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Air Bugs



Hello fellow Kerbonauts!

The Intercept Games office is buzzing with activity as we submit our last check-ins for the upcoming v0.1.3.0 update and QA puts all the changes through their paces. We're currently aiming for a June 20th update, but as usual I'll hedge a bit by pointing out that QA always makes the final determination about whether the final build is release-ready. As we near that date, we should have more confidence about release timing as well as more details on exactly what fixes and changes will be present in the update. As always, we'll share detailed patch notes when the update goes live.

[h3]Bug Status[/h3]
We have seen movement on most of the items in our top 10 list this week! It's very exciting:

1. Vehicles in stable coasting orbits sometimes experience orbit instability/decay - Status: fix in progress
  • We've figured out what's going on here: when an orbiting vehicle is not under on-rails time warp, the effects of minor joint fluctuations within the vehicle rigidbody cause tiny-but-cumulatively significant changes to the vehicle's velocity. The outcome of this is that orbital parameters can change due to all of this subtle wiggling. A system is now being crafted to prevent orbital velocity changes when a vehicle is not under thrust. This change will likely not make it into the v0.1.3.0 update, but we know what's wrong and the steps to fixing it are well understood.
2. Trajectories change when vehicles cross SOI boundaries - Status: fix in progress
  • Engineers believe they understand the cause of this issue and are working on a comprehensive solution. This fix will, most likely, not be complete before the v0.1.3.0 update.
3. Certain inline parts cause aerodynamic drag numbers to spike - Status: fix being tested
  • Next week, Chris Adderley will be posting a dev blog entry describing the aero occlusion saga. It's a doozy. The fix is in and being tested by QA. We believe it is solid for v0.1.3.0.
4. Returning to craft from VAB causes craft to go underground (possibly related to Kerbals and landed vehicles dropping through terrain while being approached) - Status: multiple fixes being tested
  • This was actually two unrelated bugs, but happily we have submitted fixes for both of them and they're both looking good for v0.1.3.0.
5. Decoupling and/or undocking events result in various issues including loss of control, incorrect controllability of decoupled subassemblies, loss of camera focus, and other issues - Status: may have many causes, but some fixes in progress
  • This bug describes a nebulous family of bugs that have one thing in common: decoupling sometimes causes weird things to happen, and sometimes those weird things result in loss of control or other flight-killing outcomes. Our engineers have submitted six separate changes that address an array of decoupling-related issues, and they’re all being tested right now. These will be broken down in detail when we release patch notes for v0.1.3.0, but it’s a good bet that some edge case issues will still persist after the update. This is an area where public information submitted to the Bug Reports subforum can help shine a light on player stories that may be difficult for us to replicate internally.
6. Save files get bigger over time (TravelLog experiencing "landed" status spam) - Status: fix being tested
  • We are cautiously optimistic that this fix has eliminated the runaway file size issue. It is being tested for inclusion in v0.1.3.0.
7. Opening part manager causes major frame lag - Status: experiments ongoing
  • We've been working on this issue from different angles for quite a while, with varying results. Currently, engineer Patrick DeVarney is working on a method of invoking entries within the part manager on an as-needed basis, rather than always loading all part attributes simultaneously on PAM deployment. This fix will not make it into v0.1.3.0, but if the experiment bears fruit in the future it will have significant impact on PAM deployment lag. We’re all rooting for you, Patrick!
8. Major post-liftoff frame rate lag immediately above launchpad (associated with engine exhaust lighting) - Status: fix being tested
  • As we said last week, the short-term remedy for this issue was to turn off shadow casting for point lights associated with engine exhaust. We’ll likely revisit this once we’ve got other performance-impacting issues sorted out.
9. Root parts placed below decouplers cause issues with stage separation - Status: fix being tested
  • This is actually related to bug 5, and relates to engine plates being the root part. It has been fixed and is in QA review.
10. Vehicle joints unusually wobbly, some part connections unusually weak - Status: under investigation, some fixes in progress
  • We are testing a fix for one of the most irksome manifestations of this issue, and I’ll elaborate below...
One of the trending bugs on the Bug Reports subforum relates to wings spontaneously popping off of vehicles. This phenomenon is exacerbated by wings in KSP2 being lard, unitary parts with a single connection point - a situation that was less problematic in KSP1, where wing stresses were spread out across a large number of parts and joints. You may have been aware that for some inline stack nodes, we automatically apply a trio of additional joints to increase the rigidity of the connection. Engineer Jamie Leighton has implemented a new system that applies a similar multi-joint reinforcement to wing roots, and does so in a way that is physically correct. Now, the surface attach node of a wing element is augmented by additional joints that are placed linearly along the wing’s root, and the distance between those joints is controlled by the length of the wing’s root. Check it out:

Purple circles show the positions of wing root joint reinforcements.

This fix is being tested and is slated for release in the v0.1.3.0 update.

There are lots of other bugs going down this week as we’ve entered the cherry-picking process going into the final stretch on v0.1.3.0. It's important to keep in mind that while we've been focusing on sharing our progress on top community issues in these dev updates, a lot of work has been done to solve a lot of lesser-known issues as well. We’ve fixed the issue with not being able to rename vehicles in the tracking station, for example. We also think we’ve knocked out an inertia tensor bug that was causing radial decouplers to eject with inconsistent force directions and magnitudes (and messing up our Korolev Crosses).

While we’ve knocked out quite a few big bugs over the past couple of months, there’s still plenty of work to do. We’re hoping that this upcoming update makes a big dent in some of the most frustrating issues you’ve been encountering, but we don’t intend to let up at all in our pursuit of the remaining bugs and performance issues standing in the way of a stable, reliably performant gameplay experience. Our bug-hunting momentum is good and morale is high.

[h3]Bug Reports Subforum[/h3]
I mentioned last week that Dakota and the Community Team were continuing to add new functionality to the Bug Reports subforum on the KSP Forums. You can now upvote issues that you have encountered, add additional information to existing bugs (especially handy to the devs when a bug is caused by a weird or complex edge case - for example, it’s already been instrumental in helping us to track down a VAB "not enough resources" issue), and see the list sorted by prevalence. This will give our team an up-to-date view of the community’s most requested fixes. After the v0.1.3.0 update goes out, our hope is that both we and the community can get a faster and clearer picture of community priorities via this subforum. Check it out and let us know what you think!

[h3]Weekly Challenges[/h3]
Last week's challenge produced some very clever Gilly landers dockers, and some very original low-gravity rovers.

How about this space dualie by Socraticrat?


Or this incredible lander by ChaddingtonDuck:


In addition to celebrating all the challenge-inspired community creations over the past week, we also posted a Player Highlight calling out Coriolis, one of our most prolific vehicle builders. We've been enjoying their creations for a long time, and we can't wait to see what they come up with next!

Another Coriolis masterpiece.

This week, we're challenging you to make bases! Sure, you can land in a cool spot, but can you land other stuff near the same spot to make an off-planet village? We'll have colonies one day, but that's no reason not to do some early scouting for the best camping spots!

Good luck, space campers!

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