Some thoughts on the dev versions of 2.4

Developer discussion of experimental fixes, changes, and improvements.

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  • First the non-SDL version: As far as I can tell, this version is completely stable, and there are no graphics glitches long as one does not turn on OGL2 -in which case all manners of odd things pop up on the screen. The big downside to the non-SDL version is the sluggish mouse. The menus are painful to use when it takes several full sweeps of the arm to move the cursor anywhere on the screen. The in-game mouse is likewise sluggish - even when the sensitivity is set to max. Not only it is slow, but the game seems to lag behind the mouse movements. As far as I can tell, the only downside to the non-SDL version is the sluggish mouse. OGL2 I can live without.

    The the SDL version: First, it seems as if the drivers corrupt the textures in the VRAM, which results in non-rendered sides / missing walls, garbled textures, semi-transparency where there should be none, and other oddities. These effects can be circumvented to some degree by using gl_picmip.
    However, the SDL version seems to be degrading somehow. gl_picmip no longer works as as well as it did when I first started using it, and is sometimes makes Nex crash. SDL Nex often crashes / freezes when changing levels.
    And a new symptom that has appeared in the past few days is that the HUD no longer renders properly. All I get is a mess of pixels. I was able to get rid of this symptom by going through the gl_picmip routine, but no longer. I can no longer see how my health, armor, and ammo is doing. I don't understand how software like this can degrade over time like the SDL version seems to be doing. There's nothing strange going on in the config file either.

    Still, if it was possible to make the mouse in the non-SDL version snappier and non-laggy, then I'd happily use that one instead.

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Sat Feb 02, 2008 5:55 pm

  • I have the same problems with the non-SDL version, but the SDL version works perfectly fine for me.
    I'm using my own vid_sdl.c file though, but somebody didn't like it and changed it back :P
    I don't know the current version, and am currently not able to work on anything, but I'll have a look at the new version compare them to "my current one" within the next days.
    I hope I can help with it
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Sat Feb 02, 2008 6:34 pm

  • You can "fix" the mouse in the non-SDL version easily; there is a menu setting to disable mouse acceleration on OS X: it is called "Turn off OS mouse acceleration". Uncheck that, and the mouse should feel just like before 2.3. I just fixed a tiny bug in that option - it failed to apply immediately, but waited until you actually open the console and close it again.

    As for the SDL build - no idea. Note that there is NO SINGLE engine dev who has a Mac that can do OpenGL 2. Try downgrading SDL.framework inside the game to the old one.
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Sat Feb 02, 2008 7:31 pm

  • divVerent wrote:You can "fix" the mouse in the non-SDL version easily; there is a menu setting to disable mouse acceleration on OS X: it is called "Turn off OS mouse acceleration". Uncheck that, and the mouse should feel just like before 2.3.

    I tried this, but it didn't take; it becomes unchecked as soon as you do anything.

    I just fixed a tiny bug in that option - it failed to apply immediately, but waited until you actually open the console and close it again.

    Not quite sure what you meant by this, but I opened the console immediately after checking "turn off" and found this message:

    "CVAR_SET: variable vid_dgamouse not found".

    Not sure whether it's relevant or not.

    As for the SDL build - no idea. Note that there is NO SINGLE engine dev who has a Mac that can do OpenGL 2.

    I don't need OGL2 as long as I have the option of playing without it. 8)

    Try downgrading SDL.framework inside the game to the old one.

    Do you mean replacing the file called "SDL" that's buried way in there with the one in 2.2.1?
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  • Oh... sorry for the option problem... as I don't have a Mac, I couldn't test it. It is fixed in the next build, which the script is just making. The cvar is called "apple_mouse_noaccel", set that to 0 manually for now.

    Do you mean replacing the file called "SDL" that's buried way in there with the one in 2.2.1?


    Exactly.
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  • When I set disable OS mouse acceleration to 0, I get rid of the lag but the mouse cursor warps about 100 pixels in the direction I move it after approx. 200 pixels of movement. Had the same problem with evdev. Weird eh... :?
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  • I've tried the non-SDL version (is there a better name for it?) of today's build.

    The mouse is hugely improved - which means the menus are no longer a pain to navigate and the game is easily playable. The graphics were stable on the two levels I played, with OGL2 turned off. Didn't try with OGL2 on. I'll probably be playing the non-SDL version from now on.

    However, there is still a slight lag on the mouse. It feels as if it needs to build up speed when you move it. This is very slight, and it's quite possible that I'll learn to get used to it. But if there is a way to make it as snappy as the mouse in the SDL version then that would be nice.

    About the menu layouts: I like the new menus designs. But I don't like them floating around on the screen waiting for a click. If I could choose I'd put the menus in tabs at the top or bottom of the screen. Click and the menu you want pops up.
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  • Clueless Newbie wrote:...the non-SDL version (is there a better name for it?)


    GLX version? :D
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  • FruitieX wrote:GLX version? :D

    AGL, since he's using mac, not X11...
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  • KadaverJack wrote:
    FruitieX wrote:GLX version? :D

    AGL, since he's using mac, not X11...


    Oh, didn't know... :)
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Wed Feb 06, 2008 2:25 pm

  • Excuse my ignorance, but what exactly is the difference between the SDL version (and non-SDL) anyway?
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Wed Feb 06, 2008 3:24 pm

  • melk wrote:Excuse my ignorance, but what exactly is the difference between the SDL version (and non-SDL) anyway?


    One uses sdl, which acts as an abstraction layer to hardware, so it's much more portable at the cost of performance.
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Thu Feb 28, 2008 4:57 pm

  • I haven't had any problems with the svn SDL version so far, with or without ogl2 on. The previous SVN version lagged a bit, but the latest version is absolutely great.

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Thu Feb 28, 2008 7:01 pm

  • Couple of bugs that cropped up on latest SVN.

    Two weeks ago, these probs didn't exist - so -

    In Vista, the sound is lagging behind badly. Also on startup, you have to apply the sound settings(regardless if you change them or not) or the sound is very choppy.

    Also, client side prediction is doing some crazy things that it wasn't doing two weeks ago(maybe it was off by default before).
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Thu Feb 28, 2008 8:30 pm

  • This is a sound interface change that had to be done because Microsoft deprecated DirectSound (which means, it may disappear at any time from Windows, even by Windows Update), so we should no longer use it. It now uses wave out, which exists on any Windows - and works fine on the tested systems.

    However, it may indeed be causing problems elsewhere. For now, use the nexuiz-sdl.exe build instead then.

    As for why Microsoft did that - they are pushing OpenAL now. However, if a game uses Vista's version of that, it won't run on any previous Windows any more, so that's no choice for us.
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