CATMOUSE-PHERIC-FX

CATMOUSE-PHERIC-FX adds atmospheric re-entry effects to Kitten Space Agency.

Video showcase:

When a craft moves fast enough through dense enough air, a plasma shell forms over the surfaces facing the airflow. It is brightest at the stagnation point, thins out toward the sides, and stretches into a tail behind the craft. Flow streaks peel off the shoulders and sweep downstream. The whole thing streams and flickers in the direction of the airflow and stays locked to the craft at any time step.

The effect is driven by air density and surface speed, so it appears during re-entry and on very fast ascents, and fades out above the atmosphere or at low speed. Every part of the craft takes part, including engines, boosters and windows.

Colours follow the planet. Earth burns orange and white. Venus and Mars, with their carbon dioxide air, glow blue and violet. Titan goes violet with green streaks from its nitrogen and methane. The gas giants glow pink and magenta from hydrogen. Any body without an entry uses a default palette, and all of it lives in a plain text file you can edit, so planet packs can get their own colours.

Features

• Plasma shell rendered over the actual part geometry
• Streaming tail and shoulder streaks with animated flow
• Per-planet colour palettes, editable and extendable
• Settings window with live telemetry, tuning sliders and an on-pad preview
• Optional volumetric wake using the game's particle system

Requirements

• StarMap mod loader 0.4.6 or newer
• Built against KSA 2026.9.7

Install

Unzip so that mods\CATMOUSE-PHERIC-FX ends up inside Documents\My Games\Kitten Space Agency, then launch the game through StarMap. The game registers the mod on first launch; StarMap may ask for one restart. No game files are modified.

Open the settings from the menu bar under CATMOUSE-PHERIC-FX. Tick "Preview on controlled vehicle" to see the effect on the launch pad while tuning. Settings and the palette file are written next to the mods folder; delete the mod folder and those two files to uninstall.

License

Closed source, all rights reserved. Use it as distributed; please do not modify, repackage or redistribute it.

Made by Reinout.