Alpha 27 Pre-release/Release Candidate Build Testing

[Stan`]

Here is the first 'Release Candidate' of Alpha 27 - Agni

Downloads - Current bundles are for SVN revision r27645/bbae4080acaf09e2716cde8027c7a3c2cd3eaff4

• Linux data and build
• Windows
• MacOS Builds currently unavailable due to signing issues. You can only test the installer but the game will not run.
  • macOS (x64)
  • macOS (ARM)

Things to note:

• Mind your mods -> they might introduce issues or Out Of Sync.
• Save your A26 config file somewhere, ideally. or use -writableRoot.

What changed: Alpha27 – Wildfire Games

How to port my mod  PortA26ToA27 – Wildfire Games

What to do if I have an error or notice something weird?

Post your commands.txt (replay) and the interestinglog.html file from your folder. You can also reply to this thread.

What to do if the game crashes?

Upload your crashlog.dmp and crashlog.txt  see https://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/GameDataPaths

What to do if I have an Out Of Sync?

You should go in your logs folder, find the replay (commands.txt at least), the mainlog/interestinglog and find the OOS dump folder. Zip all these files and upload them here.
We need the reports from two players to compare them: One OOS and one non-OOS players at least should upload their oos_dump files.

Things you may want to test (non-exhaustive)

1. Test Vulkan performance.
2. Enable feedback and see if it works (Main menu) See this  video
3. Launch a random game
4. Launch a skirmish.
5. Connect to the lobby
6. Play on the lobby with someone
7. Play in LAN
8. Launch Atlas and try things out there
9. Open Unit tests demo (To see if there any breakage in displaying entities) (It's in scenarios)
10. Connect to and use mod.io
11. Test replaying new games
12. Test multiple game modes (e.g. Regicide)
13. Test Atlas terrain previews.
14. Test Screenshots (F2)
15. Test deleting all saved games
16. Test Big Screenshots (Maj+F2)
17. Test hotkeys
18. Test Saving and loading a game.
19. Test Quickload/Quicksave

And of course playing games.

[Lion.Kanzen]

I thought it would take longer for the pre-release.

[Sun Wukong]

Yey! Another alpha!

Spoiler

 

UPD:

I see that the broken tiles have been replaced here and there. It pleases. However, there are still other buildings with broken tiles. And the stoa, which is part of the texture of the urban centers of the Athenians and Macedonians, is still asymmetrical and shifted to the side. As for the palace-bus station, let it remain on the conscience of the one who came up with the idea of using the gate instead of the palace... The main thing is that the Indians do not see this.

Spoiler

 

Edited May 16, 2023 by Sun Wukong

[Lion.Kanzen]

29 minutes ago, Sun Wukong said:

let it remain on the conscience of the one who came up with the idea of using the gate instead of the palace...

 Our project leader?

We have no palace for the Mauryas for now.

[Sun Wukong]

15 hours ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

We have no palace for the Mauryas for now.

But I saw you have an excellent model of the building, suitable for the palace. But it was brighter than all the other buildings of the Mauryas...

 

15 hours ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

We have no palace for the Mauryas for now.

I understand that you have removed the recruitment of units from all strongholds? What for? It was possible to place poisonous women there and not create a gate-palace... It seems to me that the game starts to get cluttered with absolutely unnecessary buildings, and important buildings become weaker. Why was it impossible to give the fortresses a complete list of combat units to be recruited?

[Guest]

On 15/05/2023 at 3:02 PM, Stan` said:

Here is the first 'Release Candidate' of Alpha 27 - Agni

Great news. I'm compiling it asap.

[Lion.Kanzen]

32 minutes ago, Sun Wukong said:

I understand that you have removed the recruitment of units from all strongholds? What for? It was possible to place poisonous women there and not create a gate-palace... It seems to me that the game starts to get cluttered with absolutely unnecessary buildings, and important buildings become weaker. Why was it impossible to give the fortresses a complete list of combat units to be recruited?

That decision, in which I did not participate and will not name names, was made at the end of the launching of A24.

 

It is a decision in which I am totally involved.

 

I understand that it was taken due to the excessive overbalancing of historical accuracy.

 

It was between October 2020 and January 2021.

 

The gate-palace already existed as Eyecandy and was only used as a placeholder.

1 hour ago, Sun Wukong said:

But I saw you have an excellent model of the building, suitable for the palace. But it was brighter than all the other buildings of the Mauryas...

Which one?

[Lion.Kanzen]

@real_tabasco_sauce I need some help  here with gameplay questions.

[Gurken Khan]

I don't know if someone had fat fingers when they assembled the color bars for the players, but this "yellow" bar doesn't look anything like the yellow in the palette or in-game. Don't know if this brown-ish for player 6 shows up in game, I changed it to teal...

[Lion.Kanzen]

21 minutes ago, Gurken Khan said:

I don't know if someone had fat fingers when they assembled the color bars for the players, but this "yellow" bar doesn't look anything like the yellow in the palette or in-game. Don't know if this brown-ish for player 6 shows up in game, I changed it to teal...

I get the feeling that there is transparency in these bars because none of them fit.

[causative]

The Harmya (Palace) is where Mauryas train heroes and maiden guard champions.

[Guest]

In case you set vulkan as rendererbackend by mistake, please comment it in ~/.config/0ad/config/user.cfg.

Else you will crash 0ad in a infinite loop without any way to clear the settings via GUI.

 

My card was supposed to work vs vulkan (My fault?) but here is the dump

ERROR: CCacheLoader failed to find archived or source file for: "shaders/spirv/overlayline.xml"
ERROR: Program 'spirv/overlayline' with required defines not found.
ERROR:   "USE_DESCRIPTOR_INDEXING": "1"
ERROR:   "USE_OBJECTCOLOR": "1"
ERROR: Failed to load shader 'spirv/overlayline'

.. + ..

Assertion failed: "0 <= pass && pass < static_cast<int>(m_Passes.size())"
Location: ShaderTechnique.cpp:59 (GetGraphicsPipelineState)

 

Edited May 16, 2023 by rm -rf

[Gurken Khan]

I still don't know what vulkan is, and who it's for.

Immediately after starting this version, I noticed the screen is flickering intermittently.

[real_tabasco_sauce]

On 15/05/2023 at 3:02 PM, Stan` said:

MacOS Builds currently unavailable due to signing issues. You can only test the installer but the game will not run.

• macOS (x64)
• macOS (ARM)

 

Neither of these links work btw.

 

15 hours ago, Sun Wukong said:

absolutely unnecessary buildings, and important buildings become weaker. Why was it impossible to give the fortresses a complete list of combat units to be recruited?

There are no unnecessary buildings, just some buildings which are not as impactful as others. Fortresses are for defense and heroes/unique upgrades if applicable. Allowing all units to be trained at the fort would be redundant and messy.

[BreakfastBurrito_007]

This issue may have been encountered before, but I am a windows newbie. How should I install two instances of 0ad, one being this bundle and the other the current a26? I tried installing like usual but I only get the suggestion to replace the older version.

[Norse_Harold]

7 minutes ago, BreakfastBurrito_007 said:

This issue may have been encountered before, but I am a windows newbie. How should I install two instances of 0ad, one being this bundle and the other the current a26? I tried installing like usual but I only get the suggestion to replace the older version.

First, ensure that you are installing alpha 27 release candidate to a different destination folder from alpha 26. Then during installation of alpha 27 there may be a prompt to remove alpha 26. I think that you can click cancel when it suggests removing the older version of 0ad. I think that "Cancel" in that prompt doesn't stop installing alpha 27, it just cancels the uninstallation of alpha 26. Alternatively, you can reinstall alpha 26 after alpha 27 finishes installing.

But, switching back and forth between a development version of the game (a27 release candidate) and a stable release of the game has hazards. The mods/user folder is potentially functional and written to when you use a development version of the game. This can seemingly break the game until you clear out that folder. Also, mods are not necessarily compatible between the versions, so you should deactivate all mods before starting a27, and test them carefully one at a time with a27. And, if you do install updates to the mods that are designed for a27 then switch back to the a26 version of the mod when you switch to 0ad a26.

Even safer is to maintain a separate config file for a27 from the config file that you use for a26. This involves manually swapping the config file unless you make a script to automate it. I can help people with making such a script if they talk to me on IRC.

 

Edited May 17, 2023 by Norse_Harold

[Grapjas]

9 hours ago, Gurken Khan said:

I still don't know what vulkan is, and who it's for.

Simply put; it's an alternative way to render the game. It often provides better performance but is also more unstable in my experiences in most games that use it.

[Stan`]

10 hours ago, rm -rf said:

In case you set vulkan as rendererbackend by mistake, please comment it in ~/.config/0ad/config/user.cfg.

Else you will crash 0ad in a infinite loop without any way to clear the settings via GUI.

 

My card was supposed to work vs vulkan (My fault?) but here is the dump

ERROR: CCacheLoader failed to find archived or source file for: "shaders/spirv/overlayline.xml"
ERROR: Program 'spirv/overlayline' with required defines not found.
ERROR:   "USE_DESCRIPTOR_INDEXING": "1"
ERROR:   "USE_OBJECTCOLOR": "1"
ERROR: Failed to load shader 'spirv/overlayline'

.. + ..

Assertion failed: "0 <= pass && pass < static_cast<int>(m_Passes.size())"
Location: ShaderTechnique.cpp:59 (GetGraphicsPipelineState)

 

You need to compile the shaders yourself or use the 0ad-spirv mod on mod.io. or you can use the tarballs instead of compiling from source.

5 minutes ago, Grapjas said:

Simply put; it's an alternative way to render the game. It often provides better performance but is also more unstable in my experiences in most games that use it.

Right now the framerate is more stable with it. Macos users on M1 (when I finish to understand why signing is such a nightmare) might see a 200-400fps increase on some maps.

[Sun Wukong]

14 hours ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

Which one?

The old Mauryan town centre.

 

11 hours ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

There are no unnecessary buildings, just some buildings which are not as impactful as others. Fortresses are for defense and heroes/unique upgrades if applicable. Allowing all units to be trained at the fort would be redundant and messy.

Are you saying that the fortress does not have its own barracks and warriors cannot be trained in fortresses for some reason? Why not do it in the form of a researchable technology that unlocks the summoning of units in one place?

[Stan`]

11 hours ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

Neither of these links work btw.

Fixed the links.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Stan` said:

You need to compile the shaders yourself or use the 0ad-spirv mod on mod.io. or you can use the tarballs instead of compiling from source.

Yes it works now very well after installing 0ad-spirv mod. Thank you for your quick answer.

[Yekaterina]

Testing Vullkan vs vanilla A26: I hosted a multiplayer game in Acropolis Bay and stared at a Han CC, doing nothing. 

• On vanilla A26, the average frame rate was around 120fps but with huge fluctuations, from 70 to 150
• On A27 with Vulkan, the average frame rate was 130 but with smaller fluctions between 110 and 160. The frame rate did not drop below 100, unlike A26. 
• On A27 with OpenGL, the average frame rate was 100 but the values always fluctuate from 80 to 120. 
• On A27 with OpenGL ARB, the average frame rate was 220. 

In my particular case, OpenGL ARB >> Vulkan > OpenGL. I am using intel integrated graphics. 

Edited May 17, 2023 by Yekaterina

[Yekaterina]

After activating my AbstractGUI mod bundle, the frame rates were quite even for all rendering processes. The testing platform was Arch Linux 6.3.2-zen1-1-zen, 12th Gen i7 with Alder-Lake P integrated graphics. 

• Vulkan: averaged around 260 to 270, but occasionally reached 303 but dropped as low as 160. 
• OpenGL ARB: averaged around 270-280, with fluctuations between 250 and 330
• OpenGL: averaged around 220-230 but fluctuations were large. 

An additional observation: killing Google Chrome in the background really helped with frame rates. Just closing 2 tabs increased my frame rate by 30. 

 

Conclusions:

• OpenGL ARB > Vulkan >> OpenGL. 
• Even though it's ugly, AbstractGUI really reduces lag and increases your frame rate, especially for players with weak GPUs. 

 

Edited May 17, 2023 by Yekaterina

[Stan`]

@Yekaterina Can you make sure you have the same options enabled, just for comparison fairness? E.g arb disable a lot of options.
Thanks for testing.

[Yekaterina]

10 minutes ago, Stan` said:

@Yekaterina Can you make sure you have the same options enabled, just for comparison fairness? E.g arb disable a lot of options.
Thanks for testing.

These were the settings. I checked that all settings were kept the same for each test. It was consistent (at least for me) that OpenGL ARB was the best and normal OpenGL was the worst. Vulkan is close to OpenGL ARB but is obviously inferior.