Optimization Mods

[MjrLeeObvious]

I have noticed a great gaping hole in the KSP modding community. We have a devastating lack of Optimization Mods, for players like myself who have lower end PCs, KSP can be more like a slideshow than a game. What I am looking for is a mode that does for KSP, what Optifine did for Minecraft. Does anyone know of any mods for 1.4 or newer that do this or any projects that are working to build a mod like this?

Cheers!

 

 

Edited April 3, 2018 by MjrLeeObvious

[Gargamel]

Memgraph takes the stutter out of the game.

 

[Wolf Baginski]

There are a few settings that help, such as one for texture sizes used.

Not a mod as such, but I have sometimes used The GIMP to make a reduced-size version of a .dds file. I don't know whether that game setting saves any RAM, but dropping the file-size from 20MB to 4MB seems worthwhile for loading speed.

My computer is pretty low-end by current standards, but I found that increasing RAM helps with a lot of stuff. With only 4GB it would often start paging to virtual memory, and that is a huge slowdown. Not always practical, I know, but there are utilities that show RAM usage, so it's not hard to check on.

I think I may have a few too many mods in my Gamedata, but things such as parts only really slow things down when you use them.

[steve_v]

On 4/3/2018 at 3:48 PM, MjrLeeObvious said:

We have a devastating lack of Optimization Mods, for players like myself who have lower end PCs

The mod you mention is almost entirely graphics optimisation, there's not much to be done here for KSP as its graphics and textures are already terrible. If you want it even more terrible, there are settings for that both in-game and in the config file.
If your GPU really is struggling with KSP, turn down terrain quality and /or lower maxSubdivision for Kerbin and its ocean in the config. Turn off aero effects too, they're an appalling frame-hog (at least in <1.4).
If you're running out of memory (main or GPU) and swapping, reduce texture resolution.

But if your GPU was made this decade, it's probably not the graphics that are slowing things down...

KSP isn't graphics-heavy, it's CPU bound by its physics engine. You can't reduce the resolution of the physics simulation (much) without nasty things happening and core game mechanics not working properly.
The only thing one can do is run the physics at less than realtime, and the game does this automatically as far as is practical already.
Hence, not much in the way of performance improving mods.

 

On 4/3/2018 at 8:37 PM, Gargamel said:

Memgraph takes the stutter out of the game.

Memgraph trades a short frequent freeze for a longer less frequent one, by using more memory. Not quite as annoying, but not really a fix either. It's more of a diagnostic tool.

 

1 hour ago, Wolf Baginski said:

things such as parts only really slow things down when you use them.

KSP boneheadedly loads every texture it finds in GameData into RAM on startup, so even parts you never use are consuming memory. This is why KSPs memory requirements are so insane, and only get worse with part mods.
My current modded game uses ~10GB of RAM, which is patently ridiculous.

Edited April 4, 2018 by steve_v

[MjrLeeObvious]

So in theory, one could edit the code of KSP so that it only loads textures that are currently in use to reduce the RAM requirements. And release it as a patch addon or mod.

7 hours ago, steve_v said:

KSP boneheadedly loads every texture it finds in GameData into RAM on startup, so even parts you never use are consuming memory. This is why KSPs memory requirements are so insane, and only get worse with part mods.
My current modded game uses ~10GB of RAM, which is patently ridiculous.

 

 

[steve_v]

10 hours ago, MjrLeeObvious said:

So in theory, one could edit the code of KSP so that it only loads textures that are currently in use to reduce the RAM requirements. And release it as a patch addon or mod.

It's been done before. It caused side-effects, was a pain in the ass to maintain, and is now seemingly abandoned. These problems would go away if it was done by the game engine... But Unity.
It's MIT licensed though so feel free to revive it.

[Gargamel]

18 hours ago, steve_v said:

Memgraph trades a short frequent freeze for a longer less frequent one, by using more memory. Not quite as annoying, but not really a fix either. It's more of a diagnostic tool.

Well, it's a diagnostic tool that fixed my issues, so I'd call it a fix. 

[MjrLeeObvious]

On 4/4/2018 at 10:07 PM, steve_v said:

It's been done before. It caused side-effects, was a pain in the ass to maintain, and is now seemingly abandoned. These problems would go away if it was done by the game engine... But Unity.
It's MIT licensed though so feel free to revive it.

Sadly, I do not have any experience in anything more than basic coding, where would I be able to find a group that would be able (and possibly willing to) help revive this.

[Dimas152]

On 4/23/2018 at 8:56 AM, MjrLeeObvious said:

Sadly, I do not have any experience in anything more than basic coding, where would I be able to find a group that would be able (and possibly willing to) help revive this.

go call someone like @linuxgurugamer

followed thx

my ksp can load up to 180-200 parts before lagging in vanilla install, waiting MemGraph to be updated for 1.4.x bcus it helped me in 1.3.1

[linuxgurugamer]

Not going to happen on my watch

[Dimas152]

12 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Not going to happen on my watch

lol

[Jognt]

On 4/25/2018 at 3:05 PM, [INDO]dimas_1502 said:

go call someone like @linuxgurugamer

followed thx

my ksp can load up to 180-200 parts before lagging in vanilla install, waiting MemGraph to be updated for 1.4.x bcus it helped me in 1.3.1

Memgraph works fine in 1.4. 

[anis]

You can try a mod called "KSP Community Fixes" that slightly improve the performances

[anis]

You can also try the "Join reinforcment mod" that increases the rocket's rigidity and improves the in-flight performances