Changes from version to version

This is a slightly more verbose version of the new features mentioned in the CHANGELOG, specifically for new features and for users familiar with older versions of the documentation who want only a quick update to the docs without reading the entire set of documentation again from scratch.

Changes in 0.18.2

Queue and Stack

Queues and Stacks are now a feature you can use along with lists.

Volumes and Processors integration

Volumes now get a default name equal to the core processor’s nametag, and have several suffixes that can be queried.

Get the volume that goes with a core

Debuglog

Debuglog suffix of KUNIVERSE for writing messages to the Unity log file.

Changes in 0.18.1

(This update had only bug fixes and nothing that affected these user documentation pages.)

Changes in 0.18 - Steering Much Betterer

Steering Overhaul

A major change to Cooked Steering!

Should help people using torque-less craft like with Realism Overhaul. Removed the old steering logic and replaced it with a nice auto-tuning system.

SteeringManager structure now lests you acccess and alter parts of the cooked steering system.

PIDLoop structure now lets you borrow the PID mechanism used by the new cooked steering, for your own purposes.

Lexicon

New Lexicon structure now allows associative arrays.

String methods

New String structure now allows string manipulations.

Science Experiment Control

New ScienceExperimentModule allows you to fire off science experiments bypassing the user interface dialog.

Crew Member API

New CrewMember structure allows you to query the registered crew - their class, gender, and skill.

LOADISTANCE

New LOADDISTANCE obsoletes the previous way it worked.

Renamed built-ins

“AQUIRE” on docking ports is now “ACQUIRE”. “SURFACESPEED” is now “GROUNDSPEED” instead.

Enforces control of own-vessel only

It was previously possible to control vessels that weren’t attached to the kOS computer running the script. This has been corrected.

Dynamic pressure

DYNAMICPRESSURE, or Q, a new suffix of Vessel.

DEFINED keyword

DEFINED keyword that can be used to check if a variable has been declared.

KUNIVERSE

KUniverse structure letting you break the 4th wall and revert from a script

SolarPrimeVector

SolarPrimeVector, a bound variable to provide universal longitude direction.

Changes in 0.17.3

New Looping control flow, the FROM loop

There is now a new kind of loop, the FROM loop, which is a bit like the typical 3-part for-loop seen in a lot of other languages with a separate init, check, and increment section.

Short-Circuit Booleans

Previously, kerboscript’s AND and OR operators were not short-circuiting. Now they are.

New Infernal Robotics interface

There are a few new helper addon utilities for the Infernal Robotics mod, on the IR addon page.

New RemoteTech interface

There are a few new helper addon utilities for the RemoteTech mod, on the RemoteTech addon page.

Deprecated INCOMMRANGE

Reading from the INCOMMRANGE bound variable will now throw a deprecation exception with instructions to use the new RTAddon structure for the RT mod.

Updated thrust calculations for 1.0.x

KSP 1.0 caused the thrust calculations to become a LOT more complex than they used to be and kOS hadn’t caught up yet. For a lot of scripts, trying to figure out a good throttle setting is no longer a matter of just taking a fraction of the engine’s MAXTHRUST.

We fixed the existing suffixes of MAXTHRUST and AVAILABLETHRUST for engine and vessel to account for the new changes in thrust based on ISP at different altitudes. MAXTHRUST is now the max the engine can put out at the CURRENT atmospheric pressure and current velocity. It might not be the maximum it could put out under other conditions. The AVAILABLETHRUST suffix is now implemented for engines (it was previously only available on vessels). There are also new suffixes MAXTHRUSTAT (engines and vessels), AVAILABLETHRUSTAT (engines and vessels), and ISPAT (engines only) to read the applicable value at a given atmospheric pressure.

New CORE struct

The core bound variable gives you a structure you can use to access properties of the current in-game CPU the script is running on, including the vessel part it’s inside of, and the vessel it’s inside of, as well as the currently selected volume. Moving forward this will be the struct where we enable features that interact with the processor itself, like local configuration or current operational status.

Updated boot file name handling

Boot files are now copied to the local hard disk using their original file name. This allows for uniform file name access either on the archive or local drive and fixes boot files not working when kOS is configured to start on the Archive. You can also get or set the boot file using the BOOTFILENAME suffix of the CORE bound variable.

Docking port, element, and vessel references

You can now get a list of docking ports on any element or vessel using the DOCKINGPORTS suffix. Vessels also expose a list of their elements (the ELEMENTS suffix) and an element will refernce it’s parent vessel (the VESSEL suffix).

New sounds and terminal features

For purely cosmetic purpopses, there are new sound features and
a few terminal tweaks.
  • A terminal keyclick option for the in-game GUI terminal.
  • The ability to BEEP when printing ascii code 7 (BEL), although the only way currently to achieve this is with the KSlib’s spec_char.ksm file, as kOS has no BEL char, but this will be addressed later.
  • A sound effect on exceptions, which can be turned off on the CONFIG panel.

Clear vecdraws all at once

For convenience, you can clear all vecdraws off the screen at once now with the clearvecdraws() function.

Changes in 0.17.0

Variables can now be local

Previously, the kOS runtime had a serious limitation in which it could only support one flat namespace of global-only variables. Considerable archetecture re-work has been done to now support block-scoping in the underlying runtime, which can be controlled through the use of local declarations in your kerboscript files.

Kerboscript has User Functions

The primary reason for the local scope variables rework was in support of the new user functions feature which has been a long-wished-for feature for kOS to support.

Community Examples Library

There is now a new fledgling repository of examples and library scripts that we hope to be something the user community contributes to. Some of the examples shown in the kOS 0.17.0 release video are located there. The addition of the ability to make user functions now makes the creation of such a library a viable option.

Physics Ticks not Update Ticks

The updates have been moved to the physics update portion of Unity, instead of the animation frame rate updates. This may affect your preferred CONFIG:IPU setting. The new move creates a much more uniform performance across all users, without penalizing the users of faster computers anymore. (Previously, if your computer was faster, you’d be charged more electricity as the updates came more often).

Ability to use SAS modes from KSP 0.90

Added a new third way to control the ship, by leaving SAS on, and just telling KSP which mode (prograde, retrograde, normal, etc) to put the SAS into.

Blizzy ToolBar Support

If you have the Blizzy Toolbar mod installed, you should be able to put the kOS control panel window under its control.

Ability to define colors using HSV

When a color is called for, such as with VECDRAW or HIGHLIGHT, you can now use the HSV color system (hue, saturation, value) instead of RGB, if you prefer.

Ability to highlight a part in color

Any time your script needs to communicate something to the user about which part or parts it’s dealing with, it can use KSP’s part highlighting feature to show a part.

Disks can be made bigger with tweakable slider

All parts that have disk space now have a slider you can use in the VAB or SPH editors to tweak the disk space to choose whether you want it to have 1x, 2x, or 4x as much as its default size. Increasing the size increases its price and its weight cost.

You Can Transfer Resources

You can now use kOS scripts to transfer resources between parts for things like fuel, in the same way that a manual user can do by using the right-click menus.

Kerbal Alarm Clock support

If you have the Kerbal Alarm Clock Mod isntalled, you can now query and manipulate its alarms from within your kOS scripts.

Query the docked elements of a vessel

You can get the docked components of a joined-together vessel as separate collections of parts now.

Support for Action Groups Extended

While there was some support for the Action Groups Extended mod before, it has been greatly improved.

LIST constructor can now initialize lists

You can now do this:

set mylist to list(2,6,1,6,21).

to initialize a list of values from the start, so you no longer have to have a long list of list:ADD commands to populate it.

ISDEAD suffix for Vessel

Vessels now have an :ISDEAD suffix you can use to detect if the vessel has gone away since the last time you got the handle to it. (for example, you LIST TARGETS IN FOO, then the ship foo[3] blows up, then foo[3]:ISDEAD should become true to clue you in to this fact.)