Oh no, you!

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Joined 5 days ago
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Cake day: November 3rd, 2024

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  • Yes-ish. Updated graphics/reskin was the original idea, but this changed to add some long-wanted features. This is where the problem began: The reskin was built on the old KSP source base, which the original developers have admitted was very difficult to work with.

    When the development changed focus, the feature scope was simply not realistic with so much legacy code getting in the way.

    Worst of all, the devs working on KSP2 were barred from talking to Squad (the original developers) about ANYTHING. No communication about specific parts of the code. No communication about why various approaches to different problems were chosen. Basically due to corporate stupidity that focused on a quick buck through a resin, the developers had to pretty much reinvent the wheel a bunch of times.

    I think the initial corporate plan was a reskin-scam. The development plan involved a lot more than that. These goals were simply incompatible, which is why everything was so delayed and buggy.

    There were some really passionate and talented devs on the team, but they didn’t get what was needed to build what KSP2 could’ve (and should’ve) been.

    ShadowZone made a couple of really good in-depth videos on what went wrong, and this sums it up well: https://youtu.be/NtMA594am4M











  • neidu3@sh.itjust.workstoscience@lemmy.world*Permanently Deleted*
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    4 days ago

    Price: Don’t remember. I fired off a message to the guys in manufacturing, I’ll let you know if they have a price. We go through quite a few of these annually, so we have a bulk discount when buying them.

    How: Magic, I guess. Also, I found a link to the ones we use: https://www.microchip.com/en-us/products/clock-and-timing/components/atomic-clocks/embedded-atomic-oscillators/csac

    When we prepare for deployment, they’re connected to a docking unit which provides a clock pulse derived from a GPS signal for high precision. Then the battery pack is attached, the subsea unit is assembled, and everything is deployed, usually via ROV. It’s important that it’s kept powered the entire time upon retrieval docking, as we can then calculate a linear drift value and correct for this in the recorded data.

    UPDATE: We bought “Maaaaaaany thousands” of them in 2018, and we paid 1850 USD per chip. Come to think of it, I remember hearing claims back then that we’d bought 75% of the worlds supply.


  • neidu3@sh.itjust.workstoscience@lemmy.world*Permanently Deleted*
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    4 days ago

    Some work related trivia I’d like to share with you: My job involves deploying sensors on the seabed to record data. These sensors are battery powered, and rely on highly precise timekeeping to be correct. These devices are synchronized before deployment, and upon retrieval ~2 months later we want none or as little clock drift as possible.

    Tumbleweed sounds

    I’m glad you asked: we achieve this by using CSACs - Chip Scale Atomic Clocks. They are pretty much what the name Implies, and after synchronization it is able to keep the time much better than anything else. Normal clock drift upon retrieval is usually less than a millisecond, and that drift is due to (uninteresting factors not directly related to the CSAC itself)

    CSACs cost a small fortune, but they’re the size of a matchbox and make it all possible. It’s amazing how small atomic clocks can be.


  • Related Kerbal Space Program trivia: The kerbals were originally supposed to be genderless, but the design ended up looking male anyway, so the first three kerbals ended up being named Jebediah, Bill and Bob. Then when the game reached version 1.0, the devs decided they might as well add female kerbals, so they added one to the veteran-crew: Valentina