[1.0][Release-5-0][April 28, 2015] Active Texture Management - Save RAM!

[johnsonwax]

So, do I understand correctly that this makes DDSLoader effectively redundant because it's converting all textures to DXT, caching them, and then using them natively?

[rbray89]

So, do I understand correctly that this makes DDSLoader effectively redundant because it's converting all textures to DXT, caching them, and then using them natively?

Yes/No. If a mod ships with DDS textures, you'll need to use DDS loader for those, but otherwise, yes. You don't need to convert existing textures to DDS.

[johnsonwax]

Here's the ATM 4.0 game: Does it take longer to convert your textures in 4.0 first pass than the game previously ran without crashing due to hitting memory cap? I'm going out on a limb and say that even on my quad i7/SSD machine, that KSP will run longer in the first pass without crashing than it has in the last week.

[rbray89]

Here's the ATM 4.0 game: Does it take longer to convert your textures in 4.0 first pass than the game previously ran without crashing due to hitting memory cap? I'm going out on a limb and say that even on my quad i7/SSD machine, that KSP will run longer in the first pass without crashing than it has in the last week.

Sorry? Not sure I follow. It will take a while to compress. Also: how fast was the DDS conversion tool? I am using pretty much the same library (ported) so there may be room for optimization if I knew there were gains to be had.

[johnsonwax]

I was being snarky. I can usually only keep KSP running for about an hour before it runs out of RAM and crashes. If it takes 90 minutes to compress the textures, it could be the longest KSP session I've had in a while, and that alone is something to be happy about, even if I'm just playing the slow progress bar mini-game.

But between this and the new MM release which caches patches, my frequent reboots might be much more tolerable.

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

"Everything" is in the texturecache (at least it feels like it), including BoulderCo/Atmospheres (from EVE Overhaul) and /Clouds (from 7-4 and AVP -- is it bad that they are both present?) -- it's been a few game sessions since the big initial load (which generally went without a hitch).

Using EVE Overhaul, I do see the clouds from the ground and orbit (I don't see them in the start-up screen the way I had with the previous versions -- previously, I'd thought that that was that and not examined more closely), but no city lights, which is a bit creepy with the darker skybox I've installed.

EDIT: I also don't see any terrain textures from orbit either, which makes me wonder if that's related to the lack of city lights. They're being loaded without error in the log, though.

EDIT 2: I'm whipping up a new install with only stock, this mod, and EVE Overhaul, to see if this is still the case.

Edited December 9, 2014 by Kerbas_ad_astra

[Drew Kerman]

Wow, even more RAM saved! Chopped off about 500MB. You weren't kidding about the initial load times, haha, but all good after that. I see reports of EVE textures not working but I just dropped in the new version, kept my old configs intact, and I'm getting clouds, city lights, the whole shebang no problems.

I wonder if some of the lack of city lights is from people not knowing about the issue where city lights generally don't load in the Tracking Station until after you've gone in and out if the Flight mode with a vessel loaded. At least, that's the consistent behavior for me

[rbray89]

"Everything" is in the texturecache (at least it feels like it), including BoulderCo/Atmospheres (from EVE Overhaul) and /Clouds (from 7-4 and AVP -- is it bad that they are both present?) -- it's been a few game sessions since the big initial load (which generally went without a hitch).

Using EVE Overhaul, I do see the clouds from the ground and orbit (I don't see them in the start-up screen the way I had with the previous versions -- previously, I'd thought that that was that and not examined more closely), but no city lights, which is a bit creepy with the darker skybox I've installed.

EDIT: I also don't see any terrain textures from orbit either, which makes me wonder if that's related to the lack of city lights. They're being loaded without error in the log, though.

EDIT 2: I'm whipping up a new install with only stock, this mod, and EVE Overhaul, to see if this is still the case.

Could you do a screenshot of the directory? I'm thinking that it wasn't cleaned up properly...

[Lechuza]

I don't see the clouds on Kerbin or Duna or any other planet for that matter, the clouds are from EVE Overhaul and/or the latest Astronomers Visual Pack Interstellar. I do see the City lights from orbit.

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

Is that behavior new to this version? I've never experienced that before. In any case, hopping to and from various vessels in orbit and the editor (still on my usual heavily-played and heavily-modded) hasn't brought back the lights or the terrain.

One other thing that occurred to me: I run KSP with forced OpenGL (RAM savings so I can run moar mods!). The new install I'm putting together will use DirectX to begin with, so we'll see if that might make a difference.

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

Could you do a screenshot of the directory? I'm thinking that it wasn't cleaned up properly...

Which one? I'm pretty sure I cleared out all the old DLLs and stuff (zipped up the "Clouds" directory as a backup and then deleted it, just in case it would interfere somehow).

[Lechuza]

Which one? I'm pretty sure I cleared out all the old DLLs and stuff (zipped up the "Clouds" directory as a backup and then deleted it, just in case it would interfere somehow).

Did the same thing here and I am having the same problem. Only I forgot to backup :S

Let me know if it works with a clean install. Thanks!

[rbray89]

These are all really odd issues. My suggestion would be to try deleting the cache folder for "Atmosphere" and/or "clouds" and see if that fixes it.

[LitaAlto]

I have a memory monitor and defrag utility which I often run alongside KSP just to help keep things running smoothly.

I just started the new ATM. My PC has crawled to an expected near-standstill.

But I'm watching the memory utilization drop. And this is actually cool enough that I'm OK with just watching the load screen eke along.

I'm such a geek.

[Lechuza]

These are all really odd issues. My suggestion would be to try deleting the cache folder for "Atmosphere" and/or "clouds" and see if that fixes it.

Any way I can make it so it will skip the Clouds folder? That way I will be using ATM for everything except the clouds textures? I could try doing that.

[Robotengineer]

Has anyone else had issues with KSP stalling on a Mac and having to force quit it? Or should I just wait through it, even though it's unresponsive?

[requimrar]

@Robotengineer:

Just wait, the progress bar is still moving. Unless you have a ridiculously powerful computer, it will take upwards of a few seconds to convert each texture, especially higher resolution ones.

[Artophwar]

Sorry? Not sure I follow. It will take a while to compress. Also: how fast was the DDS conversion tool? I am using pretty much the same library (ported) so there may be room for optimization if I knew there were gains to be had.

By the the DDS conversion tool are talking about DDS4KSP?? Because I will tell you that it converts things pretty fast. I did my whole mod folder in like 2 mins or less with about 70 mods.

[Saint-Stanislas]

ACTIVE_TEXTURE_MANAGER_CONFIG

{

folder = ThemodIwantToSkip

enabled = false

}

just put this kind of file along with the others .cfg in boulderCo/activetexturemanagertconfig

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

Got done with the Stock+ATM+EVE Overhaul save (which took longer than expected because I've been spoiled by OpenGL -- DirectX won't do work, like compress textures, when I'm not focused on it). Clouds, terrain, and city lights visible upon starting a new save (but still not from the starting screen, which is a disappointing loss), so I'll see about deleting those cache folders to see if that fixes my heavily-modded install (and it doesn't, I'll play the game of "which of Kerbas's umpty-bazillion mods breaks ATM 4?").

While I'm running such a clean save, I've noticed that the light on my ship also flickers periodically, and it seems to be linked to passing over a very cloudy spot. Also, when coming into sunrise on a high orbit, a big circle of the atmospheric layer seems to vanish, but it only grows to half the planet. Also also, is the water supposed to be so clear? It's fine near the shore, but looks very strange on the horizon. (I guess these might be better directed to the EVE Overhaul thread.)

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[LitaAlto]

By the the DDS conversion tool are talking about DDS4KSP?? Because I will tell you that it converts things pretty fast. I did my whole mod folder in like 2 mins or less with about 70 mods.

That was my experience as well.

[AccidentalDisassembly]

Sorry if this is an idiotic question - I get what the max_size variable in the config file does, but what about min_size? I assume that it means that anything of size X or smaller won't be scaled at all - does it exclude certain images from scaling like that, or does it prevent downscaling past that size? E.g. size 512x512, scale set to 4 (would become 128x128), but min_size set to 256: that image becomes 256x256?

I guess in other words: is it the minimum size of images to be considered for scaling, or is it the minimum size of the resulting scaled images (which would include the first case, too)?

[Lechuza]

Still can't get those clouds working, I guess I might not have any other option but to revert to a previous ATM version, although I was cutting my mem usage by entire gig

[johnsonwax]

Ok, this is working ridiculously well so far. Much faster and my RAM usage has remained in check. The only problem I can report is that the thumbnails in the VAB that are shown when you rollover sometimes stick - if I rollover one part, it'll pick up the thumbnail properly, but show the same one on the next part, etc. until I move the mouse away from the part picker and then it resets. It's possible it was doing that before and I upgraded to 4.0 just didn't notice, however. And it only does it in a few places, not everywhere.

But KSP is playable again. Thank you a million times.

[Robotengineer]

I tried to get AVP, this is what happens.

Other mods.

Here is the player.log.

I loaded it with stock first, and then added AVP, could that be it?