Devnote Tuesday: Getting Ever Closer

[SQUAD]

<figure data-orig-width="480" data-orig-height="92" class="tmblr-full"><img data-orig-width="480" data-orig-height="92" src="http://40.media.tumblr.com/0ff9377afa68dc3ad3fe6844aaf1bd38/tumblr_inline_nv3jgwAjEf1rr2wit_540.jpg"/></figure><p>Hello everyone!</p><p>This week there’s not too much to report, but in a way that’s a good thing. We’ve been busy tying up the loose ends, and although we’ve been saying it for a few weeks now, QA is getting very, very near. In the end, despite the delay, we’re very happy that we updated to the latest version of Unity and took the time to rewrite systems that really needed it. </p><p>Last week we introduced the KSPedia system, and Mike (Mu) has been working hard to finish the database and back-end toolset. This means that the game can now load and overload the help bundles and display them with a basic contents page, as well as navigation elements. We’re especially happy with the expandability of the system, which modders should be able to take full advantage of. Of course we’re adding a lot of content into the syste, a task we’ve recruited Dave (TriggerAU) for. Some of you may know TriggerAU from his mods such as Kerbal Alarm Clock, or his work for the QA team! </p><p>We’ve also talked about the KSP compile times a couple of times now, and this week Felipe (HarvesteR) is very happy to report that his new CPU has been overclocked and that the upgrade has cut down the compile times by more than half! The load time for KSP itself has also been decreased to about 12 seconds, starting from 27 previously, and he reports scene changes are much quicker as well. That should save an hour or more each day that was previously spent either staring at a progress bar or spinny wheel while the code was compiling, or the game was loading. .</p><p>With his newfound productivity Felipe has been taking on the last remaining bits of the user interface overhaul that were assigned to him. All the map view icons have been converted from the old system of immediate-mode-style drawing code to properly organized and human-readable objects and delegate assignment, and the map context are planned to be finished by the end of the day. Once those are complete, that should be all there is to the map view for the user interface overhaul. Then it’s onwards to other things for him.</p><p>A very welcome byproduct of this overhaul is that the code that renders map view objects (orbit splines, nodes and such) seems to have been quite dramatically optimized. As with everything so far, we don’t have proper benchmarks yet, and your mileage may vary, but the difference is noticeable. The multithreaded user interface rendering added in Unity 5.2 also adds yet another layer of optimization to the whole user interface, so a non-negligible performance boost is something that we can almost certainly expect on this next update. </p><p>Continuing on the topic of user interface work, Jim (Romfarer) has been working on the staging backend calls. The purpose of this part of the code is to update the staging list based on how you pick, select and drop parts in the editor. It has been very tricky to bugfix this due to all the calls coming in from the backend, some of which ‘destroy’ what the previous calls ‘fixed’. </p><p>On the production end Ted and Max (Maxmaps) have mostly been planning around the recent schedule updates we mentioned previously. Ted in particular has also been focusing on content for the KSPedia with Mike and Dave, prototyping many fantastic ideas in the progress.</p><p>Community wise we’re following the applications for the Media Group very closely. So far we’ve received a couple of dozen of applications, each of which takes a good amount of time to review. After all, we’re dealing with a subjective judgement of video content, and to make sure everyone gets a fair chance both Andrea (Badie) and Kasper (KasperVld) are going over all entries. The application process will close on Friday, so if you’ve been waiting to get your application in you shouldn’t wait too much longer.</p><p>We’d like to thank everyone who entered in the box-art contest last week. The entries were absolutely wonderful and picking three winners was an extremely tough thing to do. The creativity displayed in many of the entries was worth a reward, but in the end choices had to be made. The fantastic entries encourage us to see if we can’t do contests like this more often.</p><p>Finally, the Unity Awards ceremony is tonight at Unite Boston, so fingers crossed!<br/></p>

[peachoftree]

<figure data-orig-width="480" data-orig-height="92" class="tmblr-full"></figure>QA is getting very, very near.

I can feel the hype a-coming

--edit--

First!

[NFUN]

12 second KSP load time!?

[HafCoJoe]

Welcome aboard TriggerAU!! Great to see you've joined the team

I wish you luck at golden joysticks! I'll be surprised if you don't walk away with something.

Edited September 22, 2015 by Avera9eJoe

[Specialist290]

Glorious. I'm sure the faster load times are going to be very nice for people like me who play on laptops.

Also, congrats on joining the dev team, TriggerAU! I know you've done some quality modding work in the past.

[Superfluous J]

Are all that's talked about in this devnotes for 1.1, or is some of this stuff part of what's being delayed so U5 can go out in its own update?

[OddFunction]

Prediction for next weeks devnotes:

"QA Will be very, very, very, very close to commencing!" Lol

Keep up the good work. Hoping 1.1 is shaping up to be everything that we're hoping for.

[KasperVld]

Are all that's talked about in this devnotes for 1.1, or is some of this stuff part of what's being delayed so U5 can go out in its own update?

At the moment it looks like that will depend on how smoothly KSP 1.1 can go through QA & Experimentals. So, nothing definitive yet but we'll surely let you know once we have a better idea

[Nobody_1707]

12 second KSP load time!?

Only on their overclocked 4ghz monster of a dev machine.

[KasperVld]

Only on their overclocked 4ghz monster of a dev machine.

And running a minimal build, so it has to load fewer textures and such when booting up

[Tristonwilson12]

how could I watch the unity awards?

[JPLRepo]

Things are looking good. Congrats to Dave (TriggerAU) as well.

[OddFunction]

At the moment it looks like that will depend on how smoothly KSP 1.1 can go through QA & Experimentals. So, nothing definitive yet but we'll surely let you know once we have a better idea

So there's 2 separate builds that they can either leave separate or merge together at any point? I know you're not a programmer, just kind of interesting to think about.

Only on their overclocked 4ghz monster of a dev machine.

4.0 is do-able on a $70 processor LOL I feel bad for people with less.

[Deserdi Verimas]

With the revamping of the map gui system, will we be getting improved useability? Like the ability to sticky the inclination nodes?

[One-Way Films]

<figure data-orig-width="480" data-orig-height="92" class="tmblr-full">....The load time for KSP itself has also been decreased to about 12 seconds...</figure>

NASA called. They want their KSP gaming rig back.

[KasperVld]

So there's 2 separate builds that they can either leave separate or merge together at any point? I know you're not a programmer, just kind of interesting to think about.

There's typically even more than two separate builds at any one time, Ted wrote a blog post about this a long time ago.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/entries/905-Branching-Out

[blnk2007]

<figure data-orig-width="480" data-orig-height="92" class="tmblr-full"></figure>Hello everyone!

This week there’s not too much to report

Haha, this is the start of devnotes every week.

[OddFunction]

There's typically even more than two separate builds at any one time, Ted wrote a blog post about this a long time ago.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/entries/905-Branching-Out

That was an interesting read, thanks. Makes me more confident in software development that this is how they approach it. Seems incredibly efficient.

Still hoping we get the Unity 5 performance upgrade first over the 1.1 features Can't wait to finally be able to launch some beast-ships past my current record of Eve or Duna.

Yeah, well, I can't seem to my registration code for EV:Nova to update at the moment either, so you can feel doubly bad for me. Also, nice Rebel Cruiser icon.

Hahaha thanks I love it, expect Captain Hector at any moment!

[Nobody_1707]

So there's 2 separate builds that they can either leave separate or merge together at any point? I know you're not a programmer, just kind of interesting to think about.

4.0 is do-able on a $70 processor LOL I feel bad for people with less.

Yeah, well, I can't seem to my registration code for EV:Nova to update at the moment either, so you can feel doubly bad for me. Also, nice Rebel Cruiser icon.

[HarvesteR]

With the revamping of the map gui system, will we be getting improved useability? Like the ability to sticky the inclination nodes?

All map nodes can be made sticky now, we just have to decide which. Ascending/Descending nodes should definitely be stickiable.

Only on their overclocked 4ghz monster of a dev machine.

4.0GHz is the stock clock on this CPU. I'm running it at 4.6GHz here

And like Kasper said, 12 seconds to load skipping every texture and audio asset. But still, I'm very pleased with the speeds I'm getting now. It's a quality-of-life thing if you consider our work hinges entirely on our workstation performance.

Cheers

[legoclone09]

Ah, that's where my mysterious view came from yesterday! Kasper must have watched my KR-71! Or at least, someone did.

EDIT:

And I can't wait for the update! Also, for the media group, would it be fine if my brother looks at me while I fiddle with it? My computer configuration has my brother next to me, so would it invalidate the non-disclosure agreement?

EDIT2:

Will KAC be stock? I love that mod, even though I have never used it.

Edited September 22, 2015 by legoclone09

[HafCoJoe]

4.0GHz is the stock clock on this CPU. I'm running it at 4.6GHz here

Dude... 0.6GHz... I wish I trusted my machine enough to do that! I have an eight core AMD 8320 that clocks at 3.5GHz... your a league ahead of my video editing machine! It should do fine with multi-threaded KSP though.

And like Kasper said, 12 seconds to load skipping every texture and audio asset. But still, I'm very pleased with the speeds I'm getting now. It's a quality-of-life thing if you consider our work hinges entirely on our workstation performance.

Speaking of audio assets, is there a simple way to remove them from KSP_Data? I might experiment with that to save memory/load time(I listen to Classic rock radio while I stream and update mods).

Cheers

It was talk-like-a-pirate day on Saturday so that's especially pertinent! Also my 19th birthday

See you later guys haha

Edited September 22, 2015 by Avera9eJoe

[regex]

A very welcome byproduct of this overhaul is that the code that renders map view objects (orbit splines, nodes and such) seems to have been quite dramatically optimized. As with everything so far, we don’t have proper benchmarks yet, and your mileage may vary, but the difference is noticeable. The multithreaded user interface rendering added in Unity 5.2 also adds yet another layer of optimization to the whole user interface, so a non-negligible performance boost is something that we can almost certainly expect on this next update.

This sounds great. Is there any plan to address/optimize craft tree crawling on every resource request?

[Wallygator]

Sympathies to Ted for not having his handle repeated.

Otherwise a perfect Dev note.

Well done. Looking forward to the next version(s).

[KasperVld]

Sympathies to Ted for not having his handle repeated.

Otherwise a perfect Dev note.

Well done. Looking forward to the next version(s).

It didn't seem necessary to include his handle