Starting Fresh: soliciting tips

[Moencino]

After having learned a LOT in my first week (thanks largely to the kind folk who've responded in such detail here in the forums), I've wiped my computer clean of KSP, and done a fresh install. I foolishly forgot to save my screenshots, but it's a small thing. My motivation was this: I'd put a handful of addons in, including the FusTek station parts, and discovered terrible lag in the VAB when on the 'pods' tab - especially if my camera was facing the door. As long as the pods tab wasn't selected, the lag wasn't too bad.

But it got much worse. In orbit, I was getting increasing lag, to the point where it just wasn't all that fun. I deleted the FusTek parts I wasn't using, hoping that would somehow help. It didn't. As I wasn't sure what was causing all the lag, I decided to start fresh, and find a balance between cool addons and playability. Thus begins my experiment to see how many toys I can put in my toybox.

Fresh install addon list:

B9 (Despite it being HUGE, there's no perceptible lag in the VAB. Is this a bad idea? The beautiful designs, textures, and animated cargo doors n' such are such nice eye candy.)

Improved trusses and girders

Engineer

FusTek common birthing mechanisms

Chatterer (super fun little addon I just installed)

Crew manifest

[WIP] THSS - Tri-Hexagonal Structural Strut (just discovered this addon and love it)

Quantum struts (haven't tried them yet, but didn't like how badly my station wobbled in my previous post)

Infernal Robotics (just installed it, and ermahgerd it looks freakin' awesome!)

Lazor docking cam (one of my faves so far)

I think that's it. I seem to be the only one not using MecJeb, but thus far I haven't felt the need for an autopilot. I'm sure certain things will become tedious eventually, at which point I'll investigate it.

With all the above installed, it's running smoothly at maxed settings, 1920x1200. But I haven't actually built anything yet.

So, my question:

What exactly causes lag? Something in the FusTek station pack did for me. If I delete parts I never use from their respective folders, will that reduce resource demand? Or it is unrelated? I'm not sure which the culprit is: plugins associated with addons, part count of a ship, a specific addon, a specific combination of addons, my early 2009 PowerMac, or a combination of them all. I'm really looking for the empirical feedback that might ensure my continued enjoyment of the game until Apple releases the new PowerMacs in the fall. Are there specific things I can do to minimize lag while maximizing use of fun addons and the rich look of the game?

Edited August 28, 2013 by Moencino

[blizzy78]

I think that's it. I seem to be the only one not using MecJeb, but thus far I haven't felt the need for an autopilot.

MechJeb is not all about the autopilots. It also has some really useful informational readouts, which you can customize to your liking.

[capi3101]

OP: I don't use MechJeb - though I have plans to install it if I ever successfully pull off a round-trip mission to Eve.

Lag's generally caused when you're using up a lot of your computer's available memory. Having more mods installed uses more memory, as does building craft with a large number of parts. Your options for reducing it are A) uninstall the mods you don't use all that often and reduce the quality of your graphics. I'm generally capable of loading 500 part craft without sweat and last night I launched a 600 part craft with an acceptable lag - this with a below spec box, largely because I have the graphics settings turned waaaaaaay down.

I suppose there's C) get a better box, but that tends to be a tad expensive.

I guess in answer to your question, if you've got lag with what you've got, something's going to have to give - either fly with less mods or turn down the graphics. Game still looks pretty sweet with the graphics turned down. Just sayin'.

Edited August 27, 2013 by capi3101

[Moencino]

Lag's generally caused when you're using up a lot of your computer's available memory.

That's my feeling too, but the app I use to monitor my memory never comes close to tapping out. Perhaps KSP isn't taking full advantage of all that RAM? Either way, I agree in that something has to give - I'm just trying to figure out what the most efficient thing to give up is, so that I can keep some of the less demanding toys to play with.

[Moencino]

MechJeb is not all about the autopilots. It also has some really useful informational readouts, which you can customize to your liking.

I have the Engineer mod, which shows me the stuff I'm most curious about. Again, I'm sure MechJeb is overflowing with useful stuff, but I'm going to hold off on automation a while until I feel I've mastered the various maneuvering disciplines. Maybe if I knew what I was missing I'd be in a bigger hurry to install it, but the whole ignorance is bliss thing...

[Person012345]

That's my feeling too, but the app I use to monitor my memory never comes close to tapping out. Perhaps KSP isn't taking full advantage of all that RAM? Either way, I agree in that something has to give - I'm just trying to figure out what the most efficient thing to give up is, so that I can keep some of the less demanding toys to play with.

IIRC due to unity only being 32 bit it can only use 4 gb of memory (although having more does improve performance as other programs are using memory too, but only to a limited degree). It may not be a unity thing, but I think that's what I heard. Either way, the game is 32 bit. For the moment.

[Moencino]

Either way, the game is 32 bit. For the moment.

Ahhh, that would explain a lot. Including the 4gb cap. I just did more reading on this, and discovered also that PhysX can't handle multi threading. Yikes. 3/4 of my computer is sleeping! Hopefully the future holds 64bit and multiprocessor support.