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

[popos1]

But stock KSP without mods at the highest detail takes 1.5 GB RAM on 1 flight so if you reduce to low, quietly come down to 1 GB, so if you have 3GB RAM and windows takes 1.5 GB so you have 500MB free

You don't belive, this is screenshoot:

So on stock KSP you don't have any problem with RAM and this mod is useless, but with mods KSP takes 3,7 GB RAM so we need this mod, but new KSP has a new dds file and this mod doesn't support this

[damerell]

But stock KSP without mods at the highest detail takes 1.5 GB RAM on 1 flight so if you reduce to low, quietly come down to 1 GB, so if you have 3GB RAM and windows takes 1.5 GB so you have 500MB free

No. The limit is on the address space used by the 32-bit process, not the amount of physical RAM. You could add a pagefile to the system and it would work fine.

[Kershu5]

I'm afraid some of this information is confusing me, seems to conflict- I may just have a case of the dumb and not understand though- I don't know what this dds thing means for example. Is ATM now superfluous with 1.0.4? I switched from 64 bit to 32 bit today and noticed a dramatic improvement but still a lot of slowdown (all my beautiful mods ). Will ATM still be helpful in reduce the drain on memory so I can get better performance, or does KSP basically do that itself now..?

Edited June 30, 2015 by Kershu5

[The Sundance Kid]

I'm having an issue where when I start a new game the flags don't appear. Then when I get into the game no contracts are being displayed. This is the only mod I am using and it is the aggressive version. I've had a good gander but nothing seems to apply. Any ideas?

[Nansuchao]

Flags and contracts aren't related at all to ATM. Try to reinstall the game.

[The Sundance Kid]

Just tried reinstalling but still getting the same issues.

[Nansuchao]

Did you took it from Steam?

[The Sundance Kid]

I just uninstalled it from steam. Should I try getting rid of everything in the KSP folder?

Edit - this didn't work either.

Help me internet wizards, you're my only hope.

Edited June 30, 2015 by The Sundance Kid

[kStrout]

When it gets stuck when loading a part, in my case the mrk 1-2 command pod, do I just keep quitting and trying again? I have done so about 3 times with no improvement, is this just part of the set up?

[Yawzheek]

I just reinstalled KSP 1.0.4 fresh, and then a few dozen mods with ATM, and I noticed, even using aggressive, the game boots far too quickly, as strange as that sounds. I thought this was really odd behavior, as in the past first launch took ages, and now it's like any normal boot up, so I'm assuming that it's not loading properly. I checked out my texturecache folder, and it's 20.7 MB. Is this correct? I honestly don't know, but I'm a bit concerned with the unrealistically fast boot time.

[smunisto]

As stated a number of times in the last 100 posts or so - currently ATM does next to nothing(aside from actually increasingyour memory usage). This is due to the fact that 95% of the most have switched to using .dds textures - a format that ATM does not modify. As a result all ATM does now is hog some memory and compress leftover .png's such as flags and toolbar icons.

[WildBillKerbin]

As stated a number of times in the last 100 posts or so - currently ATM does next to nothing(aside from actually increasingyour memory usage). This is due to the fact that 95% of the most have switched to using .dds textures - a format that ATM does not modify. As a result all ATM does now is hog some memory and compress leftover .png's such as flags and toolbar icons.

If this is indeed the case, and if ATM is still compressing (and reducing quality of) icons, would an option to ignore those smaller images be of any use?

I'd love to take advantage of compressing larger textures while preserving the detail of smaller ones, particularly icons since they're of limited use if I can't tell what they are.

FWIW... the last time I ran ATM, I saw a large savings in ram, but that was pre-1.0.4.

WB

[Neutrinovore]

As stated a number of times in the last 100 posts or so - currently ATM does next to nothing(aside from actually increasingyour memory usage). This is due to the fact that 95% of the most have switched to using .dds textures - a format that ATM does not modify. As a result all ATM does now is hog some memory and compress leftover .png's such as flags and toolbar icons.

I strongly disagree! True, most NEW mods are now using .dds textures, but what about older mods that haven't been updated in a long time? Such as LLL, Spacetech, Lionhead Aerospace, FusTek, B9, KW Rocketry, AIES... These are all mods that I can think of off the top of my head that I still use all the time, and most of them have a lot of parts with an equally large number of NON-.dds textures, both in .png and .tga formats. I tried removing ATM and loading the game without it last night. Nuh-uh! Ran out of memory about halfway through loading.

So, your statement that "95% of [mods] have switched to using .dds textures..." isn't really even close to being true. I still get a large benefit from using ATM, as do many others, I'm sure.

My point, folks, is that smunisto is of course entitled to his/her opinion, but in MY humble opinion, ATM is far from being useless or unnecessary. I also hope that this mod is kept maintained and up to date, because I think it will still be a while before non-.dds textures are completely phased out of all the mods that people still use.

My $0.02.

Later!

P. S. Oops! My apologies, KW Rocketry has been updated to .dds. I missed that update, I'll download it tonight!

Edited July 9, 2015 by Neutrinovore

[damerell]

I strongly disagree! True, most NEW mods are now using .dds textures, but what about older mods that haven't been updated in a long time? Such as LLL, Spacetech, Lionhead Aerospace, FusTek, B9, KW Rocketry, AIES...

Older part mods that haven't been updated in a long time won't work in 1.0 because of the way stack nodes changed. Some of these are limping into 1.0 land like B9; Lionhead's thread describes it as being for 0.25 and the author was last seen in April saying "1.0 sometime!" so some are not just this minute.

So... perhaps you are running 0.90, perhaps you wrangle with a stack of workarounds for 1.0, but either way you ain't typical.

You're also not typical because you appear to have a giant list of giant parts mods, which most of us either a) can have because we use Linux or decided was a bad plan, ATM or no.

I think a more typical case is that the savings from ATM ain't worth it smearing so many icons with Vaseline (and no, I am not complaining from the peanut gallery, when I did use ATM I submitted a github pull request to fix every icon I noticed it smearing).

I would suggest that if large parts mods you enjoy using are not yet updated to use DDS textures, your efforts are best spent on sending patches that mean they are.

[BudgetHedgehog]

Also, KW Rocketry already uses dds textures... EDIT: and the dev builds of FusTek and B9

[Neutrinovore]

Older part mods that haven't been updated in a long time won't work in 1.0 because of the way stack nodes changed. Some of these are limping into 1.0 land like B9; Lionhead's thread describes it as being for 0.25 and the author was last seen in April saying "1.0 sometime!" so some are not just this minute.

So... perhaps you are running 0.90, perhaps you wrangle with a stack of workarounds for 1.0, but either way you ain't typical.

You're also not typical because you appear to have a giant list of giant parts mods, which most of us either a) can have because we use Linux or decided was a bad plan, ATM or no.

I think a more typical case is that the savings from ATM ain't worth it smearing so many icons with Vaseline (and no, I am not complaining from the peanut gallery, when I did use ATM I submitted a github pull request to fix every icon I noticed it smearing).

I would suggest that if large parts mods you enjoy using are not yet updated to use DDS textures, your efforts are best spent on sending patches that mean they are.

Wow. Hard to believe I'm being criticized for defending a mod in the mod's own thread...

-The rest of this post has been self-redacted, mainly because I really don't feel like engaging in a battle of wits with unarmed opponents.-

[smunisto]

Wow. Hard to believe I'm being criticized for defending a mod in the mod's own thread...

-The rest of this post has been self-redacted, mainly because I really don't feel like engaging in a battle of wits with unarmed opponents.-

0_o Is this some sort of a battle? Let's battle over whether a statement is true or not. Your imagination is running too wild.

People mentioned and tested it(go and read a few hundred posts back), I also tested it after reading comments that it no longer works - not because the plugin itself is broken(which it is not and nobody claims it is), but because it does not interact with .dds.

And yes, ever since stock KSP switched to DDS back in 1.0, 95% of the existing mods switched too - no reason not to. The only mods that have not switched to it are mods that are not updated for 1.0 and run with workarounds. And even most of these mods have community workarounds including conversion to dds.

Yes, pre-0.90 ATM did miracles, I did not even consider running my game without it. But, it is a fact, that right now, on an up-to-date install of the game with up-to-date mods, ATM is useless. If you insist on running the game with some old unupdated mods - I guess those are some abandoned ones, since from what I've seen, almost everything has been updated for at least 1.0 - then maybe, just maybe, there is some use for ATM.

But that is not the case for the largest part of the playerbase. It's more of a niche case - yours.

So, I don't know what "battles" you want to "battle" on a keyboard, but I guess the war for ATM is over.

[damerell]

Wow. Hard to believe I'm being criticized for defending a mod in the mod's own thread...

Is it? I think where I am sitting the important question is whether ATM is now useful. If it is not, "defending" it is clearly counterproductive.

[Red Iron Crown]

Please keep it civil folks, no need to insult each other.

[Enceos]

-- Copying my post from another thread:

My KSP install has 100+ mods and never crashes.

Almost all of the mods today come out with converted .dds textures and Active Texture Management can't do anything with them. On my install I scanned the GameData for the biggest folders and went over part textures in each of them. Many parts made by Squad and modders have overly big and detailed textures for parts as small as Telus Mobility Enhancer, plus some parts don't really need normal maps. The rule of thumb was: No small part should have texture sizes over 1200Kb (which is 1024x1024px), so I downsized most of the textures to 512px and even 256px in some cases, and deleted many normal maps. In total my 100+ modded GameDada folder now weights only 610Mb, Squad folder included.

For ATM: it needs to find a way to resize .dds textures, cause many of them are too big.

Edited July 11, 2015 by Enceos

[TheFireRodan]

What's the average effect of Basic edition? Mine was reduced from ~3000mb to ~2700mb. I can't use KSPx64 because Ferram's mod.

[gleedadswell]

Several of you are saying that under 1.0 ATM does little or nothing. You folks sound like you know what you're talking about (and I *don't* know anything about this).

But I'm noticing a definite speedup using ATM. I'm running 1.0.4 virtually unmodded (the only mods I'm using are ATM and Navyfish's docking alignment utility). But perhaps my case is unusual: I'm running 64 bit under linux and my computer is so old and slow that it is really barely able to run KSP. With ATM I wouldn't say that KSP is running fast, but it is at least less painfully slow than it is without it.

[PCanas]

Ok, so the op says it would a looong time to load in the first launch, but it took about 2 or 3 min, even with KW Rocketry and B9 (I know they alredy have dxt). Shouldn't it take longer? I'm using a separate installation of game. I began by launching with no mods, and then added the mods 1 by 1. I'm using basic mode and just unpacked the game data folder from the .rar to the game data of the game.

[Armarnis]

-- Copying my post from another thread:

My KSP install has 100+ mods and never crashes.

Almost all of the mods today come out with converted .dds textures and Active Texture Management can't do anything with them. On my install I scanned the GameData for the biggest folders and went over part textures in each of them. Many parts made by Squad and modders have overly big and detailed textures for parts as small as Telus Mobility Enhancer, plus some parts don't really need normal maps. The rule of thumb was: No small part should have texture sizes over 1200Kb (which is 1024x1024px), so I downsized most of the textures to 512px and even 256px in some cases, and deleted many normal maps. In total my 100+ modded GameDada folder now weights only 610Mb, Squad folder included.

For ATM: it needs to find a way to resize .dds textures, cause many of them are too big.

could you explain how you made the textures smaller for me please and give names of needed tools (if any are neccessary), that would be really cool

[smunisto]

Ok, so the op says it would a looong time to load in the first launch, but it took about 2 or 3 min, even with KW Rocketry and B9 (I know they alredy have dxt). Shouldn't it take longer? I'm using a separate installation of game. I began by launching with no mods, and then added the mods 1 by 1. I'm using basic mode and just unpacked the game data folder from the .rar to the game data of the game.

It will not take longer, because most likely all of the mods that you have are using DDS textures - so ATM is running, but not compressing anything. And the compressing part is why the game loads slow the first time with ATM - it is creating the compressed textures.