fabricate rockets outside game

[TheAlmightyOS]

Hi all. Expecting a fast "No" here but I could be surprised. I have some free time on my hands and am trying to work on a design for an ultra-heavy B9 rocket/carrier. Difficulty: on my laptop. I got the game files and it runs just like molasses in the winter. I just want to see how the parts would come together. Also, seeing the stats of the different parts (how much electric charge made per sec, fuel capacities, weights, max fuel required) would help greatly. Is there something that can help me or do I just need to wait till I get back to my gaming rig to continue the design process?

Edited January 22, 2015 by TheAlmightyOS

[Alshain]

Well, the whole issue there is the game was programmed specifically to let you see that. I don't think an external program could do any better than the VAB or SPH on efficiency. The stats might be possible, I don't know of one that exists but it would be possible for a program to load a craft file, parse through it, and calculate stats like that, without showing you the rocket.

[TheAlmightyOS]

I might end up doing that for the stats. I spend quite a bit of time THINKING about designs only to go home and find they do not work as expected.

While I know you can't get any better than the game for rendering the VAB, I was thinking more along the lines of a scaled back version that doesn't show textures or bitmaps. Just the outline of the part and the mount points. But I get ya and expected that

[Anquietas314]

Well, the whole issue there is the game was programmed specifically to let you see that. I don't think an external program could do any better than the VAB or SPH on efficiency.

Well, first the game is designed to do much more than just stick things together in the editor. Second, KSP's efficiency is... laughable at best to be blunt. Huge memory wastage in particular.

OP: I don't know of any tool that basically emulates the in-game editor or works on .craft files, but there are web tools for designing ships (from scratch), although most of the ones I've found are out of date or awkward to use, or both.

A large list of tools, some of which are relevant.

Edited January 16, 2015 by armagheddonsgw

[TheAlmightyOS]

OP: I don't know of any tool that basically emulates the in-game editor or works on .craft files, but there are web tools for designing ships (from scratch), although most of the ones I've found are out of date or awkward to use, or both.

A large list of tools, some of which are relevant.

I remember those websites. I do not know of any of them that stayed up to date or that work with mod parts. Thank you for the link

[GoSlash27]

I do a lot of design exercises away from the game using spreadsheets.

Probably not what you're looking for, though...

Best,

-Slashy

[Ival70]

I'm assuming you've already lowered every setting as much as possible. I suppose you could try editing the .craft files...

[pincushionman]

I wonder if Squad would consider porting the vehicle builder portion of the game as a mobile app...

[Anquietas314]

I wonder if Squad would consider porting the vehicle builder portion of the game as a mobile app...

I seriously doubt that would happen before official release (1.0). Maintaining two separate versions of the editor and two part loaders and so on would be a complete nightmare.

[TheAlmightyOS]

I am going to set this to "Answered" with a fairly solid "No". It would be nice to build in my spare time but it seems like it is just not going to happen. Thank you all for your replies.