What is the difference between a Physics Time Warp and a Non-Physics Time Warp?

[Cosmus]

What the title says.

[LeroyJenkins]

Basically,

Physics Time Warp = As one warps through time, the physical parameters are propagated as if time transpired normally. I.E. the physical properties change. For example: Attitude will continue to rotate, or electrical charge of a battery decrease or increase, and will continue through a time warp the same amount as they would in normal time.

Non-Physics Time Warp = Simply, the physicals parameters will not change during the Time Warp. I.E. Your initial physical conditions will stay constant. For example: Initial Attitude or the electrical charge of a battery will remain the same at the end of the Time Warp as they were at the the beginning. Only your relative location will change along your orbit path.

The first will add processing burden to accomplish since the propagator algorithm has to recalculate all the parameter values as each iteration step of the way. The second, reduces the processing amount since it only has to re-calculate the position change at the end of the Time Warp.

Hope that helps.

[Cosmus]

Thank you, that helped a lot! But how do I choose the type of time warp?

[Stoup]

You currently can't in KSP2, unfortunately. Physical time warp automatically activates in atmosphere and I've seen it activate when low too the ground on airless bodies 

Edited March 9, 2023 by Stoup

[jimmymcgoochie]

Physics warp means that all the physics calculations- for rotation, acceleration, atmospheric drag etc. are still run but at a faster speed; this can mean less accuracy and so more wobble/explosions/bits falling off, so use it sparingly and try to avoid big control inputs while using physics warp. Time warp is “on rails”- the vessel is fixed as a single object (no wobbling parts) and physics calculations aren’t done so you could set up an encounter with Jool’s atmosphere, go to the tracking station and time warp right through without the vessel slowing down since the atmospheric drag is never calculated. You can’t activate time warp while moving on a planetary body’s surface or flying in an atmosphere, only physics warp.