Kerbal Space Program 2 receives clarified system requirements will be further optimised

Kerbal Space Program may have high system requirements, but those requirements are for those who want to push the game’s sandbox hard

This week, Intercept Games has been forced to clarify the PC system requirements of Kerbal Space Program 2 (KSP2) after receiving feedback from their community, promising performance optimisations as the game progresses through Steam Early Access and a confirmation that the game is “certainly playable” on PCs with hardware below their minimum specifications.

One of the problems when creating system requirements for games like Kerbal Space Program 2 is the simple fact that some gamers will push Kerbal Space Program 2’s sandbox a lot further than others, making it hard to guarantee that any specific gamer will be able to get strong levels of system performance form the game with any given set of hardware.

With Kerbal Space Program 2 being a sandbox with “literally limitless potential, it is understandable why Intercept games have set their game’s system requirements on the high side of the gaming hardware spectrum at least in terms of GPU requirements. In time, Kerbal Space Program 2 will be have its performance enhanced and optimised as the game’s development continues, as the priority of the game’s early access release is to get the game working, not to make the game as performant as possible.  

    Hey Kerbonauts, KSP Community Lead Michael Loreno here. I’ve connected with multiple teams within Intercept after ingesting feedback from the community and I’d like to address some of the concerns that are circulating regarding KSP 2 performance and min spec.

First and foremost, we need to apologize for how the initial rollout of the hardware specs communication went. It was confusing and distressful for many of you, and we’re here to provide clarity.

TLDR:

The game is certainly playable on machines below our min spec, but because no two people play the game exactly the same way (and because a physics sandbox game of this kind creates literally limitless potential for players to build anything and go anywhere), it’s very challenging to predict the experience that any particular player will have on day 1. We’ve chosen to be conservative for the time being, in order to manage player expectations. We will update these spec recommendations as the game evolves.

Below is Kerbal Space Program 2’s PC system requirements. 

Performance Optimisations are coming

As mentioned before, Kerbal Space Program 2’s development is ongoing, and that means that the game is currently in an unfinished state. Gamers should not expect a game to be fully optimised during early access, as the priority of developers is often to make a game feature complete before they fine tune their game’s performance. 

Intercept Studios has stated that their process for every feature in Kerbal Space Program 2 follows these four steps. 

1. Get it Working
2. Get it Stable
3. Get it Performant
4. Get it moddable

Right now, Intercept Studios are working to optimise KSP2’s terrain implementation and the game’s fuel flow and resource system. 

    I’d like to provide some details here about how we arrived at those specs and what we’re currently doing to improve them.

To address those who are worried that this spec will never change: KSP2’s performance is not set in stone. The game is undergoing continuous optimization, and performance will improve over the course of Early Access. We’ll do our best to communicate when future updates contain meaningful performance improvements, so watch this space.

Our determination of minimum and recommended specs for day 1 is based on our best understanding of what machinery will provide the best experience across the widest possible range of gameplay scenarios.

In general, every feature goes through the following steps:

– Get it working
– Get it stable
– Get it performant
– Get it moddable

As you may have already gathered, different features are living in different stages on this list right now. We’re confident that the game is now fun and full-featured enough to share with the public, but we are entering Early Access with the expectation that the community understands that this is a game in active development. That means that some features may be present in non-optimized forms in order to unblock other features or areas of gameplay that we want people to be able to experience today. Over the course of Early Access, you will see many features make their way from step 1 through step 4.

Here’s what our engineers are working on right now to improve performance during Early Access:
Terrain optimization. The current terrain implementation meets our main goal of displaying multiple octaves of detail at all altitudes, and across multiple biome types. We are now hard at work on a deep overhaul of this system that will not only further improve terrain fidelity and variety, but that will do so more efficiently.
Fuel flow/Resource system optimization. Some of you may have noticed that adding a high number of engines noticeably impacts framerate. This has to do with CPU-intensive fuel flow and Delta-V update calculations that are exacerbated when multiple engines are pulling from a common fuel source. The current system is both working and stable, but there is clearly room for performance improvement. We are re-evaluating this system to improve its scalability.
As we move forward into Early Access, we expect to receive lots of feedback from our players, not only about the overall quality of their play experiences, but about whether their goals are being served by our game as it runs on their hardware. This input will give us a much better picture of how we’re tracking relative to the needs of our community.

With that, keep sending over the feedback, and thanks for helping us make this game as great as it can be!

As Kerbal Space Program 2’s development continues, the game will get better and better as new features, overhauled features, and performance optimisations are added to the game. This will allow gamers to create more varied and complex things within the game’s sandbox, and allow gamers to influence KSP2’s development by giving Intercept Studios feedback. 

You can join the discussion on Kerbal Space Program 2’s clarified system requirements and promised optimisations on the OC3D Forums.