How to install mods ksp

How to Install KSP Mods

Find the best Kerbal Space Program addons

Kerbal Space Program (KSP) is a game with a lot of content that can keep you busy for hours. However, the fan community has provided even more content by creating modifications for it that can make it more difficult, add quality of life improvements, or just change the way you play the game. Nearly all these mods are totally free, but you need to know how to install KSP mods first.

This article walks you through the process of installing Kerbal Space Program mods, and recommend a few of the best mods if you’re just getting started.

Where Can I Find Kerbal Space Program Mods?

There are several places online to find Kerbal Space Program mods, but a few definitely stand out.

A couple places to get you started are:

How to Install KSP Mods

Luckily, installing Kerbal Space Program mods is pretty simple.

In general, it’s probably a good idea to only install one mod at a time. Too many can cause your game to run much more slowly, and not all mods play well together. Try each one out individually before you start combining them.

Once it’s downloaded, locate your new file and unzip it. It should give you a new folder with the name of the mod.

Locate your KSP folder on your computer. If you’ve downloaded the game on Steam and can’t find the file folder, right-click the game in your Steam library, select Properties > Local Files > Browse.

In your KSP folder, open the GameData folder. Drag the mod file folder to the GameData folder.

That’s all there is to it. Next time you load Kerbal Space Program, your mod should load along with it.

What Kerbal Space Program Mods Should I Start With?

This really depends on what you want to add to Kerbal Space Program. Browse the most popular on Curse Forge to get a sense of what other players like to use, or check the forums to see if there’s something specific you’re looking for.

MechJeb is one of the most popular—it adds an autopilot system to the game, but also provides tons of data about your machines you can’t find in the base game. Kerbal Attachment System is another decent add-on, which gives you plenty of new tools to play around with.

Tutorial:Installing Addons

This Page will explain how to install a typical Addon to Kerbal Space Program.

Contents

What Are Addons

If you have been playing Kerbal Space Program for any length of time, and have gone on the forums blogs or watched any of the tutorial youtube videos, you have probably heard of Addons. Addons, mods or plugins are modifications to the official version of the game. They either add new parts, systems and mechanics to the game or replace existing ones. Addons are generally made by the community rather than the developers and can greatly enhance the playing experience. Due to their widespread popularity, Squad offers an official website for exchanging them, the Kerbal SpacePort. Addons are great for people who have been playing the vanilla version of KSP for a while, and are looking for more of a challenge.

To read More About Addons refer to the Addon page.

Specifications

Vocabulary

If you are new to KSP, or the Addon part of KSP specifically, some of the terminology may be confusing.

Steps

This is important because each addon will change the game in different ways. Make sure that your computer’s graphics card and memory are in good standing, or the game will lag. An example of a plugin that might do this is the Kerbal Beautification Addon. Choosing an addon that will be fun and interesting is important. There are many addons to choose from. One of the best ways to figure out what you are looking for is to just read blogs, forums, and watch YouTube reviews. Some of the more popular mods are MechJeb, Remote Tech 2, Ferram Aerospace Research, Deadly Re-entry, along with countless other mods.

For the sake of simplicity, we are going to install MechJeb, one of the most popular addons for Kerbal Space Program. Mechjeb is an autopilot system, hence the name «Mechanical Jebediah». Besides allowing for automated maneuvers it also gives you a ton of data on the characteristics of your spacecraft that Vanilla KSP does not have, like Delta V, Thrust to weight ratios, burn times, orbital data, and much, much more. So even if you are not interested in using the autopilot function it can be a very helpful mod to make you a better pilot overall.

Click on the ‘download now’ button on the addon page and a download should start. The download should be in your downloads, if not then check where the download took place.

Click on the Addon’s file, usually a ZIP file, and you should see a folder with the name: ‘MechJeb2’ if you downloaded the most recent version. Locate the KSP folder and click on GameData. You should see a «Squad» folder if you haven’t modded your KSP version yet. Now drag your ‘MechJeb2’ folder into the game folder and tada! You have now successfully installed an addon. Close the KSP folder and the addon folder if you wish and now you can start the game and enjoy the addon!

Finishing word

In case you mess up anything make sure you backup your KSP folder beforehand. There are hundreds of mods out there so go check the forums, the spaceport, and even youtube videos to give you an idea of what mods you can choose!

How to install mods ksp

Want to mod your copy of Kerbal Space Program, but are confused about where to go, how to start or how to manage the stuff you download off the KSP website? There’s an easier way, and it’s called the Comprehensive Kerbal Archive Network!

In this guide, arbayer2 teaches you how to download, install and use the CKAN, allowing you to organize, browse and update all of your installed mods in KSP.

Hello! My name is arbayer2. This is my first published guide on the Steam Community, where I will teach you how to install mods easily in Kerbal Space Program with a little piece of software called CKAN, or the Comprehensive Kerbal Archive Network.

As great as Squad and the KSP community are when it comes to promoting mod support, resources and experimentation with Kerbal Space Program, I know from personal experience how tedious it can be installing mods for a game. CKAN’s a fascinating program that I’ve recently encountered myself which should hopefully help you with this process immensely.

This guide assumes you are playing in Windows 7/8 as it is the OS I am currently using, although CKAN is available for every current PC platform available: Windows, Mac OS and certain Linux distributions like Fedora and Ubuntu.

This is an amateur guide to modding a video game. Everything in this guide should be considered unofficial. I have no relation to Kurtjmac, Scott Manley, Squad (the developers of KSP), or the developers of the Comprehensive Kerbal Archive Network software and am providing this guide for informational purposes only. I take no responsibility for any issues you may encounter when installing KSP, CKAN or other end-user modifications to your computer and by using my guide you’re agreeing to take responsibility for your own actions.

This guide’s provided as-is and is currently under construction, so check back later for updates!

It allows you to combine all of your mods into an easy-to-navigate list where you can adjust numerous settings, update mods individually or all at once, automatically check for compatibility errors/out-of-date/dead mods, check installed versions, compare them to the latest versions in the database and otherwise streamline your modding experience.

I’d suggest you back up your saves from vanilla KSP, just in case anything should go wrong. It’s a good habit to make when modding any game.

If for whatever reason you are interested in uninstalling CKAN, I believe the process would be simple:

In order to use CKAN it has to be configured to recognize your Kerbal Space Program installation folder(s).

When you first launch CKAN, a window will appear titled «Select KSP install». An example of the window is shown below. (I had already set up my own installation of KSP beforehand, you won’t be seeing the entry I have in this window at first.)

You will need to add a list entry for your KSP installation here, by clicking the «Add new» button at the bottom of the window, then navigating to your KSP installation folder in the «Browse For Folder» window which appears.

You’ll then have the option to rename this list entry to whatever you’d think makes sense (it’s optional, only helps with organizing multiple installation folders), delete entries and set an entry as the default location CKAN will manage mods for.

When finished, highlight the version you want to manage and then click the «Select» button at the bottom-right corner of the «Select KSP install» window to continue into the mod management window for that entry.

Okay, so the main CKAN window’s pretty self-explanatory after you get used to it.

You can organize the repository list in a number of ways by clicking the column headers of each column in the list. These include:

— Mod name alphabetical/reverse alphabetical
— Latest updated first/first updated first
— Author’s name alpha/reverse-alpha,
— Installed/not-installed, etc.

The Launch KSP and Refresh buttons are pretty much exactly what they sound like. Keep in mind that the modlist will not show anything on first install before you click Refresh.

Alongside this, you can also click the Filter button at the top of the window. A drop-down list will appear allowing you to navigate between all mods, all installed mods, the newest added, and so on.

In order to install a mod, first find it in the modlist, then check the «Installed» checkbox next to its entry in the list. You should see a «Changeset» tab appear. This tab serves as a sort of «checkout receipt» of the mods you wish to install at the moment. Click the «Apply» button on the bottom-right of the Changeset tab window to go ahead and install the mods you have selected, or click «Clear» to cancel mod installation. Uninstallation is the exact same process, only difference is that you must uncheck the «Installed» checkbox instead.

You can even make your own filters! This is pretty helpful for cutting down on the list’s size, I imagine, although I’d still have a web browser open to the Curse modpage for KSP in order to do window-shopping as there’s no screenshot support yet in CKAN.

On the Settings menu, a couple of interesting things: you can clear your CKAN cache in the CKAN settings menu if need be, change metadata repository/install folder location and so on.

You can also apparently install plugins. I have yet to look into this so I have no suggestions for plugins yet. perhaps in a future guide update I’ll have come across something.

As user-friendly as CKAN is, it is more designed for people who know what they want already in terms of mod selection, so if you’re looking for good mods in the first place I would definitely suggest a couple of sites to you right off the bat:

However, this client does not currently support KSP. Without CKAN, you will have to manually download, extract and copy mod asset folders into your KSP directory as indicated by the mod’s installation instructions and troubleshoot any dependency/conflict/obsolescence issues yourself. Hopefully the author’s got a version of the mod on CKAN’s repository already so you can help avoid that. If not, you might suggest it to them!

Scott Manley is an amazing guy. He is a die-hard fan and student of astronomy, science, and explosions. He delves deep into modding with KSP on his YouTube channel, and I cannot recommend him enough to those who want good ideas on what to add to their game. He is extremely active in his LPs of KSP, both vanilla and modded, so you have a ton of material and advice to absorb from his channel.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, future Kerbalnauts and actual astronauts alike, I sincerely hope this helps you as a player of Kerbal Space Program. CKAN’s a really great, straightforward solution to organizing your mods for KSP. It does have its problems, but there’s no better modloader I’ve seen yet for the game and it accomplishes what it sets out to do fairly well.

Well, that’s about it. I hope I’ve helped you with what I’ve provided quite lazily here.

I want to thank the developers of CKAN for making such an awesome tool for modders, the folks at Squad for making an amazing game, Scott and Kurt for helping get me into the game itself and PC gamers everywhere for creating the demand necessary to make a game like Kerbal Space Program not only marketable, but successful.

More guides from myself on various other games are slated for somewhere probably in the near future. I appreciate all your feedback! Thank you for reading! If you have further comments or questions please get in touch and I’ll do all I can to help you.

Addon

Addons, mods or plugins are modifications to the official version of the game. They either add new parts, systems and mechanics to the game or replace existing ones. Addons are generally made by the community rather than the developers and can greatly enhance the playing experience. Due to their widespread popularity, Squad offers an official website for exchanging them on the Curse Network. As an alternative and independent unofficial source SpaceDock has a larger selection of mods. Previously the Kerbal SpacePort was used as official, but redirects now to the Curse Network page.

Another source is this post on the Kerbal Space Program forums, maintained by the community.

Contents

Installing addons

Usually the easiest way to install addons is to use the CKAN (Comprehensive Kerbal Archive Network) utility, which handles finding and installing mods for you. The facility has its own wiki https://github.com/KSP-CKAN/CKAN/wiki and may be downloaded from https://github.com/KSP-CKAN/CKAN/releases (The usual caveats about downloading and installing modules from third party sites apply)

In general addons are installed into the GameData directory. If the installation technique differs there is usually a more detailed description in the readme, on the Curse page or in the forum’s opening post. Some mods directly distribute the content which should go into the GameData directory, while others distribute the GameData directory in which all new directories are. There are also some cases in which the root directory of the zip is itself containing a GameData directory. So unless the root directory is not named GameData it is always good to look if there is a GameData directory in the root directory.

For example some addons contain sample craft. These are not installed in «Gamedata» folder, but in «Ships/SPH» or «Ships/VAB» folders. The sample subassemblies are installed in the «Subassemblies» folder in save folders, of course.

To install the content of a ZIP archive a program to unzip is required. Usually there is a program already installed, but there are various available on the internet. Of course it should be checked if the sources are trustworthy.

The directory structure was changed in 0.20, which introduced the GameData directory. There are still some plugins which use the old directory system which is more complicated and might introduce file conflicts, where two or more files need to be merged.

Directory system

The contents of a ZIP archive are usually:

Addon dependencies

Sometimes mods require other mods to work which should be mentioned in the readme, Curse or forum page. These are distributed too in most cases with the original mod, which should be checked before copying the contents. Sometimes a mod distribute an older version which might break other plugins which require the newer version. Even worse are mods with a different name, because then the same mod is installed twice which usually break the game. The best way to handle is only installing the mod itself and manually checking if any requirements are already installed and if they might need to be updated.

A common addon which falls into this category is ModuleManager, because many mods rely on it. Because the version number is in the filename so newer versions of ModuleManager don’t overwrite older versions so that multiple versions are installed. But on the other hand it is easy to see which versions are installed and in the case of ModuleManager newer versions of it usually support mods which come with older versions.

The Toolbar mod is similar to the ModuleManager but all version share the same directory (000_toolbar) which can cause that a newer version may only partially overwrite an old version.

Memory size constraints

The most common cause of an Access Violation is too many mods so one obvious solution is to uninstall a few mods, but that of course is counterproductive as the player wants to use those mods. Alternatively additional mods can be installed which reduce the memory footprint by compressing textures or similar. One prominent mod is the Active Texture Management mod which does cause most textures in-game to be lower-res.

Removing addons

In most cases, addons can be easily removed by deleting the addon directory in the GameData directory. (Using CKAN, just untick the ‘installed’ box.) Sometimes if other mods require the removed addon which then need to be removed too. If the addon introduced additional parts, craft which use those parts can’t be loaded or approached. To disable the functionality without losing the craft, it is possible to change the file extension of all DLL files or remove them completely in the mod directory. Upon loading the game, the mod’s code won’t be loaded but the parts are still available.

As for installing, removing addons which use the directory system prior to 0.20 is more complex. Each file which was added in that mod needs to be removed manually usually and if files were merged, those needs to be undone.

How to install mods ksp

So, you DL KSP, youre happy, and everyone become green around you.
First, you have to know that steam don’t launch 64bit version, you have to explain to it that you want him to do that. 4 that, go on youre game library, and right click on ksp, launch options, then put

So, now, youre KSP is 64bit (you can check when on KSP startmenu, down right of the screen)
I advice u to use opengl mode than directX one, the graphics are a few lower (specially color level, lots of green), but unity engine work better wiz, and free lots of ram (4 me more than 1go). Same way than before, but wiz argument :

“urepath/steam/steamapps/common/kerbalspaceprogram/KSP_x64.exe” –force-opengl %command%

That’s not oblige, just judge what u prefer, lots of mods but a little less beautifull graphics (very little difference), or a few mods and directX. But 4 me, even wizout mod, opengl is better for KSP.

EDIT: That openGL thing was true for 0.235, but i just try DirectX mode wiz x64 (for testing SweetFX), and it work well, wiz all mods and (as i saw on 1h) no crash. and dont take more RAM than OpenGL (and look better, specially wiz sweetFX (Sry Mac user’s. )

REEDIT: Finally, i switch back on openGL as my KSP crach every time i work in the VAB

You have to know (if not know now) that KSP exist from a long, and just arrive on steam, so most of informations about aren’t on steam for now, but on that site: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/

Here you can easily find all the mods, and support and anything else the community can provide. There’s too creators of the mods and the game on that forum, so speak wiz god instead of his angels

There is different kind of mods, and I’ll present them to u on that way:

0) Mods needed for other mods good working (seams a bit complicate :D)
1) Graphical enhancement
2) Physics enhancement
3) Flying tools which make ure fly easier by giving u informations KSP doesn’t give
4) Gameplay addons, which add new gameplay to the game
5) Parts addons, which add new parts 😀

Don’t be unquiet, there’s only 2:

What he do?
• A draggable and resizable toolbar holds all buttons
• Buttons have a texture (icon)
• Custom button order can be maintained
• Unlimited number of toolbars per game scene
• Custom button folders can be created to improve organization
• Toolbar position is saved between KSP restarts
• Toolbar will auto-clamp to screen area so that it cannot be dragged off-screen
• Toolbar may auto-hide itself if positioned at screen edge
• Clicking a button invokes an arbitrary action specified by plugin author
• Every button looks the same, no need for plugin author to provide any styles

So, with it, you will have a cute button for accessing youre mods, in KSP style

these two mods are a try of unification of the presentation of the other mod, for having a better integration in KSP. Mostly of the other mods need them for working

— Environnemental Visual Enhancement EVE

That mod is the more spectaculare change to ure KSP, it enhance planet texture, and adds nicely coulds to Kerbin
Wizout/Wiz

and coulds at launch:

EVE is here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/55905-0-23-5-7-3-EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements-NEW%21-VolumetricClouds%21

It need some other mods as texture replacer (needed 4 EVE, but can be use for changing ure Kerbal suit and head too), all links and install instruction on the post.

Working wiz EVE, this one add clouds on other planets, change the atmosphere looking from orbit.

Minmus greater flat smog (my Orange science ship landing :D)

— Distant Object enhancement

This one enable you to see all kerbol system celestial body, and space station up to 750km on ure night sky, it break the 2.5km limit of the game

— Hot and Cool rockets

This one change the look of burning engines (hot) and stopped engines (cool)

— Kerbquake and FirstpersonEVA

Not really a visual enhancement as it is a sound one, but here too, that’s a must have for youre gameplay experience. it add lots of beep, kerbal speaking, and other sound, that change make the game more immersive, and if you choose the “per ship” option, you can manage beep beep as spoutnik do, and having all youre ship making different sound (or just youre sat :D). I very recommand it

— Ferram’s Aerospace Research FAR

This one change atmosphere flying model, more realistic. With it, any parts generate lift, and anything can fly (but have to go very high speed for :D) better aerodynamics, making youre plane thrown apart if not aerodynamicly optimized :
http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/20451-0-24-2-Ferram-Aerospace-Research-v0-14-1-1-7-25-14?highlight=ferram

This one add on youre nav ball several marker that miss in original KSP. Instead of having just pro and retrograde spot, you’ll have the other direction as normal +/-, easy way 4 VTOL 4 example, radial +/-, and ghosting ure node spot, making easier to find it when on the other side of the navball. It permit too to resize the navball ingame

Here’s Navball enhanced: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/50524-0-24-Enhanced-Navball-1-3?highlight=navball

Making youre orbital rendez vous very easy cauz u can see if youre prograde pt is close or not to youre target (same 4 landing). You can display latitude and longitude too, but I don’t use it.

Here’s VOID: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/54533-0-24-VOID-0-13-Vessel-Orbital-Informational-Display?highlight=VOID
So it exist too Mechjeb2 (autopilot) and engineer redux (ship’s data like TWR, dV… more complete than VOID, but wizout HUD) and they would be in that section, but I dont use them, so…

— Speed Unit Changer
This one just make displaying how many km/h or feet/s make that m/s

Still on Satellite gameplays, im proud to introduce you Scansat, this one add scanners that build a map of any body you launch them around, identifying altimetry, biomes, and even spotting easter eggs (but you still have to go to them for knowing what they are):

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/80369-0-24-SCANsat-v6-1-Real-Scanning-Real-Science-at-Warp-Speed%21-Jul-18
These two mods add the necessity of satellite, and I have more fun wiz them than wizout 😀

— Raster Prop Monitor (RPM)

— Magic Smoke Infernal Robotics

With that mod is another cool one IR rework, which just add new texture to parts (and some usefull new parts too)

— Kerbal Attachement System (KAS)

This one can be controversial, cauz it enable to scan, recolt and convert Kethane (new ressource) to fuel, monoprop or oxidizer, making the game totally different cauz you can refuel everywhere kethane is. But its cool to build big raffinery and harvester for mining kethane, and its needed for the next mod I’ll show u 😀

Mining kethane, note the kethane module on my ship back, 2 drills, a kethane tank, and a converter

Warning, kethane was break by 0.24.2, and now it need a dll for making it working well, waiting for a official realese, but that work if u DL kethane 0.8.8, https://nabaal.net/files/kethane/Kethane-0.8.8.zip, and overwrite wiz this DLL: http://taniwha.org/

— Extraplanetary Launchpad (EL)

As it work wiz kethane for recolting ressources…

Here its difficult, cauz there’s lots and lots, as for before, I introduce the one I use:

Now, you can easily hide this non aerodynamic Space base on the top of youre rocket, and what a cool time when you open the fairing once in orbit 😀

— ALCOR Capsule (need RPM)

No, that’s not the Alcor’s ship from Goldorak…, that’s a cool pod wiz lot of cool stuff inside:

A cool 3 kerbal all glasses pod

rentry on panopticon pod, by Ottomic

Pretty cool sub 4 laythe exploration

Huge tank and 2001’s pod

More of spaceplane parts, very cool one, a must have for SSTO:

Well, that the end of my guide, there’s lots of other mods, just check and search at

Hope that be usefull for you 😀

Edit: A few useful mod i use and forget, and some i found today:

Kerbal Alarm Clock :
Enable you to forget you’re ships, cauz there’s an alarm which ring when u arrive at the node (or before, can configure) signal planetary optimal transfer windows

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/24786-0-24-2-Kerbal-Alarm-Clock-v2-7-8-2-(July-28)

Docking port Alignement Indicator:
That one is very usefull, it pop a window displaying you’re alignement wiz ure target

http://www.curse.com/ksp-mods/kerbal/220299-docking-port-alignment-indicator-version-3-1

just wanna say, english is my first language, and you made less gramatical errors than i would have