[img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35665816/17bdb4c98e78519cd2e745b391a68e0bf42ade59.png[/img] Greetings! I'm Ness, the Art Director here at Intercept Games - let's talk about KSP2's User Interface, the most meta of all game art disciplines! UI must surface moment-to-moment information and actions to players in either text or clever visual shorthand. When making a simulation game like KSP, an even greater burden of information is placed on the UI, since we need to supply players with a mountain of information and choices without overwhelming either the player or their screen’s real estate. It’s a fascinating and sometimes frustrating balance to strike; and I am consistently impressed by our UI/UX team’s ability to analyze abstract, un-implemented features and translate them into visuals. Jordan and Colton from our UI/UX team at Intercept work tirelessly to make rocket science digestible and slick-looking! Before we dive into future plans for KSP2’s UI, I’d like to first take a quick look at KSP1’s. Its UI went through several distinct stages over the course of KSP1’s history, the most radical changes happening early in development. One thing that I love about videogame UI is that on top of all the information it must convey, its visual styling can suggest subtle narrative and worldbuilding—something that KSP1 has absolutely utilized and that we will continue to evolve in KSP2. Some very early unreleased examples of KSP1 0.2’s UI can be found on HarvesteR’s dev blog. We can see a mix of fonts, both handwritten and geometric sans serif, as well as a barebones parts catalogue. The mix of fonts here is the most interesting detail to me; the handwritten altitude and speed readouts suggests a theme of "DIY" that applied to both the Kerbals in the game and the developers making the game. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35665816/810086fa85af91ae6c9f872263ec29f5ae910d2d.png[/img] A later iteration of the UI around KSP1 0.3 introduces the familiar grey that stuck around for the rest of development, as well as a precariously-stacked flight heads up display. This cobbled-together “junkyard” readout was an evolution of the Kerbal narrative of a DIY space program using salvaged parts. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35665816/3b11aa8e289ca61c3bd28722378e635e3b4538f5.png[/img] By the time KSP1 0.7.3’s public release rolled around, the staging stack had moved to the left side of the screen, we had a flight cluster, and Kerbal live-feed portraits all carefully spaced around the edges and wrapped in that grey pseudo-metal that we saw back in 0.3. Gone was the junkyard aesthetic, and the skeuomorphic gauges were carefully lined up. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35665816/57444971323c91921589d9049f0868f215192af1.png[/img][i]Credit: Whirligig Girl[/i] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35665816/c04923b21dd5a3ec9302412a5d5fde7e4c4bca9c.jpg[/img][i]And finally, a shot of KSP1's UI as of 1.0.[/i] We’re all familiar with the symbiotic effect that mods had on KSP1, and I believe that by keeping the UI simple and grey, it allowed modders with limited artistic ability to easily match the look of the canonical UI and maintain a level of visual consistency which ultimately cuts down on cognitive load and increases immersion. This is absolutely something we on the art team are aware of in KSP2, and when it comes time to roll out additional modding tools the UI team will also share our internal style guide for modders interested in mimicking KSP2’s UI. Now onto what I think most of you all are here for; [b]what’s in store for the future of KSP2’s UI now that For Science! is out the door[/b]? In the weeks since release, we’ve enjoyed following along as new and returning KSP2 players have checked out the missions, discovered points of interest, and put all of our flight systems through their paces. As thrilling and satisfying as it’s been to see all of the impressive feats you’ve achieved since the For Science! update, we’re also been watching and documenting your reactions to the user experience and the user interface in particular. We’re excited to see that many elements of our UI have facilitated a smoother first-time user experience, but with your help we’ve also identified several areas of confusion that we are actively tracking. These areas include: [list] [*]Fonts can be hard to read for a variety of reasons (size, scaling, color, contrast, etc.). [*]The maneuver gizmo can be difficult to interact with, and precision maneuvers are especially difficult. [*]Trajectory tag markers can be difficult to differentiate or identify. [*]Trajectory tag stems can get tangled with one another in ways that cause significant visual confusion. [*]SOI transit "bullseye" indicators are too bright, too big, and too prominent relative to other map elements (this is a personal bugbear of mine). [*]Rearranging the staging stack order when selecting the bottom-most stage is difficult. [*]The Part Manager presents several usability issues including but not limited to: observing many parts at once, using the Resource Manager as a separate app to specifically track fuel on a per-part basis feels awkward, associating a viewed part in the manager with the actual part on the ship. [*]We are not adequately communicating that "Revert to VAB" causes a loss of recent progress, and there are situations when reversion should not be accessible at all. [*]It is not obviously clear, especially to new players, when a vehicle is recoverable. [*]The audio-only countdown on launch presents both accessibility and legibility problems. [*]When in any time warp state other than 1x, the UI does not adequately communicate the state change. The tendency to interpret an under-warp failed control input as a bug has caught out quite a few members of our own team, and is likely responsible for quite a few bug reports. [*]Visual styling for some UI elements is not completely unified. [*]It would be very handy to be able to see mission requirements in the VAB while constructing a vehicle. [/list]KSP2 in early access is delivering the kind of active feedback loop we were hoping to see, and we’ve now got a nice collection of feedback items to help guide our work priorities. We’re excited to continue improving on the UI. In the meantime, we’ve been working away on a few UI improvements of our own! In the upcoming v0.2.1.0 update you’ll not only see us begin to work through the 2024 bug list, but you’ll also see the following changes: [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35665816/e384209df8f3724031caaf8411535db229ab9a5b.png[/img] We’ve adjusted the iconography and visuals of intersect nodes to make them easier to interpret (and hopefully easier to learn). We’ve also adjusted the colors of the planned trajectory line to further differentiate from your current trajectory, and shifted the colors on intercept nodes to make it more clear what relation your craft has to celestial bodies. Time and space are weird, but through these and future trajectory improvements we’re working on, we hope to make parsing orbital mechanics more approachable! [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35665816/9f732e10912ae67435e7a5c93ce2b290749d077d.png[/img] Aaaaaalso as a sneak peek for something that’s coming beyond the v0.2.1.0 update, Jordan has been diligently combing through and adjusting KSP2’s UI in a giant unification pass in order to align some of our disparate visuals. The shot below represents the first wave of style unification on the highest traffic areas of the game: [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35665816/e4147d20d388fec1e5eea2ce91502ea543c9b6f7.png[/img] I'm looking forward to sharing more UI improvements with you all in the future! [hr][/hr][h5]Share Your Creations![/h5] We've got an exciting announcement! We're working on a new video for KSP2 and we want YOU to share your favorite creations with us for inclusion in the video. It doesn’t matter if it’s a rocket, a plane, a rover, a boat, a giant mechanical turkey, or whatever your heart desires—if you love it and you’re proud of it we want to see it! If we end up using your submission, you’ll be credited and have eternal bragging rights. [b]If you’d like to submit, send an image of your creation along with a craft file (.json) to crafts@interceptgames.com[/b]. Please also include your preferred name so we can credit you (can be real name or username). A bit of fine print here: [i]by submitting your creation, you’re agreeing to let us use the craft file in any and all future marketing materials[/i]. Thanks! We’ll release more details as the project moves forward. We’re excited to take your vehicles out for a spin!