API Support? (MSFS2020 SimConnect SDK equivalent?)

[Thundy]

Is there going to be an API to use for KSP 2 that is similar to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020's SimConnect SDK?

I'd love to have some sort of utility app that gathers all in-game information and displays them in certain ways, for example, a 2D map to see on an external screen (As seen in the provided image), or a log tracker to use for replays. analysis, and what not.

Edited April 3, 2021 by Thundy
spelling errors

[K^2]

I think a good mod SDK will allow people to create APIs like this. So I don't know if Intercept necessarily needs to create an API/SDK for this themselves, but I would very much like them to keep this sort of functionality in mind when working on mod SDK.

[mattinoz]

On 4/4/2021 at 8:39 AM, K^2 said:

I think a good mod SDK will allow people to create APIs like this. So I don't know if Intercept necessarily needs to create an API/SDK for this themselves, but I would very much like them to keep this sort of functionality in mind when working on mod SDK.

I do believe the Dev's have said a couple of times that mod support is a tent pole of the development, is important to building community for the new game and will be better than KSP.

There was talk of documented scripting that part of the team is using to develop the game but not sure we've heard further as to what that looks like in the shipping product.

[K^2]

1 hour ago, mattinoz said:

I do believe the Dev's have said a couple of times that mod support is a tent pole of the development, is important to building community for the new game and will be better than KSP.

There was talk of documented scripting that part of the team is using to develop the game but not sure we've heard further as to what that looks like in the shipping product.

Yeah, if you build your game well, a lot of the APIs you expose for your gameplay team can be the same APIs you expose for modding. E.g., you need functionality to enumerate ships and get their SoI and orbital elements to display them on the map. Expose the same exact functionality to the modding API, and somebody can write a quick little plugin to show these ships on a separate map, just like in the image above.

And scripting would be nice, but I hope it's a sort of thing we get as an option. As discussed elsewhere, a visual programming language would be a great way to get custom parts onto Steam Workshop without having to do a lot of extra work to make it safe. Plus, it might be more accessible to some people to start making mods. But at the same time, I hope it's not a replacement for plugin system. There is a lot you can do with plugins that would be difficult or impossible with a script. A plugin can talk to additional hardware, grab from or post things to internet, etc. That's what makes plugins less secure, but also so much more powerful.

That said, it's still a unity game. Even if all we get is a simple VPL scripting and no other mod support, you can hack in plugin support with a custom loader. It's just going to be more work for the community to figure it all out and maintain it for version changes.