[0.90] Custom Biomes 1.7.0 [17 Dec]

[DMagic]

For the Tylo.att, "Northern Mesa" is written as "Morthern Mesa", I think that's the only remaining typo.

[guto8797]

HI! This seems a very nice mod. I was shocked when i found out most planets only had one biome. Just a small request, does anyone have a preset that adds biomes to all planets, or is that included in the mod? I would like to have this, but i am relativelly new to kerbal (no intraplanetary travels yet), and i fear i would screw up the biomes (also, im kinda lazy ). Thanks in advance, and awesome mod yet again!

EDIT: FACEPALM!. So i just read again the main post, and yes, it does add biomes, silly me, sorry . Epic nonetheless.

[Trueborn]

Thanks DMagic. Ahh, there perils of typing things up in notepad...

Hope you like it guto! Please let me know if you run into any issues.

[amo28]

Trueborn,

Do you know if Custom Biomes is compatible with the Real Solar System mod? I created a biome map for the Earth rescale based on a ScanSAT map. ScanSAT shows that my craft has the correct coordinates, but Custom Biome reports the craft's location to be way off.

Before I get too much further into this, I was hoping you could tell me whether the mod would work for RSS at all?

My biome and ScanSAT maps are here: http://imgur.com/a/SQf7g

[Ghost13]

Can we create custom biomes for the anomalies with increased amout of science? Which makes more sence in searching for it. Maybe with custom Crew report and eva report and surface samples.

[Trueborn]

Trueborn,

Do you know if Custom Biomes is compatible with the Real Solar System mod? I created a biome map for the Earth rescale based on a ScanSAT map. ScanSAT shows that my craft has the correct coordinates, but Custom Biome reports the craft's location to be way off.

Before I get too much further into this, I was hoping you could tell me whether the mod would work for RSS at all?

My biome and ScanSAT maps are here: http://imgur.com/a/SQf7g

It should be compatible with RSS, but I haven't tested it.

There are two possibilities for why you might be noticing position errors. If its the reported lat/lon, the version you have might have an error in coordinate output (I fixed it, but I can't remember if it was before or after the last release). If the maps don't mesh up and it seems to only be a longitude error, that is caused by a correction that SCANSat does. KSP starts their maps at -90 instead of -180, so you need to shift the SCANSat map 25% to the right in order to use it as a biome map. I'll take a look at the source code later today to see if the lat/lon fix was in the last release.

@Ghost13

Not directly, no. You can certainly create biomes around the anomalies and give them custom Science reports, but the multiplier is set based on your condition (srflanded or highorbit, for example). I believe the alpha channel can be used to lower the Science value for biomes, but it probably won't handle values over 1.0. So, you could decrease the rest of the biomes down to 80% or 90% which would kind of give you the bonus for anomalies.

[amo28]

It should be compatible with RSS, but I haven't tested it.

There are two possibilities for why you might be noticing position errors. If its the reported lat/lon, the version you have might have an error in coordinate output (I fixed it, but I can't remember if it was before or after the last release). If the maps don't mesh up and it seems to only be a longitude error, that is caused by a correction that SCANSat does. KSP starts their maps at -90 instead of -180, so you need to shift the SCANSat map 25% to the right in order to use it as a biome map. I'll take a look at the source code later today to see if the lat/lon fix was in the last release.

Thanks so much for your help. The longitude correction was what did it. Moved it over a little over 25% and it was on the money.

That solved the location issue, however I'm having a smaller issue where it's not reporting the correct biome that it's over. The 'X' in the map shows that it's over the right color, but the biome reports differently. My .att file has 15 biomes listed on it -- is there any known issue with having too many biomes? I think the issue may just be with being near the border of a biome, because it will report correctly when it's well within the boundaries of the biome.

If you'd like to check it out for yourself in RSS, I've uploaded the files here: http://www.filedropper.com/rssearth Being anywhere within Florida reports you as being in a water biome.

[Ghost13]

Not directly, no. You can certainly create biomes around the anomalies and give them custom Science reports

Well at least it is something to try out.

[Raven.]

Thanks so much for your help. The longitude correction was what did it. Moved it over a little over 25% and it was on the money.

That solved the location issue, however I'm having a smaller issue where it's not reporting the correct biome that it's over. The 'X' in the map shows that it's over the right color, but the biome reports differently. My .att file has 15 biomes listed on it -- is there any known issue with having too many biomes? I think the issue may just be with being near the border of a biome, because it will report correctly when it's well within the boundaries of the biome.

If you'd like to check it out for yourself in RSS, I've uploaded the files here: http://www.filedropper.com/rssearth Being anywhere within Florida reports you as being in a water biome.

The issue here is how KSP transitions from biome to biome. Instead of doing a sharp transition, it tries to be smart and makes a smooth transition. You will notice that on a transition between biomes that KSP will hit the biomes whose RGB values are between the two biomes you are currently transitioning. If you read the previous few pages of this thread, you will see that Trueborn is talking about implementing a value in the att files that will allow us modders to turn this "smoothing" off so that we can have sharp, deliberate transitions.

[Trueborn]

I'm still (slowly) making my way through adding custom Science logs for all the new biomes. When I'm done with that, I'll release the next version which will include the ability to set the exact match property, and its threshold.

amo28, is it always incorrect, or is it only during transitions that there is a problem? If it is the former then there might be something else going on.

[NathanKell]

amo28: RSS uses a precisely-25% offset for its earth texture, so you may want to use exactly that too. But YMMV.

[amo28]

I'm still (slowly) making my way through adding custom Science logs for all the new biomes. When I'm done with that, I'll release the next version which will include the ability to set the exact match property, and its threshold.

amo28, is it always incorrect, or is it only during transitions that there is a problem? If it is the former then there might be something else going on.

No, it's not always incorrect. Just during transitions. It must be the "exact match" issue Raven explained above. Thanks for your response.

@NathanKell: Offsetting exactly 25% still left a Cape Canaveral KSC slightly in the water. I think I ended up with 25.75% if I had to guess.

EDIT: I stand corrected. A 25% offset in RSS leads to perfect biome placement, however the map view in Custom Biomes will show your location to be slightly off. Thanks Nathankell.

Edited March 8, 2014 by amo28
Correction

[kiwiak]

I wish this didnt replaced stock science reports with something like "temperature reding from midlands".

[Poryy]

Downloading. I need MOAR science.

[Nemesis1-1]

So how do I add biomes? Something about alpha channels... I wanted to add new biomes to the Planet Factory planets, but I can't seem to figure out how. Tutorial?

Edited March 18, 2014 by Nemesis1-1

[Trueborn]

Basically, look at the first page, there are quite a lot of details. But in general you need to do two things:

1) Make a biome map! The easiest way to do this is usually to use an elevation map as a base. You can make one using SCANsat or one that might be online. If you use SCANsat, you will have to shift the whole map right by 90 degrees.

2) Make an attribute file. This tells KSP what the different biomes on your map are called, referencing them by color. Take a look at the included biomes for examples.

Once you have a map and attribute file for each body you want to add biomes for, make a new folder in your CustomBiomes\PluginData\CustomBiomes folder, named whatever you want your biome set to be called. Then when you load your game, set that directory to its default. Once you load it up, you should have biomes for everything you added.

If you want to add science results specific to your biomes, you'll want to wait until I release the next version (later today?) which will change how that is done a little bit.

Hopefully that will get you started. If you have any more specific questions, feel free to ask or PM me.

[Trueborn]

And as suggested, I have released version 1.5

Spaceport Download

For users, there won't be much of a change except that you can expect to see more customized Science results from across the Kerbol system. At least on Bop, Dres, Duna, Eeloo, and Eve. Eventually I'll do more (and spell check it), but just those five planets is almost 500 lines. The way I'm putting these into the game is a little odd, so there is a good chance there will be an error or two. Please let me know so I can track them down.

For those of you interested in building your own custom biomes, there are a few more changes.

First, is the addition of a ScienceResults.txt file in the biome directory. This is where I'm putting all of the science results that get input with the new biomes. The format is pretty simple. The file is divided up by experiment, with the lead being a line:

id = ExperimentID

This is then followed by a number of lines for specific biomes. These use the same format as the ScienceDefs file, which is Body Name, SrfLanded or SrfSplashed, and then the Biome Name. The next id line or end of the file automatically terminates each experiment.

The second change is to the attribute files. The first line of each attribute file is now checked to see if the exact search feature is used or not. If the line is 0, exact search is not used. All of my biomes are currently set to 0. You can set your own value, which is read as a float. This enables exact search and sets the threshold to the provided value. None of squad's biomes use a value, so I can't recommend a good one. If you find something that works well, let us know!

If there is anything else you have questions about, please let me know.

Alternate Download

Source code.

[Nemesis1-1]

Basically, look at the first page, there are quite a lot of details. But in general you need to do two things:

1) Make a biome map! The easiest way to do this is usually to use an elevation map as a base. You can make one using SCANsat or one that might be online. If you use SCANsat, you will have to shift the whole map right by 90 degrees.

2) Make an attribute file. This tells KSP what the different biomes on your map are called, referencing them by color. Take a look at the included biomes for examples.

Once you have a map and attribute file for each body you want to add biomes for, make a new folder in your CustomBiomes\PluginData\CustomBiomes folder, named whatever you want your biome set to be called. Then when you load your game, set that directory to its default. Once you load it up, you should have biomes for everything you added.

If you want to add science results specific to your biomes, you'll want to wait until I release the next version (later today?) which will change how that is done a little bit.

Hopefully that will get you started. If you have any more specific questions, feel free to ask or PM me.

Thanks very much, I've give it a go

[Nemesis1-1]

So here's an elevation map of Ringle, so this needs shifted 90 degress? What program?

[Raven.]

http://i.imgur.com/sGCAQBA.png?1

So here's an elevation map of Ringle, so this needs shifted 90 degress? What program?

I've been using Gimp for the last month or so working on a new Kerbin map. I believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong) it needs to be shifted by 25 degrees to the right.

[Trueborn]

I used GIMP for mine as well. Just offset it 25% right (Layer-> Transform-> Offset or Ctrl-Shift-O, Wrap Around on). If your image is 1024 pixels wide, the shift would be 256 pixels.

[kotysoft]

Just downloaded the latest (1.5) version of CustomBiomes.

Very good plugin, keep up the good work!

Just a simple question: Is there any way to PERMANENTLY turn off GUI?

[Trueborn]

Not right now. I can add an option to disable it, which could then be re-enabled via the config file. I'll probably release that with the 0.23.5 recompile, which is hopefully soon! And speaking of asteroids, I'm not planning on doing any biome stuff with them, as they are already individual biomes and probably too small to make it worth having more than one biome.

[kotysoft]

Trueborn, thanks for fast answer.

Waiting for your next release!

Until that I made elevation maps for you all (because linked elevation maps contains 12 bodies only)

Contains 15 celestial bodies, elevation color/grey, and slope color/grey 1024x512 png

made by scansat

http://dfiles.eu/files/invi62ydx

Edited March 25, 2014 by kotysoft

[CaptRobau]

What's the license for his?