Mobile KSP. Possible? Needed?

[ItanMark]

Soo, i was wondering. Since KSP is pretty old by now, so it doesn’t use newest optimization techniques. Phones are getting more powerful as the time comes by, so maybe, using some heave optimization it will be possible to at least partially remake KSP for mobile. Since Gen Z is consuming most of it’s content via phones, making a mobile KSP will give a great source of new players for KSP 2 and possibly KSP 1. I also had a pretty good idea for game to be free to download, but having only career mode avalible, so you will have to pay for these two features:

Creative mode

Mechjeb like addon.

What do are your thoughts on this topic?

[Bej Kerman]

A few points from me

A. There is no way you can optimise all the physics and calculations to run well on a mobile, or in a way that the battery lasts long enough to do even a short mission. If you want an example of how trying to port KSP 1 to anything other than PC would end up, look no further than the console version of KSP 1, which runs poorly and has an unintuitive control scheme to boot. The control scheme is another thing, I don't anticipate there being any possible way to elegantly control the interface using just finger gestures.

B. Freemium is a bad idea

C. You're suggesting porting a game to mobile with the implied idea that they can play on it for a few minutes while they're not busy or waiting for a bus, despite that being inherently contradictory to the dedication and time KSP 1/2 demands for missions of any length or ambition. Despite Squad and its partners making an absolute pig's ear out of KSP 1 Enhanced Edition, at least it fundamentally made sense given that you can sit in front of a console for a few hours and that there's an additional audience that it introduces to KSP. The type of audience you want to introduce to KSP, even if they had a mobile device capable of a bearable fps and battery lifespan, would probably be turned completely off by needing a substantial amount of time to learn the ropes or pull off any kind of mission.

Edited November 6, 2023 by Bej Kerman
Typo

[Kerballlistic07]

I think an iPad version is well overdue. The iPad is as powerful as a Mac at this point, so why can't we have an iPad version? iPad's also have keyboard mouse support, so I see no reason why it can't be done. Mobile could be done as well, though it would have to be changed quite a bit. (Note, when I say iPad, Android tablet's can be included to, but not all of them are powerful enough to run it.)

[ItanMark]

I get you, but A: you can look at say Juno: New origins. It has even better graphics than vanilla ksp 1, and is built to be played on mobile. So possible it might be. But i get you, that the attention span of Gen Z is too short for such complex game. But i am sure, that with some changes and creative concepts, it is possible to make it appeal to them. I have an idea: something like rocket instagram say, i think that is cool. What do y’all think?

Spoiler

 

 

That is sure possible. Since the ipads are running from the same chips, that some macbooks do, and we know, that ksp CAN run on macs, it will be certainly playable on those higher end devices. But not a lot of people have them, and that’s the problem.

[Kerballlistic07]

4 hours ago, ItanMark said:

I have an idea: something like rocket instagram say, i think that is cool. What do y’all think?

That is an incredible idea, a place to share all your designs and missions. Not even something like KerbalX, like something that is built into the game, and they can scroll through other peoples creations. Also, when in flight, a screenshot button could be added so that players have quick and easy access to taking a screenshot, and it can then be uploaded to this “KSP Instagram.” (I’m choosing to call it Kerbalgram )

[GluttonyReaper]

A mobile version of KSP would presumably have to be functionally a very different game - unlike most games, KSP has traditionally always been CPU-limited, and specifically works best on CPUs with a few high-performance cores, due to the way it simulates physics. I haven't followed the latest phone hardware, but I assume they're more optimised for running lots of threads at once. I'm not saying it's impossible... but it'd probably just be easier to build a whole new game. Which, uh, is exactly what Juno is anyway, so may as well play that instead.

[ItanMark]

Karbal’O’gram

[Kerballlistic07]

Thanks to Microsoft's new "Windows App," this is now possible. You can stream your desktop to your iPhone or iPad with low latency connection, and therefore play KSP on mobile!

[Bej Kerman]

1 minute ago, Kerballlistic07 said:

Thanks to Microsoft's new "Windows App," this is now possible. You can stream your desktop to your iPhone or iPad with low latency connection, and therefore play KSP on mobile!

That is possible and can have reasons for being done, but it's not "KSP on mobile" so much as it is just using your phone as a monitor and a controller.

[Kerballlistic07]

4 minutes ago, Bej Kerman said:

That is possible and can have reasons for being done, but it's not "KSP on mobile" so much as it is just using your phone as a monitor and a controller.

I hope it will at least have better connection speeds than steam link

[AtomicTech]

On 11/6/2023 at 11:10 AM, ItanMark said:

Soo, i was wondering. Since KSP is pretty old by now, so it doesn’t use newest optimization techniques. Phones are getting more powerful as the time comes by, so maybe, using some heave optimization it will be possible to at least partially remake KSP for mobile. Since Gen Z is consuming most of it’s content via phones, making a mobile KSP will give a great source of new players for KSP 2 and possibly KSP 1. I also had a pretty good idea for game to be free to download, but having only career mode avalible, so you will have to pay for these two features:

Creative mode

Mechjeb like addon.

What do are your thoughts on this topic?

It would definitely be fun!

It just would take a whole lot of work that I'm not sure that Squad/T2/Intercept want to do.

But hey! Never say never! (If anything, my bet is that we might see some sort of KSP-related moblie game by 2030.)