Fixed Improve Performance in 3D Sailing Mode

[Hylie Pistof]

Well, it seems the motherboard was going out and has been replaced. Everything works better now but there is still stuttering and lag in 3.5.

It's like this. GOF2 plays well but GOF2.5 has stuttering plus sound issues. I like 2.5 better but can not play it. POTC 3.3 plays well but POTC 3.5 has stuttering issues. I like 3.3 and want to playtest 3.5, but the stuttering ruins the whole game. It is like fingernails on a blackboard.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

All I can say is that the No Lag test series is still available.
If you still notice issues, try that again. There is absolutely nothing that can be done until the code responsible is narrowed down.
Last time, we gradually added more and more Beta 3.4 code so at some point the issue must have started if it is indeed a valid problem.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Well, I copied 3.3 again and then added the first nolag patch. The last time I started with a new game and was working my way up when it all fell apart and became unplayable. This time I and continuing a mature game of the Sea Hawk storyline well after Cozumel at level 31.

Performance is nothing to brag about at 33-36 fps but at least it is smooth. Only the shipyard menu is jerky.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

So Beta 3.3 and the No Lag 1 version have equal performance at sea?

If I recall, I undid a Beta 3.4 shipyard change with the No Lag 2 patch so once you install that one, hopefully the shipyard performance would go back to Beta 3.3 state.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I installed V2 and ran it for a while. The shipyard menu ran perfectly when the shipyard had a lot of ships but later at another shipyard with only 3 ships it jerked. Dunno what to think.

Yes performance is the same so far. Here is a screenie with 9 ships in it and it is getting the same fps as when there are only 3 ships around.

Then it gets goofy. I got caught in a twister storm and fps went UP. Then when the twister left fps went up again! I don't know what to think about that.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

From what I recall, the V2 returns all shipyard code to Beta 3.3 state so that should not be any different anymore.

It seems this issue does exist, but is extremely inconsistent and apparently affects certain people much, much more than others.
Perhaps it is worth for you to stick to the "No Lag" patches for a longer time so you can say with more certainty at which stage the problems are introduced.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I have been playing V2 some more and now have a slight frame rate drop and the hitch is there. It is slight but once you see it it you can't unsee it. All I changed was to replace a mediun pinnace with a spiegelretourschip. It is only slightly larger and not hirez so should not make any difference. I intend to berth the other medium pinnace to see if that makes any difference.

The shipyard menu is smooth. There is a slight stop when moving to the first square, but it is smooth after that.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I have been playing V2 some more and now have a slight frame rate drop and the hitch is there. It is slight but once you see it it you can't unsee it. All I changed was to replace a mediun pinnace with a spiegelretourschip. It is only slightly larger and not hirez so should not make any difference. I intend to berth the other medium pinnace to see if that makes any difference.

Can you find a scenario similar to the one where in Beta 3.4 you would get near-unplayable bad performance?
I don't want to start looking into this issue again until I know for absolute certain that the problem is introduced between two specific "no lag" zips.

The shipyard menu is smooth. There is a slight stop when moving to the first square, but it is smooth after that.

Did that happen even in Beta 3.3?
I can think of no reason why the shipyard would be any worse, because the code should be exactly the same.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

For clarity's sake, I just went through the old posts in this thread and quoted my most relevant ones in the opening post.
That shows the history of what we did last time to check this, including to links to the various ZIPs.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I intend to get into another big battle ASAP. The hitch seemed to slowly appear last night. Who knows, it might be gone today.

The menu in 3.3 is probably the same but I never actually looked.

I'm glad you did that because I have no short term memory and often forget things while jumping from page to page.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Well the game is running just fine so far today. The biggest battle so far was only 10 ships but all went well with no stuttering and good frame rates. If it stays like this I'll install V3 tonight or tomorrow.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

For a test I berthed the medium pinnace which left me with 2 ships, the FWzP and the Spiegelretourschip. Then sailed around for a while. Fps went up from 34 to 40 and it stayed there even with as many as 6 other ships close by.

Went back and got the medium pinnace back and fps dropped to 34 again plus there is some very slight stuttering. Sailed around and once again many other ships close by did not hurt frame rates. So my thinking now is the ships in my fleet put more load on the game engine than other random ships.

This might be related to the regular pulsing that causes frame rates to drop and then come back up. Levis did something that makes this much worse in 3.4 than in 3.3.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Levis' code is gradually introduced with the zips i posted here.
But we still need to know what that "something" is.
I myself will not have any time to spare for a while to do anything on this.
So you'll have plenty of opportunity to try the zips and narrow it down.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

So fps gradually dropped again with V3. I compensated by berthing the FWzP and using the Postillionen 6th rate. That got the frame rate back up to playable.

Then I installed the SeaAI late last night and FPS went up some. Will play it a while to see how it goes. It is still stuttery and not smooth and hard on the eyes.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

V3 is very close to Beta 3.4 so I wouldn't be surprised if that one also has the same performance issues.

V1 or V2 should be good though, I reckon with the problem probably being introduced either between 1-2 or 2-3.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

So I installed the seaai and performance got a little better and the game plays good enough. I just installed the last thing, the perks, and the game works normally on land except for the store and shipyard. They do not work and the game is unplayable. So I went to sea and the game is unplayable

ONE FRAME PER SECOND!!!!!!!!!

So that last perk.zip seems to be the biggest culprit.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Store? That's new!

You didn't get 1 fps in Beta 3.4, did you?
But with all zips installed, you pretty much DO have Beta 3.4 .
So that still sounds rather mysterious and inconsistent.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I got as low as 4 fps in 3.4-3.5 before it died completely. There are other things that must have been changed as 3.3 plays better than any version of this test mule has. The differences in game play are astounding and include even just moving around the ships deck. That is smooth in 3.3 and jerky in any version of the test mule. The spyglass is also a mess in 3.4.

I played 3.3 again last night and it really brought home how large the differences are.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

So you even notice large differences between Beta 3.3 and Beta 3.3 + the No Lag V1 patch.
Ignoring the shipyard, because I know that one is wrong in there.

If I recall, the V1 patch contains only changes that I would really not expect to cause huge problems.
So if that does seem to be the case, more research would be required on yet another mystery.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I tried that patch that is supposed to reset everything so I could start over on the 3.3-3.4 test mule and the 3.5 installs. The mule is still stuck at not 1 fps but 3 seconds per frame, and the 3.5 install is still completely broken and will not even start. Methinks they will both be deleted and I will start over again.