Remove terrain quality setting

[TheDestroyer111]

The terrain quality setting doesn't appear to change performance at all, even on a computer which is much below official hardware requirements, yet it is the main reason why some crafts get under the ground on DMP. I suggest it gets locked into the maximum position and removed from the settings.

[Wjolcz]

That's the worst idea ever. "Remove X option from KSP because it messes up my modded multiplayer experience".

[Armisael]

1 hour ago, Veeltch said:

That's the worst idea ever. "Remove X option from KSP because it messes up my modded multiplayer experience".

If he's right that it has no impact on performance then there's no reason to have the setting. One hopes that isn't true, but I'd believe it from SQUAD.

[Wjolcz]

On 01/09/2016 at 11:42 PM, Armisael said:

If he's right that it has no impact on performance then there's no reason to have the setting. One hopes that isn't true, but I'd believe it from SQUAD.

It does have an impact on the performance. At least on the low-end machines.

[panzer1b]

A bit off topic, but im actually curious as to what this setting really does, does it actually edit the colliders or just change the visual overlay (which may or may not coincide with colliders?).  If the colliders are the same then there is absolutely no reason to remove the setting, since it makes games using high/med/low setting 100% compatible anyways regardless of what you have.  Ill take a bit and check myself whether my landed vessels explode and or go flying when you mess with the land settings...

 

Also, i actually have to say the setting doesnt affect performance much either.  I may be biased (i have a fairly solid gaming lappy), but texture settings, land quality settings dont actually affect anything to a noticable extent.  The primary performance affecting factor would have to be part count itself since i often build massive craft and pit them into battle with each other, so yeah, something like 1500-2000 parts loaded simultaneously isnt exactly rare...

[TheRagingIrishman]

It definitely affects performance. With all the graphics settings on their lowest, I'm able to play KSP with a 3.2 GB GameData folder full of mods on a MacBook Air with 1.6GHz Dual Core Intel i5 and 8 gigs of ram. Before changing all the settings to their lowest, I could not do a single thing in the game and now I can play (at 10-20 fps).

[Sharpy]

Well, the problem with that setting is that if you change it mid-game, or play someone's (or your own old) save made on different settings, all landed things get explodey as they can get teleported under ground.

That IS a serious problem that should get addressed.

I wouldn't mind leaving the ground geometry stuck at the one of lowest quality, and the setting affecting scatters, texture quality, and all that stuff that won't make your base to leap a kilometer up, and/or explode if changed.

[ZooNamedGames]

What might be causing the change of height in the terrain is that the polygon count in the terrain is reduced with lower settings. This initially sounds like it has minimal impact, but that can mean hills have much sharper and steeper edges as well as (and where it's best seen) valleys and flat lands being one straight polygon vs curving for detail on the higher settings. So in those valleys you see the biggest change of altitudes as the curves in the higher detail can place it above or below what it would be on the low setting.

As to the suggestion, yeah heck no. Your playing with DMP, what problems you encounter are your own.

[CobraA1]

On 9/1/2016 at 1:18 PM, TheDestroyer111 said:

The terrain quality setting doesn't appear to change performance at all, even on a computer which is much below official hardware requirements

The number of PC configurations is virtually unlimited. Just because it doesn't affect the performance of your machine(s) doesn't mean there aren't machines out there that benefit noticeably by changing the setting.

[Superfluous J]

The obvious solution is for DMP to not allow people to connect to a server unless their settings match, or to automatically set the terrain settings to match when the player connects

All Squad should do (if even that) is to make that possible via an API, and perhaps make it so you don't have to restart the game for it to take effect (if that's even required).

[klesh]

Let's not forget that KSP has to run on the consoles now.  Presumably their specs are the min requirements.

[SpenSpaceCorp]

I don't know about you, but for me this setting means the difference between unplayable vs. playable framerates. To be fair, I just have a laptop that is not the best, but not the worst.