Ram usage

[DeepOdyssey]

Hi.

I have a question to all mod users. Does your ksp.exe process ram usage rise as you play the game? I don't know if it's normal, so i'm asking here. My game start at a 2,6GB of ram, and then it's slowly rising, until i break the 3,7gb barrier and crash. What could be the cause for such problems? I have B9, KW, and interstellar mods installed, i know it's quite an overkill, but i also use active texture management, basic version, which should ease things a little.

[Pecan]

There are several things that affect the amount of RAM used but one of the major ones is the number of parts which are loaded when the game starts. With B9 and KW particularly there are a lot of extra parts - I don't know about Interstellar - so a lot of additional RAM required. More than just the (picture) textures used to draw these it is the (polygon) 3d-model that the computer understands that takes the memory so ATM and similar can't help much. Beyond the number of parts the biggest contributor to RAM usage will be the number of flights in progress - always - and, most obviously - the number of craft/parts within render-distance while in flight.

[Asmayus]

Hi.

I have a question to all mod users. Does your ksp.exe process ram usage rise as you play the game? I don't know if it's normal, so i'm asking here. My game start at a 2,6GB of ram, and then it's slowly rising, until i break the 3,7gb barrier and crash. What could be the cause for such problems? I have B9, KW, and interstellar mods installed, i know it's quite an overkill, but i also use active texture management, basic version, which should ease things a little.

I had serious trouble running the game before when I had 4gb. I'd never tracked usage figures but I would get crashes after a certain number of launches. It varied depending on my graphics settings and part count. They problem has gone away since I upgraded to 8gb.

So yes, it is normal for ksp. I got far fewer crashes on lower settings, so that may be worth trying.

Asmayus

[helaeon]

You'll probably want to use the aggressive version of ATM. Basic version eases things very little.

Also need to make sure you have profiles for all the mods you use. If the there's not a profile telling ATM to compress everything it won't work.

There are also settings in the ATM configs that let you get even more aggressive about compression.

You may also want to consider trimming down the parts in KW and B9 if you find there are ones you don't like and/or never use. Since the NASA pack I dropped KW and haven't really missed it and it made room for a lot of mods, also got away from B9 and have been using SpacePlane Plus instead. Also using Lack's SXT parts because they use the squad textures so very very light on the memory usage.

[DeepOdyssey]

I know about the things you people have listed. I'm asking about the ram usage rise, is it normal? I thought, when the game load, my ram usage won't rise much, because every game asset/texture/model was already loaded.

Even if i use ATM aggressive my game eventually crash. I also have some red errors in debug menu[null reference exception object reference not set to an instance of an object] when i load some spacecrafts. I don't know maybe this could be causing the issue?

[Shiv]

I have 12 gigs of RAM and it's still not enough for this game at times. It just devours it unfortunately. But it's a really unstable game to begin with so it probably has some memory leaks as well.

Edited June 22, 2014 by Shiv

[Taki117]

I have 12 gigs of RAM and it's still not enough for this game at times. It just devours it unfortunately.

Unless you are using Linux (Or the 64 bit hack) KSP is a 32 bit program that has a hard limit of 4GB of RAM usage, regardless of what your actual RAM is.

[Shiv]

Well I reckon it's not using it all then. Whenever I play my memory usage jumps from about 20% to 86% so I figured it was using that all. That raises the more interesting question of why it's increasing by 66% when it should be increasing by 33% at most.

[Link]

I know about the things you people have listed. I'm asking about the ram usage rise, is it normal? I thought, when the game load, my ram usage won't rise much, because every game asset/texture/model was already loaded.

Even if i use ATM aggressive my game eventually crash. I also have some red errors in debug menu[null reference exception object reference not set to an instance of an object] when i load some spacecrafts. I don't know maybe this could be causing the issue?

To address your question, it is a tad normal. BUT, the error in your debug menu could very well be related. Track that error down, eliminate that mod, and try again.

My ram usually only ever goes up during the last bit of the loading screen, in between scenes(changing from vab to space center, etc) and of course, approaching other vessels.

So first, and foremost, get rid of what's giving you the NRE's, and see if that makes a change.

[QuesoExplosivo]

Sounds like a memory leak to me.

[velve]

I would definitely use the aggressive active texture management version, I was using it with more than twice the amount of part mods you're using and I didn't crash. That said I do not run my game with very high settings which is most likely the cause of me being able to run so many mods.

I only have 4gb RAM as well.

[DeepOdyssey]

I run the game with highest settings and EVE, so that might cause some problems.

[Excalibur]

Something I've noticed that only occurs with KSP;

Once I've quit the game after a decent session (an hour or so, and especially with part-heavy ships) my PC will run very slowly for a few minutes. Applications like Chrome take an age to load. There have been occasions where the only way to regain my machine's usual responsiveness is to restart.

It's as though running the game actually hurts my poor PC and it's reeling from the pain.

Never seen this with any other game, including modded versions of GTA IV and Battlefield titles.

Could this be due to the high RAM usage? I only have 4GB by the way and typical game usage is just under 3GB with the few mods I use.

[DeepOdyssey]

I have 8GB of ram and I5 4670k, ksp should be bread and butter for this hardware.

[Guest]

KSP memory management code is one of the shoddiest ones I've ever seen. Try Load on Demand mod, it basically does what KSP should be doing from the start - loads and unloads textures as they're needed, not all at once. You can use ATM basic with that, it gives you little quality loss and makes KSP run a bit better as well. In general, I hope Squad rewrites the texture loader before the first release. Such a piece of crap in a released product would've been a huge embarrassment.

Also, it's normal for KSP's memory usage to increase when running (another sign of bad programming). Sometimes it does so quite fast, someone even crashed KSP just by picking up a single part and putting it back a number of times. Your best bet is to limit the amount of memory needed.

[DeepOdyssey]

Thank you all, for your answers.

[MarvinKitFox]

B9

Oh, you want more text?

Ok. The B9 mod uses a mountain of ram, and is known to have memory leaks.

Just pop out & back into KSp every 3-5 vehicle loads, and it will be fine. Unless you build ships like I do. At 2500 parts, KSp will crash no matter what mods you like.

[DeepOdyssey]

I don't know how could you fly a 2500 part ship, i get massive lag at starting sequence, when my ship is barely a 400-500 parts.

[MarvinKitFox]

I don't know how could you fly a 2500 part ship, i get massive lag at starting sequence, when my ship is barely a 400-500 parts.

Who said anything a "fly"?

My 2500-part ship zips from launchpad to orbit in under 4.5 hours.

While the first stage is in sight of KSP, framerate is about 8.

No, not frames per second.(if only!)

*seconds* per frame.

Need I mention I am very well acquinted with the many ways in which KSp can run out of memory, crash, or otherwise mangle my existence?

[Crashy_McSplodey]

Right, as stated, B9 loves to eat RAM. If you could imagine a silicon eating monster with a particular penchant for RAM chips, it would be called B9-osaurus.

Steps you can take to ddrastically reduce your RAM footprint are:Go to the in-game graphics settings and pring your textures to half-resolution, it is noticeable if you crawl all over every build really close, but mostly all you have to put up with is an improved frame rate and barely perceptible pixellation on some textures.

Next you should upgrade your ATM to the aggresive-stable install. I use this with an install using ~50 mods including KW and B9, Firespitter, IR, and the entire near future parts catalogue, without crashing.I also use the .DLLs maintained by one of the forum celebrities, Green_Skull.

It may also be prudent to investigate texture reduction packs if you are still having troubles after the previous three steps, although this may require editing of config files; but hopefully you are going to be too busy watching rockets cartwheel through the skies

Links:

ATM - http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/59005-0-23-5-Release-3-1-Active-Texture-Management-Save-RAM-without-reduction-packs!?highlight=ATM+active+texture+management

Setting Texture Resolution - http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/35296-Unofficial-PSA-A-short-term-fix-for-memory-outage-related-CTD-plages?highlight=half+res+texture+setting

Green Skull ATM DLLs - http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/59005-0-23-5-Release-3-1-Active-Texture-Management-Save-RAM-without-reduction-packs!?p=1196453&viewfull=1#post1196453 (NB! Written on a windows machine for a windows install)

Texture reduction packs:

Squad and B9 - http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/51361-0-23-Squad-Texture-Reduction-Pack-B9-and-KW-Packs-also

Just read through the instructions in the posts, and go do some rocket science!

And for those of you flexing your e-peens over the calibre of your hardware, and getting confused when your poor, abused, force-fed KSP install CTDs, please read below...

Windows and Mac users are limited to an x32 (32 bit) installation (unless you use the x64 'hack' by moving in the x64 unity engine files). x32 Applications are intrinsically limited in the amount of RAM they can used, regardless of how much/little you have in your machine. This limit is ~3.5-3.7 GB of RAM, which a heavily modded KSP install will devour with great relish. If you have LESS RAM than this then your machine can use 'virtual RAM' by placing these extra files on your HDD and moving files in and out of the RAM as neccesary.There is a trial build of x64 for Windows coming, and Linux users have been able to enjoy the lack of memory restriction an x64 install brings for a while now. Until then, Most of us who do not have the tech-savvy or google-literacy to start derping around in install files and pulling .exe files apart to move Unity Engine parts are going to be facing the x32 limit.

P.S. Stop bragging about how fast your CPU is, and no one cares how big your RAM is either.

P.P.S if you are still struggling to keep KSP up and running after checking that all of the above are correct, then it is probably:

1) A conflict between MODS

2) An incorrectly updated/installed MOD

3) Your install has been corrupted, re-install after saving your mods and saves.

[DeepOdyssey]

It's a shame there is no texture reduction pack for interstellar. Their reactors, or heat radiators cause a lag in VAB, and they are still highly detailed even with ATM.

And i didn't want to brag.

Edited June 24, 2014 by DeepOdyssey

[Crashy_McSplodey]

You shouldn't need the reduction packs if you are using ATM, as ATM automagically reduces ALL the textures in your game, to save memory. I only suggested them as a last resort if you were still having problems. ATM compresses all of the textures to a lower resolution as the game loads them, if it gets to the point where you need to use reduction packs as well it can occasionally cause conflicts with the normal maps of the models.

Sorry about the brag comment it's just that people who spuge on 'top gear' and get butthurt when a program dies tragically need to understand that if the program doesn't know how to use all of this shiney hardware you've emptied your pockets for, it all counts for nothing.