Planet alternative texture pack question

[ximrm]

As the title says, I want to retexture some planets and also the topology.

My Question is now, how does the game create the topology?

Is it based on height/normalmaps (the subdivision options in the settings.cfg seem to point that way)

and would it work with e.g. Texture Replacer mod?

I'd really like to add eroded ancient monuments if possible.

Bonus question: Is it possible to add meshes to certain locations without the help of a mod?

[OrbitusII]

For topology the game reads data from an internally-stored texture (height map) and then the PQS (Planetary Quad System) generates the terrain. Re texturing could potentially be done with Texture Replacer but not modifying the topology. There is a mod somewhere that does allow for changing heightmaps, however (I think it's Kittopia's Terraforming).

Without mods there is no known way to add static meshes like the Mun arches or monoliths to planets. The one mod that adds that functionality, Kerbtown, received its most recent unofficial hotfix a few weeks after 0.23.0 was released, so it's basically running on code from the days of 0.22.x and is severely outdated. It works, but only if it's one of the only plugins installed.

[NathanKell]

OrbitusII: not quite. Same ballpark, but not quite.

. Mu explains it, in the second half.

tl;dr planetary terrain is done via PQS, which is a procedural quadtree sphere. The height of any vertex is determined by the PQSMods attached to the PQS (one is usually, though not always--see Minmus for an example--a heightmap, but there are always also procedural noise-based modifiers).

Use Kittopia to play around with them all in realtime.

Once you zoom out far enough, or are in mapview / tracking station, the PQS is replaced by a single static mesh with a single large texture for color and a second single large texture for normal map. These do not change unless you (a) tell the game to recreate the mesh and ( load new textures. RSS can help you recreate the mesh, and can export the PQS into a colormap and heightmap (which GIMP or CrazyBump or whatever can turn into a normal map).

For statics, you need to add PQSCity components (they're actually just another PQSMod...) and yeah, right now KerbTown is it for adding them.

[ximrm]

Thanks for the information!

I will try kittopia.

Thread can be closed.

[NathanKell]

Closed by request.