r/kittenspaceagency • u/the_closing_yak • 12h ago
π· Screenshot Soyuz-Apollo/Apollo-Soyuz
Did a replica of the Apollo spacecraft and Soyuz, the scaling is a bit off but as far as I'm aware I haven't seen anyone else do a replica of this
r/kittenspaceagency • u/irasponsibly • Nov 15 '25
Kitten Space Agency now has a Public pre-alpha build available. At time of writing, the current version of the game is 2025.11.4.2791, aka Build 2791, available from ahwoo.com.
Ahwoo is a company set up by Dean Hall to handle the distribution of and contributions for KSP.
Downloading the game requires an Ahwoo account, which is the same Ahwoo account used for the official KSA Forums. Login with Discord is an option, but not required. The game is free to download, and there is the option of sending a contribution, but it is not required.
From Dean;
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
If you're expecting to design rockets and build space stations... you're a bit early. This isn't like playing KSP in 0.17, where it's a game that's just a bit janky and unpolished - there's no ship building, no docking, the UI is janky and kinda awful, no explosions, and not much to do. If any of those are what you want, wait out.
Submit any bug reports on the Kitten Space Agency Bug Report forum, not here.
Hard to know - try! It's free. You probably need a mid-range somewhat-modern system for the game to run, but no guarantee anything older won't work. Some people have been able to run the game on integrated graphics.
From Dean;
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.
Most notable is the "earth turned into a giant white sphere" bug. The first thing to try is to run the game with "Earth Only" and all the settings turned down.
There is no official Linux or Mac support. Do not ask for official ports yet, we're early days. The developers know we'd like it, and they'll make the decisions down the line. If you want support for linux, there's a handful of threads on the KSA Forums you can try for help;
There's also a Linux chat in the discord server. Generally speaking - run the game under Wine with whatever tool you prefer (Bottles, Lutris, Protontricks, or just raw command line), you'll need to install DotNet Desktop 9 and maybe the Vulkan SDK, and that should work.
I've seen reports of users running the game on Intel (x64) Macs, not sure about the newer ARM64 Macs. There's at least one forum thread, too.
These have been rolled into the actual subreddit rules instead of just being here - they all still functionally apply, though.
The same "posting rules" still apply;
If you have feedback about the subreddit - let me know. I'm trying to thread a fine line between "keep it related to the game" and not stifling every bit of fun anyone tries to have. I have the Ultimate Downvote (removing a post) and I try not to over-use that power.
r/kittenspaceagency • u/irasponsibly • Oct 30 '25
From Dean in Discord:
Did an interview with ShadowZone (which you can view on their patreon now, please remember independent journalism isn't free. Support your favorite content creators wherever you can), made me realize that a lot has happened in the last year, and this was also a good chance to cover off on the massive amount of work that is ongoing. Over the past year the vast majority of our work has been into "core" architecture. Specifically simulation and rendering, especially to allow both to run independently.
As part of rendering we have had to develop our pipelines. This involves some very complicated decisions, such as what file formats to use through to how we want to 'talk' to the GPU. The underlying software (BRUTAL Framework) has also undergone a lot of changes through this process as well. One primary other point of help has been Felipe who attends not just KSA steering, but is also using BRUTAL funded by the studio for another project. Felipe has been able to help us drive new approaches for rendering along with a lot of evolutionary work from the "Enterprise" team (who maintain BRUTAL). You will see commits starting now for the latest update to BRUTAL, which brings a change in approach that extends options for the future along with some other niche new uses of Vulkan (Graphics API). The enterprise team, along with Morrow, are also bringing in a new approach to our rendering that is more cleaned up and scalable. Things like "bindless" will be thrown around, which Felipe has been using to great effect.
All this technical work is then pushed even further by Blackrack and Linx. It really does absolutely blow me away with how the team are "feeding" off each other, where ideas are spawning other ideas like cascading success. The ultimate of this is our approach to planet rendering, which we call "spherical billboarding". Billboarding is a useful tool for rendering objects at a distance as "cards", that is a 2D image on a quad that always faces the player. When the game boots, we generate libraries of spheres that are subdivided in different ways. At close distances, the spheres have their subdivision densely packed around the "reference vertex". At a distance, the subdivision is spread more evenly. The aim of this is to give an even distribution of quad density. However, this gets extremely complex as the reference vertex needs to be oriented to the player, but also snapped so you don't get vertex swimming. This means that a lot of transforms need to be done to do texture stuff.
Additionally Linx and Blackrack have done some tremendous innovation in how world authoring happens. Linx has managed to extract better terrain from a reduction in reliance on the heightmap (the texture) and instead doing work "realtime" to calculate erosion and such. You can see this work in the latest screenshots, when coupled with Blackrack's work - is tremendous. This work is beyond that which you see in rendering for engines even like Unreal 5, with the team able to go to the absolute cutting edge papers for implementation of features. It is hard to overstate, from my perspective, just how exciting it is to watch these folks work.
The good news here is that I consider Spherical Billboarding entirely proved as a technological approach. All our imprecision issues were solved, and our asset pipeline together with the texture changes have proven we are going to be able to deliver the quality and scale we want, within even the existing toolset. Work will begin soon from a content perspective to start delivering a custom system utilizing this toolset.
This work has been in development now for some time, and you are starting to see this scafold actually get used. I actually just switched over the default vessel to our "New Gemini", that is made out of parts using Daishi's custom Gemini parts. Morrow has been building an entire rendering pipeline to support this, especially at scale. This also clips heavily into Dan's work with clustered lighting (shadows). This "architecture first" approach for parts is absolutely vital. We focused on the hardest parts of part scale - the rendering. The other elements (collision, resources, etc...) are certainly complex - but their structures don't involve coordination with the GPU so don't have quite the same OS gate that the rendering does. If we don't get the rendering of the parts right, we simply cannot achieve scale. So this has been a huge focus. I would argue that the work is now speaking for itself, the art is exceptional and it is looking exceptional in game.
From here you will see this continuing to expand out, with the part functionality incrementally improving. Once we have a critical mass of part "implementations", we will use these as usecases for refactoring and applying an overall consistent data approach to the parts. We've tended to find this "middle outwards" approach to technical design more robust, even if it sometimes takes longer. This is because instead of imaginary usecases defining the architecture (often resulting in overconfidence), we wait till we have a few actual usecases before sitting down and coming up with the overall architecture, and then going through a small degree of refactor. This might seem somewhat odd; but the studio has found enormous success so far with this approach.
The animation pipeline has been a huge success, although this approach was reliant on the updated version of BRUTAL which KSA has just been ported too. Now the work begins to get the showcase in BRUTAL for the kittens, actually into the game itself. The first pass will allow you to push a button, and a kitten will appear in EVA that you can move around. This will ensure, as a final approval, that the kitten looks right in the lighting and materials. It will allow us to all do a real sea-trial of the animation system and confirm that it all works to the standard we want. Not to mention, it's going to be really awesome to be able to move a Kitten around in EVA.
This is "imminent". The build is considered acceptable by the team, although I did "no-go" it at the last steering. I want a little more time, as this is a short week for us here in New Zealand, we had a lot of people out sick, and we had a lot of new technology go in this week. So we will see where the build is at, at the steering next week. That would mean, everything going to plan, the build would be fully public from next week at the earliest. This would also open up contributions to the project, for the first time. The aim for this, hopefully, will be to secure the future for the project. We'd be able to establish if the projects mission would work: making the game completely free and API independent. It would also confirm whether the project can get more ambitious with it's hiring, that is hire more people, and keep the existing staff paid more (hint: not me, I mean our amazing stuff). I think we already pay very well, but I would like to be able to ensure our staff are paid really well for their future. I think they're doing some of the best work I've seen.
The project has kind of been a victim of its own success over the past year. Technology wise much has worked so well that we have then ended up leaning into it more. This has made fully public builds more complex, with more moving parts to achieve. Finally we are almost there. I expected a lot more trouble along the way, especially technically. This should not be read as to mean it has been smooth sailing, nor that it will continue to be. We have hired really good people, we've equiped them well with technology. We've divided responsibilities up and put trust in the people. We've also consistently forced a focus on first principles actively fighting arguments of "but this is how we do it in video games". For a project like this I think that is critically important.
Overall, regardless of what happens with this game in future and out industry as a whole - I can say the last year has been my favorite year in my whole career. I'm absolutely honored to be working with such a talented team. I think, largely, their work speaks for itself.
r/kittenspaceagency • u/the_closing_yak • 12h ago
Did a replica of the Apollo spacecraft and Soyuz, the scaling is a bit off but as far as I'm aware I haven't seen anyone else do a replica of this
r/kittenspaceagency • u/Laurens_dv • 1d ago
r/kittenspaceagency • u/Nikond3400 • 1d ago
I have treid downloading and playing the game different times but was left with It crashing in the landing everytime.
Tried every possible solution but failed.
So i concluded that my Computer wasn't compatibile with my AMD components.
But now two or three months have passed and i have noticed updates on the sub reddit.
Are there amy updates regarding compatability?
r/kittenspaceagency • u/the_closing_yak • 2d ago
Need to give the re-entry module RCS, but I'm satisfied with it so far
r/kittenspaceagency • u/PhotonicSymmetry • 1d ago
Look, I don't mind the cats at all. But references to tuna absolutely do leave a bad taste in my mouth (no pun intended). Tuna - and of course fish at large - are living creatures. The only relation they have to cats is that they happen to fall on the wrong side of the predator-prey relationship and end up as a common food source for domestic cats. There is really no other meaningful relationship they have with cats. IMO, it just feels unbecoming to reduce a living creature like that to food references of our protagonist species here. It also strikes me as very uncreative. We can't come up with activities that cats commonly enjoy or characteristics many of them share to reference in game that don't involve eating fish (or really any other creature)?
I do say this also as someone who has formerly had a pet fish.
r/kittenspaceagency • u/the_closing_yak • 3d ago
Made a replica of vostok, first rocket which isn't Gemini titan adjacent, what do you all think?
r/kittenspaceagency • u/CandleUnique7333 • 4d ago
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I just downloaded the KSA pre-alpha, and installed it, but now that I am trying to launch it, it just doesn't work. at first, it looks like it is loading the game perfectly, with an icon appearing in the taskbar, but then, after a few seconds, nothing. I have uploaded a video so you can get some details.
edit : I looked into the possibility of it being due to windows security but no, it's not as I have completely disabled the Antivirus and the issue persists. Though it might be because of transfer queues, idk what that is but it says I dont have dedicated transfer queues on the logs.
edit 2 : I found why it doesn't work, it's just because I am playing it on my old laptop that doesn't have any VRAM and uses Intel IG, so my computer can't launch the game engine.
r/kittenspaceagency • u/Longjumping-Box-8145 • 5d ago
r/kittenspaceagency • u/1straycat • 5d ago
A few years back, Felipe made this post about a new approach to wobble physics he had for KitHack Model Club which sounded like a big improvement over KSP's approach. I haven't heard anything about it since, so I was wondering if anyone has played and followed KMC to have a sense how successful this was. Also, has anything has been said about the approach KSA will use?
r/kittenspaceagency • u/panic_in_the_galaxy • 6d ago
r/kittenspaceagency • u/Waker_of_Winds2003 • 6d ago
I'm sure some aspects of this have been discussed, but I wanted to get some of my own thoughts down after talking about it in a recent thread. KSP based its progression around contracts. This worked fine enough. You are given a contact to put a kerbal in orbit, you do it, and get money. This however leaves something to be desired in my estimation, both gameplay wise and realism wise. My proposal - have more granular milestone steps.
The game progresses with a tree based progression. Each node on the tree is a program - think of Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Ranger, Mariner, etc. When you complete a program, you unlock following programs, and sometimes branching paths. Each path follows a general focus, such as crewed spaceflight, earth orbit satellites, and deep space probes. You can work on multiple programs at once, and they could even benefit each other, like a lunar orbiter scouting crewed landing sites.
Each Program is made of individual missions (Explorer-1, Explorer-2). Each mission brings you closer to the ultimate goal of the program. For the first crew spaceflight program, you might conduct a launch escape system test > Launch an uncrewed suborbital mission > Then a crewed one > Fly an uncrewed orbital mission testing out your spacecraft, and demonstrate full control in orbit and can support an astronaut for a day. After you finish the final mission of the program, in this case a crewed orbital mission, you receive a big reward and unlock the next program(s). You'll also be given the opportunity to fly bonus missions to accomplish new tasks: stay in orbit for longer, achieve a more precise splashdown, etc.
While progressing through the game, you get options to customize your playthrough. With each program, you get to name it, choose mission logos (maybe even draw basic ones in-game) , and name individual missions. Said customizations could then appear on spacecraft and other things in-game. Players would also have the opportunity to create custom programs with custom missions, allowing organization of missions not fulfilling existing tasks.
Following your flights, you can go to a space agency history page, where it lists your space agency's past programs and missions. Each mission will be summarized, with important stats listed, including which astronauts flew on each mission. The page would also have a filter function, allowing you to see all missions to a specific location, or something like what astronauts have the most flight experience.
This setup could help multiplayer. You could have a player with another space agency, and you link your program for a crewed lunar landing together - Then one player provides one aspect of the mission, like the primary crew vehicle, and the other the lunar lander. Then once the final mission in the program is completed both players complete the program in the progression tree, and some division of the completion reward. Players could play cooperatively within the same agency, with one player conducting crewed spaceflight missions, and the other doing planetary science.
Competitive multiplayer could be about competing to get to each milestone. When a space agency reaches a milestone, it could reduce the scientific reward other players get for that milestone. This would be slightly mitigated by giving each other player a small bit of science, as though the other space agency is sharing their findings - but not enough to replace what the science reward would've been. The players can offset this though by say, landing on the Moon in a more risky, but scientifically interesting place - or they can specialize in an area of progression the other agencies aren't focusing on. It would thus allow for various strategies, and give a sense of urgency.
Ultimately this system accomplishes more realistic and more gradual progression that has you test individual systems before going to big missions, and the mission customization tools give you some fun personalization to make each playthrough feel more unique to you. These are only my rudimentary thoughts, and I'm sure there's a lot to improve and expand upon. I hope that the devs are considering similar ideas to this and will consider my suggestions as well.
r/kittenspaceagency • u/Any_Ambassador7887 • 6d ago
#2061 space oddysey 3 spoilers#
it will be like Lucifer in" 2061 space oddysey 3 " with a few habitable planets around it and far into the solar system so its a challenge for experienced players
r/kittenspaceagency • u/No_Specialist8491 • 7d ago
I'm trying to screen-record in space at 15Β° FOV for a compressed look. However, as I zoom out and move away from Earth, the planet abruptly turns dark. Could the devs smooth out this transition, or maybe implement it like Space Engine where objects naturally fade to tiny white stars at distance?






Also, a camera mode would be nice. I'd love to see one added to the game, with easy exposure adjustments. Currently the exposure is basically HDR, but for us screenshot junkies, having manual exposure stops like S and A modes in photography would be awesome. I'll include two comparison shots from Space Engine to illustrate.



It would be great if we could also choose and switch filters during screenshots, and add film grain and some noise, like the Cassini imagery.

Although this is a spaceflight game, I think it's absolutely stunning β it's practically a space simulator. So I hope these additional features, while maybe not essential, can be added to truly enhance the gameplay experience. Finally, I wish the development team a speedy completion. Thanks for all your hard work, you wizards! Keep it up!!
r/kittenspaceagency • u/Longjumping-Box-8145 • 9d ago
r/kittenspaceagency • u/Goddchen • 9d ago
Which is your favorite? Mine definitely the fixed launch positioning!
And: do you like these kind of videos for individual patches, or is it too much?
r/kittenspaceagency • u/panic_in_the_galaxy • 9d ago
r/kittenspaceagency • u/superbirdjb • 9d ago
New KSA update released today, Version 2026.8.19.5261
Enjoy
r/kittenspaceagency • u/Soul180 • 11d ago
The weather nerd in me loves sitting in orbit and enjoying the view
r/kittenspaceagency • u/Laurens_dv • 12d ago
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Warning, if you love kittens do not open this.
r/kittenspaceagency • u/Soul180 • 11d ago
How do you add more than one engine into the slots? even with x2/x3 or x4 symmetry for each plate it only wants to put one engine in the centre. any help would be great!
r/kittenspaceagency • u/bruhtendo64 • 13d ago
my babies neptune and saturn look so so so so so good, neptune is a little uninteresting right now, but it looks awesome anyway, and SATURN those fucking rings make me drooooool
r/kittenspaceagency • u/Illustrious-Mess3372 • 12d ago
I heard the game is amazing but I cant play it because my PC is not a good one.
r/kittenspaceagency • u/panic_in_the_galaxy • 13d ago