What are the 'Heaps' for in the debug menu?

[Daveroski]

As title.

[FancyMouse]

If you refer to stuff like memory heap/heap size, that's related to programming and not gameplay. I can expand if you want details.

[Daveroski]

If you refer to stuff like memory heap/heap size, that's related to programming and not gameplay. I can expand if you want details.

I'm just curious because I have checked the debug screen in each scene of a mission, from SPH to orbit and there are never any values in there. Always zero.

[FancyMouse]

In simple words, heap manages a portion of memory. A zero value just means the program doesn't use the heap memory from the heaps that are being reported. Not related to gameplay at all and those values are usually meaningful to nobody except devs.

[Daveroski]

It seems a curious thing that my top-end computer is struggling with <30 fps when I build a ship with more than 200 parts and these values remain zero.

While playing the game I can access these values. That makes them part of game-play.

It's in the same screen as the values which tells my why my frame-rate sucks, ruining my game-play experience.

They don't seem to be being used even when the frame-rate is struggling to get to 30 fps.

Makes me think along these lines... 'odd those figures never seem to change. Even when the game is struggling to keep a reasonable FPS - no change. That's odd. I'll ask about them in the forum. Maybe they should be changing and the devs might want to know; that on my system, they are not.'

[jaredkzr]

What are your specs? It's usually a cpu's single thread performance that is bottlenecking KSP. Memory is usually a non-issue unless you're heavily into modding on the 32-bit program.

Edit: Went and ran my own test with a 200 part ship. With my own pc (See sig for specs), I consistently achieved around 40fps and had a heap size of 0 MB. This shows that fps and heap size are not connected in any meaningful way. Performance issues will likely stem from another source, most likely that being the cpu.

Edited July 9, 2015 by jaredkzr

[Daveroski]

Those values are meaningless. You have proved nothing other than the values on your system are also at zero.

Mine was a large space-plane on it's way to orbit so I suspect that it isn't just the number of parts.

I have an I7 processor so it's unlikely a processor power problem. Witcher 3, Everything on full. No problem.

We KNOW KSP has problems. We KNOW it has memory leaks. Mine still crashes when 16 gigs are full.

It isn't even about my Low Frame Rate; as I said, we KNOW KSP has problems in that area.

I noticed it again when checking the performance values in the debug window and so I though I should bring it up. As I have already explained in my previous post.

I merely wanted to broach the subject of these values NEVER changing. Have you seen them change in ANY situation?

We didn't write this software. We don't know if these values are even still connected to anything. They could be surplus to requirements.

But if they are still connected and are supposed to change then maybe the devs should be aware.

Is my post, my reason for posting, the thought processes behind the posting clear enough now?