bay trail performance

[lazarus1024]

I just loaded up KSP on my Asus T100 to try it out figuring there is NO way it would run in anything resembling playable fashion.

Oh crap I was wrong.

I set physics to .07 seconds per frame. Quarter res textures, 1280x720, no AA, simple terrain and fast aero rendering (or something like that). It doesn't look bad on the 10.1" screen. Not wonderful, but not bad.

On the launch pad with a 37 part rocket (just throwing one together real fast) it runs full speed through most of the launch, with a little slow down if viewing the ocean on most of the screen. Same up in orbit. We are talking maybe 25-35fps not viewing the ocean with these settings, around 15fps or so viewing the ocean.

In general it is pretty smooth. A really big rocket would probably bring the tablet to its knees, but the thing handled everything pretty well.

I did get a memory error when I went back to the desktop that system memory was low and windows had closed a bunch of running programs (email client, IE window a couple of other small programs), however it ran it within the 1.9GB of system available memory space (I didn't check how much was free while running, I suspect very little).

I don't know that you could run mods in this memory space.

The thing still ran though and was perfectly playable. It looked fine on the tablet. Not as nice as on my HP Envy 4t, and I doubt I could build 200+ part rockets like I can on my notebook, but you could probably do 100 part rockets okay (at a guess) and still be playable and NOT be odious.

I did notice it chewed battery power. In the half hour in the game it burned through about 10% of the battery life compared to a typical 4-6% in normal use. The back of the tablet was also modestly warm right over where I assume the CPU is.

Overall layout and screen size wouldn't make KSP overly pleasurable, but if you need a KSP fix on the road, it'll do (with a wireless mouse anyway).

[barrenwaste]

Ok, I like that it's a portable game like that. Wonder if it would play on some of the newer nooks?

[DMagic]

As far as I know Nooks all run on ARM CPUs, which KSP doesn't work on.

That's interesting that the newer Atom CPUs can handle it though, I figured they wouldn't be enough for it. I guess you still need a mouse and keyboard though, touchscreen controls can fill in a little, but they don't quite cut it, especially for the VAB.

[lazarus1024]

Yeah, deffinitely keyboard and mouse territory. The Asus T100 is a 2-in-1 with a pretty nice dettachable keyboard dock. I can just pop the micro USB receiver in the dock's USB3 port and use my MS arc touch mouse (folds flat to fit in the tablet bag). Same mouse I use with my laptop for everything.

It isn't exactly playing ksp on a tablet at that point, pretty much netbook sized...but still very, very portable. I am still just in shock that it'll run it at playable settings and playable frame rates. I'll have to get it a bit more of a whirl with a larger ship at some point to see how it'll handle something in the 100+ part count range on a launch.

I will say, the size makes it very akward to try to play with the T100 sitting in your lap, though I'd say that would likely be true of anything sub-13" in size (my 14 inch Envy 4t is already kind of pushing comfortability sitting in my lap playing games, but it will span my lap and sit comfortably. The T100 kind of sits down in my lap if I am sitting cross legged, which isn't super comfortable).

On a desk though and it works perfectly.

I do need to get a bluetooth game pad at some point for the thing, so that I can play some games with it as a tablet, that otherwise I'd need the dock (for instance, I have FF7 PC re-release on the thing that I am having fun with, but I have to use the keyboard dock for controls, but if I had a game pad I could easily recline back with the tablet on my legs and game pad in my hands to play). Some kind of small/thin game pad I think.

Anyway, just kind of awesome to me.

[everyzig]

You utter pufferfish, why'd you have to go and do that? It's not like i have more money to throw at hardware to play KSP..

Just kidding of course, i was very interested to see how intel's new atom handles KSP, and gaming in general. A few revisions down the line i'll be very happy to pick something like the T100 up, it will finally be what i wanted tablets to be when apple announced the ipad (i was sooooo disappointed it was arm/iOS instead of x86/OS-X)

[MR4Y]

Well, there's always Microsoft's Surface 2/Surface Pro 2 pc tablets.

[Captain Sierra]

10% battery? Mildly warm on the CPU? Pffffft. You do not know the meaning of running hot sir! Planetside 2, max graphics, up to a 20 person battle without FPS issues on my system.

Intel i7-72QM 2.2GHz

8GB RAM 1300MHz

NVidia GeForce GT 550M

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

I've clocked my processor hot enough to fry eggs (192*F). I burn my battery to 0 in 30 minutes flat. Of course, I'm also powering a 17.3 inch laptop monitor.

EDIT:

Well, there's always Microsoft's Surface 2/Surface Pro 2 pc tablets.

Those things don't deserve to be called PCs. Windows 7 FTW.

Edited January 7, 2014 by Captain Sierra

[MR4Y]

10% battery? Mildly warm on the CPU? Pffffft. You do not know the meaning of running hot sir! Planetside 2, max graphics, up to a 20 person battle without FPS issues on my system.

Intel i7-72QM 2.2GHz

8GB RAM 1300MHz

NVidia GeForce GT 550M

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

I've clocked my processor hot enough to fry eggs (192*F). I burn my battery to 0 in 30 minutes flat. Of course, I'm also powering a 17.3 inch laptop monitor.

EDIT:

Those things don't deserve to be called PCs. Windows 7 FTW.

Those things can run Crysis 3 and Battlefield 4 with their onboard graphics. Stop with the Windows 7 Elitist BS.

[DMagic]

Yeah, the surface pro 2 is a very nice computer, it's a little amazing what you can cram into such a relatively tiny space, even if you do have to pay for it. It handles KSP pretty well.

And while I sort-of understand the problems people have with Windows 8 on the desktop (metro is dumb there, but also pretty easy to ignore), it really does work pretty well as a tablet interface. Desktop usage is manageable, but not great, without a mouse, but then there's a regular USB port, so that isn't really an issue when you're sitting at a desk.

[6.forty]

Those things can run Crysis 3 and Battlefield 4 with their onboard graphics. Stop with the Windows 7 Elitist BS.

The PS3 can run Crysis 3 and Battlefield 4 with its onboard graphics. What's your point?

Windows Mobile for x86 -- I'm sorry, Windows 8 -- is just not a great choice for a non-touchscreen laptop or desktop, unless the user is fine with an unfitting interface that should have stayed on phones and tablets where it belongs. But it's OK, sometime next year we'll have "Threshold" and it'll apparently provide a proper interface for desktop users. And the good/bad/good/bad release cycle will continue as it always has.

[Retread]

Those things don't deserve to be called PCs. Windows 7 FTW.

Seems to me the installed operating system does not alter whether or not a machine is a PC. As for the Surface Pro 2, it looks like a PC, works like a PC, and runs all the software I expect a PC to run. Therefore, as far as I'm concerned, it's a PC.

[PTNLemay]

Very cool... I was wondering if these new super mobile Intel chips could handle light gaming, thanks a lot for sharing your experience with 'em. They've been unveiling all sorts of neat new laptops and tablets at CES. Asus has the T90 (which I guess is one step down from what you're using) for 300$. Bay Trail processor, 1280 x 800, crazy slim size. Check it out. http://youtu.be/3VuzzskW6Z8?t=10s

I don't know if I'll get that one exactly, but it's great to see that such a cheap device could run KSP.

EDIT:

By the way...

I set physics to .07 seconds per frame.

Did you have to mess with the ini-files for that one?

Edited January 13, 2015 by PTNLemay

[StrandedonEarth]

Physics dt can be changed in settings at the games start screen (not the launcher)

[InterCity]

Can confirm that bay trail can run KSP, but use higher part counts or run into a space kraken and it will start crying out loud in agony. But for cute small stuff it works just fine.

Doing heavy KSP on my main system (Ivy Bridge I7 (dunno which one) NVidia GTX 680MX and 8 GB RAM + Linux Ubuntu 14.14 Utopic(swap partition FTW)) makes the PC works just fine for my winter radiator needs.

[lazarus1024]

Actually I've been building some pretty big stuff. Nothing like I do on my desktop (i5-3570@4GHz and GTX750), but I think I've hit up around 120 parts or so been been okay. Launch is still at least half speed till you get up kind of high/change the camera view to look up at the sky, but its smooth with the physics slow down and in space it's okay.

I've built a few Mun/Minmus/Eve/Gilly missions and been fine. This includes "Apollo" style things with CSM and 2 stage LEM and it all worked okay, though a little slow down here and there near planet side. Not so bad it isn't highly enjoyable. I'll never manage a real Jool mission or any of my 13 Kerbal space stations or dirt side bases or anything, but it can be fun.

I am VERY much looking forward to Cherry Trail to see what it can manage. With possibly 2-4x the GPU power and at least a good 25-35% more CPU power (than my z3740) it should be able to run KSP pretty respectibly, at least if they come with 3/4GB of RAM instead of 2GB (might not be able to turn up anything past 720/768p with the GPU RAM requirements that would entail as just running the game stock uses something like 1.7-1.8 of the 1.9GiB of available RAM with zero mods at 720p). I think its a combo of GPU and CPU limitations (and RAM) here, but the much more powerful GPU should at least allow something like 768-900p at somewhat better detail settings (maybe still no AA, but maybe 1/2 res textures and medium details instead of everything turned to minimum). With the more powerful CPU, probably will allow somewhat smoother/closer to full speed physics (though that is maybe more of a GPU issue near planets) most of the time as well as somewhat larger part ships.

It'll still be nothing like a full laptop, let alone desktop gaming machine, but from "okay and ejoyable" to "nice and enjoyable". I do NOT think I'd want to play this on a Bay Trail equipped laptop. The faster clocks and the slightly faster GPU would certainly help, but not nearly as much as the much larger screen will show just how low all of the details and settings are turned down to make it run okay (fine at 10.1", on 11.6-13.3"...probably pretty yuck looking).