1.0 and Beyond... Where are the clouds?

[klesh]

What is the situation post 1.0 for the inclusion of clouds in the stock KSP experience? Has there been mention of it by Squad as something they plan on including?

Do you want clouds on celestial bodies with atmospheres in KSP?

[Dedjal]

Judging how the game runs, I would say no to clouds.

[Alshain]

Judging how the game runs, I would say no to clouds.

What does that mean? The game runs just fine.

[Starwhip]

What does that mean? The game runs just fine.

Yep, it runs alright for me as well.

As an option, of course, clouds would be great. (I'd enable them of course)

[basic.syntax]

That I've noticed, the developers have not commented on adding clouds. They hear requests for them all the time, though.

[Robotengineer]

Majority of the Kommunity: We want clouds!

1 or 2 dudes: We want a PS4 port!

Fewer people need to ask for clouds. Or ask for them where those one or two dudes asked for a PS4 port.

[322997am]

Clouds are available with mods that don't outdate for people who want them. My crap computer will blow up with that quality.

[daniel l.]

I'm pretty tired of squad they ditch there game heading straight to 1.0 prematurely they ignore community suggestions for easy to add things like clouds in favor of stuff we don't need like the aero update that did nothing but ruin our games they didn't even provide options to disable it!

[RocketPilot573]

I think we will get things such as clouds and planets after 1.1. Those features made no sense before 1.0 (1.0 was to make the game complete, adding unnecessary features should come later). Also 1.1 is dedicated to Unity 5. So maybe 1.2.

[Gaarst]

There are already mods adding clouds, Avg's Cloud Pack for example. There are also a lot of other visual enhancement mods which add clouds, but also other features.

IMO, clouds in KSP are about as important as 4K grass textures (understand: not at all), I would appreciate that the devs focus on developing the gameplay, fixing bugs, etc instead of adding clouds which do not change the game at all. KSP is a game where gameplay is a thousand times more important than graphics, I'm happy about the devs enhancing the gameplay rather than adding clouds.

Same goes for the PS4 port, first make a stable, polished game before losing time on releasing it on PS4 (and before releasing 1.0, but that's another debate).

[322997am]

Majority of the Kommunity: We want clouds!

1 or 2 dudes: We want a PS4 port!

Fewer people need to ask for clouds. Or ask for them where those one or two dudes asked for a PS4 port.

Not like il ever get a console. And clouds are decoration and not a priority. Once multiplayer and x64 are here then fine my PC can handle those.

[klesh]

I don't notice much in the way of performance hits with the mod clouds. Some, to be sure. But it is fully playable with it.

Didnt the launchpad smoke get added in 10 minutes or something quick and at no loss to fps? Perhaps the same tech can be used for clouds.

I just dont recall if they are on the list of things they want to add or not.

I mean atmospheres without clouds is just weird.

And mods, please dont add [suggestion] to my threads, this isn't a suggestion. Its a question about development.

Edited July 1, 2015 by klesh

[Gaarst]

Didnt the launchpad smoke get added in 10 minutes or something quick and at no loss to fps? Perhaps the same tech can be used for clouds.

Hell no, even when launching a single engine rocket I get down to 5 fps at launch due to the smoke, unless I un-zoom to a few kms. So not for me thanks

(Another thing I would like to see fixed, BTW)

[r4pt0r]

Why would a well polished, 1.0 game not have clouds?

[Robotengineer]

Why would a well polished, 1.0 game not have clouds?

Performance.

[Nansuchao]

It will be very great to have stock clouds, but while this is possible with marvelous mods, I hope that Squad will focus on the current bugs (collisions!!!!!!!!!!!!) before...

[Hcube]

Performance.

Trading features for performance doesn't sound like "polished and complete 1.0 game" to me.

Seriously, where are the clouds ? And more importantly, when are we getting a proper sky ? Right now the horizon is just plain white, unrealistic and crazy ugly. I understand this game is not supposed to be pretty but that sky... urgh.

You can see the darn clouds in the VAB and SPH, they are everywhere in the game trailers, and yet no clouds and a terrible-looking sky ingame !

And yes clouds do affect gameplay, especially if you are landing spaceplanes from orbit and need to figure out the landing spot... Anyway when i arrive at a planet and i look at it i'm always disappointed by how ugly it is without clouds

I don't understand how the game is 1.0 , porting to PS4(rofl) and getting a multiplayer while it has crazy memory leaks, a skybox from 0.7.3 and not a single cloud.

[Alshain]

Majority of the Kommunity: We want clouds!

1 or 2 dudes: We want a PS4 port!

Fewer people need to ask for clouds. Or ask for them where those one or two dudes asked for a PS4 port.

Ah man, let me tell you that community requests had little to do with the PS4 port. That is all about money there. You can't blame Squad for expanding on the cash cow.

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There are already mods adding clouds, Avg's Cloud Pack for example. There are also a lot of other visual enhancement mods which add clouds, but also other features.

It will be very great to have stock clouds, but while this is possible with marvelous mods, I hope that Squad will focus on the current bugs (collisions!!!!!!!!!!!!) before...

But EVE is broken and doesn't work, and it is the only one. Mods are great but they always have a catch, the developer could quit working on them. Even if some can get it to work, it doesn't mean everyone can or is willing to.

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Performance.

Your bad computer is not a reason for the rest of us to not have clouds. They can be made an option.

[Windspren]

Ah man, let me tell you that community requests had little to do with the PS4 port. That is all about money there. You can't blame Squad for expanding on the cash cow.

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But EVE is broken and doesn't work, and it is the only one. Mods are great but they always have a catch, the developer could quit working on them. Even if some can get it to work, it doesn't mean everyone can or is willing to.

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Your bad computer is not a reason for the rest of us to not have clouds. They can be made an option.

I still have the same EVE version from 23.5 and it runs fine. How does EVE Overhaul work with Astronomer's Visual Pack?

[r4pt0r]

Your bad computer is not a reason for the rest of us to not have clouds. They can be made an option.

Indeed.

The game also has anti-aliasing, and that is usually incredibly draining on low end rigs.

I bought the game during the '13 summer sale, but could not play with a reasonable framerate it until I upgraded my video card that September. Building the game for the lowest common denominator results in a lower quality product.

[Alshain]

I still have the same EVE version from 23.5 and it runs fine. How does EVE Overhaul work with Astronomer's Visual Pack?

You are one of the lucky ones then. EVE doesn't work for me, it has a massive memory leak.

[klgraham1013]

Graphic settings.

Just preemptively saying that to those who are worried about performance.

I, for one, believe visuals are just as important as game play, sound, story, etc. They all work together to create an experience. I think it's been shown over and over how much better KSP looks with clouds. I don't think any reasonable person can deny that. Now that the game is feature / scope complete, I see no reason for Squad to not take some time and work on the visuals, as well as the sound.

I believe they're still updating sound in 1.1.

[Robotengineer]

I do not have a bad computer, it ran EVE + RSS/RO + many other mods fine during .90. (8+ gigs of RAM)

IMV, Squad didn't get clouds in 1.0 because there wasn't a stable x64 and there was the imminent move to U5, there is no point in coding something complicated like clouds just to re-code it again.

Instead of being frustrated that 1.0 doesn't have clouds, you should take the larger view and be upset that 1.0 wasn't a beta and that the real release should have been on U5.

[Armchair Rocket Scientist]

I'm pretty tired of squad they ditch there game heading straight to 1.0 prematurely they ignore community suggestions for easy to add things like clouds in favor of stuff we don't need like the aero update that did nothing but ruin our games they didn't even provide options to disable it!

Allow me to translate: "Instead of adding cosmetic features that, while nice to look at, don't do much to improve gameplay, Squad overhauled a core gameplay feature that has been broken since the game was released, and which most of the community has been clamoring to have fixed since the game was released. I'm upset and hate Squad forever because my ridiculous aircraft don't work anymore."

Seriously, come on. Complain all you want about Squad not fixing the aerodynamics BEFORE releasing 1.0, resulting in the fix being poorly balanced and subsequent post-release hotfixing breaking craft. But claiming Squad "ignored community suggestions for unneeded stuff" is utterly absurd since a large portion of the community has been asking for better aero for literally years. In fact, a lot of players have been angry at Squad for adding new features like asteroids and contracts when a core part of the physics engine was a placeholder.

[Hcube]

Asking better aero for years has not much to do with squad making a new one in 1.0 : in fact the old souposphere had always been a placeholder that would have been replaced anyway, whatever the community said.....

While squad does listen to the community they often make some very weird (arguably bad) choices (**cough** 1.0 **cough** PS4 **cough**). Anyway we should be happy that they do listen to us pretty often !

i still want those damn clouds... and a relooking for the sky/the horizon. Isn't the fact that it is white bugging anyone else ?