Design by part-count

[theJesuit]

Hi all,

Just a thought which was sparked by this article on io9.com which basically says that through machining the aluminium, Boeing has reduced the number of welds (and therefore welding material) for the Orion Crew module from 33 welds to 7, saving 320 kilograms.

My question to you all given that we play a game limited not necessarily by imagination but by CPU, GPU, RAM and coding, do you design your interplanetary craft around your own computer's part-count limit to reduce lag? If so, do you design your ideal mothership then knock off parts, trying to achieve the same level of awesomeness with the fewest number of parts?

Peace.

[mikegarrison]

Part count is a huge deal for RL aerospace designs. Every part costs money (for design, for assembly, for inspection, etc.). Lowering part count makes a vehicle quicker to assemble and cost less.

[Kerano]

What do you mean by "if the indicator stays in yellow"?

I'll generally tolerate lag up to a point. I can deal with 1-2 fps for short bursts (during docking/refuelling for instance), but for long-term missions I have to have at least 5-10 fps. These are minimal numbers mind you, I prefer to have much more.

[I_Killed_Jeb]

What do you mean by "if the indicator stays in yellow"?

I'll generally tolerate lag up to a point. I can deal with 1-2 fps for short bursts (during docking/refuelling for instance), but for long-term missions I have to have at least 5-10 fps. These are minimal numbers mind you, I prefer to have much more.

The mission timer doubles as a performance indicator, based on color.

[Kerano]

The mission timer doubles as a performance indicator, based on color.

Huh, really? I'd never noticed that, will have to keep an eye out for it in future.

[mikegarrison]

Huh, really? I'd never noticed that, will have to keep an eye out for it in future.

Yup. Green>Yellow>Red

[NoMrBond]

After a couple of glorious, yet utterly unusable stations, I always try and minimise part count now

Being able to play wins out against in-game aesthetics (to a point)

[Stratoroc]

lag is the reason I am a fan of mods that add giant multi-purpose parts (like B9). I can build a large enough space station for it to be bigger than anything I'd like to dock, while having small enough combined part counts to have frames cycles faster than hand drawn pictures.

[smjjames]

I do try to minimize part count when I can though.

[Hotaru]

In 1.0.2 and especially in 1.0.4, part count is a huge factor in my design--I have a slow CPU (at least until we get multi-threading!) and a low tolerance for frame rates lower than 15 or 20, so I generally keep my part count under 100 wherever possible.

My current career save in 1.0.2 doesn't have a lot of part mods , but some of the few it does have I've installed in the name of keeping part-count civilized. For instance, my Mk 3 shuttle uses TweakScale for its engines, wings, and intakes, and thrusters from SpaceY instead of stock Vernors, resulting in a part count of 27--compared to 100+ when I tried to build a ship to do the same job all-stock.

[GDJ]

Don't really have much of a problem with FPS lag until the 300 part count. After that Space Stations become a real PITA to dock with.

[mikegarrison]

Don't really have much of a problem with FPS lag until the 300 part count. After that Space Stations become a real PITA to dock with.

Yeah, docking is the biggest problem. And every time you successfully dock, it just gets worse.

[GDJ]

Yeah, docking is the biggest problem. And every time you successfully dock, it just gets worse.

Oh yes. It's nasty.

[Guest]

Part count lag doesn't bother me too much, I rarely go yellow from part count. What I do go yellow or red from is PQS lag, most especially when there is an ocean in view. I can do a 200 part launch at flcikering yellow if I'm looking at the sky but it instantly drops FPS if I look at the planet. Real bummer.

[theJesuit]

When I first started playing back around .19 I think, I didn't really worry as most launches were in the yellow regardless. Over the past twelve months though my playing time has been reduced, yet with a new laptop I though lag was a thing of the past until I docked a early version of a Minmus miner to the ISRU multi-purpose station in Minmus orbit. I really though it was my computer failing to push the CPU out of battery mode - and after clearing much stuff out realised it was simply part count!

Now, in the same career save I'm preparing an interplanetary craft but attempting to keep the total count to 150, yet with JSI's transparent windows and the Kerbal Planetary Base Systems for a rotational habitat for the mothership, ISRU and satellite deployment. It is hard to keep it looking GOOD yet still usable.

Peace.

[CG_Kerbin]

I dont really mind lag. But then again i dont get much lag normally.

[Monsterlunch]

In 1.0.2 and especially in 1.0.4, part count is a huge factor in my design [...]

Gotta agree! The last versions munched up my CPU.

[steve_v]

I simply will not play a 'realtime' videogame that cannot maintain >25FPS. I'll take a sizeable graphical quality hit for this. Generally I won't play anything at less than 50FPS (ideally 60/VSYNC), but for KSP I make an exception, as much as it burns mine eyes.

So yeah, part count is a big deal and it kills late-game playability.

[Corw]

I always for for the low part count/complexity, but not because of the game performance. I just like to build efficient. As a side effect, I have no experience with game performing badly :|

[Joonatan1998]

I play on a laptop, relatively good one but several years old, so I just have gotten used to hig lag when launching things.

In space I try to limit part count, mostly because low fps makes docking almost impossible.

[keeper]

I voted for "I dont care about lag" (LMAO that is however a lie).

I mainly build rockets, for me its the payload that must have least parts as possible. I can't stand lag in space!

When doing landings, docking, or when making big orbital buildings, or lunar bases etc the part count there must be low as possible.

Mainly so when I am on EVA, docking, driving etc then i can actually see whats going on and can control it.

My launcher vehicles i dont mind racking up the part counts as i tend not to struggle with 5fps launches only thanks to MJ though. Otherwise I probably wouldn't bother with it.

I really do care about "lag". (do you mean low fps) :s

[Kobymaru]

On one hand, I really, really hate low Framerates. It hurts my eyes, the controls are sluggish, the game runs so much slower... It's a PITA.

On the other hand I cannot and will not reduce my vehicle capabilities in favor of part count.

Of course, if I can use a part that replaces multiple parts functionally, I will. But not if using fewer parts make my vehicle "worse".

This is just one comprise that I am not willing to make.

I really, really hope for a 10%-20% performance boost from Unity 5 alone, plus a 50% performance boost from a fix of the ressource request bug. I know that might be a bit optimistic, but it's the only way I can keep myself from going (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡ââ€Â»Ã¢â€Âââ€Â»

[keeper]

Do you mean lag as in it takes 20 minutes to do a 4 minute launch at 7 fps? Yes i really care about that but less so when using MJ for launching can go make a cup of tea, and go watch game of thrones. at the same time. But even though I enjoy launches the most, they can be the most tedious gameplay hours lol.

I put delta physics time to 0.03. Don't know what the difference is.

My biggest launchers go anything up to around 800 parts (LOL!) I could strip it down to about 250 -300 but wouldn't be as epic. I'd like to see something more like 250% "performance boost" for 1000+ part ships. crazy right?

Remember when you booted up 1. for the first time made your first lil ship for career? OMG HOW SMOOTH THAT WAS! 5 parts lmao a quadrillion fps's THATS what it should be like for 5000 parts!

[Whackjob]

Voted for I Dont Care About Lag for the reason that I once had a launch take me two hours twenty minutes in real time to get to orbit.

[Woksaus]

I try to keep my part-count down, since I'm already at minimum performance specs for the game. Once I can upgrade to a PC I will probably throw all part considerations out of the window, but for now I really strive to keep my spacecraft as low on parts as possible.