1.0 - Constant crashing on OS X

[Master Tao]

For those of you asking for SQUAD to address this issue, Maxmaps did so a few weeks ago:

From tonight's Squadcast:

People having stability issues with the Mac version of the game: we've actually found that it's an issue with Unity and Mac and we're pretty sure it gets solved in Unity 5 which is another one of those reasons why we're just burning hard to get it.

Also, I've merged in another thread on the same subject now that there's enough information to know it's the same issue.

[ZenithRising]

Does anyone have any idea how long it will take to port KSP over to Unity 5? Seems like that's (probably) the fix, and it looks like they've been working on porting it for about a month already(https://twitter.com/Maxmaps/status/598173907091226624), but has there been any info on how long the transition will take? Weeks? Months? Holiday 2016?

I'm glad it's still playable when I turn the graphics way down, but I am getting antsy to have Kerbal be pretty again.

[Wallygator]

I am very grateful that Maxmaps confirmed their attention to this overly-long lived OS X failure condition. I look forward to seeing a fix for this via U5 as he infers.

Till then, I will continue to resort to the lowest graphics settings (which make the game look like 1990's all over again - cough cough...) and also highly restrict my mod usage.

As a loyal customer, I will continue be patient. However, since Squad has already exited early access, I earnestly hope for a hot fix/release/patch to be presented ASAP which will address the issue. There are plenty of other games using unity that do not crash OSX. The current situation is truly shameful.

Best of luck and full admiration to Squad, however... Please fix this in the next release, or hire someone who can.

[Columbia]

From tonight's Squadcast:

Kindly excuse me for I may speak.. *ahem YAAAAAHHHHSSSS!

[Jouni]

Does anyone have any idea how long it will take to port KSP over to Unity 5? Seems like that's (probably) the fix, and it looks like they've been working on porting it for about a month already(https://twitter.com/Maxmaps/status/598173907091226624), but has there been any info on how long the transition will take? Weeks? Months? Holiday 2016?

My guess is September or October. Switching to Unity 5 is a major upgrade, changing the internal workings of many things in the game. Because KSP is no longer in early access, Squad can't just push a mostly working update before summer holidays, and fix the issues a few months later in the next patch. As late July is quite soon, 1.1 probably isn't ready before that. We'll just have to wait until the developers have returned from their holidays and have had some time to get work done.

[MaxPeck]

My guess is September or October. Switching to Unity 5 is a major upgrade, changing the internal workings of many things in the game. Because KSP is no longer in early access, Squad can't just push a mostly working update before summer holidays, and fix the issues a few months later in the next patch. As late July is quite soon, 1.1 probably isn't ready before that. We'll just have to wait until the developers have returned from their holidays and have had some time to get work done.

Wait... they "pushed" a game that's broken, gladly cashed our checks and then went on a much-needed vacation. 1/3 (or more) of their customer base is screaming that the product doesn't work as advertised, and the best we can hope for is a fix maybe in time for Halloween? So until then, we just get to have a broken release? Who cares about 1.0.3? What's the point of pushing out another update if it *doesn't fix the major issues in the game*? Isn't that kind of like putting new tires on a car with a broken transmission? If it takes a transition to U5 to make the game work (and there are boundless issues on all platforms from what I can see) then I think they need to make that a top priority. It seems to me that "push a mostly working update, and fix the issues a few months later" has already happened with 1.0.X

It would be one thing if it were a minor bug and people were just being nitpicky, but having to reload the game every few minutes because it melts down due to known defects shouldn't be acceptable under any circumstances. I would like to see some acknowledgement in the devnotes, some kind of proactive steps that make me, as a paying customer, feel like this product is worth my money.

And for what it's worth, I bought it because it's a helluva lot of fun when it works. I've recommended it to my colleagues, and for the record, I'm a college aviation professor who has given serious thought to ways to use the EDU version of the game. But not like this, I'm embarrassed enough to have recommended that my friends and colleagues buy what amounts to a broken game, I'm not about to bring this into my classroom until it's fixed.

Edited June 9, 2015 by JJE64

[Kersplattle]

I have to say that I *HAVE* had issues, but am not for now. It may help that I have 16 GB RAM and the GTX780M GPU on a 27" iMac. I fixed most of my issues with removing stray kext files, the problems were mostly fan spin ups with 400% processor utilisation rather than out of memory and KSP crashes.

Then again, if it *IS* a Unity 4 bug then it cannot easily be solved in KSP and likely enough the Unity developers are not focussed on v4 now. I'm prepared to be patient for U5, at least for now. Thanks for the attention on this thread from Salvager and others.

[Jouni]

Wait... they "pushed" a game that's broken, gladly cashed our checks and then went on a much-needed vacation. 1/3 (or more) of their customer base is screaming that the product doesn't work as advertised, and the best we can hope for is a fix maybe in time for Halloween? So until then, we just get to have a broken release?

In general, it's better to break the game completely for a small minority than to make it noticeably worse for the majority. Mac users are probably something like 10-15% of the customer base, and the game isn't broken for all of them. For me, 0.90 was the broken release, while 1.0 has been very stable.

[MaxPeck]

I think I found a combination that makes the game more playable, although not perfect. I added Active Texture Management, the aggressive version. Then, for those of us with Retina machines, go to your KSP folder and right click on the KSP icon. Check the box that says "Open in Low Resolution". The game seems to crash less in-scene, although it still tanks when changing scenes. Memory usage is WAY down, and the whole game just feels much more responsive. I was able to play for a solid hour today, and only had to reload when doing scene changes (orbit to space center, VAB reverts and such).

Hope that helps out someone...

[ZenithRising]

I have to say that I *HAVE* had issues, but am not for now. It may help that I have 16 GB RAM and the GTX780M GPU on a 27" iMac. I fixed most of my issues with removing stray kext files, the problems were mostly fan spin ups with 400% processor utilisation rather than out of memory and KSP crashes.

I'm running an identical iMac, and it crashes for me the same as everyone else.

[brianhanifin]

Where is the "Open in Low Resolution" option? Is this a feature in STEAM? I ask because I have the GOG version. I can't find this option in Finder.

[Master Tao]

Where is the "Open in Low Resolution" option? Is this a feature in STEAM? I ask because I have the GOG version. I can't find this option in Finder.

I think JJE64 may have skipped a step, but I don't have a Retina display, so I can't check for myself.

1. Go to your KSP folder
   
2. Right-click/ctrl-click on the KSP app
   
3. Get Info
   
4. Check the box for "Open in Low Resolution"
   

I've also created three polls to test a few hypotheses:

Please vote in each poll regardless of whether you experience these issues:

Poll 1

Poll 2

Poll 3

[tater]

The drive on my i7 27" iMac (11,3) has SMART showing it as failing, so my project this weekend is to throw the 1TB SSD I just bought in where the old HD was. I've been running 10.7 since I have hated most all the recent updates to mac os (I hated 10.7, too, frankly).

My attempt to dupe my HD failed a couple times, so I am likely to do a clean OS install on the new drive, which means Yosemite, unfortunately, as "Photos" looks to be yet another attempt by Apple to change UIs because updates have to change every single aspect of every UI, "because reasons," right?

Sigh.

If it kills KSP for me I won't be happy. My current plan is to build the SSD volume in an external drive case, test it, then pop the hood and install the drive if all is well.

[Moulinette]

Hello. I m Having the same problems here. Crash every 10 minutes specially When switching facilities. Yosemite 16g ram, gtx 960. I havé 2 mods KSP FR And ALARM CLOCK

please Help me

[MaxPeck]

I did skip a step. After right clicking on KSP, you have to choose the "show info" option. The low res option is in there.

The game has become much more playable, albeit some of the flags and such got borked by ATM. Still crashes pretty consistently during scene changes... Although that's not totally accurate. It doesn't crash per se, it hangs. I let it hang for a while yesterday and it never unhung, and activity manager showed a steadily increasing number of errors. I was closely monitoring the app's memory usage and it was under 3gb, so I don't think it was a malloc issue, it looked like a bad call inside the program. Like it was trying to call a non-existent memory address, and then hung because nothing was returned.

[tater]

I've been messing around a little at night with KSP since I downgraded to Yosemite (don't even get me started on the train-wreck that is the new "Photos" app---but I'm open to 3d party suggestions, how's Lightroom?). At least for KSP it seems pretty good so far.

Just played a modded career, went 45 minutes then actually crashed (not a lockup).

Edited June 19, 2015 by tater

[MaxPeck]

You know what? I'm actually starting to enjoy the game for what it is. I've added some mods, tweaked the graphics settings, added ATM. I can play for anywhere from 20 minutes to several hours depending on what I'm working on. I've actually worked the crashes into my gameplay... they're like little intermissions so I can use the latrine and grab a sandwich, or do a reality check as to how long I've been playing.

I complain a lot about the fact that the game is crashtastic, but at the end of the day, it's still the most fun game I've ever played. I think that's why the crashes are so frustrating, I get so engrossed, it's like literally being slapped awake from a deep sleep.

Ah well, back to my munbase.

[ZenithRising]

Turned graphics settings back up to test 1.0.3. Crashed within five minutes.

Also, there is a new glitch, which I will detail elsewhere.

[mopro]

Although 1.0.2 was unplayable past 15 minutes (freezing or crashing) I was at least able to pay for, well, 15 minutes.

First load of a clean install of this new version (1.0.4) led to a crashing seconds after loading the initial scene. On second loading the game did not crash however my mouse cursor was invisible. I could get input from the mouse (hover state changes, on click changes etc) however it was invisible. So far I have been unable to play the new version of the game without something prohibiting play completely and absolutely.

I am going to try and throw in some RAM saving mods and see what happens. Although I shouldn't have to install third party mods and start the game in low-resolution for it to work (this isn't a Beta, after-all) I'll see if I can at least put my $40 to use.

Steps to create error

Downloaded and installed 1.0.4 from the KSP website.

Unzipped and extracted KSP_osx folder to [Applications] (clean install)

Allowed for opening of un-auth developer in Security and Privacy prefPane.

Opened App and changed to full-screen mode.

Started new Sandbox mode entitled "1_0_4"

After a few seconds on load of Space Center, app fully and abruptly crashed.

Upon reopening the game and loading the previously crashed save, I was able to enter the VAB without crashing however my mouse cursor disappeared. I had to CMD+Q quit the app as I was unable to navigate the GUI.

System Specs

OS 10.10.3

Model Name: MacBook ProModel Identifier: MacBookPro10,1

Processor Name: Intel Core i7

Processor Speed: 2.6 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 4

L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

L3 Cache: 6 MB

Memory: 16 GB

Boot ROM Version: MBP101.00EE.B07

SMC Version (system): 2.3f36

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M

Type: GPU

Bus: PCIe

PCIe Lane Width: x8

RAM (Total): 1024 MB

Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)

Device ID: 0x0fd5

Revision ID: 0x00a2

ROM Revision: 3688

gMux Version: 3.2.19 [3.2.8]

Apple crash log from first crash:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qjgwabpxdnr50py/1-0-4_FirstLaunch.txt?dl=0

Log from second load/mouse cursor disappearance:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/phvtoag7murlsxm/KSP.log?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8fu5sbpi13nqm9q/Player.log?dl=0

Edited June 24, 2015 by mopro

[JaredTheDragon]

I've had a crash now in 1.04 and some wonky landing gear behavior so far, but not the issues you're seeing. Bulldozer@5GHz with a GTX-660 here, though, for reference.

Given the GT 650M graphics card, have you tried the "-force-d3d11" upon launching? This chops RAM usage in half in 32-bit KSP, generally. Even with 1.04/1.03 (tested it on both).

[mopro]

I'm on a Mac so don't use DirectX (I don't dual boot) :/

[Wobblier]

Hi.

I seem to be in the same boat. I use steam though, I've verified the files through the steam app and did the file permission thing the steam forum sticky recommends. The game keeps crashing, mostly when I switch spacecraft or going when going/leaving the hangar.

Please help!!

[cwalrus]

... with this game? It's one of the best game I've ever played in my 40+ years of life, and also the crashiest. I'm so used to it now, I just quicksave any time I change scenes, because there's at least a 50% chance I'll get the spinning ball of death.

Unmodded install on sweet iMac, 16gs ram, os 10.9.5

Steam version - 1.0.3 I believe? Hard to tell, but it's set to auto-Update.

Everyone on a mac has this problem, correct?

[Master Tao]

Not everyone experiences this instability. For those who do, there are some workarounds described in the thread that these posts now occupy. They're also covered in The Mac OS X Thread.

[Tom7896]

Thank you for the workarounds, Master Tao. However, are the KSP team planning on eliminating these particular stability issues for OSX in the forseeable future?