Settings

An explanation of the settings in KSP and what they do.

General

Gameplay

• Show Vessel Labels
  • This option controls whether or not waypoints will appear over vehicles nearby the one you are currently piloting.
  • Default:On
• Use Staging Controls for Docking
  • When docking is set as the control method in-game, the controls remain at their staging positions instead of moving to WASD, or whatever the staging controls are set to.
  • Default:Off
• Show Space Center Crew
  • Option to remove the Kerbals walking around in the VHB and the SPH
  • Default:On
• Flight UI Size
  • Self explanatory. Size of user interface while piloting a vehicle. Ranges from tiny to huge.
  • Default:Small
• Mouse Wheel Sensitivity
  • Controls how quickly the game reacts to mouse wheel input. Ranges from 0 to 1.000
  • Default:1.000

System

• Show Stats Tracking Dialog on Startup
  • Controls whether or not a message from Squad will pop up, asking about tracking info to improve the game.
  • Default:Off
• Simulate in Background
  • If you have ships within view of of the VAB or SPH, this setting will control whether or not they appear during ship creation.
  • Default:On
• Max Persistent Debris
  • Sets the max number of debris-class objects that can exist at the same time. Higher numbers mean more work for the CPU. Ranges from 0 to unlimited. Min:25, Max:2500.
  • Default:250
• Max Physics Delta-Time per Frame
  • This setting determines how many physics calculations the program can run per second. So, as the number increases, gameplay slows down, as more calculations happen every second. It slows down, but not in the usual way. There is no lag, but now one second that passes on Kerbin takes more than one second in real time. This setting is good for keeping very large ships from falling apart.
  • Default:0.10 sec

Input

This section lets you customize the default key bindings for several different parts of gameplay. Note: Axis Bindings are for joysticks.

Graphics

Scenery

• Terrain Detail
  • Determines how detailed the ground is on all planets/moons.
  • Available Settings: Low, Default, High.
  • Default:Default
• SM3 Terrain Shaders
  • Enables Shader Model 3 if your graphics card supports it.
  • Default:On
• Terrain Scatters (WIP)
  • A work in progress setting. Adds terrain scenery like trees and rocks. Results in a fairly large performance hit.
  • Default:Off
• Scatter Density
  • Defines how much scenery (rocks/trees/etc) is added.
  • Default:50%

Rendering

• Render Quality Level
  • Sets the quality of Unity's rendering. See Unity documentation for more details.
  • Available Settings: Fastest, Fast, Simple, Good, Beautiful, Fantastic
  • Default:Fantastic
• Texture Quality
  • Controls the resolution of the textures in game.
  • Available Settings: Quarter Res, Half Res, Full Res
  • Default:Half Res
• Fallback Part Shaders
  • Falls back to Shader Model 1. If parts are rendering incorrectly for some reason or your graphics card does not support Shader Model 2 or higher, try enabling this setting.
  • Default:False
• Aerodynamic FX Quality
  • Controls the quality of aerodynamic effects such as re-entry flames.
  • Default:Normal

Video

• Screen Resolution
  • Determines how large the game window will be. Size is measured length × width, in pixels. Ranges from 1024 × 768 to 1680 × 1050.
  • Sometimes, when switching resolutions, the screen will adjust with extremely bright colors. Have no fear, just wait a few seconds and adjust the game window back and forth. It fixes itself.
  • Default:1024 × 768
• Full Screen
  • This setting controls fullscreen. This will make the game run without a window border, for better game experience. If this is enabled, screen resolution now determines the number of true pixels that will be displayed.
  • Default:Off
• Anti-Aliasing
  • Basically, smooths out and blends the pixels at the edge of models. Higher settings means smoother transition.
  • Default:2×
• V Sync
  • A setting that prevents screen tearing: an anomaly that appears when the speed of your graphics card is significantly higher than the update speed of your monitor.
  • Default:Every VBlank
• Frame Limit
  • Sets the max FPS. Basically a top on how fast the game can run.
  • Default 120 FPS
• Pixel Light Count
  • Controls how many Pixel Lights can be in the scene at any time. See Unity documentation for more details.
  • Default:8
• Shadow Cascades
  • Controls the quality of shadows. See Unity documentation for more details.
  • Default:4

Audio

Volume

• Spacecraft
  • Refers to:Engine firing sound, parachute opening sound, and engine ignition sound.
• Ambience
  • Refers to:Decouplers separating, and wind noise when traveling through atmosphere at high speed.
• UI
  • Refers to: UI sounds such as part snaps while in the SPH or VAB.
• Music
  • Refers to:All game music.
• Voices
  • Refers to:Tutorial voice volume.
• Default for all is 100%

Sound Normalizer

• Normalizer
  • Enables the normalizer, which controls the average loudness of the various audio channels.
  • Default:Enabled
• Threshold
  • The threshold at which the normalizer starts lowering the volume of a given channel to prevent it from becoming too loud.
  • Default:1.0
• Responsiveness
  • How quickly the normalizer starts adjusting volumes after the threshold is reached. Smaller values will result in choppy sound quality as the normalizer rapidly tries to adjust volumes, especially when loud but very short sounds occur (like explosions).
  • Default:16

Saving

Explanation on the bottom three buttons, if you really need it.

• Apply
  • Does what it says: applies the settings, but keeps you in the settings menu.
• Accept
  • Functions identically to apply, but exits you to main menu.
• Cancel
  • Upon pressing, it resets the settings to their original values before the menu was opened.