Scatters

The Scatters node in the LandControl PQSMod defines the scatters to be used within the LandClasses provided by LandControl. Scatters are 3D meshed objects that are generated on the surface and can have various configurable features added via the Components subnode.

Subnodes

• Material { }
• Components { } (Also known as ModularScatter)

Example

LandControl
{
  Scatters
  {
    Value
    {
      materialType = DiffuseWrapped
      mesh = BUILTIN/boulder
      castShadows = True
      densityFactor = 1
      maxCache = 512
      maxCacheDelta = 32
      maxLevelOffset = 0
      maxScale = 1.5
      minScale = 0.25
      maxScatter = 30
      maxSpeed = 1000
      recieveShadows = True
      name = BrownRock
      allowedBiomes = Arid,Desert
      lethalRadius = 5
      seed = 345234534
      verticalOffset = 0
      delete = False
      Material
      {
        ...
      }
      Components
      {
        ...
      }
    }
  }
}

Property	Format	Description
name	Text	The name of the scatter.
allowedBiomes	Text	A comma delimitted string of permitted scatter biome names. No spaces between entries. If this list is not present, all biomes are spawned in.
lethalRadius	Decimal	The closest a kerbal can get to this scatter without being killed, in meters. Set to 0 (the default) to disable.
lethalRadiusMsg	Text	A message to be displayed in a dialog box when a kerbal is killed by lethalRadius. Leave empty to disable.
lethalRadiusWarnMsg	Text	A message to be displayed in a dialog box when a kerbal comes within 2x lethalRadius to alert the player. Leave empty to disable.
seed	Integer	The random seed for scatter distribution.
materialType	ScatterMaterialType	The type of the material of the scatter. Valid options can be found on the ScatterMaterialType page.
material	BUILTIN	Stock material to use instead of specifying a materialType and Material { }. Avoid using this! Will not work in conjunction with the materialType and Material { }.
mesh	File Path	The path to an .obj file that contains the scatter's mesh.
Meshes	List of File Paths	A list of meshes that will be picked randomly. Inside this node, there can be keys named anything, and the value should be the file path to the .obj file.
castShadows	Boolean	Whether the scatter should cast shadows.
receiveShadows	Boolean	Whether the scatter should receive shadows - i.e., have shadows casted upon it.
densityFactor	Float	A [0,1] base factor applied to maxScatter. Usually you want this set to 1 and just change maxScatter.
maxCache	Integer	Maximum amount of active scatter quads. Leaving this to the default value (512) should be always fine.
maxCacheDelta	Integer	How many quads are added to the cache when it isn't large enough to hold all active scatter quads. maxCache must be a multiple of this value. Default value (64) should be fine.
maxLevelOffset	Integer	The max offset from the PQS level? (the ones controlled by minLevel and maxLevel)
maxScale	Float	The scatter model(s) will be scaled by a random multipler choosen between minScale and maxScale.
minScale	Float	The scatter model(s) will be scaled by a random multipler choosen between minScale and maxScale.
maxScatter	Integer	The base amount of scatter objects per quad. Actual amount depends on densityFactor, the density defined in the LandClasses node and spawnChance if useBetterDensity is true.
maxSpeed	Float	Scatter quads won't be created/rendered if the active vessel speed (in m/s) is higher than this value. Due to a stock bug, this is unreliable and quads might still appear anyway.
verticalOffset	Float	Vertical offset from the ground in meters for scatter objects placement.
instancing	Boolean	Whether to instance the material, presumably to create better performance?
useBetterDensity	Boolean	Set this to true to enable randomization of the amount of scatter objects per quad.
spawnChance	Float	Requires useBetterDensity to be true. [0, 1] probability of each scatter object spawning.
ignoreDensityGameSetting	Boolean	If set to true, the KSP main menu settings scatter density % will be ignored.

Scatter density

The amount of individual scatters per quad is determined as follows :
baseAmount = maxScatter * densityFactor * (density defined in the LandClass)

Then if useBetterDensity is enabled, the average amount will be :
averageAmount = baseAmount * spawnChance