cymrych79

Hi all, This is a weird question, considering I've been playing various versions of KSP for years, modded and unmodded. Anyhow, I decided to update from my most recent version of 1.7.3 with Making History and Breaking Ground expansions. I assumed that each of these would incrementally update the game to 1.9.1, but I don't think that is the case? Please correct me if I'm wrong. Unfortunately, I bought KSP ages ago, through GOG, I think. But that was two computers ago. I'm on a work computer these days, and I wasn't about to download all of GOG's stuff just to update KSP, so I spent the extra money and bought the base game from the KSP store, knowing I can update from there easily enough. I've spent many, many hours over the years on KSP, I figure $40 once every five years is well worth it, lol. Anyhow, can someone explain why buying the direct download requires a wait of up to 48 hours? The expansions went through in seconds and I was happily downloading. Honestly, I'm baffled. The receipt email I got says the order is being processed. What has to be processed that can't be accomplished in 10 seconds, like my purchases of the expansions? Pretty annoying, really. I didn't spend $40 to NOT play the latest KSP. I know this is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, I'm just really confused by this.

Quick update. I've tracked my "featureless sphere" earth on the game's title page, in Tracking Station, and in the game proper to something outside of the KSP environment. Ran a test by opening my stand-alone RP-0 Dev installation, which also had previously been running just fine and also used the -force-opengl and -popupwindow tags. Turns out, it had the same new issue with the featureless sphere as well. As I see it, this is either an issue in the graphics of my computer (like the driver rollback not thoroughly removing the new driver) or something in my computer's usage of opengl. The good news, if I open without the opengl tag, I get a normal earth again. The somewhat annoying news, I've lost the full-screened window mode, which, on a laptop, is pretty damn important in terms of being able to see everything I want during flights. I haven't had a chance yet to test to see if my gameplay is any worse without the opengl tag, but fingers crossed. So, this is NOT an RSS issue. But if any of the gurus out there have any suggestions about what I might have broke, or things I could try to get the full-screen windowed mode back without losing the textures of the earth, I'm all ears.

Here's a weird one. I'm running RSS/RO/RP-0 in 1.2.2 with just minimal required mods installed via ckan, on a Win8 x64 i5 laptop with a not-exactly-slow-as-molasses processor, and utilize the -force-opengl routine. Other than some serious lag at rocket launch unless I zoom out a good distance, I've not had a hint of a problem. Until I updated my Intel graphics driver the other day. Basically, Earth lost its texture. Just a pale blue ball with no features. All the biomes were there, and below 100km it almost looked normal (but dark, as if it was night time all the time), and everything still functioned perfectly including all the groundstations, altitude above terrain, etc. But on the main home screen at game start, and once above 100km in game, the earth goes all pale blue and barren. I reinstalled just RSS, thinking maybe some config got overwritten with the driver update, but no dice. Had to rollback the driver, and everything is now as it should be. I'm not real knowledgeable about graphics processing, but has anyone else seen this? I've never had an issue with a driver update before, so I'm kind of at a loss, considering "update your drivers" is typically the first thing recommended for graphic display issues. Any help/suggestions are appreciated! EDIT: Hmm, I was mistaken. Apparently, rolling back the driver did NOT help, although I played for hours last night after the rollback and it was fine. Load the game just now, however, and the pale blue featureless earth is back. So now, I actually do have a problem and not just a curiosity. Where do I start to diagnose the issue? EDIT 2: I just saw a mention of the "featureless sphere" issue a few pages back (pg 304, I believe). I haven't had a chance to look into that, but I should not that I don't have RSSVE installed. Although I am now suspecting that opengl is the culprit somehow. My output.txt log is viewable here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tNT2JSUKFJh15VDkUqJJNHFb8N_ANV4T

Kevin, I'm at exactly the same spot you are in your career, although I've watched through episode 10 NathanKell's video campaign to see the next (or the next couple) LV design. I had also noticed that my vehicles didn't quite match the video's dV expectations, and I often ended up with minor variations to everything ... a few cm here, a liter of volume utilized there, etc. One thing that I found is that procedural wings get freakin' heavy if you don't turn down their structural strength. That seemed to consistently save me 150-200 dV on the earlier LEO launchers in the series. But I tend to overbuild for what I need as a matter of course by 200 m/s or so (being, after all, completely not my money!), fly the thing to verify its basic soundness, then start trimming back the excess mass until I get closer. Remember to start trimming the excess from the top down: a kg up high on the stack matters a whole lot more than a kg on the booster in terms of final dV. What I've noticed missing (or maybe just haven't figured out how to access, or what extra mod it might be) is that awesome simulation mode Nathan likes to use for the first run of a new LV. He clicks on Launch, and he has options ... I just get the message that the vessel is in the queue. I do plenty of testing, but I always have to actually built the thing, which takes time and money and (on more occasions than I care to admit) a call to Range Safety. There also seem to be a few developer's tools he has constantly at his fingertips. Anyhow, I've learned more from watching the campaign videos about some of the subtleties in the KSP-sim system than I ever would have discovered through my own fumbling about. Heck, just learning some of the hotkeys in the VAB has saved me HOURS of headaches. I keep telling myself, after completing an LV and when I'm ready to go to the pad for testing, "thank goodness, now its just orbital mechanics to worry about!" At least THAT I understand, lol! But definitely keep enjoying the campaign series Kyle, you won't be disappointed. Lots of useful info in there, not just about RP-0 but about the historic space programs too.

I didn't think I had used gog before either, but I already had an account so that's why I went with it. But I definitely get the impression I *should* have been able to purchase through the main website ... after all, why have a purchase history section on the account page if there isn't a way to buy the product directly? Fortunately, I may have found a solution. Gog apparently has their own installation launcher called galaxy. It took some fiddling, but it looks like it has a rollback feature similar to how Steam does things. I'll have to poke around a bit, make sure that I can shift files and folders from place to place, but I believe this will work.

Sadly, it didn't seem to let me buy it directly through the main KSP website, although I do have an account there. Hitting Paypal or the paysafecard did not transfer the actual purchase I was wanting to make, it only brought up the respective log-in pages. I don't have an account at paysafecard but I do at paypal, and logging in just took me to my account home page. It seems that the "store" is not so much their own in-house store as it is a list of vendors. So I bought the game through gog.com, and have yet to hear back from them regarding older versions.

So, what can one do if they didn't acquire KSP through steam? I bought mine through the gog.com site via the main kerbal webpage, but all I can download is 1.3.1. Is 1.2.2 only available through Steam and nowhere else? My 1.3.1 install seems stable with just the handful of basic mods I've added in, but I'm looking to have a mod install specific to Realism Overhaul. Am I now SOL for not wanting to use Steam? Unfortunately, adding my non-Steam-downloaded KSP as a non-Steam game doesn't bring up any version info (not surprisingly, I know). Sorry to have bumped an old thread, but I figure it was pinned and I can't possibly be the ONLY person wanting an older version of KSP who didn't buy it through Steam. Thanks