KSA's Part & Art Development Thread

Thought it would be a good idea to start a thread containing all the in-progress progression and WIP content I post to Discord. As the forums are a little more grounded and persistent compared to an endless scrolling list of short-form content; it might make for a better place to discuss ideas and the development of the game's parts, art style, scope etc as it happens. When things are resolved enough I'll post em as their own threads as usual

I'll kick things off with the first look of our initial docking port part - an androgynous system designed to be both passive and active inspired by the APAS75 port created collaboratively by the Soviet Union and the USA. This was to help facilitate docking between a Soyuz and an Apollo CSM, and represented one of the first instances of a universal design that the Cold-warring nations worked together on. It sits a bit ahead on the timeline of the OG Apollo docking parts (as they were probe and drogue systems) but is probably more appropriate for straightforward craft-to-craft attachment this early in dev. We might branch backwards to more complicated passive\active systems as time goes on.

 

[Kiwi Shark]

Does the lighting make Daishi's parts look extra cool, or do Daishi's parts give the lighting something extra cool to illuminate?

The answer will have to wait until after I'm done staring at the parts because they look extra cool.

 

[Daishi]

Finishing off the whole range of interstage adaptors, new nosecones, aeroshrouds for smaller SRBs and (yet to be designed) half meter engines. Trying to work out a way to design livery and rollmarker paint that looks good, but doesn't overlap with the fuel tank textures. Bit tricky. Any thoughts?

I'm also thinking of replacing the orange nosecone paint, switch it to black, then adopt red for petal nosecones that decouple for payload deployment. Ideally we probably want procedural meshes for true fairings, but gotta have something in the meantime

 

[Kiwi Shark]

Rocket full of presents for good boys and girls flying into the straosphere:

 

[Aziz]

Can we have the option to have the nosecones empty/hollow?
Sometimes I don't want a conventional fairing, just a decoupler with nosecone, and not once nor twice I had to extend the fuselage beyond the payload - even if it would fit inside a closing nosecone, because I couldn't fit the "pointy" end in it. Or use several separate size adapters (which still weren't doing the good enough job) before the nosecone of smallest size.

 

[Daishi]

Can we have the option to have the nosecones empty/hollow?
Sometimes I don't want a conventional fairing, just a decoupler with nosecone, and not once nor twice I had to extend the fuselage beyond the payload - even if it would fit inside a closing nosecone, because I couldn't fit the "pointy" end in it. Or use several separate size adapters (which still weren't doing the good enough job) before the nosecone of smallest size.

Of course, that's on the cards. I'll get these merged / endcapped nosecones released first, and use the same geo for the red petal ones that'll be hollow and more cylindrical at the base (ala the Black Arrow rocket) that opens like a clam.

 

[Daishi]

Finished snoots and shroud diffuse and normals, PBR shaders next.