Stock Replays!

[Missingno200]

I'm shocked that such a feature doesn't exist in KSP1. From my understanding, it would need minimal effort to implement. In short, I want a system where I can record the inputs of the flight you are currently on. This then offers not only a lightweight and easy way to share "video"(although you'd have to provide a save file too), but also let's you get beautiful screenshots later instead of focusing on the flight at the same time.

KSP has a surprising cinematic community, so such a feature would definitely get used, even if its only to record different angles for a video.

Edited July 3, 2021 by Missingno200
Typos.

[pandaman]

I do like this, but any system would need to record and save events.  That would need to be always running, and saving, in the background (or 'toggled off').  So resources would be consumed to do that, which could impact performance.

How far back do you want to be able to go? 5 min?, 10 min?, more? (Selectable options makes sense for this)  It would obviously need to save that info/video somewhere in case you want to view it, and presumably auto discard it too, to avoid filling up your hard drive too quickly 

I did used to use a mod that took screenshots at predetermined intervals, video option too iirc.  I liked it, but it paused gameplay noticeably when taking a screenshot.

[Missingno200]

Click a button, it starts, click another, it stops? The demo feature is seen in many other games with minimal performance impact while recording, even when dealing with thousands of active physics objects. In normal play, one of these replays would only take have maybe 10-20 of those, the rest probably won't be active enough to necessarily need to record any input.

The problem with replays is that they need all of the initial data to start recording. There's a lot of that in KSP and undoubtedly in KSP2, so this means saving every 5-10-15-20-etc minutes with a fresh save, which not only means tonnes of wasted space, but also it will be noticeable. Assuming it throws out the replay once it starts a new one, then the situation becomes that its totally unusable for long haul flights.

Edited July 3, 2021 by Missingno200
Added second part

[OHara]

KSP1 players were interested enough in this idea to make a similar mod, called Persistent Trails.  This idea has some uses (analysing an operation after completion, formation flight)  that seem to fit well with KSP in general.

LunaMultiplayer does something related as a side-effect to its job of relaying each players' flight information to the others.  Players can time-warp as needed, and if one player is a few minutes Kerbal-time ahead of the others, the one player's actions are queued up so LunaMultiplayer replays them for the other players when they reach the appropriate Kerbal-time.

[Missingno200]

57 minutes ago, OHara said:

KSP1 players were interested enough in this idea to make a similar mod, called Persistent Trails.  This idea has some uses (analysing an operation after completion, formation flight)  that seem to fit well with KSP in general.

LunaMultiplayer does something related as a side-effect to its job of relaying each players' flight information to the others.  Players can time-warp as needed, and if one player is a few minutes Kerbal-time ahead of the others, the one player's actions are queued up so LunaMultiplayer replays them for the other players when they reach the appropriate Kerbal-time.

Yeah, almost looks like Persistent Trails may be it, but its not only unfamothably buggy, but also was apparently not what was necessary back then. Also, it hasn't been updated since 1.0.2, but I digress. It almost looks like this is kind of what I want.

LMP doing that is what gives me hope for this feature, because I'm hedging my bets that they're going to try the D/LMP route of handling it as the final answer to the timewarp problem, which would indicate to me that they're going to have a very similar feature they could just retool.

[linuxgurugamer]

58 minutes ago, Missingno200 said:

Yeah, almost looks like Persistent Trails may be it, but its not only unfamothably buggy, but also was apparently not what was necessary back then. Also, it hasn't been updated since 1.0.2, but I digress. It almost looks like this is kind of what I want.

LMP doing that is what gives me hope for this feature, because I'm hedging my bets that they're going to try the D/LMP route of handling it as the final answer to the timewarp problem, which would indicate to me that they're going to have a very similar feature they could just retool.

There is an updated version of the mod here:

 

[OHara]

Just to avoid scaring away anyone who does want to try it, while Persistent Trails hasn't been updated, but it has been recompiled to binaries that work with the latest KSPs.  There's a link at the end of its thread.  The longstanding bugs are things like craft re-playing always with the gear down.

[Missingno200]

So, closer examination shows it really isn't what I want, but its VERY close, and probably will be my solution for KSP1. KSP2 has a chance to implement this stock though, which again, I hope they do for a few reasons.

[Dr. Kerbal]

I hope that maybe a modder could remake the Replay Mod (a mod that relays your activity in Minecraft) but in Kerbal. 

[The Flying Kerbal]

Sounds like fun!  Good players like most of you guys would be able to record all those historic moments for posterity.  For me, I'd be able to save all those launch failures and explosions for your entertainment!