Difference between revisions of "Tutorial:Making a planet"

Revision as of 05:04, 14 July 2015

It was never very easy to create planets in KSP - it often required decompiling, which is against the EULA. After a long time looking, a mod called Kopernicus was released and found, making it easy to make planets.

Specifications

• Length: 15-30 minutes
• Difficulty: Medium
• For version: 1.0.x

Steps

1. Obtaining the prequisites

You will need:

• A text editor
• An image editor
• Kopernicus 0.1

Many developers prefer text editors like Notepad++, a rather advanced program. Image editors usually are advanced, but even Paint would work. You can find Kopernicus here.

2. Setting up the basic file

Create a file, and name it: PLANET.cfg Change PLANET to your planet or moon's name. Inside the file, write this in:

@Kopernicus:AFTER[Kopernicus]
{
 Body
 {
 }
}

This declares that the file is a Kopernicus configuration file and a celestial body.

3. Adding the essential modules

Kopernicus configs are broken up into different segments described as in this tutorial as modules. An @ symbol before a module overrides the existing module - allowing for Kerbin to turn orange or something. It is unknown whether children of modules are affected by the parent's overriding. The 2 required modules are Properties and Orbit. They require several parameters, listed here:

Properties
{
 description = in game description
 radius = half of the diameter of the planet - used to define size of sphere with texture
 geeASL = planet's gravity in Kerbin gravities
}
Orbit
{
 inclination = distance at ascending node from horizontal in degrees, relative to the parent's equator
 eccentricity = unknown, perhaps the ratio of pe:ap and vice versa after 0.5
 semiMajorAxis = average of pe and ap: pe + ap / 2 = this
 longitudeOfAscendingNode = unknown, perhaps distance from 12:00 in degrees relative to the parent | set to 0 for max safety
 argumentOfPeriapsis = unknown, set to 0
 meanAnomalyAtEpoch = ^
 epoch = ^
 referenceBody = body the planet is orbiting, Kerbol is Sun
}

Done!
At the moment, coding in Kopernicus is not completed, due to the enormity of the subject. It will be done soon.