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Devnote Tuesday: Full Steam Ahead!


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<figure class=""><img src="https://31.media.tumblr.com/0ff9377afa68dc3ad3fe6844aaf1bd38/tumblr_inline_njxqkoArze1rr2wit.jpg"/></figure><p><b>Felipe (HarvesteR):</b> Last week was mostly about integrating the features that we had at nearly ready-to-test level, so most of those were merged into the main development branch now and are being put through QA testing. This includes features like the timewarp-to system and Kerbals being able to clamber onto objects. Those are now integrated and seem to be working fine as far as we can tell. There are several other smaller features that also made it in, which should be at the very least good quality-of-life improvements.</p><p>The lift model for wings and control surfaces is pretty much done now, pending only some tuning based on what the QA team has to say about it. The new lift model includes proper lift-induced drag simulation, as well as many other improvements which make flying much more intuitive. We’ve been having a lot of fun with it, and flying does feel a lot more natural.</p><p>Now this week, I’m working on something which has been widely requested and we reckon it’s due time to address that: fairings. Along with cargo bays, fairings will also let you shield other parts from the air stream, protecting them from drag forces and reentry heat. Fairings are going to be procedurally generated, so you should have a great deal of freedom to build them in any way necessary to fit your payload inside it.</p><p>There’s not a lot more to tell about that, as I’ve just started doing this yesterday so it’s very much bare-bones at the moment. But as always: more news on that as it develops.</p><p><b>Mike (Mu):</b> I have been spending my time refining and tweaking the aero model with the invaluable help and feedback from the QA team. Adding new features and implementing their ideas to make it a more interesting and stable flight model. </p><p><b>Marco (Samssonart):</b> Remember that secret project I mentioned a few weeks ago? Well, it’s still ongoing and has had very good results, so it will definitely be a thing for 1.0, we are just about ready to reveal the details about it, expect them soon.</p><p>In other news I’ve been taking a look at a few long overdue issues with the launcher and patcher on Mac, the launcher is fixed and the fixed version will be uploaded once we confirm it’s quality stuff and all that jazz Ted takes care of, the patcher….is a whole other story, it was originally developed by Rob (N3X15) the code is not easy to look at, I seem to have traced the error and narrowed it down to a few scripts, but even compiling the patcher is hard at this point, I really don’t know how that will turn out in the end, I’ll keep on digging. </p><p><b>Daniel (danRosas): </b>I’ve been working on the female Kerbals: I had to do a quick retarget inside Maya of all the animations that are being used in Unity. We couldn’t do the retarget with Mechanim inside Unity because we’re using the legacy animation system, which is extremely technical and not animator-friendly. It will need some further tweaking once some other dev has a look at the code and the way the animations are being called. <br/></p><p>In the meantime there’s another part of the Kerbal assets that’s being run with Mechanim: facial expressions. IVA Kerbals look good, although there are some troubles with the position of the arms and feet, but I’m already targeting how to solve those problems in two different ways: I could save a pose inside Maya and apply it to the beginning of each animation, or I could override the bones in Unity. Since the connection inside Maya overrides some other rig properties, reworking the animations there could be a little problematic. I’m learning to stop using the Expression Editor as there’s plenty of freedom with the utility nodes to start messing around with always-running calculations. </p><p><b>Jim (Romfarer): </b>I’ve got a little announcement this week concerning the Application Launcher and mods. First of all it will now launch into whatever scene you choose to launch the game in and it will stay alive for as long as the game is running. Second, as a side effect of this, I’ve also added mechanics so you can add apps that show in the main menu. </p><p><b>Max (Maxmaps):</b> I’ve been in meetings: business meetings, travel planning, travel unplanning, and setting up timelines to make sure that all the parts of 1.0 are set in place. I’ve also had a blast testing the new aero system in QA, even if it meant horrific failures because my overly simple ways of doing things clash with a more realistic system. I’ve also been organizing negotiations to have the game show up in more storefronts, and I’m considering cutting Squadcast down to half an hour and maybe prerecording the footage to make sure the gameplay doesn’t get in the way of the news sharing. </p><p><b>Ted (Ted): </b>This past week has been a continued whirlwind of outstanding testing and feedback on the aerodynamics overhaul by the QA Team. They’re really getting down the very low level tunings of it and providing fantastic suggestions to the developers on changes that could be made. Additionally, we’ve begun initial balancing of the engines in the context of the aerodynamics changes that have occurred. It’s going very well thanks to the expertise of the QA team members and should continue excellently.</p><p>Finally, I’ve been assisting Roger and Dan with some vessels for their animations as well as providing assistance to Marco on his secret project and on the Launcher/Patcher front.</p><p><b>Rogelio (Roger):</b> It’s time for the art team to begin the new animation for the upcoming release so I’ve been setting up the props we need for dressing the scene up. It’s been a time consuming task because back then when I became part of the KSP team, the assets where named differently as I’m used to name them so I’ve been searching in many assets folders. On the other hand some props aren’t modeled yet, but as soon as I finish setting up the ones I have for now, I’ll model them. Also I did some UI images for the female Kerbals-</p><p><b>Kasper (KasperVld):</b> Well, where do I start? Lets start with the <b><a href="http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/82506">KERBAL SPACE AGENCY</a></b>, which is celebrating its one year anniversary on Twitter today. If you’re active on Twitter you should consider following them at @KSA_Missionctrl. We’ve had a new KSP-TV streamer join the channel: Convieo streams Thursdays 12-4PM GMT; Hank from <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/GamesWithHank/channels">GAMESWITHHANK</a></b> landed on Mun on his second try; we learned that <a href="http://www.cnes.fr/web/CNES-en/7114-home-cnes.php">CNES</a> is home to KSP fans; and to top it all off we’ve launched our <b><a href="http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/110612-Valentina-s-Day-community-contest">Valentina’s Day Contest</a></b>. Be sure to check that out for a chance to win an autographed, poster sized piece of artwork. It has really been a great week on the community side of things.</p>

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I bet the new secret feature is something like EVE becoming stock, with help from rbray89. It would explain why he isnt posting anymore but his last activity was yesterday, afaik it was the same when bac9 made the new KSC...

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<b>Jim (Romfarer): </b>I’ve got a little announcement this week concerning the Application Launcher and mods. First of all it will now launch into whatever scene you choose to launch the game in and it will stay alive for as long as the game is running. Second, as a side effect of this, I’ve also added mechanics so you can add apps that show in the main menu

Can someone clarify this?

The application launcher is the game launcher?

I don't use it, I made a shortcut to the .exe, will that make a difference?

why does it need to run all the time and what's the connection to mods?

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Can someone clarify this?

The application launcher is the game launcher?

I don't use it, I made a shortcut to the .exe, will that make a difference?

why does it need to run all the time and what's the connection to mods?

The application launcher is the stock toolbar for mods :)

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Is Samssonart's secret project a Kerbaliser so we can customise our Kerbals? I don't know why, but that's the feeling I get (also because giving Bill a sweet mustachio would rock).

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At what point would it be less work to update from the legacy animation system rather than keep limping along with it? (as it sounds unfriendly)

Is the legacy animation system holding anything else back?

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What kinds of fairings are being considered beyond the the standard clamshell (which seems like a given)?

Interstage (like the S-IVB aft skirt or LM crocodile cover), point to point intrastage ones allowing shielded recesses?

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The AppLauncher or Application Launcher is a gui toolbar we use to display the MessageSystem, Resource system, currency widgets, contracts app etc. It is also used by mods. The note i had about it this week only concerns the mods and won't have any effect on the stock apps i mentioned.

The main part of the update was to make it launch correctly wherever the modders choose to launch the game, for testing purposes mainly in order to speed things up a bit. Before it was rigged to the spacecenter and wouldn't display if a modder used the "launch directly to a scene" method.

Making the applauncher active like this had a natural side effect (we can make it display in the mainmenu), so i enabled it because modders have requested this functionality in the past.

Again, if you are not a modder these changes won't have any effect on your game experience.

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Marco (Samssonart): Remember that secret project I mentioned a few weeks ago? Well, it’s still ongoing and has had very good results, so it will definitely be a thing for 1.0, we are just about ready to reveal the details about it, expect them soon.

The last secret project was destructible buildings. What could this be then? Destructible terrain? New planets? New easter eggs*? More launch sites, for example KSC2 & the Old Airfield?

*Magic Boulder? And what happened to the easter egg storyline idea from ages ago? Or did I dream that?

Wait.. Devnote Tuesday being released on a Tuesday? WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?! :P

I know! Who would have thought it?

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Wait.. Devnote Tuesday being released on a Tuesday? WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?! :P

;.;

I wish

Before it was rigged to the spacecenter and wouldn't display if a modder used the "launch directly to a scene" method.

And now that comment makes sense.

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At what point would it be less work to update from the legacy animation system rather than keep limping along with it? (as it sounds unfriendly)

Is the legacy animation system holding anything else back?

Interesting question. It's a double-edged sword. Redoing a system that took a good amount of effort to make would take dev time that could be invested in other tasks that are not yet fully operational (such as all the animation systems inside the game). At the time of implementation, legacy was the only option available, good thing is that it works ;)

The only downside is that it's not that artist friendly. But nothing that can't be solved by the team. Had to poke a couple of times Samsonart, because I kept breaking my copy of the game, but right now it appears consistent :)

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I hope the applauncher will become a bit more configurable.. after installing 3 or 4 mods it needs to scroll, which is not very userfriendly - especially since quite often a user doesn't even use half the buttons.

Blizzy's toolbar is still a must-install for me because of this.

- - - Updated - - -

Oh, apart from that, absolutely stoked about the devnotes, looking like 1.0 is coming along rather nicely!

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Just in case the prior posters genuinely didn't realize... devnotes always come out on Tuesday in Squad's timezone.

I love reading about the aerodynamics! Great improvements to my favorite part of the game. :D

Any chance of getting an EAS indicator? Equivalent airspeed is so fantastically useful for understanding why aircraft do what they do, at any altitude, in any atmosphere. Much more useful than surface speed or orbital speed if you want to know whether your spaceplane still has enough lift to fly instead of fall. Including that option would make spaceplanes easier to understand, more intuitive, and even more newbie friendly (if there's a tutorial or hint to tell newbies to look at it, anyway.)

What I'd really like is an IVA analog EAS indicator! Good ol' round dial with numbers and a needle. To the best of my knowledge, not even any modders have yet produced such a fantastically useful instrument.

Good devnotes. Thanks, Squad.

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