Cinematic Shaders (For Windows)

A shader mod for Kerbal Space Program 1.12 - GTAO and Starfield currently available, more planned...

Available Shaders

• GTAO (Ground-Truth Ambient Occlusion) – Horizon-based occlusion with normal-aware filtering
• Starfield Catalog - Catalog-based GPU-rendered stars. No PNG, no pixelation.

Starfield Shader

What is it?

This mod completely overhauls the stock Galaxy Camera, replacing the static skybox with a fully rendered catalog-based starfield. No textures are used to define the stars—the stars are generated mathematically and rendered in real-time using your GPU.

Star Catalogs The starfield is driven by catalogs that define each star's position, brightness, and color. You can choose from several "real star" catalogs based on actual astronomical data from the Hipparcos satellite courtesy of the ESA, or generate your own custom starfield using the procedural generation controls.

Save and share your creations easily! All catalogs are stored as .bin files in the PluginData\StarCatalogs folder and can be shared with other players.

Important Note The stars will not be visible on the Main Menu. You must load into a game (Space Center, Flight, or Tracking Station) to see the starfield.

Requirements

• KSP 1.12.x
• Deferred – Required for effects to function.

Installation

Unzip the archive into your Kerbal Space Program/ folder.

The folder structure should be: GameData/CinematicShaders/

GTAO Usage

1. Open UI: Click the wireframe sphere icon on the toolbar
2. Enable: Check "Enable Ground-Truth AO" in the GTAO tab (only functional if Deferred is installed)
3. Adjust:
4. Radius: Search distance for occluders (0.5m–10m)
5. Intensity: Shadow strength multiplier (0.0–2.0)
6. Shadow Spread: Maximum pixel radius for shadows
7. Quality: Preset controlling sample count (Low/Ultra)
8. Debug: Use the "Debug Visualization" dropdown for Raw AO or normal buffer inspection

Starfield Usage

1. Open the Cinematic Shaders UI from the toolbar button
2. Click on the Starfield tab
3. Click Enable to turn on the starfield
4. Either choose an existing catalog from the dropdown, or create a new one from scratch using the procedural generation sliders

Known Issues

• GTAO - There's currently an issue with the AO processing that I'll detail in a separate KnownIssues.md file. It affects the overall rendering and may be more noticeable in some scenes than others.
• Starfield - Some stars may experience some "z-fighting" which causes minor flickering/twinkling.

License

All code is licensed via MIT License – See included LICENSE.txt file.

HYG Database (hyg_v42.csv) and derived real-sky catalogs (.bin files generated from this data) are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0:

Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) Copyright (c) Astronexus (HYG Database)

You are free to: - Share: copy and redistribute the material - Adapt: remix, transform, and build upon the material Under the terms: Attribution + ShareAlike

Important: Real-sky catalogs derived from the HYG CSV (the included .bin files in GameData/CinematicShaders/PluginData/StarCatalogs/) are derivative works and inherit CC BY-SA 4.0 obligations. Procedurally generated catalogs (random seed, no HYG data) are original works and can be shared freely under any terms you choose.

Credits

• GTAO implementation based on XeGTAO
• ESA and the Hipparcos satellite for star data
• Tiffany352 and the Godot Starlight project for inspiration, PSF implementation.