Mobile Version of KSP

[João722772]

Hi

[Catto]

7 hours ago, João722772 said:

Hi

Hello

[darthgently]

On 1/31/2018 at 1:14 PM, ChairmanJones said:

Unity 5 can build for iOS and Android, it's technically feasible and several games use the Unity engine on mobile fairly well. Moving to a touch interface is the challenge.

I could see a simplified version working fine on higher powered phones.  But I think that "welding" of multiple parts into a single part to keep part count down and a lower ceiling on part counts for craft.  If graphics aspects that affect performance were dialed down, like terrain detail, mesh densities, texture resolution, maybe even a reduced palette, simplified visual effects, etc, it is probably doable in a playable way.  But it wouldn't be the same.  It would be more like Doom before GPUs.  More like a cross between Simple Rockets and KSP.  Which could be worth buying depending

[tater]

On the plus side is that iOS and MacOS are now compatible. So iOS gets iPad, iPhones, and Macs all into the bargain.

[Bej Kerman]

On 1/28/2021 at 3:40 AM, Gargamel said:

KSP runs acceptably well on very old hardware

Being liberal with the meaning of acceptably, yes.

[Lisias]

41 minutes ago, Bej Kerman said:

Being liberal with the meaning of acceptably, yes.

KSP 1.4.3 runs absolutely fine on 2012 hardware (if you max out the memory, it's nearly perfect).

The worst bottleneck since KSP 1.8.0 are the crappy Unity handling of threads (busy waits everywhere - also known as spin-locks) and the Parts revamp that nearly doubled  the RAM and VRAM consuption without functional gains (and with the UI bug applying mipmaps on GUI glyphs, lowering the texture quality renders the UI nearly unusable).

[BekfastDerp13]

Someone probably suggested this already, but just get Simplerockets. I know it's not the same but it's the next best alternative.

[Bej Kerman]

37 minutes ago, Lisias said:

Parts revamp

Don't get me started. The immense effort Squad put into "refining" 0.01% of the parts overall made the game 25% worse.

[Lisias]

8 hours ago, Bej Kerman said:

Don't get me started. The immense effort Squad put into "refining" 0.01% of the parts overall made the game 25% worse.

The refining was OK IMHO.

The never fixed bugs on the codebase are the culprits.

Had the Texture Quality be correctly implemented, you could just reduce the Texture Quality and keep playing normally.

Proof of Concept: make a full backup of the whole KSP 1.12.3 installment and on the copy, run ImageMagick resizing all DDS files with more than 64x64 pixels to 75% or even 50% and then go for a test drive on your old rig.

If you trimm the resizing to use the better algorithm for each image (some complex textures look bad on the fastest ones), you will get a significantly enhancement in the performance without too much impact (if ever, if you are really on a Potato like me) on the Visuals.

The ground texturing is also a CPU hog nowadays -by the way. I don't think the extra burden on my rig worths the visual enhancements,  but that thing is locked on high qualify no matter the setting I use. 

Apparently the increased size of the PQS cache on 1.4.4 screwed me up royally on my old MacCrap. I would had made good use of an option to set the size of the PQS cache to the one used by 1.4.3.

--- POST EDIT ---

In a nutshell, right now I have a computer with twice the cores, twice the RAM e 3 times more VRAM and yet KSP 1.12.x performs 4 times worst then KSP 1.4.3 running on my original machine.

I used to get 60 FPS on small crafts on the older rig.

Now I get 15 to 20 tops on the Space Center. Loading a simple craft into flight drops the FPS to 13 or 14 - with blurry graphics, because I had to lower the texture quality and it screws up the User Interface.

Edited April 28, 2022 by Lisias
Hate autocompletes

[Lisias]

On 4/27/2022 at 4:11 PM, Bej Kerman said:

Don't get me started. The immense effort Squad put into "refining" 0.01% of the parts overall made the game 25% worse.

Dude, your guesses were interestingly accurate!

Give a peek on the numbers  of this post:

 

[Aerodynamic Kerbal]

KSP on mobile will be like GTA V on a Nokia 3310!

But if there are less parts, worse graphics, it might work.

[Lisias]

12 hours ago, Aerodynamic Kerbal said:

KSP on mobile will be like GTA V on a Nokia 3310!

But if there are less parts, worse graphics, it might work.

Something like KSP 1.2.2 would do fine on it, I think. Once someone cooks a viable UI for the thing - mouse style UI will not cut it.

[Aerodynamic Kerbal]

10 hours ago, Lisias said:

Something like KSP 1.2.2 would do fine on it, I think. Once someone cooks a viable UI for the thing - mouse style UI will not cut it.

I've tried playing with my PS4 controller on my phone. It worked out with Bluetooth. So I guess the controls could not oppose a problem - just get a cheap controller and you're done.

[Deddly]

7 minutes ago, Aerodynamic Kerbal said:

I've tried playing with my PS4 controller on my phone. It worked out with Bluetooth. So I guess the controls could not oppose a problem - just get a cheap controller and you're done.

And, indeed, Bluetooth keyboards and mice can also be connected to Android devices. That solves matters for the player, but it would be hard for a company to sell something to mobile users that requires an additional hardware purchase. There would have to be a working touch-screen interface as well, or hardware would have to be bundled with the game. 

[Aerodynamic Kerbal]

3 minutes ago, Deddly said:

And, indeed, Bluetooth keyboards and mice can also be connected to Android devices. That solves matters for the player, but it would be hard for a company to sell something to mobile users that requires an additional hardware purchase. There would have to be a working touch-screen interface as well, or hardware would have to be bundled with the game. 

There should, but if you happen to have a controller or Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, problem solved!

[Lisias]

1 hour ago, Deddly said:

And, indeed, Bluetooth keyboards and mice can also be connected to Android devices. That solves matters for the player, but it would be hard for a company to sell something to mobile users that requires an additional hardware purchase. There would have to be a working touch-screen interface as well, or hardware would have to be bundled with the game. 

I would "love" to see someone pulling a IR keyboard and a Finger mouse somewhere on the wild, like a bus or an airplane!

Spoiler

 

[Deddly]

56 minutes ago, Lisias said:

I would "love" to see someone pulling a IR keyboard and a Finger mouse somewhere on the wild, like a bus or an airplane!

  Hide contents

 

Or if Lenovo would release that phone they made years ago:

 

[Lisias]

46 minutes ago, Deddly said:

Or if Lenovo would release that phone they made years ago:

On the other hand… Any fly would stage your rocket, ruining your day!

[Death Engineering]

On 4/30/2022 at 6:07 AM, Lisias said:

On the other hand… Any fly would stage your rocket, ruining your day!

Ha my cats would have a great time with that!

[Fletch4]

maybe you could play a version where craft have to be pre loaded, and physics is already calculated. then, when you transfer over the craft, the parts are fused together and you fly it as you would in any other flying simulation.