Diferences in time warp types

[UH60guy]

Quick question- I understand the basic thought of the differences between the physical and non-physical time warp.

As a newbie to KSP, I was just wondering how and when people typically apply the different versions. I've really only done the standard comma-period version of it, so I'm guessing I've been using the non-physical, but I'm not sure.

What kinds of situations would people use each type of warp for?

Edited August 7, 2013 by UH60guy

[CalculusWarrior]

Physical timewarp is generally used in scenarios where a very slow acceleration is being applied to a very stable vehicle. Examples of this would be an interplanetary vessel under acceleration from an ion drive/nuclear engines or a single capsule falling through the atmosphere with parachutes fully deployed.

You will definitely know which one is which, as physical timewarp only goes up to 4x, while you can accelerate up to 100 000x for normal timewarp.

[PetWolverine]

Physical time acceleration continues to simulate the full physics of your craft, with each part tugging or pushing on the parts it's connected to and so forth. So the vessel can wobble, bend, rotate, accelerate, and so forth, but at up to 4x speed. To get this higher speed, it uses a larger timestep, which can be dangerous because it magnifies the unavoidable, but normally small, imprecisions in the relative positions and velocities of parts, which can lead to more dramatic wobbling, uncontrolled spins, rapid unplanned disassembly and rapid, violent expansion of parts one might prefer to keep intact.

With non-physical time warp, your craft is put "on rails", meaning rotation stops, engines can't be used, and the parts of your ship don't interact with each other, they just stay fixed in place like they would in the VAB. The vessel just keeps going on its trajectory, with gravity being the only physics that remains relevant. Time warp of this type isn't allowed when you're in atmosphere, since drag is constantly altering your trajectory. This is the time warp that can go to very high multiples of the speed of time.

[Johnno]

Beyond interplanetary burns and while parachuting I quite often use physical timewarp for rover driving or running kerbals.

[Mr Shifty]

Quick question- I understand the basic thought of the differences between the physical and non-physical time warp.

As a newbie to KSP, I was just wondering how and when people typically apply the different versions. I've really only done the standard comma-period version of it, so I'm guessing I've been using the non-physical, but I'm not sure.

What kinds of situations would people use each type of warp for?

comma, period is context dependent: if you're inside an atomsphere, it will do physics warp UNLESS you're just sitting on the launch pad, otherwise it will do standard warp (including when you're sitting on the launch pad.) You can force physics warp outside atmospheres by doing Alt+period or Alt+comma.

[Pursuedtank]

Physics warp is the only warp available in atmosphere and only goes up to 4 times. It is a warp that you can use to reduce the time you have to sit through for long burns, and can be accessed outside the atmosphere by holding alt and using the full stop (period) and comma buttons.

The other timewarp puts your craft "on rails" and means that you can reduce the time that it takes you to get to other planets or getting to an intercept.

[UH60guy]

Thanks for the info!