large ION drive

[Torraqe]

I took me a month to make the texture job, especialy, because the xenon container only showed the central part's texture, and everything else was black, so I had to find it manually.

Progress is over here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/68174-ION-engine-modification?p=943553#post943553

I will upload the parts if anybody is interested, but I still need to retexture the solar panel.

I also have some multi layered files, so it is easy to change the bump mapping (the one I used is: paintDOTnet -> black-white grid -> fill -> Gaussian blur -> infranview -> emboss -> brightness -127), or the yellow color of the central part (simply select the layer containing the colored strip under the shadow layer, and fill it).

Edited February 10, 2014 by Torraqe

[JewelShisen]

Honestly this seems to be more of a resize and retexture of a stock part.

[Torraqe]

Honestly this seems to be more of a resize and retexture of a stock part.

Sure, that's what this thread is about. But technically it's a new part.

I wanted an ship purely powered by xenon, but it needed too many parts. So I made this, it has 50 times the power of a regular engine and it's 50 times heavier. Same with the tank and the solar panel.

I could have made a new model and UV map it, but it would have been too different, I wanted it to be easily recognizable, and the retexturing in itself was bloody long and hard too.

Edited February 10, 2014 by Torraqe

[SirusKing]

I just realised that the real life VASIMR Engine has a thrust output of 5 Newtons.

Five Newtons.

That is 50x smaller then the tiny little Ion engine ingame.

Wow.

[wasmic]

I just realised that the real life VASIMR Engine has a thrust output of 5 Newtons.

Five Newtons.

That is 50x smaller then the tiny little Ion engine ingame.

Wow.

You. So, we meet again, if you're who I think you are.

[Gaius]

Yeah, unfortunately real ion/plasma drives operate at far too low thrust levels to be useful for gameplay reasons, at least while we can't time accelerate with engines on. To have ion engines in the game at all, they have to be "kerbalized" into something usable in the game.

On the flip side, KSP's regular rocket engines are actually underpowered compared to real-world rockets. For game purposes, they downscale the power of normal rockets, and upscale the power of electric engines. At some point, realism has to give way to make the game playable.

[aeTIos]

Just a heads-up: You can't redistribute squad's models. I don't know what you're doing though, I think if you're using MM or part linking you're allowed to "use" them.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Gaius]

Just a heads-up: You can't redistribute squad's models. I don't know what you're doing though, I think if you're using MM or part linking you're allowed to "use" them.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

You are wrong. In their rule for things you can't redistribute from the program, they specifically make an exception for the stuff in the Parts folder. See this thread for more info.

[LaydeeDem]

Just a heads-up: You can't redistribute squad's models. I don't know what you're doing though, I think if you're using MM or part linking you're allowed to "use" them.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Since when?

[Torraqe]

Okay guys, I have finally finished the texturing of the solar panel. I took ages to align everything pixel by pixel, and making sure that it fits the model perfectly (it was difficult to locate the sides of the extended panel).

I used photos of polycrystalline.

Also here are all the texture files, and a zip file. All you have to do is unpack it and copy it over the parts folder. It also contain layered paintDOTnet files for easier modification, and several bump maps for the container.

The link for the zip file (be careful with the advertisers, they may use the exact download button shape, but it's just a lookalike, and gets you to their site, not the file):

http://www.2shared.com/file/J7Mze_qW/KSP_largeIONxenon.html

[123nick]

i think you need a spoiler for that image

[The Destroyer]

i think you need a spoiler for that image

Spoilers are disabled due to a year ago some DDos attack or something.

[Torraqe]

i think you need a spoiler for that image

I don't mean to be rude, but I think there's a rule for not posting off topic issues.

-----

I have managed to reach Duna and slow down to a stable orbit with ease, this confirmed that large ION engines are viable for long interplanetary transfers. However my fual is almost at 50%, so next time I will design the craft with extra xenon tanks, what I can later jettison.

[Zuni]

Just wondering, how do you get the textures for parts? I can't figure it out...

[Torraqe]

Just wondering, how do you get the textures for parts? I can't figure it out...

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/mbm-to-png-file-converter/

Now its readme doesn't tell you, that you have to copy the files you want to convert into the folder of this utility. Then after running the .mu or .mbm converter you have to type in the exact filename, or it won't work. And don't try to edit mu files with notepad (to overwrite model000.mbm to model000.png), because it won't work. You have to use the .mu converter too. Also if the new files are not present, you can probably find them in the: users/[username]/appdata/local/virtualstore/program files/mu converter

Edited February 17, 2014 by Torraqe

[Yaivenov]

Just an aside, I really like the retexture for the solar panel. Even if I'm not using the ion engine I think I'll definitely add that to my collection.

[Torraqe]

Just an aside, I really like the retexture for the solar panel. Even if I'm not using the ion engine I think I'll definitely add that to my collection.

Sure, but keep in mind, that this texture is 4x times larger than the original, because the solar panel is also 4x times larger, and it is also 50x times heavier, and gives 50x times the amount of electric charge.

Probably you can use this image on the original solar panel without rescaling it, however if it doesn't accept it, then I would suggest using infranview to rescale by 25%, because to my knowledge, that program tries to rescale pictures evenly without pixelization (unlike MS paint).

Edited February 17, 2014 by Torraqe