Generate initial systems in some sort of pause mode

Post ideas & suggestions you have pertaining to the game here.
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kay.py
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Now that the topology is generated up front it can take a while to get going. Currently you get the intro speil, then an OK button, then a delay while it generates the system, then the game starts. Would it be possible to have it generate the topology during the intro, or at least before the OK button? That way the player is either distracted by the intro or can safely do something else while the numbers are crunched.

Having a long, non-interactive delay followed by immediately dropping the player into a live game is kind of antisocial...
george moromisato
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kay.py wrote:Now that the topology is generated up front it can take a while to get going. Currently you get the intro speil, then an OK button, then a delay while it generates the system, then the game starts. Would it be possible to have it generate the topology during the intro, or at least before the OK button? That way the player is either distracted by the intro or can safely do something else while the numbers are crunched.

Having a long, non-interactive delay followed by immediately dropping the player into a live game is kind of antisocial...
There are a couple of issues here:

1. System generation takes longer than it should in certain cases (particularly with TSB). If I can optimize those cases, then we can drastically improve creation time.

2. We already create the universe in the background. If you don't click on anything during the prolog, the creation will continue in the background. What we should do is show a spinner instead of an OK button until universe creation is done. See this Ministry record: http://ministry2.kronosaur.com/record.hexm?id=3422
kay.py
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Here is what I am seeing:

Start new game
> crawl screen begins
Walk off for 10 minutes
> OK button is displayed
Click OK
> Spinner starts
Wait a little
> Game starts

It doesn't seem that the universe creation starts until I hit OK.

Clicking anywhere during the crawl will cause the game to crawl and create simultaneously, but will start the game immediately once it is ready.

What you are describing is how it ought to work, I agree.
george moromisato
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kay.py wrote:Here is what I am seeing:

Start new game
> crawl screen begins
Walk off for 10 minutes
> OK button is displayed
Click OK
> Spinner starts
Wait a little
> Game starts

It doesn't seem that the universe creation starts until I hit OK.

Clicking anywhere during the crawl will cause the game to crawl and create simultaneously, but will start the game immediately once it is ready.

What you are describing is how it ought to work, I agree.
Is this a vanilla game?
Shaman
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I recreated this phenomenon:

In 1.6b5 it is just like kay.py said.
In 1.5 it works fine just like intended by George.

Tested with Vanilla and CC.

Notes: In 1.5 my laptop has created the game about after the first paragraph of crawl text.
george moromisato
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Shaman wrote:I recreated this phenomenon:

In 1.6b5 it is just like kay.py said.
In 1.5 it works fine just like intended by George.

Tested with Vanilla and CC.

Notes: In 1.5 my laptop has created the game about after the first paragraph of crawl text.
I think the problem is that 1.6 has a bigger delay to render all the space background images. But this should only be a few seconds--much shorter than creating the universe (in some degenerate cases, creating the universe takes 10 minutes).
Shaman
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Very interesting(1.6b5):
If I hit a key right after the crawl text started it takes about 8 seconds to load.
If I wait until the crawl text is over it takes the game about 3 seconds to load. It doesn't matter if I wait minutes or hit the "OK" button right after appearing. It takes always 3 second loading time.

Tested with 2 different GPUs and there was no percieved difference.

For comparison(1.5):
If I let the crawl text finish and hit "OK" the game starts instantly. Loading time without waiting is also 8 seconds, no difference to 1.6b5.
george moromisato
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Shaman wrote:Very interesting(1.6b5):
If I hit a key right after the crawl text started it takes about 8 seconds to load.
If I wait until the crawl text is over it takes the game about 3 seconds to load. It doesn't matter if I wait minutes or hit the "OK" button right after appearing. It takes always 3 second loading time.

Tested with 2 different GPUs and there was no percieved difference.

For comparison(1.5):
If I let the crawl text finish and hit "OK" the game starts instantly. Loading time without waiting is also 8 seconds, no difference to 1.6b5.
This makes sense. The 3-second time in 1.6 is initializing the new space backgrounds. I could probably move that to the background thread.
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pixelfck
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From what I observe, I always thought that the 'ok' button started the game creation. Maybe there is a bug lurking somewhere?

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 Actually, I can check that real quick. I’ll add an edit to this in a few minutes with my findings. And some of the IRC regulars will know what I mean when I say, “Honk.” ^.~

EDIT: System generation verified to happen during crawl before OK button pops up.
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