Stop the fan when paused

[nohelmet]

This suggestion is for something when all the more-important stuff is done. Still, I thought I'd point it out since I didn't see it anywhere.

I'm using a laptop, and when KSP's running, the machine runs warmer and the fan kicks in. This is how I noticed that even when KSP is paused, the laptop stays warm. I can click on the "battery" symbol on the top bar, and it gives me a list of the apps using significant energy. KSP statys on the list, even when it's paused!

It's as if it continually redrew the same screen while paused, or something like that.

So now you see why it's not urgent. Still, it'd be nice if KSP calmed down when paused, so the fan turns off and we collectively save a small amount of energy.

[longbyte1]

Yeah I'm pretty sure that's exactly what happens: the same frame is just rendered continuously until you unpause.

It's unlikely that Squad will do anything about it, given that they have not done any optimization passes onto the game and probably won't.

[GusTurbo]

Yeah I'm pretty sure that's exactly what happens: the same frame is just rendered continuously until you unpause.

It's unlikely that Squad will do anything about it, given that they have not done any optimization passes onto the game and probably won't.

Not true about optimization. Many of the recent dev notes have mentioned optimization.

As for this suggestion, it's not as if your CPU and GPU cool down instantaneously. Your fan would still need to keep running.

[Guest]

Stopping DX redraws will cause some problems, like screen corruption when some ugly piece of software, like skype, pop some unwanted window, of worse, main window.

[Bill Phil]

Do you want to wait for it to load after pausing?

Didn't think so...

[Kerbart]

Try minimizing it after pausing. That works for me at least as it stops rendering the screen it seems.

[LongHairedHuman]

Pausing a game just means the game is frozen until continued. If you no longer want the game to take up any computer resources, close it. While saving a frame and drawing it rather than redrawing the entire scene would be more processor-friendly, the memory resources would still be taken up, unless you want a load screen whenever you unpause. As such, close the game to get back your resources.

[Fel]

I'm not 100% certain how the fan process works; but the CPU or GPU basically is saying (either direct connection or through the OS) "I am burning up, turn on the fan unless you want me to fry"

The longer the CPU/GPU remains "hot" the shorter the lifespan is; so even if it isn't actively doing something but is near critical temperature, it is better to cool it down than to just shut it down.

[Bill Phil]

How efficient would a water cooled computer be?

Cause I kind of want one....

[mattinoz]

Games generally have very little interest in Modern computing. They just have no interest/incentive to play well with others.

If you play on a laptop and need to move away to multi-tasking for more than a couple of mins then you just have to kill the game.

At least Squad seem to be putting efforts into getting you back running again sooner. Although they could make this faster by bypassing menu system as well.

[Guest]

How efficient would a water cooled computer be?

Cause I kind of want one....

Quiet, efficient, ... expensive. Last part turns me off for now.

[panzer1b]

Quiet, efficient, ... expensive. Last part turns me off for now.

Water cooling (friend has it) is neat, as you can get a quieter system that gets better cooling at the same time (with large enough heat sink atop rig its possible to not use any fans at all). Still, unless you are either running crazy high end CPU/GPU or have lots of money floating around, it doesnt make any sense from a price perspective (and its just as prone to failure as fans are not to mention leaks are messy).

Anyways, while any and all optimization is welcome, this one particular thing isnt exactly on my priority list as i very rarely keep KSP open when im not actively playing (same with my computer for that matter, its not that bad to just turn it off when unused).

[longbyte1]

And that's the problem: most game development studios do have lots of money floating around, so their development machines all have GTX 4756408970s with whatever state-of-the-art technology you get from building a gaming rig.

Consequently, many of these studios do little to improve conditions for low-end card users since they don't suffer from the same grievances.

[Fel]

Water cooling (friend has it) is neat, as you can get a quieter system that gets better cooling at the same time (with large enough heat sink atop rig its possible to not use any fans at all). Still, unless you are either running crazy high end CPU/GPU or have lots of money floating around, it doesnt make any sense from a price perspective (and its just as prone to failure as fans are not to mention leaks are messy)

I envy those who have liquid-nitrogen cooling systems... I've read of 10GHz clock speeds a few years back; LN2 is crazy stuff.