Things to improve performance in .23 settings .cfg?

[asparagus]

trying to get higher part counts, don't mind sacrificing graphics or draw distances etc. tried to mess around and I don't know what to change

[Vanamonde]

This is a how-to kind of a question, so thread moved to the how-to section. Meanwhile, asparagus, if you go to the forum search button on the upper left and have it look for "performance," you'll find a number of previous discussions of this sort of thing.

[Claw]

trying to get higher part counts, don't mind sacrificing graphics or draw distances etc. tried to mess around and I don't know what to change

Here's a place to start. Read the post from vexx32 (a few posts in). Vexx describes graphics options in detail.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/65130-Graphic-setting-and-what-they-means?highlight=graphics+settings

You can also modify the .cfg to change ocean rendering distance. That helps some people.

Look for this.

PLANET

{

name = KerbinOcean

minDistance = 4

minSubdivision = 1

maxSubdivision = 6

And change it to something like this...

PLANET

{

name = KerbinOcean

minDistance = 2

minSubdivision = 1

maxSubdivision = 6

You can play with the numbers and find a good visual/performance compromise.

Edited February 21, 2014 by Claw

[Kasuha]

Sadly graphics tweaks have only limited impact. What matters the most is physics simulation. But if you can sacrifice time (i.e. don't mind the game time ticks several times slower than real time) it should be ok, too. Or you can increase the maximum time per frame parameter but that may make your ship more prone to disasters.