Properties

The basic building blocks of every world

The Properties { } node describes the body itself, and is a subnode of Body { }. Basic parameters like description, radius, gravity and biomes are specified here.

Subnodes

Example:

Properties
{
  description = Fancy!
  radius = 500000
  geeASL = 1.2
  rotates = true
  rotationPeriod = 18600
  initialRotation = 12
  tidallyLocked = false
  isHomeWorld = false
  timewarpAltitudeLimits = 0 10000 20000 40000 75000 150000 300000 400000
  sphereOfInfluence = 52500000
  maxZoom = 100000
  ScienceValues
  {
  ...
  }
  biomeMap = Path/To/Your/Biome_map.dds
  Biomes
  {
  ...
  }
}
Property Format Description
description String Here goes the description for the info box of the body that you can access in map view. You can insert line breaks using the syntax \\nn
useTheInName Boolean If the body name should be prefixed with “the” in some situations, such as “the sun.”
radius Double The radius (half of the body’s diameter) of the body in meters.
mass Double The mass of the body in kilograms. You can use scientific notation here, like 1.234567+e20
gravParameter Double Standard gravitational parameter, calcualted as the gravitation constant (G) times the mass (M) of the body: G*M. This is the parameter that is used in the actual simulation. The gravitational acceleration in any point would be calculated as gravParameter/r2 where r is a distance from that point to the body center.
geeASL Double The Gravitational parameter At Sea Level in Gs. For Earth/Kerbin this would simply be 1. If the reference body is Kerbin, which has an acceleration of gravity of 9.8m/s2, geeASL= gravParameter/9.8 (equal to 1).
rotates Boolean Statement that determines if the body rotates or not. In reality no celestial body doesn’t rotate, but in KSP the Sun, aka Kerbol, doesn’t rotate.
rotationPeriod Double The period in seconds that the body needs to rotate around its axis one time.
initialRotation Double The rotation in degrees (0-359) that the body starts at (clockwise)
inverseRotThresholdAltitude Single Altitude where the Game switches the reference frame from Surface to Orbit in meters.
albedo Double How reflective the body is. scale from 0 to 1
emissivity Double ?scale from 0 to 1?
coreTemperatureOffset ? ?
tidallyLocked Boolean Statement that determines if the body is tidally locked to its parent. This means that it takes as long to rotate around its own axis as it does to make a full orbit around its parent. In real-life and KSP most (large) moons are tidally locked.
isHomeWorld Boolean Statement that determines if this is the body that houses KSC. For stability’s sake It’s recommended to keep this at false for any bodies you add.
timewarpAltitudeLimits Integer[] Determines at which altitude above sea level certain timewarp altitudes become available. 0 30000 30000 60000 100000 300000 600000 800000 means that 1x timewarp is available at 0 meters, 5x timewarp at 30000 meters all the way up to the max timewarp starting at 800000 meters.
sphereOfInfluence Double In meters. The sphere of influence of the body. This is generally calculated as described here. In case you need it to be unrealistically big or small you can change it here.
solarRotationPeriod Boolean Whether the body should use the solar day instead of the sidereal day.
navballSwitchRadiusMult Double ?In meters?
navballSwitchRadiusMultLow Double ?In meters?
selectable Boolean Whether the body should be selectable. Partially controlled by Body/barycenter.
RnDVisibility RnDVisibility (Also RDVisibility) The visibility state of the body in the RnD archives. Possible values are Visible, Noicon, Hidden, or Skip.
RnDRotation Boolean Whether the body should rotate in the RnD archives.
maxZoom Single The max zoom limit for the tracking station and the map view. Sets the number of meters that can fit in the full height of the screen.
biomeMap File Path The path to the biome map texture. See the Biome subnode for more information