Screen resolutions, Launcher and KSP's UI.

[MR4Y]

Well, some people got excited that the launcher was implemented, allowing us to do things that we couldn't do normally, like set different screen resolutions and change certain settings that the normal game settings didn't allowed before.

However:

-Some settings only exist inside the game options, while others only exist inside the launcher, defeating the purpose of having the launcher. Why not have all the launcher options inside the game, like screen resolutions and all that?

-What's the point of setting certain resolutions lower than 1024x768 if the game UI will just clutter around and overlap it's buttons? It's impossible to play the game at, say 800x480, because the VAB/SPH buttons overlap each other. Unless your plan it's to only fly stuff, you're not going anywhere.

-The launcher doesn't start by default, making it almost useless, unless you need settings to work or is too lazy to manually edit the settings.cfg file.

While the launcher was, in theory, a nice addition to KSP,in practice it has bugs and doesn't really does what a launcher on most games does: Give the user the ability to change all the settings before starting the game. If you take a look, games that have launchers have all the resolution and game mechanics options in the launcher and not inside the game.

[aeTIos]

ACtually, if you use the installer, the launcher *does* start by default. Anyway, I don't like the extra click (and the fact that it bugs out when you have no internet connection) so I just launch my game by double clicking KSP.exe

[MR4Y]

ACtually, if you use the installer, the launcher *does* start by default. Anyway, I don't like the extra click (and the fact that it bugs out when you have no internet connection) so I just launch my game by double clicking KSP.exe

This doesn't apply to the Steam version of KSP.

[plainawesome]

This doesn't apply to the Steam version of KSP.

Actually, if you go into the game folder, you can use the launcher. Although the UAC prompt comes up every time I launched the game through the launcher and there is no way that I know of to make Steam open the launcher when I click play on KSP. And the only way to stop the UAC prompts is to turn off UAC all together but I don't want to do that. Stupid Windows 8.1.

[MR4Y]

Actually, if you go into the game folder, you can use the launcher. Although the UAC prompt comes up every time I launched the game through the launcher and there is no way that I know of to make Steam open the launcher when I click play on KSP. And the only way to stop the UAC prompts is to turn off UAC all together but I don't want to do that. Stupid Windows 8.1.

The problem is not wether not the launcher is easy or hard to find with Steam. There are two problems with it:

-Some screen resolutions are not supported by KSP, hiding buttons and things like that as result. As an example, playing the game at 1024x600 will make impossible for you to click the 'Research Science' button at the R&D screen. Playing in 800x480, makes all the VAB and SPH buttons overlap, making impossible for you to search differen component categories.

-The launcher changes terrain detail to 'high' automatically when you apply or accept settings.

[technicalfool]

Actually, if you go into the game folder, you can use the launcher. Although the UAC prompt comes up every time I launched the game through the launcher and there is no way that I know of to make Steam open the launcher when I click play on KSP. And the only way to stop the UAC prompts is to turn off UAC all together but I don't want to do that. Stupid Windows 8.1.

Fortunately, KSP doesn't use that horrible Steamworks thing. So, you should be able to right-click-drag the launcher.exe icon onto your desktop and "copy shortcut". Don't even need Steam to be running. You should be able to get rid of the UAC prompt through options in the shortcut's properties.

That said, my Windows 8.1 virtual machine is sat on a PSU-less PC right now, so I can't directly check. Would surprise me if that's been removed, though.

(Although, given Microsoft's UI decisions, perhaps not that surprising.)

Edited January 5, 2014 by technicalfool