Linux game performance

[balduin]

I played 0 a.d. first on Windows for a long time and than after that on Linux on the same machine. 0 a.d. has performance issues with 6-8 AI players in Windows, if a map has a lot of water and trees.

However, on Linux the situation is more worse. First of all 0 a.d. and the Nouveau driver did not work well together. The game was lacking a lot. When I tried to build fields and other buildings I saw black borders. I think the texture was not properly loaded.

After trying to play Noveau I just use the integrated Intel graphics card. Which works much better. But I still have some performance problems. It does not run as smooth as under Windows. One AI player is enough and the game sometimes "lacks".

I use an Archlinux derivative with 0 a.d. Archlinux is a rolling release distribution with up-to-date software and kernels.

If there is anything I can do to improve the Linux gaming experience let me know.

[fatherbushido]

You can try to use minimal graphics stuff in settings.

[Loki1950]

Or try the nvidia driver which I use with no issues on Mint 18.

Enjoy the Choice

[balduin]

@Loki1950 I find it wired that I need a proprietary graphics driver to play an open source game. I don't like the Nvidia driver, because does not integrate well in the system, especially on laptops with optimus technology. Optimus is the technology which should save energy by allow switching from the integrated Intel to the dedicated Nvidia graphics card. However, even with the Nvidia driver switching is only possible by using open source projects which are not supported by Nvidia. I basically have hardware which I cannot use properly, even with the proprietary driver, because Nvidia is unable to provide the needed software. That is the reason why I would like to see 0 A.D. working really well with the Noveau driver.

Furthermore, the proprietary Nvidia driver can not be audited or verified from a security perspective. Basically, Nvidia can implement spyware, malware or what ever else in their driver without the user ever knowing about it.

[balduin]

@fatherbushido Right I could do that. I played with the default settings both on Windows and Linux on the same system. I would expect the same performance on both operating system, but I did not. In addition I do have a powerful laptop 16 GB RAM, i7, SSD, integrated Intel and dedicated Nvidia graphics card should be enough to play the game without problems on high resolution.

My question is can I provide any statistics, any logs or or other information to help 0 A.D. developers to find existing performance bottlenecks?

Edited October 18, 2016 by balduin
formating

[FeXoR]

@balduin In general I agree with you but this is a problem beyond the scope of 0 A.D..

Compatibility issues with hardware and there proprietary drivers with open source operating systems is well know for a long time (and it's unlikely to go away).
(EDIT: This basically arrises from the different concepts of commercial/open source that at some points contradict ... and that is a big playground not only 0 A.D. is in)

While we can try to support grafic settings that decently run on many systems with open source drivers it's beyond our scope to provide functionality that is not present in such drivers IMO.

So basically it stays your decision what driver to use.

Lets hope that similar issues won't arrise with the CPU/bootup systems ... stay tuned because it likely will and allready is for some hardware!