Ceres Posted May 31, 2021 Report Share Posted May 31, 2021 Hello! Is there an easy way to find optimal (speed vs. gfx effects balance) gfx/ game settings? I know of some (Android) games like Riptide GP where you can ask the game to find the optimal gfx settings. Is that possible for 0 A.D., too? If not, are there some hints which settings draw most of the hardware resources? How could I use the profiler for this? Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan` Posted May 31, 2021 Report Share Posted May 31, 2021 Hi, There is currently no benchmark feature in 0 A.D. for this. What draws the most really depends on your hardware. Shadows and Silhouettes are expensive. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nani Posted May 31, 2021 Report Share Posted May 31, 2021 All low/disabled with glsl and water transparency + MSAA or FXAA for team games. If you play single player 1v1 you can crank all the setting to max. Notice I didn't mention any PC specs because it doesn't matter what you have, 0ad will still bring your pc cpu to its knees. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceres Posted May 31, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2021 Yeah, I got it. Our devices have Intel iGPUs from 605 to 655 and Intel CPUs between something as 1.5 and 2.4 GHz (2 and 4 cores). When we (3 people) play together vs. 1 AI opponent, all device fans are at max. ;) @nani Just to make sure that I understand you correctly: You mean that I shall enable GLSL, shall set everything to low or even disable it, and what about water transparency + MSAA or FXAA? Also disable/lower them? Sorry that I am not quite clear about this (though it's obvious to me that disabling everything is best for performance). I have no experience, though, which of the other settings (besides Shadows and Silhouettes being expensive, as @Stan` already mentioned) are most demanding. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gurken Khan Posted May 31, 2021 Report Share Posted May 31, 2021 4 hours ago, Ceres said: You mean that I shall enable GLSL I think one advice (maybe by Stan) was to disable it, as well as post processing, fancy water effects and vsync. Spoiler @Stan`Maybe make a sticky in the help section? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan` Posted May 31, 2021 Report Share Posted May 31, 2021 You can disable post-processing. @vladislavbelov plans to remove the GLSL disable button. (And the code behind it) as it's sometimes slower than GLSL. @Gurken Khan not sure whether https://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/FAQ or 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lopess Posted May 31, 2021 Report Share Posted May 31, 2021 1 hour ago, Stan` said: You can disable post-processing. @vladislavbelov plans to remove the GLSL disable button. (And the code behind it) as it's sometimes slower than GLSL. @Gurken Khan not sure whether https://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/FAQ or Will this be the end for some old machines? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceres Posted May 31, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2021 This would be very sad, as many people would not be able to play anymore. Will 0 A.D. also in the near future support integrated GPUs, e.g. Intel 605, 655 and similar cards (same for similar AMD, Nvidia etc.)? About the hint for the hardware demands for various settings: Would you maybe find it useful to use footnotes/ an asterisk for those settings that one should disable/ minimize first on weaker hardware? I understand that thus cluttering the settings menu might more distract the user, but maybe it depends on how "decent" the hint(s) could be. Finally, I understand that on weaker machines, switching off GLSL completely, disabling postprocessing, disabling shadows, and disabling silhouettes (in this order) could help most. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan` Posted May 31, 2021 Report Share Posted May 31, 2021 According to the stats 99.8% of our users support GLSL. So I'd say the art is more likely to do that than the removal. Plus it's not for now. 1 minute ago, Ceres said: Finally, I understand that on weaker machines, switching off GLSL completely, disabling postprocessing, disabling shadows, and disabling silhouettes (in this order) could help most. Water too. 2 minutes ago, Ceres said: This would be very sad, as many people would not be able to play anymore. Will 0 A.D. also in the near future support integrated GPUs, e.g. Intel 605, 655 and similar cards (same for similar AMD, Nvidia etc.)? A lot of people use intel gpus (50%) (It can also be because it uses the wrong GPU on laptops), and you can't exactly drop support for that. https://feedback.wildfiregames.com/results/gpu/ 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceres Posted May 31, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2021 I assume that most of you already know this, so please forgive me linking it again: https://software.intel.com/content/www/us/en/develop/articles/identifying-the-frame-rate-bottleneck-in-0-ad.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan` Posted May 31, 2021 Report Share Posted May 31, 2021 Rendering is a bottlneck, it's not the biggest, but it is one definitely. We're adding more options to lower quality in the game for A25. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceres Posted May 31, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2021 8 hours ago, nani said: All low/disabled with glsl and water transparency + MSAA or FXAA for team games. If you play single player 1v1 you can crank all the setting to max. Notice I didn't mention any PC specs because it doesn't matter what you have, 0ad will still bring your pc cpu to its knees. By "single player 1v1" did you mean 1 human player vs. 1 PetraBot? Why is playing then less demanding for the hardware as compared to playing of 2 human players? Could developers maybe consider introducing profiles? Thus, players could save their settings differently for e.g. single player matches, as compared to multiplayer matches (against AI and/or humans, if it made a difference), or maybe savind less demanding settings in another profile if planning to play with more players. Would this be feasible and possible? Would it make sense to create a "test map" as a reference to find out optimal gfx settings and compare them between platforms? Maybe such a map should contain different - how do you call that? - textures (Alpine, Sea, water in general to consider water reflections and other effects), trees and structures for shadows, and lots of units to start with (to see how that would draw on performance). If that all does not make sense to you, it's simply because I am too unexperienced with program/game development (incl. 0 A.D.), so please accept my apologies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gurken Khan Posted May 31, 2021 Report Share Posted May 31, 2021 3 minutes ago, Ceres said: By "single player 1v1" did you mean 1 human player vs. 1 PetraBot? Why is playing then less demanding for the hardware as compared to playing of 2 human players? As I understand it it's not the difference between a human or AI opponent, but the number of units; so generally in 1v1 you have less units than in a 4v4. If you watch ValihrAnt's vids on yt you'll frequently see him lower the graphics settings as the game progresses. @Stan` Thanks for the answer, still I don't think practical tips are easy to find. Spoiler Granted, I might be dumber than the average DAU, a foreign speaker and don't really know anything about the graphics technical stuff, but I did look: First I did a forum search 'graphics setting' and didn't see a promising result on page 1. Then I looked for stickies in the help section and this one; in 'Known Problems' I guess there are some posts on pages 6 and 7 where I could piece it together. I wouldn't know how to access the wiki without a link, can't see a button on the WFG homepage or the forums page; and I find the 'Frame rate' entry of limited use, even when I know what to look for. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nani Posted May 31, 2021 Report Share Posted May 31, 2021 8 hours ago, Ceres said: Yeah, I got it. Our devices have Intel iGPUs from 605 to 655 and Intel CPUs between something as 1.5 and 2.4 GHz (2 and 4 cores). When we (3 people) play together vs. 1 AI opponent, all device fans are at max. @nani Just to make sure that I understand you correctly: You mean that I shall enable GLSL, shall set everything to low or even disable it, and what about water transparency + MSAA or FXAA? Also disable/lower them? Sorry that I am not quite clear about this (though it's obvious to me that disabling everything is best for performance). I have no experience, though, which of the other settings (besides Shadows and Silhouettes being expensive, as @Stan` already mentioned) are most demanding. Yes you got it right. FXAA or MSAA enabled. FXAA won't affect performance at all, MSAA might if you have very low GPU memory or very basic GPU. Water transparency but no reflection or refractions (no transparency is just too ugly to even consider it an option imho). The rest disabled, specially shadows. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan` Posted May 31, 2021 Report Share Posted May 31, 2021 @Gurken Khan @nani if you can piece something together with recommendations, I'd be happy to put it on the wiki or in a pinned thread! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceres Posted June 1, 2021 Author Report Share Posted June 1, 2021 (edited) @Stan`@nani Maybe there under FAQs? https://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/FAQ I added an extra bullet point "Optimal gfx settings". Please let me know what you want me to change or add. Thank you. Quote To achieve an optimal balance between nice graphics effects and enough performance for a smooth game, consider this in 0 A.D. graphics settings: (1) Prefer GLSL - Enable fog (2) Enable Post-processing (unless you have a very weak GPU): - Enable Antialiasing (FXAA), which has no impact on performance, or MSAA (little impact) - Enable Sharpening (3) Set Shader effects (4) Disable Shadows (5) Disable Unit silhouettes (6) Disable Particles (7) Enable Water effects - Enable High-quality water effects - Disable Water reflections - Disable Water refraction (and Real water depth) (8) Disable Smooth vision (9) Enable VSync - Set FPS throttling in menus and in games to your display's vertical sync or less) BTW, should values such as e.g. Shader effects not be integers only? What does e.g. 2.21 mean, when the maximum is 10.00? Do we need such little steps for changes? Should this rather appear as 22%? (this is a comment of little importance - I am just curious ) Edited June 1, 2021 by Ceres Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan` Posted June 1, 2021 Report Share Posted June 1, 2021 44 minutes ago, Ceres said: BTW, should values such as e.g. Shader effects not be integers only? What does e.g. 2.21 mean, when the maximum is 10.00? Do we need such little steps for changes? Should this rather appear as 22%? (this is a comment of little importance - I am just curious ) The problem is we don't support steps for sliders. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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