Continuation of fps drops as updates progress.

[AtraUnam]

So I made a thread along these lines about a month ago where I said my fps had gone from 150 to 50 under certain graphics settings... but thats really just the little picture. About 10-15 updates ago I was getting a solid 350-400 running this game on medium settings. Subsiquent updates dropped this to about 100 and with the chunk update it went even lower. Now I'm getting 20 fps in an almot empty sector and it goes to 15 around anything more substantial than a stick shop.

As of this update I can no longer play the game, building at 15fps is simply painful and other activites are pretty much impossible. I like this game I really do but it seems like every time Schine talks about a performance boost the game actually gets an equivelent performance drop, I sincerely hope things improve but with the way they are now I have no choice but to stop playing and watch the news posts and hope for somethign to change,

 

[kikaha]

Yep i had the same kind of issue.
Every recent updates has seen my FPS drop drastically. I found that a fresh install (wiping everything and reinstalling the game) sorted my problem but doing that every update is tiresome.

 

[AtraUnam]

Settings for lancake.

 

[schema]

Hi, can you maybe also give Lancake your hardware specs (mainly graphics card) for the report. Also, does changing the background quality help in anyway. Furthermore can you check if turning off framebuffer and bloom helps.

 

[AtraUnam]

Hi, can you maybe also give Lancake your hardware specs (mainly graphics card) for the report. Also, does changing the background quality help in anyway. Furthermore can you check if turning off framebuffer and bloom helps.

framebuffer was the issue, went from 15fps to 300fps.

 

[Bench]

framebuffer was the issue, went from 15fps to 300fps.

Sounds like you're having the same issue as me Atra. Maxing out your graphics card memory. Try bumping your texture quality down and then switching on frame buffer again and see how it goes.

 

[AtraUnam]

texture quality appears to make 0 difference...

 

[Bench]

Ok, hmm, framebuffer it is then until Lancake finds the exact cause

 

[StormWing0]

I've been noticing my FPS tank more than normal as well. Not the best Intel comp but I could run with chunks set to 250 in view no problem before the chunk update now I can't and 100 just isn't big enough to see what I need to.

 

[kikaha]

Framebuffer seems to be the problem; I turned it off (unchecked the box) and my FPS went well up again. Changing other settings didn't do anything.

 

[Lancake]

Side note, if you reduce your texture quality (or increase it). You have to restart your game for it to fully apply. Else it will just load more in your VRAM I believe.

AtraUnam was already on 64 res though so no way to improve there unfortunately.

 

[Sen OTS Tier]

Same, framebuffer kept me at 190, then jumped into the 300s afterwards.

 

[schema]

The problem has been identified as limited graphics card memory.

Things that can be done:

• Lower Background image quality (lots of memory)
• Texture quality (700mb on 256, only 1/4 of that for 128), all that halved again when not using normal maps
• Turn off frame buffer in the graphics options (requires restart to affect memory. also takes considerable memory)
• Lowering max chunks drawn (since the chunk32 update, chunks are 8 times as big. This means the same option had 8 times as much in memory. Graphics memory for chunks is not physically freed when changing to an empty sector, it's just marked to be reused, since that is way faster performance wise than reallocating memory )

[doublepost=1474843457,1474843409][/doublepost]Additionally, framebuffer causes fillrate problems on some graphics cards. So that would maybe also be the bottleneck for some systems.
[doublepost=1474843561][/doublepost]I'll try to lower the memory requirements as much as I can. There is still lots I can do (which aren't done yet because they require much testing on different hardware)

 

[StormWing0]

If you are going to nuke the potato computers let us know a few patches beforehand.

 

[AtraUnam]

The problem has been identified as limited graphics card memory.

Things that can be done:

• Lower Background image quality (lots of memory)
• Texture quality (700mb on 256, only 1/4 of that for 128), all that halved again when not using normal maps
• Turn off frame buffer in the graphics options (requires restart to affect memory. also takes considerable memory)
• Lowering max chunks drawn (since the chunk32 update, chunks are 8 times as big. This means the same option had 8 times as much in memory. Graphics memory for chunks is not physically freed when changing to an empty sector, it's just marked to be reused, since that is way faster performance wise than reallocating memory )

[doublepost=1474843457,1474843409][/doublepost]Additionally, framebuffer causes fillrate problems on some graphics cards. So that would maybe also be the bottleneck for some systems.
[doublepost=1474843561][/doublepost]I'll try to lower the memory requirements as much as I can. There is still lots I can do (which aren't done yet because they require much testing on different hardware)

These are my settings at the moment, I would also like to say that despite an initial apparent fps of 300 with the frame buffer disabled in an empty sector, anything larger than an isanth drops it down to 20 again. This is the computer that was fine around kepticks 1000m+ titan when he brought it on NFD a few months ago and now it struggles with small stations.

 

[nightrune]

The problem has been identified as limited graphics card memory.

Things that can be done:

• Lower Background image quality (lots of memory)
• Texture quality (700mb on 256, only 1/4 of that for 128), all that halved again when not using normal maps
• Turn off frame buffer in the graphics options (requires restart to affect memory. also takes considerable memory)
• Lowering max chunks drawn (since the chunk32 update, chunks are 8 times as big. This means the same option had 8 times as much in memory. Graphics memory for chunks is not physically freed when changing to an empty sector, it's just marked to be reused, since that is way faster performance wise than reallocating memory )

[doublepost=1474843457,1474843409][/doublepost]Additionally, framebuffer causes fillrate problems on some graphics cards. So that would maybe also be the bottleneck for some systems.
[doublepost=1474843561][/doublepost]I'll try to lower the memory requirements as much as I can. There is still lots I can do (which aren't done yet because they require much testing on different hardware)

What hardware do you need to test on? Do you already have access?

 

[StarWars1981]

300 FPS .... HAH! I get 30 MAX on empty sectors, minimum settings (not even the "Minimum" option, like I go through and check everything OFF or LOW), on my machine. You can occasionally hear the rats inside the casing struggling to keep it moving along.
It's a bad computer, can't barely run a thing. For crying out loud, browser games can slow it to a crawl. You and your "300 FPS" ... "can't build on 15 FPS" ... I can build on 10 and call it a good day. 5 is too low, but 10-15's fine for me. Get used to it and forget about it - and also set your dang FPS counter to 60 at most. You can only perceive 30 frames/sec, so the game doesn't need to calculate and display 10x that.

Stupid gaming rigs ... go play DF with 1000+ years and 300+ creatures on the map on a large region and large embark, see where it gets your dang rig ... that'll show you what a real gamer-rig-breaking nightmare is ...


I doubt you've seen it, but on the DF forums, somebody has a signature that says something like that. It says 40+ dwarves, 300 years, on a good-sized region and embark, and watch it bring your gaming rig to its knees. That's paraphrased, but it's close. It's a hilarious sig. Although I can run 125 years and 400+ creatures total with no problems. It's probably performance updates since that guy sigged the quote that fixed the FPS issues at such a modest level of occupation.

EDIT: If you want help testing the crappy end of hardware, apparently I've got at least part of it. I think it's the graphics card that's sub-par, but I'm not sure and I've little inclination to check when I'm not gonna get a new one. Oh, and I've got crappy internet service too. Horrific service, even.

You're making me jealous. Stop it. I want your dang multi-hundred-FPS gaming rigs now...

 

[refirendum]

my god the salt. it's a thread about fps drop, and whether you've got a 300fps machine or 30, you're still going to get a drop.

 

[Gasboy]

I have to say thank you to Schema for taking the time to help folks. You get much better service from indie folks than you do from the big AAA devs these days.

 

[kikaha]

Little update, whenever i put either frame buffer or bloom effect on my FPS drops...