Poofy clouds whilst ascending with space plane

[James_Eh]

Like seemingly the majority of the posters lately, I have recently been devoting my time to space planes. I notice during ascent that there always seem to be lines of little round clouds that whip past: sometimes above, sometimes below, sometimes pretty much nose-on.

Is there any significance to these little clouds? At first I thought they were related to sonic speed, but now am pretty sure they aren't. I'm tempted to try to hit them bang on, kind of like they are showing me my ideal ascent profile...

(No mods.)

Edited June 27, 2014 by James_Eh

[LordFjord]

I've noticed these rarely but payed them no further attention.

My guess is that it happens when the physics engine is under heavy load - I mostly observed these at big heavy spaceplanes where the performance indicator is in deep yellow/red.

Something like a misplaced or miscalculated fracture of the engine exhaust smoke.

[Alshain]

I've seen them, I think it's a miscalculation on the rendering of your plane's con trail.

[Geschosskopf]

I've seen them, I think it's a miscalculation on the rendering of your plane's con trail.

These strings of little clouds happen every time you fly, whether you're doing a spaceplane or a rocket. They are always essentially parallel to your direction of travel and they appear at a regular and consistent time interval. You can actually see them coming for a fairly long way ahead and they don't fade away, they just eventually disappear in the distance behind. I therefore think they're a deliberate part of the game, not a bug. My guess is that they were originally created to provide time stamps at intervals so the devs could check whether other things were working right, such as the VSI, and they've just been left there long after they served their purpose. I dunno. Maybe they're instead Squad's current method to break the monotony of the otherwise empty atmosphere.

[7499275]

These strings of little clouds happen every time you fly, whether you're doing a spaceplane or a rocket. They are always essentially parallel to your direction of travel and they appear at a regular and consistent time interval. You can actually see them coming for a fairly long way ahead and they don't fade away, they just eventually disappear in the distance behind. I therefore think they're a deliberate part of the game, not a bug. My guess is that they were originally created to provide time stamps at intervals so the devs could check whether other things were working right, such as the VSI, and they've just been left there long after they served their purpose. I dunno. Maybe they're instead Squad's current method to break the monotony of the otherwise empty atmosphere.

Same, I see them everytime I launch a rocket or plane no matter indicator status, size, ewight, or speed. Usually 3 or 4 of them and always the same time between. I think your explanation makes the most sense, maybe we could get some answers from a dev about this?

[James_Eh]

Rats. I was really hoping they were my signposts to the perfect ascent. Well, they are fun to slalom through.

[RoboRay]

The devs said they are a bug with the exhaust plume effect, a long time ago. That explanation may have been lost with the forum crash.

[Hodo]

They are like the bug where your launch clamps keep falling past you on launch.. it is a miscalculation in the game engine.

[Roastduck]

The devs said they are a bug with the exhaust plume effect, a long time ago. That explanation may have been lost with the forum crash.

This is the correct explanation

[Vanamonde]

Yes, the puffs are bits of your own engine exhaust smoke, erroneously placed ahead of your ship by a weird little glitch. I believe it was HarvesteR himself who gave us that explanation. I like them. It helps me get a sense of the speed of my vehicles.

[Claw]

When I first saw them I just thought it was some little atmospherics they threw in as a test for some future addition. I thought that was nicer than "it's a bug."

[rkman]

Iirc the smoke puffs are related to ksp's floating origin being reset to the ship's position every 6km.

[problemecium]

^ Same here. I'm pretty sure they're a side effect of Krakensbane, wherein it repositions your ship but leaves the exhaust particles where they were in world space. I think it's also the reason that if you physics warp while flying a plane with SAS on, it twitches every few seconds and eventually loses its heading.

[Redshift OTF]

They're Foo Fighters.