Welcome to our official newsletter, KSP Loading! If you want to learn about all the current developments of the KSP franchise, then this is the place to be!

Kerbal Space Program 2

Last week at the opening night of Gamescom we announced the forthcoming sequel and newest addition to our franchise, Kerbal Space Program 2! This sequel will be expanding upon what makes Kerbal Space Program great and will bring space exploration to the next generation with exciting new features that will delight veteran and new players alike. Were excited to introduce you to Star Theory Games, the developer studio behind Kerbal Space Program 2! Learn about the new development team joining the franchise by watching the Developer Story Trailer. Watch our Cinematic Trailer below to see what well be bringing to KSP2!

• Developer Story Trailer
• Cinematic Trailer

So what can you expect in 2020, when Kerbal Space Program 2 comes out of the VAB? These are just some of the features, youll be able to enjoy:
Improved Onboarding Rocket science can be a bit overwhelming sometimes and one of the things that Star Theory has set their minds towards is helping facilitate newcomers on their journey to become space explorers. With new animated tutorials, improved UI, and fully revamped assembly and flight instructions, it will be easier than ever to put your creativity to the test, all without sacrificing any of the challenge from the original game.
Next Generation Technology Kerbal technology is taking major steps forward in Kerbal Space Program 2. With next-generation engines, parts, fuel, and much more, prepare to venture farther within and beyond the original star system!

Colonies Long term colonization of celestial bodies has become a priority for Kerbalkind. Gather resources to construct buildings, space stations, and habitations, as well as find and process unique fuel types. Eventually, these colonies become advanced enough for vehicle construction, propelling them towards deep space and beyond. Its time for Kerbals to become a type 2 civilization!
Interstellar Travel With their next-gen tech, colonies, and resource gathering, Kerbals will reach new levels of exploration: interstellar travel. Thats right, in Kerbal Space Program 2, youll be able to discover extrasolar systems with whole new celestial bodies to explore. Among them: Charr, a heat-blasted world of iron; Ovin, a ringed super-Earth with relentless gravity; Rask and Rusk, a binary pair locked in a dance of death; and many more to reward exploration. What mysteries await in these alien worlds? It will be up to you to find out!

Multiplayer/Modding Modding has always been an essential part of KSP and with Kerbal Space Program 2 it will continue to be so. The technological developments made to the foundations of Kerbal Space Program 2 will build on the beloved modding capabilities of the original game, as well as deliver on the long-requested addition of multiplayer. Soon players will be able to share the challenges of deep space exploration. Well reveal more details on these and more features at a later time, so stay tuned!
Click here to see these and more screenshots in high-res.

PAX West 2019

Want to see the behind-closed-doors presentation of KSP 2 gameplay? Come by booth 1909 during normal show hours to chat with the developers, take a photo with the Jeb statue, see the presentation, and grab a PAX West exclusive KSP Flag! If you take a photo there be sure to tag @KerbalSpaceP and use #BuildFlyDream.

Kerbal Space Program Update 1.8

We are all very excited for whats coming in 2020, but until then, there is still plenty of KSP for everyone to enjoy! Squad will continue to support the current game, and as some of you may have seen, there is some really cool stuff coming in the next update for the game [Click here to read Squads statement in regard to the KSP 2 announcement. Squads goal will always be to provide the best experience for all KSP players. The gameplay experience will be improved even further for KSP 1 with the 1.8 update. Here are some more details of what you can look forward to in this latest update. Celestial Body Visual Improvements If youve been following KSP on social media, you might have already learned that new high-quality texture maps & graphic shaders are being implemented for various celestial bodies. In update 1.8 youll find high quality texture maps for Mun, Duna and a few other Celestial Bodies that will be revealed along the way. If there are any concerns that the update might hinder the games performance on your computers, rest easy knowing youll be able to select the celestial bodies shader quality in the settings to low (legacy), medium or high. Even for the legacy option, you can expect texture stretching errors to be vastly improved. With the high-quality option, pixel density will be maintained regardless of camera distance to the celestial body, as well as a lack of tiling problems. All in all, celestial bodies will look sharper and more realistic. Take a look for yourself. Unity Upgrade Update 1.8 brings an improvement that Squad has wanted to introduce for some time now - an upgrade to the underlying engine of the game to Unity 2019.2 With this upgrade there are some long-desired performance and graphic improvements, some of which come out of the box, and some which will allow further enhancements down the road. These include:

• KSP will now run under DX11 on the Windows platform (DX9 will no longer be supported) which allows many graphical improvements, such as those on the planetary textures.
• A new PhysX version with the associated performance and precision improvements.
• GPU instancing to improve rendering performance.
• Incremental garbage collection to reduce frame rate stutters, particularly in modded installs.
• And many others.

While this version will have a larger impact on many mods, more than 1.6 or 1.7, the process has been tested and is relatively fast. Still, there will be several changes, due to the introduction of the Roslyn compiler, which brings full C#7 support and moving to full .NET 4.x API (.NET 3.5 support is deprecated). There will be continued efforts to reduce significant impact for Modders, but the belief is this time around the benefits of this upgrade far outweigh the drawbacks. New Parts for Breaking Ground Update 1.8 will also include some exclusive treats for owners of the Breaking Ground Expansion. A new set of fan blades and shrouds will continue to push the creativity of KSP players even further. By combining these fan blades with small electrical rotors and the new shrouds, youll be able to increase the performance and thrust of your propellers. Use them to create drones, ducted fan jets, or anything you can imagine.
Improvements are also being made to robotic part resource consumption, with better info on consumption and new improved options for power-out situations. Remember, you can share and download crafts and missions on Curse, KerbalX, the KSP Forum and the KSP Steam Workshop. Thats it for this edition. Be sure to join us on our official forums, and dont forget to follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Stay tuned for more exciting and upcoming news and development updates! Happy launchings!

[ 2019-08-29 19:25:56 CET ] [ Original post ]