Switching from console, what should I expect?

[Aliquido]

I need to know what to expect as I am finally switching over from console. I need to know some good mods, techniques etc.

[Aliquido]

Also, I forgot to add into the description. Is KSP available on MacOS?

[Curveball Anders]

4 minutes ago, Aliquido said:

Also, I forgot to add into the description. Is KSP available on MacOS?

Yes.

Windows, Mac and Linux.

[Bej Kerman]

Easy Vessel Switch, vastly improves navigating between nearby spacecrafts

PersistentThrust

NearFuture and FarFuture by Nertea

[adsii1970]

47 minutes ago, Bej Kerman said:

NearFuture and FarFuture by Nertea

Change that to anything by Nertea!

Oh, and EVE. You'll thank us later!

[Singhnaut]

1 hour ago, Aliquido said:

I need to know what to expect as I am finally switching over from console. I need to know some good mods, techniques etc.

An EXTREMELY good mod that has recently been massively revamped is Parallax. It makes ksp look like microsoft flight simulator and changes the terrain and underwater features of all celestial bodies (I don't know about Jool...). If you are concerned about collision with tiny rocks and harder landings, there is a solution. In the config file, you can change the collision settings from true to false or vice versa. Combined with EVE, Scatterer, and a decent computer, these mods will make your game stunning. Just don't overindulge on mods like I did. My old laptop dies after five minutes because of the amount of mods I installed

[Bej Kerman]

38 minutes ago, Singhnaut said:

It makes ksp look like microsoft flight simulator

It's a good mod, not trying to undermine it, but I think trying to compare it to MSFS is somewhat disingenuous and sets unrealistic expectations.

[Singhnaut]

5 minutes ago, Bej Kerman said:

It's a good mod, not trying to undermine it, but I think trying to compare it to MSFS is somewhat disingenuous and sets unrealistic expectations.

What I meant is the attention to small detail is much better. I feel MSFS overacheived in their attention to detail and parallax is much more affordable. MSFS also needs a really good PC. In short, what I meant was overall. Definetly not in terms of graphics:)

[t_v]

36 minutes ago, Singhnaut said:

An EXTREMELY good mod that has recently been massively revamped is Parallax. It makes ksp look like microsoft flight simulator and changes the terrain and underwater features of all celestial bodies (I don't know about Jool...). If you are concerned about collision with tiny rocks and harder landings, there is a solution. In the config file, you can change the collision settings from true to false or vice versa. Combined with EVE, Scatterer, and a decent computer, these mods will make your game stunning. Just don't overindulge on mods like I did. My old laptop dies after five minutes because of the amount of mods I installed

If you are on MacOS, you don't have access to Parallax, and every other graphics mod runs worse than on Windows. I would recommend putting your KSP install on a VM if you have one, but without Parallax, Scatterer, EVE, and Waterfall run pretty well. 

On the content side, I would highly recommend Nertea's mods as mentioned above (make sure to install Heat Control if you are using near/far future), and Extraplanetary Launchpads. I really like the style that Angel-125 brings to mods, and things like Blueshift and Sandcastle make FTL and construction feel like much more accessible and like they fit into stock. 

(lastly, I would install these via CKAN, which uses the Terminal UI for MacOS, it really helps to easily manage your mods and dependencies)

[Bej Kerman]

12 minutes ago, Singhnaut said:

I feel MSFS overacheived in their attention to detail and parallax is much more affordable.

Parallax is probably more affordable than MSFS because the latter is a 1:1 recreation of the Earth using expensive AI terrain generation and CFD airflow simulation technologies - that, and "overachieved" is not a term I thought any KSP player would ever use 

I do believe my original point stands.

[Singhnaut]

1 hour ago, Bej Kerman said:

Parallax is probably more affordable than MSFS because the latter is a 1:1 recreation of the Earth using expensive AI terrain generation and CFD airflow simulation technologies - that, and "overachieved" is not a term I thought any KSP player would ever use 

I do believe my original point stands.

It does, of course. I used the wrong term in my sentence. When I said overachieved, I meant that they were so accurate in their mapping, that some parts of the mapping are understandably glitchy. The fact that MSFS was able to achieve this is amazing itself. KSP's parallax, however, is free, made by one person, and doesn't have said glitches (For the most part). MSFS has better graphics and realism, but Parallax, in my opinion, set it's sights on the extremely fine line between high detail and high realism. MSFS and Parallax are both impressive in their own ways, and I agree with your point as well as my own (Although I definitely could have worded my statement better).  

Anyways, lets give a shoutout to the MSFS crew and GamesLinx for their amazing work

[Bej Kerman]

1 hour ago, Singhnaut said:

I meant that they were so accurate in their mapping, that some parts of the mapping are understandably glitchy

That doesn't make much sense... if something's glitchy, it's not because the AI generating the buildings is perfect, it's because it's flawed. You're going to get glitches regardless of how long developers spend perfecting the Blackshark AI. "it's so good that it's glitchy" doesn't make much sense personally to me. The glitches aren't a consequence of the mapping being good, the glitches are a consequence of the AI needing to have some more work put into it.

1 hour ago, Singhnaut said:

KSP's parallax, however, is free, made by one person, and doesn't have said glitches

Because it isn't trying to parse buildings, forests and landmarks from largely 2D top-down images. Boiling it down to its most basic functionality, it enhances a few very basic graphics. Not to undermine GamesLinx's work, I'm trying to make the point that you can't compare a mod for an 11 year old game to what happens when Microsoft decides to put possibly billions of dollars into digitally recreating Earth. Parallax isn't walking "a fine line between realism and detail", even though those two aren't mutually exclusive. It's just enhancing stock KSP's basic graphics.

1 hour ago, Singhnaut said:

Anyways, lets give a shoutout to the MSFS crew and GamesLinx for their amazing work

This makes sense and I can agree with it

Edited September 23, 2022 by Bej Kerman