Flags and Physics

[RW-1]

Hello All,

Please have a happy weekend (I shall, my daughter is turning nine on Monday - the pre-party count has been going since last monday ) and do not get ran over by the Hypetrain ...

Ok, that out of the way, my question for discussion.

Flags.

Planted Flags specifically.

Since the game has to keep track of objects in total, does keeping flags that one has planted later on contribute to the ability to time jump / use larger ships, etc?

I'm asking because my observation is that if the game engine has to keep track of all of that, and let's include debris as well, then that adds up fairly quickly for the overall engine.

If my supposition is incorrect, please let me know, as I'll be happier to remove flags only after finally hitting all the biomes on a specific planet/moon, etc.

[cantab]

"On rails" vessels, which is anything not within a couple of kilometres of the current ship, have only a minor impact on performance. Some people have had issues if they've got thousands of separate pieces of debris orbiting around, which may be one reason why you can make the game automatically delete debris, but a few flags aren't going to have any noticeable effect.

[brianorca]

Every object outside 2.5km from your current ship is "on rails" which means it does not calculate physics. This is handled by recording the orbit parameters, (or the landing location for landed craft and flags) so the game can easily calculate any future position as needed, instead of solving physics for every time slice between now and eternity.

[undercoveryankee]

I answered basically this question a few weeks ago on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/2egwil/does_having_a_lot_of_flights_cause_a_lot_of_lag/cjznk4n

[Aethon]

Physics and Flags huh.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=316058876