Performance gradually gets worse. Unplayable within 15 minutes.

[DigitalSoul247]

Fresh install, no mods. 32-bit on Steam.

When I first start the game, in any mode, it runs perfectly. I can launch pretty much any size ship (within reason) without issue. After a few minutes of playing, however, I notice the game starting to slow down. Within 5-10 minutes, the slowdown is significant even with just a lone capsule on the pad. Looking straight up into the sky seems to alleviate this somewhat at this point. Unfortunately, the performance loss doesn't stop there, and within 15 minutes the game is running at 1/10th speed or worse, and looking into the sky doesn't help. The complexity of the ship doesn't seem to make a difference. The same thing happens whether my ship has 2 parts or 2000.

I suspect it has to do with rendering terrain, because the slowdown is most noticeable when any part of the planet is in view. There is an obvious shift from the smooth framerate when looking up, to the game abruptly chugging as soon as the horizon comes in to view.

Edited January 22, 2016 by DigitalSoul247

[radonek]

Do you have terrain scatter on?

[Evanitis]

Your system specifics would also help. I faintly remember such occurences when I was running KSP with 2gb of ram. If that's the case on your end, I'd suggest a Dynamic Texture Loader mod.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Computer overheating? If it's a laptop and you've got it set flush with your desk or whatnot it's going to get real hot, real fast.

As said above, system specs or any other details you could provide would really help.

Best of luck!

[DigitalSoul247]

I've tried terrain scatter both on and off, as well as changing a variety of other settings, but nothing seems to make much of a difference.

 

My system:

OS - Windows 7

CPU - Intel Core i7 @ 2.30GHz

Memory - 8GB Ram

GPU - Nvidia GeForce GTX 675M

This computer is a few years old now, but it used to have no problem even with mod-heavy installs. It still runs other games just fine.

 

I don't know how heating affects performance, but my computer is a laptop, albeit a big bulky one. Several of my games make it run hotter than KSP, but with no performance issues. In KSP, I'm noticing the slowdown long before there is any significant heat buildup.

[Evanitis]

Well, that's a nuclear power-plant compared to what I'm running KSP on.. Have some exotic visual mods installed maybe? I vaguely remember hearing that scatterer can make funny things on certain configs... not that I ever had a problem with it.

Edited January 22, 2016 by Evanitis

[DigitalSoul247]

No mods whatsoever. I completely uninstalled and deleted the KSP directory, then redownloaded via Steam. This is a 100% pure stock install.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Since it's a laptop I'd try checking to make sure that the game is using the dedicated card and not the integrated. (If you have one that is) Also, double check that it's plugged in and not in power saver mode.

Updating your drivers never hurts either.

[DigitalSoul247]

I've tried some heat management to see if that made a difference. My laptop has a function that makes the cooling fan run full blast. It sounds like a jet engine. With this running, I might be seeing an improvement, but it's hard to tell. It might just be wishful thinking. I wind up with the same issue eventually regardless.

I don't know how to check what card the game is using, or what the difference is between a dedicated card and integrated, or even if I have one. My computer is definitely plugged in, and power settings are in high performance mode. My drivers are fully up-to-date.

I'll also say that this isn't a recent problem. I've been trying to get this game running reasonably for almost a year.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

On some laptops you can right click the game's .exe file and there will be an option that says "run with graphics processor" once you mouse over that it will show two options: "high performance Nvidia processor" and "integrated graphics" You want to pick the high perfomance obviously.

If you don't get that option, right click your desktop and open the Nvidia control panel, find KSP in the game list (or add it's .exe if it's not there) then under "preferred graphics processor" select the Nvidia one.

If none of that helps or isn't applicable, I'd try turning the Delta physics time all the way down if you haven't yet, it's in the options menu. If you've already got it as low as the game will let you then you can also force it lower by editing the settings.cfg file in your KSP installation folder directly by opening it with notepad and changing the line that says PHYSICS_FRAME_DT_LIMIT = 0.12 to PHYSICS_FRAME_DT_LIMIT = 0.01

Hope that helps!

 

[Benoit Hage]

I would also point heat as a culprit. Often, when processors are reaching near critical heat, there is a fail safe that lower their performance in order to prevent a short life. My old laptop had that and really didn't enjoy the summertimes.

If you can do it, open your laptop a get rid of the dust inside. You'd be amazed how much devices can get hotter and slower with a really small amount of dust. If you are still on warranty and therefor can't open it, use a air compressor or a Hoover near the fan exit and intake point. It makes miracles.

 

 

 

[micr0wave]

just a very wild guess here, but since it's a laptop there might be some powersaving thing throttling down because running a singlecore process and leave the other cpu cores 'unemployed' makes the laptop think that he uses just an average of 20% of his power and goes to powersave.

[Stone Blue]

Yup... As stated already, I'd go to the Power Options in Control Panel and check all the advanced settings... ie Graphic Settings & Processor Power Management...

Also, how to tell which Graphics card/driver KSP uses, and whether its using OpenGL or a DirectX version, open the KSP.log in the main KSP folder, (or the output_log.txt in the /KSP_Data folder), and you should see it right at the top. Like this: (I have a laptop with BOTH Intel HD 3000 Graphics and Nvidia GT630M...)

 

Kerbal Space Program - 1.0.5.1028 (WindowsPlayer)

OS: Windows 8.1  (6.3.9600) 64bit
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2450M CPU @ 2.50GHz (4)
RAM: 5981
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M                  (1995MB)        <--- If you have BOTH Intel, & say Nvidia graphics, if its using the Intel, Intel would show
SM: 30 (Direct3D 9.0c [nvumdshim.dll 10.18.13.6143])        <--- This is DirectX 9... If I had OpenGL forced, it would show "OpenGL"...
RT Formats: ARGB32, Depth, ARGBHalf, RGB565, Default, DefaultHDR, ARGBFloat, RGFloat, RGHalf, RFloat, RHalf, R8

 

Beyond all that, as far as the OP's issue, I'd say most likely culprits on a stock install, would be the in-game graphics settings...

Edited February 24, 2016 by Stone Blue

[Claw]

When I had bought my most recent laptop, I had adjusted the power settings so that it would run pretty fast. At some point, Windows updated and it reset the power settings. It took a while for me to figure it out, because the power settings appeared to be still set, but they weren't being honored the same way that had been.

So I went back and readjusted all the power settings, to include remapping the NVIDIA card for KSP and running it up to full power.

 

As with the others, I don't know for sure that you have the same issue, but it wasn't fully obvious to me (at the time) that the power settings had been somehow reset. Might be worth readjusting them even if they look okay.

[KerbonautInTraining]

Memory leak?

Look at KSP's performance stats while it's running. Is the memory usage slowly creeping up? 

If you let the performance drop WAY down and immediately restart the game does it go back to normal? 

Also, guys, please read the entire thread before answering. He's already turned off any power saving settings and it's not overheating. (Although my experiment would also make sure it's not heat)

Edited February 26, 2016 by KerbonautInTraining

[Claw]

On 2/26/2016 at 3:15 PM, KerbonautInTraining said:

He's already turned off any power saving settings and it's not overheating.

I was repetitive because I'm not saying "check if they are off." I'm saying, "go back and reset everything." Because, in my case, everything was set properly but not being honored. I switched power modes and back, then reset everything, and that made a big difference.