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Less memory usage by using OpenGL


Eisfunke

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I'm using about 110 mods with OpenGL and have not encountered problems with any of them (though I haven't put all of them through their full paces, e.g. MKS/OKS or the career-based mods).

Assembly-CSharp v1.0.0.0

ModuleManager.2.5.1 v2.5.1.0

aaa_Toolbar v1.0.0.0

DynamicTanks v1.0.0.0

USITools v1.0.0.0

USI_Converter v1.0.0.0

ActiveTextureManagement v1.0.0.0

AlignedCurrencyIndicator v1.2.0.0

ASETPropsIdentifier v0.0.0.1

AviationLights v0.0.0.0

BDAnimationModules v0.0.0.0

Chatterer v0.7.1.86

MiniAVC v1.0.2.4

CITUtil v1.0.0.0

KERT v1.0.0.0

CLSInterfaces v1.0.0.0

ConnectedLivingSpace v1.0.11.0

ContractsWindow v1.0.2.2

CrossFeedEnabler v0.3.5393.40022

CustomAsteroids v1.1.0.0

CustomBiomes v1.0.0.0

DeadlyReentry v6.1.5401.38651

DistantObject v0.0.0.0

DMagic v0.8.6.1

EditorExtensions v1.4.5396.32603

EnhancedNavBall v1.3.3.0

RealRoster v1.0.0.0

CityLights v1.0.0.0

Clouds v1.0.0.0

Geometry v1.0.0.0

OverlayMgr v1.0.0.0

Terrain v1.0.0.0

KSPAPIExtensions v1.7.1.2

Launchpad v4.4.0.0

FerramAerospaceResearch v0.14.3.1

ferramGraph v1.3.0.0

FinePrint v0.59.0.0

Firespitter v7.0.5398.27328

FMRS v0.3.0.0

Fusebox v0.0.0.0

HaystackContinued v0.3.2.0

HlTest v1.0.0.0

HullCamera v0.3.0.0

MechJeb2 v2.3.0.0

RasterPropMonitor v0.17.0.0

MechJebRPM v0.17.0.0

KAS v1.0.5394.34415

KerbalEngineer v1.0.11.3

KerbalJointReinforcement v2.4.4.0

KerbalStats v1.0.0.0

KSP-AVC v1.1.5.0

KSPLua v1.0.0.0

NLua v1.3.1.0

InfernalRobotics v0.19.0.0

Scale_Redist v1.0.0.0

MechJebFARExt v1.0.0.0

MissionControllerEC v1.8.2.0

modularFuelTanks v5.2.3.0

ModuleRCSFX v0.3.5354.4271

NavBallDockingAlignmentIndicator v0.0.0.0

DockingPortAlignment v1.0.0.0

ModuleDockingNodeNamed v1.0.0.0

NBody v1.0.0.0

NearFutureSolar v1.0.0.0

FinalFrontier v1.0.0.0

NRAP v1.5.5327.41937

ORSX v1.0.0.0

DeepFreeze v1.0.0.0

PartAngleDisplay v0.2.4.1

PartCatalog v3.0.0.0

PlanetShine v1.0.5406.35751

PreciseNode v1.0.0.0

ProbeControlRoom v1.0.5151.15088

ProbeControlRoomToolbar v1.0.5151.15118

pWings v0.9.1.0

ProceduralFairings v0.0.0.0

ProceduralParts v0.9.19.0

RCSBuildAid v0.5.2.15701

RCSBuildAidToolbar v0.5.2.15702

RcsSounds v4.2.0.0

ResearchThemAll v1.2.0.0

ResourceOverview v1.0.1.1

RoverScience v1.0.5207.28594

SaneStrategies v1.0.0.0

SCANsat v1.0.8.0

SelectRoot v0.0.0.0

ShipManifest v0.3.3.1

StationScience v1.0.0.0

AnchoredDecouplerFix v1.0.0.0

ChuteQuickloadFixer v1.0.0.0

StripSymmetry v1.4.0.0

TacFuelBalancer v2.4.1.0

TechManager v1.3.0.0

TextureReplacer v1.9.2.32128

TacLifeSupport v0.10.1.0

TimeControl v13.2.0.0

ToadicusTools v0.0.0.0

Trajectories v0.4.1.0

KerbalAlarmClock v3.0.4.0

KSPAlternateResourcePanel v2.6.1.0

TransferWindowPlanner v1.1.2.0

TweakableAnimateGeneric v1.5.5405.25485

TweakableDecouplers v1.5.5405.25482

TweakableDockingNode v1.5.5405.25482

TweakableEngineFairings v1.5.5405.25485

TweakableEVA v1.4.5405.25486

TweakableGimbals v1.5.5405.25484

TweakableIntakes v1.5.5405.25487

TweakableRCS v1.5.5405.25484

TweakableReactionWheels v1.5.5405.25483

TweakableSolarPanels v1.5.5405.25483

TweakableStaging v1.5.5405.25481

Scale v1.44.0.0

TweakScale_ModularFuelTanks v0.0.0.0

Karbonite v1.0.0.0

KarbPlus v1.0.0.0

KolonyTools v0.16.0.0

AirbagTools v1.0.0.0

Lifeboat v0.1.2.0

AdvancedAnimator v1.0.5205.2310

VesselView v1.0.0.0

VesselViewPlugin v1.0.0.0

VesselViewRPM v1.0.0.0

VVDiscoDisplay v1.0.0.0

VVPartSelector v1.0.0.0

FrementGUILib v1.0.0.0

VanguardTechnologies v0.7.5112.36481

WernherChecker v0.3.1.0

WheelSounds v0.4.0.0

WildBlueTools v1.0.0.0

MCMUtils v1.0.0.0

bounce v1.0.0.0

[x] Science! v4.0.5409.41876

Non-DLL mods added:

ART

FuelWings

TweakableEverything

AES

FTT

HERP

KarbonitePlus

MKS

OKS

PackRat

SrvPack

Mods by directory (sub directories of GameData):

000_Toolbar

000_USITools

ASET

BahaSP

BoulderCo

CargoTransferBags

CIT

CoherentContracts

CommunityResourcePack

DMagic Orbital Science

Enneract

EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements

ExtraplanetaryLaunchpads

HooliganLabs

HullCameraVDS

JSI

KASA

KashCorp

MagicSmokeIndustries

MunSeeker

NASAmission

NavyFish

NearFutureConstruction

NearFutureProps

Nereid

NothkeSerCom

PaladinLabs

ProceduralDynamics

RadialEngineMountsPPI

RLA_Stockalike

SeriousBusiness

Squad

StarwasterSciencePatches

StationPartsExpansion

StockBugFixModules

Strategem

SurfaceLights

ThunderAerospace

TriggerTech

TweakScale

UmbraSpaceIndustries

UniversalStorage

VNG

WildBlueIndustries

WombatConversions

WorldCup2014

ZZZ_Flags

I have not used RealChutes or Kethane in OpenGL. (There are probably thousands of mods that I haven't used with OpenGL, but those two are quite popular, which is why I'm mentioning them.)

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I changed computers recently.

On my old AMD X2 240 CPU, with 3 GB RAM Win7 x86 and GT210 GPU, OpenGL did save a lot of RAM.

On my new FM2 CPU with integrated 7480D GPU in CPU, absolutely nothing changes in RAM usage when I swap to OpenGL

Just to inform folks ;)

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The issue with Linux though is the drivers for graphics cards, which are not always as efficient as the Windows variants.
To expand, if you have an nVidia card you're good, the proprietary nVidia drivers offer equal performance on Linux and Windows. Though I don't think this considers benefits of DirectX vs OpenGL. If you have an AMD card you're less good, their proprietary Linux drivers really underperform, though for KSP unless it's a weak card you'll probably be OK.

(The situation is different when considering the Free Software drivers, but for both AMD and nVidia they perform worse than the proprietary ones, and if you're playing KSP you're not a Free Software purist.)

There are Linux performance tuning tips in a couple of threads in the support forum, though I don't know how much impact they make.

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Here works very well. Don't notice problems with framerate and memory reduced a lot. AMD Atlhon X3 with GeForce 210, 8GB RAM and Windows 8.1

As covered previously, its not the actually frame rate that is affected (until you start launching larger ships), its the simulation rate. That gets slowed, and puts more strain on the CPU, which in turn reduces the amount of parts you can have on a ship until the frame rate starts to become affected.

I'm using about 110 mods with OpenGL and have not encountered problems with any of them (though I haven't put all of them through their full paces, e.g. MKS/OKS or the career-based mods).

Assembly-CSharp v1.0.0.0

ModuleManager.2.5.1 v2.5.1.0

aaa_Toolbar v1.0.0.0

DynamicTanks v1.0.0.0

USITools v1.0.0.0

USI_Converter v1.0.0.0

ActiveTextureManagement v1.0.0.0

AlignedCurrencyIndicator v1.2.0.0

ASETPropsIdentifier v0.0.0.1

AviationLights v0.0.0.0

BDAnimationModules v0.0.0.0

Chatterer v0.7.1.86

MiniAVC v1.0.2.4

CITUtil v1.0.0.0

KERT v1.0.0.0

CLSInterfaces v1.0.0.0

ConnectedLivingSpace v1.0.11.0

ContractsWindow v1.0.2.2

CrossFeedEnabler v0.3.5393.40022

CustomAsteroids v1.1.0.0

CustomBiomes v1.0.0.0

DeadlyReentry v6.1.5401.38651

DistantObject v0.0.0.0

DMagic v0.8.6.1

EditorExtensions v1.4.5396.32603

EnhancedNavBall v1.3.3.0

RealRoster v1.0.0.0

CityLights v1.0.0.0

Clouds v1.0.0.0

Geometry v1.0.0.0

OverlayMgr v1.0.0.0

Terrain v1.0.0.0

KSPAPIExtensions v1.7.1.2

Launchpad v4.4.0.0

FerramAerospaceResearch v0.14.3.1

ferramGraph v1.3.0.0

FinePrint v0.59.0.0

Firespitter v7.0.5398.27328

FMRS v0.3.0.0

Fusebox v0.0.0.0

HaystackContinued v0.3.2.0

HlTest v1.0.0.0

HullCamera v0.3.0.0

MechJeb2 v2.3.0.0

RasterPropMonitor v0.17.0.0

MechJebRPM v0.17.0.0

KAS v1.0.5394.34415

KerbalEngineer v1.0.11.3

KerbalJointReinforcement v2.4.4.0

KerbalStats v1.0.0.0

KSP-AVC v1.1.5.0

KSPLua v1.0.0.0

NLua v1.3.1.0

InfernalRobotics v0.19.0.0

Scale_Redist v1.0.0.0

MechJebFARExt v1.0.0.0

MissionControllerEC v1.8.2.0

modularFuelTanks v5.2.3.0

ModuleRCSFX v0.3.5354.4271

NavBallDockingAlignmentIndicator v0.0.0.0

DockingPortAlignment v1.0.0.0

ModuleDockingNodeNamed v1.0.0.0

NBody v1.0.0.0

NearFutureSolar v1.0.0.0

FinalFrontier v1.0.0.0

NRAP v1.5.5327.41937

ORSX v1.0.0.0

DeepFreeze v1.0.0.0

PartAngleDisplay v0.2.4.1

PartCatalog v3.0.0.0

PlanetShine v1.0.5406.35751

PreciseNode v1.0.0.0

ProbeControlRoom v1.0.5151.15088

ProbeControlRoomToolbar v1.0.5151.15118

pWings v0.9.1.0

ProceduralFairings v0.0.0.0

ProceduralParts v0.9.19.0

RCSBuildAid v0.5.2.15701

RCSBuildAidToolbar v0.5.2.15702

RcsSounds v4.2.0.0

ResearchThemAll v1.2.0.0

ResourceOverview v1.0.1.1

RoverScience v1.0.5207.28594

SaneStrategies v1.0.0.0

SCANsat v1.0.8.0

SelectRoot v0.0.0.0

ShipManifest v0.3.3.1

StationScience v1.0.0.0

AnchoredDecouplerFix v1.0.0.0

ChuteQuickloadFixer v1.0.0.0

StripSymmetry v1.4.0.0

TacFuelBalancer v2.4.1.0

TechManager v1.3.0.0

TextureReplacer v1.9.2.32128

TacLifeSupport v0.10.1.0

TimeControl v13.2.0.0

ToadicusTools v0.0.0.0

Trajectories v0.4.1.0

KerbalAlarmClock v3.0.4.0

KSPAlternateResourcePanel v2.6.1.0

TransferWindowPlanner v1.1.2.0

TweakableAnimateGeneric v1.5.5405.25485

TweakableDecouplers v1.5.5405.25482

TweakableDockingNode v1.5.5405.25482

TweakableEngineFairings v1.5.5405.25485

TweakableEVA v1.4.5405.25486

TweakableGimbals v1.5.5405.25484

TweakableIntakes v1.5.5405.25487

TweakableRCS v1.5.5405.25484

TweakableReactionWheels v1.5.5405.25483

TweakableSolarPanels v1.5.5405.25483

TweakableStaging v1.5.5405.25481

Scale v1.44.0.0

TweakScale_ModularFuelTanks v0.0.0.0

Karbonite v1.0.0.0

KarbPlus v1.0.0.0

KolonyTools v0.16.0.0

AirbagTools v1.0.0.0

Lifeboat v0.1.2.0

AdvancedAnimator v1.0.5205.2310

VesselView v1.0.0.0

VesselViewPlugin v1.0.0.0

VesselViewRPM v1.0.0.0

VVDiscoDisplay v1.0.0.0

VVPartSelector v1.0.0.0

FrementGUILib v1.0.0.0

VanguardTechnologies v0.7.5112.36481

WernherChecker v0.3.1.0

WheelSounds v0.4.0.0

WildBlueTools v1.0.0.0

MCMUtils v1.0.0.0

bounce v1.0.0.0

[x] Science! v4.0.5409.41876

Non-DLL mods added:

ART

FuelWings

TweakableEverything

AES

FTT

HERP

KarbonitePlus

MKS

OKS

PackRat

SrvPack

Mods by directory (sub directories of GameData):

000_Toolbar

000_USITools

ASET

BahaSP

BoulderCo

CargoTransferBags

CIT

CoherentContracts

CommunityResourcePack

DMagic Orbital Science

Enneract

EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements

ExtraplanetaryLaunchpads

HooliganLabs

HullCameraVDS

JSI

KASA

KashCorp

MagicSmokeIndustries

MunSeeker

NASAmission

NavyFish

NearFutureConstruction

NearFutureProps

Nereid

NothkeSerCom

PaladinLabs

ProceduralDynamics

RadialEngineMountsPPI

RLA_Stockalike

SeriousBusiness

Squad

StarwasterSciencePatches

StationPartsExpansion

StockBugFixModules

Strategem

SurfaceLights

ThunderAerospace

TriggerTech

TweakScale

UmbraSpaceIndustries

UniversalStorage

VNG

WildBlueIndustries

WombatConversions

WorldCup2014

ZZZ_Flags

I have not used RealChutes or Kethane in OpenGL. (There are probably thousands of mods that I haven't used with OpenGL, but those two are quite popular, which is why I'm mentioning them.)

Holy crap that's a lot of mods. I was going to look at more of a performance side of things with the mods, launching a ship with the same amount of parts to see which and how each mod affects performance. So it will probably take a while to get all that benchmarked xD it'd be good to get a group of people to cumulatively do this, and then formulate all results in a big benchmark excel sheet. The main problem with having lots of different people do it is different specs of machines, so idk how it'd go with that difference.

I changed computers recently.

On my old AMD X2 240 CPU, with 3 GB RAM Win7 x86 and GT210 GPU, OpenGL did save a lot of RAM.

On my new FM2 CPU with integrated 7480D GPU in CPU, absolutely nothing changes in RAM usage when I swap to OpenGL

Just to inform folks ;)

Hmm, that's interesting. Maybe something to do with the different CPU architectures? Maybe the newer FM2 has a different architecture that doesn't process OpenGL to help reduce RAM as much...?

Edited by ToTheMun
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I use a ton of mods. Game Data folder is 1.88 gb, and using KSPRC too. Went from 3.2 GB RAM use (physical), to <2 gb with forcing the OpenGlide. Checked it on max settings...sliders all the way to the max in graphics settings. Does seem to be a little lower as far as the fps, and I do actually notice it....but not unplayable. I play on an integrated chipset. Still playing with it though. May not keep it that way.

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I use a ton of mods. Game Data folder is 1.88 gb, and using KSPRC too. Went from 3.2 GB RAM use (physical), to <2 gb with forcing the OpenGlide. Checked it on max settings...sliders all the way to the max in graphics settings. Does seem to be a little lower as far as the fps, and I do actually notice it....but not unplayable. I play on an integrated chipset. Still playing with it though. May not keep it that way.
Same here, about the memory savings.

Went from 3.2-3.3 to around 1.8-1.9. :)

Hey guys, would you be able to post your system specs, mainly your CPU and RAM. I would be interested to see if different CPUs made a different effect.

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Hey guys, would you be able to post your system specs, mainly your CPU and RAM. I would be interested to see if different CPUs made a different effect.

Mine is an off the shelf system, out of the box... HP Pavilion 500-214

AMD A-6500 APU 3.50GHz

8 GB RAM DDR3

AMD Radeon HD 8570 Graphics....(I believe it's integrated chipset)

2 TB Hard drive

Windows 8.1 64x

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Mine is an off the shelf system, out of the box... HP Pavilion 500-214

AMD A-6500 APU 3.50GHz

8 GB RAM DDR3

AMD Radeon HD 8570 Graphics....(I believe it's integrated chipset)

2 TB Hard drive

Windows 8.1 64x

So many people use AMD xD So far it seems AMD fairs better at providing better memory savings... I can't confirm that until some Intel CPUs are tested with OpenGL though.

The main effect is not the FPS though - it's the simulation speeds which get increased as more of the CPU is in use with the OpenGL rendering to compress textures further, etc, etc. Hence why the simulation speed is increased as it takes longer for KSP to do it's phys calcs as it does not have the whole single thread of the CPU to do its calcs. If that makes sense :P At the moment I'm thinking about making two different ships, and also a ship with some mods and upload the crafts here and get people to do some benchmarking while they are flying said crafts.

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I don't know precisely what memory savings I'm getting with my full set of mods, but I've got a 1.88 GB GameData folder that runs in 2.4 GB of RAM with OpenGL, and crashes during loading without. It does seem to be a bit slower than it was under Direct3D in general, especially with high-ish part counts (~140) and looking down at Kerbin from low orbit (I use several environmental enhancement mods, e.g. EVE with Astronomer's Pack, TextureReplacer, and Distant Object Enhancer).

Taking out the really parts-heavy mods that I'm not using at the moment (e.g. MKS/OKS), my GameData folder weighs in at 1.34 GB and runs in 3.0 GB of RAM with Direct3D 9 or 11 (and is also a bit slow when focused on the Apollo-style stack with lots of parts, but maybe by 10% compared to 30-50% or so with OpenGL) and 1.9 GB with OpenGL.

My system (a stock Toshiba Qosmio X70) has an Intel Core i7-4700MQ, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 770M (3 GB of graphics RAM), and 16 GB of RAM (not that x86 KSP makes much use of all of it, but it's nice to have memory to spare for other programs, and using OpenGL with the -popupwindow option lets it keep running when I'm focused on a different window).

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Does anyone have any advice on how I would find out if my AMD HD Radeon 4800 (x3 on CrossFire) cards support OpenGL mode?

They do. I had 4870s.

If you'd like to check yourself I believe if you go into the Control center and click on software it will list an opengl driver.

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Intresting. I'm afraid you were right about the cutting processing in half under OpenGl. Although OpenGl initialy didn't Lag my game, when I started lauching bigger rockets I ran into serious Lag. I was only able to play with dynamic speed set to half. The Slowdown on speed is very frustrating, to the point that I seriously thinking about returning back to Direct3D (windows 7). That means I have to make sacrifices to my mod list I'm afraid :(

I had the same problem , looks like OpenGL uses cpu much more.

However , setting max frames per sec to default and disabling vert sync helped a lot for me. UPD: Also in nvidia control panel I set "max pre-rendered frames" to 1

Also tryed putting ksp on a separate cpu core where is nothing else.

But theese are not complete solutions , game still goes to "yellow time" slowdown with any rocket bigger than 400 parts (or 2-3 docked crafts in space)

Waiting for unity multicore physics =)

Edited by DartBoris
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@DartBoris im surprised its only starting to slow down at 400 parts. For OpenGL, it's usually lower than that (250-350), but the part difference isn't that much XP

That is about when it slows down for me, 250-350.

But I am also running quite a few mods, including Kerbinside which REALLY slows down the frame rates with large vessels.

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GameDATA folder is 2.64gb with about 50 common mods. KSP 32 bit crashes on start up if OpenGL isnt being used, but with it enabled, I'm running about 2.9-3.0gb with a crash here and there. I know it's mod dependent but I'm seeing alot of people saying they are using around 2gb with OpenGL. I've put "-force-opengl" in the start up options on Steam and open KSP through Steam. I also disabled VSYNC and set frame rate to default. So am I doing it right?

I7 4770k

GTX 760 FTW 4gb x2

16gb RAM

Windows 7

Edited by sock307
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Sock307, I was running at 2.5 GB with a 1.9 GB GameData folder, so your memory usage sounds about right. For further memory savings, you can get DDSLoader and "DDS4KSP", a program for converting textures to DDS format. Shrank my my memory usage by half a gig, reduced the load time by what feels like an order of magnitude, and even made it so that I could load it up with DirectX (though it was using 3.5 GB at the main menu, so I didn't try actually playing).

Edited by Kerbas_ad_astra
Clarified who I'm talking to.
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Sock307, I was running at 2.5 GB with a 1.9 GB GameData folder, so your memory usage sounds about right. For further memory savings, you can get DDSLoader and "DDS4KSP", a program for converting textures to DDS format. Shrank my my memory usage by half a gig, reduced the load time by what feels like an order of magnitude, and even made it so that I could load it up with DirectX (though it was using 3.5 GB at the main menu, so I didn't try actually playing).

Awesome! Thank you very much!

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Can someone shed some light on my issue?

I'm attempting to run a very lightly modded version of KSP x86 for Windows7 from Steam. I've created two shortcuts on my desktop pointing to ksp.exe in the correct folder, one running straight up and the other running opengl. Running with the following in the Target field:

"D:\[Appropriate folder tree]\Kerbal Space Program\KSP.exe" -force-opengl

Have I used the correct syntax? Because this install runs silky smooth from the standard shortcut, but upon attempting to load it with opengl, it shows as unresponsive, and the screen blinks out repeatedly until I manually end the process.

Any help would be appreciated!

Edit: Please be advised that I have updated my video drivers and have manually verified that they support OpenGL 3.3.something.

Edit 2: I have continued experimenting. How do I verify, once the game starts, if I'm in OpenGL mode or ... [whatever the default mode would be]? (Is the default mode DirectX?) I have cloned a couple of clean installs from Steam on my hard drive for experimentation purposes. I think that the problem stems somehow from going into the game first in default mode, applying my graphics changes (fullscreen, 1920x1200, and applying full groundscatter) and closing out before attempting OpenGL mode for the first time, since doing it the other way around seems to avoid the hanging issue I see. At the same time, successfully running in OpenGL mode seems to add ~200kb to my memory footprint on a modless start over default.

Edited by MisterFister
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