggles1]

your KSP be broken.

[Deadweasel]

your KSP be broken.

This is a situation that will be difficult for an inexperienced player to notice though. I mean it's KSP for dog's sake! Fully half the fun of the game is trying to fly ships that are horribly broken before they even hit the pad/runway, and then proceed to fly perfectly anyway. How does one tell when their particular install is broken?

Though, I suppose Duna's sky being all black is a pretty good indicator, now that I think on it...

[(An Original Name)]

Duna's sky looks like that for me too, its like there's a giant black circle over practically all of the sky, with some red color close to the horizon that quickly tapers to black as you look higher up. I think that its due to how KSP renders atmospheres, without sufficient atmospheric thickness (lower pressure than around 5-10 km altitude on Kerbin, like how it is on Duna) the sky just ends up looking really faint

[Deadweasel]

Duna's sky looks like that for me too, its like there's a giant black circle over practically all of the sky, with some red color close to the horizon that quickly tapers to black as you look higher up. I think that its due to how KSP renders atmospheres, without sufficient atmospheric thickness (lower pressure than around 5-10 km altitude on Kerbin, like how it is on Duna) the sky just ends up looking really faint

Are you viewing from a high land feature? I don't have a mission out to Duna just yet, but that gives me a positive goal to start on right now. Could you post your graphics settings, and I'll compare them with what I see as well? Maybe between us we can see what might be the source of the issue.

[Cesrate]

Duna's sky looks like that for me too, its like there's a giant black circle over practically all of the sky, with some red color close to the horizon that quickly tapers to black as you look higher up. I think that its due to how KSP renders atmospheres, without sufficient atmospheric thickness (lower pressure than around 5-10 km altitude on Kerbin, like how it is on Duna) the sky just ends up looking really faint

Maybe that's because the new lighting system? I forgot what it looks like in 0.17...

[Deadweasel]

I would like to add real quick that Duna's atmosphere *is* thin in the first place.

If you're looking up from an elevated point, you might just see darker sky. Any screenies we can compare with?

/heads off to begin Duna mission immediately

[biggles1]

Though, I suppose Duna's sky being all black is a pretty good indicator, now that I think on it...

^exactly this

[biggles1]

Holy moley that glare

[Deadweasel]

Holy moley that glare

LOL that's near the edge of Duna's northern polar region. It's "snow", not red Duna dirt.

[xandski]

I would like to add real quick that Duna's atmosphere *is* thin in the first place.

^ This. You have to remember that Duna's atmosphere is only 1/5th as thick as that of Mars (~40km for Duna and ~200km for Mars) so I personally think Duna's atmosphere is modelled accurately given the thickness of said atmosphere. Do not adjust your KSP, your settings are not broken, its just the way that the game renders such a thin atmosphere.

Although this is a sunset image, you can see the atmospheric colouring beginning to taper away towards the top of the picture. I think this is nicely modelled in the game (just look at Deadweasel's image). Another Image of the tapering in atmospheric colour of Mars.

Gotta love the gratuitous shots from Mars.

[Cesrate]

^ This. You have to remember that Duna's atmosphere is only 1/5th as thick as that of Mars (~40km for Duna and ~200km for Mars) so I personally think Duna's atmosphere is modelled accurately given the thickness of said atmosphere. Do not adjust your KSP, your settings are not broken, its just the way that the game renders such a thin atmosphere.

Although this is a sunset image, you can see the atmospheric colouring beginning to taper away towards the top of the picture. I think this is nicely modelled in the game (just look at Deadweasel's image). Another Image of the tapering in atmospheric colour of Mars.

Gotta love the gratuitous shots from Mars.

So the Mars' also like this? All right there's no problem now.

[xandski]

So the Mars' also like this? All right there's no problem now.

Not to the same extent but yes. Basically, the thicker the atmosphere, the more light is able to be refracted and higher up you'll see colour.

Hope I helped

[EleSigma]

Which is why I never venture to Eve anymore. That bright, neon-violet atmosphere murders my eyes.

[xandski]

Eve is the target for my next colonisation attempt. I just need to finish off my Duna base.

[(An Original Name)]

I just checked the KSP wiki to see what the real pressures were for the planets that have an atmosphere, and apparently Duna's atmospheric pressure at "sea" level is 20.3 kilopascals. Compare that to Kerbin and even Earth, which both have a atmospheric pressure at sea level of 101 kilopascals. KSP seems to have a somewhat realistic representation of atmospheres, except for the fact that they thin out at a much higher rate than for normal atmospheres. This exponential atmospheric fading is probably in the game to make it easier to get to orbit, like how celestial bodies in KSP are 10x smaller than what their gravity's should allow, increasing the rate of curvature and decreasing orbital speed and d/v needed to get to orbit. (with the much smaller size and faster tapering atmosphere, you only need around 4200-4500 d/v to get to Kerbin orbit. Compare that to 9400 m/s for Earth orbit, which is very similar to the d/v cost for an Eve ascent. Oh, and I'll try to get back on topic ) Anyway, Mars's "sea" level pressure is .636 kilopascals. That's just 3% of Duna's atmospheric pressure! And yet Mars doesn't exhibit quite the same amount of tapering to black in it's sky than Duna's. This is either due to how much higher up Mars's atmosphere lasts than Duna's (200km and 40km respectively), or it is just how KSP renders thinner and thinner atmospheres than Kerbin's. Well, here's the end of my semi-scientific rant. I hope that this helps in some way, it took awhile to type and to find all of the information

[skykooler]

Anyway, Mars's "sea" level pressure is .636 kilopascals. That's just 3% of Duna's atmospheric pressure! And yet Mars doesn't exhibit quite the same amount of tapering to black in it's sky than Duna's. This is either due to how much higher up Mars's atmosphere lasts than Duna's (200km and 40km respectively), or it is just how KSP renders thinner and thinner atmospheres than Kerbin's.

Something else to consider is that Mars's atmosphere is quite dusty, while Duna's isn't (yet, at least.)