Why is Kerbin so laggy?!

[iStickyDuck]

When I play KSP on my laptop I get a major decrease in FPS when I look at the horizon of kerbin. I can look straight up or straight down and my FPS is fine but when I look to the horizon where the surface meets the sky my FPS drops dramatically. This doesn't occur on any other planet (not tested with Duna, Eve or Laythe) that doesn't have an atmosphere...

Edited March 13, 2014 by iStickyDuck

[MockKnizzle]

When you look at the horizon, your computer has to render much more of the terrain mesh because much more of the surface is visible. On Kerbin specifically, there's also a mesh for the ocean which must be rendered as well, which essentially doubles the rendering load.

On the Mun, however, there's no ocean mesh to contend with and no the Space Center buildings that could potentially be in the vicinity, so the rendering load is lighter and consequently you get higher FPS.

Anyways, if you're playing on a laptop (as am I) you're definitely gonna get lower FPS in all situations than you would on a desktop, since most laptop CPUs aren't as powerful/fast as their desktop brethren.

[Pecan]

This is the mainly the well-known "Ocean bug" - on Kerbin, Laythe and Eve there is huge lag whenever there is ocean to render. It can be more-or-less cured with an edit of the settings.cfg file but otherwise it affects all views up to c160km IIRC.

Just posting this to let you know you aren't alone and that it is a known bug. I'll try to find a thread (there have been several) with details of the fix.

[Vanamonde]

The three ocean worlds (Kerbin, Eve, and Laythe) have two surfaces, and thus, twice the rendering.

[Awaras]

Check out this thread:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/51042-Looking-to-the-horizon-FPS-Drop