JonnyOThan

Performance Tips

1. install ksp community fixes version 1.37 or later
2. reduce max physics dt to 0.02 (improves framerate but increases "slow motion" effect)
3. If you have waterfall, make sure it's at least version 0.10.0
4. graphics settings: make sure stock antialiasing is off, reflection refresh is low or off, the reflection resolution is reasonable (256 or so), and pixel light count is 8
5. install deferred rendering
6. remove known problematic mods: HUDReplacer (1.3.0 or earlier). If using VertexOblateHeightmap, be sure to update kopernicus.
7. If you're using MJ or KER, close as many windows as you can
8. use Parallax Continued over Parallax 2

JonnyOThan

Recommended Graphics Settings

These settings will get you the best visuals for the cheapest cost. Turning the settings higher does not significantly improve the visual quality but it WILL significantly increase the performance cost. If you have a weaker GPU you may want to set things lower.

• Terrain scatter: off (assuming you have parallax)
• Reflection refresh: If you have Deferred or Textures Unlimited, set to Low. Otherwise Off.
• Reflection resolution: 256
• Antialiasing: off (use scatterer or TUFX antialiasing; stock AA is incompatible with HDR + Bloom anyway)

HB-Stratos

Decompiling KSP is technically against the Take2 EULA, but having the KSP Code to reference is an invaluable tool for modding. Hence it's been a bit of an open secret that modders decompile the game to help inform their mod writing. Sadly, nobody has ever fully captured how this is done, so this is what I intend to do here. If you wish to read the Take2 Eula before following this guide, you can find it here.

Notes on Legality

Preface: I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, etc. From the research I have done on the topic, I have been able to gather this:

In US and EU legislature it is legal to decompile any program regardless of license restrictions if the purpose of the decompilation is done to enable interoperability (ref1). In the case of KSP I would say this is not given as KSP does provide a public interfac

HB-Stratos

This guide has been moved to the official KSP Modding Libs Wiki, where it is maintained. This guide will not be maintained. https://github.com/KSPModdingLibs/KSPModdingWiki/wiki/Creating-a-new-Plugin-Mod-on-Windows

How to Mod KSP in 2024

I am not a mod developer, I am just starting out. I got a lot of help, and I'm writing this as a mental note for myself, as well as a hopefully correct guide for others who may want to start with KSP mod developement.

1. Installing Visual Studio Community 2022

• Download Visual Studio Community (not VS Code) from here: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/community/
• Run the installer
• During installation, make sure you install .Net desktop developement as seen here:

gotmachine

This guide applies only to KSP 1.8 and latter. It covers modifying a KSP installation to allow :

• In IDE debugging of KSP plugins by using breakpoints, inspecting runtime variables, doing step-by-step execution, etc. Both Visual Studio (including VS for Mac) and JetBrains Rider support debugging Unity games, and by extension KSP plugins.
• Using the Unity editor profiling tools, which include great tools to measure and analyze CPU/GPU usage and memory allocations.

This guide is extensively tested for a Windows / Visual Studio scenario. However, it is theoretically possible to make all that work under MacOS or Linux, either with the Rider IDE or Visual Studio for Mac. This guide has limited details about those scenarios. I encourage you to leave a comment if you have additional information / experience.

Modifying KSP for profiling/debugging

Downloading the Unity editor