speed problems (GNU/Linux;vegastrike 4.1;got uptodate xmls)

[greyc]

Running vegastrike 4.1 with replaced factions.xml on GNU/Linux. Athlon/XP 1500Mhz, 512MB Ram, Radeon 9000 (drivers are up-to-date).

Ram amount is set to 512+256 (though I actually have 1Gib swap space).

I'm experiencing serious slowdowns under certain conditions. The primary reason for this appear to be large objects, particularly planets. Looking directly at them usually gets the fps rate down to below 20, if not single digits, especially for the "Class M"-lookalike planets.
Jumppoints cause a very similar effect in about the same magnitude, even when not in use.
I don't think generally lacking graphics performance is the reason for this. Under some conditions, I can look at these objects without any serious slowdowns...usually shortly after starting the game.

If the bug occurs, it only does while I'm looking at these objects. If I turn sufficiently to one side to get most or all of the object out of my line of sight, speed goes back to normal instantly.

Any ideas ? I'm not sure whether this has been reported before, but after searching the forum for a bit I couldn't find any clear references to this kind of slowdown.

I don't know whether stdout and stderr data would help much here. it it might, just tell me to post it.

[energyman]

hi,

deactivate sound&music, that resolved all slowdowns (even without faxctions.xml update) for me.

[hellcatv]

there's a variable to disable drawing of clouds and atmosphere
I can give you it later...



static bool useAtmosphere = XMLSupport::parse_bool(vs_config->getVariable("graphics","usePlanetAtmosphere","true"));
static bool useFog = XMLSupport::parse_bool(vs_config->getVariable("graphics","usePlanetFog","true"));


so that's in the graphics section
usePlanetAtmosphere
usePlanetFog

set 'em to false

[greyc]

@energyman: I tried deactiviating it, but unfortunately it didn't have any seriosu effects on the performance in the situations described.


@hellcatv:
I hope I got this right...added the following lines to vegastrike.conf, between <section name="graphics"> and the corresponding </section>:

Code: Select all

			<var name="usePlanetAtmosphere" value="false">
			<var name="usePlanetFog" value="false">

Any of these entries seems to force vegastrike to start in 1024*768 windowed mode, even if other entries in vegastrike.conf specifiy other behaviour.

However...each of these (as well as both of them together) also prevented vegastrike from loading completely at all.

If the line <var name="usePlanetFog" value="false"> comes first, vegastrike will crash with the following last lines of stdout:

Code: Select all

vegastrike: star_system_xml.cpp:1015: void StarSystem::beginElement(const std::string&, const XMLSupport::AttributeList&): Assertion `xml->unitlevel>0' failed.
Aborted

If the line <var name="usePlanetAtmosphere" value="false"> comes first, it will simply print "Segmentation fault" and exit.

Both problems seem to occur at about the end of the loading sequence.
I tried to set the graphics settings (windowed, 1024*768) to the ones it was now using anyway, but it didn't make any difference.

[hellcatv]

you need to have a slash

<var name="blah" value="bleh"/>

you forgot that slashj

[greyc]

You're right, forgot that. With it, vs starts up fine again. Unfortunately, the options don't seem to have any real impact on performance. I think I'll just play with a lower resolution until I get better hardware...that seems to largely avoid the problem.

Anyway, vegastrike is a great game ! 4.x was a great leap from the 3.x versions.