Squadcast August 18th: First look at v1.2!

[AlphaMensae]

Today's Squadcast, with @NathanKell, @Mu and @Arsonide was a most pleasant surprise:  The first look at 1.2!   Not the release build of course, not even experimentals, but the latest (I'm assuming) dev build.  There were some technical issues with Mu's audio until they switched to Skype, and Arsonide's internet had problems so he was mostly active in chat.

NathanKell had the Unity profiler running as well, so you could see the various performance stats, and at the start he showed the difference between 1.1.3 under Unity 5.2.4 and 1.2 under Unity 5.4, using some example member-submitted stress tests like @Monsterlunch's 500-vessel save and @Azimech's stock turboprop plane.  Big difference in performance between 1.1.3 and 1.2, especially with garbage production (the "GC Alloc" column in the Unity Profiler window); 1.2 at most produced a few kilobytes of garbage, much of the time is was zero.

Other highlights were the the new fuel-flow priority toggles, @Claw's reworked SAS, the new fonts and the new debug menu with the orbit-setting and create-a-Kerbal screens.

 

[Azimech]

Oh wow! Gotta see this!

[NathanKell]

They weren't even builds, they were running in Unity itself.

[Gman_builder]

This game just keeps getting better and better!

 

[Azimech]

1 minute ago, NathanKell said:

They weren't even builds, they were running in Unity itself.

I'm amazed at what's possible ... those graphs ... fascinating!

[Iamsodarncool]

2 hours ago, NathanKell said:

They weren't even builds, they were running in Unity itself.

Sorry for my ignorance, but does this mean there will be even more performance gains when it's compiled into a build?

Thanks for showing off 1.2 so far before its release, I hope the practice continues with future versions

[NathanKell]

@Iamsodarncool The relative gains should be correct; the difference is that the absolute numbers are very off (1.1.3 is way faster than running that codebase in the 5.2.4 editor, and 1.2 will be way faster in a build than when running in its editor).

[Iamsodarncool]

@NathanKell Thank you! You actually explained it very well in the stream, I should have watched that before commenting rather than the other way around.

[Alshain]

I'm a bit surprised you guys were brave enough to show that (I know if I were in your shoes I wouldn't have been).  I'll have to go watch the recording.

[Corw]

"I find Whack a Kerbal offensive so I've renamed it"

You can tell he is from UK just by this line

[Azimech]

Could be interesting to test exactly how much CPU power is being used by the FX subsystem @NathanKell, those 40 blowers on my engine produce an awful lot of contrails. I always edit them out at home. Would be terrific if you guys could include a menu toggle to switch off jet engine contrails at low altitudes, especially aimed at those console users who would like to do some engineering. Someone even built a clock using jet engines: https://kerbalx.com/hangars/6515
Whose idea was it to pollute Kerbin with massive amounts of unburned kerosine anyway? Maybe it's advertising: "Our engines are even worse than the J79, at least that one produced a thin trail of soot, it semi-burned it's fuel".
Or airplanes are moving within a cryogenic subspace bubble, that could explain the contrails too.

 

[Streetwind]

@Laguna - I take it then that the purported reworked rocket parts, were not part of this demo? Can't watch video here, but I would think that you'd mention it in your summary.

Guess they aren't coming until 1.3 then... Kind of expected that already, tbh, after Squad hasn't mentioned them in the devnotes in any way since... uhhh... *checks* ...May.

 

[AlphaMensae]

7 hours ago, Streetwind said:

@Laguna - I take it then that the purported reworked rocket parts, were not part of this demo? Can't watch video here, but I would think that you'd mention it in your summary.

Guess they aren't coming until 1.3 then... Kind of expected that already, tbh, after Squad hasn't mentioned them in the devnotes in any way since... uhhh... *checks* ...May.

 

I actually completely forgot about them, but I think that was due to the fact that the craft shown didn't make much use of non-3.75m or plane parts.  One was a monster asparagus-staged rocket of NASA tanks and Mammoths, and Azimech's turboprop plane was of course mostly plane and structural parts.  NathanKell did fly a stock craft, the Dynawing, which is of course a shuttle-type vessel using Mk3 parts, Vectors and a NASA tank.   Nothing that used a pod, Reliant/Swivel, 909, Poodle, Skipper or Mainsail was shown--and those I think are the highest priority parts in dire need of a makeover.

I suspect what Porkjet has done is not to the scale of Ven's Stock Revamp, and only the oldest parts, particularly engines, have been redone; nothing from the NASA addition or 1.0.5 will be affected.

[regex]

Good lord, that is amazing.  This is the update we've needed.

Edited August 19, 2016 by regex

[pandaman]

Yes, I watched that last night, 1.2 looks like it's going to be a really good update on several levels. 

@GregroxMun - better start servicing the hype train ready.   It got to be in tip top condition for this one, I think it'll get a lot of heavy use.  Can I reserve my first class ticket now please,  as I didn't get a concession last time for being a cute endangered species? 

[klgraham1013]

Yep.  I'm on the hype train for this one.  I'll probably still hold off updating until all the hotfixes are out.  Not being negative, just realistic.

[Whirligig Girl]

13 minutes ago, pandaman said:

@GregroxMun - better start servicing the hype train ready.   It got to be in tip top condition for this one, I think it'll get a lot of heavy use.  

Can I reserve my first class ticket now please,  as I didn't get a concession last time for being a cute endangered species? 

1: Definitely going to have to do that soon. Luckily it hasn't been quite so long as last time that we had the big Hype Train running. 

2: No, ticket sales start when the train starts.