In-Game Cinematic Character Mod

[Whirligig Girl]

I had an idea for a mod, but I don't think it can be done without inside access to KSP's code. It would basically allow you to switch the model for an EVA or even IVA Kerbal for use in cinematics. Also included would be parts for building your own interior sets, like this.

EVA models would include:

Astronaut

IVA veteran

IVA grey (couldn't find an image)

Scientist

Dirty Mechanic

Wernher von Kerman

Wernher's Intern (from

and

)

Red Mechanic (Couldn't find picture, look in the VAB)

Gene Kerman

Ground Crew

Bobak Kerman

Generic Mission Control (background characters, other than Gene and Bobak)

All of these Kerbals would be able to remove their helmet and jetpack, and change the texture on the head and helmet.

Head/hair textures would be Default, Bald, light brown (Gene), mustache(Wernher), dirty 1(Engineers/Mechanics) and dirty 2(Exploded face from Jeb's Junkyard short).

Helmets would be orange stripe, blue stripe, grey stripe, red stripe, and no stripe.

Because this would be for cinematics and not for in-game immersion, jetpack would still work when removed and Kerbals can survive anywhere without helmets.

Another feature of the mod might be simple character pathfinding and camera pathing. It would let Kerbals follow either a specific path or another vessel, and a camera system like in Kerbcam. When female Kerbals are implemented, the mod would be further expanded.

Edited August 2, 2014 by GregroxMun

[Whirligig Girl]

If at last some of the character switching functionality could be recreated, that would be awesome.

[Halban]

I would certainly find this handy. Sounds like a good idea for the final game. By the way, what did you think of my attempt to make the universal music video?

[Tw1]

You can get most of the way to something like this using Texture replacer.

However, I don't know if anyone's made textures for all these kerbals. It shouldn't be too hard to approximate. Though I'm not sure if it's possible to extend its capabilities to adding meshes for things like glasses.

[Whirligig Girl]

@HatBat

That's not really the topic of this thread. I'll take a look and respond in that thread.

@Tw1

Well, you can switch head textures and helmet textures, but the switched torso models for the other Kerbals can't be done. Even with a simple flat texture, you still have the big helmet locking ring.

[nli2work]

far as I know those Kerbal assets are not accessible by Mods. You'd have to recreate the Kerbals and animations. The best you maybe able to get is call the animations that are built into the game, assuming your Kerbal has the same skeleton as the one in game. But without access to the original that's almost impossible.

[Whirligig Girl]

I was afraid so. I know Wernher, Gene, Ground Crew, Red&Yellow Mechanics, IVA suits of two colors and Basic Scientists are in-game, but to what extent are they usable?

[nli2work]

honestly I have no clue. You have to dig pretty deep to get to it. The module system doesn't seem to deal with anything having to do with the Kerbals. The easiest is probably to have them animate on command, like emotes in other games; but given their limited animation set that's not all that useful.