Picking the right mods; recommendations wanted

[Erkki]

Hello,

I'm currently running

Windows 7 64 bit

AMD Phenom II 1055T

Palit nVidia GTX 460 Sonic 2 (more vram than I've ever needed)

4gb system RAM (the bottleneck: not enough for some KSP mods)

I've played KSP every now and then for years and mods wise my game is a mess right now. Currently, I only have a very light shuttle mod of some kind, clouds for planets(some old mod that seems to still work somehow), KIS, KAS, distant object drawer and remotetech. And Mechjeb for all command parts of course(I like it for the dV and orbital info as well as the maneuver planner).

The game as it is has gotten a bit... Easy to me. But I dont want to move to the Real Solar System. Not yet. I prefer keeping to the Kerbol system. And I'd like to keep the stock parts more or less viable. Are there any mods that scale up the solar system by say a factor of 2 or 3 only? I'd like to fly to the Mün and nearby planets without those missions being too easy to build craft for and to fly.

I think I want to at least these from now on

-KIS

-KAS

-Some clouds + city lights mod

-distant object drawer

-Some solar system mod

-Part mods that use stock textures or small custom textures

-Possibly FAR?

Do you have any recommendations? Especially when it comes to parts and tweaking the solar system itself. Remember that for now the amount of RAM limits me. For example I couldnt use one of the shuttle mods because I ran out of RAM when the loading bar hit about 80%...

[crestofawave]

i would recommend spacey y for lifters and kw, i use them with some of your mods and it seems a good mix

[FungusForge]

If RAM is an issue then I'd either advise against Environmental Visual Enhancements, or use Active Texture Management with it.

Vens Stock Revamp is nice since it adds some parts that the stock game could really use.

If you like rovering around planets I'd suggest Kerbal Foundries.

And this link is to a list of Planet packs, so if you're literally wanting to add a whole new world of gameplay this is the way to go.

Edited September 25, 2015 by FungusForge
more stuff

[sewerbird]

Kerbal Construction Time and a life support mod can add an interesting new feel to Career Mode that I've been finding refreshing.

[RCgothic]

Remote Tech and FAR are the ones I can't do without for technical challenge.

FAR is better than stock because it analyses your entire craft simultaneously rather than as a collection of individual parts.

Tac Life Support also good for the challenge.

[Mastikator]

Magic Smoke Industries for moving parts

Kerbal Engineer Redux for more data

Extraplanetary Launchpads for building and launching spaceships in space and on other planets

[cantab]

Your hardware is similar to mine, I'm on a Phenom II X3 overclocked to 3.1 GHz, also 4 GB of memory, and a GTX 750 Ti. I though play on Linux and do benefit from 64-bit KSP to run more mods despite only have 4 GB of physical RAM.

I'm currently using the New Horizons planetary system and highly recommend it. It puts Kerbin in orbit of a gas giant along with the Mun, Aptur (think a smaller Bop with a bit more gravity), and Serran (imagine a smaller Laythe without water). It also puts the wider solar system on an inclination like RSS does, and reshuffles the stock planets and moons as well as adding new ones. All round it creates real new challenges in intermoon and interplanetary flight. My first landings on Serran were some of the tensest and most exciting moments I've had in KSP in a long time, with some seriously late parachute opening.

I'm of the view that delta-V is not difficulty, but it you want a bigger solar system New Horizons is also compatible with several system rescale mods.

If you use 32-bit KSP then adding New Horizons will start to constrain you on memory. You'll probably have to forgo either memory-hungry visual mods or large part packs, or both. But there are still plenty of mods that won't cause problems.

[Erkki]

Thank you for all the replies!

On Construction Time and Life Support: I dont play the career mode... Life Support I guess could be something to try out. I'll have to check that one out, thanks!

On visuals: I really like those clouds. I need to find a new mod to replace the current one, though.

On FAR: yeah I've recently built some SSTOs/shuttles and I think those would be more fun to build and fly with it. I'll have to add it to my mods list.

cantab,

I need to try out the New Horizons mod as well, thanks! I dont think dV = difficulty either, but I'd like to see somewhat higher speeds, planet sizes and inclined orbits for immersion reasons alone.

I think I'll try these mods first:

KIS

KAS

DistantObject

FAR

jonathantm's compilation of graphics mods

stockalike parts pack

Copernicus + New Horizons

[The_Rocketeer]

If RAM is an issue then I'd either advise against Environmental Visual Enhancements

I've never had a problem with EVE alone, nor when I used Astronomer's Interstellar, but... I'm now using a mod-heavy install on career with those plus KER, MechJeb, KAS, KIS, KAX, RemoteTech, RoverDude's LS, Asteroid Day, plus some custom Kerbal skins (I forget which), and all the (relevant) contract packs I could find. Of those EVE and Interstellar are easily the most RAM-hungry mods. The game was crashing every time I launched until I switched to opengl mode. Now it runs with a small-but-reasonable amount of RAM in hand. Loading is slower and the game hangs slightly when selecting parts in the VAB/SPH, but it's quite playable, and most importantly I didn't have to give anything up.

[Cairol]

I have 1,5 GB VRAM (nVidia 580 GTX) and I cannot run VisualEnhancements with clouds or city lights. Even the low res version does not work

The game crashes due to insufficient VRAM.

KIS and KAS are cool. FAR also, if just the exaggeration of the stock overheating bug would not be...

I also like the "NearFuture" mod packs, RemoteTech and the Kerbal Aerospace Expansion (KAX).

And last but not least the "stock bugfix modules".

[The_Rocketeer]

I have 1,5 GB VRAM (nVidia 580 GTX) and I cannot run VisualEnhancements with clouds or city lights. Even the low res version does not work

The game crashes due to insufficient VRAM.

I suspect this is a misdiagnosis. I have a GTX 480 and it works fine.

[FungusForge]

All I know is that that even with ATM, EVE will consume at least 300mb easy. (At least for my pre-built computer, at any rate)

[Friend Bear]

Definitely get:

RemoteTech

TAC Life Support, and

USI Kolonization

Makes it a whole new game. TAC = keep them alive; USI = colonize/orbital stations, etc., renewables, all coinciding with TAC; RemoteTech = in prep for 1.1, requires line of sight for remote control use and incorporates signal distance.

----

I may be wrong but as for crashes system RAM is more the worry, not so much VRam, which is why 32bit is so limiting (but I am crossfiring 6950s so I could be way off)

---

To help with memory, use:

Texture replacer

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/107471-0-90-TextureReplacer-2-1-2-new-thread-the-old-one-is-broken

Active texture management

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/59005-1-0-Release-5-0-April-28-2015-Active-Texture-Management-Save-RAM!

both work fine for the current version.

Edited September 25, 2015 by Friend Bear

[Vanamonde]

Modding question moved to the modding subforums.

[cantab]

I may be wrong but as for crashes system RAM is more the worry, not so much VRam, which is why 32bit is so limiting (but I am crossfiring 6950s so I could be way off)

With 32-bit versions of KSP the RAM limit is on address space usage. That includes some, but not all, of what the game puts in video memory as well as what it has in system memory. The default DirectX 9 has a further issue of duplicating some things in both video and system memory - if you can get DirectX 11 or OpenGL mode working well on your system you'll slash KSP's system memory usage.

That's why even with only 4 GB of system memory 64-bit helps me, by allowing KSP to use that and the 2 GB of video memory.

[Erkki]

Apparently FAR doesnt work in 64 bit mode.

I managed to make everything load by forcing OpenGL mode on, and to boot, besides VAB the game runs smoother! Despite the visual mods too, I was able to raise graphs settings to the max so thank you for the tip!

FAR seems interesting. Especially supersonic flight and how area rule is taken into account. Took me about 2 hours to build a 2 man spaceplane that can reach orbit with tiny cargo and reserve dV of about 100 m/s. At least it can abort and brake/land at any time and flies fairly well, compared to my previous attempts... Needs more testing and tweaking still.

[Erkki]

Okay, may as well drop the FAR lol. I dont know if its the space in the device name or something, but I mapped my CH joystick and pedals for smoother control and the game now ignores the settings.cfg file and recreates a new one with default settings each session.

Troubleshooted all afternoon only to find out that several people at reddit had exactly the same issue down to similar-ish hardware - and CH controllers!

...or then I just need to learn to build really stable spaceplanes.