Alpha 27 Pre-release/Release Candidate Build Testing

[Yekaterina]

Now let's test a mainland medium temperate  4v4:

Using Vanilla A27:

• OpenGL: ~70, fluctuates between 40 and 80. 
• Vulkan: about the same as OpenGL, but the 1% low is 60-70. No dropping below 50. 
• OpenGL ARB: ~90-100 significantly better than the other two backends. 

 

Using abstractGUI:

• Vulkan: ~200
• OpenGL ARB ~210, but much more stable than Vulkan. 
• OpenGL ~190, but very unstable compared to the other two. 

 

Conclusion: in the vanilla case, the performance differentces are quite visible, but not so much for AbstractGUI. 

AbstractGUI doubles the frame rate on Mainland temperate medium 4v4. 

The biggest cause was the trees - ondulating canopy and complicated leaf details consumed much processing power. The cubes of abstractGUI has only 6 polygons to render so it's much lighter on the GPU and CPU. There are many trees on Mainland, so it makes a huge difference. The trees are also a difficult task for the GPU that enables us to compare the performance of each renderer against each other, but in real gaming, it's best to have simple models. 

Edited May 17, 2023 by Yekaterina

[Stan`]

1 hour ago, Yekaterina said:

Now let's test a mainland medium temperate  4v4:

Using Vanilla A27:

• OpenGL: ~70, fluctuates between 40 and 80. 
• Vulkan: about the same as OpenGL, but the 1% low is 60-70. No dropping below 50. 
• OpenGL ARB: ~90-100 significantly better than the other two backends. 

 

Using abstractGUI:

• Vulkan: ~200
• OpenGL ARB ~210, but much more stable than Vulkan. 
• OpenGL ~190, but very unstable compared to the other two. 

 

Conclusion: in the vanilla case, the performance differentces are quite visible, but not so much for AbstractGUI. 

AbstractGUI doubles the frame rate on Mainland temperate medium 4v4. 

The biggest cause was the trees - ondulating canopy and complicated leaf details consumed much processing power. The cubes of abstractGUI has only 6 polygons to render so it's much lighter on the GPU and CPU. There are many trees on Mainland, so it makes a huge difference. The trees are also a difficult task for the GPU that enables us to compare the performance of each renderer against each other, but in real gaming, it's best to have simple models. 

Your tests are a bit flawed. Arb disables fog, postprocessing, high quality water and shader effects. Shadow filtering is different and more expensive in other modes.

[Yekaterina]

19 minutes ago, Stan` said:

Arb disables fog, postprocessing, high quality water and shader effects.

Why aren't they disabled?

 

[Stan`]

It's a bug probably (as in nobody bothered to implement it), but they have no effect.

[BreakfastBurrito_007]

2 hours ago, Yekaterina said:

Now let's test a mainland medium temperate  4v4:

Using Vanilla A27:

• OpenGL: ~70, fluctuates between 40 and 80. 
• Vulkan: about the same as OpenGL, but the 1% low is 60-70. No dropping below 50. 
• OpenGL ARB: ~90-100 significantly better than the other two backends. 

 

Using abstractGUI:

• Vulkan: ~200
• OpenGL ARB ~210, but much more stable than Vulkan. 
• OpenGL ~190, but very unstable compared to the other two. 

 

Conclusion: in the vanilla case, the performance differentces are quite visible, but not so much for AbstractGUI. 

AbstractGUI doubles the frame rate on Mainland temperate medium 4v4. 

The biggest cause was the trees - ondulating canopy and complicated leaf details consumed much processing power. The cubes of abstractGUI has only 6 polygons to render so it's much lighter on the GPU and CPU. There are many trees on Mainland, so it makes a huge difference. The trees are also a difficult task for the GPU that enables us to compare the performance of each renderer against each other, but in real gaming, it's best to have simple models. 

was this with 800 units moving simultaneously? or was it just a loaded 4v4 map?

[real_tabasco_sauce]

@Stan` is the signing issue referring to apple signed applications so that ppl don't get the 'malware' warning, or is this for actually making the bundle?

[Yekaterina]

30 minutes ago, BreakfastBurrito_007 said:

or was it just a loaded 4v4 map?

just loaded, staring at the cc

[BreakfastBurrito_007]

7 minutes ago, Yekaterina said:

just loaded, staring at the cc

800 units is a different ball game!

[Stan`]

36 minutes ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

@Stan` is the signing issue referring to apple signed applications so that ppl don't get the 'malware' warning, or is this for actually making the bundle?

That's so they don't get the malware warning that now prompts them to send the application to the trash. It's now fixed so you should be able to test. 

[real_tabasco_sauce]

2 minutes ago, Stan` said:

That's so they don't get the malware warning that now prompts them to send the application to the trash. It's now fixed so you should be able to test. 

Nice! hopefully that will eliminate players being discouraged thinking the game is malware.

[real_tabasco_sauce]

The links still don't work for me. Anyone else have this problem?

[snake]

2 minutes ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

The links still don't work for me. Anyone else have this problem?

Try a different browser? Firefox worked for me.

[real_tabasco_sauce]

Only the ARM download worked on firefox.

Seems like the ARM download works everywhere/

x64 didnt work for chrome,safari, or firefox. I think just the ARM link was fixed.

Edited May 18, 2023 by real_tabasco_sauce

[real_tabasco_sauce]

Ok no worries,

I could successfully download from here:

https://releases.wildfiregames.com/rc/

[real_tabasco_sauce]

On 16/05/2023 at 8:29 PM, BreakfastBurrito_007 said:

I tried installing like usual but I only get the suggestion to replace the older version.

I think changing the location of the first 0ad, then installing the new 0ad should work.

Not sure how the user config files will be handled, but I can run both with different graphics and mod selections (on macos). Maybe windows doesnt handle that smoothly idk.

[real_tabasco_sauce]

https://superuser.com/questions/1146874/how-to-install-two-versions-of-software-under-windows-10

[real_tabasco_sauce]

One thing is that FPS throttling seems to have no effect in a27. I can set it lower or unlimited, and its always around 60 fps.

[Yekaterina]

Is it possible to change default directories?

[Stan`]

9 hours ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

One thing is that FPS throttling seems to have no effect in a27. I can set it lower or unlimited, and its always around 60 fps.

Do you have vsync on?

 

5 hours ago, Yekaterina said:

Is it possible to change default directories?

In theory once installed 0 A.D. can run on a flash drive with the -writableRoot flag. The reason it's in appdata is permissions.

 

EDIT: Fixed the x86 link ^^ filename should be x86_64 but I named it x86_x64. And actually it doesn't work on 32 bits so it should just be x64.

[real_tabasco_sauce]

1 hour ago, Stan` said:

Do you have vsync on?

ah thats it. Yeah, I have it on because it fixes screen tearing I get from vulkan. Once it is on, things are very, very smooth so I prefer it on.

[Yekaterina]

2 hours ago, Stan` said:

n theory once installed 0 A.D. can run on a flash drive with the -writableRoot flag. The reason it's in appdata is permissions.

Nice idea. 

But I am on Linux. I want the game to look for mods and load from a different directory, say ~/projects/0admods. Currently it only looks at .local/share/0ad. 

Also I want to put 0ad configuration file on the desktop to change settings easily. Is it possible to tweak 0ad so that it looks for user.cfg on the Desktop?

[Stan`]

Use symlinks.  

[leopard]

On 17/05/2023 at 2:30 AM, Gurken Khan said:

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.

This Happens in OPENGL with GLSL
ARB is ok
Vulkan is ok
but OPENGL is broken

[real_tabasco_sauce]

Eles will need a nerf 100%.

I am thinking just changing the splash should suffice:

20 hack and 20 crush.

[Gurken Khan]

1 hour ago, leopard said:

This Happens in OPENGL with GLSL
ARB is ok
Vulkan is ok
but OPENGL is broken

Ah ja. Changed it from OPENGL and the flickering immediately stopped.