Project Kerbol System

Owenmck

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I've started playing KSP a lot recently, and I thought that it would be cool to create the Kerbol system in orbiter. However, I'm not an expert on Orbiter's planet system, so if I need any help i'll post it here.

I should be able to get the surface textures from https://kerbal-maps.finitemonkeys.org/ , and turn them into the correct file format for Orbiter, but I might have some problems with the elevation data.

Anyways, first step is to get correctly sized, basic celestial spheres in the correct places. Kerbin first.
 

Owenmck

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First question is, how do I edit the orbital parameters of a planet? Can't seem to find it in any .config file

Never mind, found the documentation
 
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Urwumpe

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Just remember to don't overwrite files of Orbiters standard installation. Otherwise, it should be straight forward. No idea on how to use the terrain tools for converting the maps to textures and topography... I never did this yet, maybe asking in the threads for those tools will help you.
 

Owenmck

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Okay, I've done the config files for the inner planets, and I've started trying to create a SURF .tree file for Kerbin.
I'm taking the image file as a BMP, along with a specular reflection file (the black and white one) and I'm trying to pack them into a .tex file using "pltex". However, when I try to pack the files, I'm given the error;

"Can't use compressed source bitmaps"
And I have no idea what a compressed source bitmap is. Any ideas?
 

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Okay, I've done the config files for the inner planets, and I've started trying to create a SURF .tree file for Kerbin.
I'm taking the image file as a BMP, along with a specular reflection file (the black and white one) and I'm trying to pack them into a .tex file using "pltex". However, when I try to pack the files, I'm given the error;

"Can't use compressed source bitmaps"
And I have no idea what a compressed source bitmap is. Any ideas?

There is a running length compression extension of the BMP format around. Possible that the tools can't read it. Make sure it is not saved in RLE8 compression if its a grayscale image. (BMP does not know grayscale. Its just a 8 bit per pixel image with a grayscale colour map).

Could also be, that the images are in Version 4 or 5 of the BMP standard - this can't be understood by anything outside Windows at all, only very few software libraries understand this kind of format.
 

N_Molson

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Seems to be a format issue.
 

Owenmck

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Managed to fix the BMP issue, it was due to the terrible image converter I was using.

Progress:
Screenshot (123).png

Screenshot (124).png

Many issues. Kerbin is very low-res, not sure how I am going to fix this. Need higher res source images, and pltex only seems to do up to level 8. Perhaps just make surface tiles for areas such as the KSC?
Also, there are no specular reflections, despite me making a specular reflection map for pltex. Could this be due to something with treeman?

Also need to figure out why the clouds are black...
Probably should have started with Duna, may have been much easier
 

Owenmck

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I spent this morning creating textures for Minmus, some surface tiles around the KSC, and being very confused as to why my my map of Kerbin for the Map MFD wasn't being used in game.

The map MFD continues to use the Earth map, despite me actually deleting the file "EarthM" entirely, and trying to call my new file "KerbinM" and "EarthM". Neither of these file names worked.
Does anyone know how I can fix this?
 

N_Molson

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Are you sure Kerbin is the target (the reference gravity source) of Map MFD ? It can be set through the scenario parameters so be sure to check that.

Also you might want to have a look there :

 
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Owenmck

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Screenshot (140).png
Screenshot (139).png

Slowly coming along. Finally found a good source of High Res surface textures.
I've decided to focus on the big stuff (putting all the planets in the correct places and with correct surface textures,) before doing all the small stuff. (Map MFD and elevation)
 

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View attachment 24368
View attachment 24369

Slowly coming along. Finally found a good source of High Res surface textures.
I've decided to focus on the big stuff (putting all the planets in the correct places and with correct surface textures,) before doing all the small stuff. (Map MFD and elevation)
I have no idea what the Kerbals would react to a Delta Glider crossing over to their universe.
 

Owenmck

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Screenshot (145).png
Moho

Eve is going to be a pain, as i have to create a specular map for it's oceans. For Kerbin and Laythe, this is easy, I just select the colour of the ocean and fill with white. However, Eve's surface is exactly the same colour as it's seas. I'll see what I can do...
 

N_Molson

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I never went a lot to Eve in KSP, how are the oceans supposed to be ? Some kind of metallic liquid (specular should be purple) ? Simply "purple water" (specular should be white) ?
 

Owenmck

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I never went a lot to Eve in KSP, how are the oceans supposed to be ? Some kind of metallic liquid (specular should be purple) ? Simply "purple water" (specular should be white) ?
Eve’s seas are made of ‘Explodium’. I think they are supposed to be liquid fuel
The seas look practically exactly the same as the land, except that it reflects specularly
As far as I know in orbiter, you can only make the specular reflections one colour, so it will look like purple water.
I’ll also need to look into how to make custom microtextures. I intend to make microtextures for each planet/moon. I’ll have to take a look at the D3D9 SDK
 

N_Molson

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As far as I know in orbiter, you can only make the specular reflections one colour, so it will look like purple water.

Yes I just checked the D3D9 client documentation and right now it doesn't support surface specular maps, only for vessels and bases. Maybe in a future update, you might want to ask Jarmonik about this ?
 

Owenmck

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Screenshot (150).png
Gilly passing in front of Eve (Currently without atmosphere)

Creating the specular map was not as hard as I expected.
I also did Duna today, but I thought that the poles would look fine without specular reflections. They didn't, so I need to do the mask for Duna.
Also experimenting with interpolation for higher level textures. Currently they are all level eight, which isn't so bad because all the bodies are really small. I tried using interpolation for level 9 for Moho. It took half an hour to export, but it should be fine.
 

N_Molson

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Yes the KSP planets are very small so the overall resolution is much better. Eve looks very good there, will be perfect with an atmosphere ?
 

Owenmck

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Discovered yesterday that trying to fly in the Joolian system with n-body physics is practically impossible... Everything is just so close together
 
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