BLEAK is a set of TUFX post-processing profiles for Kerbal Space Program.
The look it goes for is cold and washed out rather than punchy. Saturation is pulled well below stock, the colour filter leans slightly blue, and an ACES tonemap keeps highlights from blowing out over bright terrain and ice. Auto exposure is set to adapt progressively, so moving from a shadowed launch pad into direct sunlight settles over a moment instead of snapping. There is no attempt here to make KSP look photoreal. The intent is closer to a colour grade on footage that already exists: the game's own art holds up fine, it just reads flat under stock lighting. Contrast, bloom threshold and exposure do most of the work, and effects that draw attention to themselves are used sparingly or not at all. Antialiasing is left off in every profile so it stays under your own graphics settings, and HDR is on throughout.
- Umia - the baseline grade. Cool filter, heavy desaturation, gentle contrast lift and soft bloom.
- Everon - Umia's grade with a cooler temperature, a little more contrast and a touch of chromatic aberration.
- Borealis - bright and close to stock, with a touch more saturation, strong bloom, ambient occlusion and a custom tonemap.
- Vesper - sits between Umia and Borealis, for everyday play. Lighter desaturation, a gentle custom tone curve, a faint cool tint in the midtones and warm, evening-light highlights, with moderate bloom.
Each one also comes as an Editor version, such as Umia - Editor, with the same grade but no bloom, ambient occlusion or chromatic aberration, so the VAB and SPH stay readable while you build.
In game, open TUFX from the toolbar and pick a profile.
To install, place the GameData folder inside your Kerbal Space Program folder, and install the dependencies below. If asked to overwrite files, please do so. BLEAK is also on CKAN.
REMOVE ANY OLD VERSIONS BEFORE INSTALLING.
- TUFX and its own dependencies
BLEAK is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later. The full terms are in LICENSE. In short:
- Use, share and change it freely.
- Anything you release that's built from it must be under GPL 3.0 or later too, keep the copyright notices and credit, and not pass itself off as BLEAK.
- You can follow GPL 3.0 or any later version of the GPL.
See NOTICE for copyrights and trademarks.
Full history is in CHANGELOG.