Is deleting physics.cfg cheating?

[Gordon Fecyk]

I have some space plane designs that seem to work on the first use or so, then start rolling right after a few days (weeks?) of play. The problem seemed to get worse after moving a craft from one installation of KSP to another; both were 1.3.0.

On a lark I tried deleting physics.cfg and partdatabase.cfg, and letting the game rebuild those. That seemed to work for some folks dealing with broken parachutes, and it 'fixed' my roll right problem. But I wondered if I was cheating somehow by doing that.

I usually use Ferram Aerospace Research for the extra challenge. I've already asked over at the FAR thread, but no one's responded. I don't use other add-ons that mess with the physics or the stock parts. But FAR or Stock, am I cheating myself by having the game rebuild those? On the craft in question I've double checked and triple checked symmetry to make sure everything was even.

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[Rocket In My Pocket]

I can't see what would make your planes suddenly start rolling right after a few days for no reason besides a bug.

If deleting and rebuilding the phsyics.cfg/partdatabase.cfg fixes that bug; I don't see how that can be cheating?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the question?

[Gaarst]

Yes letting the game automatically fix a corrupted file and re-write the initial stock values is definitely cheating. In fact you should have deleted KSP the first time it crashed.

Edited October 23, 2017 by Gaarst

[fourfa]

This might be a bit left field, but a lot of problems I’ve had with inconsistent roll problems came down to interactions between wings and cargo bays. The trademark is if it goes away when you open and close the bay a hair. Just in case that helps with the root problem

Edited October 23, 2017 by fourfa

[AeroGav]

For me, it's usually when importing a craft created in another KSP save that makes phantom rolls (not a snack).

Removing and reattaching the wing seems to fix the problem ,  but that is fairly major surgery.

[bewing]

As Gaarst says -- deleting and rebuilding those two files reverts all the settings to default. It is the Squad-recommended way to fix the situation if those two files should get corrupted -- and is recommended as one testing step when your game starts acting funny. If you honestly think that rebuilding those files changes things -- save a copy of those two files just after you rebuild them, and do a diff on the files when you start to suspect they may have been changed. We would be very interested to know if those files change.

 

[Gordon Fecyk]

3 hours ago, bewing said:

Save a copy of those two files just after you rebuild them, and do a diff on the files when you start to suspect they may have been changed

I'll want to try again on unmodded installations so your team isn't chasing down a mod-induced problem, but I still have the backed-up CFG files handy even if they're in the Recycle Bin. I'll post back here when I've done that diff. Thanks.

[One diff later] I was able to reproduce my roll problem on my "Fat Star McTater Tot," then I moved the .cfg files and restarted the game... TextPad told me the files were identical. Hm. But then I moved a few files, including partdatabase.cfg, and Module Manager's own dynamic files (cache, physics, tech tree, and such). The roll problem did go away, but I suspect something else needed to be rebuilt besides physics.cfg.

In any case, if deleting and recreating these files is a common troubleshooting step for physics-related problems, then it isn't cheating, which answers my original question. Thanks @bewing and @Gaarst for confirming as such.

Edited October 24, 2017 by Gordon Fecyk
Test results

[Gordon Fecyk]

4 hours ago, AeroGav said:

For me, it's usually when importing a craft created in another KSP save that makes phantom rolls (not a snack).

This definitely was the circumstance: Copying a proven craft from one installation to another.