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Kerbal Space Program Acquired by Take-Two Interactive

kerbalspaceprogram.com

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Re: Kerbal Space Program Acquired by Take-Two Interactive

#51

Post by eriknstr »

ferongr wrote: post #47
TeMPOraL wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

KSP is nowhere close to the limits of Unity, though, as proven by the modding community which (~1 - 1.5 years ago when I was last playing) provided better textures, atmospheric effects, better particle systems, and even shader-based atmospheric scattering. It would be entirely possible to incorporate all of that, in a more polished form, into the base game, given enough development time and will. I mean, this is how…

Graphics are irrelevant, I'm talking about physics. Stock KSP graphics are "good enough".

Your original comment read as if you were saying that Unity was to blame for what the graphics look like.

Re: Kerbal Space Program Acquired by Take-Two Interactive

#52

Post by TeMPOraL »

KSP was possibly my best entertainment spending ever. It definitely is the best game for me in terms of costs / time played. If you haven't played it yet, do yourself a favour and buy it now. If you have a kid with even tangential interest in space, get a copy for them.

Side effects of playing KSP include:

- getting an intuitive feel for basic orbital mechanics

- finding yourself reading up on actual math to better understand what's happening with your rockets (and how to build more efficient one)

- no longer being able to watch most space movies due to frustration caused by the filmmakers not grokking basic orbital physics

(RE the last point - after Gravity, Interstellar, The Martian and The Expanse series, getting basic spaceflight wrong should no longer be accepted in popular media. Looking at you, makers of The 100.)

Re: Kerbal Space Program Acquired by Take-Two Interactive

#53

Post by talldan »

martindevans wrote: post #43
ferongr wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is not graphics, but rather, the limitations of Unity that make it unsuitable for anything else but lowest common denominator multi-platform games with clearly defined limits. Space Engineers is another game hampered by Unity.

Space Engineers isn't made in Unity, it uses their Custom VRAGE engine. Unity can do far better graphics than KSP has e.g. https://unity3d.com/pages/adam . The fact that there are numerous mods which vastly improve the graphics of KSP is pretty good evidence of this! Where Unity can be blamed for KSP problems is the constant stutters due to GC - Unity uses an ancient garbage collector. Hopefully that's going to get b…

The parent said it's 'not graphics' that's the problem. I agree that it's not really the graphics that are an issue in KSP, but most likely the physics engine.

Essentially, most (unity) games don't allow their users to create content, whereas the essential part of KSP is the creation and simulation of lots of bodies.

I've definitely experienced a substantial slowdown when many entities are on the screen at the same time.

I'm not sure if KSP makes use of the normal Unity physics engine, a third-party one, or something developed in-house.

Re: Kerbal Space Program Acquired by Take-Two Interactive

#55

Post by StavrosK »

yellow_postit wrote: post #18
mediocrejoker wrote: post #16

I hope this goes well. I would love to see a remake that retains the exact same gameplay with more modern graphics. Hopefully all the people who paid for the current in-development version are not left high and dry in terms of updates and bugfixes. I also have heard the rumors that the team was not treated well, and that the game was never really the focus of the company. I think it may have been a side project of on…

To each their own, but this kind of sandbox game to me works better with simpler graphics as it leaves more to the imagination.

How do you mean? You still see everything, what's left to the imagination when something looks worse? It's not like a book where you can add your own details...

Re: Kerbal Space Program Acquired by Take-Two Interactive

#57

Post by TeMPOraL »

talldan wrote: post #53
martindevans wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Space Engineers isn't made in Unity, it uses their Custom VRAGE engine. Unity can do far better graphics than KSP has e.g. https://unity3d.com/pages/adam . The fact that there are numerous mods which vastly improve the graphics of KSP is pretty good evidence of this! Where Unity can be blamed for KSP problems is the constant stutters due to GC - Unity uses an ancient garbage collector. Hopefully that's going to get b…

The parent said it's 'not graphics' that's the problem. I agree that it's not really the graphics that are an issue in KSP, but most likely the physics engine. Essentially, most (unity) games don't allow their users to create content, whereas the essential part of KSP is the creation and simulation of lots of bodies. I've definitely experienced a substantial slowdown when many entities are on the screen at the same t…

When they were on Unity 4, they were using Unity's physics engine - that made the game perform badly for bigger constructions (e.g. large rockets, or space stations), because the physics engine was single-threaded and the game is CPU-bound on physics. After switching to Unity 5, things got better. I haven't been up to date with KSP for the past year, so I don't know if they switched to some other physics engine (though I highly doubt it).

Re: Kerbal Space Program Acquired by Take-Two Interactive

#58

Post by TylerE »

pawadu wrote: post #14
TylerE wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case it's probably a good thing. Really, the thing to do is buy it for the name, and then start from scratch in an actually good game engine (i.e. not Unity)

Give a man a game engine and he will write a game. Give a man no game engine and he will write a game engine for the rest of his life. - unknown GDC speaker

I didn't say write their own... but how about a proper multithreaded modern engine like Unreal?

Re: Kerbal Space Program Acquired by Take-Two Interactive

#59

Post by marcosdumay »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #52

KSP was possibly my best entertainment spending ever. It definitely is the best game for me in terms of costs / time played. If you haven't played it yet, do yourself a favour and buy it now. If you have a kid with even tangential interest in space, get a copy for them. Side effects of playing KSP include: - getting an intuitive feel for basic orbital mechanics - finding yourself reading up on actual math to better u…

It's so weird, looking at a perfectly normal movie and the only thing you can think about is "What? It doesn't work that way!" like if everything started falling up with no explanation and the characters found that perfectly normal.

But I'll disagree on Gravity and Interstellar getting spaceflight right. Unless you are going for very basic.

Re: Kerbal Space Program Acquired by Take-Two Interactive

#60

Post by jandrese »

intended wrote: post #41
pawadu wrote: post #4

Whats next? Dwarf Fortress acquired by EA?

I know The world has been odd for the past year, but I assure you that we aren't in the EA buys DF time line. We may be in the DF eats EA timeline though. Edit: I wonder what the Adams brothers would do with "fuck you" money

Probably work at exactly the same pace. DF isn't something they're doing to maximize their return on investment, it's a labor of love.
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