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Vl3d

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    Developer Insights #18 - Graphics of Early Access KSP2

    in Dev Diaries

    Posted · Edited by Vl3d

    16 minutes ago, NoMrBond said:

    What renderer is the game currently using?

    I'm kind of shocked it's still using the legacy rendered... But beyond that, I remember how much flak I got on the forum for talking about modern HDRP Unity visuals. I invite newer users and players to read up on older discussions.

    Thank you for this great dev diary! Telling it like it is goes a long way.

    About patience and ambition (thank you Paul Furio!)

    in KSP2 Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Vl3d

    The information below is just my guess about what happened during the development of the game from a conceptual and software engineering point of view. I talk about some of the major challenges that had to be tackled by the dev team - which caused the delays and are the main reason for the current state of the game at EA release. Please be tolerant of my many suppositions.

    TLDR: cut the development team some slack.. they've worked a lot during the past years and we don't see most of the work yet. It will all be clear as we step through the roadmap and the game will speak for itself and for the team.
     

    Prototyping, refactoring, rewriting

    Based on things mentioned during interviews, I believe that KSP1 with mods was initially used for prototyping, then there was a major refactoring of the game after which the Star Theory drama happened.. which I think forced the devs to do a major / complete rewrite of the game. As you can imagine, after announcing delays, the developers probably wanted to do something more ambitious than just an improved version of KSP1. So...
     

    Interstellar - "simulating a multi-light-year spanning 3D volume at a sub-millimeter level of resolution"

    The "problem" with KSP is that it's played by very smart people that know and love science and technology. It's meant to be a realistic simulation of space travel and a lot of other things. This is kind of a trap for game design because it means avoiding instancing and other tricks. Blame Descartes for making us think about space as it's own thing (Cartesian system) instead of relationships between object. If spaceships were teleported from one star system to another we wouldn't have all the issues people complain about. But...

    "...we're enabling players to travel from planet A orbiting star B to planet C orbiting star D, continuously, without any loading screens, pauses, faked out transitions, "warp drives", or other trickery. We're simulating a multi-light-year spanning 3D volume at a sub-millimeter level of resolution, and enabling players to travel to any point in that space if they can build a ship capable of making the journey. Unprecedented in gaming." - Paul Furio, the Senior Engineering Manager / Technical Director at Intercept / Private Division, April 2022

    This is why I wouldn't be quick to judge the work of Paul and the developers. They tackled something that is generally only done using supercomputers. We're talking about distances that are just incomprehensibly large for the human mind. It's a HARD problem and solving it is groundbreaking for gaming. Add the need for a trajectory solver that takes acceleration into account and it all gets very complicated.
     

    Multiplayer - solving the time-warp problem and delivery routes

    As many of you know, I've written about my wishes, dreams and theories related to multiplayer. I might be wrong, I might be right. After thinking about it .. a lot .. I have come to the conclusion that asynchronous multiplayer that allows time-warp in space (and other features like delivery routes) requires an innovative and complex system of recording events and placing them on a common timeline. If the devs chose this route, it is/was very hard to implement and I'm sure it took a lot of time. Actually, because it's built on top of the previously mentioned simulation system.. it's even more complicated.
     

    Early Access - stripping down the game for EA

    IMO this was done in a hurry and has generated the most bugs because you have to work around a lot of issues caused by the way fundamental systems interact in the game. Why was it done in a hurry? Your guess is as good as mine. But certainly the game would have benefited from another 2 months of testing and debugging. Is this reason enough to be disappointed or hostile? Of course not, bugs will be fixed.
     

    And then we also have:

    • Creating the teams, processes and development pipeline
    • Creating the new PQS system for celestial bodies (the textures and details are there in the internal builds, but there's not enough performance budget to use them for now)
    • Parts mechanics for vehicles and colonies
    • Physics (aero, liquid etc.)
    • Creating / iterating the user interface (which seems to have been left to the last moment - which has generated bugs)
    • Performance optimizations (this is usually done at the end of development and I don't think is the biggest issue for now)
       

    The scale of the project is GIGANTIC from a software development point of view. It's innovative work. So please cut the development team some slack and support them.

    Thank you, Paul Furio, for all your work! It will not go unnoticed and unappreciated by the community, I assure you.

    Have a listen to this older KSP2 related podcast with Nate and Paul: http://forum.purdueseds.space/pspodcast/episode2/

    For specific dates please check out this great timeline created by @DrCHIVES.

    What did YOU do for KSP2?

    in KSP2 Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Vl3d

    I'm glad we can also be positive and proactive. Our common goal is to help build a great game. Anything else is just a waste of energy.

    Buying the game is the most pragmatic and easy way to support future development.

    What did YOU do for KSP2?

    in KSP2 Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Vl3d

    5 minutes ago, Moons said:

    Its not the job of consumers to do something for a product they purchase. But looking at modern software i probably do more involuntarily for software than i want to since it has become normal to simply take a consumers money and personal data and statistical data without an option to opt out or compensation (i still dont understand why so many people accept that) ...

    So what did consumers do - they gave money in exchange for a product. The only question to me is - did the company do enough for the price they charged.

    What did you do for this community? I'm not interested in your role as consumer.

    What did YOU do for KSP2?

    in KSP2 Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Vl3d

    There are too many posts complaining about KSP2. So let me ask you, the reader, directly: what did you do for KSP2?

    How are you helping the game and the community be the best it can be?

    Speaking for myself:

    - I have bought KSP1+DLCs and KSP2

    - I've submitted reports for every bug I've found

    - I've written hundreds of suggestions to the devs

    - I try to be an active and helpful member of the Forum and Discord community

    I also avoid sterile complaining and I still have faith that KSP2 will be the greatest game ever made.

    Your turn!

    Take-Two going through layoffs, Private Division and other labels affected

    in KSP2 Discussion

    Posted

    What the ... :o

    3 hours ago, Pthigrivi said:

    The only real insight I have on this is that Ive been involved in big complex projects involving tens of millions of dollars and some went great and some went poorly and some went medium. One lesson Ive learned is that when they go medium or poorly the people at the top who actually who made the dumb decisions never take the fall. It’s always the people who had the personal courage, fortitude, and integrity to try to solve unsolvable problems within unreasonable, unrealistic timelines, because thats what they were asked to do. Under capitalism no good deeds go unpunished. 

     

    3 hours ago, RocketRockington said:

    My experience has been the same.  If you try to correct issues early, you're a Cassandra and nay-sayer.  If you beaver away quietly working on something that is mismanaged, you suffer to either deliver undeserved rewards to your management, or get blamed for a failed delivery.  Or, you become what you hate sucking up to bad management where dung always rolls down hill so you're just not at the bottom.

    I don't agree at all. A lot of big companies have very good process and work efficiently. I think you are generalizing based on your personal experience.

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