Squadcast Summary 2015/07/31

[Superfluous J]

Note: Twitchdown was not cooperating so I had to watch this on Twitch without all the controls I'm used to. In particular, I couldn't watch it at 1.5x speed so it took longer than normal. Because of this, I spaced out during a few of the less interesting parts and may have missed something. I don't think I did, but it's possible.

Every 10 minutes I drop a time stamp, so if you can find a spot in the video more easily. "Something in quotes means it was directly said," though I frequently don't bother with that. [brackets are those rare times where the accent barrier keeps me from understanding something], and italics are descriptions of what Max is doing in the game, with asides and commentary by me where I feel the desire.

0:00

He's in orbit of Minmus, taking his readings for the contracts.

He burns straight down. Not in map mode. He switches to map mode and his orbit is frickin' elliptical.

He gets his reading, then burns up. He stays in map mode this time so doesn't freak his orbit out again.

They are almost done remodelling the office.

Andrea is the new Community Manager. Starts Monday.

U5 work is almost done. They should have the build within reach "very very shortly."

Possibly release U5 as a standalone release before 1.1. Depends on how much impact on the game U5 has on its own.

He gets the final contract reading, and misses a mountain looming upon him.

"The most successful mission on Squadcast of all time." (I agree with this. It may be the only successful mission of all time)

U5 update is very promising. No promises about performance updates until they have it in the hands of the testers.

He sets up a maneuver node to eject STRAIGHT UP, directly towards Kerbin, and then says "[i'm] trying to figure out the most ... efficient way to leave this orbit."

He has plenty of fuel so it doesn't really matter that much, but still

He opts to just burn enough to leave Minmus, then burn again at his Kerbin Apoapsis.

10:00

He opts for a 30km periapsis. He has a heat shield but took off some ablator.

He does his signature move of warping through Kerbin, but only does it once

Re-entry is pretty uneventful, with just the solar panels hitting 50% heat. Nothing explodes.

It's GregroxMun's birthday. Happy Birthday!

20:00

If the U5 update comes out before 1.1, it'll be 1.0.something

He starts planning a Duna trip. He has no fairings, which makes him sad.

He also has no docking ports. He misses that the Jr is in a 90 cost node.

He plans for a Sun Science trip to get science to get docking ports for his Duna mission.

Q: What is Squad's policy post 1.0 of updates breaking save files?

A: Precisely what it was before. They'll do their best but if it must be done they will do it without reservation.

He launches at 50% thrust and roughly 1.1TWR. I rip out roughly 1.1% of my hair watching it.

30:00

He boosts up until his Ap leaves Kerbin's SOI, follows it up, and gets his Sun science.

Max is on Windows 10 now, streaming fine.

He utilizes all his extra fuel to make his re-entry not so harrowing. He enters Kerbin's atmo with an Ap of about 2,000km

Q: 64 bit?

A: 64 is something they're very curious about, now that they have an editor and an engine that is more accepting. Now (in Unity 4) it's dreadful.

40:00

He's being a LOT more careful with his periapsis now than he was coming back from Minmus. He's worried about the science.

No 64 bit for Mac. That's Unity.

Q: New wheels?

A: They're fantastic. They work like real wheels do now.

Q: Will Kerbalcon be happening this year?

A: Way too early to tell. We like to do it, but don't know. They want to do a physical one. "But we'll see."

U5 allows for physics multi-threading. On processor, not GPU.

Physics can be offloaded to other cores.

His "Sweet sweet science" starts getting hot. He burns the last of his fuel to slow down, but it doesn't help.

Squad HQ is way too small to host a convention. They'd have to rent a place. And it's way too early to worry about that. 1.1 comes first.

The heat dissipates, the ship slows down, and nothing blows up. Another successful mission.

He again misses the Jrs in the 90 tier. I am willing him to check that node.

Why is nobody in chat telling him?

50:00

FINALLY someone tells him. He still can't find them. He thinks the person is saying he has them already.

HE FINDS IT. I put my computer - which I had picked up and was about to throw out my window - back down.

With 10 minutes left he starts building his Duna ship.

The ship gets bigger. And bigger. And bigger.

And I'm pretty sure he's blocking the door with a solar panel.

Oh, and it's over 100 tons, so he can't even launch it

Edited August 1, 2015 by 5thHorseman

[genbrien]

U5 allows for physics multi-threading. On processor, not GPU.

Physics can be offloaded to other cores.

Thx Squad!

[SkyRender]

Poor Maxmaps. He could really use Kerbal Engineer Redux! And a few lessons on orbital physics, too...

Not a lot of "new" news this time around, but interesting nonetheless.

[Endersmens]

Hold on.

U5 allows for physics multi-threading, On processor, not GPU. Physics can be offloaded to other cores.

We knew this would be a thing, but does this still mean one craft is restricted to one core?

oh man, if I can get all 8 of mine on one craft....

[NoMrBond]

At 40:40 Max says 'You guys are going to love the new parts, by the way' which I'm not sure what he's referencing as the prior discussion was about the 64 bit editor/engine

does this still mean one craft is restricted to one core?

Unfortunately yes, processing for a related group of rigid bodies (i.e. a vessel) still cannot be split.

[smjjames]

Isn't there a former SQUAD employee by the name of Andrea? Probably not the same person though.

[Whirligig Girl]

It was a good Birthday, too. I got a phaser that is capable of destroying entire cars and a screwdriver that is capable of opening doors using only sound and a pair of binoculars that allows me to peer into the heart, soul, and eyes of the Moon.*

*artist's conception: here

Edited August 1, 2015 by GregroxMun

[regex]

Thanks 5th. Now I know how you can stand that trainwreck, too bad you couldn't speed it up this time.

[Whirligig Girl]

At 40:40 Max says 'You guys are going to love the new parts, by the way' which I'm not sure what he's referencing as the prior discussion was about the 64 bit editor/engine

Unfortunately yes, processing for a related group of rigid bodies (i.e. a vessel) still cannot be split.

I believe he means the new antennae for the telemetry stuff coming in 1.1.

[Superfluous J]

I'm surprised nobody's excited or wary or ... mentioned the possibility of Unity 5 coming out before 1.1. This implies one of (or both of) 2 things to me:

1) Unity 5 work is coming along significantly more quickly than expected.

2) 1.1 work is coming along significantly less quickly than expected.

[regex]

I'm surprised nobody's excited or wary or ... mentioned the possibility of Unity 5 coming out before 1.1. This implies one of (or both of) 2 things to me:

1) Unity 5 work is coming along significantly more quickly than expected.

2) 1.1 work is coming along significantly less quickly than expected.

I'm not a Unity dev but the API may not have changed all that much between versions, making migration easier. Who knows, though.

As for being excited, I'm fighting burn-out something fierce; the only thing keeping me playing KSP is the heat (it's complicated, involving a gaming desktop and a lack of AC in the second story of the house).

[selfish_meme]

I'm surprised nobody's excited or wary or ... mentioned the possibility of Unity 5 coming out before 1.1. This implies one of (or both of) 2 things to me:

1) Unity 5 work is coming along significantly more quickly than expected.

2) 1.1 work is coming along significantly less quickly than expected.

What it means to me is that the way something (say mods) interacts with the game is so different that there will be a version that looks and acts similar to the current but is very different under the surface in some way, then they work towards a 1.1 'merge' of features.

[Alshain]

I'm surprised nobody's excited or wary or ... mentioned the possibility of Unity 5 coming out before 1.1. This implies one of (or both of) 2 things to me:

1) Unity 5 work is coming along significantly more quickly than expected.

2) 1.1 work is coming along significantly less quickly than expected.

3) they want an independent test run of the new engine without making drastic changes to gameplay because it's easier to find bugs without adding new features that will possibly add bugs.

4) Pretty much the same as 3 but the features in 1.1 are going to be so large they don't want to couple them with the U5 upgrade which is also large (for bug finding reasons). So what feature have we been waiting for ages for that is pretty large and we happen to know Harvester has shifted gears to work on it?

I'm not a Unity dev but the API may not have changed all that much between versions, making migration easier. Who knows, though.

If I remember right, a lot of things were added to Unity 5 that obsolete some of the external libraries they were using. More of the game will be in just Unity rather than a bunch of other kludged together systems.

Edited August 1, 2015 by Alshain

[SpacedCowboy]

You spaced out?!?... Watching Max fly a ship?!?...Inconceivable! Really though 5th, your involvement and input is what's inconceivable. Thanks for being the watch dog on the block.

[Robotengineer]

Who is this Andrea person?

[mythbusters844]

Thanks for the summary.

U5 allows for physics multi-threading. On processor, not GPU.Physics can be offloaded to other cores.

Aweso-

Unfortunately yes, processing for a related group of rigid bodies (i.e. a vessel) still cannot be split.

...

Couldn't they at least find out a way to multi-thread docked vessels? Or is it a "Unity limitation"?

At least multiple vessels close together won't lag like hell.

Who is this Andrea person?

No idea. All I know is that it's probably a girl and Maxmaps has been saying that he wanted the new community manager to be a local.

Edited August 1, 2015 by mythbusters844

[Eric S]

I'm not a Unity dev but the API may not have changed all that much between versions, making migration easier. Who knows, though.

The PhysX stuff is the major component that changed in a way that isn't backwards compatible, but not the only one to do so. Games that don't use PhysX much are fairly easy to port over (some devs have claimed porting as fast as an afternoon), but I haven't seen any game that made major use of PhysX where the port went quickly. It might have still gone faster than expected.

[Superfluous J]

You spaced out?!?... Watching Max fly a ship?!?...Inconceivable! Really though 5th, your involvement and input is what's inconceivable. Thanks for being the watch dog on the block.

Haha thanks, and no problem. I actually enjoy it. Though I'll admit I enjoy it *more* at 1.5x speed, sped up even faster when not much is going on.

Who is this Andrea person?

I assume we'll find out on Monday when she (I'm almost positive Max referred to Andrea as "she" or "her" in the episode, though have no time stamp. In any case Andrea is generally a female name) introduces herself.

[NFUN]

I assume we'll find out on Monday when she (I'm almost positive Max referred to Andrea as "she" or "her" in the episode, though have no time stamp. In any case Andrea is generally a female name) introduces herself.

Especially if she is a local and lives in Mexico, as Spanish has much stronger gender agreement than does English.

[klesh]

Games that don't use PhysX much are fairly easy to port over (some devs have claimed porting as fast as an afternoon), but I haven't seen any game that made major use of PhysX where the port went quickly. It might have still gone faster than expected.

A few games I own upgraded to U5 immediately when it came out. Like, within a day or two. They must not be using PhysX, I presume. I was wondering why KSP guys were talking about it being so complicated.

[Sidereus]

As for being excited, I'm fighting burn-out something fierce; the only thing keeping me playing KSP is the heat (it's complicated, involving a gaming desktop and a lack of AC in the second story of the house).

I take it you're enjoying the 100+ degree heat?

[bakanando]

Is he the pointy-haired boss of squad? I'd think it is because of him that we don't get any orbital information or any useful info.

A dev that doesn't know how to play their own game is scary.

[regex]

I take it you're enjoying the 100+ degree heat?

It's a dry heat, man!

Is he the pointy-haired boss of squad? I'd think it is because of him that we don't get any orbital information or any useful info.

That's a long-time decision of Squad pretty much solidified before Max took the reins. Starving the player of information is apparently "compelling gameplay".

[Zucal]

Not even a hint of the major announcement mentioned in this week's Devnotes, so I suppose we'll have to wait till Tuesday.

[smjjames]

Is he the pointy-haired boss of squad? I'd think it is because of him that we don't get any orbital information or any useful info.

A dev that doesn't know how to play their own game is scary.

He's not a dev, he's a producer, but yes that's kind of scary.

He's slowly been getting better at it though.