Devnote Tuesday: The Weekly Grind

[SQUAD]

<figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-height="92" data-orig-width="480"><img data-orig-height="92" data-orig-width="480" alt="image" src="http://41.media.tumblr.com/0ff9377afa68dc3ad3fe6844aaf1bd38/tumblr_inline_ntan0gsxqW1rr2wit_540.jpg"/></figure><p><b>Felipe (HarvesteR)</b></p><blockquote><p>So, this week I’m switching gears again, the UI overhaul is progressing nicely, but there are a few areas (namely, staging) which are proving much more complicated than initially expected. It does help a lot to have whoever wrote the original code on hand to do the upgrade, and since I’m guilty for the staging code (and its many overhauls over the course of the project), I’m now tasked with overhauling the staging UI… I can’t say I’m looking forward to that with much eagerness. Staging isn’t the prettiest code in the game, to put it mildly, but it needs doing so that’ll be my new thing for the next few days.</p></blockquote><p><b>Mike (Mu)</b></p><blockquote><p>I have been pressing on with further localisation implementations and various bits of user interface and game code which were buggy, ugly or poorly written. I’ve also been revisiting screens and systems which were written as part of the Unity 5 upgrade which could have been done better thanks to the greater learning and experience we have gained.</p></blockquote><p><b>Marco (Samssonart) </b></p><blockquote><p>Fun week playing around with PS4 testkit, we’ve finally been able to run Kerbal Space Program in the PS4, Yaaaay! It still a mess, it’s still missing a lot of work, this was definitely an important step, but a release still seems pretty far, the game is not currently in a playable state, onward.</p></blockquote><p><b>Daniel (danRosas)</b></p><blockquote><p>Kept on working on the assets. Everything is moving forward. </p></blockquote><p><b>Jim (Romfarer)</b></p><blockquote><p>This week i finished implementing all the KnowledgeBase apps. With that done it also marks a milestone in the UI overhaul process since everything i set out to do has been “completedâ€Â. That said I now have to go over everything and fill in the parts i left out, such as animated applauncher buttons and other non critical polish tasks. I also need to do internal testing before the QA team gets their hands on this, in order to eliminate the most obvious bugs. It has been a bit of a rat race to get all of these UI panels set up in the timeframe we were given. Wherever possible i have re-coded everything syntactically, as in, I’m converting the code to UI5 without being 100% aware of what the code I’m converting does.</p></blockquote><p><b>Max (Maxmaps) </b></p><blockquote><p>Phase two of remodelling the office is now happening, at least we had like two days of half of the place looking amazing before we were back to dust everywhere. </p></blockquote><p><b>Ted (Ted)</b></p><blockquote><p>It’s been a short week so far, returning from a wonderful holiday; to my usual routine. I’ve been caught up on the happenings of the past week by Max and Kasper, actioning any necessary items and noting others for the right time. </p><p>We’re progressing nicely on the improvements to our server infrastructure and management, discussing the options we have with Multiplay.</p><p>Additionally, I’ve been talking with the developers, tracking progress and identifying any changes in development practices that are needed to stay on track.</p><p>Lastly, I’ve been going through the experimental applications and I’ve got them narrowed down. Successful applicants can expect to hear back during this week and the next.</p></blockquote><p><b>Kasper (KasperVld)</b></p><blockquote><p>It’s been a very busy week for me, both working on KSP and in my personal life. Andrea is picking up both the daily tasks and the game very quickly. Sadly there aren’t many exciting things I can share at this point, except perhaps that our forum update to IPS4 is slowly taking shape. It’s a long process but it will be well worth it in the end. </p><p>Ted is back from vacation as well, and I’ve talked to him about action points many of you have brought up for the next update.</p><p>Finally, make sure you tune in to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/HOCgaming/videos"><b>Kerbal Polar Expedition 3</b></a> tomorrow through Sunday between 6PM and 10PM UTC, or <a href="https://my.charitywater.org/kerbal-polar-expedition-3"><b>make a donation</b></a> to Charity Water if you can’t make it there. It literally saves lives!</p></blockquote><p><b>Andrea (Badie)</b></p><blockquote><p>Second week as CM. Kasper has helped me with everything and made this week pretty fun, we made a great team. I finally have my own place and my own computer and that makes everything more comfortable. I keep playing KSP, my first launch was great the problem now is landing without killing kerbals.</p></blockquote>

[smjjames]

Oh hey, a bit early Dev Tuesday.

Badie, watch the pros like Scott Manley or some of the other streams. Also, don't be afraid to ask for help in the community, we were all newbs once.

Theres also plenty of threads around with tips and stuff.

[Glaran K'erman]

Yay! Love Devnote Tuesdays

[Yukon0009]

Hm, interesting.

[regex]

<b>Mike (Mu)</b><p>I have been pressing on with further localisation implementations and various bits of user interface and game code which were buggy, ugly or poorly written. I’ve also been revisiting screens and systems which were written as part of the Unity 5 upgrade which could have been done better thanks to the greater learning and experience we have gained.</p>

Here's to a redesigned UI that is coherent and makes sense (or is that too much to ask for?)! Also, maybe we could have a customizable navball ala Enhanced Navball? Edited August 18, 2015 by regex

[almagnus1]

<b>Andrea (Badie)</b></p><blockquote><p>Second week as CM. Kasper has helped me with everything and made this week pretty fun, we made a great team. I finally have my own place and my own computer and that makes everything more comfortable. I keep playing KSP, my first launch was great the problem now is landing without killing kerbals.</p></blockquote>

Explains why the grass near the space center is green.....

[nightingale]

Felipe (HarvesteR)

I’m now tasked with overhauling the staging UI… I can’t say I’m looking forward to that with much eagerness.

Praying to the great Kraken that the infamous click-through bug gets fixed with this work.

[Wjolcz]

Also, maybe we could have a customizable navball ala Enhanced Navball?

I would like that.

It's probably a hassle to rework bits of the UI code, but if it makes it less buggy I (and many others!) will be happy.

[raxo2222]

Now this sounds like game is finally out of beta!

[OddFunction]

Praying to the great Kraken that the infamous click-through bug gets fixed with this work.

Me too. Nothing is more annoying than working on a huge rocket, trying to mess with the stages, when you accidentally click through the staging UI and grab a part of your rocket. Its awful because usually I have symmetry on like level six.. so when it grabs that piece of my huge rocket, everything freezes up because its replicating my rocket six times... gotta sit there and let it load before you can press delete and then undo.

It's almost become a ritual at this point.

Also the podcast or w/e said that U5 was mostly complete, but after reading this post it seems like its still month(s) or so away. What is the truth!?!!!

[Guest]

WAAH! I want my radar altimeter! WAAH!

<figure class="tmblr-full" data-orig-width="480" data-orig-height="92">Andrea (Badie)</figure>

I keep playing KSP, my first launch was great the problem now is landing without killing kerbals.

Oh that's easy! Wait, you said without killing Kerbals? Where's the fun in that?

[HarvesteR]

Praying to the great Kraken that the infamous click-through bug gets fixed with this work.

I have to say I haven't encountered that one so far, but I can see how it would be very annoying indeed.

The new UI system is native to Unity, so problems like input passing through controls and hitting stuff behind them should be much improved indeed. I can't guarantee this will be an implicit fix, but I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for just that sort of stuff.

Cheers

[Guest]

I have to say I haven't encountered that one so far, but I can see how it would be very annoying indeed.

The new UI system is native to Unity, so problems like input passing through controls and hitting stuff behind them should be much improved indeed. I can't guarantee this will be an implicit fix, but I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for just that sort of stuff.

Cheers

That sounds good. You can replicate the problem by clicking in the text box to edit a craft description with the craft sitting behind it, works both for craft description and subassembly description text boxes. In either case, both the text box gets activated, and you also pick up the part or parts of the craft visible behind it.

The easy workaround is to point the camera away from your craft before using the text boxes. It's annoying, but hardly game-breaking.

[OddFunction]

I have to say I haven't encountered that one so far, but I can see how it would be very annoying indeed.

The new UI system is native to Unity, so problems like input passing through controls and hitting stuff behind them should be much improved indeed. I can't guarantee this will be an implicit fix, but I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for just that sort of stuff.

Cheers

The problem is more noticeable on heavily modded installs. As I am sure you are aware the game has garbage collection issues which cause a routine stutter? Well the click-through glitch (at least for me) seems to happen concurrently with that stutter.

If U5 has improved this area then perhaps that will take care of it. If not, I (or another user) would happily provide you with a bugreport including reproduction steps and a video. If you think it would help, that is

[Darth Badie]

WAAH! I want my radar altimeter! WAAH!

Oh that's easy! Wait, you said without killing Kerbals? Where's the fun in that?

I know!! but after all the fun I feel a little bad of killing them !

Edited August 18, 2015 by Badie

[mattinoz]

I know!! but after all the fun I feel a little bad of killing them !

If you're in sandbox mode... they didn't really die.

[basic.syntax]

I can't guarantee this will be an implicit fix, but I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for just that sort of stuff.

Huzzah! Huzzah! \o/

[Whirligig Girl]

I have to say I haven't encountered that one so far, but I can see how it would be very annoying indeed.

The new UI system is native to Unity, so problems like input passing through controls and hitting stuff behind them should be much improved indeed. I can't guarantee this will be an implicit fix, but I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for just that sort of stuff.

Cheers

The only thing I care about is making it so that if you are zoomed in to your craft and are editing the staging, and then you click on a place where there's a part, you click the part, not the U.I. above it. (Or perhaps both)

[Friedrich Nietzsche]

An ETA to patch 1.1 would be really nice. ATM I dont play KSP, because I fear, that (RSS-)savegames will be incompatible after the upgrade to Unity 5, and all work I do will be for nothing, after the update comes out. Which means, that I'm without KSP since about two months. It would be very nice to get a rough estimation, when I can play KSP again.

[Dunbaratu]

As one of the devs of a mod who isn't part of the experimentals testing group (I didn't get an application in before the time window closed), I am deeply worried about how much the switch to Unity 5 will alter the API that modders use, especially in regards to mods that open user interface windows and let people type into them and click on things in them. I'm excited about a better user interface overhaul, but at the same time worried that it will leave our mod broken for quite a long time before we catch up to the changes SQUAD did, since we can't even begin adapting to those changes until the day 1.1 is publicly released and we get our hands on it.

[joebopie]

As one of the devs of a mod who isn't part of the experimentals testing group (I didn't get an application in before the time window closed), I am deeply worried about how much the switch to Unity 5 will alter the API that modders use, especially in regards to mods that open user interface windows and let people type into them and click on things in them. I'm excited about a better user interface overhaul, but at the same time worried that it will leave our mod broken for quite a long time before we catch up to the changes SQUAD did, since we can't even begin adapting to those changes until the day 1.1 is publicly released and we get our hands on it.

Well since they aren't actually implementing anything new they are using the U5 built-in UI then you could just look up info on the U5 UI-creator and start to learn how to use that. or even begin to write code as it should work when 1.1 is out.

[cantab]

Here's to a redesigned UI that is coherent and makes sense (or is that too much to ask for?)! Also, maybe we could have a customizable navball ala Enhanced Navball?

My understanding is Squad plan to simply re-make the current UI. I think that's the right decision simply because it gives Squad a clear, ready-made goal for that code. For 1.1 Squad just need to make the interface work, they can worry about making it better later.

[Just Jim]

Please, I have a request concerning the NavBall.

I'm a huge fan of docking my ships with the Mk-1 inline cockpit in IVA mode:

But there are two issues I keep encountering.... first the Navball is very fuzzy compared to normal outside view. Making it clearer would be a great help.

Second is the speed indicater on the dashboard is only in whole numbers. My normal docking speed when I connect is 0.3 m/s.

Could the speedometer be made to read in tenth's like the indicator on the navball?

I know there are mods to pretty up the cockpit, but I'm trying to play as mod-free as possible.

Thanks!!!

[Darnok]

Does action groups are considered as part of UI?

If yes, please take a look at my old suggestion

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/63189-What-I-want-from-Santa-%28and-Devs%29-in-2014

- improved action groups, now when we have tweakables it shouldn't be hard to do it like:

First selected "command part" (from first tab in building editor) then set action groups that will be triggered ONLY if that command part is active.

What that means to all of us... if you dock to space station and activate command part from SSTO for example and press 7 you should trigger only actions assigned to that craft, NOT to entire station or other crafts docked into it. Or other way activate space station command part and trigger only actions you made for that station.

[DMagic]

I am deeply worried about how much the switch to Unity 5 will alter the API that modders use, especially in regards to mods that open user interface windows and let people type into them and click on things in them.

Why? Nothing that Squad does to their own interface will affect the legacy GUI system. Maybe if you are using EZGUI stuff it might be affected, but nothing about OnGUI has changed.

I'm not sure that Unity 5 does all that much to change UI system. The major switch to the new UI was in Unity 4.6, the version that KSP uses now (from KSP 1.0 and up), so OnGUI is already considered the legacy system. And as far as I can tell nobody's GUI was broken in the KSP 1.0 update.