Vista/Win7 x64 Binaries

[Willis]

Warning: Please read through the entire post before you try anything.

For those of you on Windows Vista x64 or Windows 7 x64, I have put together a preliminary test build for Nexuiz 2.5.2. I have done this purely out of curiosity to see how this effects different processors and video cards. This build is completely unofficial.

I have compiled the current DarkPlaces SVN r9290 (this is current as of this moment, not the 2.5.2 release because it contains the r_water fix) along with all dynamic libraries (dlls) included with an official release for x64. Everything was compiled with Visual Studio 2008 SP1. As of this moment, I'm not certain if they will require a runtime library install or not, but I don't think they will (if it does, it would only be on Vista x64).

To use these binaries, it is highly recommended you have a second copy of your Nexuiz directory, as you must overwrite the 32bit binaries for this to work.

In my preliminary testing, I gained between 9-12% performance across the board for all settings I tested on an Intel Core i7 920 @ 3.8Ghz and an ATI Radeon 4870 (512MB) on Windows 7 Ultimate x64 with Catalyst 9.9 drivers.

I tested:
All default settings (1024x768)
Ultra exec'd from menu (1024x768)
All default settings (1920x1200)
Ultra exec'd from menu (1920x1200)

In both WGL (nexuiz.exe) and SDL (nexuiz-sdl.exe). Keep in mind, these aren't exactly direct comparisons as they are not the same engine revision, but they should be quite close.

The test binaries can be gotten from http://willis.planetnexuiz.com/code/nex ... _win64.zip

Please post a) any problems and b) your performance results and what os/processor/gpu you run (and gpu driver version) if you can.

I'll release another build if any problems are found or when the 2.5.3 hotfix is released.

Last note: the Theora library (video export) is untested.

Thanks and enjoy!
--Willis

[Samual]

They seem to work here (With about 3% increase in FPS after 8 trial runs), but will need updated soon as DP development seems to be exploding lately. Perhaps could you make a step-by-step instruction on how to compile 64bit binaries for Windows for those who don't know how? I managed to do it recently with Visual Studio after you explained on IRC, but it would be useful to those who can't.

[Willis]

There is no trick to compiling the DarkPlaces engine in 64bit with Visual Studio (2005 or 2008), it has supported it for years. The libraries however require more work, but can be re-used since they are dynamic. (Edit: compiling in Visual Studio with 64bit and SDL does require a compiled 64bit SDL Library during DarkPlaces compile.)

So in all reality, at this point, it is only the engine that would need to be recompiled, which is simple. The dlls should also be re-usable for a compilation with mingw64 as well, if that works (I haven't tried).

Could you please post your CPU/Video that you used to test with?

[Samual]

I tested with a Q6600@3.81ghz and a GTX285, which is probably why the performance increase was so minimal. For someone with a slower system, I imagine it would be a bit higher.

[Willis]

Actually, it's pretty well known that DarkPlaces is graphics limited, and not CPU limited. The biggest area for improvement is the video driver being able to better utilize the data. I got a higher percentage gain with a better processor, so processor speed alone is not the case here.

So at this point, it mostly looks like ATI benefits more than nVidia, though I'd be curious to see more results.

[likyng]

hi,

i downloaded ur x64 binaries and tried them with nexuiz. however, only the nexuiz-sdl version gives me a flawless sound, the sound on the glx version laggs horrible. but thats hwy there are two versions . anyway, i run nexuiz on
vista sp2 x64
core i7 920
nvidia gtx285 1gb
and 6gb ram

and i have to say, that nexuiz runs a little more responsive (no benchmarks to proove this, just the "feeling" and also maximizes faster whenever i ALT+TAB) moreover, there is a very small performance gain, but it could also just be incorrect measurment, x64 gives me a ~5% boost. furthermore, nexuiz runs like 10% faster when a lot of appilications are running (like 4-5gb ram are used already when i start nexuiz) and the loading time of maps is decreased (i cannot exactly tell by howmuch however).

likyng

[#kyz]

Thank you for releasiing these x64 binaries Willis, appreciate it . I just got done testing them and heres what I've found:

- The non-sdl version does indeed have sound problems, however, only on Vista, I did not encounter this issue on Windows 7.

- I found the performance increase in my case to be quite large (at least in the average/maximum framerates), I did a timedemo on bench1 and here are the results:

nexuiz-sdl (32-bit):

Code: Select all

date 2009-10-21 13:57:23 | enginedate 02:52:56 Oct  1 2009 9271 release | demo demos/bench1.dem | commandline C:\Users\Kyz\Games\Nexuiz\nexuiz-sdl.exe  | result 3104 frames 55.2750000 seconds 56.1555857 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 36 58 88 (141 seconds)

nexuiz-sdl (64-bit):

Code: Select all

date 2009-10-21 13:59:20 | enginedate 14:59:28 Oct  3 2009 | demo demos/bench1.dem | commandline C:\Users\Kyz\Games\Nexuiz\nexuiz-sdl.exe  | result 3104 frames 45.0650000 seconds 68.8782869 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 43 72 118 (141 seconds)

The graphics settings I was using was fairly close to the default settings, reason why is so I can get a fairly CPU bound situation to see if theres an actual increase. I can see on ultra settings and such the increase being minimal at best being it would be mostly GPU bound, most of us play on settings fairly close to the defaults on servers since different maps and player amounts can change the performance expectations at any time.

Here's what I used for the testing:

AMD Phenom X3 8750 @ 2.8 ghz
4 GB DDR2 800 G.Skill 5-5-5-15
nVidia 9600 GT
Windows 7 Ultimate x64

[Willis]

Thank you for releasiing these x64 binaries Willis, appreciate it . I just got done testing them and heres what I've found:

- The non-sdl version does indeed have sound problems, however, only on Vista, I did not encounter this issue on Windows 7.

I found I compiled these binaries without directx audio support, enabling that (compiler switch) will solve this issue. When I release binaries for 2.5.3, they will be compiled with directx audio support which will solve the sound issues on the wgl nexuiz.exe (I didn't notice because I didn't test on Vista, only Win7).

- I found the performance increase in my case to be quite large (at least in the average/maximum framerates), I did a timedemo on bench1 and here are the results:

nexuiz-sdl (32-bit):

Code: Select all

date 2009-10-21 13:57:23 | enginedate 02:52:56 Oct  1 2009 9271 release | demo demos/bench1.dem | commandline C:\Users\Kyz\Games\Nexuiz\nexuiz-sdl.exe  | result 3104 frames 55.2750000 seconds 56.1555857 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 36 58 88 (141 seconds)

nexuiz-sdl (64-bit):

Code: Select all

date 2009-10-21 13:59:20 | enginedate 14:59:28 Oct  3 2009 | demo demos/bench1.dem | commandline C:\Users\Kyz\Games\Nexuiz\nexuiz-sdl.exe  | result 3104 frames 45.0650000 seconds 68.8782869 fps, one-second fps min/avg/max: 43 72 118 (141 seconds)

The graphics settings I was using was fairly close to the default settings, reason why is so I can get a fairly CPU bound situation to see if theres an actual increase. I can see on ultra settings and such the increase being minimal at best being it would be mostly GPU bound, most of us play on settings fairly close to the defaults on servers since different maps and player amounts can change the performance expectations at any time.

Here's what I used for the testing:

AMD Phenom X3 8750 @ 2.8 ghz
4 GB DDR2 800 G.Skill 5-5-5-15
nVidia 9600 GT
Windows 7 Ultimate x64

Those are indeed very nice results. May I ask what resolution you tested at, and which driver version you are using?

[RoyalAbidi]

Oh my God, you are a genius! I got a considerable performance increase for my system... it went from "fun but hard to aim cause of framerate sucking" to "completely playable and fun".

I don't know how to do the general test you guys did, but I did play the same map with the same settings on 32-bit and 64-bit. I went from about 18FPS on 32-bit to ~33FPS on 64-bit.

What I'm running:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (x64)
AMD64 Athlon X2 64-bit (Dual-Core) @ ~2.8GHZ
2GB of DDR2-1066
Radeon X1600 256MB AGP
SATA 756GB HDD