Tahnan
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2460
Registered: 11-14-2005
IP: Logged

I can't be the only one who's noticed this: in some rooms in "Palace of fine dream" (e.g. "The travel beginning: 3E"), the game slows down insanely. I don't know what's special about that room, though it also happened in other rooms--I think they both had snow, but it's not every room with snow that does it. (Snow on purple platforms? I wish I could recall which other room.) Anyway, something's going on, and it's not just my computer, because the next room over performs just fine.

Edit: Aha! It was "The travel end: 6S2W" that was the other room--it, too, has snow over platforms. (Note that it's got nothing to do with the monsters; even when cleared, the rooms drag.)

---

[Last edited by Tahnan at 07-08-2012 01:29 AM]

RoboBob3000
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1980
Registered: 10-23-2003
IP: Logged

In playing this hold, I noticed the same slowdown. The thing that tied the slow rooms together was gigantic room-filling platforms.

____________________________
http://beepsandbloops.wordpress.com/

Trickster
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 662
Registered: 07-03-2007
IP: Logged

I tried to get to 3E and was unable to easily, so I used the editor.

I have a brand new system that is amazeballs fast with an excellent graphics card, and even I have a noticeable slowdown. Weather (snow, rain, and fog) + large platforms (water seems slightly worse than pit but both have the problem) = slower movement.

If something could be tweaked in this case to optimize performance, it should. I've done high-end graphics stuff before and I don't know what would be causing this kind of a delay. (Aren't the weather effects running on separate threads...?)

____________________________
Trickster

Official Hold Progress
Favorite Unofficial Holds (I need to play more!)
My Holds

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5134
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Trickster wrote:
(Aren't the weather effects running on separate threads...?)

Nope! And the graphical effects are all rendered in software.

____________________________
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.

Trickster
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 662
Registered: 07-03-2007
IP: Logged

mrimer wrote:

Trickster wrote:
(Aren't the weather effects running on separate threads...?)

Nope! And the graphical effects are all rendered in software.

Since the weather has no gameplay effect outside of dependency on lighting and shadows, it seems like multithreading weather might produce a significant performance improvement for the large-platform issue. I'll defer to your wisdom on that, though.

(At the very least, an architect should perhaps receive a warning if they use weather and platforms together.)

____________________________
Trickster

Official Hold Progress
Favorite Unofficial Holds (I need to play more!)
My Holds

starwed
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 49
Registered: 12-16-2006
IP: Logged

Weather (snow, rain, and fog) + large platforms (water seems slightly worse than pit but both have the problem) = slower movement.

I noticed this in Drod 4, actually -- can't recall off the top of my head, but the level where the first room has water, several platforms and fog was almost unplayable on my Macbook Air. (Which while not especially beefy, can at least play things like HL2 pretty well. I guess if everything is being rendered in software that explains the difference.)

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5134
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

We'll look into this issue as soon as we can to see whether something in the rendering can be optimized for this case.

____________________________
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.

Briareos
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3516
Registered: 08-07-2005
IP: Logged

I'm wondering - in this thread I had a similar problem under Windows 7 64-bit and solved it by adding an option to DROD that always painted the whole screen in one go instead of updating only the changed parts.

Now, I've never tested this outside of Windows, but since it isn't platform specific maybe it can also work for you guys?

Just set "AlwaysFullBlit=1" in the "[Customizing]" section of drod.ini and see if it helps...

np: The Black Dog - Heavy Industry (Liber Temple (Book 2 Ov 3))

____________________________
"I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole
R.I.P. Robert Feldhoff (1962-2009)

Trickster
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 662
Registered: 07-03-2007
IP: Logged

mrimer wrote:
We'll look into this issue as soon as we can to see whether something in the rendering can be optimized for this case.

Just for the record--my fiancee built this new machine and he says it should be able to run any state-of-the-art game out there at max graphics, more or less. So slowdown is a bit surprising here, even if it only happens when the platforms are large and one or more environmental effects are on. I simulated the problem easily by making max snow, fog, cloud shadows, lightning, a huge platform the size of the room, and Robert Loggia.

I'll try the workaround Briareos suggested later and see how much that speeds things up, if any.

____________________________
Trickster

Official Hold Progress
Favorite Unofficial Holds (I need to play more!)
My Holds

Briareos
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3516
Registered: 08-07-2005
IP: Logged

Trickster wrote:
I'll try the workaround Briareos suggested later and see how much that speeds things up, if any.

Sooo - did you get round to trying it yet?

____________________________
"I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole
R.I.P. Robert Feldhoff (1962-2009)

Trickster
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 662
Registered: 07-03-2007
IP: Logged

Briareos wrote:

Trickster wrote:
I'll try the workaround Briareos suggested later and see how much that speeds things up, if any.

Sooo - did you get round to trying it yet?

Sorry, but I appreciate the reminder. I'll leave this page up until I get to it.

____________________________
Trickster

Official Hold Progress
Favorite Unofficial Holds (I need to play more!)
My Holds

Trickster
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 662
Registered: 07-03-2007
IP: Logged

I tried it. It made a difference neither in Editor play, nor in the normal game.

For the record, I have a beast of a system, which should be able to run practically any current game at max graphics. I notice a significant slowdown if I have a platform that covers 100% of the room and at least two weather effects (e.g. snow + darkness).

I would guess the problem has little to do with weather and a lot to do with platform calculations, but that's a shot in the darkness bar which slows me down.

____________________________
Trickster

Official Hold Progress
Favorite Unofficial Holds (I need to play more!)
My Holds

mako
Level: Disabled

Rank Points: 3
Registered: 12-11-2011
IP: Logged

When I turn on Alpha Blending In some Rooms moves take 10 sec(only in DROD 4).

____________________________
See ya later losers!

skell
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3764
Registered: 12-28-2004
IP: Logged

I am unable to reproduce it on the latest build with Alpha Blending and max Environmental Effects.

It is noticeably slower but nowhere close crawling speed.

____________________________
My website