Vanilla????

[CorperalVasquez]

So am I to understand that if it runs ok WITHOUT mods, then there's nothing anyone can do?

just asking....

Corporal Vasquez

USCSM/KSCSM 8th BMTS Sulaco.

[Jetwave]

What? I don't understand your question.

[Mesons]

So am I to understand that if it runs ok WITHOUT mods, then there's nothing anyone can do?

just asking....

No, there is now an entire forum section devoted to helping you now. I suspect that the reason Squad has seen fit to split up Support into modded and un-modded is so that the devs can sift through the thread much more easily to see what's plaguing players that aren't filing bug reports. It also allows players like me (using only cosmetic mods) to much more easily lend support to players needing it.

[CorperalVasquez]

Ah, ok, now that makes sense. Well I have taken it unto my self to hunt the culprit down. I started with vanilla, and literally launched all the stock craft. No issues, no lag, stock "out of the box" settings. Then I added the FASA historical. Again, launching everything, so far no issues.

If this is simply an issue of the machine loading to many mods, then you think someone would figure out that specimen loading might work better. Example, instead of a three d version of the part in the VAB, an image file. Small, and viewable. Then if you select that part, the engine loads the part. This would allow the game to be usable on low end machines, and high. Also might cut down on the MEM crashes. I'm not a programmer, but like in the Sims, the models don't really load until you pick them.

Sorry for rambling....

Corporal Vasquez

USCSM/KSCSM 8th BMTS Sulaco.

[Claw]

Yes, we have split the forums into two sections.

The STOCK support forum is meant for if you find stock problems. This can still apply to stock problems brought on by using mods. HOWEVER, we still need people to help themselves by providing the right kind of information so that we don't have to guess. Likely, all modded installs will be shuffled over to the MOD support forum until deemed it to be a stock bug.

It might be worth taking a look at the new layouts and taking a quick scan of the stickies.

Cheers,

~Claw

[Superfluous J]

And if you have a lot of mods, things will go quicker if you do a bifurcated (binary) search. Load half of your mods, and try the thing that causes problems. If there's no problem, you just ruled out half of you mods in one sweep! Load the other half. If there's no problem, then it's more complex of a problem (or you just hit the memory limit) but most likely you'll have the problem.

Then split THAT set of mods in half and try again. After a few iterations you'll be down to only a couple mods that you can try one at a time.

[Tw1]

And if you have a lot of mods, things will go quicker if you do a bifurcated (binary) search.

This suggestion is very clever. Something like this aught to be in the stickied thread as advice in identifying mod problems.

[CorperalVasquez]

Ok, after testing, I have identified the culprit. KSO is causing the crash, now I'm not saying KSO is a bad mod, I'm just saying it crashes my game at launch. I installed it according to the install, with the module manager, thing and all, crash at start. Uninstall it and I get a smooth running game. I think it may be texture rich, I often wonder when making models and textures, why no one else uses the (smallest) setting on textures? I have, and I loose nothing, and a big texture is reduced to very small, again I'm rambling, sorry.

I will miss the KSO, I love that model, but it seems I have a choice, KSO and no game, or no KSO and game galore!

Corporal Vasquez

USCSM/KSCSM 8th BMTS Sulaco

[Clockwork_werewolf]

things will go quicker if you do a bifurcated (binary) search

My girlfriend gets annoyed if we watch "Angels and Demons" because of this. I always get annoyed at the characters for not using a binary search when turning off the lights in Rome to find the device.

Example, instead of a three d version of the part in the VAB, an image file. Small, and viewable. Then if you select that part, the engine loads the part.

Although I understand the idea, in practice it would get very annoying and have at least two drawbacks. The first is that there would be a noticeable delay when picking up any part that hadn't already been picked up. Even if we assume that only 20% of the parts are used, during construction you would have to wait in total 20% of the time from the loading screen. That is also assuming the load speed would be the same even when a large 1000 part ship was being constructed which seems unlikely but then I don't know the exact coding.

The second problem is that each part (stock and modded) would now need a separate 2D image and wouldn't rotate unless is was given it's own video of it's rotation or was loaded in to rotate. This would take up extra space which depended on the screenshot size. It could be only 5% extra space or it could be 50% depending on many things but boiling down to the required screenshot size and loaded size of the part.

I do understand the frustration with this loading time, I'm trying to make parts and the loading time just to test one part even with stock (plus part) is very annoying. One this that could be saved for loading later could be internals. they tend to take a small proportion of the load but are not needed until the ship is actually in flight. I would still suggest loading them when a capsule is selected as this is a rare occurrence and not often do people use many types of capsule on one craft (I've never used more than 3).

[magico13]

Have you tried Active Texture Management? You're probably just hitting the memory limit (which is usually indicated by a crash on game start). In my experience, even the "Basic" version of ATM can have a huge impact (saved me several gigs of memory and I literally can't play without it). The Aggressive version is suitable for very heavily modded installs.

Many modders do their best to keep their textures small or to reuse textures between parts, but it's not often a simple task, or they have more important things to work on.

@Clockwork_werewolf

There is a mod (called Load on Demand) That causes the full res textures to only load when they are in use (so, on a vessel in flight or when the editor is trying to display the rotating part) which provides an excellent proof of concept that loading textures on demand is not only doable, but the loading time is low enough that it's completely playable. Cuts my loading times to a fraction of what it used to be, which is especially helpful when testing my plugin.

Edited August 29, 2014 by magico13

[Clockwork_werewolf]

@Clockwork_werewolf

There is a mod (called Load on Demand) That causes the full res textures to only load when they are in use.

Well that's lovely, I mean that. I'm happy to be corrected. Might have to start using it myself

[magico13]

Well that's lovely, I mean that. I'm happy to be corrected. Might have to start using it myself

It's got some unique dependencies which make it less non-trivial to setup than other mods, and it certainly has bugs of its own. It can still take some time for all the textures to load (in which case the models will still load but the textures will appear pink until they load) but as a proof of concept, especially as one done by a modder who doesn't have access to the full source, it does a pretty good job.

But in CorperalVasquez's case I still suggest Active Texture Management. Simpler to install and proven to be highly functional.