My first impressions on the day one launch.

[LostElement]

Hello fellow Kerbonauts! 

Let me start off by saying that this game has been a very long time coming. The first Kerbal Space Program was my first game I ever bought on the PC back in 2013 and has always captivated my interest in the cosmos. KSP2 has been on my watchlist since it had been officially been announced and now I am glad it's here. I only wish I could really enjoy it now.

I could really only manage to play the game for roughly an hour as launching rockets completely tanks my FPS. Even while on the lowest settings, I can only achieve ~3-5 FPS when launching from Kerbin, in orbit of Kerbin (or in low orbit near any celestial body). Map view appears unaffected. If it was something like, 15-20 frames, that's doable enough for me, but alas, that is not the case. So, I have to wait longer, at least until the roll out some optimizations. Perhaps it has something do with render distances or something.  I do feel the UI could use some refinement, particularly the parts selection. I don't know if it's just me, but I feel it takes up too much space and that icons are too big. For me, I prefer a more condensed UI, but others may like it. There was also the matter of camera manipulation. I felt it was a little... clunky? Perhaps I am just too used to the first KSP's controls.

Now that I got the only bad thing out of the way, I'd like to get to what I do enjoy. The new sounds are fantastic, especially for the rockets. Their implementation of rocket booster noises from actual recorded footage is pretty much spot on. The fidelity of the game is gorgeous. Much to my GPU's suffering, I did max out the graphics to look at some of the views the game had to offer. Curse my old Vega 64! Moving on, the build menu is quite nice, I like the retro aesthetic to it and perhaps in the future, the UI can be customizable. The models themselves look fantastic and well made, and I very much look forward to the future content including their interstellar parts! I had managed to build a general design of the rocket and do a flyby of the Mun on my first launch (woo!) and it made me excited for what the developers have in store.

Overall, I wish I can enjoy what KSP2 has to offer, even if it's less than KSP1, but until some optimizations come, I'll just have to keep track of the updates. That's my only issue with this game, that I can't really play it.  That's just my thoughts regarding the day one release of this game, and I definitely look forward to its future.  Thanks for taking the time to hear my little thoughts and rant, fly safe out there!

[BobbyDausus]

The performance is horrible indeed,unacceptable,but also there are some good things i like as well,even tho  i can't play the game....Sounds are amazing and to be fair,i like the UI,not as bad as other people say.I also like the parts

[LostElement]

Just now, BobbyDausus said:

The performance is horrible indeed,unacceptable,but also there are some good things i like as well,even tho  i can't play the game....Sounds are amazing and to be fair,i like the UI,not as bad as other people say.I also like the parts

It is a shame that the performance is quite poor, but the developers did state the game is far from ready. We're basically playing an Alpha game right now, which is why I'm not too jerked up about it. The original KSP faced similar performance issues in its own infancy.

[TomKerbal]

KSP2 is great so far, just tested it for an hour. I have a quite powerfull PC and have some strange FPS values too, but let's wait and see. Have only two resolutions to choose from (HDMI standards, not my 1920x1200), that's my biggest problem so far.

=> Solved with:

But great! Just quickly set up a test rocket, it flies straight out of the planet system... without asking further questions :-D ... whow, it's quite long ago I used the stock planet system (only use RSS). How easy this is :-)

I am very happy so far, the story continues. Party on !

Edited February 25, 2023 by TomKerbal

[Raptus]

A balanced thoughtful take!

I am running on a MacBook Pro M2 Max via Windows 11 on Parallels emulation w/ medium-ish settings.

Overall, not horrible actually! 30-50 FPS using some stock craft, haven't had time to build my own rockets yet. It looks amazing, expect for clouds are dark and water has visual glitches, so I turn those settings to low and it's tolerable. The models are generally pretty dope, and lowering the transparency settings on painted surfaces bring just the right amount of shine.

The sound is amazing. I expected the rocket sounds to be amazing based on the preview videos, but the music, and the interface sounds, and all the little things really are impressive. She of the tutorial voices are meh, but overall... A+.

The controls are a bit awkward, but I agree... maybe 10K-ish hours of muscle memory just needs some time to adapt (and some minor changes could be made). I think we will be good in the long/med run.

I hope they make some more optimizations soon so that you can jump back in with us.

I'll be spending the rest of the day making rockets and seeing what this MacBook can do while I wait for my gaming PC to get it's 5700 XT "fixed".

[LostElement]

Just now, TomKerbal said:

KSP2 is great so far, just tested it for an hour. I have a quite powerfull PC and have some strange FPS values too, but let's wait and see. Have only two resolutions to chooses from (HDMI standards, not my 1920x1200), that's my biggest problem so far.

But great! Just quickly set up a test rocket, it flies straight out of the planet system... without asking further questions :-D ... whow, it's quite long ago I used the stock planet system (only use RSS). How easy this is :-)

I am very happy so far, the story continues. Party on !

Maybe I can get some more playable FPS if I update my drivers and reduce the resolution from 1440p to 1080p, but somehow, I feel like it wouldn't change it enough for it to be bearable gameplay.

Just now, Raptus said:

A balanced thoughtful take!

I am running on a MacBook Pro M2 Max via Windows 11 on Parallels emulation w/ medium-ish settings.

Overall, not horrible actually! 30-50 FPS using some stock craft, haven't had time to build my own rockets yet. It looks amazing, expect for clouds are dark and water has visual glitches, so I turn those settings to low and it's tolerable. The models are generally pretty dope, and lowering the transparency settings on painted surfaces bring just the right amount of shine.

The sound is amazing. I expected the rocket sounds to be amazing based on the preview videos, but the music, and the interface sounds, and all the little things really are impressive. She of the tutorial voices are meh, but overall... A+.

The controls are a bit awkward, but I agree... maybe 10K-ish hours of muscle memory just needs some time to adapt (and some minor changes could be made). I think we will be good in the long/med run.

I hope they make some more optimizations soon so that you can jump back in with us.

I'll be spending the rest of the day making rockets and seeing what this MacBook can do while I wait for my gaming PC to get it's 5700 XT "fixed".

Thanks! I try to keep in mind that modern game development is actually quite difficult and time consuming. Plus, there's no point on constantly bashing on the developers; more helpful to them to lay down respectful critisisms.

And I agree with the tutorials, I'd watch them, but I don't like the voice all too much. I get that it's supposed to be welcoming, simple and easy but I find it hard for me to tolerate. Some may like it, others may not. If I need any tutorials, I guess I'll have to rely on good ol Scott Manley!  
 

[Raptus]

7 minutes ago, LostElement said:

Plus, there's no point on constantly bashing on the developers; more helpful to them to lay down respectful critisisms.

So. Much. This.

I know my $3,500 work laptop is not what most people are running on, and I feel for everyone that can't play yet... but I am grateful to have some good equipment and want to be part of the solution and help as much as I can by providing feedback to devs, so that more people can get on this rocket train.