Question: How much memory *can* you save by deleting redundant parts?

[KristopherKerblumbus]

Since the size of my GameData folder is over 1 GB (1.20), I'm quite near the limits of KSP performance on 32-bit Windows. My framerate isn't particularly laggy, but I'm hitting 2GB of RAM usage with OpenGL and popupwindow enabled. So, therefore, my question is if I prune redundant parts (such as stock fuel tanks since I'm rocking Procedural Parts and KW Rocketry) or heck, even some of the KW tanks since I've got Ven's Stock Revamp, making things look very nice, how much memory/performance savings can I look at? Is it just gonna be a couple of MB and maybe 1-2 FPS? Or, if I hit the right parts, can I get big jumps? Thanks.

[StarStreak2109]

I think, the stock fuel tanks would only provide marginal savings. You'll get better "texture economy" when only selectively installing parts from the "heavier" mod packs - which granted is something I haven't done yet, since my current install runs pretty stable as it is.

[KristopherKerblumbus]

Thanks. It's stable, it's just slow. I'm more looking for performance improvements over memory savings. And yes, I'm running ATM, using OpenGL mode (which I know kills my FPS) and have turned my settings down basically to the bare minimum (half-res textures rather than eighth-res).

[StarStreak2109]

Hey there, the only other thing I can think of is converting all textures to DDS that are not yet converted using the tool found under the following URL: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/98672-WIN-KSP-to-DDS-texture-converter

[Wolf Baginski]

I concur about texture-converter

What does seem to cause lag have been some mods that have acquired complex IVAs. There's a mod-pack, still not formally updated, that acquired some very complex IVAs and frame-rate plummeted. I don't use IVAs very much, sometimes all they seem to do is give you a view of four Kerbals in a compartment. I know it wasn't the transparent windows, but those IVAs had some very big textures and other flaws I learned to recognise in other CGI environments. The acid-test: removing the IVAs boosted the frame rate.

Lest critical, but it can still add up, are things like open-lattice girders. I found one using about six times as much mesh as a cylindrical crew tube of similar size. I don't know enough of the fine detail of how KSP does rendering, but that sort of structure can also need more processing than the polygon count would imply. That's likely buried in the Unity code.

In both cases, it's worth checking your graphics drivers are up-to-date, but I have reason to think CPU and RAM make a difference too. KSP is compiled to take advantage of Windows-64-bit, even though it's not a 64-bit program. I changed from 32-bit Windows long before I heard of KSP. Even in only 4GB of RAM it makes a difference. And when you have 8GB or RAM the OS doesn't compete for RAM space with KSP. Paging to virtual memory is bad.

Windows 10 and DX12 have shown some surprising results in early testing of new games. It doesn't apply to KSP, yet, but it looks as though nVidia hardware will lose its advantage. It won't necessarily be suddenly worse in absolute terms, but it's rather like the change to multiple cores and multiple threads.

I've no doubt that some people will disagree with me, but these are things that paid off for me.

[nightingale]

ATM will convert stuff to DDS on first load, and it is smart about what it converts (there are some things like agency logos that will cause major troubles if converted to DDS). So I'd recommend ATM (which the OP is already using anyway) over the manual DDS converter any day.

[Mighty1]

I use procedural tanks and have deleted all the stock ones and some other things and I can say that the mem increase was noticable. I was able to install some 2-3 other mods before KSP started crashing again

[StarStreak2109]

ATM will convert stuff to DDS on first load, and it is smart about what it converts (there are some things like agency logos that will cause major troubles if converted to DDS). So I'd recommend ATM (which the OP is already using anyway) over the manual DDS converter any day.

I use both ATM as well as DDSConverter. In my GameData folder, I have installed the following mods (all in all in excess of 15,000 patches). Since I use procedural parts, I have deleted most other fuel tanks and I am in the process of deleting other parts, I do not use (e.g. all stock engines, which have a KW counterpart).

Active Texture Management - X86 - Basic (ActiveTextureManagement-x86-Basic 5-0)

AIES Aerospace (AIESAerospace-Unofficial 1.6.0)

Alternate Resource Panel (AlternateResourcePanel 2.7.3.0)

Animate Emissive Module (ModuleAnimateEmissive v1.10)

Animated Decouplers (AnimatedDecouplers-x86 1.1.4)

ASET Props (ASETProps 1.3)

Asteroid Day (AsteroidDay 1.0)

Atmospheric Sound Enhancement (AtmosphericSoundEnhancement 2.2)

BahamutoD Animation Modules (BDAnimationModules v0.6.2)

blackheart612's KW Procedural Fairings Textures (ProceduralFairings-Textures-TJCCA 0)

blackheart612's Procedural Part Textures (ProceduralParts-Textures-SCCKSCS 0)

Community Resource Pack (CommunityResourcePack 0.4.4)

Community Tech Tree (CommunityTechTree 2.1)

Crew Manifest (CrewManifest 0.6.0)

Crossfeed Enabler (CrossFeedEnabler v3.3)

Crowd Sourced Science (CrowdSourcedScience v3.0)

Deadly Reentry Continued (DeadlyReentry v7.2.2)

Distant Object Enhancement (DistantObject v1.6.1)

Distant Object Enhancement default config (DistantObject-default v1.6.1)

DMagic Orbital Science (DMagicOrbitalScience 1.0.8)

Docking Port Alignment Indicator (DockingPortAlignmentIndicator 6.2.0)

Docking Sounds (DockingSounds 1.2)

Editor Extensions (EditorExtensions 2.12)

Engine Lighting (EngineLighting 1.4.0)

Enhanced Navball (EnhancedNavBall 1.3.6.0)

Environmental Visual Enhancements (EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements 7-4)

Environmental Visual Enhancements - High Resolution (EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements-HR 7-4)

EVAManager (EVAManager 6)

FASA Launch Clamps and Towers (FASALaunchClamps 5.34)

Ferram Aerospace Research (FerramAerospaceResearch 3:0.15.5)

Firespitter Core (FirespitterCore v7.1.4)

Fusebox (Fusebox 1.50)

Habitat Pack (PorkjetHabitats 0.41)

HotRockets (HotRockets 1.0.4.1)

Infernal Robotics Model Rework - Core Pack (IR-Model-Rework-Core v01b)

Infernal Robotics Model Rework - Expansion Pack (IR-Model-Rework-Expansion v01b)

Interstellar Fuel Switch Core (InterstellarFuelSwitch-Core 1.15)

JebediahKerman42's Procedural Parts Textures a.k.a. FreedomTex (FreedomTex 1.5.1)

Karbonite (Karbonite 0.6.4)

KarbonitePlus (KarbonitePlus 0.5.0)

Kerbal Alarm Clock (KerbalAlarmClock v3.4.0.0)

Kerbal Attachment System (KAS 0.5.4)

Kerbal Engineer Redux (KerbalEngineerRedux 1.0.18.0)

Kerbal Inventory System (KIS 1.2.2)

Kerbal Joint Reinforcement (KerbalJointReinforcement v3.1.4)

Kerbal NRAP (KerbalNRAP 1.5.0.4)

Kerbal Planetary Base Systems (KerbalPlanetaryBaseSystems 0.2.2)

Kinetic Penetrator by Vanguard Astrodynamics (KineticPenetratorbyVanguardAstrodynamics 0.11a)

Kopernicus Planetary System Modifier (Kopernicus 1:beta-03-3)

KW Rocketry (KWRocketry 2.7.0-community)

KW Rocketry - Community Fixes (KWRocketry-CommunityFixes 0.2.0)

KW Rocketry - Community Fixes - Interstage config (KWRocketry-CommunityFixes-interstage 0.2.0)

Layered Animations (LayeredAnimations 1.1)

LLL (LLL 14)

Magic Smoke Industries Infernal Robotics (InfernalRobotics v0.21.3)

MechJeb 2 (MechJeb2 2.5.3)

MechJeb and Engineer for all! (MechJebForAll 1.2.0.0)

'MK1-2 Pod' IVA Replacement by ASET (MK12PodIVAReplacementbyASET 0.1.1)

ModularFlightIntegrator (ModularFlightIntegrator 1.1.1)

Module Manager (ModuleManager 2.6.8)

Near Future Construction (NearFutureConstruction 0.5.4)

Near Future Electrical (NearFutureElectrical 0.5.2)

Near Future Electrical Core (NearFutureElectrical-Core 0.5.2)

Near Future IVA Props (NearFutureProps 0.4.3)

Near Future Propulsion (NearFuturePropulsion 0.5.3)

Near Future Solar (NearFutureSolar 0.5.3)

Near Future Spacecraft Parts (NearFutureSpacecraft 0.4.3)

Outer Planets Mod (OuterPlanetsMod 1:1.8)

PlanetShine (PlanetShine 0.2.3.1)

PlanetShine - Default configuration (PlanetShine-Config-Default 0.2.3.1)

Procedural Fairings (ProceduralFairings v3.15)

Procedural Parts (ProceduralParts v1.1.7)

RasterPropMonitor (RasterPropMonitor v0.22.2)

RasterPropMonitor Core (RasterPropMonitor-Core v0.22.2)

RCS Build Aid (RCSBuildAid 0.7.2)

RCS Sounds (RCSSounds 4.3a)

RealChute Parachute Systems (RealChute 1.3.2.3)

SCANsat (SCANsat v14.2)

ScienceAlert (ScienceAlert 1.8.9)

SmokeScreen - Extended FX Plugin (SmokeScreen 2.6.9)

Stock Bug Fix Modules (StockBugFixModules v1.0.4c.2)

Stock Clamshell Fairings (StockClamshellFairings 1.0)

Stockalike Station Parts Expansion (StationPartsExpansion 0.3.3)

Sum Dum Heavy Industries - Service Module System (SDHI-ServiceModuleSystem v3.0.1)

Sum Dum Heavy Industries - Shared Assets (SDHI-SharedAssets 1.0)

Surface Lights (surfacelights 1.0)

TAC Fuel Balancer (TacFuelBalancer v2.5.1)

Taurus HCV - 3.75 m Stock-ish Crew Pod (RandSCapsuledyne 1:1.5.3)

TextureReplacer (TextureReplacer 2.4.8)

ToadicusTools (ToadicusTools 15)

Toolbar (Toolbar 1.7.9)

Tweakable Everything - Engine Staging Toggle (TweakableEverything-EngineStagingToggle 1.12)

Tweakable Everything - Fairing Staging Toggle (TweakableEverything-FairingStagingToggle 1.12)

TweakableEverything (TweakableEverything 1.12)

TweakScale - Rescale Everything! (TweakScale v2.2.1)

Universal Storage (UniversalStorage 1.1.0.7)

USI Life Support (USI-LS 0.1.5)

USI Tools (USITools 0.4.2)

Ven's Stock Part Revamp (VenStockRevamp v1.8.1)

Vessel Viewer (VesselView v0.71)

Only the combination of ATM as well as DDS loader allows for a relatively swift and painless loading process as well as a stable gaming experience. Yes, it does crash from time to time, but usually I can play for an hour or two w/o crashing.

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

Since the size of my GameData folder is over 1 GB (1.20), I'm quite near the limits of KSP performance on 32-bit Windows. My framerate isn't particularly laggy, but I'm hitting 2GB of RAM usage with OpenGL and popupwindow enabled. So, therefore, my question is if I prune redundant parts (such as stock fuel tanks since I'm rocking Procedural Parts and KW Rocketry) or heck, even some of the KW tanks since I've got Ven's Stock Revamp, making things look very nice, how much memory/performance savings can I look at? Is it just gonna be a couple of MB and maybe 1-2 FPS? Or, if I hit the right parts, can I get big jumps? Thanks.

WinDirStat can help you see directly which mods (and which parts specifically) are costing you the most memory. Then you can decide if the big ones are really worth the price (or if you're ever going to use them).

Anecdotally, it seems to me that IVAs and props are especially costly, since they seem to require non-DDS textures and intricately-detailed models. (Not sure that the DDS thing is always true, but I've seem some break from DDS conversion, so I just leave them all alone.)