21GB seems insanely excessive, even for a heavily modded install...

[SpacedInvader]

So after seeing a video review from a little while back that described the newest Verizon as having fixed a lot of the not so great quirks of KSP, I figured it would be a good time to come back and spend some time launching rockets. As I normally do when I set up an install, I started with a few "must have" mods and then fired up CKAN and just started going through the list of compatible mods adding everything that seemed interesting or useful. The end result of this was (as is usually the case) nearly 200 mods installed (172 to be specific). No big deal, I've had more than this in the past and never had the game go over about 8-9 GB (I have 32GB now) and so I did it up and waited the 20ish minutes (the only thing I've ever really hated about running a heavily modded install) for the game too load into the main menu. When it finally showed up I had a glance at the windows task manager (always open with KSP to monitor memory usage) only to find that KSP was eating a whopping 21GB already at the main menu.

This is waaay more than I've ever seen in the past, even with yet more mods than what I've got installed currently (my record is around 220) and those numbers were from back in the day when you absolutely had to run active texture management because dds wasn't the default format. Now apparently that mod isn't even maintained anymore because it isn't needed, so this leaves me wondering, why is my install running so large?

The other part of this that has me really confused is that Gamedata folder is only about 6GB which should have capped my running install only marginally higher than that (at least from past experience). All in all, I'm really wanting to know what's going on that's made this install so much larger than anything I've ever seen in the past and how can I get it under control without throwing away 75% of my mods.

Thanks for any help

Edited March 23, 2019 by SpacedInvader

[KerbolExplorer]

Maybe some of those mods updated and needs more ram now?

[klgraham1013]

Stock KSP can get up there on it's own if you play long enough.  No mods necessary!

[SpacedInvader]

9 hours ago, KerbolExplorer said:

Maybe some of those mods updated and needs more ram now?

That's not outside of the realm of possibility, but a nearly 300% increase across the board? That seems really unlikely...

7 hours ago, klgraham1013 said:

Stock KSP can get up there on it's own if you play long enough.  No mods necessary!

Also true, but this is at the main menu just after loading, which means going to the space center will add probably another 500MB-1GB and then start going up from there.

My original concern was that I'd added some culprit mod that might lead to a memory leak, but after stepping through the whole list adding about 20 at a time, its pretty clear that there isn't any one mod or small group of mods that really drive it up there now, but just having mods seems to inflate memory usage almost exponentially. Does KSP itself have a bad memory leak now that is severely exacerbated by the use of lots of mods?

[Vanamonde]

Question moved to modded support. 

[SpacedInvader]

As an update of the situation, I've been testing a little play under the current setup and finding it to be essentially unplayable. Even running  -force-glcore the amount of RAM occupied by the game upon reaching the main menu exceeds 20+ GB (though some of that is "shareable") and as expected it continues to rise from there. Within a few minutes of landing in the space center, the entirety of my 32GB of RAM has been occupied (some of it by other programs like Firefox, but 32GB still should have been enough to cover that, plus the game, and have lots left over) and doing anything in the game lags horribly (30-60 seconds just for a scene change). I've started trying to go through my mod list to cut out some of the items I'd be less likely to use regularly, but considering the amount of memory being gobbled up by KSP, it seems like I'd have to get rid of at least 50% of what I've got installed to get memory usage into any sort of reasonable state and thats going to be very difficult for me to manage.

I'm really wanting to know if anyone else has this issue or if I've got something special going on in my setup thats causing this. I've seen offhand mentions in more than one thread of people with hundreds of mods as recently as this month, so I know its possible to have a massive amount of mods without ruining playability, but I'm having difficulty finding the exact posts so that I can try messaging those individuals to ask what they've done differently from me.

I'm also including here a list of my installed mods in case someone might be able to spot mods that could be contributing significantly to this issue:

 Flight Manager for Reusable Stages (FMRS) Continued (FMRSContinued 1.2.7.4)
 Launch Escape System (PEBKACIndustriesLaunchEscapeSystem 1:1.4.1)
[x] Science! Continued (xScienceContinued 5.20)
ABookCase Orbital Reference System (ABCORS 0.5.0.4)
Action Groups Extended (AGExt 1:2.3.3.8)
Advanced Fly-By-Wire (Windows, x64) (AdvancedFlyByWire 1.8.1.3)
AECS_Motion_Suppressor (air brake, engine, & control surface) (AECS-Motion-Suppressor 1.3.1)
ALCOR (ALCOR 0.9.7)
ALCOR Advanced IVA (ALCORIVAPatch 0.9.7)
All Y'All (AllYAll 0.11.16.3)
Alternate Resource Panel (AlternateResourcePanel v2.9.3.0)
AmpYear (AmpYearPowerManager 1:V1.5.4.0)
Animated Decouplers (AnimatedDecouplers v1.4.2)
ASET Agency  (ASETAgency 1.0)
ASET Props (ASETProps 1.5)
B9 Aerospace - HX Parts Pack (B9AerospaceHX 1:v6.5.2)
B9 Aerospace Parts Pack (B9 1:v6.5.2)
B9 Aerospace Procedural Wings - Fork (B9-PWings-Fork 1:0.80)
B9 Aerospace Props (B9-props 1:v6.5.2)
B9 Animation Modules (B9AnimationModules v1.3.2)
B9 Part Switch (B9PartSwitch v2.6.0)
BahamutoD Animation Modules (BDAnimationModules 1:v0.6.5.6)
Basic Procedural Textures (BasicProceduralTextures v1.2)
Better Science Labs Continued (BetterScienceLabsContinued 0.1.10.2)
BetterBurnTime (BetterBurnTime 1.9.1)
BetterTimeWarpContinued (BetterTimeWarpCont 2.3.11.2)
blackheart612's Procedural Part Textures (ProceduralParts-Textures-SCCKSCS 1)
Bluedog Design Bureau (BluedogDB v1.5.2)
Bob's Panic Box (BobsPanicBox 1:0.0.1.18)
BonVoyage (BonVoyage 0.14.3_-_Power_of_LOx)
CactEye Optics Community (CactEyeCommunity 1.5.1.15)
CapCom - Mission Control On The Go (CapCom 2.10)
Chaka Monkey Exploration Systems (ChakaMonkeyExplorationSystems Chaka_Monkey_161_B)
Champagne Bottle Redux (ChampagneBottleRedux 0.3.9.1)
Chatterer (Chatterer 0.9.96)
Chatterer Extended (ChattererExtended 0.6.2)
ClickThrough Blocker (ClickThroughBlocker 0.1.7.1)
Community Category Kit (CommunityCategoryKit 4.1.0.0)
Community Resource Pack (CommunityResourcePack 1.1.0.0)
Community Tech Tree (CommunityTechTree 1:3.3.6)
Community Terrain Texture Pack (CommunityTerrainTexturePack 1:1.0.4)
Community Trait Icons (CommunityTraitIcons v1.0.2)
Contract Configurator (ContractConfigurator 1.27.1)
Contract Pack: Anomaly Surveyor (ContractConfigurator-AnomalySurveyor 1.7.1)
Contract Pack: Bases and Stations Reborn (ContractConfigurator-KerbinSpaceStation 2:3.7.1.4)
Contract Pack: Clever Sats (ContractConfigurator-CleverSats 1.4)
Contract Pack: Field Research (ContractConfigurator-FieldResearch 1.2.1)
Contract Pack: Giving Aircraft a Purpose (GAP) (GAP 1.6.1)
Contract Pack: Kerbal Academy (ContractConfigurator-KerbalAcademy 1.1.10)
Contract Pack: RemoteTech (ContractConfigurator-RemoteTech 2.1.4)
Contract Pack: Tourism Plus (ContractConfigurator-Tourism 1.5.2)
Contract Parser (ContractParser 8.0)
Contract Reward Modifier (ContractRewardModifier 2.6)
Contracts Window + (ContractsWindowPlus 9.2)
Crew R&R (CrewQueueTwo 1.1.9.1)
Cryogenic Engines (CryoEngines 1:0.6.5)
Cryogenic Tanks (CryoTanks 1.1.1)
Custom Asteroids (CustomAsteroids v1.6.0)
Custom Asteroids (inner stock system data) (CustomAsteroids-Pops-Stock-Inner v1.6.0)
Custom Asteroids (stockalike config) (CustomAsteroids-Pops-Stock-Stockalike v1.6.0)
Custom Barn Kit (CustomBarnKit 1.1.19.0)
Dang It! Continued (DangItContinued 0.7.18.2)
Deadly Reentry Continued (DeadlyReentry v7.7.1)
DeepFreeze Continued... (DeepFreeze V0.25.0.0)
Deployable Engines Plugin (DeployableEngines 1.0.0)
Diazo's Landing Height Display (DiazosLandingHeight 2.2.0.5)
Distant Object Enhancement (DistantObject v1.9.1.1)
Distant Object Enhancement default config (DistantObject-default v1.9.1.1)
DMagic Orbital Science (DMagicOrbitalScience 1.4.2)
DMModuleScienceAnimateGeneric (DMagicScienceAnimate v0.21)
Docking Port Alignment Indicator (DockingPortAlignmentIndicator 6.8.3)
Dr. Jet's Chop Shop (ChopShop 1:0.11.4.4)
Dynamic Battery Storage (DynamicBatteryStorage 2:1.4.0.0)
Easy Vessel Switch (EVS) (EasyVesselSwitch 1.10)
EasyBoard (EasyBoard 1.6)
Editor Extensions Redux (EditorExtensionsRedux 3.3.19.10)
Engineering Roles - Final Frontier Ribbon Pack (STMsFFRibbonPackEngineeringRoles 0.5.1)
Environmental Visual Enhancements (EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements 2:EVE-1.4.2-2)
EVA Enhancements Continued (EVAEnhancementsContinued 0.1.13.6)
EVA Parachutes & Ejection Seats (EVAParachutes 0.1.16)
ExtensiveEngineerReportContinued (ExtensiveEngRptContinued 0.1.3.3)
Extraplanetary Launchpads (ExtraPlanetaryLaunchpads 6.5.1.0)
Extrasolar Planets Byond Kerbol - Stock configuration (ExtrasolarPlanetsBeyondKerbol-stock 1.8.0)
FASA (FASA 1:v7.2.5)
Ferram Aerospace Research Continued (FerramAerospaceResearchContinued 3:0.15.9.7)
Filter Extensions - Default Configuration (FilterExtensionsDefaultConfig 3.2.2.17)
Filter Extensions - Plugin (FilterExtensions 3.2.2.17)
Final Frontier (FinalFrontier 1.5.3-3465)
Firespitter Core (FirespitterCore v7.12.0)
Firespitter Resources config (FirespitterResourcesConfig v7.12.0)
Freedom Textures (FreedomTex 1:v1.5.1.0)
GravityTurn Continued (GravityTurnContinued 2:1.7.7)
HangerExtender (HangerExtenderExtended 3.5.3.5)
Heat Control (HeatControl 0.4.10)
Hide Empty Tech Tree Nodes (HideEmptyTechNodes 1.1.0)
HullcamVDS Continued (HullcamVDSContinued 0.1.11)
HyperEdit (HyperEdit 1.5.8.0)
Impact! (Impact v1.6.4)
Interstellar Fuel Switch (InterstellarFuelSwitch 3.6.18.3)
Interstellar Fuel Switch Core (InterstellarFuelSwitch-Core 3.6.18.3)
JX2Antenna (JX2Antenna 2.0.5)
Karbonite (Karbonite 1:1.1.0.0)
KEI (KEI 1.2.9.5)
Kerbal Alarm Clock (KerbalAlarmClock v3.10.0.0)
Kerbal Atomics (KerbalAtomics 1:0.5.5)
Kerbal Atomics - NFE Compatibility Patch (KerbalAtomics-NFECompatibility 0.5.5)
Kerbal Attachment System (KAS 1.1)
Kerbal Changelog (KerbalChangelog v1.1.4)
Kerbal Construction Time (KerbalConstructionTime 1.4.5.6)
Kerbal Engineer Redux (KerbalEngineerRedux 1.1.5.7)
Kerbal Inventory System (KIS 1.18)
Kerbal NRAP - Procedural Test Weights (KerbalNRAP 1.5.13)
Kerbal Planetary Base Systems (KerbalPlanetaryBaseSystems v1.6.8)
Kerbal Reusability Expansion (SpaceXLegs 2.8.4)
Kethane Mining (Kethane 0.10.1)
Konstruction (Konstruction 1.1.0.0)
Kopernicus Planetary System Modifier (Kopernicus 2:release-1.6.1-2)
kOS: Scriptable Autopilot System (kOS 1:1.1.6.3)
KRASH - Kerbal Ramification Artifical Simulation Hub (simulation mod for KSP) (KRASH 0.5.29.8)
KSP Achievements (Achievements 1.9.4.2)
KSP AVC (KSP-AVC 1.2.0.7)
KSP ExtendedAntennaProgression (ExtendedAntennaProgression v0.1.2)
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Launch Numbering (LaunchNumbering 0.5.2.2)
MagiCore (MagiCore 1.3.1.5)
Malemute Rover (MalemuteRover 1.1.0.0)
Mark IV Spaceplane System (MarkIVSpaceplaneSystem 3.0.4)
MechJeb 2 (MechJeb2 2.8.3.0)
MechJeb and Engineer for all! (MechJebForAll 1.3.0.5)
MemGraph (MemGraph 1:1.1.1.5)
'MK1-2' IVA Replacement by ASET (MK12PodIVAReplacementbyASET 1:0.3)
Mk2 Stockalike Expansion (Mk2Expansion 2:1.8.3.5)
Mk3 Stockalike Expansion (Mk3Expansion 1.4.7.5)
ModularFlightIntegrator (ModularFlightIntegrator 1.2.6.0)
ModularPods (ModularPods 1.0.11)
Module Manager (ModuleManager 4.0.2)
Near Future Construction (NearFutureConstruction 1.0.6)
Near Future Electrical (NearFutureElectrical 0.10.6)
Near Future Electrical Core (NearFutureElectrical-Core 0.10.6)
Near Future Electrical Extras: Decaying RTGs Patch (NearFutureElectrical-DecayingRTGs 0.10.6)
Near Future IVA Props (NearFutureProps 1:0.5.0)
Near Future Launch Vehicles (NearFutureLaunchVehicles 1.1.10)
Near Future Propulsion (NearFuturePropulsion 1.1.0)
Near Future Propulsion - Xenon Hall Effect Thrusters (NearFuturePropulsion-XenonHETs 1.1.0)
Near Future Solar (NearFutureSolar 0.8.15)
Near Future Solar Core (NearFutureSolar-Core 0.8.15)
Near Future Spacecraft (NearFutureSpacecraft 1.2.2)
Nehemiah Engineering Orbital Science (NehemiahEngineeringOrbitalScience 0.8.0)
NovaPunch Rebalanced (NovaPunchRebalanced 0.1.6.5)
NovaPunchRebalanced Freyja (NovaPunchRebalanced-Freyja 0.1.6.5)
NovaPunchRebalanced Odin (NovaPunchRebalanced-Odin 0.1.6.5)
NovaPunchRebalanced Thor (NovaPunchRebalanced-Thor 0.1.6.5)
OctoSat Continued (OctosatContinued 1:0.1.11.2)
Operations Roles - Final Frontier Ribbon Pack (STMsFFRibbonPackOperationsRoles 0.5.1)
OPT Reconfig (OPTReconfig 1.3.2)
Orbit Portal Technology [OPT] Spaceplane Parts (Legacy) (OPTSpacePlaneParts 1:1.2.5)
Outer Planets Mod (OuterPlanetsMod 2:2.2.2)
Part Commander Continued (PartCommanderCont 1.1.5.2)
Patch Manager (PatchManager 0.0.16.4)
PersistentRotation (PersistentRotation 1.8.5)
Photon Sailor (PhotonSailor 1.4.6.3)
Planet Wiki (PlanetWiki making_CKAN_happy)
Portrait Stats (PortraitStats 17.0)
Precise Node (PreciseNode 1.2.10.2)
Procedural Parts (ProceduralParts v1.3.16.1)
Procedural Parts - Hazard Tanks Textures (HazardTanksTextures 1.0)
Procedural Parts - MainSailor's Procedural Textures - Complete Texture Pack (MainSailorTextures-Complete 2.0.0.0.1)
Procedural Parts - MainSailor's Procedural Textures - Essential Textures and Flag (MainSailorTextures-Essentials 2.0.0.0.1)
Procedural Parts - Saturn / Nova Texture Pack (ProceduralParts-Textures-SaturnNova 1.2)
Procedural Parts - Ven's Revamp Style Textures (VensStylePPTextures 1.1)
Progress Parser (ProgressParser 10.0)
QuickSearch (QuickSearch 1:3.2.3)
QuizTech Aero Pack (QuizTechAeroPackContinued 1.3.14.2)
RasterPropMonitor (RasterPropMonitor 1:v0.30.6)
RasterPropMonitor Core (RasterPropMonitor-Core 1:v0.30.6)
RCS Build Aid Continued (RCSBuildAidCont 1:0.9.7.6)
Real Fuels: Stockalike RF Configs (RFStockalike v3.2.6.6)
Real Plume (RealPlume 2:v11.1.0)
Real Plume - Stock Configs (RealPlume-StockConfigs v1.3.1)
RealChute Parachute Systems (RealChute v1.4.7.3)
RecoveryController (RecoveryController 0.0.3.7)
RemoteTech (RemoteTech v1.9.1)
RemoteTech - SETI Config (SETI-RemoteTech 1.3.0.1)
RemoteTech - SETI ProbeControlEnabler (SETI-ProbeControlEnabler 1.3.0.0)
REPOSoftTech-Agencies (REPOSoftTech-Agencies V1.5.4.0)
ResearchBodies (ResearchBodies 1:v1.9.9)
ReStock (ReStock 0.1.3)
ReStock+ (ReStockPlus 0.1.3)
Retractable Lifting Surface Module (RetractableLiftingSurface 0.1.5.5)
RLA Reborn (RLAReborn 0.15.1.7)
Rover Science Continued (RoverScienceCont 2.3.5)
S.A.V.E (SAVE 1.5.5-3121)
SCANsat (SCANsat v18.10)
scatterer (Scatterer 2:v0.0540)
scatterer - default config (Scatterer-config 2:v0.0540)
scatterer - sunflare (Scatterer-sunflare 2:v0.0540)
Science Relay (ScienceRelay 5.1)
Science Roles - Final Frontier Ribbon Pack (ScienceRolesFinalFrontierRibbonPack 0.5.1)
ScienceAlert ReAlerted (ScienceAlert 1.9.6)
SETI-Contracts (SETI-Contracts 1.3.0.0)
SETI-CustomBarnKit-Config (EXPERIMENTAL) (SETI-CustomBarnKit 0.9.1.0)
SETI-MetaModPack (SETI-MetaModPack 1.3.0.0)
SETI-ProbeParts (SETI-ProbeParts 1.3.0.2)
SETI-Rebalance (SETI-BalanceMod 1.3.0.2)
SETI-Rebalance MaterialsBay & MysteryGoo (SETI-RebalanceMaterialsGoo 1.3.0.0)
Ship Manifest (ShipManifest 5.2.1.0)
Smart Parts (SmartParts 1.9.13.4)
SmartStage (SmartStage 1:2.9.11.2)
SmokeScreen - Extended FX Plugin (SmokeScreen 2.8.1.0)
Solar Science (SolarScience v1.06)
Sounding Rockets! (SoundingRockets 1.1.0.0)
SpacetuxSA (SpacetuxSA 0.3.12.5)
StageRecovery (StageRecovery 1.9.1)
State Funding Continued (StateFundingContinued 0.6.16.3)
Station Keeping (StationKeeping 1:0.2.1.1)
Station Science Continued (StationScienceContinued v2.5.2)
STM's Enlisted Ranks - Final Frontier Ribbon Pack (STMsFFRibbonPackEnlistedRanks 0.5.1)
STM's Expedition Ribbons - Final Frontier Ribbon Pack (STMsFFRibbonPackExpeditionRibbons 5.1.2)
STM's Naval Ranks - Final Frontier Ribbon Pack (STMsFFRibbonPackNavalOfficerRanks 0.5.1)
STM's Officer Ranks - Final Frontier Ribbon Pack (STMsFFRibbonPackOfficerRanks 0.5.1)
STM's Warrant Officer Ranks - Final Frontier Ribbon Pack (STMsFFRibbonPackWarrantOfficerRanks 0.5.1)
Stock Visual Enhancements (StockVisualEnhancements 3:v1.4.1)
Stock Visual Enhancements-High Res Textures (SVE-HighResolution 3:1.0.8)
Stock Visual Terrain (SVE-Terrain 2.2.0)
Stockalike Mining Extension (StockalikeMiningExtension 0.99.2)
Stockalike Station Parts Expansion (StationPartsExpansion 0.5.3)
Stockalike Station Parts Expansion Redux (StationPartsExpansionRedux 1.1.0)
Strategia (Strategia 1.7.3)
Sum Dum Heavy Industries - Service Module System (SDHI-ServiceModuleSystem v4.0.1)
Sum Dum Heavy Industries - Shared Assets (SDHI-SharedAssets 1.0)
Surface Experiment Pack (SurfaceExperimentPack v2.7.1)
SXTContinued (SXTContinued 1:0.3.26)
TAC Fuel Balancer (TacFuelBalancer v2.20)
Tarsier Space Technology with Galaxies Continued... (TarsierSpaceTechnologyWithGalaxies 1:7.5)
TDProps (TDProps 1.3)
TextureReplacer (TextureReplacer v3.7)
Textures Unlimited (TexturesUnlimited 1.3.6.20)
The Janitor's Closet (JanitorsCloset 0.3.4.6)
ToadicusToolsContinued (ToadicusToolsContinued 0.22.3.3)
Toolbar (Toolbar 1.7.18)
Toolbar Controller (ToolbarController 1:0.1.6.20)
Tracking Station Evolved (TrackingStationEvolved 4.1)
Trajectories (Trajectories v2.2.2)
Transfer Window Planner (TransferWindowPlanner v1.6.3.0)
TriggerAu Flags (TriggerAu-Flags v2.9.3.0)
Tundra Exploration - Stockalike Dragon V2 and Falcon 9 (TundraExploration 1.3.0.5)
Tundra Technologies (TundraTechnologies 1.3.0.5)
TweakableEverythingContinued (TweakableEverythingCont 0.1.26)
Universal Storage II (UniversalStorage2 1.6.0.9)
Unmanned before Manned (SETI-UbM) (UnmannedBeforeManned 1.3.0.2)
USI Asteroid Recycling Technologies (USI-ART 1:1.1.0.0)
USI Core (USI-Core 1.1.0.0)
USI Exploration Pack (USI-EXP 1.1.0.0)
USI Freight Transport Technologies (USI-FTT 1.1.0.0)
USI Life Support (USI-LS 1.1.0.0)
USI Tools (USITools 1.1.0.0)
Vessel Viewer Continued (VesselView 2:0.8.7.2)
VesselView-UI-RasterPropMonitor (VesselView-UI-RasterPropMonitor 1:0.8.7.2)
Waypoint Manager (WaypointManager 2.7.5)

 

Edited March 23, 2019 by SpacedInvader

[SpacedInvader]

The problem has been resolved. It turns out a mod author had left some Unity debugging files in the plugins folder for their mod and it was causing KSP to load many (if not all) assets at least twice and in some cases more.

Here is the relevant post in case anyone lands here in the future with similar problems:

 

[Glloyd]

Yeah, I've got a similar issue. I'm sitting at around 15GB before even launching anything, and my modlist isn't even half the size of yours. Something fishy's going on.

[KiltedKerbal]

Mine has jumped from loading to around 7-8GB RAM to eating 15.2 after updating some mods in the last day or so. And only 16GB in the system  So runs like a Kerbalnaut on the surface of Jool.  I'll post a list of mods shortly (on the surface I can see several shared with @SpacedInvader. )

[SpacedInvader]

55 minutes ago, KiltedKerbal said:

Mine has jumped from loading to around 7-8GB RAM to eating 15.2 after updating some mods in the last day or so. And only 16GB in the system  So runs like a Kerbalnaut on the surface of Jool.  I'll post a list of mods shortly (on the surface I can see several shared with @SpacedInvader. )

Follow the links in my answer post. You'll find some file names, just do a search for those to see which mod is the source. If they don't show up, its not the same issue.

 

Edited April 2, 2019 by SpacedInvader

[KiltedKerbal]

@SpacedInvader - not got Real Fuels - but I do have the Stockalike Station Redux and Real Plumes. I'm going to try rolling back the last set of CKAN updates and installed mods to see if it's been the same issue with another mod that's been updated. If not it's either fresh KSP install or figure out DeltaV to get a 30cm cube containing various computer parts, weighing around 3kg, into LEO.