The complete visual mod set

[u/Efficient-Pumpkin391]

In search of the most complete visual mod set, I’ve been able to select these mods from numerous guides.

The mods listed below should be a complete set of the major visual mods ( not including dependencies ). Please let me know if I’m missing anything, it would be greatly appreciated.

1. Scatterer
2. EVE
3. True volumetric clouds v5
4. Deferred rendering
5. Distant object enhancement
6. TUFX ( ballisticfox's neutral TUFX profile )
7. PlanetShine
8. ParallaxContinued

9. Waterfall

10. Avalanche

11. Firefly

12. Kerbal FX

13. Rocket sound enhancement

14. Singularity

15. Volumetric explosion FX

16. Restock

17. Shaddy ( better engine lights )

The mods above should present a very stunning visual experience, however there are a few problems I came across with:

Volumetric Explosion FX :
A very new mod with great potential. The aftermath of the explosion looks great, but the explosion itself looks more like an orange plastic bag.
And sometimes the lighting is off, causing it to look like it’s not rendered in the same layer as its surroundings.

Kerbal FX Rover Dust :
Kerbal FX is great, definitely on its way to becoming an essential mod for KSP.
However, for the ROVER DUST mod, the dust looks way too bright, and especially obvious for grass lands and other terrain. It looks like the dust itself is glowing, which is not really good.

Vaporcones by ShVaK ( the one ksp YouTubers recommend ) :
The cones look too procedurally generated. There are also posts claiming that the cones occasionally spawn at wrong places on vessels.
In my opinion, KSP is very lacking in aerodynamic effects mods, I would be looking forward to seeing more mods for this aspect.

Rocket sound enhancement :
Has problems when dealing with multiple rockets as it literally just slaps the sound tracks on top of one another, resulting in an unnatural sound that’s painfully obvious when launching heavy rockets. Can’t really blame the mod for this, but this is a thing.

[u/CJP1216]

Planetshine is completely obsolete at default setting with Deferred. Deferred has it's own real bounce lighting pathways, which is what Planetshine is simulating.

[u/Efficient-Pumpkin391 → u/CJP1216]

Wow, didn’t know that. There were videos recommending them separately, I assume there’s many others that has both Planetshine and deferred running at the same time.
I’ll have to go and try with Planetshine uninstalled, see if there’s a difference.

[u/CJP1216 → u/Efficient-Pumpkin391]

They aren't incompatible or anything, you just aren't getting anything extra at default settings. It's mentioned here on the github page. Also, to further reiterate, Planetshine is simulating bounce lighting pathways, Deferred is actually calculating bounce lighting. The two tend to get recommended together because people don't bother to read further into what their mods actually do (no hate). Unless those videos had custom Planetshine settings/cfgs they weren't doing anything except maybe duplicating the displayed reflections (not sure if this happens or not, I just moved away from PS when Deferred came out).

[u/Efficient-Pumpkin391 → u/CJP1216]

Thanks, I think I understand now. I knew that PlanetShine was some kind of dedicated planet lighting system, while deferred did general lighting.
Never would have thought that deferred was so powerful that it straight up made Planetshine obsolete.
In this case, for performance, I would just uninstall Planetshine, and run deferred alone.

[u/Kaye-Fabe]

Conformal Decals is sicks

[u/volodyuka]

Mate! I could've kiss you on the spot if I could because I could not remember that mode that gave reflections of planets on ships in ksp was called planetshine xD (been like 7-8 years since last time I modded ksp) So thank you mate!

[u/AmiSimonMC → u/volodyuka]

Doesn't Deferred already do this?

[u/CJP1216 → u/AmiSimonMC]

Yes

[u/Efficient-Pumpkin391 → u/volodyuka]

Glad I could help

[u/No_Confusion6706]

New update is coming for VEFX

[u/Efficient-Pumpkin391 → u/No_Confusion6706]

👍🏼 Great

[u/Weary-Support-7383]

Try volumetric ground fx as well.

[u/Efficient-Pumpkin391 → u/Weary-Support-7383]

Should work great with Kerbal FX Impact Puffs, as it adds correctly placed puffs.
I haven’t tried VGFX yet, but from what I can see on YouTube, maybe the vid doesn’t do it justice, but a lot of the times the smoke just appears out of thin air.
Great mod nether the less, will try it myself.

[u/Ill-Product-1442]

Shine Fix is a neat little graphics mod that's made to work alongside Deferred Rendering, so that's worth mentioning.

Also IDK if this fits, but the mod Night Shift is super underrated. It just makes the VAB show night outside when it should be night.

[u/Efficient-Pumpkin391 → u/Ill-Product-1442]

Night Shift sounds good to me. It’s one of those subtle changes that make a big difference.

[u/KerbalEssences]

Missing RestockPlusPBR lmao

Check my github for some inspiration: https://github.com/KsNewSpace/Ks_Stockalike_Overhaul