Orbital station - terrible performance

[Bluntie]

Recently started putting a small base into orbit around Kerbin, and already getting some rather severe performance problems, even after just docking three pieces to it. My machine is pretty good and have toyed with far more complex constructions on the ground before with no hitches. Anyone have any tricks I'm not aware of? Do docking parts together require massive processing power or what?

Edited November 12, 2013 by Bluntie

[Vanamonde]

Here's one trick: if you're orbiting under 160km, Kerbin's surface is still being partially rendered, causing some lag. Also, I've heard that the number of light fixtures attached contributes to lag, but I haven't verified that one.

[boomerdog2000]

I'm fairly certain it was only if the lights were on, but I haven't verified that either. I can definitely confirm the 160 km performance boost though.

[Johnno]

It's not the amount of modules you dock that matters but the amount of parts in total. On top of that as already mentioned lights and proximity to Kerbin may play a part as well. Also I've read of certain mod parts for stations causing issues, could be that too.

[lajoswinkler]

I thought 240 km was the rendering limit, not 160?

[DMagic]

I thought 240 km was the rendering limit, not 160?

Nope, it's 160km. I put most things above 160km when I'm doing anything more complicated than immediately launching to another planet. The difference between being below 160km and above it is extremely obvious when you're on a relatively weak GPU.

[LeFudge]

I like to keep them higher up too, my laptop is a little weak as well. Basically just number of parts, my last station froze up(cant even load it any more) at around 350 parts, which is weird because I've launched more complex rockets than that. Something else I like to do is use the ClampOTron Sr ports to keep it more rigid, and then I disable the reaction wheels in everything. Also I use larger parts whenever possible (z4k batteries instead of a bunch of z400's, or an orange Jumbo instead of a series of smaller tanks for example)

[Vanamonde]

I thought 240 km was the rendering limit, not 160?

I don't know the details of the inner workings, but there seem to be several levels of increasing detail rendition as you get closer to a world. I mentioned the 160km one specifically because many players don't seem to know about it, it's right around where one tends to orbit anyway and so it comes up a lot, and it makes a big difference.

[Catsceo]

I'm fairly certain it was only if the lights were on, but I haven't verified that either. I can definitely confirm the 160 km performance boost though.

I can vouch for lights on lowering performance. If I turned mine on on my old station my FPS would go from 5 to 1.

[Bluntie]

Thanks for all the answers, guys!

My orbit is at around 400km (wanted to base it on the ISS, which is apparently at that height), so I suppose it's not the surface of Kerbin causing the trouble. I do have lights on it though, so I'll try turning those off. Or is the mere fact that there is lights on it at all the problem?

[Traches]

Part count is everything when you're running KSP on a capable computer. I don't like to build anything with more than 150-200 parts, because beyond that the time dilation gets irritating. Build everything with as few parts as possible-- it doesn't matter much if it's an orange tank or a single pane solar panel.

Edit - There are mods that will weld things together for you to get better performance; they basically turn several parts into one part. Worth looking into.

[Bluntie]

Yeah, I'm starting to come to that conclusion too. Bit of a shame, was hoping to build a massive space station. Oh well. Perhaps with updates. Thanks again for all the answers, guys. Most helpful.

[KerbMav]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/38577-0-22-UbioZur-Welding-Ltd-2-0-Playtest-3-Now-In-Game-Tool

Some parts dont like to get welded it seems, engines especially, docking ports limited to one per welding, dont know about lights - have not tried this mod myself yet.

But i guess parts without a special function and without animations should always work and welding lots of structural parts, tanks, batteries etc. into one chassis already lowers the part count.