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KSP on iPad would totally rock...


SpaceyCLE

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It's been listed as something the Dev's will never consider, on the What Not To Suggest list. There are ksp companion apps though, calculating delta-v and such. With one of them you can actually build craft and it will show it's capabilities, but you can't fly it or anything. It's still awesome though. :D

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Don't worry about "freemium". As far as Simple Rockets go, I'm yet to find anything you can buy for real money in it

Didn't it have those rocket skin IAPs? "Support the dev" type IAPs, not actually freemium.

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Except it's probably way too resource-heavy for the iPad to run. Not to mention hogging massive amounts of memory.

Memory not so hard... 4gb in a tablet is easy, but compare the iPad's CPU which pulls about 8 watts at peak load, to a typical desktop CPU which will pull between 65 and 95 watts. This difference isn't because Apple produce amazingly efficient CPUs - it's because iPad CPUs are really slow. For a lot of things, they are 'good enough', but gaming is not one of those things :)

You could however look into something like game-streaming, whereby your desktop does all the number crunching and graphics rendering, then streams the video to your tablet. nVidia's Shields are built for this, but I think there are other programs/apps that will do it for generic Android devices.

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It's been listed as something the Dev's will never consider, on the What Not To Suggest list. There are ksp companion apps though, calculating delta-v and such. With one of them you can actually build craft and it will show it's capabilities, but you can't fly it or anything. It's still awesome though. :D

What is the app that lets you build the rocket and see it specs?

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Except it's probably way too resource-heavy for the iPad to run. Not to mention hogging massive amounts of memory.

Maybe KSP Lite? As the ever-wise Captain Picard is wont to say: MAKE IT SO!

1st an iPad uses an ARM type processor, which KSP cannot be converted for. Too complex.

Easier and cheaper to buy a real tablet PC such as a Surface(x86 processor, good graphics and hyper portable).

GamingXB11-600x533.jpg

When I get one, first thing I do is benchmark KSP

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Considering how much time it takes for KSP to load up, to build a decent rocket that meets your mission requirements, test it, and then launch and fly the mission, I don't really understand why you'd want KSP to be portable - when exactly in your day do you have time to set up somewhere long enough to do all or any of that?

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How would you control it on in an iPad? I've had a go at loading it on a Dell Venue Pro, and it seems to run ok but touch screen controls are a nightmare. I've just bought a bluetooth keyboard for it so I'll give it another go next week.

Considering how much time it takes for KSP to load up, to build a decent rocket that meets your mission requirements, test it, and then launch and fly the mission, I don't really understand why you'd want KSP to be portable - when exactly in your day do you have time to set up somewhere long enough to do all or any of that?

In my case I'm weekly commuting at the moment and my laptop takes up way too much space in hand luggage on the plane, and is a lower spec than the tablet, so I quite fancy being able to play a bit of KSP in the evenings while I'm away.

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Considering how much time it takes for KSP to load up, to build a decent rocket that meets your mission requirements, test it, and then launch and fly the mission, I don't really understand why you'd want KSP to be portable - when exactly in your day do you have time to set up somewhere long enough to do all or any of that?

If only you could save your progress and resume it later.... ;)

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Considering how much time it takes for KSP to load up, to build a decent rocket that meets your mission requirements, test it, and then launch and fly the mission, I don't really understand why you'd want KSP to be portable - when exactly in your day do you have time to set up somewhere long enough to do all or any of that?

I fly on a somewhat frequent basis. This game would be such a perfect time-killer on those flights and in between. As it is, however, I have Bastion, FTL (such an awesome game), and KOTOR to keep me occupied.

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In my case I'm weekly commuting at the moment and my laptop takes up way too much space in hand luggage on the plane, and is a lower spec than the tablet, so I quite fancy being able to play a bit of KSP in the evenings while I'm away.

That's fair enough.

If only you could save your progress and resume it later.... ;)

Personally I get frustrated with too many short sessions building not getting to fly, or flying but not really progressing. I couldn't do half of what I do if my max session was 15-20 minutes at a go.

I fly on a somewhat frequent basis. This game would be such a perfect time-killer on those flights and in between. As it is, however, I have Bastion, FTL (such an awesome game), and KOTOR to keep me occupied.

Also true.

For me I can't imagine wanting to travel without my laptop. I don't own a tablet and can't imagine how it could be an improvement. Then again, this is coming from the guy who's still using a 7-year-old 13" white-placky Macbook every day.

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One big issue with mobile gaming are the controlls, the other is lacking CPU power...

While touch works in theory for building rockets, i doubt its accurate enough. It would go completly nuts when you try to controll anything touch is simply not able to do anything that needs precise input, e.g. docking. Maybe this can be solved by incredibly complicated controlls, where half your screen is buttons...

The Issue with CPU power is another one, KSP is extremly demanding and you cant use a good enough CPU in a tablet. The Surface Pro 3 is the fastest tablet currently on the market, soon to be replaced by the Pro 4, which will have a little more power. From my own Surface Pro 3 i know that even a active cooled laptop grade CPU isnt good enough for enjoyable gameplay (it runs, but bad), there are also issues with battery life and overheating under long heavy workloads. Those issues wont be solved for years to come simply because there are only very small improvements on these fields...

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KSP for PC is very unoptimized... iPad Air 2 has 64-bits, 2GB RAM, and Metal API. (iPad Pro has 4GB RAM). I'm sure it'd run great on it if KSP were optimized.. maybe with Unity 5 as engine it would be easier to port?

Too bad about the interface though, it'd have to be totally rewritten.

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That wouldnt make sense, since with less work (since its not an neverused platform) it could run even better on PC. In that case it would enable plaing KSP on cheap Windows Laptops/Tablets and also greatly speed up the game on all PCs that are currently able to run it. But "optimizing" sounds easier than it is, it would propably require Squad to write an own engine with its own physics, that would be about a 2-years task for a team of 10...

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