Steam users: Do you leave steam running?

[p1t1o]

Hi All,

So for the longest time (since probably pre-0.24) I would launch KSP via the executable in the KSP folder, without opening steam, or after closing it first. To save the RAM of course.

A few days back, I was getting MAD crashes, mainly in the VAB, but also in-flight. I have a LOT of mods, so I wasn’t too chagrined, but it seemed to be getting worse, so I did some digging through my output.log.

There were some nullreferenceexceptions and some other erros, mainly only of a couple of types it seemed. I don’t know emough about these things to be able to identify any mod-related issues from what I saw. But I did see “steam” appear a few times.

So I thought “Is KSP looking for some handle or other from the steam program, and not finding it, getting upset?

So I now start KSP via steam, and for the last couple of day have had ZERO crashes…

 

This might just be observation bias, if crashes are random, then they can get better as well as worse.

Is there any reason why crashes, specifically VAB crashes, might be related to running Steam?

 

Thanks!

 

 

[icedown]

I only run the game by steam on accident.  I have several copies of, one that I play and the others are for development.  My development versions rarely crash, and if they do (and it's not my fault) it's usually on scene switch.

[Sereneti]

yes...

Steam didnt give you the "orginal" ksp, they give out their own exe...

 

[Padishar]

3 minutes ago, p1t1o said:

Is there any reason why crashes, specifically VAB crashes, might be related to running Steam?

Well, there shouldn't be but the various steam related extensions include native code (not just C#) so there is an inherently higher risk of an issue in that code causing a game crash rather than just logging an exception and continuing to run fine.

2 minutes ago, Sereneti said:

Steam didnt give you the "orginal" ksp, they give out their own exe...

This isn't really true.  The exe in a Steam version is exactly the same as the one in the store download (certainly the last time I checked) but there are a number of Steam-only DLLs/libraries, both managed code and native that could, potentially, be causing issues when not run from Steam.

I virtually never run the game from Steam or even run the version installed by steam directly at all because I like to keep the steam version totally stock and unmodified so that updates don't cause a problem.  I always copy the game from the Steam folder to another location (I have a C:\KSP folder that currently contains 49 different installs of various different versions going back to 0.23) and run it from there.  I do see the steam related errors in the log but I very rarely have crashes from any version (that aren't obviously caused by out-of-memory issues or me making silly mistakes in mod code ).

[Spaceception]

Yes, I don't close it, it just runs.

[egoego]

I don't even start it, when I just play KSP, unless I'm looking for KSP updates.

EDIT: And just to add, I only had one crash since 1.1

Edited June 8, 2016 by egoego

[Docsprock]

I leave steam running. I have had zero crashes since the last update. Plus I run zero mods.

[p1t1o]

Thanks all,

Its nice to know that it could be a real effect and not just in my head. Hopefully the crash-free streak I'm on will keep running!

 

[CaelumEtAstra]

Nope. In fact I don't even run it from steam, I copy out the game to another folder on my hard drive and run it from there. I have a good reason for that; I can copy it as a backup so I can use it for a clean game, in case I want to start a new save or if my main save gets corrupted in some way. It's better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.

[marcello639]

I don't know if using steam changes something. But  I can tell that a lot of problems are in pc's themselves. I play huge variety of games with steam and even with crossfire. I have big experience of tweaking system settings to get some games working. And I always have ended with reasonable settings. It can be too many things to say something for sure

[Nathair]

I leave Steam running, but I don't run KSP from Steam. I do exactly what Mrsupersonic8 does;

20 minutes ago, Mrsupersonic8 said:

In fact I don't even run it from steam, I copy out the game to another folder on my hard drive and run it from there.

I am not having any problem with crashing.

[DChurchill]

Steam runs in the background almost always. The only crashes I've had are alt-tabbing out.

[Archgeek]

Since around 1.0, I close steam, dropbox, and chrome, and restart vivaldi to get it release most of its RAM before playing, as the game's not quick to release memory it's allocated, and it gets obnoxious when Windows freaks out for minutes throwing stuff on the swap file only for someone to link me something, causing it to dredge the browser back up again.  Not a lot of crashes unless the system's grinding away like that and I try to something nasty like put a big sub-tree in symmetry or undo something.

[Cairol]

I used to run it via Steam until 1.1.x was published.
Now I use an external link to start the x64 version. It works just fine.

[Glaran K'erman]

I haven't run the game through Steam in so long I really can't speak on whether or not it's more stable, I simply forget.

[kBob]

I've done it both ways (before switching to 64 bit version I just did it through Steam).  0 crashes either way.

[Enorats]

Steam runs 24/7 on my computer. It barely uses any resources at all, so why worry about it? Especially with 64 bit out now.. I could probably run KSP four or five times over before running out of RAM, even heavily modded. 

[regex]

I don't run the game through Steam, I use it as a delivery program.  Once I've downloaded KSP it gets moved to a new location where I can more easily manage mods and such.  The game is always launched from its own directory, never from within Steam.  I only have Steam open when I'm running a game from within it, usually one that either has Workshop mods (Skyrim) or that I don't bother modding (FTL, Spintires, Darkest Dungeon, etc...)

[flyboy67109]

I don't even run it in steam. I go to the folder where Steam puts it and run it directly from there. Rarely run Steam at all.

[cantab]

I'm another who gets KSP from Steam but never runs it through Steam. And I get loads of crashes. And I'm on Linux and I know it makes a difference - running the game through Steam means it uses Steam's versions of certain system libraries instead of the operating system's versions, even before you consider the Steam-specific extras.

Maybe I should try letting Steam do its thing. It won't be hard to add my modded KSP as a "non Steam game".

[11of10]

I used to run it exclusively through Steam until a couple of days ago, when I tried it without.

Works much better. Crashes are much rarer, tho they still occur.

I guess it is running out of steam

[Theysen]

Steam is always open for me as there are many mates who are up for CS:GO or so, I don't play KSP via Steam though. I got the .exe location in quick access so I can easily switch between installs.

[Just Jim]

Not any more.  Apparently when I'm playing the x64 version of KSP I don't need steam to be running, so I shut it down.  Less stuff in the background.

[T.A.P.O.R.]

I've found that the crash frequency on either method is entirely random. Both have good and bad days 

[klesh]

I start with steam and crash on a very regular basis.  Its not awesome at all.