High part counts on flights in progress

[PhilMcgroin]

Does anybody know how KSP handles flights in progress? I'm building a monster of a space station right now, its only half done and its already killing my FPS. Once its finished, I doubt I'll be able to even dock with it. But its going to look sweet, so I'd still like to finish it. What I want to know is when KSP will try and load it. If I leave it at its current 1000km orbit and don't venture too close to see it, will those thousands of parts never get loaded? Or does it always sit there somewhere when I load that save, gnawing away on my ageing computer's resources?

[Vanamonde]

Until you get within 2.25kms of another ship, it is just a moving point in space. When you do get that close, the ship is recreated as an object.

[Dangerous_Beans]

Hence why things occasionally explode when you get within 2.25km of them.

[Bothersome]

Lots of parts increases the load times too. In my main game I've got about 52 flights going and who knows how many space debris going. That game has a loading time about twice that of a new game.

[PhilMcgroin]

Awesome, thanks for the replies guys. I was a bit worried it would end up too epic to keep, but once construction is finished I'll just keep well away from it, unless I want to show it off to someone. Or if it's the only refuelling station in range in an emergency.

This is Beaumonde Station so far, by the way. Still needs a second solar sail at the bottom, then I need to fill those 4 attachment points. The plan is 2 habitable modules, a hangar, and an extended docking arm. Man, that's gonna be some laggy construction. At least docking at 2 FPS makes it harder to overcorrect!