[0.25] Astronomer's Visual Pack - Interstellar V2

[Las-pen]

No one else seems to have experienced such issues, so it's probably an installation issue. Try completely uninstalling EVE and AVP (delete the BoulderCo folder), then reinstall. If using ATM (which you should be) make sure to reinstall the CFGs which go in the BoulderCo folder.

Done it for God knows how many times. Step by step.

1. Install EVE

2. Install step 2

3. Install step 3

4. Install some extra features, mainly sand- and thunderstorms & auroras

5. Delete BoulderCo folder from ATM/texturecache/

6. Remove BoulderCo/ATMconfigs/ folder + related file and replace them from fresh ATM release.

7. Run game

More info: I am using Planetshine

EDIT: I think I got Eve Clouds to work. Turns out installing that hideous looking Jool was mandatory.

Next stop, figuring out why I still don't have city lights

EDIT2: After tons of tinkering with files, I got the Night City Lights finally working. Not exactly sure what I did.

Now, how to get rid of that white horizon on Kerbin?

Edited December 12, 2014 by Las-pen

[Astronomer]

I have problem with Interstellar Pack...

I used Obvilion pack. like it a lot. today i tried to install Intersterllar and could not make it to work. game crashes before entering main menu. for now i rolled back to Obvilion. any suggestions of why it crashes? i think it is something to do with EnvironmentVisualEnchansements and its settings, because when i delete it KSP works.

Use lower resolution textures provided in V2. Like 4K or 2K.

[Astronomer]

Well my install went without a hitch and even with the hi-res clouds the game loaded without ATM in open-gl. Granted.. I haven't really tried many scene changes yet. The lightning is nice... but.. unfortunately there are no storm clouds to compliment it. And it looks strange seeing lightning in these fine whispy clouds. So I may remove the lightning.. But there is one major concern I have. Now something may not be right, but.. the stock horizon glow is horrendous. Now I know its gone in Proot's pack because he uses the RSS config so can I use that to do something similar? Or.. is something wrong and the glow shouldn't be there? It gets really bad at noon. Like a quarter of the sky up from the horizon is just white.

Other then that.. Astronomer you are a genius for devising that installation method.

Edit: Pics.

http://i.imgur.com/JrFM0xe.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/KKMIRHO.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/s0j1MZ3.jpg

LOG

Output_log

Edit 2: The glow on the horizon is gone when I drop Proot's RSS config in. Though I cant imagine what that could be breaking if anything. And on that note.. I have no city lights. With or without Proot's RSS... I keep a fresh copy of the zip for reference and everything seems to be in order file wise

Edit 3: Nevermind about the lights! Lol.. I just wasn't looking hard enough. There amazing, fantastic job.

It looks like you are using the above recommended atmospheric scattering option. If not, is there any difference between the two?

[Peregrinuus]

Just thought I'd mention for anyone having issues trying to launch KSP with AVP and ATM, temporarily remove your other large mods and let KSP load and have ATM cache AVP files. Then add your other mods back.

I also want to ask, is it possible to edit the frequency of the lightning? I feel like I'm watching a NASA timelapse video of the ISS when playing at normal speed.

[GrimT]

So Kerbin doesn't seem to have any clouds at the moment, just wondering what I mucked up somewhere during the install. Appreciate the assist!

[StarDrive85]

Just thought I'd mention for anyone having issues trying to launch KSP with AVP and ATM, temporarily remove your other large mods and let KSP load and have ATM cache AVP files. Then add your other mods back.

I also want to ask, is it possible to edit the frequency of the lightning? I feel like I'm watching a NASA timelapse video of the ISS when playing at normal speed.

You to? so it was not just me

[JackDraak]

Throwing out a data-point here... I seem to get this working only if I use the 64-bit binary for KSP. I'm guessing that says more about my computer than the mod, but for others having trouble, it might be worth trying! [thanks for the awesome mod work!]

[Motokid600]

It looks like you are using the above recommended atmospheric scattering option. If not, is there any difference between the two?

Oh, I see I picked the one that said more. I'll try the recommended one and see if there's a difference. As for fixing the glow on the horizon with Proot's RSS config... Again it works, but is it necessary? Or is something screwed up and I shouldn't need it? I'm also hoping that RSS plugin that comes with KSPRC isn't conflicting with your pack. I am getting those null reference exceptions, but they've been there since I installed this with or without RSS. I don't know how detrimental they are however... I'm not getting many performance issues other then the usual opengl shtick.

Other then that and as far as I can tell the pack runs great and looks great. Having a blast with it. Astronomer thanks for all your hard work.

[Ippo]

Hi Astronomer, I found the time to install it on the 6.4 rescaled and I have to say, everything seems pretty awesome! I haven't had time to stress test it, but from orbit all the planets look fantastic.

There are just 3 minor snags atm: a weird Z-fighting on the Mun, and two moons of Jool are getting an halo like Moho. Tomorrow I'll try to reproduce and investigate and will come back with pictures.

Thanks!

[Jacke]

When I use -force-opengl, KSP crashes much more often than it does otherwise. Now with the lastest EVE and Astronomer's Interstellar pack, it's even worse, as only about 1 in 3 program starts gets to the main menu successfully. I don't think it's due to EVE or Astronomer's Interstellar pack, but on the off chance it is, and to get some help, I'd thought I'd ask.

Here's an example output_log.txt. I see it go through the entire loading screen, then the process becomes unresponsive. Sometime later I see its memory crash from around 1600MB to a few hundred MB. I usually end up killing the process, but the rare time it has terminated itself.

I see a few errors, but before the end of the file they appear to be survivable. Then a whole bunch of:

Shader 'AtmosphereFromGround': fallback shader 'None' not found

make up the end. This example I killed the process.

Edited December 13, 2014 by Jacke

[_Augustus_]

When I do the -force-opengl, I crash before the launch screen. I'm on Windows 7...

Edited December 13, 2014 by _Augustus_

[JackDraak]

I have nothing to contribute other than THANK YOU for all the time and effort you put into this... it really takes a great game and puts some fantastic polish on it!

[Fueniker S.]

First off, Love the pack Astronomer (when it fully works), and for those of you who are saying that it's crashing and you're using ATM, try moving all other mods out of GameData, and then launching the game, and let ATM take it's time (for me it was like 20 min) to do it's thang, then restart game to make sure it works. After you've confirmed a successful launch, re-place you're other mods into the GameData folder.

Note from my personnal experience: Remove ALL mods, even without parts, ex FAR, NEAR. I found it to help

Best of luck to anyone trying to get this pretty mod to work

[Vandreren]

Oh, I see I picked the one that said more. I'll try the recommended one and see if there's a difference. As for fixing the glow on the horizon with Proot's RSS config... Again it works, but is it necessary? Or is something screwed up and I shouldn't need it? I'm also hoping that RSS plugin that comes with KSPRC isn't conflicting with your pack. I am getting those null reference exceptions, but they've been there since I installed this with or without RSS. I don't know how detrimental they are however... I'm not getting many performance issues other then the usual opengl shtick.

Other then that and as far as I can tell the pack runs great and looks great. Having a blast with it. Astronomer thanks for all your hard work.

What cfg-file are you referring to? If it's not too much trouble could you provide a link? The white glow is really putting a damper on the experience :/ Other than that, I love the new pack

[tygoo7]

So from testing this with ATM aggressive and opengl I am at about 1.4gb to 1.8gb of ram on 32-bit. One strange thing I noticed with the lightning is that it happens way too often with the new version. Is there a way to make lightning more rare than happening every 2 seconds?

Edited December 13, 2014 by tygoo7

[kami_sama]

I'm having a problem using ATM with the pack. Clouds don't appear at all on the staging view, but there's some flicker on the map view. Like this. Also happens with Eve.

Any way to solve it?

[Black-Talon]

@Astronomer - I regret to report that V2 still doesn't cut it with recommended settings on a clean install of KSP x86 without running out of memory. This shouldn't be a problem with x86 KSP running on a Win 7 (64-bit) w/ 8 MB of RAM ...

I will happily provide more detail if desired (as I did in my previous post with V1), but in the meantime it's easy to suggest that Step 3 could benefit GREATLY by having 2K and 4K options in addition to the 8K option AVP ships with. I suggest this because, just like V1, a Clean install of KSP x86 runs out of memory after executing Step 3 and testing KSP. Nothing from Step 4 has even been added yet and that's the only place where you've provided the reduced size (4K and 2K) options.

A further suggestions to get a functioning install; the only mod Step 1 should install is EVE? PlanetShine and TextureReplacer can be options installed later in the process...

- I realize that you have configs that are applied to PlanetShine and optional features added to TextureReplacer - but consider the current order of operations:

a - Install EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements, PlanetShine, and TextureReplacer

b - Add volumetric cloud texture pack of quality desired to EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements

c - Add 8K Cloud Texture Pack to EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements, and also configure Chatterer, DistantObjectEnhancement, and PlanetShine

-- On a clean x86 KSP install on a sufficient Windows machine, AVP is unable to load into KSP at this point and thus is unusable (unless tweaked)

d - Optionally add "Essential features" with 2K, 4K, and 8K options and further configure PlanetShine

e - Optionally add "Extra features" with 4K & 8K options, add TextureReplacer optional textures, and install Chatterer (overwriting option installed in operation c)

f - Optionally add "Must-Have Mods" which includes DistantObjectEnhancement for the first time (overwriting option installed in operation c)

So to resolve this minor issue, you could suggest that in operation a EVE, PlantetShine, TextureReplacer, DistantObjectEnhancement, and Chatterer are all installed in operation a. However, given the resources are a game breaking issue for machines with maximum RAM available, perhaps an installation order such as the following is warranted as it would allow the core AVP functionality to be usable. This way you could also start with the lowest quality textures and optionally upgrade them in a future step!

a - Install EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements

b - Add and configure lowest quality (128x128) Volumetric Cloud texture pack

c - Add and configure lowest quality (1024x1024) Cloud Texture Pack to EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements

-- This would run easily on a clean x86 KSP Windows install with sufficient RAM! - no tweaking needed!

d - Optionally increase texture quality of volumetric clouds (256 & 512 options) and other Clouds and CityLights EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements (2K, 4K, and 8K options)

e - Optionally add and configure "Mods Configured by AVP": TextureReplacement (texture optimization features), PlanetShine, and DistantObjectEnhancement

h - Optionally add "Essential features" with 2K, 4K, and 8K options and further configure PlanetShine

i - Optionally add, enhance, and configure Chatterer

e - Optionally add "Extra features" with 2K, 4K, and 8K options including TextureReplacer optional textures

f - Optionally add "Astronomer's Favorite Mods"

Further observations/bugs?

1 - The Lens Flare files in V2 are the same as those in V1 - not sure if I had the right ones the whole time?

2 - ActiveTextureManagement is working with AVP in my opinion. I did tweak the BoulderCo settings to cut large textures in half, with this change I am able to get AVP Interstellar to work. That is partially why I think AVP just needs some texture size options in Step 3. But you might also consider giving ATM another try and suggesting it for use with this pack - the load time improvements it now provides are wonderful.

*NOTE TO ANYONE USING NEW ATM* It takes several runs, and quite a few minutes, for it to process and cache all the textures. If you keep running KSP it gets further each time...if it's never getting further try temporarily moving something out of GameData such as the Sqaud folder. Once the game loads, quit, re-add the folder(s) removed, and run again. IMO, all this is totally worth it for the load times and free memory.

3 - In this post you shared an optional set of clouds for Laythe, any intention to add it to the pack as an option?

[tygoo7]

I'm having a problem using ATM with the pack. Clouds don't appear at all on the staging view, but there's some flicker on the map view. Like this. Also happens with Eve.

Any way to solve it?

Did you install all the optional configs?

-snip-

Did you try running open-gl mode and set textures to half-res in settings? It saves A LOT of RAM. I'm running V2 with 1.5GB of RAM on 32-bit KSP without ATM.

[Motokid600]

What cfg-file are you referring to? If it's not too much trouble could you provide a link? The white glow is really putting a damper on the experience :/ Other than that, I love the new pack

Download Proot's KSPRC. Take just the Real Solar System folder provided and drop it in GameData.

Edited December 14, 2014 by Motokid600

[kami_sama]

Did you install all the optional configs?

Did you try running open-gl mode and set textures to half-res in settings? It saves A LOT of RAM. I'm running V2 with 1.5GB of RAM on 32-bit KSP without ATM.

Yes, I have everything installed. I tried rebuilding the cache for the AVPack textures, to no avail. Also, I should mention that I'm using opengl, does it make a difference?

[Ippo]

Hey there, maybe it's an obvious question but I couldn't figure it out by myself: is it possible to lower the frequency of the lightnings? Kerbin is sparkling right now

[daawgees]

I just installed V2 onto a fresh install of KSP and I'm getting no clouds on any of the planets. Everything else seems to be functioning just fine except the clouds.

Win 8.1x64

KSP .25 (32-bit)

Loading up with opengl to test this before I use ATM.

No other mods installed

[Elmetian]

*officially joins bandwagon*

I'm attempting to get a stable install of AVP:I v2 on a clean install of KSP x86. I've tried several different configurations, with lower res clouds and no lense flair, with and without the 'essential features', and I'm still having problems. It runs smoothly until I point the camera West and then I get potato quality. Framerate drops to something like 10 or 15, and I get vertical screen tearing. It doesn't seem to be caused by the lense flair or atmospheric scattering though they make it worse. My guess is it's the clouds :/

I'm using opengl, and I've tried both basic and aggressive versions of ATM. I'd almost say that ATM makes it worse. I'm not going over 2GB of RAM usage even without ATM, but I have had crashes due to my old GTX 560 ti running out of memory (KSP didn't create an output log if you're wondering). Had no trouble running Oblivion along with several dozen other mods so I'm kinda bummed that I can't even get Interstellar to run smoothly on its own. Any advice?

EDIT: reducing texture quality to half seems to have done the trick. Runs smooth as a snake iceskating on a graphene lake now

Edited December 14, 2014 by Narcosis

[Black-Talon]

Did you try running open-gl mode and set textures to half-res in settings? It saves A LOT of RAM. I'm running V2 with 1.5GB of RAM on 32-bit KSP without ATM.

Thank you for the troubleshooting ideas tygoo. I have not tried OpenGL with V1 - though I'll note it did work with V1 when I removed a few of the components I deemed unnecessary BUT framerate smoothness was a major issue.

I'm not sure what settings you're referring to that allow for "half-res" - perhaps in TextureReplacer? I could explore that further as I'm not very familiar with TextureReplacer. I do believe that would also work since when I add in the use of ATM and configure it to cut large textures in half I don't have an issue and the game is playable in standard DX9 mode.

While your suggestions are appreciated, I can currently get a playable install via a few tweaks (specifically ATM using settings to cut large textures in half). I wanted to share an observation - V2 is not functional on a clean x86 install, even with the most basic of low ram install options and on a machine with maximum RAM available to the game, WITHOUT tweaking settings beyond the install steps. And sharing a humble suggestion - there should be an install option that has smaller textures such that tweaks are not needed (which I believe was the goal of the V2 release).

My suggestion is just an observation through a lot of tweaking and testing, it doesn't need to be implemented.

-Talon

[Barklight]

Minor bug:

The download link for your SkyBoxes does not appear to work. Points to an adfly page that tries to redirect to mediafire, but fails.

I do use FireFox with NoScript enabled, but can't get it to work even with all scripts allowed. Might be a bad link or just me.

Luckily, the skybox is still obtainable in the v1 pack and I'm not afraid of manually digging up resources