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Briareos
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icon DROD:TCB horribly slow on Windows 7 x64 (+1)  
I've just tried playing TCB for the first time since installing Windows 7 x64 here, and I've found that it's incredibly laggy while playing. :(

It's also very noticeable when watching a demo - the further you step into it the slower the game becomes, until it suddenly it gets fast again and again starts gradually slowing down; I take it that's when the game saves a snapshot.

When I say "it gets slower" I mean that the demo playback itself gets slower, the blood particles are jumpy instead of smooth and Beethro and enemies actually start to flicker, as if some kind of pause happens between removing them and drawing the new board.

On the other hand, if I rewind a demo it does so at full speed, with no lag in sight. :huh

I've also tried JtRH and DROD RPG - both work just fine, and turning off environmental effects and/or alpha blending and running the game in fullscreen doesn't help a single bit. :(

Is anyone else having the same problem, or am I just too cutting edge Microsoft-OS-wise?

NB: This happens with both 3.2.1.84 and 3.2.1.86...

np: Amorphous Androgynous - Tiny Space Birds (The Peppermint Tree & The Seeds Of Superconciousness)

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[Last edited by Briareos at 08-25-2009 07:39 PM]
08-25-2009 at 06:40 PM
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skell
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icon Re: DROD:TCB horribly slow on Windows 7 x64 (0)  
I've been using Win 7 RC x64 for a month or two already and not even once had problem with TCB speed... Well, other than the fact it takes awfully long to connect to CaravelNET, but I thing it is caused by my slow connection. I am playing it with all effects on, and in windowed mode.
So I don't think it's the Win7's fault, at least not completely.

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08-25-2009 at 08:09 PM
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Briareos
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icon Re: DROD:TCB horribly slow on Windows 7 x64 (0)  
skell wrote:
So I don't think it's the Win7's fault, at least not completely.
I don't think it's my hardware's fault either, as it ran perfectly fine under Windows XP (and why wouldn't it, with a quad core CPU, (then) 2 GB of RAM and a Radeon 4850) *AND* JtRH and DROD RPG still run fine under Windows 7 - and unless I'm mistaken the latter has a pretty similar graphics core compared to TCB.

I'm running the Win 7 RTM, by the way, as we have an MSDN subscription at work...

Well, I guess if nothing pops up until the weekend I'll break out the good ol' Visual Studio and see if I can reproduce and debug this... :)

np: Nine Inch Nails - The Wretched (The Fragile (Disc 1))

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[Last edited by Briareos at 08-25-2009 10:35 PM]
08-25-2009 at 10:33 PM
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Briareos
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icon Re: DROD:TCB horribly slow on Windows 7 x64 (+3)  
Oh carp... :(

After playing around with Visual Studio's profiling (also available for the command line even if you don't have the Team Developer edition) I've found that the game spent most of it's time in SDL_UpdateRects when watching a demo and holding down cursor-right.

After looking at the code that calls it (i.e. CBitmapManager::UpdateRects) I've found that the game runs at it's "normal" speed and without any blinking/lag if I just make the game repaint the whole screen instead of only the changed areas, i.e. replace the
if (this->rects.size() > 50)
with
if (1)
I guess I'll have to look into compiling SDL to gather further insights. :(

(Also, I need sleep. Now. Desparately. :P)

EDIT: Okay, since setting "Windib=1" in DROD.ini speeds things up a lot I'm pretty sure something fishy is going on in SDL's DirectX video driver here...

EDIT²: Well, since instrumenting a self-compiled SDL.dll shows that the most time spent fast-forwarding a demo is spent in DDRAW.dll I'm quite convinced this (performance of lots of small blits vs. one big one) isn't something that can be improved much - how about adding an option similar to "Windib=1" in DROD.ini to always do a fullscreen blit? (I'll cook up a patch if this would get included in regular DROD...)

EDIT³: Using BIEW to patch the original 3.2.1.86 DROD.exe to make it always blit the whole screen does indeed make the game run as fast as I was used to in Windows XP.

np: Das Bierbeben - Dunkle Tage (Das Bierbeben)

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[Last edited by Briareos at 08-30-2009 01:55 PM]
08-30-2009 at 02:10 AM
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mrimer
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icon Re: DROD:TCB horribly slow on Windows 7 x64 (0)  
Thanks for looking into this, Kurt! I'd be happy to make a patch that adds this configuration option to each game. I'll include this in the next TCB patch, and if setting this fixes the problem for you, then I'll include it in a patch for the other games too.

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09-01-2009 at 07:32 PM
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Briareos
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icon Re: DROD:TCB horribly slow on Windows 7 x64 (0)  
Alright - I'll crank in that option and crank out a patch tomorrow, then. :)

np: Yppah - Cannot See Straight (You Are Beautiful At All Times)

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09-01-2009 at 07:53 PM
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mrimer
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icon Re: DROD:TCB horribly slow on Windows 7 x64 (0)  
Wow! That would be beau-ti-ful! Thank you!

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09-01-2009 at 08:04 PM
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Briareos
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File: AlwaysFullBlitOption.patch (2.7 KB)
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icon Re: DROD:TCB horribly slow on Windows 7 x64 (0)  
<--- Patch

I've added an option "AlwaysFullBlit" (that defaults to 0) that makes UpdateRects always do just one big blit.

Granted, I've only now realized that the default for "Windib" is 1, but even with that set watching a demo at full speed is faster with AlwaysFullBlit on than off, though the difference isn't that spectacular.

np: Das Bierbeben - Wie Ein Vogel (Das Bierbeben)

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09-02-2009 at 05:50 PM
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mrimer
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icon Re: DROD:TCB horribly slow on Windows 7 x64 (0)  
I've added your patch to build 87. Please let me know if it works as expected. Thanks again! :)

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09-07-2009 at 06:19 PM
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Briareos
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icon Re: DROD:TCB horribly slow on Windows 7 x64 (0)  
mrimer wrote:
I've added your patch to build 87. Please let me know if it works as expected. Thanks again! :)
Very surprisingly it indeed does work as expected... ;)

This might also be something to add to DROD:RPG, but then again hardly anything but Beethro Tendry moves there, so the performance impact of the existing code is rather small.

np: Luke Vibert - Arrogance (We Hear You)

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R.I.P. Robert Feldhoff (1962-2009) :(

[Last edited by Briareos at 09-07-2009 06:37 PM]
09-07-2009 at 06:36 PM
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mrimer
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icon Re: DROD:TCB horribly slow on Windows 7 x64 (0)  
Yes, I'll make a to-do of this:
* Add to JtRH, KDD and RPG builds.

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I am Gandalf the White.
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09-07-2009 at 07:01 PM
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DairmossX
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icon Re: DROD:TCB horribly slow on Windows 7 x64 (0)  
i didnt have any problems with TCB running slow, but i DO have problems with KDD and JtRH on win7x64

and its DEFINATELY not hardware. My comp:

AMD Phenom 9600 (2.3ghz)
8 gigs pc6400 (800mhz)
Geforce 9800 GTX (512 mb)

so, yeah, its so not hardware, its probably something to do with the x64.

matter of fact, i noticed a bit of a problem with Vista x64 as well on those 2. TCB runs fine though.
10-02-2009 at 02:55 PM
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mrimer
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icon Re: DROD:TCB horribly slow on Windows 7 x64 (0)  
mrimer wrote:
Yes, I'll make a to-do of this:
* Add to JtRH, KDD and RPG builds.
I've added this code to these games, so the next release of them will include this feature.

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Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.
12-29-2010 at 10:49 PM
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