Dual core vs. Single core CPU

[yuggsoth]

Try turning off everything. All settings down at their lowest, no shadows, no extra lighting, so replacement models, no replacement textures.

See does the framerate drop happen then.

demo1 (the first Necropolis demo) is a great test here because it has a grenade go off in your face early on, so just launch DP and let the demo run until that point.

If it drops then you're basically screwed. Not much you can do at all.

If it doesn't drop then you've got a hope; something you're using is causing it. So bring them all back on, one at a time, testing with demo1 after each one, until you identify the setting that's causing it.

Then don't use that setting.

It may be more than one thing causing it, so bring the rest back up, also one at a time, and also testing after each one, and make sure that other stuff doesn't also cause it.

I appreciate the effort you've taken to give me this advice (that I have seen before in regards to other DarkPlaces performances problems), but I will certainly NOT do that. I have no intention of breaking my otherwise amazing DP install to fix this issue. Due to how heavily modded my install is, it would simply be too much trouble. Simply put, doing this would defeat the purpose of me posting on this forum.

On a clean install with everything turned down or off the grenade lag does not occur. I'd also like to add that even on clean installs DP performs worst out of 6 diff. clients I've tried.

Qrack is pretty good but I have a glitch causing the blood effect to look all white and umm...glitchy. Nobody seems to know the solution, tried replacing the blood_splat decals etc...

Engine X has beautiful lighting and no problem installing enemy models, but I can't get QRP textures to install in Engine X, and the water is not transparent which for me, is annoying (i'm spoiled).

DirectQ had super awesome performance, but no support for all of the flash which is a must-have for me.

It seems that Direct X stuff just runs better on my system than OpenGL, but the DX clients currently available lack support for the advanced graphical features I love about DP.

JoeQuake looks like it might work but the links to it are all broken.

[Mindf!3ldzX]

Wow, lazy Horse/Water syndrome

[yuggsoth]

lol!

[Mindf!3ldzX]

but seriously, don't get TOO attached to your Darkplaces setup, because months down the road, not only is your .EXE going to be outdated, but easily half of the shit thats been developed for DarkPlaces (AND YOUR USING RIGHT NOW) will go through updates and/or modifications,and even your current addons / modifications will be outdated.

As the engine evolves, so will the people creating content and supplying us with these snazzy upgrades to our beloved Q1 game.

If you don't iron out the kinks now, you will be in worse shape when the next wave of updates occurs haha.

Yes thats a scare tactic,hope it works too :F

[grave_digga]

E:\Games\Painkiller\Bin\RunFirst.exe painkiller.exe

Put RunFirst.exe in your Quake folder, replace the path above for your Quake path and painkiller.exe with your dp.

[yuggsoth]

E:\Games\Painkiller\Bin\RunFirst.exe painkiller.exe

Put RunFirst.exe in your Quake folder, replace the path above for your Quake path and painkiller.exe with your dp.

Replace the path? HUH?

[yuggsoth]

but seriously, don't get TOO attached to your Darkplaces setup, because months down the road, not only is your .EXE going to be outdated, but easily half of the shit thats been developed for DarkPlaces (AND YOUR USING RIGHT NOW) will go through updates and/or modifications,and even your current addons / modifications will be outdated.

As the engine evolves, so will the people creating content and supplying us with these snazzy upgrades to our beloved Q1 game.

If you don't iron out the kinks now, you will be in worse shape when the next wave of updates occurs haha.

Yes thats a scare tactic,hope it works too :F

Alright then, fine. I'll install another copy of DP and Quake in yet another directory and start from the ground up. I just hope the next DP release has some performance tweaks. I don't want to sacrifice my beautiful graphics =(

[grave_digga]

Replace the path? HUH?

For example if your Quake folder ist C:\Games\Quake then it should look like this:

C:\Games\Quake\RunFirst.exe darkplaces-sdl.exe

[Seven]

Hello yuggsoth,

I see that you wrote about this issue in different threads now.
See also your post here

The only small problem is...MASSIVE fps drop when I get in hit in the face with a grenade. I know the obvious solution is "don't let the ogres hit you in the face with grenades", but is there anything else I can do just to solve that 1 issue without sacrificing too much bling?

To help you with this last issue of yours:
The root cause is very simple: It lies in the file: "effectinfo.txt".
Please also read this post: klick

Smith deeply investigated Jorix�s wonderful explosion particle effect.
He found a solution to decrease the fps impact from it by adjusting the size and quantity of the spawned particles.


What you want to do is this:
1.) Find these passage in your "effectinfo.txt":

effect TE_EXPLOSION
underwater
count 128
type bubble
tex 62 62
color 0x404040 0x808080
size 2 2
alpha 128 256 64
gravity -0.125
bounce 1.5
liquidfriction 0.25
originjitter 16 16 16
velocityjitter 96 96 96

effect TE_EXPLOSION
notunderwater
count 128
type spark
color 0x903010 0xFFD030
size 1 1
alpha 0 256 512
gravity 1
airfriction 0.2
liquidfriction 0.8
velocityoffset 0 0 80
velocityjitter 256 256 256

effect TE_EXPLOSION            // this is Jorix new red explosion smoke, which is visible directly after the explosion for a short time
notunderwater
count 192
type smoke
color 0x901000 0xFF3010
size 10 10
alpha 32 16 64
bounce -1
tex 0 8
airfriction 0.2                // beeinflusst das Aufl�severhalten des Rauchs
liquidfriction 0.8
lighttime 0
velocityoffset 0 0 0
velocityjitter 256 256 256     //  wie schnell der Rauch sich verteilt

effect TE_EXPLOSION            //  this is Jorix new white explosion smoke, which is visible after the explosion and slowly disappears
notunderwater
count 96
type smoke
color 0x202020 0x404040
tex 0 8
size 12 12
sizeincrease 1
alpha 0 32 2                   //  war urspr�nglich 0 32 1   3.Wert: wie lange der Rauch sich verteilt (kleinerer Wert= langsamer !!)
bounce -1
lighttime 0
airfriction 0.2                //  beeinflusst das Aufl�severhalten des Rauchs
liquidfriction 1
velocityjitter 64 64 64        //  wie schnell der Rauch sich verteilt

effect TE_EXPLOSION
countabsolute 1
type decal
tex 8 16
size 48 48
alpha 256 256 0
originjitter 40 40 40

effect TE_EXPLOSION
lightradius 350
lightradiusfade 700
lightcolor 4 2 0.5

2.) Replace it with this:

effect TE_EXPLOSION
underwater
count 128
type bubble
tex 62 62
color 0x404040 0x808080
size 2 2
alpha 128 256 64
gravity -0.125
bounce 1.5
liquidfriction 0.25
originjitter 16 16 16
velocityjitter 96 96 96

effect TE_EXPLOSION
notunderwater
count 128
type spark
color 0x903010 0xFFD030
size 1 1
alpha 0 256 512
gravity 1
airfriction 0.2
liquidfriction 0.8
velocityoffset 0 0 80
velocityjitter 256 256 256

effect TE_EXPLOSION            //  this is Jorix new red explosion smoke, which is visible directly after the explosion for a short time                     // performance optimized version 3 times shorter lag when hit by explosion - passerby
notunderwater
count 24
type smoke
color 0x901000 0xFF3010
size 25 25
alpha 32 16 64
bounce -1
tex 0 8
airfriction 0.2                // beeinflusst das Aufl�severhalten des Rauchs
liquidfriction 0.8
lighttime 0
velocityoffset 0 0 0
velocityjitter 256 256 256     //  wie schnell der Rauch sich verteilt

effect TE_EXPLOSION            //  this is Jorix new white explosion smoke, which is visible after the explosion and slowly disappears
notunderwater
count 72
type smoke
color 0x202020 0x404040
tex 0 8
size 14 14
sizeincrease 1
alpha 0 32 2                   //  war urspr�nglich 0 32 1   3.Wert: wie lange der Rauch sich verteilt (kleinerer Wert= langsamer !!)
bounce -1
lighttime 0
airfriction 0.2                //  beeinflusst das Aufl�severhalten des Rauchs
liquidfriction 1
velocityjitter 64 64 64        //  wie schnell der Rauch sich verteilt

effect TE_EXPLOSION
countabsolute 1
type decal
tex 8 16
size 48 48
alpha 256 256 0
originjitter 40 40 40

effect TE_EXPLOSION
lightradius 350
lightradiusfade 700
lightcolor 4 2 0.5

3.) That�s it. Save it and your fps drops should be reduced.


To go into details here (if you are interested):
The only difference is (from above code):
- Reduce quantity of red smoke from 192 to 24, while increase its size from 10 to 25
- Reduce quantity of white smoke from 96 to 72, while increase its size from 12 to 14

It seems that ATI cards are more sensitive to this compared to NVIDIA.

Kind regards,
Seven


PS: One last thing:
MH�s way to explain/help you with your problem was exactly correct.
He just didnt know, that you use replacement effects (via "effectinfo.txt"). That is why he told you to turn of the explosion shell.
You should know, that in original Quake the explosion shell was what you see instead of the replacement effect, that you see now with "effectinfo.txt".
Only DP and FTE allows replacement effects.

[Mindf!3ldzX]

sounds like the fix needs to be done prior to the users downloading.

[yuggsoth]

Ok, I reinstalled DP with everything off and turned down, then gradually raised everything and have a consistent framerate ,except for the bomb-in-the-face lag which will hopefully be fixed by Seven's solution. However, a new problem has arisen. Following installation of the ReForged Bestiary pack, my framerate remained the same, but when I encountered Knights, they were black. What do I need to set to fix it?

[yuggsoth]

Hello yuggsoth,

I see that you wrote about this issue in different threads now.
See also your post here


To help you with this last issue of yours:
The root cause is very simple: It lies in the file: "effectinfo.txt".
Please also read this post: klick

Smith deeply investigated Jorix�s wonderful explosion particle effect.
He found a solution to decrease the fps impact from it by adjusting the size and quantity of the spawned particles.


What you want to do is this:
1.) Find these passage in your "effectinfo.txt":

effect TE_EXPLOSION
underwater
count 128
type bubble
tex 62 62
color 0x404040 0x808080
size 2 2
alpha 128 256 64
gravity -0.125
bounce 1.5
liquidfriction 0.25
originjitter 16 16 16
velocityjitter 96 96 96

effect TE_EXPLOSION
notunderwater
count 128
type spark
color 0x903010 0xFFD030
size 1 1
alpha 0 256 512
gravity 1
airfriction 0.2
liquidfriction 0.8
velocityoffset 0 0 80
velocityjitter 256 256 256

effect TE_EXPLOSION            // this is Jorix new red explosion smoke, which is visible directly after the explosion for a short time
notunderwater
count 192
type smoke
color 0x901000 0xFF3010
size 10 10
alpha 32 16 64
bounce -1
tex 0 8
airfriction 0.2                // beeinflusst das Aufl�severhalten des Rauchs
liquidfriction 0.8
lighttime 0
velocityoffset 0 0 0
velocityjitter 256 256 256     //  wie schnell der Rauch sich verteilt

effect TE_EXPLOSION            //  this is Jorix new white explosion smoke, which is visible after the explosion and slowly disappears
notunderwater
count 96
type smoke
color 0x202020 0x404040
tex 0 8
size 12 12
sizeincrease 1
alpha 0 32 2                   //  war urspr�nglich 0 32 1   3.Wert: wie lange der Rauch sich verteilt (kleinerer Wert= langsamer !!)
bounce -1
lighttime 0
airfriction 0.2                //  beeinflusst das Aufl�severhalten des Rauchs
liquidfriction 1
velocityjitter 64 64 64        //  wie schnell der Rauch sich verteilt

effect TE_EXPLOSION
countabsolute 1
type decal
tex 8 16
size 48 48
alpha 256 256 0
originjitter 40 40 40

effect TE_EXPLOSION
lightradius 350
lightradiusfade 700
lightcolor 4 2 0.5

2.) Replace it with this:

effect TE_EXPLOSION
underwater
count 128
type bubble
tex 62 62
color 0x404040 0x808080
size 2 2
alpha 128 256 64
gravity -0.125
bounce 1.5
liquidfriction 0.25
originjitter 16 16 16
velocityjitter 96 96 96

effect TE_EXPLOSION
notunderwater
count 128
type spark
color 0x903010 0xFFD030
size 1 1
alpha 0 256 512
gravity 1
airfriction 0.2
liquidfriction 0.8
velocityoffset 0 0 80
velocityjitter 256 256 256

effect TE_EXPLOSION            //  this is Jorix new red explosion smoke, which is visible directly after the explosion for a short time                     // performance optimized version 3 times shorter lag when hit by explosion - passerby
notunderwater
count 24
type smoke
color 0x901000 0xFF3010
size 25 25
alpha 32 16 64
bounce -1
tex 0 8
airfriction 0.2                // beeinflusst das Aufl�severhalten des Rauchs
liquidfriction 0.8
lighttime 0
velocityoffset 0 0 0
velocityjitter 256 256 256     //  wie schnell der Rauch sich verteilt

effect TE_EXPLOSION            //  this is Jorix new white explosion smoke, which is visible after the explosion and slowly disappears
notunderwater
count 72
type smoke
color 0x202020 0x404040
tex 0 8
size 14 14
sizeincrease 1
alpha 0 32 2                   //  war urspr�nglich 0 32 1   3.Wert: wie lange der Rauch sich verteilt (kleinerer Wert= langsamer !!)
bounce -1
lighttime 0
airfriction 0.2                //  beeinflusst das Aufl�severhalten des Rauchs
liquidfriction 1
velocityjitter 64 64 64        //  wie schnell der Rauch sich verteilt

effect TE_EXPLOSION
countabsolute 1
type decal
tex 8 16
size 48 48
alpha 256 256 0
originjitter 40 40 40

effect TE_EXPLOSION
lightradius 350
lightradiusfade 700
lightcolor 4 2 0.5

3.) That�s it. Save it and your fps drops should be reduced.


To go into details here (if you are interested):
The only difference is (from above code):
- Reduce quantity of red smoke from 192 to 24, while increase its size from 10 to 25
- Reduce quantity of white smoke from 96 to 72, while increase its size from 12 to 14

It seems that ATI cards are more sensitive to this compared to NVIDIA.

Kind regards,
Seven


PS: One last thing:
MH�s way to explain/help you with your problem was exactly correct.
He just didnt know, that you use replacement effects (via "effectinfo.txt"). That is why he told you to turn of the explosion shell.
You should know, that in original Quake the explosion shell was what you see instead of the replacement effect, that you see now with "effectinfo.txt".
Only DP and FTE allows replacement effects.

Ok, my new install doesn't have effectinfo.txt, but the new version of your small mods compilation has an effectinfo.txt IN the pk3 file, so I edited that one (making sure to update it in the archive), and nothing changed. What's going on? I don't want to have top remove all of the the entire mod collection because I like them (mainly the smoke, footsteps, scrag attack effect, and nails sticking to walls).

[yuggsoth]

Ok, I reinstalled DP with everything off and turned down, then gradually raised everything and have a consistent framerate ,except for the bomb-in-the-face lag which will hopefully be fixed by Seven's solution. However, a new problem has arisen. Following installation of the ReForged Bestiary pack, my framerate remained the same, but when I encountered Knights, they were black. What do I need to set to fix it?

Discovered that the missing textures are caused by turning Texture Compression on. Too bad, because having this setting ON, gave me like 20 frames.

[MH]

In general texture compression needs texture sizes to be multiples of 4. Most drivers will work around this if they're not, but it's possible that yours doesn't. Check the knight skin sizes and resize them if needed.

[yuggsoth]

UPDATE: Removed all TE_EXPLOSION entries from the effectinfo.txt. Now I have basic (shitty) explosions. How do I get back the explosions I had before, while keeping the rest of the effects?