Devnote Wednesday: The "Better Late Than Never" Edition

[chip4312]

Very excited for contracts - sounds like you guys and gals are doing a great job

[OrtwinS]

So, the contracts in the 0.24 contract system originate from the part producers (Rockomax, Jeb's Junk-yard, etc.). I imagine the contracts UI would also display the logo of the company.

I'm hoping we'll get some info on the logo-contest progress.

[Apollyon]

Messages have ceased flooding into the KSP server..... where is Jesus?

[Virtualgenius]

Any chance of 64bit windows client in .24 please

[DoctorCruz]

In short, he's updating the production schedule.

Oh, thanks for clarifying that. And welcome back Rowsdower

I also can't wait to get more details on how the contract system will work!

Edited April 10, 2014 by DoctorCruz

[Endersmens]

Nope - if they are REwriting stuff, then that means days (or weeks) before it goes for internal testing, and then days (or weeks) before it goes for volunteer testing, and then days (or maybe even weeks - you get the idea) before it is stable enough to be released.

So would be true if he had said "i'm rewriting the contract system" but he said "I've rewritten the contract system." And from the way he was talking, it sounds like it has been going through some testing. Which means it will most likely be sooner than you thought.

[DoctorCruz]

So would be true if he had said "i'm rewriting the contract system" but he said "I've rewritten the contract system." And from the way he was talking, it sounds like it has been going through some testing. Which means it will most likely be sooner than you thought.

Please don't get my hopes up. I always thought that.24 wouldn't be to far after the ARM

[Bioman222]

Sounds like you guys are doing really well on development! Keep up the good work. (and devnote release schedule)

[softweir]

Any chance of 64bit windows client in .24 please

That's not up to Squad; it's up to Unity Technologies. Unity Tech are working on Unity 5 which might (we all hope) have a stable Windows 64-bit capability. When Unity 5 comes out - and there is no release date for that - then Squad will start working to see if they can use it.

So the road map will be:

1. We wait
   
2. Unity 5 comes out
   
3. Squad work on using Unity 5, which may mean a lot of re-writes
   
4. Squad (eventually) get KSP working under Unity 5
   
5. Squad assess Win 64-bit stability
   
6. Squad wait until Unity Tech get 64-bit working
   
7. Squad get KSP working in 64-bit
   
8. We get 64-bit
   
9. Yay!
   

[Endersmens]

Please don't get my hopes up. I always thought that.24 wouldn't be to far after the ARM

I'm not saying the release will be soon, just hopefully sooner than softweir was describing.

[One-Way Films]

I haven't started a new career mode yet. I've decided to wait for the Contract system. It'l be worth the wait though. Just like Half Life 3, hopefully...

[Cydonian Monk]

Strange that you left Romfarer's update out of the forum post, as that's kinda what I came here to ask about. From Tumblr:

Jim (Romfarer): The new thing I’ve been working on since last time is the Contracts App. It’s an in-flight app (goes in the application launcher) where you can track the progress of your accepted contracts.

Does this mean the actual KSP Launcher App? Or something new that's inside the game? Because I've never once managed to get the KSP Launcher to do anything except crash at startup, despite all the advice provided in various parts of this forum.

If yes, then I suppose I need to file a bug report. If not, then I'll just happily continue on.

[Rowsdower]

Sorry about that. His comment came in after the post was published.

[Mitchz95]

I know, old saves have ships littered with flags, and even with new ships, you only want like 1-3 flags on your rocket. So it would take a lot less clicks if they are off in the first place.

Wait ... you can turn them off?

[Superfluous J]

Strange that you left Romfarer's update out of the forum post, as that's kinda what I came here to ask about. From Tumblr:

Does this mean the actual KSP Launcher App? Or something new that's inside the game? Because I've never once managed to get the KSP Launcher to do anything except crash at startup, despite all the advice provided in various parts of this forum.

If yes, then I suppose I need to file a bug report. If not, then I'll just happily continue on.

No matter how well (or not well) the KSP Launcher works, it's not ever going to be available in-flight. It sounds to me like there will be something called the "application launcher" available in-flight. As in, while you're playing. Something like Blizzy's toolbar, maybe? So you click a button and your contracts come up? Click another button, and a "total dV" window comes up? Click another button...

Okay now I'm getting overly excited about something I'm probably wrong about. Again.

[Cydonian Monk]

Sorry about that. His comment came in after the post was published.

No worries. Suspected that might be the case. Thanks.

No matter how well (or not well) the KSP Launcher works, it's not ever going to be available in-flight. It sounds to me like there will be something called the "application launcher" available in-flight. As in, while you're playing. Something like Blizzy's toolbar, maybe? So you click a button and your contracts come up? Click another button, and a "total dV" window comes up? Click another button...

Well, yes and no. The in-game Application Launcher you describe is what I'm thinking this is (which is cool). However there's nothing stopping anyone from building an app that runs outside of KSP and reads from the same data source: persistent.sfs. Or even from another shared data area, provided there's some way to do all signalling and other hard programming miscellania involved. Could even open a socket from within KSP and talk to the other app. (Of course that gets into fullscreen issues and focus fighting, so I doubt that's the case.)

[DoctorCruz]

No matter how well (or not well) the KSP Launcher works, it's not ever going to be available in-flight. It sounds to me like there will be something called the "application launcher" available in-flight. As in, while you're playing. Something like Blizzy's toolbar, maybe? So you click a button and your contracts come up? Click another button, and a "total dV" window comes up? Click another button...

Okay now I'm getting overly excited about something I'm probably wrong about. Again.

In-game, vanilla, easy-to-use, shiny dV calculations? We seriously need that.

[Superfluous J]

However there's nothing stopping anyone from building an app that runs outside of KSP and reads from the same data source: persistent.sfs. Or even from another shared data area, provided there's some way to do all signalling and other hard programming miscellania involved. Could even open a socket from within KSP and talk to the other app. (Of course that gets into fullscreen issues and focus fighting, so I doubt that's the case.)

The only problem with this is that he said "in-flight". Unless he means you can use it on your laptop in an airplane, I can see no way you could call something "in flight" unless it's being used while a spaceship or plane is flying around in the game.

[NoMrBond]

If the contracts system will allow for parts to become available in the VAB (for a mission), and then not in the VAB later (after the mission, but does not remove the part and cause vessel deletion)

Could we use this functionality to also make parts which are also VAB available hooked to (for preference) the techTree?

The hope being that players could research an earlier engine/part, and then have sequential upgrades available through the techTree which would obsolete/retire parts from the VAB as the new parts show up (without having vessels in flight suddenly be invalid)

Being able to follow the development of something like the RD-253 timeline from it's original 1961 version all the way through to the latest RD-275M through techTree progress would be neat

[Fox Arcana]

<p><strong>Eduardo (Lalo):</strong><span> Revision of the complete plan and launching dates</span></p>

Better not change too much.