In Fall 2021, Kerbal Space Program's Enhanced Edition is getting an upgrade for the PS5 and Xbox Series X, bringing its resolution up to 1440p on each. The power of the newer consoles will allow for a series of improvements like mouse and keyboard support.
Despite the deliberate ridiculousness of the Kerbals, Kerbal Space Program is an accurate aeronautics simulator, allowing players to build everything from planes and rovers to interplanetary expeditions and space stations. Its accuracy is such that its fans include many people at NASA, as well as SpaceX's Elon Musk. The game has been around in various forms since 2011 and a sequel will finally arrive in 2022.
The PS5 and Xbox Series X/S upgrade will also boost Kerbal's framerates, allow better shaders and textures, and expand the number of parts people can use when building vehicles, Private Division says. The game will be capped at 1440p on the PS5 and Series X and 1080p on Series S. The studio is also promising "a more stable game experience" because of the extra memory available. Even on PC, the game can potentially crash if players get too ambitious with their projects. That's because the game is simulating not just orbits, atmospheres, and gravity, but the individual parts of each craft, which can be torn off or destroyed under heavy forces. People who already own Kerbal Space Program Enhanced Edition for PS4 or Xbox One will get the current-gen versions for free.
Most upgrades for current-gen consoles - like the recent update for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order - allow 4K resolutions, even if it can cause performance to dip below 60fps. Kerbal's 1440p cap is presumably a necessary tradeoff to improve detail and smooth out framerates while keeping up physics modeling. Most games don't require such intense processing, on consoles or otherwise, and the extra sharpness of 4K is often noticeable only on the biggest TVs. 1440p is usually more than enough to eliminate visible pixels.
The specs of Kerbal 1's update are likely a sign of what's planned for Kerbal Space Program 2. In terms of gameplay, the latter will represent a major expansion in scope, adding multiplayer, colonies with resource gathering and vehicle construction, and even interstellar travel - something commonplace in sci-fi games like Mass Effect, but much harder with realistic (or semi-realistic) spacecraft. Along those lines, another priority is a softer learning curve, made possible by animated tutorials and a streamlined interface. PC players will have access to new modding capabilities.
Source: Private Division
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June 25, 2021 at 12:17AM
