KSP 0.23: plugins and RAM utilzation

[Ravien]

Recently I decided to check the effectiveness of KSP 0.23 memory management with various plugins installed.

I compared vanilla KSP and KSP with Active Memory Reduction Mod 1.1 (Texture Compressor) on PC windows 7 64 bit.

Memory usage was recorded one minute after the initialization of the main menu, during actual play memory usage will be higher.

All values should be considered as estimated with an error of 10 Mb, individual values may vary, depending on the running applications and memory fragmentation.

[table=width: 500]

[tr]

[td]RAM usage in Mbytes[/td]

[td]Vanilla KSP[/td]

[td]KSP + Memory Mod[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]Baseline (no mods)[/td]

[td]1464[/td]

[td]1460[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]KSP + Squad texture reduction pack 0.1c[/td]

[td]1337[/td]

[td]1182[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]Kethane 0.8.2[/td]

[td]98[/td]

[td]100[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]Interstellar 0.9[/td]

[td]434[/td]

[td]249[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]SCANsat 5 + vibradyn 0.02c[/td]

[td]137[/td]

[td]76[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]Universe replacer 4.0 + Rareden's Skybox HD[/td]

[td]253[/td]

[td]253[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]KW Rocketry 2.5.52[/td]

[td]324[/td]

[td]325[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]KW Rocketry + KW texture reduction pack 0.1a[/td]

[td]170[/td]

[td]165[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]B9 Aerospace pack R4.0c[/td]

[td]1308[/td]

[td]375[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]B9 Aerospace + Aerospace reduction pack 0.1a[/td]

[td]1318[/td]

[td]651[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]B9 Aerospace + Reduced textures included with plugin[/td]

[td]478[/td]

[td]148[/td]

[/tr]

[/table]

As you can see, despite all the changes in the KSP 0.23, plugins can take a lot of memory. In particular B9 Aerospace with original textures.

The use of William Taylor's modified textures still can benefit, except for the B9 package, but included with the plugin work great.

In my experience, as long as you keep the initial use of RAM under 3Gbytes, you should not expect CTDs associated with memory during the game, and if you want to use a lot of plugins Texture Compressor type add-on is still a necessity.

I hope you find it useful, happy modding.

[Majiir]

As you can see, despite all the changes in the KSP 0.23, plugins can take a lot of memory. In particular B9 Aerospace with original textures.

I think you mean addons, which refers collectively to plugins, parts or any other kind of mod. Plugins do have the potential to use a lot of memory, but most of the memory used by mods is for part textures.

[Stone Blue]

Just wondering how/what you used to get the numbers for the specific "addons"...??

[Nuke]

are pre-compressed textures are supported yet?

Just wondering how/what you used to get the numbers for the specific "addons"...??

task manager is a good place to start

[Ravien]

Just wondering how/what you used to get the numbers for the specific "addons"...??

Simplest way - use resource monitor, but always have to wait some time after initialization because some addons like to allocate some additional memory

[Stone Blue]

OK...I couldnt remember if resource monitor would do it or not...I know task manager only gives you an overall number for ksp.exe ONLY...

[Nuke]

i just assumed ksp was launched with various mods and the value given by the task manager was logged, and this was repeated for each item in the list. it still gives you useful data.

[Tommygun]

My games start to crash between 1.5G and 2.5G depending on what plugins the mods have in them.

With City Lights and Clouds I have to keep in under 1.5G and if I also add Krags PlanetFactory, then I need to keep it under 1.0g.

[RadarManFromTheMoon]

B9 uses more memory when using the texture reduction pack(with Memory mod)? Seems odd but the rows may be just swapped.

[Ravien]

B9 uses more memory when using the texture reduction pack(with Memory mod)? Seems odd but the rows may be just swapped.

No. Values are correct, Taylor's pack for B9 is compressed in a way, memory mod can't handle well.

My games start to crash between 1.5G and 2.5G depending on what plugins the mods have in them.

With City Lights and Clouds I have to keep in under 1.5G and if I also add Krags PlanetFactory, then I need to keep it under 1.0g.

Planet Factory is another kind of addon - it eats lot of resources during a game. It's just speculation, bit I think Squad gave no tool for modders to add planetary scale bodies so Kragrathea have to make additional physics calculations by himself.

Edited December 23, 2013 by Ravien