What are the best Kerbal Space Program mods?

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Mar 3, 2021

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The 2 must play gamesWhy?

Best Kerbal Space Program mods	Price	Last Updated
96 Kerbal Engineer Redux	-	Mar 3, 2021
91 Environmental Visual Enhancements	-	Jan 7, 2021
89 ScanSat	-	Feb 1, 2021
-- The Near Future Pack	-	Feb 24, 2021
86 Chatterer	-	Jan 25, 2021

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Environmental Visual Enhancements

Top Pro

Allows choosing only the wanted enhancements and skipping others

All unwanted plugins can be deleted from: GameData/EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements/Plugins See More

Top Con

8K textures don't work on Macs

Macs need to use low resolution textures. See More

InventiveMantus's Experience

wheres the download? See More

Top Pro

Prettifies the game

Adds city lights for Kerbin and adds clouds and better atmospheres to planets. See More

NobleBythos's Experience

I like this mod, but you need a good device for it, I also do not have clouds, but that is my fault See More

NeighborlyKondole's Experience

plain and simple doesn't work like it says.Actually does not work at all after installing my graphics looked worse. See More

Elmo Elmo's Experience

good See More

See All

38 Other Games Considered

ScanSat

Top Pro

Create maps

You can create detailed maps of every planet. See More

Top Con

Some users experience performance losses

This is only true when the window is open, it shouldn't affect the rest of the game. See More

Top Pro

Helps with landing the spacecraft

You can use ScanSat to determine the slope of the surface you're landing on and avoid hills and other obstacles. See More

Top Pro

Much better than the stock scanning system.

The stock resource scanning feature finishes instantly, while ScanSat functions over a long period of time and the orbits you're in, like scanning satellites do IRL. See More

Top Pro

Science boost

Provides a little extra science to help you in your career and science mode games- but you'll have to work for it! See More

See All

The Near Future Pack

Top Pro

Includes 8 subpacks

Includes 6 subpacks: Propulsion, Electrical, Construction, Solar, Spacecraft, Aeronautics, Launch Vehicles, and Exploration See More

Top Pro

A great selection of stock-like near future parts that blend well with other stock parts

It's a pack that doesn't really change the theme of ksp but it adds some new shapes and designs. NONE OF THEM ARE OVERPOWERED See More

Top Pro

Synergistic with just about everything

Since NFT is the gold standard in the KSP modding scene, most mods you will encounter play very well with NFT. See More

Top Pro

Probably the best-looking parts made for KSP

The author, Nertea, is one of the most talented 3D artists to mod the game. See More

Top Pro

Multiple play directions

Near Future can be used with a basically stock playstyle, or you can use the parts to go in a direction tangental to the rest of the game, with capabilities that allow more stuff to do. See More

See All

Chatterer

Top Pro

Adds radio chatter

Top Con

hard when flying in formation

PracticalHemithea's Experience

For some reasons, make my CPU load slowly before and in-game... See More

Top Pro

Excellent atmospheric touch

WorthyVejovis's Experience

fun and adds a new level of immersion See More

CulturedHermes's Experience

aboying during docking and just a real pain when your flying a squad in formation using bdarmory to attack some bases See More

KSPFanatic 102's Experience

Nice See More

See All

Active Texture Management

Top Con

Extremely outdated and unsupported as of 2021

Most mods use .dds texture format which ATM doesn't work for, and the plugin hasn't been updated to recent versions of Unity. See More

Top Pro

Reduces texture memory use, including mod textures

All textures can be compressed & resized to save RAM. There are two modes of compression - basic and aggressive. Both compress to DXT and generate minimaps for all non-normal map textures, with aggressive mode having a max of 256x256 and basic mode having a max of 512x512 size for normal maps that it resizes to half the size. See More

NeighborlyKondole's Experience

does not do anything See More

Top Con

ATM becomes ineffective as most mods texture file use .dds format

Top Pro

Can save vast amounts of space

In some cases up to 50% of space is saved. See More

StrongShulmanu's Experience

This was good advice 5 years ago - your article needs a moderator to really go through and update it See More

Top Con

Slight increase in initial game load time

Top Pro

Aggressive mode eliminates the need for texture reduction packs for mods

Active Texture Management will optimize all textures to use less memory so there's no need to use separate texture reduction packs for each mod. It you choose to use texture reduction packs regardless, you might need to edit the config file at: BoulderCo/textureCompressorConfigs/textureCompressor.tcfg See More

Top Con

Adding more system memory might be a better option now that KSP support 64 bit

See All

Mechjeb

Top Pro

Automates some tasks, while still keeping you in charge

Even if you scoff at the idea of having the computer do maneuvers for you, there are still numerous other useful tools for manual flight. See More

Top Con

Feels like cheating

InsightfulNamtar's Experience

cheating See More

Top Pro

Realistic

Real rockets use autopilot, so this is more realistic and not cheating. See More

Top Con

Makes the game very easy

HarmoniousKherty's Experience

cheating See More

Top Pro

Very nice for simulations and beginners

Top Con

Takes away the challenge

KSPFanatic 102's Experience

Great mod. See More

Top Pro

Has autopilot features

See All

Infernal Robotics

Top Pro

Adds mechanical parts such as pistons, hinges, flanges and rotators

Top Con

Not every part works correctly

NeighborlyKondole's Experience

waste of memory its in the game now See More

Top Con

there's a better version

the Breaking Ground DLC See More

KSPFanatic 102's Experience

Yes please. See More

See All

Final Frontier

Top Pro

Allows Kerbals to get awards

KSP Renaissance Pack

Add Video or Image

Part Catalog

Top Pro

Improved Part management

The best way of keeping your parts organized and is supported by many mod developers See More

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Kerbal Engineer Redux

Top Pro

Shows important statistics when building crafts and in-flight

Shows important statistics when building crafts (mass, deltaV, thrust, ISP - while on Kerbin, in vacuum, or on other atmospheric bodies) and in-flight (all of the above + periapsis, apoapsis, orbital period, time to ap, time to pe and many many more). See More

Top Con

Less readable than some alternatives

The same information is presented in a more intuitive and readable way by DMagic's "Basic Delta V" and "Basic Orbit". See More

GregariousPoena's Experience

This is a "must have" in my opinion. Side note: I recently discovered that depending on what is selected as the root part, readings differ considerably. I always select the uppermost probe or pod before I trust what it's telling me. This is probably by design, but I never noticed it before. See More

Top Pro

Helps with designing functional and efficient ships

Top Con

The fuel readout shows about 50x more fuel then you actually have

I do not recommend it. See More

ConsiderateUrcuchillay's Experience

it said I had enough to make it to the mun in deltav but instead my ship ran out of fuel half way to the mun T_T it took me a month to get them home on rcs power See More

Top Pro

Provides customizable in-flight readouts of flight data

Top Pro

This is not an autopilot

As opposed to MechJeb, which is considered "cheats". KER helps a ton by providing already available info in a very accessible manner. See More

See All

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The 2 must play gamesWhy?

My Recommendation for Kerbal Engineer Redux

My Recommendation for Kerbal Engineer Redux

Shows important statistics when building crafts and in-flight

Less readable than some alternatives

Helps with designing functional and efficient ships

The fuel readout shows about 50x more fuel then you actually have

Provides customizable in-flight readouts of flight data

This is not an autopilot

My Recommendation for Environmental Visual Enhancements

My Recommendation for Environmental Visual Enhancements

Allows choosing only the wanted enhancements and skipping others

8K textures don't work on Macs

Prettifies the game

38 Other Games Considered

My Recommendation for ScanSat

My Recommendation for ScanSat

Create maps

Some users experience performance losses

Helps with landing the spacecraft

Much better than the stock scanning system.

Science boost

My Recommendation for The Near Future Pack

My Recommendation for The Near Future Pack

Includes 8 subpacks

A great selection of stock-like near future parts that blend well with other stock parts

Synergistic with just about everything

Probably the best-looking parts made for KSP

Multiple play directions

My Recommendation for Chatterer

My Recommendation for Chatterer

Adds radio chatter

hard when flying in formation

Excellent atmospheric touch

My Recommendation for Distant Objects

My Recommendation for Distant Objects

Polishes the flight environment by displaying distant ships and planets in space/the sky

My Recommendation for Hot Rockets

My Recommendation for Hot Rockets

Improves engine effects

Unsupported by most mods

Very low memory cost

Better alternatives as of 2021

My Recommendation for Active Texture Management

My Recommendation for Active Texture Management

Extremely outdated and unsupported as of 2021

Reduces texture memory use, including mod textures

ATM becomes ineffective as most mods texture file use .dds format

Can save vast amounts of space

Slight increase in initial game load time

Aggressive mode eliminates the need for texture reduction packs for mods

Adding more system memory might be a better option now that KSP support 64 bit

My Recommendation for Mechjeb

My Recommendation for Mechjeb

Automates some tasks, while still keeping you in charge

Feels like cheating

Realistic

Makes the game very easy

Very nice for simulations and beginners

Takes away the challenge

Has autopilot features

My Recommendation for Dmagic Orbital Science

My Recommendation for Dmagic Orbital Science

Adds a lot of science equipment

Art style isn't the best

Excellent addition to the science system

Can get very confusing

My Recommendation for Texture Replacer

My Recommendation for Texture Replacer

Let's you change textures

Some bugs and issues installing textures

Diversifies your Kerbals

My Recommendation for Infernal Robotics

My Recommendation for Infernal Robotics

Adds mechanical parts such as pistons, hinges, flanges and rotators

Not every part works correctly

there's a better version

My Recommendation for KW Rocketry

My Recommendation for KW Rocketry

One of the classic mods