[Early development, 0.24] Kopernicus Planetary System Modifier

[FluffySilverUnicorn]

Its been awhile since I or Bryce posted, but I wanted to give a bit of an update to the project. Bryce and I are going to try to finish up at least a beta version over our thanksgiving breaks, and also create a wiki on GitHub about using Kopernicus.

School is a lot of work...

I'm so glad that you guys have taken this so far! Hopefully once the PF:CE planets get ported over I can finally ditch that mod and do stuff with them that it wouldn't let me do, like create custom biomes and add resources.

Also, the repository mentions that you guys've added preliminary support for star creation. In the future, do you think this mod will be able to do the same things that StarSystems does, like making solar panels work and having different colors?

Edited November 13, 2014 by FluffySilverUnicorn

[dreadicon]

Its been awhile since I or Bryce posted, but I wanted to give a bit of an update to the project. Bryce and I are going to try to finish up at least a beta version over our thanksgiving breaks, and also create a wiki on GitHub about using Kopernicus.

School is a lot of work...

Sounds good. I started poking at the PQSMods again. I am not quite sure how to handle them, as a handfull seem to be implemented already in 2 or 3 locations, so any dynamic loading system would have to have exceptions built in to ignore them. Things get more complicated when you consider if it's an update, no-update, or an overwrite system. Because the loading is dynamic, I also don't see how I could leverage the node extensions that Kopernicus uses, and may instead have to use just stock node functions. It's kinda a mess...

But I will try! PQS full configs support, imho, are the last requisite feature before Kopernicus is usable for practical purposes.

[SheepDog2142]

Awsome we need this for our server

50 Kerbals no more can be hired we (4 players on server) haft to get atleast 30 to a new planet and colonize it.

[SheepDog2142]

Wondering the same thing

Maybe one day Squad will add custom/random systems. They claim it would take away from the community experience ('Hey guys look I finally landed on Duna!') since planets wouldn't be the same for everyone, but this can easily be fixed by having a manual seed so you could share it.

Thats just an excuse. I dont like it when devs tell us what we can and cant do in a game. It stifles creativity

[Drakoflame]

after spending a good 2 hours or so reading thru 14 pages of text, all dates are from August... I give up with reading:

Can someone explain it quickly, and to the point.

1. How do you use this mod

2. What does it do

3. How does it compare to PF/PFCE

4. Does it only add one planet

5. Is there a way to add more planets to it like with PF/PFCE, and can I use said PF packs with this mod

[VonFrank]

after spending a good 2 hours or so reading thru 14 pages of text, all dates are from August... I give up with reading:

Can someone explain it quickly, and to the point.

1. How do you use this mod

2. What does it do

3. How does it compare to PF/PFCE

4. Does it only add one planet

5. Is there a way to add more planets to it like with PF/PFCE, and can I use said PF packs with this mod

1. Download the Kopernicus-Master file from the link on the first post. Inside that zip folder you navigate to "Kopernicus-master\Pre Alpha\prealpha3\GameData" and extract to your gamedata folder as you would any other mod. Then, in the "Kopernicus Examples" folder, you can enter and modify some of the provided examples. "Hodor" is the only one that's a completely new planet, so you can use that as a template for other new planets if you want.

2. This mod adds new planets to the Kerbol system. It's not done yet, so you CAN'T modify the surface of planets yet, but you CAN create new planets, modify the physical parameters of those planets, modify the orbital parameters of those planets, and modify the scaled space texture of those planets (the look of the planet form far away in space).

3. PF and PFCE are similar to this mod, however they accomplish the same task in a different way. You CAN modify the surface of planets with PFCE but there are a number of glitches. Minor glitches, but they're still there. Once Kopernicus is completed, it will be better in pretty much every way.

4. You can add as many planets as you want with Kopernicus. At the moment, I have an install with 24 new planets/moons which adds onto Real Solar System in order to complete the majority of the Sol system. There;s probably a hard coded limit, but RAM is most likely going to be a limit before you come across it.

5. Read above for the first part of this question, but for the second part, the answer is no.... mostly. You CAN take the textures form PFCE planet packs and apply them to Kopernicus planets, but you have to manually copy the planet's parameters from PF to Kopernicus. Keep in mind, this will still not modify the surface of the planet. It will only look like a unique planet from far away.

[Drakoflame]

1. Download the Kopernicus-Master file from the link on the first post. Inside that zip folder you navigate to "Kopernicus-master\Pre Alpha\prealpha3\GameData" and extract to your gamedata folder as you would any other mod. Then, in the "Kopernicus Examples" folder, you can enter and modify some of the provided examples. "Hodor" is the only one that's a completely new planet, so you can use that as a template for other new planets if you want.

2. This mod adds new planets to the Kerbol system. It's not done yet, so you CAN'T modify the surface of planets yet, but you CAN create new planets, modify the physical parameters of those planets, modify the orbital parameters of those planets, and modify the scaled space texture of those planets (the look of the planet form far away in space).

3. PF and PFCE are similar to this mod, however they accomplish the same task in a different way. You CAN modify the surface of planets with PFCE but there are a number of glitches. Minor glitches, but they're still there. Once Kopernicus is completed, it will be better in pretty much every way.

4. You can add as many planets as you want with Kopernicus. At the moment, I have an install with 24 new planets/moons which adds onto Real Solar System in order to complete the majority of the Sol system. There;s probably a hard coded limit, but RAM is most likely going to be a limit before you come across it.

5. Read above for the first part of this question, but for the second part, the answer is no.... mostly. You CAN take the textures form PFCE planet packs and apply them to Kopernicus planets, but you have to manually copy the planet's parameters from PF to Kopernicus. Keep in mind, this will still not modify the surface of the planet. It will only look like a unique planet from far away.

Thank you VonFrank, that answers pretty much all my questions, now for new ones:

1. How can one create a planet?

2. How can I take the PF(CE) textures to make planets

3. How hard is it to make a planet without any knolage of coding?

[Bekiekutmoar]

Think I'll give this mod a spin, despite it being incomplete yet. I know nothing about coding, however last summer I managed to fabricate a somewhat decent planet with PFce (see image below). Lots of trial and error and getting familiar with tekst-editing, but I made some results after several days. I like the fact Kopernicus will be more memory-friendly when compared to PFce.

[VonFrank]

Thank you VonFrank, that answers pretty much all my questions, now for new ones:

1. How can one create a planet?

2. How can I take the PF(CE) textures to make planets

3. How hard is it to make a planet without any knolage of coding?

1. Essentially, all you need to do is write a config file for a planet and put it in the Kopernicus_Examples folder. Just like tho the 'Hodor' Example planet is in there already. Here's an example of my own that creates Enceladus (a moon of Saturn) orbiting around Dres for use in RSS. You can use it in a stock install too though.

@Kopernicus 
{
    // Planetary Data
    Body
    {
        name = Enceladus
        flightGlobalsIndex = 62
        Template
        {
            name = Eeloo
        }
        Properties
        {
            // Change the description
            description = Moon of Saturn, Enceladus.

            // Radius of the object
            radius = 252100

            // Mass of the object
            mass = 1.080E+20

            // Gravitational force at surface (Earth Sea Level = 1)
            geeASL = 0.0113
        }
        Orbit
        {
            referenceBody = Dres
            color = 0.534, 0.543, 0.547, 1.0
            inclination = 26.749
            eccentricity = 0.0047
            semiMajorAxis = 237948000
            longitudeOfAscendingNode = 160
            argumentOfPeriapsis = 25
            meanAnomalyAtEpoch = 65
            epoch = 0
        }
        ScaledVersion
        {
            Material
            {	
                texture = KopernicusExamples/Saturn_Moons/Enceladus_map
            }
        }
    }
}

If you paste that into a planet config file, and have an appropriate texture in the specified game path, the game will load it and you will have a new planet/moon.

2.You font need to do anything special at all to take a PFCE texture and use it for Kopernicus. You just need to move it to the appropriate directory that is referenced in your planet's config file. For my Enceladus example, that was in "Gamedata", then "KopernicusExamples/Saturn_Moons" and the image file was called "Enceladus_map.png"

3.If you use my example^^ you should be able to replace the names and numbers with the info you want in order to very easily make your own planet/moon. It doesn't take any coding knowledge at all in my opinion.

[Beale]

Amazing stuff! That's all I wanted to say really

Had a lot of fun landing on "Juno" (Which is really just a renamed Hodor).

I was suprised to find that Kerbal Konstructs worked absolutely fine on created bodies.

The way it works is super straightforward too. The one thing I hated about PF was the in-game interface to choose systems. This mod is much more seamless and "Stockalike".

I really hope you guys can get surface deformation working! This will be fantastic!

[Pricom]

I have a few questions;

1. Does the Solar Systems mod work or are there some changes in the files I need to make?

2. Is it currently possible to add/modify the science/resource configs to include these new planets?

3. Somewhat unrelated but can Custom Asteroids (http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/80483) work with Star Systems and Kopernicus?

I was originally using both star systems and PFCE to create a total of 4 systems (Kerbol, Dolas, Corbo and my own).

I did manage to edit the Sentar system to orbit the black hole, and sometimes another system around either star (One or the other at a time unfortunately).

My install (Even after reducing the number of mods) is still quite heavy, so if I can use Kopernicus to replace PFCE my life would be much easier.

[larlin]

Is it possible to add "impossible" orbits? I tried around a bit and it seems like the only thing that influence the orbital period is the orbits semMajorAxis. I'm thinking of faking Larangian points by introducing planets without a body at the right places. This will of course be far from perfect but should be able to create two effects from Larangina points namely the dV saving possiblity and new locations to orbit. To do this I need to create "planets" with the same orbital period as the smaller object in the pair at a radious that is wrong. So far this dosen't seem to work by simply editing a Kopernicus config or by adding a new parameter to change the speed or period of the orbit C# object. My next would be to try to work with extending the orbit class and faking stuff there but if any one knows a more straight forward approach that would be stellar.

[Pricom]

I haven't tried science/resources yet, but the module manager for both of them (Kopernicus comes with one that doesn't have a version number and star systems comes with 2.5.1) and they don't cooperate with each other.

I'm going to see what is different about the two and try to hopefully combine them.

Tell me if this is a bad idea.

On another note I noticed that both the PFCE files and the examples here and included with Kopernicus are really similar.

I may try modifying the PFCE ones to match the Kopernicus example and see where I go from there.

Edit: Cant access the .DLLs.

Edited November 26, 2014 by Pricom

[Drakoflame]

1. Essentially, all you need to do is write a config file for a planet and put it in the Kopernicus_Examples folder. Just like tho the 'Hodor' Example planet is in there already. Here's an example of my own that creates Enceladus (a moon of Saturn) orbiting around Dres for use in RSS. You can use it in a stock install too though.

@Kopernicus 
{
    // Planetary Data
    Body
    {
        name = Enceladus
        flightGlobalsIndex = 62
        Template
        {
            name = Eeloo
        }
        Properties
        {
            // Change the description
            description = Moon of Saturn, Enceladus.

            // Radius of the object
            radius = 252100

            // Mass of the object
            mass = 1.080E+20

            // Gravitational force at surface (Earth Sea Level = 1)
            geeASL = 0.0113
        }
        Orbit
        {
            referenceBody = Dres
            color = 0.534, 0.543, 0.547, 1.0
            inclination = 26.749
            eccentricity = 0.0047
            semiMajorAxis = 237948000
            longitudeOfAscendingNode = 160
            argumentOfPeriapsis = 25
            meanAnomalyAtEpoch = 65
            epoch = 0
        }
        ScaledVersion
        {
            Material
            {    
                texture = KopernicusExamples/Saturn_Moons/Enceladus_map
            }
        }
    }
}

If you paste that into a planet config file, and have an appropriate texture in the specified game path, the game will load it and you will have a new planet/moon.

2.You font need to do anything special at all to take a PFCE texture and use it for Kopernicus. You just need to move it to the appropriate directory that is referenced in your planet's config file. For my Enceladus example, that was in "Gamedata", then "KopernicusExamples/Saturn_Moons" and the image file was called "Enceladus_map.png"

3.If you use my example^^ you should be able to replace the names and numbers with the info you want in order to very easily make your own planet/moon. It doesn't take any coding knowledge at all in my opinion.

o3o okay my brain kinda exploded looking at that config... I.... I think I'll just WAIT for people to start posting their planet packs for Kopernicus... that is unless someone would be willing to put up a video explanation of how to make a planet... I think that would be so much easier... Also, the planet texture... how does that work? like, will a simple image of swirly textures and wutnot work? or do I need a special image that makes it work?

AND: because I'm not sure if its been asked, if it has I haven't seen anything, Is Kopernicus compatable with .25?

[Borisbee]

o3o okay my brain kinda exploded looking at that config... I.... I think I'll just WAIT for people to start posting their planet packs for Kopernicus... that is unless someone would be willing to put up a video explanation of how to make a planet... I think that would be so much easier... Also, the planet texture... how does that work? like, will a simple image of swirly textures and wutnot work? or do I need a special image that makes it work?

AND: because I'm not sure if its been asked, if it has I haven't seen anything, Is Kopernicus compatable with .25?

Edited November 27, 2014 by Borisbee

[Bekiekutmoar]

Just gave the mod a try and had *some* progress: looked in the config of Hodor and changed the template to Ike, shrunk radius to 14 km and set orbital altitude to 600 km. Started the game and looked into the sky: nothing. Then I looked to the west, and saw what appeared to be a giant mountain range bulldozing in very fast. Good thing the KSC clipped through the thing. After changing the orbital altitude, I managed to land on the spiked asteroid but the collision-model didn't corresponded with the visible model. All in all a mod with very much potential ... !

[VonFrank]

Just gave the mod a try and had *some* progress: looked in the config of Hodor and changed the template to Ike, shrunk radius to 14 km and set orbital altitude to 600 km. Started the game and looked into the sky: nothing. Then I looked to the west, and saw what appeared to be a giant mountain range bulldozing in very fast. Good thing the KSC clipped through the thing. After changing the orbital altitude, I managed to land on the spiked asteroid but the collision-model didn't corresponded with the visible model. All in all a mod with very much potential ... !

Lol. Keep in mind that the 'orbital altitude' value you modify in Kopernicus is actually the 'Semi-Major Axis'. This value ignores however large the parent object is (in this case Kerbin which has a radius of 600km) because the point defined as '0km' is down near the center of Kerbin. So when you put in 600km, it made the orbit the same radius as the parent planet, thus giving you a phasing mass traveling across Kerbin's surface.

[Bekiekutmoar]

Yeah, it makes sense now. In the meanwhile I've managed to spawn Sombor, a slightly shrunked version of Duna in orbit around Kerbin. I was surprised the new planet also has Duna's atmosphere, while the config doesn't show anything about an atmosphere. I wonder if it's possible to edit the atmosphere's color to give the planet a somewhat destinct look?

[INSULINt]

a phasing mass traveling across Kerbin's surface.

So many ideas right now! O_o

[Borisbee]

For anyone wanting to try changing other parameters of the planet you create such as atmosphere or terrain, you could try using http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/68619-0-25-Plugin-WIP-KittopiaTech-Ingame-Terraforming-Tools-V0-181

I'v had some limited success with it. I think I'm just going to continue to wait patiently for a proper update for this mod though. Really can't wait.

[Spacepetscompany]

So..... How's this faring?

[Nicholander]

Does anyone know how to change to rotation of the body your creating in the cfg? And how to use height maps to change the surface? And how do you also change the color of the surface?

[a123]

Perhaps this question has been asked earlier in the thread but I couldn't find it:

Using Pre-alpha 3 is it possible to start creating my own planets, or am I just modifying one of the examples. This is a really exciting mod. I tried and failed several times to make PF CE create the kind of planets(with some serious atmospheres) hoping this will allow it, at some point.

[Pricom]

Firstly to a123, yes and no. I would recommend using the examples as templates, by creating a copy and changing some of the values, which I believe would work.

I myself am going to try to modify a few of the PF packs that already exist.

However before that...

Secondly the Module Manager that comes with Kopernicus and the stand alone one are conflicting with each other, which means I can either have a few mods (including star systems) that don't require MM, or I don't use Kopernicus.

Any help?

[_Augustus_]

Muhaha.

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Download my new mod: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/102163-Planet-Factory-Revived-for-Kopernicus-KittopiaTech-Version-0-02