Performance issue with big number part ships

[lavandulata]

Hi, i have been playing KSP for a while now and greatly enjoyed it.

So far i have been able to find information on any and all issues i had with the game (good job on the wiki and forum guys ) but recently i got a performance problem and i cant find anything on it.

The issue happened when i decided to build a multipurpose space station 7 relatively simple pieces (science lander, kethane refinery lander, core habitat and 4 kethane scanning probes) in total that brought the station up to 327 parts. While i was doing the docking the game got progressively slower until when the station was finished i got to 7 fps which made it very hard to navigate. My PC is pretty strong animal so i was really surprised that this happened, normally it chews games with no trouble . Once i tried to get the station moving it actually broke to pieces in space.

To KSP wizzes: - Is there any mod that handles better big and complex ships?

To Devs: - Will there be some optimization in the near future versions as the opportunity of creating a self sufficient flying kerbal city traveling between the planets is so tempting ?

Any help is appreciated.

[Liowen]

One thing I would suggest is looking and seeing if you have a any debris that need to be cleaned up, both on the ground and in space. These will have an impact on system performance as each piece has to be loaded in, as far as I am understanding it anyhow. I am sure that they will be optimizing more as development progresses, just have to give them time to work on the codes. This is also why I am not doing big bases right now, I mayy leave my tug/lander in LKO and just refuel and change the crew as needed it as needed.

[Tank Buddy]

What is your CPU's Clock speed?

[lavandulata]

All debris are removed and for comparison when i am loading different flight (basically any other than the station) i don't have a problem.

The CPU is "AMD Phenon II X4 970" - 3.5 Ghz (4 cores).

[Guest Brody_Peffley]

Troll: MY CLOCK SPEED IS 50 MHZ

[Vanamonde]

If your orbit is below 160km, the surface of Kerbin is still being partially rendered, which will slow things a bit.

[Sirine]

If your orbit is below 160km, the surface of Kerbin is still being partially rendered, which will slow things a bit.

The 160km this help a lot.

and...

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/60230-I-would-like-to-ask-you-to-configure-your-computer-for-advanced-players/page2

This might also help.

[700NitroXpress]

You should be able to do fine with large part count ships. My average ship is 600 - 700 parts and some of my space stations are around 1500 parts, still get good frame rates at 800 part ships, but once it gets into the thousands I'll get 10 fps or lower, but I don't really mind it all that much.

For any future optimization, they would have to write code that acts as a boolean operation between parts in the VAB during construction so that way they could merge multiple components into larger pieces. This would make a 1000 part ship act like a 100 part ship. The collision mesh of the multi part object would all have to be compounded together into one big mesh for a large object. This would be a significant coding challenge. Hopefully they're using custom made collision meshes and not the default collision mesh that Unity generates based off of the model. The physics should then act on the large pieces and not on each small piece individually. At least, that's how it makes sense to me, but I'm a 3D Artist and not a Programmer.

Also, I do believe there's a mod called Welder or something like that, it does basically what I described above as far as I know, but I've never used it.

[Liowen]

The only other thing, as far as hardware is concerned, would be your video card might be maxing out, Not trolling just offering ideas as to what might be causing the issue.

[xTwisteDx]

There is a mod that will allow you to "Weld" as many structural parts together into one part. This helps a ton and I have taken massive ships and constructions and made them a much lower part count.

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/ubioweldingltd/

[DMagic]

The only other thing, as far as hardware is concerned, would be your video card might be maxing out, Not trolling just offering ideas as to what might be causing the issue.

If performance is fine with smaller crafts then the issue is not likely to be the video card. Crafts themselves don't put too much stress on the GPU, the biggest graphics hog is the terrain system. Most of the time it's easy enough to work around that issue, and in the worst case you can just rotate the camera around to keep the ground out of view. If doing that doesn't make a difference then you probably aren't GPU limited.

330 parts isn't that much, but AMD CPUs do tend to under-perform in KSP, at least relative to their benchmark values.

If you haven't already you can try pushing the physics delta time slider all the way to the right in the settings menu. That's the only option that really directly affects CPU limited performance.

[DrMonte]

The issue happened when i decided to build a multipurpose space station 7 relatively simple pieces (science lander, kethane refinery lander, core habitat and 4 kethane scanning probes) in total that brought the station up to 327 parts.

I had an issue with ISA Map SAT mod. Even smallest ship launch dropped fps if ISA antenna was attached. uninstalled this mod at all. Some other mod working in background could be an issue (like scanning probe).

Although there is some funny thing with graphical engines. They will handle million identical parts in the same view but they will hold on hundred if parts are different.

[700NitroXpress]

There is a mod that will allow you to "Weld" as many structural parts together into one part. This helps a ton and I have taken massive ships and constructions and made them a much lower part count.

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/ubioweldingltd/

That's what I was think of, this should be part of the main stock game, right next to the subassemblies, there should be another tab that has all of the custom made welded components in it. Basically, we would just make the part and drag it in the box the exact same as the subassemblies, but this welds all of the parts together and saves it as a welded component.

[SSSPutnik]

Problem is, doesn't this subtract from gameplay?

Half the "fun" is your rocket disintegrating.

If you just can weld everything into a lump then...

The game would need two views of your craft, one where everything is broken up into components and an additional display instance that can "unweld" failed bits.

[lavandulata]

Thank you for your responses guys. I set the graphics to a minimum as suggested and it helped the frame rate a bit. The 160 km mark sounds good but i can't test it at the moment as when i tried to move the station it fell into pieces again. I will try it with editing the position file .

The welding parts mode sounds like a fix for my problem. I will try it and see how it goes.

Thanks to all who responded