Intermittent extremely low framerate (Mac)

[michelcolman]

Hi everyone,

When I'm playing KSP. after a short while everything slows way down and I can only get around 2 fps even for extremely simple ships or even when just looking at the space center. Clicking on items becomes almost impossible, most clicks seem to get ignored completely and you have to keep trying until it registers. The entire computer gets slow: if I cmd-tab to the desktop, the dock and all other animations are just as stuttery. But everything is butter-smooth again the moment I quit KSP. Sometimes it starts again right away when I relaunch KSP (even the main menu with the yellow text lines stuttering into place instead of sliding smoothly).

What's even weirder: every time I have this issue, I close the lid of my laptop, wait until it goes to sleep (which takes longer than usual, up to a minute or so), then open it up again, and all of a sudden the game is smooth again. Really smooth, like 60 fps or so. Sometimes it starts stuttering again shortly afterwards, so I repeat the sleep trick and it's OK again. After a couple of times, it stays smooth for a much longer time, I've been able to play for half an hour or so with smooth animations.

Any ideas what might cause this? I have a MacBook Pro 17 inch mid-2010, 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 GB of RAM, SSD, Intel HD Graphics 288 MB and NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 512 MB. I know it's getting a bit old, but most of the time it can handle the game just fine, and the stuttering is totally unrelated to workload. It gets really hot while playing KSP, but that does not seem to be related to the stuttering since, after a few seconds of sleep, it's smooth again and sometimes remains smooth for half an hour while still being very hot.

Thanks for any insights,

Michel Colman

Edited March 1, 2016 by michelcolman

[sal_vager]

I don't know what to suggest @michelcolman, if you take a look here and upload your Player.log and hardware info to dropbox then we can take a look and see if anything stands out.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Heat can be a huge problem for laptops especially if there is no clearance underneath it for air to flow.

When the GPU or CPU is too hot it can't do it's job effectively and you will often see stuttering or loss of frame rate.

I would recommend a cooling pad you can get them for around 10 dollars, and they will do wonders for your overheated lap and your overheated laptop. I had a laptop with similar specs to yours (was Windows, not Mac) and the cooling pad was often the difference between being able to play a game for a few minutes as opposed to a few hours.

[michelcolman]

I don't think the framerate problem is related to overheating, because it goes away after just seconds of sleep, and is then often OK again for half an hour even when the laptop feels even hotter than before. Sometimes it starts again after 10 seconds, but sometimes I can keep playing for a really long time with no issues.

I'll see if I can get those log files sal_vager asked about. You mean KSP.log, right? I can't find any "player.log".

I'll run the game again and note exactly when the stuttering begins so I can tie it to some event in the log. Below is a copy of all the errors and warnings from the last log file (not sure if it contained a stuttering episode or when that would have started, but maybe something catches your eye already). I only included every warning once even if some reoccur multiple times.

I left out some warnings about Steam not being initialized because I usually just run the app directly without going through Steam. But the stuttering occurs regardless whether I launch through Steam or not.

[ERR 16:42:20.042] WheelCollider requires an attached Rigidbody to function.

[ERR 16:42:24.122] PartCompiler: Cannot clone model 'Squad/Parts/Aero/shuttleWings/elevon' as model does not exist

[ERR 16:42:24.122] PartCompiler: Model was not compiled correctly

[ERR 16:42:24.122] PartCompiler: Cannot compile model

[ERR 16:42:24.122] PartCompiler: Cannot compile part

[ERR 16:42:27.617] The hull has more than 255 polygons. This is invalid.

[WRN 16:42:27.681] PartLoader Warning: Variable density not found in Part

[WRN 16:42:29.970] PartLoader Warning: Variable buoyancySplashPartOriginLerp not found in Part

[WRN 16:42:31.229] HighlightingSystem : Edge Highlighting requires AA to work!
[WRN 16:42:31.229] HighlightingSystem : Highlighting System has been disabled due to unsupported Unity features on the current platform!

[WRN 16:42:29.970] PartLoader Warning: Variable buoyancySplashPartOriginLerp not found in Part

I'll send a more complete log and system info later when I find the time.

Thanks!

Michel

 

 

[michelcolman]

Here are two log files.

With the first one, I noticed the stuttering problem at 15:33 but it may have started earlier, I had been in the map most of the time. I then put the computer to sleep and woke it up again. Problem gone. There's a whole bunch of NullReferenceExceptions starting around 15:42 but that was after the sleep and everything was smooth at that point.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lnz60jmcgbaejqi/KSP%20with%20bug.log?dl=0

The second log file was from a session that was smooth the whole time. It has some Steam errors because I started the app directly instead of going through Steam (but I've had this stuttering problem with or without Steam).

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7buzgcrn7v8pish/KSP%20without%20bug.log?dl=0

Hardware info is here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2wxedmrw7lfjhry/MacBook%20Pro.spx?dl=0

If I can get a session where I can pinpoint the start of the problem more precisely, I'll send the log here as well.

Thanks for any help!

Michel

[michelcolman]

Here's another log, with severe stuttering (2 fps) starting at 16:55:50. Nothing in the log suggests any problem at that particular time.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4jlkyvii01tz4am/KSP%20log%20with%20stutter%20from%2016h55%2050s.log?dl=0

Shortly after the stuttering started, I paused, put the computer to sleep, woke it up again, and as usual everything was smooth again.

Oh well, if I'm the only one experiencing this, I guess I'll just have to live with it.

[sal_vager]

Can you try a fully stock install please @michelcolman ?  I see you actually have mods installed.

Quote

[LOG 16:05:07.586] Load(Assembly): MechJeb2/Plugins/MechJeb2
[LOG 16:05:07.588] AssemblyLoader: Loading assembly at /Users/michel/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/Kerbal Space Program/GameData/MechJeb2/Plugins/MechJeb2.dll
[LOG 16:05:07.634] AssemblyLoader: KSPAssembly 'MechJeb2' V2.5

 

[michelcolman]

I'll try that some time this week. I already had the problem before I installed MechJeb, so I'm pretty sure that doesn't have anything to do with it. Should I also enable verbose output?

[michelcolman]

Sorry I didn't reply for a while, but I am still occasionally having the problem with the latest release (1.1.0.1230), without any mods whatsoever, clean install of the game. It seems to occur less often now, but maybe that's just an impression. Anyway, it's easy to fix: whenever it happens, I close the lid of the laptop, wait for it to go to sleep, open it up again, and see whether or not it's fine. Sometimes OK right away, sometimes needs a second attempt. So if I'm the only one reporting this problem, I suppose I can live with it.

Sluggishness is less pronounced in map, I suspect it's video related. Possibly the integrated graphics are being used instead of the discrete graphics (my 17 inch MacBook Pro has both integrated and discrete graphics, supposedly switching automatically between the two). But that's just a wild guess.

 

[cpcallen]

I am suffering from the exact same problem.  I posted a comment with logs on bug #9488, which looks like it is probably related.

I started experiencing the problem around when 1.1.1 came out.  It did not get any better with 1.1.2, and indeed rolling back to 1.1.0 does not solve the problem (though I can usually play for a little longer on 1.1.0 than on .1 or .2 before needing to sleep/wake cycle).