Time is slowed down when planets fill the screen.

[Elrohir44]

Ever since version 0.23 I have had a major problem, especially during launches.

Whenever the camera is pointed toward Kerbin (and any other planet/moon) and I am anywhere below high orbital altitudes the game slows down. I am not referring to FPS. Time literally slows down. The numbers on the game clock turn yellow and each in-game second takes 3-4 seconds IRL.

The problem is especially bad when I first start the game but slowly reduces as I make more launches during my playing session. It never fully goes away unless I go to map view or I am high above the planet.

Why is this happening? Any tips on making it stop? I keep hoping that the next update will make it go away but it is really bothersome, especially during launches which take 3x longer than they should.

I am using a non-gaming laptop. This happens even when I drop graphic settings to minimums.

Windows 7

Intel i-3 2.10 Ghz

4Gb RAM

Crappy integrated graphics card with 1.83 Gb RAM

[FenrirWolf]

This seems reminiscent of the old "water lag" problem that plagued many people back in the day. But anyway, you are indeed experiencing reduced framerate along with lag of the simulation itself. As far as I can tell the problem is simply that your laptop's CPU just isn't that great and KSP is a highly CPU-intensive game. You can do things like make sure your power management is set to High Performance to reduce system throttling and making sure your drivers are all up to date, but I'm not sure you're gonna be able to squeeze much performance out of that chipset.

[Elrohir44]

Thanks. It's just strange because older versions of the game (I think it was pre-0.23) ran fine on the same machine. I have needed a new laptop for a while now. I may have to bite the bullet soon

[Crimson Sunrise]

This seems reminiscent of the old "water lag" problem that plagued many people back in the day. But anyway, you are indeed experiencing reduced framerate along with lag of the simulation itself. As far as I can tell the problem is simply that your laptop's CPU just isn't that great and KSP is a highly CPU-intensive game. You can do things like make sure your power management is set to High Performance to reduce system throttling and making sure your drivers are all up to date, but I'm not sure you're gonna be able to squeeze much performance out of that chipset.

I have none of those issues and this is my configuration ATM:

-Pentium D 920 2.8 GHz

-3 GB RAM

-ATI Radeon 5450 1GB

-Windows 8.1

[taio]

I had the same issue on a Pentium T4500 (dual core, 2.3 GHz, 1 MB L2 cache), old integrated Intel graphics, 4 GB RAM, 1366x768 display.

This post resolved my problems. It’s still slower when a planet is in view, but it’s just barely noticeable. It’s good enough that I leave planets in view. If you follow the link you’ll see his description of his own content is outdated, but IIRC I’m running the High V2 config.

Edited December 18, 2014 by taio

[sal_vager]

That's the delta timer Elrohir44, there's a control for it in the settings screen and you do not want it high unless you have an absolute beat of a PC, what you are seeing is also normal for this game.

Rather than have the game stutter and become uncontrollable, time is slowed on weaker PC's.

You may need to check for driver updates, if on a laptop make sure it's not on a powersave mode, or just upgrade.

Seeing as you are using a non-gaming laptop you may find it's just a little weak for KSP, see the stickied posts for info on how to get your system specs.