Ideas for Official KSP App

[Jeanjvs]

I just had an idea for a official Kerbal Space Program App. Many of you know how bored you can get when you can´t access your computer to play KSP for whatever reason (at least i do). But, in many of those occasions, you have access to your phone or tablet, which doesn't solve the problem, since there is no KSP-related App that allows you to do more than look at a few stats, calculate delta-v, etc. That's why i think there should be a Official mobile app for KSP that allows you to actually do something on your saves and ships (or planes. or rockets. or Danny's apocalypse machines. You get the point).

Since the full experience of KSP is incompatible with touchscreens, my idea is to put only the ship editor and maybe the tracking station on the app. That way you can create your Duna lander while waiting your food on the restaurant or tweak your Jool-5 mothership during a boring work meeting (doing that could get you fired but, hey, now you have that nice badge on your signature!).

If transferring those .craft files from your phone or tablet to your computer becomes a problem, then this app could include a small cloud with ~50MB, so that you can save your ships (or whatever) on your phone and upload them when you get home.

 

But that's just me. Do you have other ideas for a possible Official KSP App?

 

[Choctofliatrio2.0]

That sounds like a really cool idea. I'd get it.

[legoclone09]

I'd buy that for $3! This is a great idea! I'll see if I can get @SQUAD to look at it.

[Zargg]

Yea I've been thinking about attempting something like a remote controller app, but it's been so long since I've done serious programming it would probably take me quite a long time to do it, and not even sure how possible it would be. You would have a mod running on your KSP at home that acts as server, and your phone app is the client that can send commands, all of which would basically rely on mechjebs autopilot to perform all your maneuvers. The server mod would just report back to the app whether or not it was successful, so you'd be flying by the numbers, no visual queues during the maneuvers.

For example, on the app you'd have a list of your saved ships, you could pick one and say launch. Your computer back home would load that ship onto the launch pad and just start mechjebs auto-launch function. After a few minutes when mechjeb has done it's magic, your app would receive a mission update that includes current info like a screenshot of your ship, delta v, orbit info, all that good stuff mechjeb already provides. Then you could select to do a transfer to the mun, so mechjeb back at your home machine just creates the node and executes like normal, after which you get a new mission status update, and so on and so forth.

Obviously if something goes wrong with your ship, there wouldn't be much you could do about it until you get home and actually watch what is happening, but if you have something you know works, and assuming mechjeb auto pilot doesn't go haywire, I imagine you'd be able to do quite a bit.

 

[azander]

Use dropbox, or any of the 'free' drive spaces out there and you can transfer your crafts that way.  One less think for squad to deal with (server storage space, security, etc).

 

I happen to use a NFS drive to share mine between PC's.  One almost always has the VAP or SPH open, while the other runs the missions themselves.

 

Az

[Jeanjvs]

5 hours ago, azander said:

Use dropbox, or any of the 'free' drive spaces out there and you can transfer your crafts that way.  One less think for squad to deal with (server storage space, security, etc).

 

I happen to use a NFS drive to share mine between PC's.  One almost always has the VAP or SPH open, while the other runs the missions themselves.

 

Az

That's probably a much better approach. I would like to have something called "Kerbal Kloud", though.

[Bilfr3d]

Depending on device specs and how optimised Squad can make the code, it may not even run on mobile devices. After being able to even run it, they'd have to remake the editor design for the mobile platform, and maintain it for future updates. Which I don't see SQUAD dedicating assets to. Plus, servers to maintain any services required in terms of craft access, if SQUAD wishes to have online cloud craft storage. A cloud craft storage and sharing system would be a good addition to combat the mediafire closure too, and would provide the backbone services for any future craft editor or sharing app.

 

Also, this should probably be in the suggestions/development section, not general

[qromodynmc]

They can make Plane/rocket editor, but without physics, just visual.

Or atleast they can make information app, with map view, dv view, resource view so we dont have to change screens every time, and they can make remote pilot app, where you can draw orbits and game runs for you.

 

[pandaman]

I think a sensibly useable game play and/or editor app would be difficult to create and very fiddly to use, so would soon become too much trouble once the initial novelty of having it had worn off,  but if someone proves me wrong then it'll be awesome.

A decent, comprehensive,  mission planner app though should be very possible, and useful.  There already are/have been a few apps that go some way towards this.

[MaxPeck]

15 hours ago, azander said:

I happen to use a NFS drive to share mine between PC's.  One almost always has the VAP or SPH open, while the other runs the missions themselves.

Wait... more than one instance of KSP can have the same save file open?  

[Jeanjvs]

13 hours ago, pandaman said:

I think a sensibly useable game play and/or editor app would be difficult to create and very fiddly to use, so would soon become too much trouble once the initial novelty of having it had worn off,  but if someone proves me wrong then it'll be awesome.

A decent, comprehensive,  mission planner app though should be very possible, and useful.  There already are/have been a few apps that go some way towards this.

I'm not sure of how KSP works internally, but i've heard that the map mode is kind of a minigame inside the main game. If the editor is also a minigame, then maybe it could be relatively easy to "extract" it from the rest of the game and hire another company to port it to mobile devices, just like they did with the console versions, although it would definitely be harder.

 

But i have absolutely no idea if this is even possible.

[I_Killed_Jeb]

Extrapolating the idea, it'd be really nice if the editor could be its own program to run on lower-spec computers or laptops one might have access to outside of one's home.

[batman78781]

Sounds cool! This would definitely be fun to use.

[klesh]

The official Kerbalizer app has been out for 2+ years and still isnt incorporated into the game.  Don't hold your breath for anything beyond that.  

[steuben]

- kerbalizer
- craft viewer
- sph/vab lite, this will probably end up being for stock parts only, and maybe tricky to sync with a computer version of KSP

[BloodDusk]

As long as it has an Android version, it's kind of wait and see.

[Snikersnee]

we need an app, official or not, that can read .craft files. I don't even have to be able to edit them, I would just like to view them. (And maybe the tracking station too.)

[azander]

On 1/21/2016 at 9:51 AM, JJE64 said:

Wait... more than one instance of KSP can have the same save file open?  

They don't share the persistant.cfg file.  They share the saved craft dir.  I edit them in one, save it, then load it into the other.  I use the same GameData dir as well.  Took some tweaking, but it works.

 

 

[legoclone09]

We need a mobile VAB, it doesn't need these fancy 'physics' or 'Planets'

[Bilfr3d]

1 hour ago, legoclone09 said:

We need a mobile VAB, it doesn't need these fancy 'physics' or 'Planets'

Just because it won't have any fancy "physics" or "planets" doesn't suddenly make it possible. The amount of system resources required for the textures, models and interface assets I'd expect to be around 500-1000mb of RAM, even in a compressed form. Most 'average' android phones only have 1GB of RAM, of which only about 500-600mb is actually able to be used by programs in a COMPLETELY stock phone. Extra apps load phones down more and consume more RAM, so just a mobile VAB is only likely to run on high-end mobile phones, unless some extremely efficient compression, texturing, modelling or model viewing method is found. Also don't forget that all the parts are poly 3D models, with many points on their faces, and many faces on their sides. This can easily put strain on a processor when rendering 3D models such as these, and as a result I doubt any 'mobile VAB' would run on low-end devices, most medium-end devices, and even some high-end devices.

Sure, SQUAD could try, but in the end if it's something that doesn't turn out to be feasible for the larger population of mobile users, then they've spent a whole chunk of time developing this app that only, say, 5% of the community can actually use. Down the drain goes all that money they used in developing that 'mobile VAB'. I doubt SQUAD would take the risk of investing time into something that might possibly (that's a 50% on a 50% there) return some profits. I also wouldn't expect them putting a small pricetag on it, I'd be bracing myself to see something in the neighborhood of $5-$7(USD).

So yeah, while it's a good idea and all, it probably isn't a very feasible idea with current tech and limitations.

[steuben]

except it won't need 1 gig worth of textures. it won't need textures at all just a plain colour map, or maybe are really basic one. full 3-d models aren't required either. imagine VAB/SPH lite not as a full replacement of the in-game one, but as more of the back of an envelope or a whiteboard. it is answering the question of is this design possible and what will it look like, not what are the fine details of the build.

 

[Snikersnee]

And it won't need the little kerbal dude or even he SPH. It could just be in an empty void of space like simple planes.

 

[Benoit Hage]

a minimal version for the RaspberryPi version would also be nice!

[Guest]

I'm thinking that the editor even might be hard.  There's lots of keyboard commands with even that.

[Snikersnee]

I don't think we need the editor, just the ability to view the .craft files.