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KSP Weekly: Under the surface of Titan


SQUAD

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Welcome to KSP Weekly everyone. Last week an exciting article was published about how Washington State University researchers are working with NASA to determine how a submarine might work on Titan. To achieve this, they recreated the satellite’s ocean in a laboratory by building a test chamber to hold a mixture of liquid methane and ethane – which make up the bodies of liquid on Titan. The chamber also replicated the freezing conditions on Titan:-180°C (-300°F), and under 413,685 pascals (60 psi) of pressure.

Aside from being the largest satellite of Saturn, Titan is the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere, and the only object in space other than Earth where clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found. Frequently described as a planet-like moon, Titan is 50% larger than Earth’s Moon, and it has 80% more mass. It is the second-largest moon in the Solar System, after Jupiter’s moon Ganymede, and is larger than the smallest planet, Mercury, but only has 40% of ot mass. Although Christiaan Huygens discovered Titan in 1655, we got our first good look at its surface in 2004 when the Cassini–Huygens mission unveiled new information about the moon, including the discovery of liquid hydrocarbon lakes in Titan’s polar regions. The geologically young surface is generally smooth, with few impact craters, although mountains and several possible cryovolcanoes have been found. The atmosphere of Titan is largely nitrogen; minor components lead to the formation of methane and ethane clouds and nitrogen-rich organic smog. The climate—including wind and rain—creates surface features similar to those of Earth, such as dunes, rivers, lakes, seas (probably of liquid methane and ethane), and deltas, and is dominated by seasonal weather patterns as on Earth. With its liquids (both surface and subsurface) and robust nitrogen atmosphere, Titan’s methane cycle is analogous to Earth’s water cycle, at the much lower temperature of about 94 K (−179.2 °C).

Learning to navigate through Titan’s seas will be no easy feat, since they are extremely viscous. They’re probably pretty motionless, with waves no bigger than 1 cm. But under the surface, they might change dramatically in density in different areas.

Ian Richardson, who led the study, and his team, put a 5 cm long cylinder-shaped cartridge heater inside their test chamber to simulate the submarine. The heat from the submarine can produce nitrogen bubbles, making it hard for the ship to maneuver and see. They found that the density increases the deeper you go and the more the temperature drops. They also learned that due to the small amount of nitrogen found in the lakes, these would freeze at lower temperatures than expected.

Back in 2015, a NASA proposal suggested we could send a submarine the size of car to Titan’s seas, which would explore the subsurface region for 90 days. Instruments would sample the ocean and return images, helping us answer whether Titan could be habitable. On the other hand, Kerbals have been exploring Laythe, the Joolean moon, for a while already, but some say more Laythe-related missions are coming.

[Development news start here]

Last week we showed you the Kerbal personnel parachutes, which will be included in Update 1.4. Although visually the parachutes are ready, the team is currently finalizing the details that regulate  their behaviour within the physics of the game. For instance, the parameters for their deployment, atmosphere density and height, which will be similar to the standard parachutes. We are also defining details such as the XP level that Kerbals will need to enable their use, as well as the way you will deploy them, which will not only be through the action menu, but also via a hot-key. The personnel parachutes will be steerable and you’ll also be able to dive and pull up, too.

In other news, the team is working at full throttle on the Making History Expansion. Among this week’s tasks was the implementation of the design for showing Mods for a Mission. The idea is that Creators will be able to enter the Mod information that a specific mission requires through a text box in the Mission Briefing. There’s also going to be a clickable button to add a list of all the loaded plugin Mods into that text box. Players, on the other hand, will see a “Mission Mods” section in the Play Dialog, which will display the text from the briefing dialog that the Creator entered, if the mission requires Mods.

Additionally, the team worked on creating the Proxy Models for Kerbals, Asteroids, and Flags that will be displayed in the Graphic Action Pane for certain nodes in the Mission Builder. These will accompany other finalized proxy model types, such as launchpad, plane, and rocket. Coupled with that was the implementation of these gizmos in the actual GAP. Some gizmos will be shown depending on the situation that is being created in a specific mission. There will also be a button to toggle between rocket and space plane gizmos for creators to use at will. We are ensuring that these proxy objects are visible at all ranges.

In the art realm, the team worked on assigning shrouds to the new engines, but they also finished with the Default Hero Banner for missions, which is looking pretty neat!

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We wanted to do a little homage to the Voskhod 2 mission with a Kerbal twist, and yes, that Voskhod 2-inspired capsule will be included in the part catalogue for the expansion, as well as its emblematic airlock, which does not appear in the banner though. This banner will be shown in the Play Mission dialog and it will be customizable.

By the way, we wanted to share with our console players that we are very close to releasing our first patch for KSP Enhanced Edition which will solve many of the issues that these versions are currently experiencing. Some people have expressed concerns, but we want to assure you that we are fully committed to solve the bugs and issues that Enhanced Edition players are experiencing. We have a dedicated QA team looking for bugs and reproducing reports, as well as a full-time team working on solving all issues. We’ve been asking for help so that no bug escapes our radar, as well as to assign priorities according to what players experience the most and the severity of the issues. So if you want to help us out continue providing us with feedback, you are more than welcome to do so on our Bugtracker. We really appreciate your help. :)

That’s it for this week. Be sure to join us on our official forums, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Stay tuned for more exciting and upcoming news and development updates!

Happy launchings!





*Information Source:

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2 minutes ago, qzgy said:

What's a proxy model though?

I took it as...  Like a little mini-model or icon you would use in the mission creator to assign/position/use a related part in a mission.

Edited by XLjedi
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Just now, XLjedi said:

I took it as...  Like a little mini-model or icon you would use in the mission creator to assign/position/use a related part in a mission.

So like a place holder icon/model of some sort? Ok then.

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Is it safe to assume that any (plugin) mods I make will be playable regardless of whether I have vanilla 1.4 or the 1.4 + the Making History expansion?  Maybe to explain my question: if I've got Making History installed, and I update a mod for 1.4 that does not use Making History features, will that mod work  regardless of whether Making History is installed?  Or, does installing Making History replace DLLs typically used as references by modders?

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26 minutes ago, qzgy said:

So like a place holder icon/model of some sort? Ok then.

Proxy models is referring to proxies (stand-in approximate) models that are used in the Mission Builder to represent the actual things.

21 minutes ago, MOARdV said:

Is it safe to assume that any (plugin) mods I make will be playable regardless of whether I have vanilla 1.4 or the 1.4 + the Making History expansion?  Maybe to explain my question: if I've got Making History installed, and I update a mod for 1.4 that does not use Making History features, will that mod work  regardless of whether Making History is installed?  Or, does installing Making History replace DLLs typically used as references by modders?

First one...
So a mod built for vanilla stock KSP will work regardless of whether Making History is installed or not.
The DLC does not change the stock DLLs.

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1 minute ago, JPLRepo said:

Proxy models is referring to proxies (stand-in approximate) models that are used in the Mission Builder to represent the actual things.

Ahh ok. Thanks for the clarification.

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Anyone else feeling like there's still a lot of development work going into something that is supposed to release in less than a month?

I'm really starting to get the feeling Making History (and 1.4 of course) is being rushed out ahead of the end of Take-Two's fiscal year on March 31st. It's not an uncommon practice amongst big publishers.

I'm sure QA has been performed as development has progressed, but between a Unity Engine update, new parts, new features, AND a whole expansion (not to mention the necessary split attention to make sure the console versions get the attention they deserve) I'm getting the feeling we're going to be in for months of bug fixes to 1.4 and Making History.

Regardless, I'm looking forward to some of the new stuff coming along. And I hope I'm wrong about everything being ready in time.

Edited by Mako
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1 minute ago, Mako said:

Anyone else feeling like there's still a lot of development work going into something that is supposed to release in less than a month?

Replacing placeholder art with final art? Not really. It's just a model and texture.

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35 minutes ago, JPLRepo said:

First one...
So a mod built for vanilla stock KSP will work regardless of whether Making History is installed or not.
The DLC does not change the stock DLLs.

Okay, that's a relief.  Thanks.

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47 minutes ago, JPLRepo said:

Replacing placeholder art with final art? Not really. It's just a model and texture.

I'm referring to all the art that's still being worked on, the personnel parachutes still being implemented, implementing how mission mods are communicated, etc.

It's hard to get a sense of how much work is done and how much is left to do from these Weeklys. I'm sure they don't tell the whole story, of course, but I stand by my impression based on the limited information we're given. We've heard very little of any progress on the Unity engine update for example. Or localization progress. It's very hard to judge, and I'm not a person to just take things on faith.

But like I said, I'd love to be wrong. All we know is development work is still going on, we have no idea how much QA has been performed, and I know that big publishers sometimes push stuff out before end of fiscal year when money has been invested without showing returns yet. I was just curious if anyone else was feeling similarly.

I don't expect anyone to admit that's the case, and I'm not criticizing Squad's work or the decision itself. If I'm right it just is what it is and I'm sure everything will be fine in the end, and if I'm wrong then everything gets to be fine a bit sooner. So no real harm; I'm just expressing a minor concern.

Edited by Mako
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I realized the other day that we haven't seen a mention of Soyuz-styled spacecraft parts.  I know analogous parts of the R-7 rocket itself has been previewed several times, but nothing (that I've seen at least) along these lines: 

Soyuz_2.jpg

The Soyuz seems to blur the lines between historical and modern craft designs since the overall design has been in use for so many decades, since the late 60's.  Just something that was on my mind.

Glad everyone at Squad is safe...I hope the earthquake was somewhere remote.

Edited by Raptor9
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40 minutes ago, Space Station 4 Crash said:

If I could only be heard. Said a wise man once. The console release deserves a full ksp weekly designated to it.

It definitely could use its own post with more/better info. I think everyone can agree on that. The Weeklys are just recaps though, and there isn't even a ton of PC related news in them -- it only seems that way compared to console news because console news is so lacking. If you take the PC news on its own, it's also lacking, but by comparison the PC news is practically Tolstoy's War and Peace.

I would love for everyone to get more info, starting with the console folks, and I would love to say I think it might happen...

If things are like they've always been, we'll get all the info were going to get when everything releases.

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12 hours ago, Space Station 4 Crash said:

I think free speech is beautiful thing. I hope all corporations agree with this.

I have said many things in the past about another botched console launch, and My only hope is that my voice be heard.

Luckily it has

 

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A few months ago, in the KSP Weekly (I can’t find exactly which one), I recall that the 1.4 update would use the new version of Unity was announced. In the thread below, someone asked about if KSP would use the new particle system (I think that’s what it was called). I recall a dev responding that it would be used to change engine exhaust. 

Any news on this?

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18 hours ago, SQUAD said:
By the way, we wanted to share with our console players that we are very close to releasing our first patch for KSP Enhanced Edition 

eqUEyqD.jpg

 

Just in case any unaware PC players are wondering why the "Daily" and "Weekly" posts get negativity from console users, this is why. As of today, the patch that's almost ready for release would include the work on these particular bugs. Most are at 30% being worked on. So no. It's not almost ready for release. It's not even close to a second round of QA.

I am thankful to see that the BugTracker is finally updating again. I am sad to see that these weekly's are still lying to the KSP community at large about the scale of problem they released to the general Console public.

And in case anyone doesn't think that's so bad, what do you think about continuing to sell a game with this many bugs? 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/kerbal-space-program-enhanced-edition/brbd7bdk271p

Still on sale for XBox1 and PS4, complete with gamebreaking bugs, not close to a patch release, without a disclaimer (it's sold as complete, not as beta) for $40? How are they allowed to continue to make money like that?

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2 hours ago, Joessep Kerman said:

eqUEyqD.jpg

 

Just in case any unaware PC players are wondering why the "Daily" and "Weekly" posts get negativity from console users, this is why. As of today, the patch that's almost ready for release would include the work on these particular bugs. Most are at 30% being worked on. So no. It's not almost ready for release. It's not even close to a second round of QA.

The process for how bugs are handled has been explained in the past. But if I can explain that there are several bug tracking systems in play here and you are only seeing the original public bug report. The bugs are worked on in internal bug trackers and with Blitworks in the case of the consoles. The percentages will always be 30% until the status is changed and that doesn’t happen until a fix is publicly released and the public report is set to be ready to test. 

The exact same thing happens with PC bug reports on the PC public bug tracker.

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