!!POLL!! Experiencing lower than expected frames per second?

[Gregs2k2]

It is my rig indeed. I'll try using just one core. See if there's any improvement. I'll get back to you.

[esteel]

It is my rig indeed. I'll try using just one core. See if there's any improvement. I'll get back to you.

Did it work?

without realtime shading (Only shaded when a light, such as a gun comes by) I get around 100 FPS. I enable shading and it drops to around 15fps.

Realtime lights and shadows ARE slow. Its a very advanced feature and as long as you do not provide hardware specs i guess its normal for you hardware
Hey Doom3/Quake4 is the only other engine that does realtime light and shadows and it is backed up by millions of dollars. I still think DarkPlaces does a good job and you can turn off those effects. Its rather stupid for online playing anyway in my opinion..

[esteel]

Could people with dualcore problems please take a look at this and report if it does help or anything?
http://www.amdzone.com/modules.php?op=m ... e&sid=3964

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This hotfix also addresses the following issues on computers that have multiple processors that support processor performance states:
• Possible decrease in performance on single-threaded workloads when processor performance states are using demand-based switching

this does sound interesting..

[TehTux]

Ok, I've been doing more testing. I've installed Kubuntu 6.06 LTS on my second machine, installed the legacy Nvidia drivers and installed Nexuiz 2.0.

I connected both machines to the Australian server and started testing out FPS. Before I start, I'll give the machine specs:

1st Machine:
OS: Kubuntu 6.06 64bit
CPU: AMD64 3200+ (2000Mhz)
MEMORY: 1GB DDR400 (Geil ram with heat spreaders - memtest OK!)
Graphics card: Gigabyte GeForce 6600GT 128MB (500Mhz GPU/1000Mhz MEM) Using latest Nvidia drivers
HDD: Seagate 300GB 7200RPM 8MB cache SATA150
FPS recorded in glxgears (~$ glxgears -printfps): 4261

2nd Machine:
OS: Kubuntu 6.06 32bit
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2500+ (1826Mhz overclocked to 1958Mhz)
MEMORY: 3GB DDR333 @ DDR356 (memtest OK!)
Graphics card: GeForce 2 Pro 64MB (using latest Nvidia LEGACY drivers)
HDD: Seagate 60GB 7200RPM 2MB cache ATA100
FPS recorded in glxgears (~$ glxgears -printfps): 1755


So, as you can see, the second machine doesn't have great FPS using glxgears, more than half that of the first machine. Yeah, it's got three times the RAM, but the HDD is old school ATA100 and the CPU is 1 architecture behind, 32bit and minimal 42Mhz slower.

I connected both these machines to the Aussie server, and set both to 640x480, lowest and no effects. The results (the map was runningman.bsp if anyone cares):

Machine 1 (the 3200+ 64bit 6600GT):
Looking at a wall: ~170FPS
Standing infront of other player (the other machine): ~33FPS

Machine 2 (the 2500+ 32bit GeForce 2 Pro):
Looking at a wall (same wall as before btw): ~275FPS
Standing infront of other player (the other machine): ~112FPS


So, as you can see, my slower machine using an old legacy graphics card plays Nexuiz better...

What I'm deducting from this is that there is a problem with Nexuiz 64bit...

If anyone has anything else to add to this, or can do further testing (or back up my testing) please post your results.

[TehTux]

I should mention that general gameplay was much better with my older, slower machine. If I'm going to be playing Nexuiz, I'll be using that machine from now on...

Also, the drop from 'no characters' to just ONE character was EPIC, 170FPS to 33FPS on the main machine and 275FPS to 112FPS on the older machine. Definately explains why you get good FPS and then it drops to low low numbers when fighting...I know it's the character graphics, is there anyway that these can be refined? Quake 4 has WAY better character graphics and I don't experience the same massive drop in FPS when there is 1, 2 or 32 characters on the screen...

[divVerent]

What I'm deducting from this is that there is a problem with Nexuiz 64bit...

No, I don't think so. Swap the graphics cards and you will see that the 64bit system will perform better. Or to test this easier: run the 32bit binary on your 64bit system.

The problem is that DP uses some enhanced graphics features if they are available. If you manage to tune down all graphics settings to Geforce 2 level on your high-speed card, you probably will be faster. Most of these variables are not in the menu, though, and IIRC nobody has done such tuning yet. A start would perhaps be gl_picmip 3.

[TehTux]

Or to test this easier: run the 32bit binary on your 64bit system.

I did try that, I tried running nexuiz-linux-686-sdl, though got:

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./nexuiz-linux-686-sdl: error while loading shared libraries: libSDL-1.2.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Any other way to run the 32 bit version on my 64 bit Kubuntu?

As for the swap the graphics card approach, that's not going to happen. To downgrade my graphics card just to play Nexuiz and forsake all other games is insane, if that is indeed the cause.

Something is causing sub 20 FPS during gameplay, and it's not happening on my older, slower machine - which is running the same OS (Kubuntu 6.06) though is 32 bit...

If anyone has a similar setup, or can confirm my test results let me know, as unfortunately I cannot blow away my main machine and install a 32 bit OS as I'm living in 64 bit land for better or for worse

[ds01]

lol, I thought it was just a cruel joke that there is no yes option for osx in the poll...

So yea, I am not getting expected FPS on OSX - and yea I know about the shell script in the .app to force GLSL off.

For the record, it doesn't matter if I use a hacked shader file that works around the AppleGL driver's GLSL parser bugs and subsequently enable GLSL in Nexuiz; nor does it matter if I just leave GLSL disabled - in either case the new version of Nexuiz performs like slug in molasses compared to previous versions (no offense).

BTW I thought it an odd choice not to have vanilla DM as the default for the instant action.

Was going to say what esteel said and also ask if people with AMD X2 CPU have the X2 DRIVER installed, and suggest also to look at the OPTIMIZER:
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_13118,00.html

[ds01]

@tehtux did you try increasing your res on the higher-end machine? Even a GF 5900-FX ultra is faster at 1280x1024 than it is at 640x480.

divVerent is right, there are more var's to just type into con to adjust things, but using picmip is a drastic and unnecessary approach IMHO. I>E> although forgot to check w/ the 2.x series Nexuiz, the last pull from cvs up to the release had the GLSL option in menu doesn't do anything bug BACK AGAIN. It was gone for a while, but after the big redesign the Nex genie poofed it in, so just try setting things via con.

GLuck

[divVerent]

Or to test this easier: run the 32bit binary on your 64bit system.

I did try that, I tried running nexuiz-linux-686-sdl, though got:

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./nexuiz-linux-686-sdl: error while loading shared libraries: libSDL-1.2.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Any other way to run the 32 bit version on my 64 bit Kubuntu?

Yes, you would need to install the 32bit version of libSDL (on Fedora: yum install libsdl.i586). Or use the glx build.

As for the swap the graphics card approach, that's not going to happen. To downgrade my graphics card just to play Nexuiz and forsake all other games is insane, if that is indeed the cause.

No, but it would help for testing.