KSP on iOS/Android?

[Robotengineer]

So after watching the WWDC keynote, and seeing the new enhancements that are possible with using 'Metal' I was wondering if anyone would like to play KSP on their iPad?

In someways it would be pretty cool, but other quite frustrating with the UI restrictions of a touchscreen. Just wondered what the community might think about it.

Edited June 3, 2014 by Robotengineer
Added Android

[robopilot99]

The major problem I think is getting it to run fast enough (the game is notoriously laggy). That being said. I think it sounds cool but I'm not sure if it could be optimized to run well on touchscreen. Also there is a similar app called simple rockets if you're looking for something like that.

[Bilfr3d]

This has been discussed plenty times, and nearly all times it came to the conclusion that mobile devices such as iPads, etc. just did not have the guts KSP required. It does sound cool, but its unlikely the devs would spend time at the current point changing code to make it playable on mobile devices. I'm pretty sure their current concern is the development on the PC.

[Robotengineer]

By the time KSP reaches 1.0, mobile devices might have advanced far enough, . Has anyone watched the part of the keynote about Metal?

[R0cketC0der]

Metal is a graphics API. The part of ksp which is the bottleneck for most pcs however is the physics calculation. Also ksp uses unity as engine, so whether they would even be able to use metal if they wanted to or not would be up to unity technologies. Besides pure computing power, most smartphones/tablets don't have the necessary RAM to run ksp.

[rtxoff]

Does Unity even run on iOS?

[Bilfr3d]

Yes unity does. You just need an SDK to compile against

[Robotengineer]

@R0cketC0der, in the keynote the Apple execs said that there would be support for unity and other major platforms. I'm not sure if we are talking about the same thing, if we are and I am wrong, I apologize for my ignorance.

[KaBob]

They'd be better off trying to make it work better on windows 8 based touch screen devices first.

[Vonar]

Yeah, I would rather have KSP with touchscreen support long before a mobile version. Plus there's all ready a android space game that's based off of KSP. Look up Simple Rockets if you want something similar to KSP to play on your phone / tablet.

[Skyler4856]

Why not implement the VAB and SPH as the main focus.

[LaytheAerospace]

By the time KSP reaches 1.0, mobile devices might have advanced far enough, .

The fastest mobile chips get crushed by the slowest desktop chips from 5 years ago. Mobile chips also have strict thermal limits and have to run on a tiny battery. It's going to be a very long time before a tablet can run KSP reasonably well.

[Vindelle_Sunveam]

They'd be better off trying to make it work better on windows 8 based touch screen devices first.

Exactly this. If you can't get to the UI problems, why even bother with a complicated port on very underpowered machines (even though, it would be very cool if every thing is taken into account, as accelerometers for fine controls )

I'm not against it, but mastering touchscreen interface on desktop computers seems like a prerequisite to go mobile.