KSP for Android!

[RocketScientist00]

Hi guys, I'm back!

This is just a suggestion and my classmate asked me if KSP has an Android version!

So this is my suggestion, having KSP for Android

Please answer in this thread.

NOTE: Just a suggestion. Don't hurt my feelings again.

"Knowledge is Power!"

[S4qFBxkFFg]

Unity (the software that KSP is based on) appears to have an Android version, so it's probably possible. Having said that, the kind of CPU needed would probably rule out most Android devices.

Maybe if more people start buying things like this: http://www.zdnet.com/hp-takes-android-pcs-commercial-7000024680/ the devs might release an Android version too.

[Linear]

There are a lot of people here with computers that really struggle....You will need something more powerful than a iPad or Nexus tablet to run it, don't even think about a phone.

Small AIO's may have enough power, but the market just isn't there.

[Kasuha]

I can't really imagine playing KSP without mouse and keyboard, it doesn't use the whole keyboard but it uses a lot of it, plus three mouse buttons. And most Android devices don't have keyboard and mouse AFAIK.

[KvickFlygarn87]

Well, nobody said it had to be full-fledged, maybe improve performance with things like lower res textures, lower delta-t, less to no planets or moons other than Kerbin, Mun and maybe Minmus, no skybox, less flashy animations, etc.

[Wahgineer]

My Asus Nexus 7 has plenty of memory and probably meets minimal requirements. With a little ingenuity, Ksp could have a touch screen interface, using specific buttons and having D-pads for flight control (Left D-pad=Roll, right=pitch/yaw). For tablets that have the ability to use keyboards, when a keyboard is plugged in it can override touch controls. Mouses are actually not needed in KSP.

[Red Iron Crown]

SimpleRockets is fairly similar to KSP, but much, much more limited in that it is 2d only, has fewer parts and only one ship in use at a time. Even with those limitations it still pegs the CPU on my Galaxy S4 on any craft with a non-trivial number of parts.

That said, it does help scratch the KSP itch when on the go.

[frizzank]

I thought the kerbilizer was suppose to be on Android and I phone, and you could put them in the game? Is that still on the drawing board?

[TYRT]

Phones can't make physics calcuations. I had a topic like that. Admins said "Phones and Tablets can't make KSP' physics calcuations"

Maybe, a 3D SPH-VAB application.

Edit: not physics calcuations, KSP' physics calcuations.

Edited January 30, 2014 by TYRT

[tetryds]

@TYRT: Gamming tablets and phones which are GPU based could (read, could) have hardware accelerated physics, but still very limited.

Gta S.A. for android and IOS and it have basic physics for the vehicles and the character.

Though, I never tried it to tell if it's good at all.

Angry birds also have several physics calculations, but they are very heavy for the mobiles, even being so simple.

[MR4Y]

Phones can't make physics calcuations. I had a topic like that. Admins said "Phones and Tablets can't make KSP' physics calcuations"

Maybe, a 3D SPH-VAB application.

Edit: not physics calcuations, KSP' physics calcuations.

If KSP made PshyX calculations, you could run it with a nVidia Tegra CPU.

[technicalfool]

Couldn't run on tablets one or two years ago, perhaps. Give it another couple of years. 2GB RAM is already a standard on the Nexus devices, and the latest stuff from ARM, PowerVR, NVidia, Intel and others is definitely getting to the "can run KSP" stage, even if possibly very small rockets right now.

As for the UI, you can quite nicely run a mission using Splashtop Gamepad THD to stream from a PC, with on-screen buttons for the various controls. The SPH/VAB is more difficult, but then a proper tablet version would be more designed around the "touch and drag" UI, I would guess.

[Kilmeister]

Even the most powerful mobile processors aren't even in the same league as low end desktop processors. They keep getting more efficient, but when you're limited to keeping it under about 3W of power draw there's not much you can do. As a comparison, an I7 (Which is power efficient by desktop standards) draws around 90W on average. I can't really find any actual benchmarks(not really possible). But an ARM based chip would be comparable to a Pentium 3/4 from the early 2000s as far as pure computing power.

[technicalfool]

As a comparison, an I7 (Which is power efficient by desktop standards) draws around 90W on average.

However I'm happily running KSP on an old Athlon II X4 640 clocked at 3ghz. This scores on Passmark at 3,348. An i7 depending on clock rate and feature set, can score anything up to around 14,000. While we shouldn't underestimate how much math is involved in making KSP work, it's also a mistake to overestimate.

Give it a couple of years, we'll see.

[Skyler4856]

Ship building may not be impossible.

[Nuke]

my 3770k can barely handle some of the ships i build, i dont think an arm processor would do very well.

i personally wouldn't want to play ksp on a touch screen though.

Edited January 31, 2014 by Nuke

[Clockwork13]

Good idea, and I would completely support this but I don't think it is possible. And would it really fit all on such a small screen? Other than that though, I would love to see KSP on Androids. Finally I actually have a reason to use my Android.... >.>

[Nuke]

oh its possible, its just going to be very limited. textures will need to be compressed and reduced (not with mods). physics will probibly need to be simplified (primitive based collision detection for example). part limits are going to be an issue. mod support may need to be disabled. not to mention new interface code. it would be different enough to completely change the look and feel of the game.

Edited January 31, 2014 by Nuke

[vexx32]

If KSP made PshyX calculations, you could run it with a nVidia Tegra CPU.

It does do PhysX calculations. PhysX is the physics engine KSP runs on; it's a part of Unity. However, graphics hardware-based PhysX calculations that will run on a graphics chip with PhysX support are still vaguely new-ish, and the version of the PhysX engine that Unity is using at present does not yet support chip-based calculations.

It'd be interesting to see if that's actually possible, though, whenever Unity finally gets around to properly integrating a newer version of PhysX.

[technicalfool]

It'd be interesting to see if that's actually possible, though, whenever Unity finally gets around to properly integrating a newer version of PhysX.

Even nicer if they could use OpenCL, so people with GPUs made by other manufacturers than Nvidia could enjoy GPU-accelerated features.

[vexx32]

Aye, that'd probably be better.

[LordOfTheOrbits]

I don't think that this is going to happen soon, because there is at this time probably no smartphone that has enough computing power to do this. Some people think, that because they have enough RAM they can run it, but the real limiter is the CPU. As already said CPUs for smartphone are really built for being efficient on energy and not for having as much computing power as possible, because nobody wants a phone with one hour of battery life. The physics in KSP require way more than that and even if they were fast enough, there are other limits. For example, the RAM is also way slower, because it has to be more power efficient than RAM in desktops or laptops. Also I don't think it would be that good on a small touchscreen.

[Wahgineer]

Soon battery drain/max power draw won't be as much as a problem: a company just started making micro hydrogen fuel cells that fit in your pocket and plugs in to your phone. The fuel cell is capable of charging your phone/tablet four times per cartridge of H2. The company plans to make deals with mobile/laptop production companies to include the fuel cell as a built-in feature to charge your phone on the go.

[DaRocketCat]

my 3770k can barely handle some of the ships i build, i dont think an arm processor would do very well.

i personally wouldn't want to play ksp on a touch screen though.

what kind of monstrosities are you building that a 3770k can't handle?!

[J.Random]

Another possible solution is remote gaming. Like nVidia Shield, for example, or that weird public service (don't remember the name OnLive) where you could rent game time on server farm. Basically, it's video stream from PC to tablet and control stream from tablet to PC. Not exactly "running" it on tablet, but that's the best you can get today, I guess.

Edited January 31, 2014 by J.Random