[Developer Insights #18 - Graphics of Early Access KSP2]

2 hours ago, Nate Simpson said:

I see a few people here interpreting Mortoc's post as an admission that we just took the terrain system from KSP1, slapped a new coat of paint on it, and called it PQS+. I'd like to clarify a few points here - again, from a non-specialist perspective, but based on what I witnessed as our terrain system evolved. While PQS+ does tessellate terrain in the same way that the original system did (that is to say, increasing the poly count when an observer/object gets close to the surface), it also does many, many things that the older system did not and is fundamentally a new system. Among the new requirements - it needed to support triplanar mapping, it needed to allow our terrain artists to intermix multiple distinct biomes in ways that looked good at all scales, it needed to support many octaves of detail so that artificial-looking patterns did not emerge at either high or low altitudes, it needed to support the addition of topology-defining decals for areas of high detail, and it required painstaking co-development with our environment artists to give them the tools to bring all of those things together in a way that looked natural and beautiful. I am actually quite proud of the progress made by our team on this system. I'm also very excited about ongoing performance improvements, as well as all the amazing new tech that Mortoc is developing.

PQS+ has performance challenges, but it has brought a huge number of new capabilities to KSP2 - namely, unlocking the vision of our creative team so that they could reimagine the Kerbolar System and craft the new star systems that will arrive over the course of Early Access. I think the new planets look stunning, and I think the terrain system almost does itself a disservice by doing so many formerly impossible things so well - for example, highly varied planetary surfaces betraying no tiling or biome transitions at high altitudes, or procedurally mixing different kinds of terrain so seamlessly that you forget how magical it is that nothing ever actually repeats. It provided us with the ability to be ambitious in our vision for KSP2, and I'm very thankful to the many people who worked very hard on the system to get it to where it is today.

That said, Mortoc is super rad and we're all pumped to see what comes next!

Nate, This post is unreadable in the new Dark Theme options for the forums with the color applied.

[Quick question about action keys]

Not sure what causes it, but ya, mine stopped working as well a few days ago.   I can't even swap my Rapier engines to closed cycle mode anymore.   So hopefully this gets resolved in the upcoming patch.

[Forums Dark Mode]

Oh this is going to be so much better lurking at nighttime now.  <3

[SpaceX Starship SN10 | UPDATE [GRID FINS]]

i tried "Grid fin" like designs on the upper portion of the large stacks and holy crap, they're extremely effective at attitude control.  dual "control surfaces" @ 90 degrees x 4.    Was able to get a ~200t upper stage to LKO.  This is using 3XL tanks and 4 mammoth engines

Spoiler

Each grid fin is two control surfaces that can act in 2 separate pieces and has a high effect on direction change (so long as there is some atmosphere).   once it's in vaccum, good luck rotating this thing.. lol

i get about 22 fps using this design which is substantially better than my other designs that lift less.

[Environment systems that enhance gameplay]

If you add wind, I suggest adding an Anemometer part to give a visual readout (think hurricane tracking aircraft where they can see wind speed/direction)

Also, lightning hitting an aircraft or spacecraft isn't uncommon and does fairly little damage considering how much shielding and protection the electronics have.

[Suggestion: Clipboard pin / Onscreen Notepad]

Can we get a block that acts like a notepad and attaches similarly to a strut, but instead, it's an onscreen notepad that can be togglable (either by option, or by keybind?

This would be useful for sharing vehicles (ie: attaching piloting instructions, or giving credit), or planning larger builds/stations.

edit: fixed title to better match what is mentioned.

[Massive drag bug with basically every inline auxiliary part (tests, results and pictures)]

This explains so much why I was struggling last night when I added my cargo bay...

[Advanced tank of varying sizes]

Not sure what people would think of this, but having an Advanced tank design with the following features.  (This could help cut down on total number of parts as well)

Hold XX Tons of fuels. (adjustable with a slider of fill %, IE: you could launch an empty tank like you can now)  This would be useful for space planes since the methane usage varies.

Add chamber(s) of propellant up to XX% of methane, oxidizer, monopropellant, or of hydrogen, but not xenon.  to make this more user friendly, you could default it to methalox settings with 2 chambers of the X * Y ratio.   

Each additional chamber adds 0.xx T of weight for balancing.  

The tank would be deeper in the science tree to avoid it spoiling the fun of early rocket shenanigans.

[Mouse support with multiple monitors]

I was trying to figure out where the feedback submission was.  It's on the Launcher.  Thanks!

[Mouse support with multiple monitors]

Borderless functions like Fullscreen and doesn't allow the mouse outside of the game window.  I would use windowed, but it doesn't allow off resolutions to get around this.  I assume many people use multiple monitors and this essentially monopolizes the mouse which is a no-no for extended play sessions.