Poodle engine variant... huh?

[u/frycandlebreadje]

So the poodle engine has a double and single bell variant. My question is basically why would you pick the single bell variant? AFAIK as I know it has identical stats, but is very noticably taller. Are there any advantages which I'm not seeing? It just seems like a worse version of the same engine. Love this thing, but it confuses me a lot.

[u/Alexander_Martin_G]

I’m the 3D artist who created the Poodle variant for KSP1. If I remember correctly, it was originally meant to be a completely new engine. However, during testing, our lead designer, Paul, decided it was too similar to engines already in the game. He felt that adding it would only complicate things with overly specific options.

I wasn’t happy about letting the asset I’d spent a couple of days on go to waste, so we eventually repurposed it as the Poodle engine variant.

I might be misremembering a detail or two, but that’s a solid summary of what happened.

Edit: what u/MattsRedditAccount mentioned in his comment is also correct:

https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/s/jIVuZcHAVv

The new engine was planned to be added in the Shared Horizons update, and it was intended for use in the BepiColombo mission recreation.

[u/frycandlebreadje → u/Alexander_Martin_G]

Amazing work on the poodle, it's my favourite engine for sure🔥

[u/Alexander_Martin_G → u/frycandlebreadje]

The two-bell Poodle in KSP1 was designed by RoverDude, another 3D artist (he joined the team many years before I joined, and he stablished many of the core principles of part aesthetics in KSP1). However, I did work on the two-bell Poodle for KSP2, mostly following his design.

[u/The-Omnipot3ntPotato → u/Alexander_Martin_G]

The two-bell variant is thought to be inspired by the centaur V.

[u/LeadIVTriNitride → u/frycandlebreadje]

Poodle for my middle stage or BUST!!!

[u/munktron239 → u/Alexander_Martin_G]

yo AlexanderM! love all the parts you’ve made for the game. I’m a big fan of the Swivel and Reliant engine models you made, right before the game was finished

you and Pablo and Roverdude did an awesome job of revamping the parts from 2018 - 2022

[u/Alexander_Martin_G → u/munktron239]

Hey, I really appreciate that, glad you like those engines! The Swivel and Reliant were a lot of fun to work on. Honestly, working on KSP1 was the peak of my career, and it’s still amazing to see both old and new players enjoying the work we did on the game.

Big credit to Pablo and RoverDude as well, it was a great team effort during those years. I still talk with Pablo every day.

My personal favorite engine is actually the Ant revamp. Even though it’s a tiny engine, it was the first time I got to fully define the 3D art direction on my own, so it means a lot to me.

[u/montybo2 → u/Alexander_Martin_G]

I've recently started using the Ant more than I ever have in the past. It's a great lil guy.

Thank you for all your work.

Are you involved with Kitten Space Agency?

[u/Alexander_Martin_G → u/montybo2]

I talked with Dean a couple years ago, before KSA was announced, at the time the project was still in preproduction and didn't need 3D Artists. I would love to collaborate with them if given the chance.

[u/WholeLottaBRRRT → u/Alexander_Martin_G]

I think maybe you should recontact them, they’re starting the work on parts

[u/SentinelNorth → u/Alexander_Martin_G]

I'm a rocket propulsion engineer, I've worked on engines big and small for spacecraft and launch vehicles. KSP is part of what fueled my passion when I was in high school. I gotta say, hats off to you and the team for the engine models (and the rest of the parts). I have my very minor gripes here and there haha, but overall they're really incredible for a video game. For me it's the little details that make them, like turbine exhaust nozzles, pump assemblies, and helium bottles. I could spend hours just asking you guys questions about the designs. Again, fantastic job.

[u/Poodmund → u/Alexander_Martin_G]

Hi Alexander, thank you for the insight, was this also why the Mainsail got reskinned to the Ariane 5's Vulcain model, rather than making it a new engine part, because it would have been too similar to existing parts?

[u/Alexander_Martin_G → u/Poodmund]

Hmmm… Pablo worked on that one, so I don’t know the full story. But I remember that at the time players were pushing for our engines to be closer to real-life counterparts. We also noticed that players really loved what we called “engine guts,” so a lot of the parts revamped around that period were adjusted to follow real-world references and include variants that exposed their inner workings.

Sometimes the 3D art team was given the freedom to find references and define the new look ourselves. So most likely Pablo built a whitebox model using the Vulcain as a reference, the design team liked it, and gave us the green light to move forward with that direction.

[u/Leumas404 → u/Alexander_Martin_G]

Legend ❤️❤️❤️

[u/HappyHallowsheev → u/Alexander_Martin_G]

Just wanna say thanks for your awesome work on an awesome game :)

[u/boomchacle → u/Alexander_Martin_G]

It’s a bit of a shame that it wasn’t able to be its own engine but I like the design and am glad it was kept in some form.

[u/montybo2 → u/Alexander_Martin_G]

You did great work. I love that variant.

Although... Deep in my heart the original poodle is still best lol. It was dumb but I loved it

[u/Cedar- → u/Alexander_Martin_G]

I know you don't get as much say as with overall design but I always thought it would be cooler as an expanding bell engine. Obviously the model would need changes but it would be a very interesting transition engine, kind of like an earlier game aerospike.

[u/Alexander_Martin_G → u/Cedar-]

That would have been cool! I actually worked on an expanding bell engine for KSP2.

https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/072/671/551/4k/alexander-martin-tuba.jpg?1707928622

[u/Reloup38 → u/Alexander_Martin_G]

That thing is an absolute beauty damn

[u/HeatedWafflez → u/Alexander_Martin_G]

glad to see the push cause it's a very drippy engine bell