What's the Factor that helps you load Bigger ships (more parts)?

[Halban]

As the title suggests. I'm wondering what the spec factor is (etc: RAM, Processor, Graphics Card) that helps you load more parts in KSP. A quick response would be great!

Edited November 11, 2013 by HatBat

[TimMartland]

I think its just general processing capacity and RAM but dont quote me on that - Its just a guess

[sal_vager]

KSP has a limit on how much RAM it can use, due to being 32bit, and most of the RAM is lost to textures.

So by using lower texture settings and parts with lower texture resolution, you can load more of them

[It'snorocketscience]

Graphics card and RAM are necessary. Graphics takes care of the size, and RAM takes care of the physics and collisions.

[Halban]

Thanks, I know what my next upgrade is gonna be, lol

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

I think it's clock speed. Higher the better

[Moar Boosters]

Going into the options menu, and putting the "Max Physics Delta-Time" slider all the way to the right. It makes the game run very slowly, but eliminates most of the random kraken attacks which plague larger craft.

My pc is getting on a bit.... gtx580 and first generation i5 but I have no problems getting 2000+ part rockets off the launchpad. I doubt a better pc would allow me to launch much higher part counts...... the main difference is the game wouldn't run quite so slowly.

Edited November 10, 2013 by Moar Boosters

[Spaceweezle]

but eliminates most of the random kraken attacks which plague larger craft.

Hahahah ... what!

[Tank Buddy]

Overclock your CPU. If you can. Physics on parts are primarily dependent on your CPU calculation it.

[Jason Patterson]

Hahahah ... what!

Back in the days of pre-0.17(?) there was a problem with the objects gaining random velocities when far from Kerbin. This was called the Space Kraken and it ate many a rocket. It was eliminated way back then, but it has been followed by a number of other physics bugs that can tear your ship apart. Many of these are also referred to as being due to the kraken, but they aren't.

[Mesons]

TimMartland

I think its just general processing capacity and RAM but dont quote me on that - Its just a guess

It'snorocketscience

Graphics card and RAM are necessary. Graphics takes care of the size, and RAM takes care of the physics and collisions.

SpaceSphereOfDeath

I think it's clock speed. Higher the better

He was trying to narrow down between these...everyone seems to have a different idea.

I was frustrated with how slow large-part-count ships ran on my computer, so I decided to upgrade my GPU (I had been given a suggestion from my more-hardware-informed brother that graphics processing may be the problem). I can run at higher texture settings now, but large-part-count ships still slow my gameplay to a crawl. My RAM is well over the 32-bit limit, so that leaves one option: central processing must be the limiting factor for large-part-count ships.

In the suggestions forum and 0.23 features posts I've seen many players posting asking if multi-threading will be introduced/improved, but no hint at whether it will be. Most modern computers have multiple processors and many GPUs have physics calculation optimization, so I sincerely hope that multi-threading support is added/enhanced (I don't know exactly how the game handles things now but if it's there it's not doing enough). Hopefully things are improved in 0.23 because the game running slowly really takes away a lot of the fun...

[700NitroXpress]

The maximum part ship that I ever launched was around 2500 parts.

4.0ghz processor

32gb of RAM

EVGA GTX 690 graphics card

[sibrit]

The CPU is handling all the physics calculations for the "focused" vehicle, and I doubt the component models are complex enough to use up a tonne of memory, so processor speed is the biggest factor in determining gameplay rate. I don't know whether KSP makes use of multiple cores. If it did, then more cores would also improve performance.

You could try setting the KSP process Priority to higher than Normal, but you run the risk of making your PC unstable.

[700NitroXpress]

The CPU is handling all the physics calculations for the "focused" vehicle, and I doubt the component models are complex enough to use up a tonne of memory, so processor speed is the biggest factor in determining gameplay rate. I don't know whether KSP makes use of multiple cores. If it did, then more cores would also improve performance.

You could try setting the KSP process Priority to higher than Normal, but you run the risk of making your PC unstable.

KSP's engine uses single core much similar to the Unity game engine. This means no hyperthreading. Model poly count and texture resolutions aren't really a factor for this game. Those both use RAM anyway.