Performance Linux (With 64-Bit Unity) vs Windows 7 (Metrics=Part Count and FPS)

[Dichotomy]

Howdie All

As a follow up to my original thread that pertained to part counts required for most gameplay experiences (http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/55997-MAX-Parts-Required-to-Accomplish-Most-In-Game-Goals).

I was hoping someone who has played KSP on both LINUX and Windows 7 (ideally with the same machine) could give me an indication of how much of a performance increase there is on Linux? I am mainly interested in part count increase, so if you have any idea how many more parts you could use during launch by using LINUX (and 64-BIT UNITY) then using Windows 7, I would certainly appreciate you sharing your opinions/experiences; (Assuming the same FPS is maintained, and as the end result may not be linear with regard to FPS, please estimate for part counts ranging from say 150 - 250 where possible).

Also does the 64-Bit UNITY supported by LINUX, make use of multiple cores, and if so does KSP (LINUX) make use of it ? (FYI : I am only interested in DUAL CORE ATM).

Thankyou all for your time, and help.

Edited November 6, 2013 by Dichotomy

[DMagic]

The results I get for testing under Linux are very bad. I blame this on AMD's terrible Linux drivers, but it could be something else. I've been meaning to test out Ubuntu 13, but I haven't got around to it yet.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/42877-CPU-Performance-Database?p=694858&viewfull=1#post694858

Maeyanie had much better results, I think using an Nvidia card, so you might also get decent performance. That said, there was essentially no difference between the 32- and 64-bit versions, which isn't surprising.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/42877-CPU-Performance-Database?p=660134&viewfull=1#post660134

The only way to know for sure is to test it out yourself, but don't expect any part-count related performance increase (KSP already uses multiple cores, it is the physics calculations that are limited to a single thread; Linux does nothing to change this). And because Windows is the primary development focus you are probably more likely to encounter bugs and others issues in the Linux version.

If you want any kind of objective comparison you'll have to learn how to use Bugle, the OpenGL debugger. If you aren't familiar with Linux and the command line interface this will not be simple.

[tobjv]

I was given a decent boost when I tested KSP on Linux 64Bit back in 0.21.

Specs are

I3-2125 3.3GHz

8GB DDR3 RAM (I now have 4GB's since one of my sticks went dead :C)

I think there speed was 3200ish not sure.

Nvidia GeForce GTX560DS

1 Tb Seagate HDD I think it was a 7200 RPM.

Performance wise I was able to have about 4 more mods installed before I capped out. They were pretty heavy mods with some not being able to fit with certain others installed (Like B9 and

others like that) in 32 bit version of KSP.

Load times seemed a bit faster stock and FPS seemed stabler with high part counts.

[Dichotomy]

The results I get for testing under Linux are very bad. I blame this on AMD's terrible Linux drivers, but it could be something else. I've been meaning to test out Ubuntu 13, but I haven't got around to it yet.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/42877-CPU-Performance-Database?p=694858&viewfull=1#post694858

Maeyanie had much better results, I think using an Nvidia card, so you might also get decent performance. That said, there was essentially no difference between the 32- and 64-bit versions, which isn't surprising.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/42877-CPU-Performance-Database?p=660134&viewfull=1#post660134

The only way to know for sure is to test it out yourself, but don't expect any part-count related performance increase (KSP already uses multiple cores, it is the physics calculations that are limited to a single thread; Linux does nothing to change this). And because Windows is the primary development focus you are probably more likely to encounter bugs and others issues in the Linux version.

If you want any kind of objective comparison you'll have to learn how to use Bugle, the OpenGL debugger. If you aren't familiar with Linux and the command line interface this will not be simple.

Thankyou for this, I do appreciate it. I am a programmer so the tools are not an issue, although I havn't programmed under LINUX for about 7 years now, so .... Thankyou for the heads up anyway.

Given it will be a hassle to do it on my current system just for KSP, I think will just either wait for my next system build next year or play with a restricted part count. Thanks again for your help.

[Dichotomy]

I was given a decent boost when I tested KSP on Linux 64Bit back in 0.21.

Specs are

I3-2125 3.3GHz

8GB DDR3 RAM (I now have 4GB's since one of my sticks went dead :C)

I think there speed was 3200ish not sure.

Nvidia GeForce GTX560DS

1 Tb Seagate HDD I think it was a 7200 RPM.

Performance wise I was able to have about 4 more mods installed before I capped out. They were pretty heavy mods with some not being able to fit with certain others installed (Like B9 and

others like that) in 32 bit version of KSP.

Load times seemed a bit faster stock and FPS seemed stabler with high part counts.

Thanks for this. Will keep it in mind.

[rtxoff]

I have a very powerful machine and the performace on Linux Mint 64bit (Cinnamon Desktop) is much worse then on Win7. Basically for me it isn't true at all that Linux performance is much better.

I use the proprietary Geforce drivers under Linux and also i started the 64bit KSP executable.

I blame this on OpenGL, however there might be other reasons.

i7-3770k

Geforce GTX780

Resolution 1080p fullscreen

Mods only MechJeb and ModuleManager

Even with small ships with a small part count framerate drops as less as 30fps at times. Under Windows i have super smooth 60fps (Vsync on) all the time performance.

I can't recommend KSP on Linux yet.

[DrMonte]

I don't see how Linux edition could show better performance than Windows. Unity is running under some emulation mode in Linux (like wine). See here for details: http://unity3d.com/unity/system-requirements.

Though you might fall into those minor cases where wine works faster than Windows. First check your disk partition configurations (fragmentation lagging), memory usage (Windows takes more ram), background services (Antivirus?), etc.

[LastStarDust]

I have a very powerful machine and the performace on Linux Mint 64bit (Cinnamon Desktop) is much worse then on Win7. Basically for me it isn't true at all that Linux performance is much better.

I use the proprietary Geforce drivers under Linux and also i started the 64bit KSP executable.

I blame this on OpenGL, however there might be other reasons.

i7-3770k

Geforce GTX780

Resolution 1080p fullscreen

Mods only MechJeb and ModuleManager

Even with small ships with a small part count framerate drops as less as 30fps at times. Under Windows i have super smooth 60fps (Vsync on) all the time performance.

I can't recommend KSP on Linux yet.

My experience is pretty much like him. I played both in linux (64bit version) and windows (32bit version) on the same machine:

• i5-760 overclocked at 3.2GHz
  
• 8GB 1600MHz RAM
  
• Geforce GTX460 2GB
  
• 1080 Fullscreen
  
• Dualboot Ubuntu 14.04 - Windows 7
  

In linux framerate is linearly lower than windows and I was experiencing a lot of screen-tearing. Lagging due to high part count was also affected but not so drastically.

Overall performance is way better in Windows so in the end there is where I play KSP most of the times. I correct myself. ALL of the times.

The only drawback in Windows is that I have to use ActiveTextureManager to load my set of 85 mods.

[nukeboyt]

Even with small ships with a small part count framerate drops as less as 30fps at times. Under Windows i have super smooth 60fps (Vsync on) all the time performance.

How do you monitor FPS under Linux? Back under Windows, I could get it from Nvidia gforce experience. But how do I determine FPS in Linux?

[sal_vager]

Seeing the FPS of games in Linux is a pain if they don't provide their own method, though any game run in Wine can be made to show the FPS that's no use to us.

You could try glxosd to put an on-screen FPS counter on KSP, it seems to work.

To use it you need to start KSP from a terminal or a script with:

glxosd ./KSP.x86

Or:

glxosd ./KSP.x86_64

You should be able to just run glxgears as well and it'll output the FPS to the terminal, if your FPS drops in a game the FPS in glxgears should drop also, but it seems limited to the screen refresh rate.

Glxgears is so light on resources it doesn't effect your game at all, but you have to be able to see that terminal

Glxgears is garbage.

Edited January 6, 2015 by sal_vager

[nukeboyt]

Seeing the FPS of games in Linux is a pain if they don't provide their own method, though any game run in Wine can be made to show the FPS that's no use to us.

You could try glxosd to put an on-screen FPS counter on KSP, it seems to work.

Many thanks, Sal. You're always very helpful.

[KerBlam]

When you are testing this, are you importing your WIN save into linux? I've heard this can cause performance issues.

[steve_v]

You could try glxosd

There is also voglperf which, as well as a rather ugly OSD, can do other fun stuff like dumping frametimes to a CSV file for feeding to GNUPlot etc.

Or grab fps.dll from ksp-devtools, which should work on all platforms.

glxgears is just an old OpenGL demo, often used to check if GL is working but not really usefull for anything else.

Edited January 7, 2015 by steve_v

[nukeboyt]

When you are testing this, are you importing your WIN save into linux? I've heard this can cause performance issues.

Yes. I've brought my saves over. The only problems I ever had were associated with IR and tweakscale. For unknown reasons, one of my sips designed in windows, would improperly sized stock parts when brought over. It wasn't a big deal recreating the ship. Since I only play sandbox, I cannot say whether or not there are problems with a career mode game.

[poboy975]

I've been playing in Ubuntu 14.10, 64bit KSP. And for me, I can get around 150-200 partcount before the lag becomes unplayable. But I only have a i7-2670qm 2.2GHz Processor as well...I overclocked it to 2.7 a few days ago, and it helped, but not a whole lot. I also am running about 20-25 mods. I'm not running KSP through wine, I'm running it from the Linux-Steam install. They have a linux port. It does work better than my windows 8.1 with the same mods. I winodws, I'd have to use the opengl, or remove mods. With linux I don't have to do that. Nvidia 580m Graphics card, plus 12 gigs ram. (On a laptop)

[samsunix]

Hi all. I felt I have to take a part of this thread.

OS: Linux 3.16 LinuxMint 17.2 64bit / Windows 10 64bit

CPU: Intel® Core2 Quad CPU Q9550 @ 2.83GHz (4)

RAM: 3951

GPU: GeForce GTX 275/PCIe/SSE2 (896MB)

SM: 30 (OpenGL 3.3 [3.3.0 NVIDIA 340.93]) / Divx10 (since 11 doesn't support my gpu)

Add-ons Linux side:

Advanced Jet Engine - 2.4.1

B9 Aerospace Procedural Parts - 0.40

Community Resource Pack - 0.4.5

Ferram Aerospace Research - 0.15.5.1

Kerbal Attachment System - 0.5.4

Kerbal Inventory System - 1.2.2

KSP-AVC Plugin - 1.1.5

KW-Rocketry-Community-Fixes - 0.3

Kerbal Engineer Redux - 1.0.18

Kerbal Joint Reinforcement - 3.1.4

Infernal Robots - 0.21.3

ModularFlightIntegrator - 1.1.1

PlanetShine - 0.2.3.1

Procedural Wings - 0.10

RealChute - 1.3.2.3

RealismOverhaul - 10.5

SolverEngines - 1.11

TAC Life Support - 0.11.1.20

TweakScale - 2.2.4

(adding windows side later)

Linux side:

+ Everything works just like on windows side.

+ Able to run way more mods with better fps.

+ Able to build bigger ships with no lag.

+ FPS (I mean... While flying rocket or what ever, you see how effects actually should look like and getting space really doesn't take that long).

+ It's free OS.

- Work you have to do get KSP work as 64bit.

- Have to install couple mods just to fix bugs.

- (Recommended) Have to install missing fonts for mods.

- No rendering (known bug between unity and opengl).

- Physics need tweaking with a steam version of kerbal (easy to fix).

Windows side:

+ Rendering (DirectX)

+ Easy(er) to install ksp and ckan

+ No patches needed.

- Window$ 10 (all those extra firewalls, anti-spy-ware and secure software eating memory on background)

- Game crashing

- Limitation for 32bit

- OS doesn't only cost money but your privacy as well.

From a request I may write how-to for a linux and ksp to get it done from a scratch.

(which linux distro to choose, scripts you need, mods you need and extras)

edit: will add more info after logging back to windows side