4x4cheesecake

Well, that's a surprise And its actually me who has to thank the community because without others contributing on this topic, it would be still this half baked solution I came up with originally and definitely not as helpful as it is right now. So thanks to everyone who contributed to it and especially @Lisias for pushing me to edit the OP, turning the thread into an actual useful collection

Because the idea was/is to solve the issue by manipulating the game launch options, not by writing a batch script. Of course, such script can be used as well but I guess it comes with the same caveats as other solutions: if you launch the game executable directly, it changes the working directory of KSP, thus breaking many mods which rely on it. So you could try using a shortcut to the executable in the script to circumvent that issue but that again, would break the steam features. Since you're already using a script, it would be possible to extend the script to manually attach the steam overlay to the game process but at that point, the rabbit hole got so deep you may want to look for a slightly simpler solution In the end, such script is just a different approach for the same issue, but it may look a bit more intimidating to less tech savvy people in comparison to a one-liner in the launch options. Might be just my impression though

Ok, rework of my OP is done and I hope I got it right when I tried to sum up the pros and cons of each solution. Also included my janky solution of using the windows CMD simply because I think its funny and catches the kerbal spirit

Oh, yeah... I feel you *hug* Hm... I don't know... my janky solution using the windows command line might work at least on windows, though I haven't done any extensive testing on that one (just checked the log to verify the working directory and if the steam overlay pops up). And apparently, its also possible to manually hook the steam overlay into the game after launching it from a shortcut but that probably requires some individual scripts on linux, mac and windows. Actually, the best solution would be if steam asks you if you want to play the game or start up the launcher. I've seen it in other games but right of the bat, I just remember Elden Ring having one of these pop ups: Though, I guess its on purpose this doesn't happen already. Don't worry about it, its fine. I should have given at least a little heads up that I wont be able to perform any big edits on my OP before the weekend to make it less frustrating for you, that's my bad. In the end, we both try to help others in the best possible way and I appreciate every input I've got from posts in this thread

Sorry, have been busy all week long I hear you guys, and even though I disagree that parts of my OP should be removed, I'll take care of it in a way it's still available but "out of focus". I just really dont like the idea of actually removing parts which where discussed in a thread and maybe even quoted, it kinda breaks the "archival" properties of a forum, IMO. KSSL might not have any collateral effects in terms of "it breaks something" but its a mod someone might don't want to install (or someone simply doesn't know how to use github) and you will even have to repeat the installation, if KSP actually gets another update. It is unlikely but nobody expected the 1.12.4 update as well. There is simply no "one fits all" solution but I'll try to edit my OP in a way to reflect the pros and cons of each possible solution, so everyone can decide which one fits best for them. I also dont mind to put them in an order of "most likely to be useful" with KSSL on the top. That being said, I'll keep it with a subtitle for today and start editing the whole thing tomorrow in the morning (I promise!) , I'm just too exhausted to do it right now

As far as I know, the changed working directory only breaks some modded games but not the stock game, therefore the suggestion is still perfectly fine and the easiest way to bypass the launcher. The big red subtitle "for mod users" should direct people who play modded KSP to the other suggested bypass. In my opinion, its valid to keep a simple solution available to those who feel less comfortable to mess with their game install instead of showing just a more complex "one fits all" solution. Though, I might add a different subtitle to make it easier to differentiate between stock and modded ksp

Sounds good to me I'll see what I can do on the weekend

yeah, it's changed for the skin from 450K to 2706K (also some other properties like mass, emissive constant, etc...) I was only looking at your MM patch for the upgrade and went through the MM cache, seaching for "TPS" and I only found the upgrade for the MK1 cockpit. So, unless the other parts are addressed in a different patch and the upgrade is named differently, nothing else seems to be covered. Since you already mentioned that you don't have any access to a PC right now, feel free to PM me if you want to add some more part upgrades and I'll see if I can provides some more MM patches for you and create a PR on github, easy for you to merge even via phone

So, I tried the hot spot mod and honestly, it wasn't as helpful as I thought, mostly because I wasn't able to get the overlay to work. As far as I can tell, it is supposed to replace the stock overlay but it just didn't work for me. The information provided in the PAW were pretty much the same as the stock debug information, so that didn't help much either except for having them available without the need to open the debug menu first. Anyway, I fixed my issue by simply re-arranging "physical" connection between parts and using the offset tool to put everything into the right spot. Btw. adding a radiator helped as well... kinda... the radiator introduced so much drag to my plane that I simply couldn't fly fast enough create enough heat for anything to explode Though, I'm thinking about writing a MM patch to solve the issue in a more elegant way, maybe by introducing a part upgrade (the TPS upgrade provided by DRE only applies to the MK1 cockpit and also doesn't affect max operational temp, just max skin temp) but I have to see if I want to spent a couple hours to get back into MM "coding".

Not yet, I'll try it tomorrow. Re-launching my modded install takes like 10 minutes and I want to finish at least one of my long range flight missions today instead of playing around with new mods. But I'll come back to you and report some of my findings once I got around to try it out

Don't worry, it's fine. Now that I know what is causing my issue, I can work around it. Either by building the planes differently or simply slowing down I mean, the whole point of running DRE is to increase difficulty and even though I didn't expect my planes to be affected by it, its a new challenge to tackle and I'm in for that

Hottest part are my Wheesley turbofan engines, so I guess its coming from them? I honestly have no clue how heat transfer works in this game (screenshot is taken at a different time than the one showing the tail fin) The tail fins are actually attached to the second center fuel tank and the same applies to the fuel tanks on the wing tips. these parts are just offset a lot but its easier to built it this way to keep everything properly aligned. So, I assume heat transfer follows the "actual connections"...

I'll check it out, thanks

@Starwaster Ok, solved the mystery already xD It actually IS a heating issue: Once the internal temp of the part goes beyond the 450K operational temp. limit of DRE, part damage starts to built up and once it reaches 1.0, the part blows up, which, well... always happen after around 40- 45min if I fly my plane within the same parameters Its just misleading by the flight log that it claims g-forces to be the issue and not thermals or anything else and there is also no heat gauge showing up on the parts. I wonder if it would be possible to trigger some kind of warning heating gauge once you get close to the limit of any part?

@StarwasterThanks for your reply Well, the flight log clearly says it happens because of g-forces (the actual KSP log doesn't say anything specific, just mentions that a part blew up) and the thermals actually are fine. Some light heating occurs but not for an extended period of time and the gauge is just like half way filled up aka just appeared. I also tried slowing down a bit to prevent any heat built up but it doesn't seem to prevent the parts from blowing up anyway. (I try to fly around 500m/s at an altitude around 9km to 10km). The PAW doesn't show any damage to the parts in question, though there is no engineer on board, so I may have to take one on a trip. I might do some more testing later, trying to minimize the installed mods just to be sure it really is DRE and not a combination of mods. I'll also play around with some of the debug information KSP provides on its own and keep you updated on my findings

hey there does DRE changes how g-force tolerances on parts work in a fundamental way? I just ran into an issue which caused the wings of my plane to explode and the flight log told me it was because of excessive g-forces... but I was flying in a straight line at the same level for like 40min before it happened. I tried reloading a quicksave and restarted the whole flight like 4 times but it always happens after about 40min flight time to me. And apparently, I'm not alone, at least the issue sounds exactly the same: I was able to perform the whole trip to the south pole after uninstalling DRE, so I guess its caused by this mod? Is there some intended "built up" of forces/stresses over time or something we are missing here which would explain it or is it just some good old bug?

Just ran into the same issue and I guess it's related to "deadly reentry", at least I was able to prevent the wings on my plane from exploding by uninstalling it. Not quite sure yet how a proper fix would look like or if this is some kind of intended behavior, but I'm going to contact the mod creator about it

"run" is not a valid command for the CMD but "start" is and actually works as a "fire and forget" command and the steam overlay will still work so, the new launch option I'm running now is: "c:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe" %command% /c "start D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\"Kerbal Space Program"\KSP_x64_shortcut.lnk" -popupwindow It is actually important to NOT wrap the whole file path after the "start" command in quotation marks but to use them in between for any directory which got spaces in its name. If you wrap the whole path, it will be just passed as the "title" parameter for the "start" command.

That's a great hint, thanks I did a little research and actually found a way to launch the game by jumping through 3 hoops just to keep the steam overlay, the correct working directory and still being able to use start up parameters, all by using just a single launch option on the original steam library entry. But at this point, I guess your method of adding a "non steam game" is probably just easier But for those who are interested: The alternative I've found, is to launch the windows CMD and run a command which points to a link to the KSP executable, so in my case, it would look like this: "c:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe" %command% /c "D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Kerbal Space Program\KSP_x64_shortcut.lnk" using this as your launch options, will run the windows command line, which then launches the actual game through a shortcut which points to the game executable.... the only drawback is, that the CMD will keep running in the background for the whole time but I guess even that could be solved. This starts to turn into a research of "what's possible" with no regards to "what's useful"... or in other terms: the kerbal way of approaching an issue

Ok, that's a weird quirk I didn't know about. Do you mind if I add this to my original post? @Nazalassasame question for you: Do you mind if I add your information about the procedure in linux to my original post?

Yes, just add the parameter at the very end of the line, for example: "[...]\KSP_x64.exe" %command% -force-d3d11

@panzer1bAre you sure you wanted to post that here instead of the update announcement thread? And as far as I have read, the update never claimed to improve performance, just some bug fixes for tutorials and clock, as well as adding this rather unwanted launcher. Though, your ships look awesome

There is also another way to bypass the launcher:

Hey guys With the latest 1.12.4 update, SQUAD / Private Division decided to introduce an additional launcher to the game which will start up after hitting the "Play" button in Steam instead of launching the game directly. IMO this is rather annoying and doesn't provide any actual benefits, in fact, it actually causes some trouble especially for mods. Since the update, me and others figured out multiple ways to circumvent the launcher which come with their own benefits and drawbacks, so here are a few for you guys to choose from, depending on which solution fits the best for you 1. KSSL (KSP Simple Steam Launcher) Pros: Easy to use You keep all the Steam features like the overlay, game time tracking, etc. Mods will work as usual Cons: Need to be reinstalled if the game ever gets another update or you verify the games file integrity @R-T-B wrote this wrapper which replaces the original executable of the launcher. Simply replace the "LauncherPatcher.exe" provided by them with the one from the stock game and you're already done and ready to go. 2. Change the game launch options (shortcut version) Pros: Resilient to any further game updates Mods will work as usual Cons: Steam features like the overlay and game time tracking don't work anymore Slightly more difficult to setup Steam allows to setup individual launch options for each game, which can be used to redirect the target for the "Play" button in your Steam library. This particular solution by @Gotmachine redirects the button to point to a shortcut, which then again points to the game executable: 3. Change the game launch options (executable version) Pros: Resilient to any further game updates "Purist" solution to keep the game 100% stock Steam features will work as usual Cons: Mods are very likely to break Slightly more difficult to setup So, this was the solution I came up with like an hour after the update but which turned out to be problematic later on. Works in the same way as the previous solution but instead of redirecting the "Play" button to a shortcut, it gets redirected to the games executable: Right click KSP in your Steam Library Click on properties At the bottom of the "General" tab, you will find "Launch Options" and a text field. Write in this text field "FULL GAME PATH TO .EXE FILE" %command% Close the window Profit! for example: The window is not resizable to show the full command but I guess you get it If you are having trouble to find the path to your game executable, you can right click the game in your library -> "Manage" -> "Browse local files". This will open up a window with your game files, showing the path at the top navigation bar. 4. The Kerbal Way (aka jump through three loops to accomplish.... "something") Pros: Mods will work as usual Steam features will work as usual Cons: Fairly janky to setup Not extensively tested A CMD window will be open as long as the game is running This is basically a combination of solution #2 and #3 but instead of redirecting the "Play" button to the game executable or a shortcut of it, it gets redirected to the windows command line (CMD) which then is used to launch the game. Choosing this solutions allows you to eliminate the drawback of missing steam features from solution #2. So, in order to achieve this, you need to follow the instructions from solution #2 but the command in the games launch options needs to be: "PATH TO CMD" %command% /c "start PATH TO SHORTCUT.lnk" The quotation marks are important, as well as using the ".lnk" extension at the end of the shortcuts name, even if it is not visible in your explorer window or part of the name you gave the shortcut. The "PATH TO CMD" should always be the same in windows: c:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe The "/c" will pipe everything in quotation marks after it as a command to the CMD, so we are just telling it to launch the game via the shortcut. In my case, the full command looks like this: "c:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe" %command% /c "start D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\"Kerbal Space Program"\KSP_x64_shortcut.lnk" What about Linux/MacOS??? I dont use neither of those so I can only refer to the post of @Nazalassa : I can't say anything about pros and cons for this solution, not even if it works or details about the execution, sorry. What about other launch options??? Other launch options like "-popupwindow" or "-force-d3d11" should still work as usual for any solution on this list. For solution #2 to #4, you can just add them at the very end of the command, for example: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Kerbal Space Program\KSP_x64_Steam" %command% -popupwindow or "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Kerbal Space Program\KSP_x64.exe" %command% -popupwindow or "c:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe" %command% /c "start D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\"Kerbal Space Program"\KSP_x64_shortcut.lnk" -popupwindow I hope everyone was able to find a solution which fits bets for their situation but if not, you're always welcome to ask questions right here in the thread. If any other solution comes up to fill up a niche, I'll happy add it to the list, same goes for linux and MacOS versions of the game. Also, any feedback is always welcome

On the bright site: the launcher doesn't break compatibility with steams "new" big picture mode aka steam deck ui. The launcher comes up if you start the game through the steam deck ui but it skips ahead and just proceeds to run the game with no additional inputs required