Demo for Benchmarking

[Ctrl+Alt+Del]

I'd like to run some tests on cpu-specific nexuiz builts and the performance gain that could/should result from running them. While talking to LordHavoc he mentioned that someone had posted a demo wellsuited for benchmarks on the old forums.
Does anyone still have that demo or should i just record my own (and post it alongside the results for others to verify)?

[KadaverJack]

That demo won't work with 1.5.
It was recorded with 1.0 i think and a lot of sounds/models/textures have been replaced in 1.5, so it would show you colored diamonds instead of explosion sprites and a lot of other weird things.
The easiest way would be if you just record a short demo online or in botmatch and use that for tweaking.

[Ed]

Although the old demo will give you the coloured diamonds (which appear to slow it down) it can still be used as a benchmark.

If you want to test for CPU then a high speed timedemo will be best, one where the game speed is much higher when played back than when recorded. This will test the CPU more than the graphics.

[esteel]

Yeah this old demo can still be used but it does not look nice. There was the idea to record a new offcial demo that can be used for benchmarking.. Well indeed i would like to get all the developers on one server and get each to record a small demo (around one minute) and all those demos would then be included in the next patch. But it seems rather difficult to do so

[KillerKitty]

I would like to see something like the benchmark thread in the old forums, since 1.5 seems to perform a lot faster for me and probably has engine tweaks and optimizations that affect the framerate. An official benchmark included in the game would make Nexuiz a great benchmarking tool, because then it would be a free benchmark that can run on many platforms. I could even record a few demos, since my computer is capable of running RTLights smoothly.

[Ed]

I could even record a few demos, since my computer is capable of running RTLights smoothly.

You don't need all the effects on to record a demo. The effects are set by the config that the user is running. If you run a different config then all it means is that performance will be different, often in different areas giving a variable speed.

[fronten]

erm... how do you record (and play back) a demo?

and how do you get the benchmark result?

edit: found it here: http://svn.icculus.org/*checkout*/nexuiz/trunk/Docs/FAQ.html#How%20do%20i%20watch/record%20demos?


--> does not work as supposed.

NOT connected to a server the console is disabled; when connected to a server a console command REC DEMONAME only leads to this mysterious error 'already connected to server, recording must be enabled before connecting' (or similar) - which infact seems impossible.

Please give me some more advice.

after recording benchmarking seems to be done with 'TIMEDEMO DEMONAME' ?

--> after i got disconnected from some private server i was able to start recording via 'rec demo', which then recorded next map until i said 'stop demo'.
now 'ply demo' works, but 'timedemo demo' gives error: could not find demo.

Please give me some more advice.

[KadaverJack]

NOT connected to a server the console is disabled;

Try to open the console with [shift]+[esc].

after recording benchmarking seems to be done with 'TIMEDEMO DEMONAME' ?

Yes. If you used the "rec" alias to record the demo, you have to use "timedemo demos/<demoname>".

[fronten]

waaaaaaaaaah!

what an immediate answer!
thanx, hope this works!

[esteel]

rec and ply are aliases to use the directory demos because i did not like the fact the normal record and play commands use the data directory.. after installing a few maps this directory is already a mess
For private use i also have the alias tdem that does i timedemo in the demos directory. I have no idea why i did not commit it to Nexuiz when i added the other aliases. Guess i have been thinking about adding it do nexuiz and maybe about renaming it to tdm to keep the aliases only three characters long but this could be a confusing name.
Well i have added the tdem alias now to my local copy and will commit it sometime later.