[blueshift]

Hi everyone. I play this game on my desktop pc whenever I can but I'm off to university now and all I have is my laptop. It has run every other game that I play just fine, but I am getting only 4 fps in shattered armistice. The FPS in the menu's are usually at 60, except for the ship and weapon selection screens in multiplayer. I'm thinking it has something to do with my settings on my laptop but I don't know enough about computers to figure this out myself. Anyone else have this problem? Here are some of my specs:

Dual Core i3 CPU @ 2.53 GHz
4GB DDR3 Ram
Intel HD Graphics
1755MB Graphics Memory

Thanks

[headdie]

Minimum Recommended Specifications:

Operating System: Windows® XP/Vista/Windows 7
CPU:  Core 2 Duo, i3 or similar
Memory: 2GB Ram
Graphics Card: ATI 9600 or comparable nVidia with 256MB Ram (Integrated INTEL graphics will not work)
Sound Card: Windows® compatible sound card
Input Device: Windows® compatible mouse and keyboard
Installation: 3GB free HD space

You are at the bottom edge of the system specs here.  Intel graphics generally suffer quite badly with FSO with them not being gaming orientated chips so under perform on processing speed and instruction sets, combined Diaspora using considerably higher polly ship models than usually seen in FSO exaggerates this problem. 

While you have 4gb memory I am guessing from what you have posted nearly 2 gig of it is shared with your graphics card meaning you only have 2.25 or so free for system memory usage like the operating system and the game itself.

Lastly being a game engine developed in 1999 It only supports one core at a time and rewriting the engine to use multiple cores would take a massive effort beyond the realistic capabilities of the SCP so the processors core speed is also important and at 2.53 you might find yourself at the lower end of workable there too.

but in summery I suspect your laptop's Intel graphics is the biggest issue here, with that in mind what what does your current command line read (launcher->advanced settings, near the bottom, select->copy->past should do it) and have you turned the detail down using the in game options?

[Ace]

Looks like the culprit is the intel video card, which doesn't have good shader support and is why Diaspora won't run well.

[jr2]

Doesn't disabling GLSL shader support or somesuch in the launcher alleviate this problem (resulting in poorer graphics, but perhaps playable)

[blueshift]

but in summery I suspect your laptop's Intel graphics is the biggest issue here, with that in mind what what does your current command line read (launcher->advanced settings, near the bottom, select->copy->past should do it) and have you turned the detail down using the in game options?

thanks for the advice. yeah I put the detail to low but it didn't help at all.

by the sounds of it then, I'll never be able to use this laptop for playing this. here is the current command line you asked for.

C:\Games\Diaspora\fs2_open_Diaspora_R1.exe -post_process -soft_particles -fxaa -cache_bitmaps -ship_choice_3d
-weapon_choice_3d -warp_flash -snd_preload -ambient_factor 90 -spec_exp 0.7 -spec_tube 1.0 -spec_point 0.7
-spec_static 1.0 -ogl_spec 15 -bloom_intensity 20

[MatthTheGeek]

Forget post_process, -soft_particles and -fxaa on an Intelgrated. You might want to add -nonormal, and possibly -nospec, -noglow, -noenv.

[blueshift]

Forget post_process, -soft_particles and -fxaa on an Intelgrated. You might want to add -nonormal, and possibly -nospec, -noglow, -noenv.

thanks, tried it. unfortunately, it didn't help at all. I'm starting to think there's nothing I can do to play this game on my laptop

[MatthTheGeek]

Wouldn't be surprised. I used to play FSO on an Intelgrated myself, it wasn't pretty, in all senses of the term. I was below 5fps in War in Heaven.

[Sauron]

Even a relatively cheap sub-$100 dedicated video card will be more than enough for the game.  The integrated graphics for any of the Intel parts (even the new GMA4000HD on Ivy Bridge are just not up to the task.  Fortunately, a video card upgrade isn't THAT expensive these days.

For folks that want to keep the machine inexpensive, I just tried playing on an AMD A8-3870 (quad core cpu with integrated AMD Radeon 6550) and was able to play this with middle-of-the-road settings at a decent frame rate.  That's on my HTPC.  Total cost of that system from soup to nuts was about $400, including an SSD for the boot drive.

Best,

[MatthTheGeek]

Of course if you're on a laptop, you're out of luck.

[blueshift]

Even a relatively cheap sub-$100 dedicated video card will be more than enough for the game.  The integrated graphics for any of the Intel parts (even the new GMA4000HD on Ivy Bridge are just not up to the task.  Fortunately, a video card upgrade isn't THAT expensive these days.

afaik, it isn't possible to upgrade a video card in laptops so it seems like I'm screwed

[librarycharlie]

Same issue, but I have a beast of a laptop.
It's 12 GB of RAM on an i7-2820 processor with SSD.  Dedicated 2GB Radeon graphics card.

Even with the lowest resolution, it's an unplayable 4.5 FPS.  The intro movie is fine, but after creating a pilot, the tutorial movie (starting on a shot of Theseus with text in the upper right) plays at an unspeakably slow and unwatchable rate, and then takes ages to launch the viper while two drones seem to teleport around my ship.

 I've got the affinity set high, configured my switchable graphics, and am only using one processor, also just ran a virus sweep.  Running it at 1024x768 has the same FPS as 1920x1080.

Please help a nugget!

[MatthTheGeek]

Please post a debug log.

[librarycharlie]

Attached Log

Came in at 4 FPS with a beast of a machine.

[attachment removed and sold on the black market]

[karajorma]

Attached Log

Came in at 4 FPS with a beast of a machine.

OpenGL Vendor    : Intel
  OpenGL Renderer  : Mobile Intel(R) HD Graphics
  OpenGL Version   : 3.0.0 - Build 8.15.10.2342

No idea what's going on there. You said you had a Radeon but the log clearly says you have an integrated Intel chip.

[jr2]

He's in the same boat as me:  He has the integrated HD thru the i7, as well as the dedicated (ATI in his case, nVidia in mine) graphics card, and his laptop is ever so smartly choosing to render with the Intelgrated, probably to save power.

In my case, the fix is: right-click Desktop, nVidia Control Panel (or search from Start Menu).

Under 3D Settings, click Manage 3D Settings in the left side panel.

Click "Program Settings" tab on the right.

Click "Add" button, browse to Diaspora .exe

Under "Select the preferred graphics processor for this program:", change it from "Use global setting (Auto-select: Integrated)" to "High-performance nVidia processor".

Click Apply

Now re-detect your graphics card in Diaspora.


Somehow, you need to find the ATI way to do that, which I expect will be found in your Catalyst Control Center.     Hope that helped.

EDIT: Maybe put something about this in the FAQ for those who have dual Intelgrated and ATI/nVidia?

[librarycharlie]

Apologies, I had used the catalyst control center (CCC) to alter the preference of card for the main .exe but not for the debugger, which is a different .exe file.

When running, it appears to be "Not Responding" it's so slow, but then loads.  I have changed it so that the Radeon now applies to the debugger, and this has not improved performance at all.  Still 4-5 FPS.

Your last note, asking to "re-detect the graphics card in Diaspora" I have not been able to find.  It doesn't seem to be under Options in the game, nor in video basic settings in the launcher.  Any help is appreciated!

You guys rock for parsing this crud and figuring it out!

[attachment removed and sold on the black market]

[jr2]

Hmm, I checked and I don't see that option either, my bad, I think I mixed up the wxLauncher with the FS2 retail launcher, since I was playing around with that earlier to test out a 3dfx Glide wrapper for Windows 7...  So it looks as though detection is automatic.

However, log is still showing Intel.  You have latest ATI drivers?

[FreeSpaceFreak]

Hurm. Running Ubuntu 12.04, on:

• Intel i7 Quad-core 2.3GHz (hyperthreaded to act as 8 CPUs, standard behaviour on this core)
• 8 GB RAM
• NVidia Quadro K1000M, 2GB

And I still can't seem to get over 30 FPS. What could be wrong? And what's the recommended order of switching off launcher flags?

[attachment removed and sold on the black market]

[librarycharlie]

Possible solution for people with switchable graphics:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c02948560&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en

I have no idea if this will work or not, but it would explain why the discrete graphics card isn't being used for diaspora, despite the CCC telling it to do so.

UPDATE:
FIXED!

Woohoo!  Running Diaspora beautifully in 1920x1080!

Update your ATI to the new CCC, then update BIOS, then hit f10 during setup, change switchable graphics from dynamic to fixed, and voila!

It's complicated, thus the link, but it works awesomely, and I would never have figured it out if you hadn't pointed out that it was the integrated card still active, even after switching it.  It has to do with OpenGL not working with discrete graphics in switchable systems.  I know nothing about computers, but I made it work and I'm very excited.
Thanks guys!