Optimization

[lumpman2]

I'm trying to get ready for recording, but I don't know anything that I can do to improve my framerate while looking at water (i.e. at the launchpad). I have KW, B9, Kerbal Alarm, Kerbal Engineer installed.

4GB RAM

2.7 GHz dual-core processor

1 GB AMD Radeon 5450 graphics card

but even with my terrain quality on low I still get below 10 fps any time I'm remotely close to water (still happens when I'm looking at normal terrain, but water is the biggest offender.)

Any tips on what I should do to at least make it reasonable for recording?

[Sirrobert]

I think there are a few mods that reduce the terrain lag, but I don't have a problem with it so I'm not sure

[Smidge204]

The next update is supposed to include various performance tweaks, so if you can wait until Tuesday I'd recommend seeing if the newer version helps before trying anything else.

I had pretty terrible problems exactly like what you describe, and they've largely vanished after I updated my video card drivers - even though I had the latest, there was a "beta" version available. I used this utility called Display Driver Uninstaller to clean out all remnants of the previous software, then reinstalled fresh. Helped a lot.

Since we both have AMD cards (I've got an R9 280X) you might benefit from a similar tactic.

=Smidge=

[NeMeSiS]

It is because your GPU is very weak, this may do wonders for you, and if you want you can lower the ocean quality even further in trade for some more graphical glitches.

[SnappingTurtle]

It is because your GPU is very weak, this may do wonders for you, and if you want you can lower the ocean quality even further in trade for some more graphical glitches.

I disagree with this, I have a Radeon HD 4870 which handles the graphics of the game fine. It's probably more a matter of your old CPU and probably more/faster RAM would help.

[numerobis]

I'm trying to get ready for recording, but I don't know anything that I can do to improve my framerate while looking at water (i.e. at the launchpad). I have KW, B9, Kerbal Alarm, Kerbal Engineer installed.

4GB RAM

2.7 GHz dual-core processor

1 GB AMD Radeon 5450 graphics card

but even with my terrain quality on low I still get below 10 fps any time I'm remotely close to water (still happens when I'm looking at normal terrain, but water is the biggest offender.)

Any tips on what I should do to at least make it reasonable for recording?

Either wait until 0.23 hits the shelves, or record at 10 FPS and speed it up in post.

[DMagic]

I disagree with this, I have a Radeon HD 4870 which handles the graphics of the game fine. It's probably more a matter of your old CPU and probably more/faster RAM would help.

No, I think his GPU is far weaker than yours. It is an extremely low-end video card, the kind that has been pretty much replaced by recent integrated GPUs. The CPU could also be an issue, 2.7GHz dual core doesn't really mean much. There are huge differences between different families or generations of CPUs running at the same clockspeed.

The next update might improve this issue, though I've yet to hear anyone directly say that the ocean terrain problem has been addressed. Maybe I just missed it, but all I've heard about has been CPU related performance.

The ocean terrain fixed linked to above might help a little, but that really only provides a major improvement when you are at default or high terrain settings.

[NeMeSiS]

I disagree with this, I have a Radeon HD 4870 which handles the graphics of the game fine. It's probably more a matter of your old CPU and probably more/faster RAM would help.

The HD4870 is incredibly fast compared to the HD5450.

http://www.hwcompare.com/398/radeon-hd-4870-1gb-vs-radeon-hd-5450/

AMD names must be read like this:

1st number: Generation

2nd number: Determines low/med/high range

3rd number: Further refinement

So your card is 1 generation older, but the 8 indicates a high end card, while the 5450, while newer, is a very low range card and a lot slower.

[Stone Blue]

What OS are running, lumpman2?

If Windows 7 or 8, and with only 4GB of RAM, personally, I would try making a separate dual-boot, Windows partition to run KSP on. All you need is your Windows install media, and an extra 30-40GB of space on your harddrive.

OR buy more RAM....

Win7 reserves 164MB of RAM for hardware reserve, then the OS itself can use between 1.25-1.75GB at idle, depending on what startup and background processes you have running....So basically with your computer just sitting there doing nothing, you only have between maybe 2.2-2.7GB left to run KSP with....IIRC, stock unmodified game with most settings set low, runs about 1.2GB at idle....Leaving you maybe 1-1.75GB overhead for the game to use when it starts calculating physics stuff...Not to mention that doesnt leave much left for mods...Especially the big ones like B9 AND KW together....The only thing with running a slimmed sown Win partition for KSP, would be that you would have to disconnect from the internet while playing....Getting down to less than 650MB of system RAM requires not letting all the networking features and firewall and antivirus to run.

Running a separate Windows partition running ONLY KSP and NOTHING else, its possible to get Win7 down to using only about 530-650MB of RAM...Meaning you can free up another 600MB-1.2GB of RAM for KSP to use...which means possibly you could possibly have between 3-3.3GB for KSP to use total.

Also, have you used the Squad, B9 & KW Texture Reduction packs?

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/51361-0-21-Squad-Texture-Reduction-Pack-B9-and-KW-Packs-also

Also look into this:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/59005-0-22-Release-1-Active-Memory-Reduction-Mod

With a separate Windows/KSP partition, the texture reduction packs, and the active memory mod, I have 117 (yes, one-hundred-seventeen) mods installed....Including some of the bigger parts mods (though not B9 at this time)....

My total RAM usage is around 3.8-4.2GB (I have 6GB installed).

[Eric S]

The next update is supposed to include various performance tweaks, so if you can wait until Tuesday I'd recommend seeing if the newer version helps before trying anything else.

Almost every streamer during KerbalKon commented on how much smoother the game played while recording, so I'd definitely consider waiting until then.

[lumpman2]

I have changed the texture settings in the config, but that didn't do a lot for me.

But I just realized that Tuesday is the 17th and I'll try recording then, since that was the first day I was going to start. The only problem is that I don't know if I should use a new career mode file, sandbox, or import my old one into the new version. Also, I've filled up on RAM and I don't think there's any more room down there (my computer is 5 years old, but I have no idea if there are more than 4 slots in there; please correct me if I'm wrong.)