KerbalFrost

KerbalFrost is a lightweight, partless environmental mod for Kerbal Space Program 1.12.x. It simulates the physical buildup of cryogenic frost/ice on propellant tanks prior to launch, accompanied by cold boil-off vapour sliding down the rocket's body, which then dramatically shatters into tumbling fragments at engine ignition.

Designed as a modern spiritual successor to Cool Rockets, it is built to be extremely lightweight: one DLL, one .cfg file, no added parts, no ModuleManager patches, and no external AssetBundles or art assets.

Key Features

• Procedural Ice Crust: Frost forms dynamically on any sufficiently full cryogenic propellant tank while the vessel sits on the launch pad (homeworld only).
• Boil-off Vapour: Plumes of cold gas bleed from the top of the tanks and slide down the tank walls, restricted to the tallest tanks to keep performance high and visuals clean.
• Ignition Shatter: The ice crust cracks and sheds physical, tumbling fragments at engine ignition (shaken off by vibrations while still clamped), rather than waiting for physical liftoff.
• Procedural Assets: Every texture — including the ice pattern, vapor puff, particles, and the stock toolbar icon — is generated via code at runtime.
• Dynamic Audio: Immersive cracking and boil-off sound effects, utilizing a randomized playback window so successive launches never sound identical.
• In-Game Tuning: Access a stock flight toolbar window (snowflake icon) with over 50 live sliders to tune colors, opacity, vapor density, particle limits, and tank height thresholds, with a "Save to cfg" button.

Mod Compatibility & Performance

Unlike older mods that rely on static ModuleManager patches (like :HAS[@RESOURCE[Oxidizer]]), KerbalFrost scans parts in flight. This means fuel switchers that swap resources at runtime (B9PartSwitch, Interstellar Fuel Switch, RealFuels) work out of the box.

Primitive Unity colliders generated by the particle effects are destroyed immediately upon spawning to prevent any interference with vessel physics, drag cubes, or collisions.

Installation

1. Download the latest release zip.
2. Drag the GameData/KerbalFrost folder directly into your KSP GameData directory.
3. To uninstall, simply delete the folder. No dependencies required.

Credits & License

• Code: MIT License.
• Audio Assets: Sourced from Pixabay under the Pixabay Content License.

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