Visible surface and actual altitude do not match in many locations

[Stankleberry]

I am having a strange problem lately, on most planets and moons, when I try to land in many locations, I will either smash into the "surface" when it doesn't look like I'm there yet, or I will continue to float through the ground, as if the surface isn't where it is supposed to be. Then I will explode.

I have mods, so I can't get any official support. I don't know if this is the right place to post this. I have Kethane and Universe Replacer and some other common mods.

Edited August 20, 2013 by Stankleberry

[SRV Ron]

The exterior altimeter measures to what would be sea level. Either use the radar one inside the capsule, or land during daylight where you can use your approaching shadow as a visual reference. You may also have detail setting set too low which can cause issues in landing.

[capi3101]

SRV Ron is right...the screen altimeter measures "sea level" (or a reference altitude on worlds without oceans). If you're playing stock, you want to go EVA occasionally and look for a gauge that looks like this one:

Even at low res, you can read it. I know; I play KSP on a below-spec box and low res is necessary just so the game will run at a descent speed. Yours will be in meters, of course; when the gauge is at the six o'clock position, you're 500 meters above the deck and when it hits the twelve o'clock position, you'd better be below 12 m/s...

[Stankleberry]

My instruments seem to be working properly, but the ground that I see when I'm landing is not accurate. The terrain is broken or something in some places. I will go through the ground, or I will smash into the surface when it looks like I'm still many yards over the ground.

[TurkeyXIII]

I've never had that problem. I assume it's one of your mods? I would uninstall them one at a time until it goes away, starting with Universe Replacer.

[Scarecrow88]

I'd remove Universe Replacer first too as it bugged my game.

[Spyritdragon]

So if i understand right, the problem is that, regardless of what both altimeters say, the visible ground from outside view isn't where the actual hard barrier is.

Then i think the problem is probably located with Universe Replacer putting your texture somewhere wrong - are you sure it was updated for procedurally generated craters and such?

Try removing it, or at least reverting your planets to default textures, and see if it still happens.

[Stankleberry]

Removing Universe Replacer entirely didn't have any effect on this issue. I have a site on Minmus with a bunch of landed vehicles, they are all approx 5-10 m under ground.

Is there a way to reset the planets or something? Thanks for the help.

[Westo454]

Did this save file come from a previous version? if so, It may be an issue with the new height maps for some planets.

[Stankleberry]

I'm not sure, but I landed most/all of the vehicles on Minmus after the last update happened. They got buried much later, I suspect Universe Replacer.

I just found the Armstrong memorial, which was floating. Then when I tried to land I went some meters underground and exploded horribly.

Perhaps I'll test with a fresh save.

Here's a video of the Armstrong landing disaster:

Edited August 19, 2013 by Stankleberry
Video

[Specialist290]

Hmm...

Try and see if you can replicate it on a fresh install of the game, all-stock. If the problem persists, you can make a bug report in the support forums.

[Stankleberry]

Manually deleting the game folder and reinstalling has fixed the problem. Do plugins generally mess with the games files? I thought they stayed in their folders.