Jump to content

4x4cheesecake

Members
  • Posts

    2,464
  • Joined

Posts posted by 4x4cheesecake

  1. 7 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

    So, if you are running Kerbal Space Program on a potato and need every bit of RAM your system can spare OR you're simply tired of the extra step of having to click a button on a launcher, then this thread might help you out. Again, the forum community would like to thank @4x4cheesecake for this collection of advice. :cool:

    Well, that's a surprise :o

    And its actually me who has to thank the community because without others contributing on this topic, it would be still this half baked solution I came up with originally and definitely not as helpful as it is right now. So thanks to everyone who contributed to it and especially @Lisias for pushing me to edit the OP, turning the thread into an actual useful collection :)

  2. 1 hour ago, Kerbart said:

    Why such a complicated command line execution? This is what I've been using for many years:

    @ECHO OFF
    REM ### Change path as desired ###
    D:
    CD "D:\Documents\Kerbal Space Program 1.12"
    START "" "KSP_x64.exe" -popupwindow

     

    Because the idea was/is to solve the issue by manipulating the game launch options, not by writing a batch script. Of course, such script can be used as well but I guess it comes with the same caveats as other solutions: if you launch the game executable directly, it changes the working directory of KSP, thus breaking many mods which rely on it. So you could try using a shortcut to the executable in the script to circumvent that issue but that again, would break the steam features. Since you're already using a script, it would be possible to extend the script to manually attach the steam overlay to the game process but at that point, the rabbit hole got so deep you may want to look for a slightly simpler solution :D

    In the end, such script is just a different approach for the same issue, but it may look a bit more intimidating to less tech savvy people in comparison to a one-liner in the launch options. Might be just my impression though :)

  3. 2 minutes ago, Lisias said:

    Me too. Black Friday is a living hell for me!

    Oh, yeah... I feel you *hug*

    4 minutes ago, Lisias said:

    But - if you want to use Steam Launcher, want to have Steam Integration working and want to have the playing hours accounted, KSSL until this moment is the only option that works.

    Hm... I don't know... my janky solution using the windows command line might work at least on windows, though I haven't done any extensive testing on that one (just checked the log to verify the working directory and if the steam overlay pops up). And apparently, its also possible to manually hook the steam overlay into the game  after launching it from a shortcut but that probably requires some individual scripts on linux, mac and windows.

    Actually, the best solution would be if steam asks you if you want to play the game or start up the launcher. I've seen it in other games but right of the bat, I just remember Elden Ring having one of these pop ups:
    P9CA72H.png

    Though, I guess its on purpose this doesn't happen already.

    16 minutes ago, Lisias said:

    I'm very sorry if I ended up pressuring you. I completely understand you, as I have exactly the same problem - I didn't slept one night this week (#hurray! It was two nights two weeks ago!! It's an improvement!!!! :sticktongue:).

    I only peskyed you because I noticed another surge of the issue on Steam Forum, and knowing users as I know, things would escalated again by tomorrow afternoon - and, well, I think our ears are already burnt enough.

    Cheers, dude. And sorry again for peskying you this way - I'm not too happy with myself right now, if it serves for something.

    Don't worry about it, its fine. I should have given at least a little heads up that I wont be able to perform any big edits on my OP before the weekend to make it less frustrating for you, that's my bad. In the end, we both try to help others in the best possible way and I appreciate every input I've got from posts in this thread :) 

  4. Sorry, have been busy all week long :/

    I hear you guys, and even though I disagree that parts of my OP should be removed, I'll take care of it in a way it's still available but "out of focus". I just really dont like the idea of actually removing parts which where discussed in a thread and maybe even quoted, it kinda breaks the "archival" properties of a forum, IMO.

    5 hours ago, Lisias said:

    There's not a single solution without collateral effects - salvo KSSL.

    KSSL might not have any collateral effects in terms of "it breaks something" but its a mod someone might don't want to install (or someone simply doesn't know how to use github) and you will even have to repeat the installation, if KSP actually gets another update. It is unlikely but nobody expected the 1.12.4 update as well.
    There is simply no "one fits all" solution but I'll try to edit my OP in a way to reflect the pros and cons of each possible solution, so everyone can decide which one fits best for them. I also dont mind to put them in an order of "most likely to be useful" with KSSL on the top.

    That being said, I'll keep it with a subtitle for  today and start editing the whole thing tomorrow in the morning (I promise!) , I'm just too exhausted to do it right now :(

  5. 7 hours ago, JonnyOThan said:

    hey @4x4cheesecake I think you should delete the original suggestion in the OP.  I've just helped two people who did that and broke their game because of the incorrect working directory.  Gotmachine's suggestion should be the only one in here.

    As far as I know, the changed working directory only breaks some modded games but not the stock game, therefore the suggestion is still perfectly fine and the easiest way to bypass the launcher. The big red subtitle "for mod users" should direct people who play modded KSP to the other suggested bypass.
    In my opinion, its valid to keep a simple solution available to those who feel less comfortable to mess with their game install instead of showing just a more complex "one fits all" solution.

    Though, I might add a different subtitle to make it easier to differentiate between stock and modded ksp :)

  6. 30 minutes ago, Starwaster said:

    re: max op temp, it at least changed it for the skin didn’t it? If not, that’s trouble. 

    yeah, it's changed for the skin from 450K to 2706K (also some other properties like mass, emissive constant, etc...)

    31 minutes ago, Starwaster said:

    also trouble if it’s not applying to more parts. I could have sworn I expanded the list of covered parts. 

    I was only looking at your MM patch for the upgrade and went through the MM cache, seaching for "TPS" and I only found the upgrade for the MK1 cockpit. So, unless the other parts are addressed in a different patch and the upgrade is named differently, nothing else seems to be covered.

    Since you already mentioned that you don't have any access to a PC right now, feel free to PM me if you want to add some more part upgrades and I'll see if I can provides some more MM patches for you and create a PR on github, easy for you to merge even via phone :)

  7. On 11/14/2022 at 8:21 PM, stk2008 said:

    Did you get a chance to install hotspot.

    It has a load of different display types to choose from not just the default one.

    It might shed a bit more light on your issue :)

    So, I tried the hot spot mod and honestly, it wasn't as helpful as I thought, mostly because I wasn't able to get the overlay to work. As far as I can tell, it is supposed to replace the stock overlay but it just didn't work for me. The information provided in the PAW were pretty much the same as the stock debug information, so that didn't help much either except for having them available without the need to open the debug menu first.

    Anyway, I fixed my issue by simply re-arranging "physical" connection between parts and using the offset tool to put everything into the right spot.
    Btw. adding a radiator helped as well... kinda... the radiator introduced so much drag to my plane that I simply couldn't fly fast enough create enough heat for anything to explode :D :D

    Though, I'm thinking about writing a MM patch to solve the issue in a more elegant way, maybe by introducing a part upgrade (the TPS upgrade provided by DRE only applies to the MK1 cockpit and also doesn't affect max operational temp, just max skin temp) but I have to see if I want to spent a couple hours to get back into MM "coding".

  8. 38 minutes ago, stk2008 said:

    Did you get a chance to install hotspot.

    It has a load of different display types to choose from not just the default one.

    It might shed a bit more light on your issue :)

    Not yet, I'll try it tomorrow. Re-launching my modded install takes like 10 minutes and I want to finish at least one of my long range flight missions today instead of playing around with new mods. But I'll come back to you and report some of my findings once I got around to try it out :)

  9. 5 minutes ago, Starwaster said:

    @4x4cheesecake Interesting, your skin temperature is a good bit lower so where’s the heat coming from? 

    Hottest part are my Wheesley turbofan engines, so I guess its coming from them? I honestly have no clue how heat transfer works in this game :confused:

    Spoiler

    HjM0EvG.png

    pEcQCl4.png

    (screenshot is taken at a different time than the one showing the tail fin)
    The tail fins are actually attached to the second center fuel tank and the same applies to the fuel tanks on the wing tips. these parts are just offset a lot but its easier to built it this way to keep everything properly aligned.
    So, I assume heat transfer follows the "actual connections"...

  10. @Starwaster Ok, solved the mystery already xD

    It actually IS a heating issue:

    Spoiler

    bO6aT2z.png

    Once the internal temp of the part goes beyond the 450K operational temp. limit of DRE, part damage starts to built up and once it reaches 1.0, the part blows up, which, well... always happen after around 40- 45min if I fly my plane within the same parameters :confused:

    Its just misleading by the flight log that it claims g-forces to be the issue and not thermals or anything else and there is also no heat gauge showing up on the parts.

    I wonder if it would be possible to trigger some kind of warning heating gauge once you get close to the limit of any part?

  11. @StarwasterThanks for your reply :)

    Well, the flight log clearly says it happens because of g-forces (the actual KSP log doesn't say anything specific, just mentions that a part blew up) and the thermals actually are fine. Some light heating occurs but not for an extended period of time and the gauge is just like half way filled up aka just appeared. I also tried slowing down a bit to prevent any heat built up but it doesn't seem to prevent the parts from blowing up anyway. (I try to fly around 500m/s at an altitude around 9km to 10km).

    Spoiler

    46Xzcgs.png

    The PAW doesn't show any damage to the parts in question, though there is no engineer on board, so I may have to take one on a trip.

    I might do some more testing later, trying to minimize the installed mods just to be sure it really is DRE and not a combination of mods.
    I'll also play around with some of the debug information KSP provides on its own and keep you updated on my findings :)

  12. hey there :)

    does DRE changes how g-force tolerances on parts work in a fundamental way? I just ran into an issue which caused the wings of my plane to explode and the flight log told me it was because of excessive g-forces... but I was flying in a straight line at the same level for like 40min before it happened. I tried reloading a quicksave and restarted the whole flight like 4 times but it always happens after about 40min flight time to me.  And apparently, I'm not alone, at least the issue sounds exactly the same:

    I was able to perform the whole trip to the south pole after uninstalling DRE, so I guess its caused by this mod?
    Is there some intended "built up" of forces/stresses over time or something we are missing here which would explain it or is it just some good old bug?

  13. 9 hours ago, Lisias said:

    The CMD's "run" command does exactly what I said: creates a new process detached from the parent - but I'm unsure if the Steam will still be able to locate KSP in order to inject the Overlay...

    "run" is not a valid command for the CMD but "start" is and actually works as a "fire and forget" command and the steam overlay will still work :D

    so, the new launch option I'm running now is:

    "c:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe" %command% /c "start D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\"Kerbal Space Program"\KSP_x64_shortcut.lnk" -popupwindow

    It is actually important to NOT wrap the whole file path after the "start" command in quotation marks but to use them in between for any directory which got spaces in its name. If you wrap the whole path, it will be just passed as the "title" parameter for the "start" command.

  14. 14 hours ago, Adam Novagen said:

    Many thanks to the workarounds being posted here, but for my part the downside of the launch option method is that the Steam overlay fails to launch in-game, which of course means no convenient screenshots for me.

    In my case, I ended up adding KSP_x64.exe separately as a non-Steam game, which allows me to bypass the launcher and keep the overlay. Not sure if this would work for non-Windows users, but I'm guessing it would as I imagine Steam has that functionality across all OS versions.

    That's a great hint, thanks :)

    I did a little research and actually found a way to launch the game by jumping through 3 hoops just to keep the steam overlay, the correct working directory and still being able to use start up parameters, all by using just a single launch option on the original steam library entry. But at this point, I guess your method of adding a "non steam game" is probably just easier :D

    But for those who are interested: The alternative I've found, is to launch the windows CMD and run a command which points to a link to the KSP executable, so in my case, it would look like this:

    "c:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe" %command% /c "D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Kerbal Space Program\KSP_x64_shortcut.lnk"

    using this as your launch options, will run the windows command line, which then launches the actual game through a shortcut which points to the game executable.... the only drawback is, that the CMD will keep running in the background for the whole time but I guess even that could be solved.
    This starts to turn into a research of "what's possible" with no regards to "what's useful"... or in other terms: the kerbal way of approaching an issue :D

  15. 20 hours ago, Gotmachine said:

    Doing that will have the side effect of having KSP running from the wrong working directory.
    In stock KSP, the only likely side effect will be that the KSP.log file will be generated in the "PDLauncher" directory, but this will definitely cause cascading side effects on various mods.

    While you can specify a different executable in the Steam command line, you can't set the working directory, which is hardcoded to the "PDLauncher" directory.

    This being said, the proper workaround is to have Steam pointing at a shortcut instead of KSP_x64.exe :

    - Open your KSP root folder (In Steam, right click on the game > Browse local files). Usually this will be "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Kerbal Space Program".
    - Right-click on KSP_x64.exe > Create shortcut
    - Rename the shortcut to "KSP_x64_Steam"
    - In Steam, open the game properties, and in the "Launch Options" field, put the path to the shortcut between quote, with  :

    "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Kerbal Space Program\KSP_x64_Steam" %command%

    This will launch the shortcut instead, with the correct working directory.

    Ok, that's a weird quirk I didn't know about. Do you mind if I add this to my original post?

    @Nazalassasame question for you: Do you mind if I add your information about the procedure in linux to my original post?

  16. Hey guys :)

    With the latest 1.12.4 update, SQUAD / Private Division decided to introduce an additional launcher to the game which will start up after hitting the "Play" button in Steam instead of launching the game directly. IMO this is rather annoying and doesn't provide any actual benefits, in fact, it actually causes some trouble especially for mods.

    Since the update, me and others figured out multiple ways to circumvent the launcher which come with their own benefits and drawbacks, so here are a few for you guys to choose from, depending on which solution fits the best for you :)

                4vNq0Ol.png

    1. KSSL (KSP Simple Steam Launcher)

    Pros:

    • Easy to use
    • You keep all the Steam features like the overlay, game time tracking, etc.
    • Mods will work as usual

    Cons:

    • Need to be reinstalled if the game ever gets another update or you verify the games file integrity

     

    @R-T-B wrote this wrapper which replaces the original executable of the launcher. Simply replace the "LauncherPatcher.exe" provided by them with the one from the stock game and you're already done and ready to go.

     


    2. Change the game launch options (shortcut version)

    Pros:

    • Resilient to any further game updates
    • Mods will work as usual

    Cons:

    • Steam features like the overlay and game time tracking don't work anymore
    • Slightly more difficult to setup

     

    Steam allows to setup individual launch options for each game, which can be used to redirect the target for the "Play" button in your Steam library. This particular solution by @Gotmachine redirects the button to point to a shortcut, which then again points to the game executable:

    On 11/5/2022 at 8:50 PM, Gotmachine said:

    Doing that will have the side effect of having KSP running from the wrong working directory.
    In stock KSP, the only likely side effect will be that the KSP.log file will be generated in the "PDLauncher" directory, but this will definitely cause cascading side effects on various mods.

    While you can specify a different executable in the Steam command line, you can't set the working directory, which is hardcoded to the "PDLauncher" directory.

    This being said, the proper workaround is to have Steam pointing at a shortcut instead of KSP_x64.exe :

    - Open your KSP root folder (In Steam, right click on the game > Browse local files). Usually this will be "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Kerbal Space Program".
    - Right-click on KSP_x64.exe > Create shortcut
    - Rename the shortcut to "KSP_x64_Steam"
    - In Steam, open the game properties, and in the "Launch Options" field, put the path to the shortcut between quote, with  :

    "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Kerbal Space Program\KSP_x64_Steam" %command%

    This will launch the shortcut instead, with the correct working directory.


     

    3. Change the game launch options (executable version)

    Pros:

    • Resilient to any further game updates
    • "Purist" solution to keep the game 100% stock
    • Steam features will work as usual

    Cons:

    • Mods are very likely to break
    • Slightly more difficult to setup

     

    So, this was the solution I came up with like an hour after the update but which turned out to be problematic later on. Works in the same way as the previous solution but instead of redirecting the "Play" button to a shortcut, it gets redirected to the games executable:

    1. Right click KSP in your Steam Library
    2. Click on properties
    3. At the bottom of the "General" tab, you will find "Launch Options" and a text field.
    4. Write in this text field "FULL GAME PATH TO .EXE FILE" %command%
    5. Close the window
    6. Profit!

    for example:
     

    Spoiler

    Lj32Vel.png

    The window is not resizable to show the full command but I guess you get it ;) If you are having trouble to find the path to your game executable, you can right click the game in your library -> "Manage" -> "Browse local files". This will open up a window with your game files, showing the path at the top navigation bar.

     

    4. The Kerbal Way (aka jump through three loops to accomplish.... "something")

    Pros:

    • Mods will work as usual
    • Steam features will work as usual

    Cons:

    • Fairly janky to setup
    • Not extensively tested
    • A CMD window will be open as long as the game is running

    This is basically a combination of solution #2 and #3 but instead of redirecting the "Play" button to the game executable or a shortcut of it, it gets redirected to the windows command line (CMD) which then is used to launch the game. Choosing this solutions allows you to eliminate the drawback of missing steam features from solution #2.

    So, in order to achieve this, you need to follow the instructions from solution #2 but the command in the games launch options needs to be:

    "PATH TO CMD" %command% /c "start PATH TO SHORTCUT.lnk"

    The quotation marks are important, as well as using the ".lnk" extension at the end of the shortcuts name, even if it is not visible in your explorer window or part of the name you gave the shortcut.

    The "PATH TO CMD" should always be the same in windows:

    c:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe

    The "/c" will pipe everything in quotation marks after it as a command to the CMD, so we are just telling it to launch the game via the shortcut.

    In my case, the full command looks like this:

    "c:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe" %command% /c "start D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\"Kerbal Space Program"\KSP_x64_shortcut.lnk"

     

     

    What about Linux/MacOS???

    I dont use neither of those so I can only refer to the post of  @Nazalassa :

    On 11/6/2022 at 11:47 AM, Nazalassa said:

    [Still speaking as a Linux user]

    Normally, in the KSP directory, there should be two executables: KSP.<exe/app/x86_64/whatever> and KSPLauncher.<exe/app/x86_64/whatever> .
    Steam now launches KSPLauncher.{whatever} . To get rid of the launcher, the only thing to do is to find where the path to the executable is stored within Steam and replace KSPLauncher.{whatever} by KSP.{whatever} .

    I can't say anything about pros and cons for this solution, not even if it works or details about the execution, sorry.

     

    What about other launch options???

    Other launch options like "-popupwindow" or "-force-d3d11" should still work as usual for any solution on this list. For solution #2 to #4, you can just add them at the very end of the command, for example:

    "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Kerbal Space Program\KSP_x64_Steam" %command% -popupwindow

    or

    "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Kerbal Space Program\KSP_x64.exe" %command% -popupwindow

    or

    "c:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe" %command% /c "start D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\"Kerbal Space Program"\KSP_x64_shortcut.lnk" -popupwindow

     

     

    I hope everyone was able to find a solution which fits bets for their situation but if not, you're always welcome to ask questions right here in the thread. If any other solution comes up to fill up a niche, I'll happy add it to the list, same goes for linux and MacOS versions of the game. Also, any feedback is always welcome :)

×
×
  • Create New...