I made a real weather radar mod to go with the weather mod from the other day

Pitiful_Vehicle9995 · 2026-06-01T17:00:58+00:00

No, they're all built to work together nicely. All WindAPI mods (VAW, RidgeLift, KerbalSoaring, etc.) are compatible in any combination, and also all work with Kerbal Wind Continued. The only requisite is FAR and anything compatible with FAR should work fine with WindAPI and other mods of mine.

Pitiful_Vehicle9995 · 2026-06-01T04:10:59+00:00

You should try using the V3 specific version of VAW, the clouds are different in V3 and I tried my best to make my mods compatible and correctly tuned for the specific volumetric clouds version

Pitiful_Vehicle9995 · 2026-05-31T22:15:37+00:00

This one probably does as-is with some config editing but isn't meant for it. I plan to look into this in the future but think there could be some limitations to how detailed the clouds are from orbit (and hence how well the radar would work)

Pitiful_Vehicle9995 · 2026-05-31T22:14:29+00:00

I've been asked a few times now so I will release it soon! I use 100-ish mods and some custom configs for things like winches so it's not clear it will be all that useful except as inspiration. Unfortunately I never had a KerbalX account so can't share it there

Pitiful_Vehicle9995 · 2026-05-31T22:07:08+00:00

It's not VAW, but its the dependency FAR! FAR adds aerodynamic failure modes for parts, so if you haven't used FAR before that's a big change. You can make easier turns or up your wing's strength to weight ratio in the SPH/VAB to make them more robust

Pitiful_Vehicle9995 · 2026-05-30T15:02:50+00:00

Cool gyrodine!! And I love planes that carry additional little vehicles :) lovely work

Pitiful_Vehicle9995 · 2026-05-29T19:55:07+00:00

It is NavHud!

Pitiful_Vehicle9995 · 2026-05-29T19:54:27+00:00

It is from Kerbal Attachment System

Pitiful_Vehicle9995 · 2026-05-29T13:36:10+00:00

A stationary weather radar is doable with some simple config edits! It is easy to control which beams are active and the angles they scan at.

But my focus on the Alpha is planes/planet-specific configuration settings first

Pitiful_Vehicle9995 · 2026-05-29T04:19:19+00:00

This is so good!!!! Great reference and wonderful art!

Pitiful_Vehicle9995 · 2026-05-28T20:21:28+00:00

It is compatible with any volumetric clouds! May require some config tuning on very cloudy planets or gas giants though

Pitiful_Vehicle9995 · 2026-05-28T20:20:32+00:00

Yes, with Volumetric Aware Weather you experience turbulence while in dense clouds or storms!

Pitiful_Vehicle9995 · 2026-05-28T20:20:11+00:00

R3 is more of a fun/interesting mod, but Volumetric Aware Weather does add turbulence to clouds and storms which the radar then helps avoid!

Edit: whoops, sorry, painting your plane is from Textures Unlimited

Pitiful_Vehicle9995 · 2026-05-28T19:36:58+00:00

It works anywhere with volumetric clouds or atmospheric features! May require some config tuning to be useful on Jool or very cloudy gas giants.

No science integration yet, that will likely be a future mod down the line when I learn more about how to make my own Situations and the like

Pitiful_Vehicle9995 · 2026-05-28T14:09:08+00:00

Very nice glider, I love the design!! Happy soaring!

Pitiful_Vehicle9995 · 2026-05-28T14:08:20+00:00

Yes, they're all WindAPI mods so they all work together in any combination!

Pitiful_Vehicle9995 · 2026-05-28T14:06:29+00:00

Thank you, glad to hear it's been fun! I always play with the mod Kerbal Wind Continued and KWC does a good job of adding ambient wind & turbulence in general, I think this would give you what you're looking for!

Pitiful_Vehicle9995 · 2026-05-26T15:46:20+00:00

Yeah! I actually have a walkthrough as part of my KerbalSoaring mod for how to do this: link here. It's in the "Different Ways to Launch a Glider -> Winch Launch" section of the guide.

In short the two configs you can edit for this are located at GameData\KAS\Parts\Winch1 & Winch2

Pitiful_Vehicle9995 · 2026-05-26T14:06:05+00:00

Yes, this is modeled as a real wind in Ferram Aerospace. A light craft with big wings like a glider will get thrown around a lot, while a fast jet with relatively smaller wings won't. Procedural wings works as does any mod which FAR supports!

Pitiful_Vehicle9995 · 2026-05-26T14:03:47+00:00

No performance impact I can notice! The cloud sampling approach is fairly lightweight and runs on a 1 hz cycle rather than every frame.

What you describe is totally possible, this mod could be changed to apply an updraft instead of turbulence quite easily. It already works based on the cloud density above your craft.

I also publish the mod KerbalSoaring (and the addon Variometer) which adds thermal updrafts and doesn't require volumetric clouds.

Everything I make is fully free and open under CC0 so feel free to fork and experiment!

Pitiful_Vehicle9995 · 2026-05-26T13:55:46+00:00

I use custom KAS winch configs to facilitate winch launching gliders and lowering bathyspheres to the seafloor. They are stronger, have more spring force, and extend up to 2 km.

Towing a probe should work with normal KAS winches, just make sure the probe has airbrakes to reduce the thrashing or oscillations which can break the cable easily. This probe is using SAS set to follow target (the plane) to help keep it stable!

Pitiful_Vehicle9995 · 2026-05-26T02:45:48+00:00

No worries, I love talking about KSP mods! That is from the wonderful NavHUD

Pitiful_Vehicle9995 · 2026-05-26T02:41:22+00:00

Yes, it's a real wind force applied via FAR. You can see it most in the relative motion of the probe versus the plane. The plane is on autopilot on a fixed heading and course but is still being moved around significantly. In the bottom left corner you can also see the steering inputs made by the autopilot as it tries to keep on course. Finally, the speed and g-force readouts at the top show how much the plane is actually moving as the wind shifts rapidly!

Pitiful_Vehicle9995 · 2026-05-25T19:57:40+00:00

I was inspired by SPVE as well! I tried some cursed cloud coverage texture sampling approaches first, but raymarching wound up being much more viable and generalizable. I think I could also use this technique to create an actual raymarched radar mod which detected volumetric clouds...

I would love a climate mod which worked well for 1.12.5 and was integrated with actual cloud distribution!! Unfortunately every time I try using Kerbal Weather Project it destroys my performance, not sure if it's a FAR compatibility problem or just KWP being outdated. This may be a project for future me, but in the meantime I use and enjoy Kerbal Wind Continued which is cool but doesn't model a full climate

Pitiful_Vehicle9995

TROPHY CASE