NoMrBond

I get that DOTS wasn't included in a production release until recently but it was shown off starting in late 2018 with Megacity, which was later released as a demo project around March 2019 so the ECS / DOTS framework has been kicking around for a while even if it wasn't considered production ready Hopefully one of the KSP2 Feature Videos will go under-the-hood on the engine and physics, since physics plays such a large part in the game (sadly nothing much new out of PAX East)

Hopefully they're using DOTS (and HAVOK stateful physics too)

Like? A hypothesis is something to be tested (to destruction if necessary, as this one was), not a puppy or a flavour of ice-cream. I am open to the possibility that advances in science, materials and engineering might one day provide a answer, as has frequently been the case throughout history

You're citing one failed experiment as a complete and irrevocably closed door for an entire area of study A single hypothesis regarding metH2/mH2 meta-stability didn't work out, so science moves on to the next, like so; Jeffrey M. McMahon at the Department of Physics & Astronomy tested Diamond, β-Sn and Cs-IV types of met-H2 in 2017, and found that Cs-IV type stayed metastable until 250GPa while the later conformations started breaking down ~300GPa. While these particular forms are probably not practical but forms which are metastable were discovered. The paper is called "On the possibility of metastable metallic hydrogen" by Craig M. Tenney, Keeper L. Sharkey, Jeffrey M. McMahon; arXiv:1705.04900 [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Your position requires believing that our current understanding of metH2/mH2 is both perfect and complete and no further advancement will ever be made, which in my view makes the comparison to the stated cases entirely apt Have we made all possible forms of metallic hydrogen, do we understand all those forms completely, in every permutation and condition? No, so on what basis can we steadfastly and absolutely extrapolate from our extremely limited understanding of metallic hydrogen that it is not and will always be impossible?

If you go back through history everything we use, do and even take for granted in modern life was considered ‘impossible’ before it suddenly wasn't Talk over wires? impossible! A machine which can calculate? Impossible! Rocks falling from the sky? Impossible! Talk without wires? impossible! Split the atom? Impossible! Heavier than air flight? Impossible! Learn what the stars are made of? Impossible! Flying faster than the speed of sound? Impossible! Send something into space? Impossible! Entangle particles at a quantum level? Impossible! Find planets around other stars? Impossible! Detect gravity waves? Impossible? Maybe the exact method, type, preparation or use depicted in the game might not come to pass but saying there will never be metallic hydrogen or a functional equivalent thereof just ignores that history is full of unreasonable people ignoring what other people tell them is impossible

Heh, I was already reading that after remembering Blackracks comment on it

No more parts burning several kilometres away exploding with the same volume as if part of your re-entry vehicle just blew up!

Was this the point where they switched to using a reverse-float (log) depth buffer? I remember that becoming available in Unity earlier (and Blackrack pointing out the advantages thereof) but wasn't sure if it was in-game already To quote blackrack > I have bolded the bit which I am suspecting has come to pass?

Would it be possible to get a little technical background/information of this improvement?

It's a pretty reasonable Kerbal version of the original Vulcain-I engine, not bad or anything but just doesn't seem to grok with the kind of engine it is. If this had been for the Skipper refurb that would have clicked I think. Are there variants coming which would drop the truncated cone/tankbutt at the top (compact variant) or offer a boattail cover? Unless there's a specific higher level reason the Mainsail has been purposely fashioned after the Vulcain we're not privy too yet (i.e. ESA/Arianne part pack like the SLS looking parts made for the ARM pack)?

I'm mostly hoping the 1.25m RW and the fairing bases loose their muffin-tops (oh, and the shrouds of the heatsheilds too actually) since they stick out weirdly from their size profiles

By the Kraken I hope that the aero-effect and re-entry shaders are part of the new shaders collection for v1.9 Which parts still need revamping? Reaction wheels? fairing bases? mainsail/t30/t45? Girders/octags and structural things?

I hope it uses Havok acceleration via Unity's DOTS framework Havok stateful simulation presentation from Copenhagen is just over 40 minutes if you'd like to see why Otherwise the TL;DR is performance at least 2x plus it's stateful (w/caching) instead of stateless

Even if you had to, say, right-click on the green 'node-balls' when they're overlapping (to whatever tolerance) and select 'Join' or something