Intercept Games

KSP2 v0.1.1.0 Patch Notes <-- This rocket denotes a fix that community members directly helped our dev team fix. Thanks to all of you who send in bug reports! Bug Fixes Flight & Map Fixed disappearance of orbital trajectories after loading a saved game Fixed trajectory intercept patch not showing when captured by a Celestial Body Fixed issue where some parts remain connected to/follow vessel after detachment Fixed stack decouplers staying connected to the vessel when staged with certain engines that have fairings enabled Fixed physics impulse occurring when an engine runs out of fuel Fixed dV incorrectly using reinforced joint part connections for fuel flow calculations Fix for engine thrust being deflected at too high of a value when a part obstructs an engine’s exhaust (the Kraken Drive bug) Fixed loss of vehicle control after undocking Fixed bug for probe cores spinning when losing Commnet connection Fixed stack decouplers operating as if crossfeed is active even when PAM entry shows crossfeed disabled Fixed issue that could cause some environment objects to spawn on top of the active vessel, causing KSC and other objects to move to the origin Fixed orbital velocity being shown when looking at the context menu of a landed vessel in Map view Fixed maneuver burn timer countdown lights activating incorrectly Fixed context menu opening when panning the camera with right mouse button while zoomed in to a celestial body in Map mode Added camera collision with terrain and other colliders while in Flight view Added visual indicator when a marker is hovered and pinned in Map view Fixed offset of radially-attached parts when player switches away from and back to Flight view Fixed the sim-side Center of Mass not being correctly updated by view-side rigidbodies Fixed physics-less parts adding the mass of their host part to Center of Mass calculations Fixed orbit/rigidbody synchronization issues when transitioning to/from physics and on-rails Made debris targetable Fixed dV calculation breaking when new empty stages are added while building a vessel in the VAB Fixed dV amounts appearing on the wrong stage when rearranging stages in the staging stack Fixed outboard elements of compound wings exhibiting reversed control surface reaction to pitch inputs Fixed issue with orbital marker not properly resetting its state when collapsed Fixed orbital markers not being pinnable while manipulating a maneuver and not staying pinned upon maneuver gizmo activation Fixed navball/controls getting stuck after accelerating in timewarp Fixed persistence of active vessel’s timewarp restrictions when returning to KSC from Flight Fixed pitch, yaw, roll, and throttle adjustment being possible while in hibernation mode Fixed planned trajectories changing when switching between Flight view and Map view while engine is firing Fixed dV calculations for stages with multiple engines with different burn durations and propellant rates Fixed resource system processing when request needs are only partially met Improved buoyancy calculations to reduce vessel spinning when splashing down in the ocean Fixed burn duration displays 0 until it is time to start the burn Fixed ETA to maneuver display to show a value for “days” Fixed dV calculations with cross feed in active stage of flying vessel Fixed dV changing to zero when fuel crossfeed is disabled on Docking Ports Fixed a bug where debris trajectories were not immediately shown in Map view Fixed a bug with thrust limiters missing for solid fuel booster engines Removed incorrect fuel transferability for solid fuel parts in the Resource Manager in Flight view Single part vessels now come to a stop on low gravity celestial bodies after a crash Fixed intercept nodes being in wrong positions during timewarp Updated detection arguments for recognizing when an aircraft is landed Fixed an issue with Stability Assist that could cause the loss of Prograde and Retrograde targets on the launchpad. Fixed vessel not restoring correctly when reverting to launch from the runway Fixed Chase Camera mode to make selected zoom state persist Fixed part action groups breaking when an invalid action is included Fixed errors on Game Shutdown during TimeWarp Fixed destroy command not destroying vessels in the Tracking Station Fixed some instances where the action group manager would not trigger correctly when additional part actions are added to reserved action groups Optimizations Optimizations in the engine part module to reduce per-update “not out of fuel” messaging Optimized engine exhaust damage calculations to reduce CPU impact of high engine counts Optimized ThrottleVFXManager to reduce CPU impact of per-frame material property updates Optimizations on EVA code Optimized Center of Thrust and Center of Mass marker code and fixed null shortcut failure states Optimized kerbal hair compression scripts Optimized loading times in PQS code Optimization of unneeded cameras during loading Optimized loading times for the main menu Loading optimization for scatter meshes Optimized fuel flow calculations to cut processing by up to 3x and reduce garbage by half Optimized runway light meshes Fixed various texture and mesh memory leaks Updated Training Center to use texture streaming Fixed performance-impacting error state triggered by Kerbin’s clouds after returning to Kerbal Space Center from another celestial body Removed unnecessary log entries to improve performance Removed unnecessary logs when loading a saved game Reduced light source count for multi-nozzle engine parts Saving & Loading Added feature: game autosaves when landing on a celestial body, when entering an SOI, and when entering or exiting an atmosphere Fixed an issue that prevented loading of a saved game within an existing Campaign, caused workspaces not to load properly, and prevented saving the game Fixed issue where reloading a save made at KSC results in reloading to active vessel in flight Fixed string in the Save Workspace menu Fixed an issue that could prevent new workspace saves being created when a control part was removed Fixed an issue that can prevent workspace saves from appearing in the load menu Parts & Stock Vessels Fixed R.A.P.I.E.R. engine mode-changing issues Set all reinforced joint connections to grandparent Improved joint strength for engine plate floating stack attach nodes Performed wheel balance pass, including adjustment of all steering and torque curves Increased range and brightness for vehicle lights Re-tuned fairing and cargo part mass Tuned mass for structural parts, trusses, nosecones and tail sections Tuned crash tolerance for external Grumble Seat Re-tuned electrical systems, including adjustments to xenon engine electrical draw, xenon engine thrust, reactor fuel burn rate, and RTG lifetime Tuned crash tolerance for landing gear Tuned docking reacquisition ranges Updated Hammer solid fuel booster model to match with other parts in the same size category Adjusted mass for HECS2 probe Updated emissive texture and material for the MK3 “Skybus” Fixed frustum culling for the Bobus mobility enhancer (ladder disappeared when base at edge of screen) Updated geometry and textures for the MK1 “Peregrine” Updates to textures and geometry for the Mk1 “Raven” Fixed texture seams on the R.A.P.I.E.R. engine Fixed RCS not working on the Mk3-5 command pod Minor bug fix on the Kerbal K2 stock vessel to fix issues with decoupling Updated collider for MK1 Tin Can to improve surface attachment behavior for radially-attached parts Updated default orientation for some adapter parts Updated default orientation for small square trusses Updated part placement rules for the HS-500 Heat Shield Updated models for decouplers and separators to match other parts in their size categories Updated geometry for LV-N “NERV” engine Updated team colors masks for the SP-XL "Gigantor" and SP-XXL "Colossus" solar panels Updated team color masks for decouplers Updated team color mask on engine endcaps Added Crew Light module to Skybus cab Fixed the Symmetry mirror direction and rotation for the Grumble Seat Fixed wheel motor resource usage being too low Adjusted default orientation of the MK3 Cargo Ramp Fixed fuel-containing aerodynamic parts (Mk1 Divertless Supersonic Intake, Engine Nacelle, or Engine Precooler) not showing resource slider in the Part Action Manager Tuning changes made to reaction wheels in command modules Adjusted the surface attach node to be on the ventral surface of Mk2 parts Fixed a bug preventing lights from consuming resources Fixed a bug preventing the Blink option from working on lights Fixed a bug with the heading orientation of the Sparrow default craft UI/UX UI performance improvements, including elimination of unnecessary redraw for unchanged bar elements and removal of pixel perfect on main gameplay canvas Added a graphical representation for probe cores in Kerbal Flight portraits Updated Map iconography, including orbital markers, trajectory colors, maneuver gizmo, focus item, and scrub handle Fixed error where clicking on “Exit” in Main Menu produces warning modal that has no accept or cancel buttons Fixed graphics quality settings conflicting with one another after resetting settings Removed “Apply” button from settings menus, updating settings when changed, settings now apply immediately Fixed parts bin UI height in Staging Stack Performed color and consistency pass on the staging stack and launch button UI UI improvements to avoid overlap of intercept nodes in map view Fixed info panel UI element remaining active when panel is hidden in the Tracking Station Updated UI indicators in some tutorials and first time user experience information Updated Resource Manager UI to match new resource gauges in Staging Stack Improved ESC menu user experience Fixed dark box getting stuck in the VAB when dragging the dialog window Fixed Kerbal Manager portraits appearing empty Fixed non-stock vessel thumbnails not appearing in launchpad menu Minor updates to improve building selection experience at Kerbal Space Center view Updated the executable icon Updated background image for vessel thumbnails in the launchpad load menu Updated saved vessel thumbnail design Updated styling on the action button inside the Part Action Manager Updated the game credits Updated game splashscreens Updated titles in the Resource Manager Updated dialog windows to accommodate longer text Updated close button on the Part Manager Updated missing text on the launchpad menu Added notification for inactive vessel entering a new SOI Fixed runway 1 and 2 having the same name when hovering over them in the KSC Fixed tooltips for Trigger Action Groups 2-10 being numbered incorrectly within the input settings menu Fixed Center Camera in VAB being in the wrong section in the input settings Added warning when rebinding the same key twice in input settings Fixed difficulty settings being saved from one save file's difficulty settings and being applied to every normal difficulty game save made afterwards Fixed difficulty options showing in the main menu settings Fixed failure of difficulty settings to apply when changed inside a campaign Fixed shader compiler error when switching graphics settings to Low Quality Added laptop audio mode to settings Fixed a bug where the “hold to quickload” setting was not applied correctly Added audio keyboard shortcuts to input settings menu Fixed escape menu freezing vessel controls in last-held state Fixed dialog being non-clickable when recovering a vessel with ESC menu deployed Fixed overlapping text in the flag removal dialog Fixed throttle visuals not updating when throttle adjusted Updated Tracking Station control text Minor updates to global header information Fixed Recover Vessel button in the ESC menu pushing elements off screen Fixed notifications using real world time instead of UT Fixed input lock problems when the ESC menu is visible Removed placeholder image that appears when no parts are favorited Updated Center of Mass, Thrust, and Pressure/Lift indicators in the Vehicle Assembly Building to make them translucent Fixed text overruns in the Training Center Alt+Enter toggles fullscreen Fixed a bug blocking some agency flags from being selected when starting a new game Added additional loading screens Fixed missing physical characteristics in the info panel inside the Tracking Station Fixed issues with the toggles for Map and Tracking Station displaying an incorrect state, or being hidden unintentionally Fixed all CBs are described as "Terrestrial planets" when viewed in the tracking station Updated the text string displayed for engine disabling/enabling in the Part Manager Updated text for lights in the Part Manager Construction Middle mouse button pans in the Z axis when in horizontal workspace mode Fixed fairing sides getting deleted after building a procedural fairing and attaching it to a launch assembly Fixed errors related to procedural wings preventing launch from VAB Fixed issue where pressing M in the VAB opens the Map view Fixed description for Kerbol capture and Kerbosationary orbit trip stages in trip planner Fixed engineer’s report warning vessels cannot generate electricity when vessels are equipped with generators Adjusted default VAB camera angle for horizontal workspace mode Fixed hit area for the launchpad selection button in the VAB Confirmation prompt added when saving over workspaces Fixed assembly anchor error alert persisting onscreen and blocking the user from placing additional parts after the tool is deselected in the VAB Fixed Center of Thrust appearing on the ground of the VAB and not updating when launch assembly is changed Fixed display issues in the text on the orientation cube in the VAB Updated favorites panel information in the Vehicle Assembly Building Favorites category Fixed a bug where surface attach nodes were misaligned on some engine parts Environments Fixed an issue where ground textures were projected onto vehicles at the margins of the KSC grounds Fixed Kerbin atmosphere disappearing when viewed from Mun’s SOI Fixed collision at bottom of Mohole Fixed terrain decal normals not rendering correctly Reduced scatter meshes floating above terrain Updates to terrain texture matching for some points of interest Updated placement, coloration, and collision for various celestial body landmarks Updated colliders and stretched textures in the parking garage at KSC Scatter adjustments around KSC mountains Updated material on VAB elevators Fixed VAB gantry crane geometry Updated material on VAB doors Adjusted atmosphere settings for main menu background planet Fixed atmosphere not showing in cubemaps under some circumstances Improved atmosphere clipping issues while in Map view Fixed Laythe’s atmosphere rendering incorrectly in Map view Fix a bug that caused lighting to darken on vessels when reentering atmospheres Updated clouds on Jool Minor road line placement adjustments at Kerbal Space Center Fixed collision and updated materials for some points of interest Updated local space shader to restore missing normals in some biomes Updated KSC Training Center roof and Tracking Station dish to fix gaps in geometry Updated colliders around launchpads Updated Kerbin foliage Fixed invisible water above ground to east of KSC lakes Fixed scaled space clouds not displaying in map view Fixed cloud transition dithering issues Improved cloud masking to clean up edges of clouds seen behind vehicle Fixed clouds in Map view not lighting from the correct sun direction for all planets Fixed warnings in cloud-related code Fixed decals sliding and floating on planets Fixed decals getting culled incorrectly after transitioning to low orbit Fixed Laythe's Ocean appearing jagged, pixelated, and jittery after splashing down Fixed ocean shoreline fade out transition at some camera angles Improved LOD transitions for KSC trees Fixed mismatch between high-detail KSC and far-distance LOD material Fixed shadow system to switch to surface shadow mode in KSC view EVA Fixed issue with game saves made after vehicle destruction, in which reloading causes EVA camera mode switch and missing flight information/flight report Fixed kerbals floating when idle while in EVA Fixed kerbals getting stuck when swimming Fixed Kerbals getting stuck inside the Mk1 Command Pod when it's on a flat surface other than the launchpad Improved Kerbal run/walk animation transitions Fixed Kerbal surface velocity resetting when disabling RCS in EVA mode Updated EVA code to remove frame-related discrepancy between collision result values and character state values Fixed ground and step detection being one frame late for kerbals while in EVA Fixed EVA tooltip remaining active when the HUD is hidden during gameplay Fixed inability to recover Kerbals when on EVA Fixed a bug preventing EVA jetpack from firing even when it has enough fuel Kerbals now require 1x timewarp when transitioning to EVA Fixed kerbals being able walk on the sides of objects with collision Fixed climb action not being present for Kelus Long ladder and Bobus Extra Long Telescopic Mobility Enhancer Fixed errors when toggling Jetpack while TimeWarp is active FX & Audio Improved Kerbol flare/bloom effects Fixed post process FX lighting transition in low orbit Fixed an issue where contrails jump positions during universe reference point transitions Fixed ground blast effect occurring at invalid location for the first few seconds of launch Fixed SFX for Panther in afterburning mode Fixed errors on explosion VFX for hydrogen tanks Fixed VFX not showing on RCS thrusters when precision mode is activated Minor updates for non-explosive water impact VFX Launch VFX updates Updated R.A.P.I.E.R. engine VFX Updated launch smoke material Updated explosion materials Fixed audio timing for several animations Game audio balance pass Fixed a bug where audio was muted when entering numpad values in text entry bars on some menus Added maneuver alert and end sounds Added drag and drop staging sounds Added hydrogen and xenon tank destruction sounds Fixed launchpad music not playing when loading a save Tutorials Fixed issue where flight report appears when the user crashes a vessel inside a tutorial Added “Enter” as keyboard input to advance tutorial dialogs Fixed a bug that could cause the first-time user experience windows to remain open on the main menu Text adjustments in tutorials Text adjustments to subtitles for video tutorials Fixed soft lock error when restarting Tutorial 2.2 Fixed some audio elements on tutorial 2.4 Fixed tooltips not displaying in the Tutorial pause menu during tutorial videos Adding scroll bar indicator to the booster selection step in the “Missing the Ground” tutorial Added fail stage when deleting the engine in the “Space is the Place” tutorial Fixed tutorial orientation video getting stuck when clicking at the end of the video progress bar Fixed subtitles in several languages for the video tutorial on the “Space is the place” tutorial Fixed file paths in tutorial saves Minor gameplay updates to the “Missing the Ground” tutorial Updated text in the VAB First Time User Experience Updated first-time user experience: “Out of Electricity” linked to electricity level instead of production rate Fixed a bug with videos not closing at appropriate times Localization Fixed title text overlapping at the Training Center when localized Fixed unlocalized tooltips in the Timewarp bar Added missing localization terms for stockvessels. Localization reformatted for new game creation Adjustments to text sizing and placement in the launchpad selection in some languages Fixed crash when returning to main menu from VAB Font updates for special characters in certain languages Added new translations to: KSC Menu Flight HUD VAB Training Center Launchpad Menu Part Manager Tracking Station Settings ESC Menu Dialog Titles Notifications Action Group Manager Campaign Load Screen Part Action Manager Time Warp UI Tutorial Pause Wing Editor Map View Part Info Tooltip Video tutorials Passive notifications Merging Workspace Tutorial KNOWN ISSUES KSC Runway Lights LOD Visual Regression Description: Players can see runway lights up close, but they are not visible from far away. This was a result of a major optimization fix for the lights. Status: We are aware of this issue and will be looking to address this in a future patch. SUBMITTING BUG REPORTS AND FEEDBACK If you'd like to provide feedback about this build, there are many different ways to do so: Submit Feedback through the Game Launcher Suggest a Change on the Forums Join us on Discord to discuss potential changes Bug reports should be shared to either: Private Division Customer Support Dedicated Bug Reports Subforum

Hi Y’all, I’m Mortoc, the new graphics programmer on the team. I wanted to take some time to chat about KSP2’s graphics and performance – where we are today and what our process is and what the team’s goals are. As many of you have noticed, KSP2’s performance isn’t amazing at the start of Early Access. In a game as complex as KSP2, there are a dizzying number of areas that we could spend our efforts on and the feedback we’re receiving is invaluable for us to focus our time on the issues that affect the players the most. There are different reasons that the framerate can suffer. If the CPU is asked to do too much during simulation or if the CPU is asked to send too much data to the GPU in an organized fashion, it can make the framerate drop without maxing out the GPU. In most cases the performance in KSP2 is bottlenecked by the GPU, and since I'm a graphics engineer, that's what we're going to investigate in this article. Other engineers are working hard on CPU-facing improvements that you'll see reflected in upcoming updates. Deep Dive Warning: Numbers Ahead Before we dig into the numbers, let’s start with a primer on what we’re looking for here. Game developers tend to think of framerate in terms of milliseconds rather than FPS because it’s easier to budget out your frame time that way. Converting from FPS to ms is simple, you just use the formula 1,000 / FPS = ms (for example: 100 FPS means it takes 10ms per frame, 1,000 / 100 = 10). This way we’re talking about how long a system takes to run directly. We want to measure how many milliseconds each system in the game takes in order to figure out which are taking too much time and dropping the framerate. We use a tool called RenderDoc for our automated performance testing (among other tools). RenderDoc allows us to get the ground-truth timings for every single command sent to the GPU. Our tooling can then pull out the slowest GPU events for us to investigate. The machine I’m using here for performance analysis is a laptop with i7-8650U CPU, Mobile Nvidia GTX 1060 6gb GPU and 16gb RAM. It has a slower GPU than our current min spec, so we’re not expecting it to make a playable framerate yet. KSC Landing Screen – 11 FPS 10 Slowest GPU Events Draw # Duration (ms) PQSRENDERTEMP\Draw(229248) 270 6.08 RenderDeferred.GBuffer\Draw(229248) 505 5.84 RenderDeferred.GBuffer\Draw(229248) 506 5.44 CloudCommandBuffer\DrawIndexed(6) 746 4.43 Shadows.RenderJob\Shadows.RenderJobDir\Draw(229248) 652 4.31 GenerateWaterDepthCommand\Draw(229248) 576 3.18 RenderDeferred.GBuffer\Draw(229248) 503 1.72 RenderDeferred.GBuffer\Draw(229248) 504 1.63 Draw(229248) 263 1.62 cloudsShadowCommandBuffer\DrawIndexed(6) 560 1.58 In this scene, eight of the top ten worst-offenders are related to PQS+. PQS stands for Procedural Quad System and it’s the algorithm used to generate planet terrains. KSP2 uses a modified version of PQS from KSP1, generally referred to as PQS+ after all the modifications made to it for KSP2. That table starts with a draw call to PQSRENDERTEMP, which emits 229,248 vertices. Each other draw call that uses that specific number is doing some work on the PQS mesh. The two draw calls not related to PQS in that table are the ones with a 6 in the name and are related to the cloud system. From this report we can see that the terrain clearly takes the most GPU time in this scene; 29.94ms in total. Let’s try another vantage point. LKO – Low Graphics – 8 FPS 10 Slowest GPU Events Draw # Duration (ms) PQSRENDERTEMP\Draw(92160) 237 10.44 RenderDeferred.GBuffer\Draw(92160) 301 4.06 RenderDeferred.GBuffer\Draw(92160) 302 3.14 RenderDeferred.GBuffer\Draw(92160) 304 2.34 Dispatch(12, 240, 1) 1 2.07 RenderDeferred.GBuffer\Draw(92160) 303 1.59 CopyResource(ObserverCubemapView_CubemapFinal, ObserverCubemapView_Temp) 92 0.60 CopyResource(CelestialBodyCubemapView_CubemapFinal, CelestialBodyCubemapView_Temp) 184 0.33 Camera.Render\PQSRENDER_DEFERRED_DECAL_MASK\Draw(92160) 230 0.24 Camera.Render\Draw(92160) 227 0.23 As you travel away from any Celestial Body, we swap out the complex Local shader with a Scaled version that’s much more efficient. This scene is from Low Kerbin Orbit, but still close enough to the planet to be using the Local version of the shader. PQS+ is again 8 out of the top 10 worst calls (the line Dispatch(12, 240, 1) which is Draw Call #1 is from at the start of the frame when we kick off a compute shader to generate the terrain mesh). That first PQS+ call that took over 10ms is especially dirty. Staying Grounded Clearly the PQS System and related shaders are a big performance problem. Let’s talk about that, but first dig into some background. A core philosophy for the early part of KSP2’s EA cycle is to make sure “it still feels like a KSP game”. This means that for each feature we build, we want to start with what KSP1 did and then build a similar system that improves on it. Following that goal, the team started with the PQS design from KSP1 and added modern graphics features for KSP2’s PQS+. As development progressed on KSP2, more and more features were added to PQS+ to keep pushing the artistic envelope. I might be biased, but from orbit, Kerbol’s planets look incredible. Our art team did a fantastic job. From the surface the game is still quite pretty, but the terrain itself just doesn’t have the consistent visual quality we want yet. While trying to build that ground up to our visual ambitions, we added more features than the previous PQS architecture can support. It wasn’t until the ramp up to EA that it became understood just how far past the limits of the tech we had reached. Future Trajectory OK, so, clearly there’s a problem, what are we going to do about it? A few things are being done simultaneously. First, we’re prioritizing performance optimizations for this system over the next couple of patches. Particularly for when graphics settings are “LOW”, we want this system to be eating far less GPU time. This takes two forms: one is pure engineering optimization that doesn’t affect final graphics, the other is to disable certain visual features when the graphics are set to “LOW” or “MEDIUM”. That first category, engineering-only fixes, was taken about as far as it could be with PQS+. Our short-term plans are currently focused on the 2nd category, turning off features that don’t provide enough bang for the buck. Here's an example of an optimization that affects the visuals. Coming soon in a patch, we will be able to turn off the Anti-Tile system in the terrain. In a bunch of places, the effect is negligible, but you can see the Eve surface has a repetitive texture artifact without it. This visual polish comes at the cost of accessing each texture a few more times, putting strain on the memory bandwidth of the GPU. Disabling this effect can have a small-to-medium sized effect on the framerate, depending on the GPU in question. Optimizations like that one are happening now and will arrive in the next few updates. The rest of this article deals with systems that are in progress, so we cannot make specific promises about timelines or features until further along in development. But here’s where we’re heading: In the medium term, my first major project on this team is to design and build a next-generation terrain system – what we’re calling the CBT system (it uses a Concurrent Binary Tree data structure, but it could also stand for Celestial Body Terrain). PQS+ has served us well, but nowadays video cards are much more flexible and there are more modern approaches that will give us better results in terms of performance and visual quality. Exciting new earth-shaking architectures are possible. The next-gen CBT system will be the topic of a future dev blog which will contain a much more detailed look at what we’re building. While it’s too early to share any details, I will say that I’m excited about the artistic expressiveness, potential terrain variety, and performance of the CBT system. Another area that will see a major shift in visual quality and performance is bringing the game up to Unity’s modern renderer, HDRP (read more about HDRP here if you’re curious, it rocks). The main benefits we get from HDRP are a more optimized render engine, which means faster framerates, and a more flexible shader model, which means more effective dev team efforts. It’ll also make it easier for visual mods to be built. As a sidenote, despite how much we love you modders, this change will definitely break most visual mods (sorry modders, sometimes we must hurt the ones we love). These in-progress changes will allow us to build more scientifically grounded yet fantastical worlds for the Kerbals to explore for years to come.

Will the KSP2 OST be available? As soon as Howard Mostrom completes the score for the game, we'll take a look at our options for collecting and sharing it with the community.

What does being in Early Access mean? Releasing the game via Early Access gives us an opportunity to validate assumptions about how our features will work while those features are still in development. The long-term quality of the game benefits greatly from this process, as it allows us to focus our efforts on improving what works and saves us from wasting time optimizing systems that don’t perform well under real-world conditions.

Thank you to everybody who participated in last week’s inaugural KSP2 weekly challenge. The KSP2_challenges discord channel has received almost 1700 posts, and our team has had endless fun following all your amazing achievements - from first-time Mun landings to multi-vehicle, multi-destination flights that touched down on Eeloo! We’ve loved them all, but we’re especially proud of how supportive this community continues to be of new players who are figuring out orbital mechanics for the first time. This week’s prompt: create an Air Launch to Orbit Rocket — that is, a rocket that’s launched from an aircraft! · Primary goal: get an air-launched rocket to low Kerbin orbit · Stretch goal: land an air-launched rocket on the Mun. · Jeb-level goal: land an air-launched rocket on Duna. · Val-level goal: launch an air-launched rocket from Laythe and land on Kerbin.

Are you optimizing for performance? Improved performance is a core goal for KSP2, and as each feature stabilizes, we are focusing on making it faster and more efficient. As updates occur over the course of Early Access, you can expect performance improvements across the game.

Can I play KSP 2 offline? Yes!

Will the game be optimized for Steam Deck? KSP 2 is currently not optimized for Steam Deck, but we will closely monitor player feedback for how this may be supported in the future.

Will there be  Microtransactions?  Kerbal Space Program 2 will not have purchasable in-game currency or loot boxes. Microtransactions have never been a part of Kerbal and we are not bringing them to KSP2. Our focus will be to deliver solid, meaningful content our fans will love. Are any of the features on the roadmap going to be locked behind additional payment? No, everything included in the Early Access roadmap is included in the purchase.

When will career mode be added to the game? New progression modes will be added over the course Early Access. Science Mode, in which collectible Science can be collected and transmitted to KSC to unlock new technologies at the R&D Center, will be added to the game first. Exploration Mode, in which the ability to create both vehicles and colonies is constrained by the availability of natural resources that occur infrequently across multiple star systems, will arrive later in Early Access. For this mode, the monetary constraints of KSP1 have been replaced by material resource constraints. For both of these progression modes, bespoke missions will also be available through Mission Control.

Will there be mods during Early Access? We expect modders to dig into KSP2 on day one. We recognize that the modding community has played a big role in the longevity of KSP, and we continue to be impressed by the mods that they create. For KSP2, we intend to improve the modding experience even further, and we look forward to hearing feedback from modders over the course of Early Access.

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access? KSP 2 will stay in Early Access until we feel that the game and its full feature set are at our desired level of quality. Check out our roadmap for our planned feature releases and make sure to follow our social channels for further information on timing of updates.

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?  Yes, KSP 2 is available for $49.99 (SRP) during Early Access, and we expect that the price will be raised at 1.0 release.

Where are the other features? It is critical to us that the core of KSP 2 is made as great as it can be for new and returning players alike, and this goal is best served by allowing the community to experience these systems in their nascent state during Early Access. Colonies, interstellar travel, and multiplayer, along with other to-be-revealed features, are all under active development. We will share more about these features as they become ready to release.

What is the current state of the Early Access version? Initial release of Early Access will include: Remodeled and visually updated Kerbolar System Hundreds of new and improved parts including engines, procedural wings, and more Improved experience for new and returning players Animated Tutorials Improved User Interface Upgraded Map View Fully revamped vehicle assembly & flight interfaces Customize your vehicles with creative paint jobs More for players to discover (we don’t want to spoil everything)! 

When is it coming to MacOS or Linux? These versions are part of our extended roadmap. We’ll share more information at a later date!

When will the console version be released? For the Xbox Series X|S and PS5 versions of the game to complete development, content from the PC version must first be completed. Console versions will come out as soon as possible after the completion of the Early Access period. This also means that the console versions will benefit from many of the improvements applied over the course of Early Access.  Are you still releasing PS4/Xbox One versions of KSP 2? KSP2 is a complex game and we believe that to provide the best possible console experience for our players it requires the latest consoles’ hardware. The current plan is to release only on PS5 and Xbox X|S for the console versions.

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process? Your feedback will be crucial in helping to make KSP 2 the best it can be, and we want to hear about everything that is important to you. Are the tutorials effective? Are there enough of them? Have the user interface changes made a meaningful impact? Is the localization accurate? Because KSP2 is a very large physics sandbox game, our ability to detect and reproduce bugs is massively improved when the game is in the hands of a community that is known for pushing Kerbal to its absolute limits You can follow the development progress through our various social channels: On Steam, the KSP subreddit, the official KSP forums, Intercept Games Discord, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Facebook

How to submit feedback? Instructions on how to submit feedback: Here is how to submit feedback

This is our current list of Frequently Asked Questions: How to Submit Feedback? How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process? When is it coming to console? When is it coming to MacOS or Linux? What is the current state of the Early Access version? What does being in Early Access mean? Where are the other features? Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?  Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access? Will there be mods during Early Access? When will career mode be added to the game? Will there be  Microtransactions?  Will the game be optimized for Steam Deck? Can I play KSP 2 offline? Are you optimizing for performance? Will the KSP2 OST be available?

It's happening!! Kerbal Space Program 2 Early Access is here!

List of Known Issues and Workaround Recommendations Known issues with recommended workarounds: · Graphics settings default to “high quality” on first playthrough. If you are having framerate issues on initial load, access Settings via the ESC menu and select alternate quality settings. · Fuel flow and Delta-V calculations are currently undergoing optimization, but on day 1 of Early Access, high numbers of engines pulling from a common fuel source may impact framerate. If you’re having trouble achieving a desired framerate on your machine, consider using a smaller number of higher-performance engines on your vehicle. This issue is very high priority for us and will be addressed in an upcoming update. · The center of lift indicator does not yet update dynamically when you adjust a wing in the editor - to see the effects of a wing modification, you must first exit the editor to update the center of lift. · In KSP2, the arrow keys now pan the camera, rather than rotating it (right mouse button still rotates the camera). If you get the camera in an undesirable state, press the Home key on your keyboard to reset it to its default position. Known issues being actively worked on: · Some parts from the original KSP aren't available - a few parts won't carry over — for example, the increased flexibility of the new engine plate system has reduced the need for bespoke compound parts like the Twin Boar and Mammoth engines. Also, the old patchwork wing parts have been supplanted by procedural wings. Other parts (for example A.I.R.B.R.A.K.E.s) are still in development and will be added in future updates. And of course Science collection, future propulsion, and colony parts will be added alongside their respective feature updates. · There are still a few issues with our serialization code, and very rarely (especially when building high-complexity vehicles) your vehicle may collapse into an unrecoverable pile of parts on the floor of the VAB. The undo key may also break your in-progress build. For now, it’s a good idea to save frequently. · Trip planner – the trip planner occasionally displays inaccurate delta-v numbers for some destinations. All delta-v numbers in the VAB use vacuum specific impulse numbers, which affects their accuracy. This will be addressed in a future update. Delta-v numbers shown in the staging stack during flight dynamically reflect the current flight state. · Re-entry heating and thermal systems are offline - you'll have a brief window here at the beginning of Early Access during which you can re-enter any atmosphere without a heat shield. We’re still buttoning down our heat transfer, ablation, and occlusion systems. Vapor cone visual effects are also still in-progress. · No collision on trees or rocks - we're optimizing collision for these objects right now, and in the interest of maintaining good framerates we're going to complete that optimization work before letting you crash into these objects. For now, they're holograms. While KSC buildings ARE collideable, they are not yet destructible. · Framerate stutters/lag - we're continuing to work down the list of performance optimizations, from highest to lowest impact. As we push processes out of the main thread and continue to improve the efficiency of our physics, resource flow, VFX, and graphics systems, framerates should improve for all players. · Some UI elements can be challenging to interact with - we're still cleaning up the systems that give priority to different classes of information in the map view, and there are times when you need to click a few extra times to get a hold of the maneuver planner. Similarly, you may have some challenges associating selected parts with their data in the Part Manager. We’re making several changes to the current UI so you can expect this experience to improve over time. This list is not exhaustive – we are tracking and working on a number of additional issues. If you have non-bug feedback during Early Access, please submit that feedback through the form in the launcher. If you’ve run into a bug (or think you have), please go to support.privatedivision.com

Overview Kerbal Space Program 2 encompasses many new features, most of which will continue to improve over the course of Early Access. Here’s what’s new: The Training Center The all-new training center provides players with sequential lessons that teach the basics of spaceflight, starting with core concepts and then moving into simulated flights that give you an opportunity to try out what you’ve learned. There are currently four main lessons, ranging from basic rocketry to interplanetary maneuvering. You can access any tutorial even during normal flight – simply open the ESC menu and select Training Center, and your current flight will be paused and then automatically resumed when the tutorial has ended. New tutorials will be added to the training center as the game grows during Early Access. Your input on the effectiveness of these learning tools is extremely valuable, so please feel free to submit your feedback via the launcher feedback tools. Vehicle Construction and Workspaces When you save your work in the VAB, you don’t just save one craft file anymore. Instead, you save a workspace that may comprise several subassemblies. Since KSP2 allows players to work on multiple assemblies simultaneously, you may want to think of a workspace save as a snapshot of everything that’s being worked on for a given engineering project. There are a few new concepts that come along with this change: You now have a Vehicle Name and a separate Workspace Filename. Your vehicle name is what you’ll see in the Tracking Station when your vehicle is in flight - for example, “Kerpollo 11”. Your Workspace Filename, on the other hand, should change every time you want to create a unique save of your construction progress — so ”Kerpollo 11A,“ ”Kerpollo 11B,“ etc. would make good workspace filenames. You control which subassembly in a workspace will go to the launchpad when you select the Launch button. The Launch Assembly tool, which lives on the VAB toolbar at the bottom of the screen, can be used to designate which subassembly in the workspace is your flight-ready vehicle. The Part Anchor tool at the bottom of the screen controls which part within a subassembly is its root part – eg. the part of the subassembly that will be its main point of manipulation/attachment. To change which part of a subassembly is its Anchor, select this tool and then click on the part of the vehicle you wish to set as the root part. In contrast to the separate Vehicle Assembly Building and Spaceplane Hangar of the original KSP, KSP2 has only a single VAB within which all vehicles are created. To switch between vertical (rockets) and horizonal (planes and rovers) construction modes, toggle the workspace orientation button at the lower left corner of the screen. You’ll find a few other new capabilities in the VAB, as well: By selecting the View Cube at lower left, you can enter and exit Plan View, which gives you an orthogonal perspective of your vehicle from one of six directions. This is handy for lining up edges and making sure that angles are just right. Clicking and dragging the middle mouse button allows you to track the VAB camera along the vehicle’s long axis. To focus the camera on a particular part, middle-click that part. Use the scroll wheel to zoom. To change the color of all or part of your vehicle, select the color picker on the VAB toolbar. This tool allows you to assign both a primary color and an accent color to your vehicle. If you only want to change the color of a single part, select the Part button at the top of the dialog. You can control the visibility of both primary and accent colors via the transparency slider to the right of the color swatch. If you want to see only a primary color on your part, select the accent color and drag the transparency slider all the way down. If you want to see no paint on the part at all, select the primary color and drag the transparency slider all the way down. Shiny! There are three new types of procedural wings: Wings, Stabilizers, and All-Moving Control Surfaces. After placing one of these parts on your vehicle, you can modify its shape and attributes by selecting the wrench icon that appears above the part on mouseover. For Wings and Stabilizers, this editor also allows you to toggle the presence of integrated control surfaces, as well as the shape and placement of those control surfaces. Here’s a handy tip: you can create compound wings with interesting silhouettes by attaching multiple wings end-to-end! Interstage shrouds, which bridge the gap between an upper-stage engine and the decoupler placed beneath it, are now also procedural, allowing them to flare or taper to match the core sizes of the parts they’re connecting. If you want to attach multiple engines to the bottom of a stage, first add an engine plate beneath the stage above. You can attach any number of engines to an engine plate - just select a symmetry mode and place the engines in whatever configuration you like. Engine plates will automatically deploy interstage shrouds, just like any other engine. You can modify the vertical distance of the floating node (the connection point to which something placed beneath the engines will attach) by right-clicking on the engine plate and adjusting the Floating Node slider in the Part Action Manager. There is a Favorites category at the top of the part picker. To add a part to your Favorites tab, select the star button on that part’s entry. Known Issues (currently being addressed) Some parts from the original KSP aren't available - a few parts won't carry over — for example, the increased flexibility of the new engine plate system has reduced the need for bespoke compound parts like the Twin Boar and Mammoth engines. Also, the old patchwork wing parts have been supplanted by procedural wings. Other parts (for example A.I.R.B.R.A.K.E.s) are still in development and will be added in future updates. And of course Science collection, future propulsion, and colony parts will be added alongside their respective feature updates. There are still a few gremlins in our serialization code, and very rarely (especially when building high-complexity vehicles) your vehicle may collapse into an unrecoverable pile of parts on the floor of the VAB. For now, it’s a good idea to save frequently. Trip planner – the trip planner occasionally displays inaccurate delta-v numbers for some destinations. All delta-v numbers in the VAB use vacuum specific impulse numbers, which affects their accuracy. This will be addressed in a future update. Delta-v numbers shown in the staging stack during flight dynamically reflect the current flight state. The center of lift indicator does not yet update dynamically when you adjust a wing in the editor - to see the effects of a wing modification, you must first exit the editor to update the center of lift. Flight and Maneuvering When launching from a launchpad, the first staging input triggers a ten-second countdown that automatically ends with a launch. If you wish to skip the countdown, simply stage again and your vehicle will lift off. When you turn on the Stability Assist System (also called S.A.S.), your vehicle will by default attempt to maintain its current orientation. When you select one of the orientation buttons to the right of your navball, your vehicle will use S.A.S. to orient in the direction you’ve selected. If you want your vehicle to hold its orientation after that, simply select the “hold orientation” button with the padlock icon. You can also toggle S.A.S. off and back on with the T key if you wish to quickly lock in your current orientation. There are a few new camera modes, in addition to the auto, orbit, and horizon modes you might remember from the original KSP. Chase mode now follows the vehicle like it’s on a sled, with the camera oriented to the up-direction of whatever command part is controlling the vessel - it’s a great choice for docking maneuvers. The new capture camera allows you to film your vehicle from any angle, and provides handy movement speed controls, dolly and panning controls, and camera roll controls – all of which live on the numpad. In Map Mode, planetary spheres of influence (SOIs) are now visible - when you pass into or out of an SOI, a ripple effect shows the point of interception. When you create a Maneuver Plan, the projected trajectory depicts the portion of your path that will take place under acceleration - this is shown as a red line. Importantly, the tech that allows us to pre-calculate accelerating trajectories also allows time warp under acceleration, so provided you’re outside an atmosphere you can greatly reduce the amount of time you spend waiting for burns to end. Known Issues (currently being addressed) Re-entry heating and thermal systems are offline - you'll have a brief window here at the beginning of Early Access during which you can re-enter any atmosphere without a heat shield. We’re still buttoning down our heat transfer, ablation, and occlusion systems. Vapor cone visual effects are also still in-progress. No collision on trees or rocks - we're optimizing collision for these objects right now, and in the interest of maintaining good framerates we're going to complete that optimization work before letting you crash into these objects. For now, they're holograms. While KSC buildings ARE collideable, they are not yet destructible. Framerate stutters/lag - we're continuing to work down the list of performance optimizations, from highest to lowest impact. As we push processes out of the main thread and continue to improve the efficiency of our physics, resource flow, VFX, and graphics systems, framerates should improve for all players. Some UI elements can be challenging to interact with - we're still cleaning up the systems that give priority to different classes of information in the map view, and there are times when you need to click a few extra times to get a hold of the maneuver planner. Similarly, you may have some challenges associating selected parts with their data in the Part Manager. We’re making several changes to the current UI so you can expect this experience to improve over time. This is a particular area within which we welcome your feedback. Modding One final note - we take modding very seriously, and we're looking forward to working alongside our counterparts in the community to improve the moddability of KSP2. As stability and performance improve, we will continue to devote resources to opening up more areas of the game to modders during Early Access. Our first modding priority in the coming months will be to provide greater access to part modders. We'll release more information on modding support once Early Access is underway.

Hello Kerbonauts! As we approach the Early Access launch of KSP2, we want to take a little bit of time to tell you about how to give us feedback, and the types of feedback we are looking for throughout the course of Early Access. How can I give feedback on Kerbal Space Program 2 while it’s in Early Access? Kerbal Space Program has many places where you can provide us feedback on your experiences with the game. The Kerbal Community Team will regularly be reading and sharing player feedback heard among the Kerbal community channels with Intercept Games. In the game’s launcher, which can be accessed through the Steam and Epic versions, there will be a permanent feedback button where you can share your feedback on any topic. Periodically there will be topic-specific surveys from the team, which will help us concentrate feedback and ensure no one's feedback is missed. What is considered feedback? What feedback are you looking for? Early Access is about learning and improving, and our intent is to do that hand-in-hand with our community of players. While we build on the foundations of Kerbal Space Program 2, your experiences, both good and bad, will be invaluable in how we make the game even better – and that’s what we want to know from you all throughout Early Access. We absolutely want to hear about what you enjoy, don’t enjoy, could be better, or tweaked. We also want to hear about any bugs you encounter throughout gameplay. Anything more urgent such as crashes, freezes, or other game-breaking issues, please contact Private Division Customer Support. Our support agents will work to assist you while collecting as much information as possible, as fixing these are the highest priority for our development team throughout Early Access. How can I give feedback on Kerbal Space Program 2 in the Game’s Launcher? When you launch the game through Steam or the Epic Games Store, a launcher will first appear. This is where you can start the game or find the latest news, patch notes, and community highlights. On this launcher, there are two ways to give feedback on your game experience to the development team: Send Feedback Button: This button lives permanently in the launcher and can be accessed anytime. If you come across anything in the game you like, dislike, or think could be improved you can give feedback on it through this. Active Survey: If there is a feedback survey currently live, you will see a button on the game page (in the launcher) allowing you to give your feedback. These surveys will be time-limited and topic-specific. For example, one may be activated once a new content update is released, or if we want to deep-dive on certain areas or features of the game. If I didn’t buy the game via Steam or Epic, how do I give feedback? For the surveys accessed through the Steam and Epic launchers, they will be made available through the Kerbal Space Program website on February 24th What language(s) are you collecting feedback in? Currently we are only supporting responses through the Send Feedback Button or Active Surveys in English. We cannot wait to share Kerbal Space Program 2 with our community and look forward to hearing what you all have to say about it! Happy Launching! -Intercept Games

Hello Kerbonauts! Just one week to go until Kerbal Space Program 2’s launch into Early Access! As the gameplay trailer shows, we are hyped up for all the amazing things the community will be able to do. The whole Kerbolar system will be available day 1 and there will be some new secrets to find. So, build a plane, rocket, or rover and get ready to launch Kerbal Space Program 2! So, when is it releasing? We made this nifty map that shows the UTC release timing. Kerbal Space Program 2 will be releasing globally at 6AM Pacific Time. Global Release Times by City: Honolulu – 4AM Seattle/Los Angeles – 6 AM Mexico City – 8AM New York City – 9AM São Paulo – 11AM London – 2PM Berlin – 3PM Helsinki – 4PM Dubai – 6PM Mumbai– 7:30PM Bangkok – 9PM Taipei – 10PM Tokyo – 11PM Sydney – 1AM Auckland– 3AM