Build 0.9 868 drop in framerate on lower-end systems....
 

Hi everyone,

I just dowload the new build and I noticed a big framerate drop on my system. With the first build (5xx) I had around 25 fps at 1024x768 16 (all plants on) on my Athlon 500, 128Mo, Matrox 400.
Now, with the 868 build, at the same settings, I get around 12 fps max. If I remove all the plants...I get around 23 fps...

Is it just because of the smoother plant movement (can't notice it on my system)???? Will every new build require a bigger system or better graphic card to run it (of course I know this framerate drop is probabely not a big deal or not even noticable on higher end systems .... but on systems like mine (until I upgrade) ... it's sad .... had to reinstall first build....)

Someone else noticed that ?

Ric

I het a noteable drop in fps from 100 to about 85 between the 2 versions. I mentioned this to them once before.

It might have changed the Vsync behavior.

Press Ctrl-V and see if that makes a difference. You may need to turn off "Exit on Mouse Move" to get Ctrl-V to work without kicking you out of the Aquarium.

Not on mine. The vsync was the first thing I checked. With vsync on on mine I lose another 15 fps in 868.

It's not an issue to me, because my system can deal with it, I just figured the 868 is working much harder to make prettier plants... more overhead = less fps.

I also got lower frame-rates, but since the newer version show improvement, I decided it was nothing to worry about. Could it be this is why the caudal fin looks as if it had slowed? I'm not too knowledgeable in this category.

A little more than half.
 

I'm glad someone else posted this. I was consistently getting about 50 FPS on my system. Now with the same settings I get an average of 29 FPS. I haven't noticed a HUGE difference in the quality, but everything seems less responsive and the fish are more apt to jerk now and then. As far as realisticity of the plants, I still have to have all my video card options on "High Quality" for the plants to look sort of real. I'm afraid that no matter what I do, Cali just doesn't look real to me either; kind of wooden or plastic. Maybe, like I did with the other three goldfish, I'll come to like her(?) in the future.
Also, I have finally noticed the "tail base" spasm mentioned in earlier bug reports. And the one plant third in on the left still keeps materializing and de-materializing. And the morphing...
Well anyway, there are still bugs, but I still like it.
Dell Dimension 4550
Pentium 4 2.66 Gh
512 Mb RAM
60 gig HD
ATI Radeon 9700 with 128 Mb RAM
DirectX 9.0 and new Radeon Catalyst 3.2 driver

I have always got around 30 fps on both versions. Mine has not dropped with the new version.
There was a post i made with the original beta version about the much lower framerate in GA compared to MA.
https://www.feldoncentral.com/forums...&threadid=1529

xrayspex,
After going back to your post, I remember reading it. At the time, I was getting 50 FPS with the original beta, so I guess I didn't worry about it because it wasn't affecting me. Now it is, and I can relate to your concern. I'm glad the FPS hasn't dropped any lower for you.
I also hope that as each newer beta comes out, and finally the final "finished" version, that the FPS doesn't continue to drop. Otherwise it'll be wallpaper, not screensaver!
I'm glad to have a chance to reply to one of your posts, because I think your avatar is the coolest!

Thanks Klyntun. Yeah, that is what i am little concerned about which i brought up in my other post. Since alot of us are now getting in the 25-30 range and most of us have decent video cards that any more additions such as bubbles,toys,ect will slow the fps even more and as you said , turn our moving screensavers into wallpaper. Now of course you dont have to have everything on screen..but being limited is no fun. The AVERAGE user has our type of cards(geforce 440 or lower and ati radeon 9700 or lower), not the new ones that just came out a couple of months ago which also cost a hell of alot money right now. We shall see what happens when more things are added to the tank.
At least with MA you get very nice frame rates and i really have no concern when jim completes the 3d background and fish packs...there is room to play with concerning fps and MA.

Yes, i have been told that the GA looks ok with less frp and it does seem fine hovering around 30 for me..but any lower i dont know how well its going to look and behave.

1.4 GHZ
Geforce440mx agp
512 ram
60 gig hard drive
Directx9a and latest drivers

GA requires considerably more from a system. Everything conspires to slow things down. We support DX 6, 7, 8, and 9, and Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP and ME (4 of these items are not even supported by the manufacturer).

Soon we will drop DX 6, which with some simple but time consuming rewrites will increase performance. DX’s version system should have a decimal in front of it…like GA. At least we admit this is still beta.

Also, every new object makes things slower, along with surface area (GA’s fish are quite a bit larger than the salt water fish). And our fish are designed to be viewed from all angles (even top down…coming soon).

Our #1 programming job is speeding things up, to run on slower and slower computers. Luckily this is the one thing that gets easier, since every day people get better cards, while we push to operate on slower systems.

I went to E3 yesterday and saw nVidia’s newest wares. Impressive, very impressive. We are working with their head engineer to improve things for future products, and also stuff like multi-monitor. They “love” what we do. The next booth over had a $15K video display with Marine Aquarium.

And no pictures... :(