[CKid]

After downloading the latest nightly build, I have noticed a massive slowdown in mission loading and in-game lag. It has been a while since I got myself a nightly, so I started downloading and testing each build, working backwards to see which build cause the problem. I finally found which build first cause the problem. Nightly (Windows) 05 Jul 2011: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=76964.0

Using the mission: Artemis Station from Blue Plant 2 as a test, hears what happens with pre and post July 05 builds.

Pre-July 05 Builds
Mission load time: 10 seconds (approximately)
FPS during UEFg Cormorant destruction: 30 and smooth

Post-July 05 Builds
Mission Load time: 60-70 seconds (approximately)
FPS during UEFg Cormorant destruction: jumping from 18 to 7 with extreme choppiness

I see that a crap load of things were added to that build and that newer builds have not made the problems go away, so I'm just curious if future builds will increase performance to pre-July 05 build speeds or if your going to forced me to upgrade my computer.
(Joking about that last part)

[MatthTheGeek]

I suggest you get us a debug log following this, so we can have an idea of what's going on. Post it in [ code ] tags.

[Dragon]

Are you using FXAA?
This build greatly extended FXAA functionality and could have changed some defaults, so if you have it enabled, but set to default value (ie. no fxaa_preset custom flag set), there's a chance that after this build, FXAA got set to something much more demanding.
It's just a guess though.

[The E]

Nothing changed between then and now that would affect mission load times that dramatically.

Also, FXAA has become _faster_ in recent builds.

[Dragon]

Yes, it did become faster overall, but I thought his preset setting could have increased to something far more demanding to what it used to be.
It seems that it's not the case though, so now I have no idea what could cause loading times to increase to six time what they were before.
It couldn't possibly load new shaders so long, could it?

[The E]

Not a chance. Shaders are only loaded once, during game startup (before you see the splash screen in fact).

[CKid]

I never had FXAA enabled in the in the lanucher when I did my tests. When I do have it enabled, load times are the same but FPS drops by just a few. I am currently at work right now and away from my PC, so I will post a debug log when I get home.

[CKid]

Ok, here is the debug log using the most recent nightly build.

Code: [Select]

Muzzle flash "BP_Cmuzzle_tiny" already exists!  Using existing entry instead.
<no module>! KiFastSystemCallRet
<no module>! WaitForSingleObject + 18 bytes
<no module>! <no symbol>
<no module>! <no symbol>
<no module>! <no symbol>
<no module>! <no symbol>
<no module>! <no symbol>
<no module>! <no symbol>
<no module>! <no symbol>
<no module>! <no symbol>
<no module>! <no symbol>
<no module>! <no symbol>
<no module>! RegisterWaitForInputIdle + 73 bytes


[Kolgena]

That's not a debug log.

[CKid]

Oops, sorry. Here we go.


[attachment deleted by ninja]

[CKid]

So... Does anyone have any suggestions or thoughts. Its kind of sucks not being able to play ones favorite campaign.

[Raiden]

I agree, latest nightlies are running way slower, will have to throw up my own debug log in a bit, I'm on an ATi card if that helps anything.

[Reprobator]

same things here on ati too.

[The E]

Which particular ATi cards are we talking about here?

[Reprobator]

6970 2gb for me.
4th ati i buy : 4th problem with opengl , i must be a sadist finally 
and everytime i wanna change i say : i'll buy a nvidia but no i buy every time an ati... silly me 

[Raiden]

I'm on a 4670 mobility. Usually get sliky smooth framerates at 1920x1800 but there's very noticable slowdown with the latest builds for me. I don't use AA or anything, that seems to be the one thing the card can't handle with FreeSpace.

[CKid]

Holy Crap! The thread still lives. I got a ATI Radeon HD 4600 series 1gb.

I must say that the lag experienced is not as bad in any other mod then it is in WiH. Maybe because of the unoptimized models. The mission loading on the other hand is the same no matter the mod. It always take around a minute to load compared to the 10 seconds it normally takes on my system. I also noticed a few extra problems with post July 05 builds I get:

Clicking the tech room caused the game to freeze for a few seconds before you enter
Longer wait time to view ships in Tech room
Clicking continue from command briefing to mission briefing/Ship/Weapon selection causes same freezing as tchroom

Hope that helps.

[Kolgena]

Since you guys are both using 4600 HD's, it would probably be useful if you told us what drivers you are using.

[CKid]

Since you guys are both using 4600 HD's, it would probably be useful if you told us what drivers you are using.

11.7

[KyadCK]

I realize I'm late to the party here, but latest nightlys are burning a hole in my preformance aswell (i have also updated my drivers, I will rollback to test).

Using the WiH intro as benchmark, I've dropped from 35-45fps to 25-30fps at my measurement point (karuna getting gutted) and for more then half the intro it tries to even out at 30fps dispite knowing I can push 60+ for those sections.

ATI Radeon HD 5570 1GB, Driver version 11.7