Graphics issue

[jockel]

Hi,

I am new to the forum and like the game a lot for years.

So, now I'd like to discuss a graphics issue I encounter with my new machine.

I run Build 28.03.2022 (25860-release) on Linux Mint 21.3.

inxi -F
System:
  Host: host Kernel: 6.8.0-40-generic x86_64 bits: 64
    Desktop: Cinnamon 6.0.4 Distro: Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: ASRock product: B650M-HDV/M.2 v: N/A
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: ASRock model: B650M-HDV/M.2 serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: 3.01 date: 05/10/2024
CPU:
  Info: 6-core model: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X bits: 64 type: MT MCP cache:
    L2: 6 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 790 min/max: 545/5453 cores: 1: 545 2: 545 3: 545
    4: 545 5: 545 6: 545 7: 545 8: 3493 9: 545 10: 545 11: 545 12: 545
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD driver: amdgpu v: kernel
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 driver: X: loaded: amdgpu,ati
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa gpu: amdgpu resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
  OpenGL: renderer: RAPHAEL_MENDOCINO (raphael_mendocino LLVM 15.0.7 DRM
    3.57 6.8.0-40-generic)
    v: 4.6 Mesa 23.2.1-1ubuntu3.1~22.04.2
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD driver: snd_hda_intel
  Device-2: AMD Family 17h HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k6.8.0-40-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE driver: r8169
  IF: enp6s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: 9c:6b:00:52:33:40
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 2.73 TiB used: 532.07 GiB (19.0%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: KIOXIA model: EXCERIA G2 SSD size: 931.51 GiB
  ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD20EFZX-68AWUN0
    size: 1.82 TiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 912.73 GiB used: 265.71 GiB (29.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-1
  ID-2: /boot size: 1.61 GiB used: 658.5 MiB (40.0%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
  ID-3: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 976 MiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
    dev: /dev/dm-2
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: N/A mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 35.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 338 Uptime: 1h 20m Memory: 30.47 GiB used: 3.55 GiB (11.6%)
  Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.13

I find the display output juddering compared to my old machine and wonder whether it may be an issue of my graphical setup.

Thanks for any hints.

[hyperion]

1.21.1.4 looks to be older than the gpu, which might or might not be an issue.

[Gurken Khan]

Hi @jockel, welcome to the forums.

Until someone more knowledgeable comes along...

Check if it's the latest available release of the game; that came out in September 22, so I don't think it is. Some Linux depositories lag behind considerably... For ways to get it see https://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/GettingTheUnixRelease

Check the FAQ https://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/FAQ

Make sure you have the latest graphics drivers.

If that doesn't help those more knowledgeable people would need the logs to look into it, you can just zip the folder and add it to your reply. https://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/GameDataPaths

HTH

[giangbang]

did you disable compositor, like it suggested in this link? I use Linux Mint as well and noticed that my screen flickers when I turn it off. The flickering goes away once I re-enable the compositor.

[jockel]

Thanks for your comments.

11 hours ago, hyperion said:

1.21.1.4 looks to be older than the gpu, which might or might not be an issue.

It seems to be the latest available for my configuration.

 

11 hours ago, Gurken Khan said:

Check if it's the latest available release of the game; that came out in September 22, so I don't think it is. Some Linux depositories lag behind considerably... For ways to get it see https://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/GettingTheUnixRelease

Samesame.

3 hours ago, giangbang said:

did you disable compositor, like it suggested in this link? I use Linux Mint as well and noticed that my screen flickers when I turn it off. The flickering goes away once I re-enable the compositor.

No, I didn't. BTW, it should be disabled in Mint anyway.

What is Compositor and where can I check on this?

[giangbang]

20 hours ago, jockel said:

No, I didn't. BTW, it should be disabled in Mint anyway.

What is Compositor and where can I check on this?

Quote

From Linux Gaming: If you use a DE with X11, then you probably have a compositor. The compositor does nice things like window shadows, animations, transparency, blur, or other effects. But it also reduces fps, adds input lag, and introduces stuttering.

You can google on how to check the compositor settings in Linux Mint. By default, the compositor should be enabled. If you haven't touched this setting, it’s likely still active. If that's the case, I’m afraid I can't provide further help...

Here is my graphic info, everything appears to be identical to yours. 0ad works fine on my machine, so I guess the reason might be something else.

Quote

Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-P GT1 [UHD Graphics] driver: i915 v: kernel
  Device-2: Chicony ACER HD User Facing type: USB driver: uvcvideo
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
    unloaded: fbdev,vesa gpu: i915 resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel Graphics (ADL GT2)
    v: 4.6 Mesa 23.2.1-1ubuntu3.1~22.04.2

 

Hope this helps.

Edited: btw, I use Xfce, so there could be some differences.

Edited September 5 by giangbang

[jockel]

6 hours ago, giangbang said:

btw, I use Xfce, so there could be some differences.

Yes, I think so.

I have disabled Compositor (it was on by default) for fullscreen display, but https://linux-gaming.kwindu.eu/index.php?title=Compositor says:

Quote

• Disabling composition completely might lead to better input lag. You can do that by checking: System Settings -> General -> Disable compositing. However, this might lead to visual degradation in desktop mode (no effects, no shadows, no transparency, no window previews, more tearing), but is still recommended if you want to reduce latency.

Linux mint does not seem to support disabling it anymore.

True, while there is no such option in the sys settings, not with Cinnamon at least.

There was neither an effect for fullscreen nor for window display, same issues.

Maybe the problem is due to the onboard GPU and the intern communication.

E.g., I have issues with stuttering mp3s using the default Celluloid, and there is simply no stuttering with VLC, which goes deeper into the exchange with the CPU. A friend of mine who knows much more than I about tricky things is about to pay me a visit. Maybe that will solve it.

Edited September 5 by jockel

[Stan`]

Could be the full screen mode as well. In the user.cfg file you could add borderless.fullscreen=false

[Norse_Harold]

On 04/09/2024 at 12:57 AM, jockel said:

I find the display output juddering

Would you mind posting a video of the problem. You can record it with screencapture software like OBS-Studio. If the problem is not visible in the recording made by screencapture software then it is interesting and possibly points toward the video output cable or monitor. In that case, please also post a video recorded with a camera instead of screencapture software.

Troubleshooting advice for the game juddering is here. Especially note my idea to set the CPU frequency scaling governor to performance in order to prevent micro delays due to changes in CPU frequency. Also see the additional advice further down the page in that topic.

[jockel]

1 hour ago, Norse_Harold said:

Would you mind posting a video of the problem. You can record it with screencapture software like OBS-Studio.

Well, once I have wrapped my head around OBS. I'm not much into gfx at all. Installed it, and have no idea how to get it working so far. Is there maybe a good tutorial for that purpose somewhere?

1 hour ago, Norse_Harold said:

Especially note my idea to set the CPU frequency scaling governor to performance in order to prevent micro delays

cpupower mentioned in https://forum.level1techs.com/t/how-do-i-change-cpu-scheduler/201662/3 is not availabe, system says

E: Paket cpupower kann nicht gefunden werden.
(E: Package cpupower cannot be found.)

Should I change it via UEFI?

I doubt that the problem at this point is to be found, as I find some 80% for a short time at starting the game, while playing it never reaches more than 20% cpu usage, mainly it's around 5%.

Anyway, it is very interesting, and I learn a lot.

[jockel]

3 hours ago, Stan` said:

borderless.fullscreen=false

didn't do the trick.

Added, to no avail.

[Norse_Harold]

9 hours ago, jockel said:

Well, once I have wrapped my head around OBS. I'm not much into gfx at all. Installed it, and have no idea how to get it working so far. Is there maybe a good tutorial for that purpose somewhere?

It seems complex at first, but you only need to use a small portion of its functionality. The quick start guide shows you the essentials. In fact, running another CPU intensive program at the same time potentially changes the conditions of the test, because it might change how often the CPU frequency is being adjusted. This is a reason to also record a video with a camera instead of using OBS-Studio.

9 hours ago, jockel said:

cpupower mentioned in ... is not availabe

You can control the governor manually with this command as root, or with sudo.

echo performance | tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor

When you want to undo the change, easiest is to reboot, but the default might be schedutil, so to revert the change you can replace performance with schedutil in the above command.

Alternative software is listed in this Arch article about CPU frequency scaling. It also includes documentation on the governors and tuning the CPU scaling system.

I have a theory that the CPU frequency is being adjusted too often, despite the CPU usage when 0ad is running only being about 20%. Every time the frequency is changed, the CPU is idle. Some CPUs take 900 microseconds or more to change the frequency. That could explain the stuttering. There might be a way to adjust the settings so that Linux is reluctant to change the CPU frequency so often. But, first test with the CPU scaling governor set to performance so that the CPU frequency is locked to the maximum. Then check whether the stuttering continues, or not.

Also, please check whether the stuttering problem is present when the game is windowed, before and after adjusting the CPU frequency scaling governor. You can toggle whether the game is windowed by pressing Alt+Enter when the game is at the main menu.

Edited September 6 by Norse_Harold