Making KSP run smoother

[Zosma Procyon]

I launch a lot of really big rockets, near 1000 parts, and KSP runs really slow when I do that. Is there a way to make it run faster? I have the most up to date build, and I am on a brand new, less than 6 months, Macbook Pro with as much ram as it can take.

Edited January 13, 2016 by Zosma Procyon

[YargJay9991]

Woah man! 1000 parts would make any computer cry. Even with the best computer, KSP is very restricted in terms of performance. It can only use a single processing thread and if you use any more than 4GB of RAM, KSP will crash. Apparently this will be fixed in the next update but apart from bumping all your graphics settings down, there's not much you can do. 

Unfortunately, this happens to every one who plays KSP and every has asked the question, which is why 1.1 is probably the most looked forward to update. 

Welcome to the forums and may the kraken give you a fair amount of distance!

Happy Flying

YargJay9991

 

[Evanitis]

The most demanding task for KSP on a modern computer feels to be the separate physics calculation on all parts. Thus, lowering most visual settings won't have a huge impact on performance. But there's the "Max Physics Delta-Time something" slider - lowering that can help more than anything else.

Alternatively, there's a mod to merge parts together (UbioZur Welding as I recon). That way you can manually lower your part-count.

RAM overloads can be avoided with the Dynamic Texture loader mod.

[TheTom]

50 minutes ago, Evanitis said:

The most demanding task for KSP on a modern computer feels to be the separate physics calculation on all parts.

That is so true. Except it is not. Bug reports indicate that the physics calculation plays a smaller role. As can be seen on large rockets being a LOT easier on the computer in older builds. Sorry, the lie does not get reality when you repeat it a lot.

Instead, the culprits are bad code.

* UI to a small part

* RESSOURCES for a large part. Tanks, everything that consumes and provides in game ressources. The ressource management loop has horrific code in it. Among other things it is regenerating lists of every provider on every tick.

* Possibly also aerodynamics.

Want a proof?

Make a small ship. Then add 100 fuel cells. See the slideshow. Replace the 100 fuel cells with 100 resource neutral parts. Watch the difference.

And given the identical part count for physics... that is not the issue.

We can all hope that gets fixed for 1.1 or 1.2

[Evanitis]

5 minutes ago, TheTom said:

lie

That -hurts- you know. And since my statement has the expression "feels to be" in it, it is the absolute truth on my end.

That doesn't mean I'm not wrong. I never did actual testing, it was just my impression. I rather keep to low part counts until we see how 1.1 works.

[Wild Cobra]

On 1/13/2016 at 11:19 PM, Zosma Procyon said:

I launch a lot of really big rockets, near 1000 parts, and KSP runs really slow when I do that. Is there a way to make it run faster? I have the most up to date build, and I am on a brand new, less than 6 months, Macbook Pro with as much ram as it can take.

I have one of the faster CPU's out there for single thread performance, the i7-4790. I get about a 6% boost by turning off hyperthreading in the BIOS.

I have built craft over 2,000 parts:

 

 

[Zosma Procyon]

On 1/14/2016 at 5:40 AM, Evanitis said:

The most demanding task for KSP on a modern computer feels to be the separate physics calculation on all parts. Thus, lowering most visual settings won't have a huge impact on performance. But there's the "Max Physics Delta-Time something" slider - lowering that can help more than anything else.

Alternatively, there's a mod to merge parts together (UbioZur Welding as I recon). That way you can manually lower your part-count.

RAM overloads can be avoided with the Dynamic Texture loader mod.

Not only did it not weld anything, it just cleared the editor screen, but it also seems to have interfered with Mechjeb. Thanks anyway.

[Evanitis]

It shouldn't interfere with MJ, but it won't weld anything on it's own - you should do that manually.

 

That makes me wonder if you downloaded the most up-to-date version, and if you did read the instructions. Coincidentally, both of those are in the same place: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/96670-105-ubiozur-welding-ltd-continued-222-2015-11-11/