Hey, sorry for the delay in new tests (logs below if of use). Assuming that the 'release' build is the other build given in the download, I ran tests using both, and did so for this run. I find only a couple of FPS difference between them, with the release faster by about 5 or so fps normally at times, and a couple of FPS faster in intensive moments. An aspect I completely forgot about earlier (sorry) is my graphics card has dedicated memory (2GB I think it is) to use alongside the system's 4 so graphics may be enjoying that boost.
Here's some more clips.
I found with shadows off gameplay was significantly faster, and went back to what felt like normal for my system (even with deferred lighting switched on) on both release and debug for both the normal and the BP, though it did fluctuate quite a bit as it played (I've not run the FPS checker much on release builds before so I never fully realised). On Media VPs especially there was barely one or two stutters (whereas before it was constantly stuttering), and on BP stuttering was still constant but far less than before.
In low-demand scenes (like viewing one ship in the lab, or in game just looking at space) it would hover around 60FPS. If a few ships were in view or I was viewing a complex model it went down to 30FPS and hovered there, dropping down to the low 20s or 10s when things got serious graphically (for a lot of Icarus it was in this region). Only in the most extreme moments (Icarus mainly with the Solaris) did it drop below 10. On the old test it would be 10s for most of it and drop to 4/5 for lots of Icarus, so it seems a noticeable degree faster.
Noticing how much it actually took while on I did another run with FRAPS off, but found it not much different (it was a couple of FPS faster at times, but no more).
The node was missing again on my normal mission, and Icarus had that 'wet hull' look again. I also noticed some of the FS fighters when viewed in BPs tech room (debug or release) had invisible cockpits (both the glass and most if not all of the cockpit models within were missing), but this wasn't the case on my Media VPs, nor when in-game on BP. This does not occour with other builds to my knowledge.
Hope these help. Let me know if you need anything more.
EDIT: Had a thought this afternoon to do two more tests on debug with the shadows on but deferred lighting off for comparison's sake (added logs below). Extreme stutter throughout again, with mostly 9-12 FPS in both lab and levels for both Normal and BP. Went as low as 4fps during Icarus' Solaris shots. It seems to be the shadow side of things that is causing the slowdowns my end therefore (the deferred lighting was fine), though that said from what I have seen the shadows seem to be working perfectly graphics wise amidst the slowdown. I dunno my PC could be simply running out of memory for the shadows (atm old gal's got to run FSO+Win7+2 security programs+Steam etc on one core) but that's a total n00b's guess so take with pinch of salt.
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