This mod is not known to work with the latest version of Kerbal Space Program. Proceed with caution.
This mod adds a bunch of visual effects to KSP, most importantly atmospheric scattering effects and improved water shaders to KSP.
Features
Atmospheric scattering
Interactible ocean waves
Godrays
Custom sun flare shader
Installation
Forum thread
http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/103963-wip-scatterer-atmospheric-scattering
Released on 2022-08-14
Released on 2022-04-22
Released on 2022-04-08
Fix TAA breaking with atmosphereless bodies and becoming a smearfest
Fix TAA randomy disabling with TUFX
Use TAA by default on the default preset and upwards, the lower 2 presets still use SMAA
Expose TAA settings
Fix UI window being unclickable/undraggable on lower screen resolutions
Fix Bruneton tonemapper causing artifacts with bright colors
Released on 2022-02-20
Reuploaded 0.0831 after License update.
Cumulative 0.0772->0.0831 changelog:
Released on 2021-06-18
Fixed a few issues with stuck images on-screen, in some cases during re-entry or when cheating a craft to another planet
Fixed screen becoming black when crashing command part
Fixed oceanFFT nullref spam
Fixed incompatibility with TUFX ambient occlusion
Released on 2021-05-17
Depth buffer mode: Renders scattering effect using the depth buffer instead of re-rendering opaque objects:
Faster long-distance shadow rendering (no longer need to render an additional depth buffer for shadows farther than 7km)
Small performance improvements in the ocean + ability to further disable foam and transparency for performance on slower machines
Performance presets and a preset loader in the KSC menu, to easily adjust quality/performance. It will also tell you your current preset by matching individual settings against presets. Scatterer will now default to "low" preset which is just the basic scattering+ocean feel free to go higher or lower depending on your specs.
Sunflare editor in the UI, changes made here will be lost on scene changes so copy your config. (Config will also be logged when applied from the UI)
New sunflare syntax (check wiki for details https://github.com/LGhassen/Scatterer/wiki/SunflaresConfig#syntax-version-2)
Sunflares are loaded directly from their individual sunflare configs (Scatterer_sunflare nodes), no longer need to have and maintain sunflare list in the planetsList file
Released on 2020-12-31
Bugfixes:
Released on 2020-12-16
Compatible with 1.9, 1.10 and 1.11
New features:
Added volumetric shadows (godrays). Godrays use shadow information so the quality is directly tied to shadowmap resolution and shadow distance. Godray strength can be tweaked and godrays respect atmosphere density and optical depth. Only compatible with Directx 11 (requires the unified camera setup)
Added underwater light rays, derived directly from the caustics textures and config. Brightness of underwater light rays can be adjusted. Light rays are volumetric and respect shadows
Added craft-wave interactions. Ocean waves are now interactible/collidable. Only compatible with Directx 11 as it requires async GPU readback
Added override for ship recovery velocity when splashed and wave interactions are on (by default 5 m/s vs 0.3 m/s for stock), to allow ship recovery in wavy oceans
Added overrides for water drag and crash tolerance when wave interactions are on, to make ships and seaplanes experience better (3x less drag and 3x less crash tolerance than stock by default). Seaplanes are workable but require some care and timing, it's still possible to take off with the stock gull from by going in the same direction as the waves
Fixes:
Fix scattering effect getting cut off in the distance for RSS/Rescale
Fix bleached/white mountains in the distance when ascending to orbit
Fix caustics, extinction lighting, long-distance shadows and ocean shadows not working on Kopernicus suns
EVE clouds have correct scattering and extinction based on their altitude and no longer behave as if at ocean level
Fix EVE clouds having dark side appearing lit in some cases with EVE integration on
EVE clouds + Sunlight extinction respect extinction thickness
Fix some cloud flickering issues with EVE, mostly noticeable with spectra when using EVE integration
Fix sunflares being offset from their star/planet in some cases (when the body is small)
Fix reflections disappearing from ships when using cameraTools after 250 meters distance
Fix ocean secondary lights causting artifacts/squares on the planet from orbit
Fix sky reflection on the ocean not respecting sky exposure and alpha settings
Added configurable skyReflectionStrength setting in ocean config (can be changed from UI but need to rebuild ocean to apply)
Released on 2020-08-26
Fix occasional black screen when reverting to KSC
Compatibility with EVE-Redux's volumetric particle fading near camera
Caustics don't appear on shadows
Small performance improvement when using ocean shader (CPU usage reduction)
Ocean builds/loads faster if compute shader support is available, m_variance variable is hidden from user
Added option to disable dithering from sky and scattering effects
Released on 2020-08-19
Support for performance-enhanced EVE version: https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/196411-110x-eve-redux-performance-enhanced-eve-build/
Fix wrong overriding of EVE renderqueues
Released on 2020-08-16
Update for 1.10
Fix stock sky and scatterer sky drawing on each other in 1.10
Fix z-fighting and scattering rendering twice on stock ocean
Fixed compression method for netkan bot (otherwise same as release 0.0621)
Fixed file paths causing white atmospheres for users (otherwise same as release 0.0621b)
Released on 2020-04-25
Fix issue with VesselView mod resulting in black ship view screens
Display effects in main menu for modded planets other than Kerbin
Released on 2020-04-19
Fix for 1.9.x (Maintain compatibility with 1.8.x)
Fix for flickering shadows in Dx11 (stock game bug) (with option to disable it just in case)
Temporary fix for EVE clouds sinking into planet in 1.9
Temporary fix for EVE clouds being visible in plumes (thanks @R-T-B)
Handle long-distance shadows on 1.9 Dx11 with a custom method
Separate shadow settings for new unified camera mode (1.9 Dx11) and other modes using dual cameras
Added options to override shadowMap resolution with long-distance shadows (defaults to 8K in unified camera mode, can be lowered along with shadows distance for saving performance)
Added options to override shadowCascadeSplits with long-distance shadows
Fix compatibility with stock reflection probes
Fix planets and scaledSpace scenery being visible through other planetSurfaces in stock reflection probes (stock game bug)
Fix ocean shadow artifacts
Fade out ocean shadows correctly
Fix foam/whitecaps becoming invisible in some situations
Fix shores having weird scattering (mostly RSS/rescale bug)
Fix Kopernicus ring shadows broken since Kopernicus refactor (only linear rings supported, tiled rings will not cast shadows)
Fix issue with some cargo bays (stock drag cubes) causing low framerates and errors
Added new setting to partially flatten scaledSpace mesh geometry, to be used when "naked" scaledSpace geometry is visible behind localSpace scattering and terrain (Kerbin needs this in 1.9)
Better logging when initializing Scatterer celestial bodiesbodies
Released on 2020-02-20
Add water caustics, configurable
Add possiblity to change sun color for atmospheres (possibility for colored suns, coloring atmospheres differently)
Fix issue with symlinks in paths
Fixed issue with oceanRefractions setting not getting saved
Fixed crash due to atmosphereProjector destructor
Fixed some issues when starting unity in debug mode
Released on 2019-10-26
Update for 1.8
Disable dithering on sunflares because of pronounced artifacts
Released on 2019-03-17
Fix refraction/transparency artifacts in the ocean at altitude (swirly appearance)
Fix unnaturally bright scattering on the ocean and a small pop while transitioning to orbit
Fix white sky bug in some situations
Add trailing zero in version number for CKAN
Released on 2019-03-15
Fix z-fighting (flickering black squares on terrain when high in atmosphere)
Fix overlay/atmosphere visible on ships in orbit
Released on 2019-03-14
For end users:
Anti-aliasing on atmosphere effects (fix black edges on horizon, sea and terrain)
All effects compatible with camera mods (rasterprop etc...)
Removed godrays to add the previous two points
Sunlight color is tinted by extinction (objects receive red light at sunset instead of white)
Fix tsunami/flood bug in KSC scene, and with Kerbal Konstructs
Fix line break in scattering effect
Automated and improved transition to orbit with less pops/discontinuities
Ocean ambient light (ocean visible at night)
Shadows visible on the ocean (may be buggy in dx11)
Sunflare visible in supersampled screenshots
Display scatterer button in KSC menu only
Improved shadow precision
Sunflare scales with FOV
Fix performance high performance hit of dithering in OpenGL on certain machines (thanks @soulsource)
Don't break stock underwater effect with stock ocean
Fix buggy ocean surface when lowering ocean resolution
Fix ocean pixel lights
Fix various artifacts
Moved settings that change every time to pluginData
For modders:
Merged local and scaled settings (scattering+extinction), to reduce clutter
Removed mapSkyExtinctionRimFade, mapGroundExtinctionFade and _mapExtinctionScatterIntensity
Added a new setting extinctionThickness, setting it works on localPostProcessing, scaledSpace and clouds. . It works as (1-extinctionGroundFade),
Removed other redundant/unused settings
Fixed extinction tint not doing anything
Mapnode removed, map mode just uses the highest config node
Created a repo for stock scatterer config, to track config and syntax changes, you can sue it like this: https://github.com/LGhassen/ScattererConfig/compare/acbda29a...master
Fix not being able to add sky effect to atmosphere-less bodies
Released on 2018-11-08
-Fix stock sunflare appearing on top of custom sunflare
-Fix effects flipped when AA is disabled
-Add mod button to toolbar and remove intrusive mod menu from main menu (new icon by cratercracker)
-Display effects in main menu
-Update to 1.5.1
Released on 2018-04-27
-Update EVE shaders (fading rim)
Released on 2018-04-26
-Fix issues with B9PartSwitch resulting in invisible water and weird sky shading
-Fix some issues with banding in the sky and underwater
Released on 2018-03-31
-Fix issue where space is black and planets are invisible
-Fix flipped post-processing without AA on direct3D
-Fix gas giants visible through other planets
-Fix refraction and post-processing effects not applying to new mk1-3 pod
Released on 2018-03-11
-1.4 Compatibility
-Fix postProcessing effects not applying to trees (atmospheric scattering) or fairings (underwater)
-Fix/Minimize white aliasing around objects when in front of the ocean
Released on 2018-01-28
-Fix nullref spam with refractions on
-Fix ocean "stuck" in the screen and visible on the moon and other bodies
-Fix black sky in KSC view when reverting mission
-Fix halo issue and remove alternateSQRT option
-Fix atmospheres visible through other planets
-Fix nullref issue on planets without PQS
-Recompiled for 1.3.1
Released on 2017-07-06
-1.3 compatibility: fixed flying tiles issue
-New water effects: Water refraction, depth-based transparency, contact foam and underwater surface and underwater "fog"
-Fixed "break" in the postprocessing effect very close to the camera
-NearClipPlane parameter is back in the config file per popular request, not recommended to mess with it unless you know what you're doing
-Fix some issues with disappearing layer2d (used for spectra glow effects)
-Changed config file structure to improve ModuleManager compatibility
-Added option to disable planet config auto-saving on scene change
-Per-planet EVE integration
-EVE integration: option to preserve cloud colors, prevents "bleached" clouds when using EVE integration
-Fixed a few EVE integration issues causing clouds to appear black on some configs
Released on 2017-07-06
-New water effects: Water refraction, depth-based transparency, contact foam and underwater surface and underwater "fog"
-Fixed "break" in the postprocessing effect very close to the camera
-NearClipPlane parameter is back in the config file per popular request, not recommended to mess with it unless you know what you're doing
-Fix some issues with disappearing layer2d (used for spectra glow effects)
-Changed config file structure to improve ModuleManager compatibility
-Added option to disable planet config auto-saving on scene change
-Per-planet EVE integration
-EVE integration: option to preserve cloud colors, prevents "bleached" clouds when using EVE integration
-Fixed a few EVE integration issues causing clouds to appear black on some configs
Released on 2017-01-22
-EVE cloud integration, scattering is now applied to clouds and they change colors at sunset (old shading still an option from main menu, useful for EVE 7-4 and visual packs that aren't reconfigured for the new system.
-Added kopernicus ring shadows, rings can now cast shadows on planets (if using the new EVE integration, the shading may not look right, it's better not to have clouds on a planet that has rings ATM, old cloud shading works fine).
-Sunflare changes intensity and color when seen through Kopernicus rings.
-Added sun flare ghost fade-out after a configurable distance.
-Effects now work in tracking station.
-Fixed atmospheres wobbling when observing far away planets in map view, ie planets that the active vessel is not orbiting.
-Fixed ocean reflections and foam being very faint.
-Fixed "experimental viewdir offset" flipping directions sometimes, this should fix the band over the horizon.
-Fixed re-entry effects rendering behind ship.
-Removed nearClip Parameter and fixed "slicing" on objects close to camera.
-Fixed ocean and postprocessing shaders causing artifacts on Texture Replacer's reflections.
-Fixed high ambient light issue on ship when disabling ambient light in scaledSpace.
-Fixed whole screen being tinted with color of sunflare when being very far from sunflare source
-Fixed rectangular artifacts on sunflare ghosts
-Sunflare now shows correct extinction from all distances, previously all extinction effects disappeared when the PQS is disabled.
-Planets now have an individual "mainSunCelestialBody" setting. Useful for multi-star system mods.
-Fixed OpenGL on windows
Released on 2016-10-17
-Recompiled for 1.2
-Added potential fix for atmosphere halo (if it doesn't work, try switching it off)
-Switched sky shaders to soft blending
Released on 2016-10-02
-ModuleManager compatibility
-Possibility to set name the main celestial body considered as the sun (useful for kopernicus)
-Fixed ocean spazzing out when zooming out or rotating camera
-Multiple lens flares support
1.2 version of this release is also available on the forum
Released on 2016-07-14
-Fixed lens flare compatbility with 1.1.3
-Godrays no longer cause black trails behind ships/buildings
-Fixed weird halos around planet
Released on 2016-05-08
-Fixed terrain shadow artifacts (adjust shadow bias and shadow normal bias if you still get issues)
-Fixed 3rd sun flare ghost displaying image of 2nd ghost
Released on 2016-05-07
-Fixed ocean FOV and IVA-related issues
-Fixed compatibility with Directx11
-Fixed lens flare in OpenGL
-Fixed weird looking eclipses on Jool
-Doubled number of sun flare ghost instance slots and added a ghost texture slot
-Sun flare now fades out when zooming in on the sun so the sun surface is visible
Released on 2016-04-17
-Added accurate sky reflections on the ocean
-Added option to enable light sources to work with the ocean (big performance hit at the moment)
-Mostly fixed horizon line artifacts
-Ocean now appears in supersampled screenshots
-Issue where ocean flickers and bobs around with camera movements appears to be fixed
-Moved fourierGridSize option to the main menu (option with the biggest effect on ocean performance)
Released on 2016-04-05
-Added a way to override rendertype tags (fixes rectangles in the sky when using EVE clouds or from rocket exhausts)
-Updated the "render on top of eve clouds" option to match EVE's new renderqueue (gets rid of weird terminators with EVE)
-Tweaked and recompiled shaders for unity 5 (should get rid of some rendering issues new to unity 5)
-Terrain shadows are now disabled by default to avoid heavy artifacting in dx9
Released on 2016-04-02
-Fixed weird and greenish coloration in postProcessing shader and sky shader especially visible near the horizon, both effects are back to being realistically blue.
-Fixed eclipses nor working correctly in map view when viewing planets other than the active one.
Released on 2016-03-30
-1.1 Compatibility
-Much faster, nearly instantaneous loading, reverting a flight you no longer have to wait 10 seconds, effects enabled in map view for planets other than the active one and will load on demand
-.raw format replaced by .half format, which enable faster laoding and smaller filesize, if you created your own .raw files, they will be converted automatically to .half the first time the planet is loaded (make sure to delete any existing .half files when you copy over new .raw files)
-Option to disable scaledSpace ambient light (celestial bodies appear realistically lit and will display as crescents in the sky)
-Restored the sun corona.
-Option to ignore renderType tags, keep this on for the time being as rendertype tags seem to be gone in 1.1 and the postprocessing shader won't work without them.
-No longer need to reload the tables when switching fullscreen/windowed, only ocean needs to be reloaded.
-Added an ocean offset reset when it gets bigger than 20000, avoids floating point precision issues resulting in artifacts or a blocky-looking ocean when traveling a large distance over the ocean such as doing a sub-orbital hop or doing a fast re-entry.
-Window positions are persistent.
-Gui keys are rebindable through the config file.
Released on 2016-03-12
-Quick fix to effects disappearing in scaledSpace for RSS -Ocean fourierGridSize restored to 128 as default for Kerbin
Released on 2016-03-10
-Fixed compatibility with planetary rings
-Fixed lens flare not occluding correctly on bodies without atmosphere
-New option to draw the atmosphere over EVE clouds: Fixes strange-looking terminators when using both EVE and scatterer and looks smoother in general, however it makes the transition from PQS to scaledSpace more problematic and introduces some new issues. Can be toggled of from the main menu or for individual planets throught the planetsList.cfg file.
-Fixed draw order issue where clouds on Jool render over Laythe's sky.
-Partially fixed compatibility with telescope mods: Will work correctly in high orbits (>160 km) with the planet rendering correctly and no overlaying layers, however will get some interference from the postprocessing shader when PQS is active (below 160km for Kerbin).
-Visor reflections (TextureReplacer's reflection plugin) should also be fixed, with the same limitations as the telescope mods.
Released on 2016-03-04
-Highly improved memory usage (100-400 mb savings)
Released on 2016-02-26
-Fixed lens flare shader not working on linux/OpenGL
-Fixed pink square that appears near the player's craft
-Fixed extinction tint not working in sky shader and postprocessing shader in OpenGL
Released on 2016-02-25
-Fixed completely blue screen issue when loading a craft in high orbit
-Fixed blue screen and tilted camera issue when entering KSC
Released on 2016-02-24
-Ocean no longer disappears when you rotate the camera, do flips in IVA or get to orbit. -FakeOcean removed, regular ocean stays all the way to high orbit. -Added ocean alpha setting to configPoints to fade out the ocean nearing orbit. -Better way to disable the stock oceans (thx to rbray89), gives a small performance bump.
-Added godrays: Early WIP, disabled by default, these work best with good terrain so turn up your terrain quality. Looks best with terrain shadows.
-Added terrain shadows: These depend on the unity shadows, if you see shimmering or artifacts turn up your shadow quality through the "render quality level" slider in KSP. The default shadow Cascades setting of 4 seems to work quite well. Shadows distance has also been changed from 5 000 to 100 000, this is adjustable in the scatterer config file.
-Added custom sunflare shader: WIP, configurable through custom textures and config file.
-Added eclipses: WIP, appear only on sky and orbit only for now, no terrain shadows. You can set eclipse casters through the planetsList file.
-Tweaked configs for a bunch of planet, ground to orbit transition is much better on Kerbin especially. Didn't have time to redo Duna so it probably loooks really bad.
-Fixed custom depth buffer artifacts (threshold of 10 is enough for all altitudes now). -Moved all render modes to the custom depth buffer.
-MapViewScale setting no longer required. -PostProcessing now has extinction like the sky shader. -PostProcessing blending mode changed from alpha blending to soft additive, basically it blends better and feelsless foggy during the day and more foggy at sunsets/sunrises.
-Sky extinction is now handled via analytic formula, this fixes the bug where sometimes extinction doesn't work with custom configs, beware that objects in the sky are still handled via the old method so this may not fix it.
Released on 2016-02-18
-Fixed black ocean bug
-Fixed issue with gas giants giving abysmal fps
-Fixed rim exposure settings resulting in pixelated planet edges
-Fixed atmosphere drawing over planets in map view
-Fixed sunsets/sunrises looking like eclipses
-Sunglare hiding during eclipses
-Cleaner depth buffer and postprocessing in dx11 and opengl (edgeThreshold now obsolete)
-Main menu window for enabling and disabling features
Raw stats are from the beginning of time until now. Each follower and download entry represents one hour of data. Uneventful hours are omitted.