KSP2 VAB UI Feedback

[DrCHIVES]

Hey everyone, I finally managed to organize my thoughts and put together this post in response to the Dev Update on KSP2's User Interface.  I had commented on the post with some elementary organized expressions that I later felt didn't accurately get my points across effectively.  Also that post is now buried in the depths of the comments section and therefore are unlikely to get noticed.  Being that the post acknowledged the Devs are actively monitoring user feedback on the User Interface in KSP2 I felt why not make a dedicated post on my thoughts.

There was a Reddit post awhile back that took a poll regarding time spent in areas of KSP.  The majority of responses confirmed my own experiences in that 60-80% of game-play or more was spent in the VAB.  And that is certainly the case in KSP1 for me.  However, I have been putting a lot more time in KSP2 now that For Science! is out.  One thing I have Noticed, I find myself not enjoying the designing rockets aspect of the game as much in KSP2 compared to KSP1.  One reason was quickly obvious from day 1 of Early Access release and that was the camera controls being different, but we will get to that later.  The other issue took a while for me to figure out.  It wasn't until I took the time to sit down and compare the two games side by side that it finally hit me.  Why was it that I loved designing and building crafts in KSP1 so much and struggle to even enjoy it in KSP2?  Something felt off and yet I just couldn't put my finger on it.  I finally realized the issue for me was the workspace to UI elements ratio as well as workspace focal point and balance.  If something has felt just off in KSP2's VAB for you, I think I know why.  I am making this post for 2 reasons. 

1: Because I haven't seen this mentioned in any other posts to my knowledge and I am curious to see if others agree with my observations / or after seeing this post others now suddenly realize this as being the issue that they too couldn't quite put their finger on if they had that feeling.

and 2: In hopes that if others do agree with my observations/suggestions, the KSP2 Devs might notice this post and benefit from these insights to make the VAB UI experience the best it can be as we all want the best for KSP2.  Thank you ahead of time for reading this rather lengthy post, and feel free to provide input as I am by no means any kind of expert in the field of User Interfaces lol.  I am very much open to discussion!

Lets Dissect the user interface for KSP1s UI:  Photo below is a game capture.  render resolution @ 1920x1080p and UI Scaling @ 100% .  

On the Left you have the part picker menu.  take note of the fact that the menu starts at the edge of the screen.  In other words there is no gap between the edge of the game window on the left and the beginning of the part picker menu.  Also make a mental note of the width of the part picker menu.  To the right of the part picker menu is a green lined boundary.  This boundary dictates the usable workspace area.  The Vertical Red line is the exact center divide of the game window.  The two crosshair intersecting green lines are the focal point of the camera.  Notice the location of the camera's focal point.  Its not the center of the game window; rather it is more closely aligned to the center of the usable workspace area.  Therefore, you have practically the same amount of workspace area to the left and right of your camera focal point.  The UI Developers of KSP1 took note of the fact that the part picker menu unevenly removes potential real estate from the left side of the game window compared to the staging list on the right side of the game window.  This is a concept that is used in pretty much all engineering cad programs.  It provides a more pleasing and balanced workspace environment.  The developers also minimized the surrounding UI elements such to reduce the overall deviation from the center divide of the game window.  This too reduces the apparent imbalance between the left and right sides of the User Interface as the focal point is not too far away from the center of the game window.  

 

Now Lets Take a Look at KSP2's User Interface: Photo below is a game capture.  Render Resolution @ 1920x1080p and UI Scaling @ 100% (although I do not believe UI scaling is implemented in the VAB of KSP2).

The first thing you will notice in the VAB of KSP2 is that the part picker menu is much wider, therefore taking up more potential real estate from the usable workspace.  On top of that the menu is not snapped to the edge of the game window as in KSP1 which also takes more room from the usable workspace.  Not only that but its completely dead space.  Its not used for anything and serves no benefit to the UI what so ever.  You will also notice that the tool icons along the bottom of the game window are all tucked out of the way to the left and right in KSP1's User Interface.  Some even existing in the bottom portion of the part picker menu as to maximize space utilization.  The current location of these tool icons in KSP2 take yet even more real estate from the usable workspace area. This time from the bottom.  Here too, these tool icons are not snapped to the border of the game window.  All of this boils down to a significantly reduced usable workspace in KSP2 compared to KSP1.  I shouldn't have to remind us that we are meant to be building on bigger scales in KSP2 in the hopefully near future.  having a more claustrophobic workspace doesn't aid in providing a comfortable and balanced experience. 

Now taking a look at the workspace, another issue becomes apparent  in the KSP2 VAB UI.  The intersecting red crosshair lines represent 2 things: The center divide of the game window AND the focal point of the camera for your project.  Notice how it is deviated to the left of the center divide of the usable workspace represented by the vertical green line.  If we were to use the scroll wheel and zoom in on the workspace, the camera will zoom in on the rocket.  Not the center of the workspace.  This creates an unbalanced look and uncomfortable/awkward shift feeling when zooming in and out on your craft.  It feels off, because it is.  The deviation of the focal point from the center of the workspace is also much greater in KSP2 than in KSP1 due to the larger imbalance between the left and right elements of the UI.  This also limits the usable workspace simply because the left side of your project has more limited real estate than the right when building as exampled below due to the part picker menu:

Making the part picker menu less wide, snapping the UI elements the the borders of the game window, and aligning the camera focal point and project location to the center of the usable workspace area would make a massive difference in the user experience while in the VAB.  I know nothing about coding, but being that these suggestions do not require any actual design changes, I would think that these implementations would be pretty straight forward and would have a profound ROI in terms of work hours spent. 

 

Camera Controls:  Now I will be completely honest here this is going to be a personal preference, but I felt I would mention it anyway.  while the camera isn't a tangible part of the UI, the inputs with the keyboard and mouse directly connect the user and how they interface with the game and therefore I would argue that the controls of the camera would be topic of discussion for the User Interface.   We can all agree that everyone has a personal preference when it comes to the DPI settings of ones mouse.  Me, I like 500.  I play FPS games when not playing KSP.  I like low sensitivities when playing FPS games as it helps with tracing recoil patterns.  As such over the years I have come accustomed to moving my mouse around on my desk.  as time went on, I found myself preferring lower DPI settings overall on the computer as it was just more natural to me.  In KSP1 you would zoom in on your project by using "SHIFT+Scroll Wheel" and you would move the camera up and down along your project by simply using the scroll wheel.  In KSP2, you zoom with scroll wheel and to move up and down along your project you have to click the scroll wheel and drag your mouse up or down respectively.  Being that I am on a lower DPI this can mean multiple repetitions of this procedure to move up or down the entire length of certain crafts.  Click scroll wheel, drag mouse up or down to edge of mouse pad, release scroll wheel, reset mouse on opposite mouse pad boundary, and repeat.  This is made more difficult by the fact that while dragging your mouse with the scroll wheel clicked also allows left and right camera rotation around the craft.  So if you do not drag your mouse perfectly up and down (which no one can do), translating up and down your craft will move your camera orientation around your craft as well. 

To me, it doesn't make sense why the Devs would change something from KSP1 to KSP2 for the simple reason of change for change's sake.  As a player of KSP1 since 2012, it was immediately noticable in KSP2 the first time I went to build a rocket that the camera controls were different.  This was very frustrating.  as mentioned before, 60-80% of time is spent in the VAB.  I've got over 2K hours in KSP1 spanning 12 years.  all of a sudden, subconscious second nature actions don't have the expected results is just hard to break out of.  At least maybe make it an option to use Legacy camera VAB controls? I propose keeping "Scroll Wheel" as zooming in and out of your rocket.  And bringing back the modifier of "SHIFT + Scroll Wheel" from KSP1 and make it move the camera up and down along your craft.  My solution suggestion for the camera controls would accomplish a couple of issues.  For one, it would retain a control modifier that existed in KSP1 that has no function in KSP2, and allow returning players a more familiar feeling by providing better parity between the two games.  Second, it only really adds a control scheme rather than just saying "bring back the old controls."  This will mean that new players that have already "onboarded" into KSP2 will not have to completely relearn controls.  Plus I do have to agree after some converstation with @The Aziz, seen in the comments below, that zooming is better suited for the base scroll wheel function as it is more intuitive and in line with practically any other design or cad application.  And Lastly, it would free up the middle mouse wheel function.  I propose that the middle mouse wheel should do what it did in the SPH of KSP1 and that was provide a free moving camera focal point translation tool.  This is very beneficial for those building planes and spaceplanes as it allows more freedom in the placement of your camera while building large horizontal vehicles.

 

Staging UI:  In KSP1 when you needed to "Check Yo Stagin", the stage would move with your cursor while you dragged it. In doing so, you could see where it would go when you released the mouse.  In KSP 2, the stage stays where it's at and a red dashed line appears in a position that your current cursor location would seemingly indicate a move to upon release of the mouse.  however, its not very intuitive. 

look at the picture below:

Unfortunately I couldn't figure out how to capture my cursor in a screenshot, however hopefully this illustration makes sense.  In this screen shot, I have clicked stage 5 and intend to move it to below stage 4 and above stage 3.  If I release the mouse anywhere within the green  box, this action is successful.  If I release the mouse within the orange box (which is within the intended location to move the stage to as apparent by the dashed red line and red pointed arrow) nothing happens.  Stage 5 remains right where it is and no change in staging is made.  This just doesn't make any sense to me.  Further more, it is currently impossible to separate symmetry parts in the staging list to separate stages.  This makes the standard method of doing asparagus staging very difficult. 

 

These are my unique grips with the current state of the KSP2 UI.  There are many other areas of potential improvements like the font choice being terrible, and the 8 bit theme to icons, and calculator like dot matrix backgrounds behind texts and numbers, etc.  But these are all things that others have also mentioned many times so I see no need in going into detail on them as the Dev team is hopefully already aware of these opportunities for improvement.

Edited January 28, 2024 by DrCHIVES

[The Aziz]

4 hours ago, DrCHIVES said:

To me, it doesn't make sense why the Devs would change something from KSP1 to KSP2 for the simple reason of change for change's sake.  As a player of KSP1 since 2012, it was immediately noticable in KSP2 the first time I went to build a rocket that the camera controls were different.  This was very frustrating.  as mentioned before, 60-80% of time is spent in the VAB.  I've got over 2K hours in KSP1 spanning 12 years.  all of a sudden, subconscious second nature actions don't have the expected results is just hard to break out of.  At least maybe make it an option to use Legacy camera VAB controls?

You forgot about SPH. Which control set would you like to use? Cuz having two in the same scene isn't a great idea. It's unified now.

Btw, zoom out, middle click on part you like to focus on, zoom in. Saves you all the sliding across the desk.

[DrCHIVES]

3 hours ago, The Aziz said:

You forgot about SPH. Which control set would you like to use? Cuz having two in the same scene isn't a great idea. It's unified now.

I'll be honest, I spent more of my time in the VAB in KSP1 than the SPH.  So I'd have to go back and refresh my memory on the controls in the SPH, but weren't they just flip floped?  Meaning either way, translating up and down and in and out on your craft required no physical movement of the mouse.  "Scroll Wheel" and "SHIFT + Scroll Wheel" still had respective controls.  In KSP 2, "SHIFT + Scroll Wheel" doesn't have a function...  I'd honestly care less which one they unified too.  I think I could grasp a flip flop in control schemes much easier than a total change in them all together.  To be quite honest this would probably be the best solution, as it wouldn't require any new "onboarded" players of KSP2 to require a relearning of control schemes and rather just the addition of one.  So, I suggest zooming in and out would remain "Scroll Wheel" and moving up and down to be made "SHIFT + Scroll Wheel".  

3 hours ago, The Aziz said:

Btw, zoom out, middle click on part you like to focus on, zoom in. Saves you all the sliding across the desk.

I did not think of that.  However, scrolling and or Shift scrolling would still be a heck of a lot faster than zooming out, middle mouse clicking another part, and then zooming back in to the zoom level you would otherwise just rather have stayed at in the first place to simply move up or down a bit.

 

Like I said before, I realize the camera controls portion of my opinions regarding the UI are personal preference.  But, I would think that bringing back a removed control scheme and making it perform either one of the two options (move up and down, or zoom in and out) would be beneficial.  That too would free up the middle mouse button so that it could do what it did in the space plane hanger in KSP1 and would be a great tool in ksp2 and that is a free moving camera focal point translation tool.  Then we wouldn't be locked to a focal point centered down the middle of our craft of fixed on a part that was middle mouse clicked.

Edited January 28, 2024 by DrCHIVES

[The Aziz]

I mean sure, having modifiers would be beneficial. But there's a lot of "hurr new control scheme is crappy bring the old one back" around here, where that's just inability to unlearn the muscle memory. By now I'd probably have a hard time going back to KSP1 as I haven't played it for nearly exactly a year. In the meantime, in nearly every 3D environment the scroll is tied to zooming the camera, not moving it up and down. That was unintuitive, yet people got used to it.

I'm not saying no to improvements, or saying that the current scheme is perfect because it isn't, but the general concept is good and serves both purposes well - vertical and horizontal. Agreed on the fact that middle hold and drag is not the easiest thing to grasp, but the rest of it? Fine by me.

[Scarecrow71]

7 minutes ago, The Aziz said:

where that's just inability to unlearn the muscle memory

It's also an inability by T2/PD/IG to allow us to remap camera controls.  If they don't want to change the scheme, that's all fine and dandy.  But at least give us the option to map the controls to a scheme that we are comfortable with.

[DrCHIVES]

1 minute ago, The Aziz said:

In the meantime, in nearly every 3D environment the scroll is tied to zooming the camera, not moving it up and down. That was unintuitive, yet people got used to it.

I can completely agree with that.  I do think that scrolling for zoom is a much more intuitive function and is why I would recommend leaving that as zoom in KSP2.  Lol, see im adaptable .  but i do think moving up and down would be much better suited under the modifier.  As it stands now, it is physically impossible to move up or down your rocket without affecting your camera's orientation or zoom level as well.

[Sea_Kerman]

I definitely agree with the off-center and cramped feel. This needs to be fixed. I'm worried this will fall into the big pool of little things KSP1 does better that KSP2 might never get.

Edited January 30, 2024 by Sea_Kerman