Two Settings Questions

[ansaman]

A lot of people here are a lot more knowledgeable about computer graphics and settings especially regarding KSP. I have a very modest desktop system and I get pretty reasonable performance... it is playable. 
 

What difference does half-res versus full-res make regarding performance and visuals?
 

What sort of changes happen if you change the max physics-delta per frame setting (default .04)? I know it can keep the simulation from slowing down if it is increased, but is there a downside?

[problemecium]

I find that reducing the texture resolution is basically ineffectual as far as the stock game is concerned. Any computer from the last three years or so, even with integrated graphics, should run at full resolution quite easily, so I say leave the texture resolution setting at Full for best visual appearance.

With mods like EVE it can be another story, as while the stock textures tend to be in the neighborhood of 512x512, many EVE packs come with 4096x4096 textures or bigger. In that case, the settings menu won't do much to save you anyway, but you can manually resize the images in the GameData folder (back this up first if you aren't a 1337 H4X0R).

The Max Delta-Time setting is a limit on how much time is allowed to go by in between frames. If it's very very low, then as the game renders in (up to) 60 frames per second, time will slow down in the game to ensure that the physics processing doesn't ruin the framerate. If it's very very high, then when the game isn't running at 60 fps, a long time may pass between frames (like a whole quarter second for example). If this occurs, the game will end up extrapolating the positions, velocities, and forces on various parts a long way from what they were in the last frame. In the end this results in things like rounding errors and other "bad guesses" by the physics engine, which in practical terms means you're more likely to summon the Kraken.

Running the game at high physics delta-time settings is more or less the same as running the game in physical timewarp mode but still displaying everything at 1x speed. So if you notice, say, a rover's wheels jump up and down or a plane can't hold its attitude at 4x timewarp, you'll see the same thing happen if you quadruple the delta-time setting. Thus I recommend keeping the physics delta-time at a low number - personally I have it all the way down at the minimum of 0.03. This also happens to keep the framerate playably high when dealing with massive 1000+ part count ships.

Hopefully this helped ^^;

[ansaman]

1 hour ago, parameciumkid said:

Hopefully this helped ^^;

Yes, it did... a lot. I changed the physics delta time to .06 and everything seems OK, but I will be careful. I don't know how much is pushing my luck.