Thruster Effects

[Blue]

I searched for what I was thinking about, and found this thread semi-related.

Firstly I think Kerbal Space Program is an excellent and superb game, and whatever decisions Squad is making in its continued development all seem to be great ones.

Therefore, this thread isn't so much a suggestion, unless it's never been made before, as much as it inquires as to if, how or when cosmetic improvements would be made to vehicle particles? That question obviously concerns prettying up for the gala rather than the rough-and-tumble fixing and building so it works right, so if any answer is given, I'd presume the update of such would be implemented much closer to version 0.9X or 1.0 rather than anything impending.

The way I see it, there are 5 particle effects in the games, and my thread concerns three of them; Rocket Thrust Plumes, RCS Puffs (which are the same as EVA Jetpack Puffs), Explosions. The other two which I think are fine as-is are the Burn-up/Kerbal death *poofs* and the sparks caused by rocket engine fuel exhaustion.

Thrust Plumes, RCS Puffs and Explosions all have seen improvements since the game's inception, but still lack some details to make these effects more realistic. One detail many may have noticed is a player/time controlled illumination texture in rocket engines to make them look like they glow and heat up, but I'm more concerned with the plume of thrust itself, and similar details thereof.

Most notably, the particle generation for these effects is based upon a velocity and vector derived from the local orientation of the spacecraft only. Now I have no idea how difficult it would actually be to make the connection, but I do know that one simple-to-explain way to make RCS Puffs and Explosions drag in the atmosphere is to parent the particle's movement to the local atmosphere--more specifically, a velocity of 0 relative to the ground (until weather or air turbulence is implemented). Then, increase that parent-velocity's magnitude and influence over the particle's movement from 0 at generation to 100% when the particle is soon to die. This would make RCS puffs drag in the wind, explosions streak across the sky (rather than maintaining a position relative to where they came from, if the explosion was caused middair) and would make thrust plumes arc dramatically if their attached vehicle was at a disconcerting angle.

A thing that concerns only the Puffs and Plumes is changing their appearance with local pressure and how over/underpressurizing would appear. This is probably just-as, if not more complex than the previous, (not even mentioning shock diamonds, as the last thread did) but would be a very fine level of visual polish, to make rockets look as they do in real life when firing in space, rather than what Star Wars would have us believe. I imagine it would require a large overhaul of what manner of particle effect was used for the rocket engine thrust plume in order to both have it be able to taper into a self-affecting cone, and, dynamically controlled by atmospheric pressure, taper outwards into a dilated, curved, nearly-invisible plate-like entity emanating from the engine bell.

Of course all these, Squad might already be aware of and just have them much later down the production line: I just wish I knew if that were true or not. Or if they've already been considered but decided not to have due to framerate budget, lack of visual cue for engine firing or something like that...

Edited October 3, 2013 by Blue

[Kodiak42]

The large problem we might have with this (assuming the math isn't too hard for squad) is that this could graphic detail could slow down the game considerably. While you could probably just "turn the effect off" , the effect must be feasible for enough users to justify squad working on it.

[Blue]

The large problem we might have with this (assuming the math isn't too hard for squad) is that this could graphic detail could slow down the game considerably. While you could probably just "turn the effect off" , the effect must be feasible for enough users to justify squad working on it.

I know... I mentioned early on that any such considerations would be just prettying the game visually and not adding any actual gameplay features.

[Nostromo]

Would love this visually as well.

[Wait- Was That Important?]

This is a very well put-together post, good job.

I agree, but have the same reservations as Kodiak above me; like reentry effects, these dynamic particle effects could easily be too stressful on the game.