What does 1.1 mean for mod development?

[nestor_d]

So the release of KSP 1.1 seems to be getting closer and closer, the dev team recently posted on twitter that they're doing a discount sale to celebrate it's release. I've recently started getting into the modding business, and I can't help but wonder, what will 1.1 mean for mods? Will a new PartTools version be needed? Maybe parts mods won't be so greatly affected, after all some of the particle effects used by KSP are from unity 3 even, and I doubt the .mu format will change. Probably mods like FAR will need some major overhaul, but anyway, what are your thoughts?

[MrHappyFace]

I dont think much will change at all. The upgrade to unity 5 shouldn't affect most plugins that much more than any other KSP version would, because unity 5 isnt a new engine by any means, its just an upgrade of the current engine, which has happened many times over KSP's lifetime.

More specifically, the PhysX upgrade is definitely going to affect Kerbal Foundries, and maybe it will affect physics mods like FAR or DRE to some degree. I've heard that it will fix the ships-blowing-up-above-1million-time-warp bug that's been plaguing BetterTimeWarp, but dont quote me on that.

I'm mainly looking forward to the UI upgrade, because it will make extending and modifying the stock UI much easier.

[peachoftree]

I dont think much will change at all. The upgrade to unity 5 shouldn't affect most plugins that much more than any other KSP version would, because unity 5 isnt a new engine by any means, its just an upgrade of the current engine, which has happened many times over KSP's lifetime.

More specifically, the PhysX upgrade is definitely going to affect Kerbal Foundries, and maybe it will affect physics mods like FAR or DRE to some degree. I've heard that it will fix the ships-blowing-up-above-1million-time-warp bug that's been plaguing BetterTimeWarp, but dont quote me on that.

I'm mainly looking forward to the UI upgrade, because it will make extending and modifying the stock UI much easier.

I wouldn't be so sure about that, any app that uses the applauncher will have to be updated, toolbar is likely too. I very much doubt this will be an update where mods will be backwards compatible.

[Drew Kerman]

anything with a UI will most likely be completely broken, same for anything with wheels. Both have undergone major overhauls and I doubt the devs planned to keep any form of backwards compatibility (it would just bloat the code and make it more complicated)

[sarbian]

I dont think much will change at all. The upgrade to unity 5 shouldn't affect most plugins that much more than any other KSP version would, because unity 5 isnt a new engine by any means, its just an upgrade of the current engine, which has happened many times over KSP's lifetime.

Nope. Any plugin that uses components (Like RigidBody, Mesh, ...) will break since the Unity API changed. So most plugin that uses physic, sounds, anything procedural and many more. Unity 4 to 5 is not the minor update of Unity 4 we had before.

anything with a UI will most likely be completely broken, same for anything with wheels. Both have undergone major overhauls and I doubt the devs planned to keep any form of backwards compatibility (it would just bloat the code and make it more complicated)

Most plugin uses the old Unity UI. Unity 5 does not remove that so they shout still work (beside the other change I mentioned earlier). Those who won't are those that plug into the KSP UI.

[sumghai]

I'm also quite concerned about whether KSP 1.1 will finally fully migrate to mecanim, or if we're still stuck with the legacy system - this would affect parts with emissive animations (e.g. pods with glowing windows, engines)

[Drew Kerman]

Most plugin uses the old Unity UI. Unity 5 does not remove that so they shout still work (beside the other change I mentioned earlier). Those who won't are those that plug into the KSP UI.

You would know better than I, my assumption was based on how the devs have said the whole UI system is a bit of a mish-mash, so I didn't really see that porting over well if they chose to leave that all behind and go clean with Unity UI only