Exit the game from anywhere.

[leptoon]

Currently, if you're in a flight and want to close KSP, you have to go back to the space center then back to main sub-menu, then back again to the main menu. It would be nice if the game could be closed normally (without using the task manager) from anywhere in the game via the pause menu and an exit game button on the space center GUI.

[sal_vager]

What about alt+f4?

There's also windowed mode, with the little x in the corner

(alt+enter to switch between windowed and fullscreen)

[leptoon]

What about alt+f4?

There's also windowed mode, with the little x in the corner

(alt+enter to switch between windowed and fullscreen)

Both of those suggestions don't provide a true "exit" from KSP. They forcibly close the game without allowing the game to preform whatever operations it preforms before it closes (eg. autosaving).

[LostElement]

I run on windows 8 I just press start, click desktop and close out the KSP tab.

[leptoon]

I run on windows 8 I just press start, click desktop and close out the KSP tab.

Same thing as above, this is a force close and does not allow the game to preform its exit operations, whatever they may be. Force closing the game can potentially result in corrupt game files or corrupt save files.

[sal_vager]

There aren't actually any exit operations, as long as you are not in an active game you can quit with no problems.

By active game I mean not in the flight scene, so not in the map or looking at your vessel.

If you are at the space center, the tracking station, the VAB or similar then your persistent.sfs is not being read/written to and won't be harmed.

[leptoon]

There aren't actually any exit operations, as long as you are not in an active game you can quit with no problems.

By active game I mean not in the flight scene, so not in the map or looking at your vessel.

If you are at the space center, the tracking station, the VAB or similar then your persistent.sfs is not being read/written to and won't be harmed.

Excellent. That's half of the issue. The other half involves closing the game from within the active game, during a flight in progress. A quick close option from the pause menu wouldn't be unheard of, it exists in many other games. A quick close option from the space center view would also help those who are either playing in fullscreen mode or don't want to force close an application (any application, I just don't like doing it), or those who don't know that Alt + F4 can be used to close the "top window" (eg. KSP running in fullscreen mode). It just makes sense to have a more easily accessible exit function.

[sal_vager]

The issue with closing the game while the persistent.sfs is in use is that if a read or write action is interrupted, the save file is damaged.

What would be needed is for KSP to check for a current read/write, wait till it's over or force one at that time so the file is up to date, and then exit afterwards.

[leptoon]

The issue with closing the game while the persistent.sfs is in use is that if a read or write action is interrupted, the save file is damaged.

What would be needed is for KSP to check for a current read/write, wait till it's over or force one at that time so the file is up to date, and then exit afterwards.

That sounds really simple. A calculation like that would take less than half a second probably, short enough to make the exit button feel instant.

[Awaras]

F5 -> Alt-F4

Never lost a save yet...

[sal_vager]

A read/write takes longer though, remember it's a file operation so it won't be instant, there would need to be a "please wait" message.

This makes it non-trivial to add, as it would need code that is not already in the game, and such a feature would be very low priority.

It might happen as part of end of dev polishing, but I would not expect it.

[leptoon]

F5 -> Alt-F4

Never lost a save yet...

Again with the force close... This isn't a thread about how to force close the game. This is a thread about a user-friendly option to exit the game from within the confines of the code. I think the developers would agree that a simple exit function is not a bad idea.

A read/write takes longer though, remember it's a file operation so it won't be instant, there would need to be a "please wait" message.

This makes it non-trivial to add, as it would need code that is not already in the game, and such a feature would be very low priority.

It might happen as part of end of dev polishing, but I would not expect it.

When "Autosaving..." appears in the corner of my screen, it takes about a second. With a bit of optimization in the save function, this could easily be reduced by 10 or 15%. So, when you click the Exit Game button while in flight, the "Please Wait..." status would just be the autosave function renamed to Please Wait. So it could say something like, "Please wait while saving...". But basically, all the code is there. They just have to tie in the autosave to the exit button and have it close the application after it preforms the autosave. It would be very simple to code. The most complicated part about it is the added GUI element. They would likely have to redesign the pause menu to add an exit game button.

Edited January 22, 2014 by leptoon

[Dunbaratu]

I suspect the real incentive behind this request is an annoyance at the fact that each menu screen takes time to load up, and therefore backing out properly through the menus takes a bit of time.

If you are in an active vessel, and want to quit without losing your progress, you currently do it through the following menu path:

Esc -> pick "space center" (___wait for space center to load___) -> pick exit button from space center (___wait for start campaign menu to load___) -> pick "back" -> (__wait for animation to slide over to the main menu__) -> pick "quit".

I strongly suspect that it's those wait times that cause this request to show up from time to time in this forum.

People aren't annoyed at having to back out through several menus to get out. They're annoyed that doing so is wasting time loading up stuff not related to what they're trying to do. There's no need to take the time to load up the KSC's 3D model and its executable code, and invoke its gui if all you want to do is pass through that menu to the one one step above it.

[Roxette]

I suspect the real incentive behind this request is an annoyance at the fact that each menu screen takes time to load up, and therefore backing out properly through the menus takes a bit of time.

Quite. However, I noticed that in each saved game file (persistent.sfs in the [path to KSP]/saves/[name of saved game] directory), right there at the top is a block of parameters enabling or disabling access between the different scenes. Setting CanLeaveToMainMenu = True seems thus far to have been a functional and safe option, and puts the button in the relevant menus. Once at the main menu, the game state is saved, so alt-F4 seems quite safe.