Devnote Tuesday: The Weekly Grind

[regex]

My understanding is Squad plan to simply re-make the current UI.

That's sad. I have a sad face.

[Warsoul]

Still have no multiplayer on Pc ?

[softweir]

Still have no multiplayer on Pc ?

Not for a while. They are working on it and it looks like something that will work, but there is still a lot of time and effort to be put into it before they can even begin testing, let alone released.

[Dunbaratu]

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.

The implication is the SQUAD is doing more to their own UI than merely making it U5 compatible alone, at least that's what the dev notes seemed to imply to me. And that can affect other people when you're trying to hook into events like keypresses, and trying to make sure windows layer the way you want on top of (or underneath) SQUAD's windows, and so on. Granted, if they're doing nothing to the UI other than merely updating to Unity 5 then you'd be right, but that's not the impression I got from the dev notes.

[worir4]

OO, first run on PS4, i will convince my friend to buy it. Just wondering if the PS4 gets multiplayer will it be cross platform with PC?

@Regex, Turn that frown upside-down! Maybe it will be re-done, I hope.

[cantab]

That's sad. I have a sad face.

I for one would far rather see KSP 1.1 bring bugfixes and performance improvements, not Squad messing around with the UI just yet.

[SmashBrown]

I hope this Unity 5 update bring with it better RAM usage for us mod heavy users. OpenGl has broken for me since updating to windows 10, horrible fps lag and no AA etc etc. Really really looking forward to the day we don't have to hack the launch commands to free up ram for ourselves.

[softweir]

The implication is the SQUAD is doing more to their own UI than merely making it U5 compatible alone, at least that's what the dev notes seemed to imply to me. And that can affect other people when you're trying to hook into events like keypresses, and trying to make sure windows layer the way you want on top of (or underneath) SQUAD's windows, and so on. Granted, if they're doing nothing to the UI other than merely updating to Unity 5 then you'd be right, but that's not the impression I got from the dev notes.

They have said previously that they will leave in their own UI class on which modders depend, though the native KSP UI will be completely rejigged to use the new Unity 5 UI system. The implication is that mod UIs ought to work in Unity 5, leaving modders free to switch over at leisure.

[regex]

I for one would far rather see KSP 1.1 bring bugfixes and performance improvements, not Squad messing around with the UI just yet.

I, for one, would like Squad to actually focus on fixing bugs and improving performance for once. I have yet to see that happen. Instead we get feature after broken, incoherent, useless feature (like pretty much all of career mode). Quite frankly the UI has been a feature in need of fixing since I started playing.

[OddFunction]

...but yall realize that the upgrade to Unity 5 is the best solution for both bugfixing and performance, right? It doesn't make any sense to make huge bugfixing/performance revisions when you are in the middle of switching engines.

I hope this Unity 5 update bring with it better RAM usage for us mod heavy users. OpenGl has broken for me since updating to windows 10, horrible fps lag and no AA etc etc. Really really looking forward to the day we don't have to hack the launch commands to free up ram for ourselves.

The Unity 5 upgrade will do absolutely nothing for mod RAM usage.

[sarbian]

I for one would far rather see KSP 1.1 bring bugfixes and performance improvements, not Squad messing around with the UI just yet.

You may not be aware using the old Unity UI has a LARGE performance impact then. Not all the KSP UI use that one but nearly all mods do and with the tool that Squad seems to add then the mod will be able to switch to that new UI too.

[NovaSilisko]

Yeah, the old unity UI is complete garbage. It's horrifically inefficient and atrocious to work with. It's only good for basic debug information and functionality at best.

[sarbian]

And to give some numbers : when I started profiling Mechjeb I found out that MJ UI was using about 20% of a frame time. I am eager to have new tools to replace that (I could do it already but if the dev add some cool stuff for modders I'd rather use it then rewriting twice).

[sp1989]

Getting it to fully work on Mac would be much appreciated. Memory leaks are still rampant for Mac users. But please keep working the ps4 version

[OddFunction]

Getting it to fully work on Mac would be much appreciated. Memory leaks are still rampant for Mac users. But please keep working the ps4 version

While I have no evidence to back up this claim, I would still confidently say that Mac will be the last focus of Squad after all the other major systems. It would probably be better for all Mac KSP users to switch to Linux for optimal performance.

Not making excuses for anyone or for anything. This is just how I see the Mac situation.

[basic.syntax]

I think they are aiming for a Unity 5 "only" release. I won't be expecting much in the way of entirely new features, just plenty of small changes and improvements.

[OddFunction]

I think they are aiming for a Unity 5 "only" release. I won't be expecting much in the way of entirely new features, just plenty of small changes and improvements.

Just got out of a big meeting regarding the Unity upgrade. Considering the size, we're calling 1.1 now. And it ain't far.

I don't entirely understand what he means by "We're calling 1.1 now". Can anybody clarify? Just means U5 only and no 1.1 features yet?

[softweir]

I don't entirely understand what he means by "We're calling 1.1 now". Can anybody clarify? Just means U5 only and no 1.1 features yet?

He means that the Unity 5 release is such a massive undertaking that they will call it KSP 1.1 which is a major version number, rather than 1.0.5 which is a minor version number.

As for "it ain't far", they haven't even started testing, so I guess "it ain't far" is going to be weeks away. Rather than months, I hope!

[OddFunction]

He means that the Unity 5 release is such a massive undertaking that they will call it KSP 1.1 which is a major version number, rather than 1.0.5 which is a minor version number.

As for "it ain't far", they haven't even started testing, so I guess "it ain't far" is going to be weeks away. Rather than months, I hope!

Ahhh okay that makes perfect sense. Maxmaps missed an "it" in his post which makes all the difference. Thanks!

[basic.syntax]

As for "it ain't far", they haven't even started testing, so I guess "it ain't far" is going to be weeks away. Rather than months, I hope!

I'm hoping they allow a good chunk of time for testing and fixing; I wouldn't object to a month of it. KSP on a new platform, in front of a new group of EXP testers = great opportunity to stabilize the release, before players see it.

[regex]

I'm hoping they don't release it until it's worthy of the 1.x moniker. We still don't have that.

[SmashBrown]

...but yall realize that the upgrade to Unity 5 is the best solution for both bugfixing and performance, right? It doesn't make any sense to make huge bugfixing/performance revisions when you are in the middle of switching engines.

The Unity 5 upgrade will do absolutely nothing for mod RAM usage.

No but it may let us use more than a poultry 3.5gb of ram before it explodes. 64 bit.

[cantab]

The Unity 5 upgrade will do absolutely nothing for mod RAM usage.

Considering we know that the current KSP is a memory-hog when using DX9 (the Windows default) compared to DX11 or OpenGL, I wouldn't be so sure. If KSP 1.1 has DX11 as the new default (which I believe is standard for U5 games) then that's the RAM usage slashed at a stroke.

You may not be aware using the old Unity UI has a LARGE performance impact then. Not all the KSP UI use that one but nearly all mods do and with the tool that Squad seems to add then the mod will be able to switch to that new UI too.

You missed the point of what I'm arguing. I'm saying that for the next KSP release Squad should "just" remake the UI we know in the new system, which is what they are doing. Actually redesigning the UI, which I believe regex is advocating, is not something I see as a priority.

[regex]

Actually redesigning the UI, which I believe regex is advocating

Yep. I see a majority of the information presentation in this game as a bug which should be fixed. This is as good a time as any to deal with it considering everyone's gonna be sick of UI work and we won't have a glimmer of a hope of it happening afterwards.

E: Actually, a redesign is probably a pipe dream considering Harv's belief that something like the "burn for rendezvous time" indicator is in the right spot (it's not even topical, re-examine the placement seriously and wonder why people have literally messaged me going OMG THAT EXISTS?)

Edited August 20, 2015 by regex

[NoMrBond]

Considering we know that the current KSP is a memory-hog when using DX9 (the Windows default) compared to DX11 or OpenGL

I wonder if the DX9 CPU texture mirroring bug is still present in Unity 5, even if just that was fixed it would save a lot, not as much as DX11/OpenGL but a decent amount