Base-game optimization and / or multicore

[MisterFister]

Full disclosure, I'm an irredeemable mod-addict.  However, I am intentionally asking in a stock modless context:

What roadmap exists, if any, for KSP to receive optimization passes in future updates, if indeed any future updates ever come to pass?  KSP is pretty much in a class of very few other gaming titles (Factorio being another notable example) which bottlenecks at the CPU and not at the graphics card.  Worse, it's been the better part of a decade since anyone was likely to purchase a computer for use with computer games that had single-core CPUs, yet KSP still only utilizes a single core.  Case in point, I run an octo-core i7, and while quads aren't exactly bargain-basement economy models quite yet, I think it'd be equally unfair to characterize hex- and octo-core systems as "newfangled" or "rare."

In the context of my admitted mod addiction, I recognize that the more mods one uses (particularly plugins) the more likely any multi-core / multithread / optimization would be to bork the backend stuff that allows said mods to attach to the game so easily.

That said... is hoping for 2015-cutting-edge performance here in 2017 really an unreasonable thing for a user to request?

[Rocket In My Pocket]

KSP does use more than one core, it got multi-core support a while back. It really only comes into play when multiple ships are within physics range of each other though.

KSP is and always will be CPU bound, it's doing ALOT of physics stuff and that's hard to multi-thread properly. Physics really have to be on a single thread barring some future breakthrough in the area, this is a limitation in computing in general. Pretty much every game is bound by single core performance, you just don't notice in the other games because they are hardly using your CPU. Multiple cores are really only good for doing...multiple things. Most of the time when you are doing one thing, like playing a game; one core is doing pretty much all of the work. Why? Because there really isn't anything for the other cores to do, and no way for them to help without getting in the way. Imagine 8 people trying to wash the same dishes, in the same sink, with one sponge.

The good news is that the 1.4 update is going to bring an upgrade to the new Unity 2017 engine, which should improve performance for everyone somewhat as well as eliminate some nasty garbage collection issues/memory leaks KSP has always had. However this won't magically change how physics/multi-core computing work so it's not going be a magical solution to your issue.

Edited November 8, 2017 by Rocket In My Pocket