Devnote Tuesday: JEEEEEENKINS [the build server]!

[SQUAD]

Hello everyone!

We’ve entered another week of experimentals, and unfortunately our build servers have been giving us problems halting any new builds being made for Linux and OSX. The build server is like an old car, every now and then it will just decide to break down, requiring us to drop everything to fix it back up again. This time, it’s being particularly stubborn. Fixing it is currently top priority for Felipe (HarvesteR) and Ted, because we can’t progress without working builds for these operating systems.

When not dealing with our build server’s ailments, all the developers are hard at work fixing bugs in all areas of the game. Ted and Joe (Dr Turkey) are working hard to ensure everyone is tackling their fair share of issues in as little time as possible. Jim (Romfarer) is working on a staging issue related to expanded stage groups which have infoboxes showing. The infoboxes are for example the fuel indicators in the staging list. It’s essential to keep these expanded when they should be, but staging logic is complicated and small bugs do tend to creep up.

Bob (Roverdude) is working on the final bugs with radiators and heat shields, while Dave (TriggerAu) went over the feedback the experimental team gave to him regarding the KSPedia styling. Overall, he’s very happy with the improvements which have taken a surprising amount of time, something that makes sense when you consider that even the smallest style difference has to be applied to more than 150 screens.

Meanwhile Bill (Taniwha) spent some time fixing a bug where in the editors, buttons that were being added by mods to the Filter by Function category wouldn’t show up, and together with Nathanael (Nathankell) he addressed a key issue with Linux / OpenGL related to atmosphere shaders not rendering properly in certain circumstances. The latter person has seen a very busy week: processing feedback from the experimental team regarding the updated tutorials, fixing typos and trimming/clarifying text and splitting pages as needed.

With the shaders fixed, it became obviously that PQS wasn’t being fogged properly, so Mike (Mu) and Nathanael implemented underwater blueing and fogging on the PQS system itself. The tinting was implemented directly in the AtmosphereFromGround shader as an optimization, and while there he applied the same exposure tweak to the atmosphere to make it look rather better.

Nathan (Claw) continued plowing along through new and old bugs, fixing issues with part highlighting and shadowing effects in the editors. Perhaps more significantly, he fixed parts losing track of their orientation after using the rotation gizmo. If you’ve ever rotated a part with the gizmo, then pulled it off or copied it, you know what we’re talking about. Additionally, he managed to track down the age-old issue of vessel in orbit sometimes quick-loading with random orientations.

Wheels are still on the bugs list: with Felipe currently focussed on the build servers, Brian (Arsonide) was brought on to help tackle these issues. The most notable fix in this regard was taking care of the kraken-like invisible forces that the experimental testers were seeing in retracted wheels. As it turns out Unity was not updating the PhysX colliders of disabled wheels, so we ended up actually destroying the wheels while they are retracted instead of disabling them. It’s a drastic measure, but it works.

Mathew (sal_vager) and Steve (Squelch) wanted to highlight another particularly noteworthy bug: if you focused on a vessel with a command seat in the map, planets would vanish leaving the poor Kerbals with nothing to stand on. With the bugs listed in this article taken care of the testers have re-focused their attention to the 64-bit builds. We can’t wait to see how many mods people will be loading, or how crazy the modders can get with increased memory availability.

Finally, Kasper (KasperVld) has been working with Ted to prepare documentation for the pre-release, and making sure that the preparations for the media group and KSPTV stayed on track. Andrea (Badie) has been struck down by a bad flu after GDC, so an update on the adventures there will have to wait until next week.

That’s it for this week, don’t forget to leave your thoughts on our forum, Facebook page, Twitter feed or on the KSP Subreddit. Until next time!

[ProgradeInProgress]

Can't wait for experimentals to wrap up! Keep up the good work!

[worir4]

Darn, server breakdowns always causing problems. Looking forward to the atmosphere improvements !

I also noticed once more, there is not a poem. I will start a trend here:

Faulty servers halting progress
Experimentals looking to impress

Bugs are swatted here and there
Optimization is in the air  (Get it, because they are improving atmosphere)

Once again 64 bit is the top pick
But Badie is feeling sick.

 

*Applause*

 

Thank you , Thank you.

 

Edited March 22, 2016 by worir4

[MrMeeb]

So hyped for official 64bit!  keep up the amazing work guys!

[SatanX]

I've yet to see a feasible reason to go to 16G of ram from 8G. Squad, give me a reason, I dare ya.

 

 

[nosirrbro]

This worries me that the end of experimentals will be longer than I hoped, especially with the starting sentace...

HYPE.

[StrandedonEarth]

They've fallen off the devpoem wagon again. My apologies for this bit of doggerel...

♫Big wheels keep on turnin
servers keep on burnin
coding, coding, 
coding KSPedia♪

Keep up the great work @SQUAD

Edited March 24, 2016 by StrandedonEarth

[Superfluous J]

Exploding wheels and disappearing planets. All in a week's work.

Thanks for the update!

[maceemiller]

Sigh, another possible delay till 1.1 is released.....so what! When it gets here were all gunna love it (we will always have, unhappy people though (you know who you are)). Just the sheer amount of people working on  this update shows more than just commitment.

Next week, next month, next year, I couldnt care less.......when you lot think its ready, its ready

[SyberSmoke]

Devnote speaks to us

Kerbals and rockets fly high

Then explosions come...

Edited March 22, 2016 by SyberSmoke

[godarklight]

We here at spacedock also have a dislike of jenkins. Turns out 30 lines of bash is enough to replace it

[NathanKell]

So, apparently during editing someone accidentally a phrase. Apologies. :]

44 minutes ago, SQUAD said:

...The tinting was implemented directly in the AtmosphereFromGround shader as an optimization, and while there he applied the same exposure tweak to the atmosphere to make it look rather better.

Should be:

...The tinting was implemented directly in the AtmosphereFromGround shader as an optimization, and while there he applied the same exposure tweak as SkyToneMapper to the atmosphere to make it look rather better.

( cheers to @blackrack for that idea, and making it public domain.)

[Redneck]

I wonder if it would be possible for the general public to be able to view (read only) the V1.1 bug tracker so we can watch the progression. No harm in that huh?

Edited March 22, 2016 by Redneck

[Darkstar616]

Pre release beta opt please please please

[Azunai]

i returned to KSP after 2 years

can someone update me on the physix system?

is 3.3 in place already or will we ever see a major performance gain compared to the old single core 2.2 version? I know that its not just plugging in a new engine but also possibly rewrite lovetons if its even possible

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Darkstar616 said:

Pre release beta opt please please please

They will when they're ready.

I'm very excited for 1.1!  Hype coal is replenished!

[linuxgurugamer]

250 mods in Linux with 1.0.5, will probably load more when 1.1 comes out.

[Raptor9]

5 minutes ago, CliftonM said:

I'm very excited for 1.1!  Hype coal is replenished!

"Presto" logs anybody?

Sorry to hear @Badie is down ill, hopefully she gets better before the Hype train reaches critical velocity.

Edited March 22, 2016 by Raptor9

[Hobbes Novakoff]

3 minutes ago, Azunai said:

i returned to KSP after 2 years

can someone update me on the physix system?

is 3.3 in place already or will we ever see a major performance gain compared to the old single core 2.2 version? I know that its not just plugging in a new engine but also possibly rewrite lovetons if its even possible

Erm... We're still on 1.0. So you may want to go back to your cryro capsule. Unless you're a programmer.

[Azunai]

8 minutes ago, Hobbes Novakoff said:

Erm... We're still on 1.0. So you may want to go back to your cryro capsule. Unless you're a programmer.

0.24 to 1.1 ez i just want to fly my little 1700 parts battlecruser i build back then  

[eddiew]

So hyped for 64 bit

[Darkstar616]

27 minutes ago, CliftonM said:

They will when they're ready.

I'm very excited for 1.1!  Hype coal is replenished!

but they announced the opt-in 20 days agooooo, they should be ready by nowwwwwwwww

[technicalfool]

Just now, Darkstar616 said:

but they announced the opt-in 20 days agooooo, they should be ready by nowwwwwwwww

Unfortunately, developing KSP ain't like baking a cake. Or it would be, if the cake suddenly decided to un-bake itself for unforeseen reasons and splattered cake batter all over the kitchen, thus requiring a complete review of all ingredients for inadvertently-added explodium.

It'll be ready when it's ready!

[cjdunn]

I just -- like 30 minutes ago -- upped my PC to 16GB. For no reason, just cuz...

[Ksp Slingshooter]

19 minutes ago, technicalfool said:

Unfortunately, developing KSP ain't like baking a cake. Or it would be, if the cake suddenly decided to un-bake itself for unforeseen reasons and splattered cake batter all over the kitchen, thus requiring a complete review of all ingredients for inadvertently-added explodium.

It'll be ready when it's ready!

So this is a cake affected by kraken-like forces as Squad said before.