NovaSilisko

[looks at crowd of people who are currently on fire] "I don't see any problems. Why waste time on extinguishing them? I'm not on fire."

Well, since this got bumped agian, I'll give a few small updates. Lately I've been playing with the terrain generator some more, optimizing and refining. It can operate in two modes, now - normal mode, or caching mode. Normal regenerates the mesh for a given terrain chunk every time a new level of detail is requested. That saves on memory, since the old mesh is destroyed, but uses more CPU. Caching mode does the opposite - it generates the mesh and then holds onto it until told to stop, and then the next time that detail level is needed, it's loaded instantly. This uses more memory (about ~100 megabytes of RAM for a 300 meter diameter planet with every single chunk loaded to the maximum level) but saves considerably on CPU resources. Proper shadows remain elusive (everything thus far has been clever placement of directional lights to make single scenes look okay, but don't tell anyone), although Solutions Are Being Pursued. And I added a few effects to its shader, such as a simple and subtle opposition surge (or Heiligenschein) opposite the sun. Speaking of shaders, there are also new and improved thruster effects for engines and RCS: http://i.imgur.com/6v7shkF.gifv Also, I invented an in-universe parallel to Betamax tapes, because why not? Possible use: an in-game video recorder that takes output from the control monitor and puts it on tape (aka an mp4 file in a special folder in the game data, which, if a method exists, could even be used to insert arbitrary video files for playback as in-game tapes... like the vinyl record soundtrack system, but even worse) The website is so outdated now, and really should be redone at some point. But putting a "pending renovation" or somesuch page in its place gives the impression that such an update is imminent, which it really isn't.

It's all the part prefabs that have been loaded into the game. They're rendering for... some reason. You could probably identify which ones based on that pipe.

They're a side effect of one of the terrain noise generators, it can make somewhat unsightly worm-like features. I'm not sure its specific name, but you can see similar features in Space Engine as well, which uses the same principles.

I propose we name it The "Science" Labs and leave it alone.

I haven't done anything KSP-related on it in a while, but hey: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLktDrm2gB-UpfAEbZUyC8w

And other things, too. It's a long story.

Even still, it's better to find the details of each specific case before dismissing anyone's issues - some can definitely be dismissed quickly as local computer issues/mod issues, but plenty of times it can turn out to be a bug that's just difficult to reproduce or something ephemeral that only comes up due to a bizarre set of interlocking circumstances.

Well, there are of course specific cases where that is indeed the case and I do agree that if you're still running a 12 year old windows XP machine, you shouldn't harbor any expectations for KSP to work very well, but the post in question felt like it was just dismissing everyone having issues as just having computer problems, and that they were therefore of no concern.

Er... congratulations? That doesn't change the fact that a lot of other people are in fact having lots of issues. You can't just blame it on their computers or game settings - that's not fair to them.

I'm quite impressed Furze hasn't gotten himself killed, yet. He almost got various appendages caught in the fan at a few points, there.

Long duration flight with crew requires larger habitat modules. No ten year flights crammed inside a Mk1 pod. Generally, two crew per Hitchhiker module is the absolute max.

Here, for the record, is the paper that the OP's story refers to http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8205/821/1/L13/meta

"Breaks current physics models" is hyperbolic nonsense. No laws of physics are being violated, we just don't know how the system formed. Big difference. Edit: Hold on, now that Kryten's posted, what are we even referring to? Are we talking about a hypervelocity star or a quasar? Both? I don't see a mention of quasars in the OP's link.

Only a very rough estimate, and it would vary significantly between perihelion and apohelion. Still, you could probably find stuff orbiting at least on a temporary basis out to a few AU.

Science of the Spheres has always, at its heart, been about people. So that is why I have spent dozens of minutes crafting finely detailed personas for the player to adopt when playing the game. Without further ado, I would like to present the first four playable characters: I hope they will help you immerse yourself into the game's rich tapestry of characters and creatures. Incidentally, I hope you're enjoying the first day of this fine month.

And so, it would seem KSP 1.1 is the version that finally killed Muffler. A lifespan of 2 years, 6 months, and 12 days. I'm not sure I feel up for figuring out how to make it work all over again. Anyone else want to eat it and gain its powers?

I've done a hyperbolic flight to Jool before, with a Duna flyby on the way.

If there's ever a physical edition of SotS, I had a brainwave for the cover: Parody the cover art of Fragile, by Yes. Tiny planet + right era for the game. It's perfect!

I vaguely remember this happening as a bug before in earlier versions... a rare bug->feature evolution?

Hmmmm. Neat, but I'm not sure what utility it would serve. Would be nice to be able to view the interiors through windows.

Bad working conditions are the norm, unfortunately. Not just games either, a lot of things of similar disciplines are just as bad - visual effects studios for films, for example.

I worry that the procedural generation will suffer from sameishness, which is a real term that I didn't make up just now, like a lot of games with procedural environments - minecraft (more recently, after revisions to the terrain generator), space engine (really, there isn't very much variety in planet surfaces at all), etc.

Unfortunately no, not yet. I've mostly just been doing what I can (both SotS-related and otherwise) while waiting for things to be able to regroup. R4m0n's had a lot of work that's been swamping him for the past few months, and there are a lot of things that only he can do/things I don't trust myself to do. The plan remains unchanged: Step 1: Public playable demo; single solar system, no money or restrictions to worry about, decent selection of parts. Step 2: The Quest For More Money (crowdfunding or somesuch). Step 3 (cocurrent with step 2): Using the demo as a starting point, build the proper game with infinite solar systems and money and all that good stuff. From there, I guess a private alpha phase and a public beta phase (both handled on steam, due to its ease of rapid iteration and patch deployment [apparently]), followed by multi-source release. ETA: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯