[0.22] Universe Replacer v4.0

[JeBuSBrian]

Question: Are the clouds a separate object, or are they simply baked into the ground texture?

[tygoo7]

The new version isn't working for me? It just goes to the default textures. I have the textures in the right place with the right name.

[Levelord]

Yeah it works fine again when you remove the latest kethane

I'm guessing this mod is incompatible with Kethane?

[bac9]

PSA

Just a heads up for everyone making the textures for it: for the love of god, don't use JPEG. All you're saving is negligible difference in download size (if even that: I doubt that archived .tga or .png will take significantly more space than .jpg). You are not saving any memory in the game itself.

The game is not using JPEG, just like it's not using TGA, PNG, MBM and any other supported format. Just like almost every other 3D game, all textures used on runtime are stored in the DDS format (the only texture format that is natively supported by modern GPUs). The game converts every single texture to DDS on launch. You are not optimizing anything or saving any space by using JPEG as the texture format: the texture that will be stored in the memory after KSP loads up will have the same size no matter the source format. Only important difference between using e.g. TGA or JPEG as stored texture format is that the latter murders the image quality with irreversibly lossy compression (even on so-called "high quality" levels). This is especially noticeable because DDS itself is using extremely destructive and lossy compression. Don't put your textures through the grinder twice.

P.S.: PNG & JPEG can also take longer to load on some CPUs due to yet unsolved Unity bug with WWW image loader, use .mbm or .tga if you want to work around that without waiting for the fix.

Edited August 7, 2013 by bac9

[BrutalRIP]

I'm guessing this mod is incompatible with Kethane?

only with kethane 0.7.5 the one before worked fine

Edited August 7, 2013 by BrutalRIP

[LaydeeDem]

I went and re-did Jool using some textures from space engine.

Here's the download:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/56154768/KSP.21/Jool1.tga?dl=1

Just save it in GameData/UniverseReplacer/Textures/Planets/Jool/

[eRe4s3r]

@Bac9

The reason we even tested this is that we found that using compressed TGA files of large size (4k) increased ram usage abnormally above what KSP uses when (4k) PNG's are used.

Edited August 7, 2013 by eRe4s3r

[tygoo7]

Does anyone know why this mod isn't working for me? I don't have the new kethane installed.

[anarkhon]

@Bac9

The reason we even tested this is that we found that using compressed TGA files of large size (4k) increased ram usage abnormally above what KSP uses when (4k) PNG's are used.

yeah and i say it again and again and again,modders pls dont use TGA files and higher textures than 512x512, only if really need it,like IVA (and of course the gorgeous Universe Replacer)

Edited August 7, 2013 by anarkhon

[Apatheticjester]

PSA

P.S.: PNG & JPEG can also take longer to load on some CPUs due to yet unsolved Unity bug with WWW image loader, use .mbm or .tga if you want to work around that without waiting for the fix.

Is there any advantage to saving as a dds. I've never tried doing it but there are plugins for photoshop available?

[Van Disaster]

You can get DDS tools from Nvidia ( including a PS plugin ). Will Unity load them directly though? there is an uncompressed version.

I rather miss this mod, but no way I can remove Kethane at this point ( or would I want to ).

[bac9]

Is there any advantage to saving as a dds. I've never tried doing it but there are plugins for photoshop available?

There isn't, at the very best you will select the profile identical to one that Unity will choose automatically, and at worst you'll give the texture worse compression than it could have got from Unity otherwise. Also, by using DDS you will completely ruin the possibility of making any derivative mods, as lossy compression can't be reverted back and any altered version will have twice the artifacts.

[bac9]

You can get DDS tools from Nvidia ( including a PS plugin ). Will Unity load them directly though? there is an uncompressed version.

I rather miss this mod, but no way I can remove Kethane at this point ( or would I want to ).

Uncompressed (truecolor) DDS profiles have almost BMP-tier enormous sizes and should not be used outside of stuff like UI elements.

Edited August 7, 2013 by bac9

[eRe4s3r]

So here it finally is A little sunflare modification.. not necessarily more realistic, but a lot more beautiful. (well, imo)

Until I get some clear answer as to what i am allowed to post I will only show you that it is possible. I still have the corona to fix which is throwing weird "trace lines" around the outside mesh of the corona probably some brightness problem.. gotta redraw the thing ;p

Once I am happy I will post the (from scratch created!) textures though, which you could add yourself to the asset files if you so choose.

To Avoid questions.. this is not something that you can easily do yourself without using the tool Tingle linked and with that editing the SharedAssets10 file.... oh well

Edit: Better image ;P

Edited August 7, 2013 by eRe4s3r

[mushroomman]

I did it. I finally did it. I got the textures to line up with the bumpmap!

Unfortunately, I forgot to save a version without clouds and I can't find the source image I used either! Ach. Anyway, here's the download. It also includes green Jupiter Jool. Both of them are quite high-res but I could make some lower ones if I need too.

http://www./download/6tcaebbj6a47dyi/Planets.zip

Now I just need to figure out taking textures from the game so I can do all those other planets too! Or is that against the EULA...?

So for everyone wondering, clouds can be seen from space but are not baked into the terrain. Once you get to a certain altitude the textures revert to their default look.

[lukeheald]

I signed up just to say thank you to Mushroom man! Thank you very much I'm using your textures now.

[Tingle]

PSA

Just a heads up for everyone making the textures for it: for the love of god, don't use JPEG. All you're saving is negligible difference in download size (if even that: I doubt that archived .tga or .png will take significantly more space than .jpg). You are not saving any memory in the game itself.

The game is not using JPEG, just like it's not using TGA, PNG, MBM and any other supported format. Just like almost every other 3D game, all textures used on runtime are stored in the DDS format (the only texture format that is natively supported by modern GPUs). The game converts every single texture to DDS on launch. You are not optimizing anything or saving any space by using JPEG as the texture format: the texture that will be stored in the memory after KSP loads up will have the same size no matter the source format. Only important difference between using e.g. TGA or JPEG as stored texture format is that the latter murders the image quality with irreversibly lossy compression (even on so-called "high quality" levels). This is especially noticeable because DDS itself is using extremely destructive and lossy compression. Don't put your textures through the grinder twice.

P.S.: PNG & JPEG can also take longer to load on some CPUs due to yet unsolved Unity bug with WWW image loader, use .mbm or .tga if you want to work around that without waiting for the fix.

There are a couple pages in this thread here about this, we know that the textures are the same size in the memory so It breaks our priorities down to loading speeds, file sizes and image quality. Here is the recommended post to read for texture creators which everyone can find under 'Useful Information' on the the first post: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/44135-0-21-x-Universe-Replacer?p=573064&viewfull=1#post573064 - benchmarks.

If you look through the thread pages you can find some information about various issues using TGA regarding out of memory issues in case you are interested for the reasons.

[Korb Biakustra]

I did it. I finally did it. I got the textures to line up with the bumpmap!

Unfortunately, I forgot to save a version without clouds and I can't find the source image I used either! Ach. Anyway, here's the download. It also includes green Jupiter Jool. Both of them are quite high-res but I could make some lower ones if I need too.

http://www./download/6tcaebbj6a47dyi/Planets.zip

Now I just need to figure out taking textures from the game so I can do all those other planets too! Or is that against the EULA...?

So for everyone wondering, clouds can be seen from space but are not baked into the terrain. Once you get to a certain altitude the textures revert to their default look.

Great work! Some lower resolution files would be much appreciated, just in case these ones alter performances. Do I just have to resize the .png in Phosohop, and save? Which settings shall I set when saving the .png?

Edited August 7, 2013 by Korb Biakustra

[Apatheticjester]

Now I just need to figure out taking textures from the game so I can do all those other planets too! Or is that against the EULA...?

You can make something for yourself, but you shouldn't distribute anything that uses the stock planet texture. Anything you distribute texture wise should be original work or derived from public images like NASA or other scientific and government images.

[bac9]

In my eyes the difference of 5-10 seconds is not worth the lossy compression (not to mention that delays of PNG loading are fixed in Unity 4.2 and the next release, so choosing format from that isn't exactly a way to future-proof your textures). And by the way, using 4096x4096 textures is an overkill for most screen resolutions and setups: your GPU will only show the 2048x2048 MIP level (leaving other 4/5th of texture size without use) unless you have resolution set quite higher than 1920x1080, or are zooming into the skybox (which is only available with the telescope mod). So tests of x15x4096 textures aren't really indicative of what an average player will encounter. Please don't go the way of Skyrim Nexus where pointless x4096 texture packs somehow ruled the ratings, this isn't a good choice of resolution.

Edited August 7, 2013 by bac9

[Tingle]

In my eyes the difference of ten seconds is not worth the lossy compression. And by the way, using 4096x4096 textures is an overkill for most screen resolutions and setups: your GPU will only show the 2048x2048 MIP level (leaving other 4/5th of texture size without use) unless you have resolution set quite higher than 1920x1080, or are zooming into the skybox (which is only available with mods). So tests of x15x4096 textures aren't really indicative of what an average player will encounter. Please don't go the way of Skyrim Nexus where pointless x4096 texture packs somehow ruled the ratings, this isn't a good choice of resolution.

Yea, I noticed that - 2k/original resolution works fine most of the time. Also I might want to add that I have a SSD and very fast CPU, normal HDD and CPU's will scale those seconds. But nice to know about PNG, I'll change the recommended texture format to PNG then, thanks for the information.

Edited August 7, 2013 by Tingle

[Apatheticjester]

And by the way, using 4096x4096 textures is an overkill for most screen resolutions and setups: your GPU will only show the 2048x2048 MIP level unless you have resolution set higher than x1920

Thank you. I knew this was true, i just couldn't prove it. 4k files get really nasty huge in photoshop with layers and stuff, at least for my computer. Now I can justify not even trying.

[eRe4s3r]

Planet to ground transition textures need to be higher than 4k if you don't want blur (least for Kerbin and any other planet that's large).. optimally 16k * 8k

8x4k would be the lowest I would go. Given when KSP switches over to ground textures......

As for space backgrounds, I use the 2k versions which is already overkill for a cubemap with 6 sides. ,p

[mushroomman]

Laythe

Duna

Eve

That was much faster than Kerbin. I think I just made a dumb mistake when I made it which made it take much longer. I'll release this (or not) as soon as I learn whether or not it's legal.

[Tingle]

Planet to ground transition textures need to be higher than 4k if you don't want blur (least for Kerbin and any other planet that's large).. optimally 16k * 8k

8x4k would be the lowest I would go. Given when KSP switches over to ground textures......

As for space backgrounds, I use the 2k versions which is already overkill for a cubemap with 6 sides. ,p

with 4k we mean double the original resolution.