1.6 Beta 1 Graphics Quality

[george moromisato]

If you've run 1.6 Beta 1, I'd love to get some statistics about your experience with the graphics quality setting. Could you post a response with as much of the following as possible:

1. Whether or not the game runs smoothly for you.
2. The OS/processor/memory of your PC (if you don't know, just write the OS/make/model).
3. The entry from Debug.log about graphics quality (a line starting with "Graphics quality ...")
4. If Deblog.log says "standard" or "minimum", please change the Settings.xml setting for graphicsQuality to "maximum" or "standard" (instead of "auto") and report how the game runs for you.

This will help me to refine the auto setting. Thank you!

[Song]

On automatic setting, I get choppiness on the background plane (and the stars seem oddly....fuzzy). Map background is nice and smooth, map grid is a little choppy at times. The background plane is very distracting in the game.....the stars in the background don't move right.....

Automatic setting was running as "maximum" according to the debug log.

On maximum (set manually), noticable choppiness on the main plane, same effect on background.

On standard, basically the same as auto. Did notice some choppy main-plane stuff, but I might just not have noticed it earlier.

Debug log stuff: 03/31/2015 16:22:05 Graphics quality maximum: 47 ms; 8 cores.

System: Hewlett-Packard Envy DV7 (laptop)
Processor: Intel i7-3630QM @ 2.40GHz
RAM: 6GB (5.89 usable)
OS: Windows 8.1, 64 bit.

[Aury]

Ran smooth until I spawned a bunch of TSB capships with many particle-effect-heavy weapons bringing the FPS down to 27 avg (24 min) - monitor refresh rate is at 30Hz causing the minor drop to produce noticeable stuttering

8 Cores (FX9590 @5.1Ghz)
Display resolution: 4K @ 30Hz
Win 7 64 bit
(Edit: 16GB ram)

Debug log: Graphics quality maximum: 47 ms; 8 cores.

Already at max

[Song]

Ran smooth until I spawned a bunch of TSB capships with many particle-effect-heavy weapons bringing the FPS down to 27 avg (24 min) - monitor refresh rate is at 30Hz causing the minor drop to produce noticeable stuttering

This may be down to the sound mixer, rather than particle effects (or it might be both, or just the effects)...your capships tend to spam a lot of shots at once, and that overloads it and causes heavy lag. If the sound mixer hasn't changed from 1.5 to 1.6, then that's likely to be the cause of the drop.

[Aury]

Never thought it could be the mixer, I just assumed it was particle effects since spawning a bunch of those procyon freighters with all the engines will bog down even this computer.

[Arkheias]

The game seems to run smoothly for me, though I have yet to really try to stress test it with any of my mods. I haven't really noticed any glitches other than the screwed up collision box that all the stars seem to still have on the lower and left sides.

System: ASUS G Series G51JX-X1
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601)
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 720 @ 1.60GHz (8CPUs), ~1.6GHz
RAM: 4096MB RAM
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M with approx. 2736MB memory (The driver is not up to date.)
Display Resolution: 1920x1080 (32bit) (60Hz)
WEI: 5.9

Debug Log: Graphics quality maximum: 78 ms; 8 cores.

[FourFire]

Graphics quality maximum: 46 ms; 4 cores.

Didn't play, just clicked past the intro and quit.


OS: 64-Bit Windows 8.1

CPU: Intel i5 3230M 2C4T @ 2.60Ghz (3.10Ghz Turbo Boost)

RAM: 12GB 1600Mhz RAM (4+8GB)

GPU: Intel HD 4000 graphics

Resolution 1600x900 (assume defaults for refresh frequency and bit depth)

I'll play a bit later today and update with the *feel*

[Aury]

Testing on more machines
Here's my htcp:
info from debug line
203ms, 2-cores standard mode

E-350 APU, 1.6ghz, 2 cores
4GB ram (3.6GB useable, 400 reserved for APU)
Win 8.1
Display: 1600x900, 60Hz

Loaded up same TSB testing save file with all those ships and stuff nearby.
As long as nothing was flying around on-screen with weapons blazing, the game played just fine. Some weapons fire it was able to handle ok, but it felt like it was only tenuously managing 30fps. Once a single capship got on screen and started shooting me, fps dropped to around 20-27FPS. Two capships and some gunships getting exploded in the crossfire tanked it to a not really playable 10FPS for a short period of time.

Testing as max quality:
It really struggled at this setting. With only 1 gunship wreck on the screen besides myself, it couldnt even manage 30FPS (was stuck at 29) The only time it reached 30 was if I was the only thing on the screen. With just one more moderately armed TSB capship that had non-fancy (particles Everywhere!) projectiles (actually it was armed with vanilla weapons, just EI ion blasters), it struggled to stay at 20FPS. With particles and explosions, it was firmly below 10FPS, sometimes reaching 5FPS.

EDIT:
Backup computer
standard, 94ms, 3 cores

AMD phenom 8650 3 cores @ 2.3Ghz
4GB ram
display: 1920x1080 @60hz

@ Standard quality under same situations as HTPC: minor dips to 27FPS, overall not bad, even with all the explosions and everything everywhere.

@ Maximum quality: works fine usually, though more easily dips to 27Fps just flying around stuff with the shadows. however if a bunch of explosions start happening with tons of projectiles flying around it will drop to around 20 sometimes a bit lower and stutter rather visibly

EDIT 2:
old netbook
standard, 171ms, 1 core

Intel celeron 743 @ 1.3Ghhz
2GB ram
Windows 7
1366x768 @ 60Hz

@ Standard: not very playable, couldnt even manage a flat 30FPS. With nothing around me, it barely managed 24-27. Around other ships it would drop below 20 for anything more than a simple gunship with some engine effects. Around big ships with lots of projectiles and explosions it was pretty much unplayable at 10-15

@ Maximum: something strange happened here. While it was struggling pretty bad in empty space, sometimes spiking up to 25 but usually in the 17-22 range, for a few brief moments it managed to reach 27-29FPS and hold it for a second before plummeting back down. Performance around combat and explosions was simply hopeless, managing around 5-15fps depending on how much was going on around it. The tiny resolution was probably its saving grace as there was even less for it to worry about rendering than there was on the E350 driving the 1600x900 display (said computer could actually run skyrim on near-lowest settings just fine actually)

[NMS]

No performance issues so far.
Windows 8.1, Intel i5 4670K (3.4 GHz, 4 cores), 8 GB memory
Graphics quality maximum: 31 ms; 4 cores.

I'll test on my brother's MacBook Pro from several years ago if I get a chance.

[digdug]

Laptop
Intel Core i7-2630QM 2GHz
8GB ram (7.85 available)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
Windows exp index: 5.9


Graphics quality maximum: 78 ms; 8 cores.

Game remains at 30 fps at all times. I played a bit in a couple of systems.

03/31/2015 22:09:54 Frames: 30 Paint: 2 Blt: 0 Update: 0
03/31/2015 22:10:03 Frames: 30 Paint: 1 Blt: 0 Update: 1
03/31/2015 22:10:13 Frames: 30 Paint: 2 Blt: 0 Update: 0
03/31/2015 22:10:23 Frames: 30 Paint: 2 Blt: 0 Update: 0
03/31/2015 22:10:33 Frames: 30 Paint: 2 Blt: 0 Update: 0
03/31/2015 22:10:43 Frames: 30 Paint: 2 Blt: 0 Update: 0
03/31/2015 22:10:53 Frames: 30 Paint: 2 Blt: 0 Update: 0
03/31/2015 22:11:03 Frames: 30 Paint: 10 Blt: 0 Update: 1
03/31/2015 22:11:13 Frames: 30 Paint: 3 Blt: 0 Update: 0
03/31/2015 22:11:23 Frames: 30 Paint: 2 Blt: 0 Update: 0
03/31/2015 22:11:33 Frames: 30 Paint: 3 Blt: 0 Update: 0
03/31/2015 22:11:49 Frames: 30 Paint: 9 Blt: 0 Update: 1

[Datal]

1. Game runs smoothly all the time.
2. Win7 (64), home premium, i7-4770K @ 3.5GHz (no overclocking), 16GB.
3. Graphics quality maximum: 31 ms; 8 cores.
4. Display Resolution: 1920x1080 (32bit) (60Hz)

[ahrenjb]

Computer 1

Windows 8.1 64-Bit
Intel Core i5 3330 @ 3.00 GHz
8 GB RAM
Integrated Intel HD Graphics @ 1920x1028
Graphics quality maximum: 47 ms; 4 cores.

Auto setting sets game to maximum, and the game runs perfectly smoothly. I've noticed no issues with frame rate or graphical oddities in any situation, including large pitched battles with a lot going on.

Computer 2

Windows 8.1 64-Bit
Intel Core i7 4700MQ
16 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT755M x 2 in SLI

Same as above, auto sets to max with perfect performance.

I don't know how useful this info is, considering these are both relatively "high spec" PC's, but hopefully it helps.

[Blitz]

So, I have two laptops.
1. Dell Vostro 3560 with i5-3230M with integrated HD 4000 graphics at upto 1100Mhz and 8GB of memory running Ubuntu 15.04.
-Transcendence runs really well via Wine with no obvious glitches. Starts off at maximum on auto. No slowdowns at least in the initial bits.

2. Asus EeeBook X205TA with intel Atom Z3735F with integrated Haswell based graphics at a terrible clock and 2GB of RAM running Windows 8.1.
-Transcendence defaults to standard Graphics on auto. Pushing it to max seems to lead to a few framedrops, but nothing unplayable at least initially.

I haven't had a particularly big scenario to really push it.

What are your goals when balancing Performance/Quality George? Are you looking to have target FPS at all times? Or maybe you want to go no lower than, say, 20FPS even in the Worst case? What would be the worst case that you'd test for anyway?

I'm really not sure how to report system performance...

[Dorkmaster]

Max settings
radeon 6970
phenom II 980
16gb
win 7 x64

Like butter

[JohnBWatson]

Still taking info? If so:

1. Whether or not the game runs smoothly for you.

It does, save for nebulae. The code for those could do to be simplified, as could the effects. If I may, I suggest the following:

* Take the scanner range of the ship doing the scanning.

* If a ship is in a nebula, only detect it if it is within 1/2 of scanner range. Ditto if it has a full set of stealth armor, to a minimum of 1/4 scanner range if the target is both in a nebula and equipped with stealth armor.

* Give an option to replace the current nebula/stealth effect with a simpler transparency effect that varies linearly with distance, from 100% transparent at max detection range to 0% at 0 distance.

2. The OS/processor/memory of your PC

Windows 7 64 bit/ Intel Celeron CPU E3300 @ 2.5GHz / 4GB

3. The entry from Debug.log about graphics quality (a line starting with "Graphics quality ...")

Graphics quality maximum: 78 ms; 2 cores.

4. If Deblog.log says "standard" or "minimum", please change the Settings.xml setting for graphicsQuality to "maximum" or "standard" (instead of "auto") and report how the game runs for you.

N/A