tldr: No blockers identified, launch to proceed estimated Friday EoB NZ time
Sorry for the delay it has been a very busy time here at the studio. Our steering group went really well and while issues were identified, none are *so far* considered blockers to public availability of the launch. Some remaining work was identified but engineering was confident, so we gave them today to be sure. If this continues, that means at the end of this week. It is vital to note that it is ultimately our engineers who guide the decision on whether to release, there remains the chance that a significant blocker comes up and the public availability is delayed.
About the build
It is important now to discuss what the build is and set expectations. What you have been seeing in #dev-updates updates and videos from content creators, is what you will be getting. We aren't hiding things, or holding back stuff for marketing purposes. The current build is more than a tech demo but less than a game, deliberate as we have focused on the foundational technology to deliver the game to the future. What you can do is play around with this foundation, primarily controlling the loaded rockets and seeing how the orbital physics and basic collisions work. Only Sol is simulated currently, and you can never leave its SOI - this means if you *do* get further out than Sol's SOI, you will see precision issues. A sample kitten in EVA is included. While basic modding is supported (and mods already exist!) the data structures are *heavily* in development so will change a lot, especially things like vehicles. All our internal debug tools are generally embedded in the game and are there for you to use (at your own risk) as well, such as part editing and such. The current system, Sol, is only for testing and will begin to be replaced with a custom designed one in the coming months.
We need you
The studio has found that our old ways of making and selling games just simply wasn't working, and that if we didn't try new ways we would end up as many other studios have. This project is the culmination of probably a decades worth of work building the studio. If you're here, then you're part of that journey now. We'll provide some more details of how all this will shake out later - in the meantime a 'save the date' for <t:1763092800:R>. When it does go loud, we need you as a *spokesperson* not a *sales person*. You know the project, you'll have the build - so you can make your own assessments about what the project has done, and where it is heading. Use that voice out there in the community with the project. If you can, and you feel the build meets expectations - contribute. Support content creators as much as you can as well. Developers, modders, content creators, *and* players will form what we hope is a "rebirth" of the spirit that Felipe bought with KSP. But in times like we are now it is so much harder, so we have nurture all parts of that.
A huge milestone
I am immensely proud and somewhat awed by what the team has pulled together. We have not only met, but exceeded even our stretch goals for what we wanted to have for the foundation of the project. This puts us in a very strong technical position to build up from here. More of this will be outlined when the public build goes live.
Known issues
We are tracking issues with older cards, especially AMD 5000 and 6000 series. Expect other weird edge case issues around GPUs and such. The technology we are using (BRUTAL) is brand new; and this is a huge ask for any engineering team to work through. Much of the work you would get for "free" with an engine is oriented to try solve a lot of these issues, and so we have to work through the various different platform and GPU idiosyncrasies. We also have not optimized our GPU handling, so cards that don't have a lot of VRAM may run into issues. The settings default to the highest level, when you boot the game.
Sorry for the delay it has been a very busy time here at the studio. Our steering group went really well and while issues were identified, none are *so far* considered blockers to public availability of the launch. Some remaining work was identified but engineering was confident, so we gave them today to be sure. If this continues, that means at the end of this week. It is vital to note that it is ultimately our engineers who guide the decision on whether to release, there remains the chance that a significant blocker comes up and the public availability is delayed.
About the build
It is important now to discuss what the build is and set expectations. What you have been seeing in #dev-updates updates and videos from content creators, is what you will be getting. We aren't hiding things, or holding back stuff for marketing purposes. The current build is more than a tech demo but less than a game, deliberate as we have focused on the foundational technology to deliver the game to the future. What you can do is play around with this foundation, primarily controlling the loaded rockets and seeing how the orbital physics and basic collisions work. Only Sol is simulated currently, and you can never leave its SOI - this means if you *do* get further out than Sol's SOI, you will see precision issues. A sample kitten in EVA is included. While basic modding is supported (and mods already exist!) the data structures are *heavily* in development so will change a lot, especially things like vehicles. All our internal debug tools are generally embedded in the game and are there for you to use (at your own risk) as well, such as part editing and such. The current system, Sol, is only for testing and will begin to be replaced with a custom designed one in the coming months.
We need you
The studio has found that our old ways of making and selling games just simply wasn't working, and that if we didn't try new ways we would end up as many other studios have. This project is the culmination of probably a decades worth of work building the studio. If you're here, then you're part of that journey now. We'll provide some more details of how all this will shake out later - in the meantime a 'save the date' for <t:1763092800:R>. When it does go loud, we need you as a *spokesperson* not a *sales person*. You know the project, you'll have the build - so you can make your own assessments about what the project has done, and where it is heading. Use that voice out there in the community with the project. If you can, and you feel the build meets expectations - contribute. Support content creators as much as you can as well. Developers, modders, content creators, *and* players will form what we hope is a "rebirth" of the spirit that Felipe bought with KSP. But in times like we are now it is so much harder, so we have nurture all parts of that.
A huge milestone
I am immensely proud and somewhat awed by what the team has pulled together. We have not only met, but exceeded even our stretch goals for what we wanted to have for the foundation of the project. This puts us in a very strong technical position to build up from here. More of this will be outlined when the public build goes live.
Known issues
We are tracking issues with older cards, especially AMD 5000 and 6000 series. Expect other weird edge case issues around GPUs and such. The technology we are using (BRUTAL) is brand new; and this is a huge ask for any engineering team to work through. Much of the work you would get for "free" with an engine is oriented to try solve a lot of these issues, and so we have to work through the various different platform and GPU idiosyncrasies. We also have not optimized our GPU handling, so cards that don't have a lot of VRAM may run into issues. The settings default to the highest level, when you boot the game.
