Runs slowly on some systems, fast elsewhere...

Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Programming/Runs slowly on some systems, fast elsewhere...

Fry Crayola(Posted 2005) [#1]
I've recently been spending time rewriting my program to use my 2D-in-3D engine.

However, it's suffering from the exact same problem that plagued the previous versions, which were running in 2D. Irrespective of processor power or RAM, it runs slowly on some systems but fast on others (I don't know enough about the graphics cards, but some users experiencing problems can run Doom III, so...)

This happens even when the program is run on it's own.

http://os.gamepaused.net/users/Members/frycrayola/tester2.zip

There's the build that I've been using to test this performance, so if you fancy giving it a whirl on your own system, feel free.

It's seriously getting to me. It runs like a dream on my 2.2GHz machine with 352MB RAM, the graphics card is unknown to me but isn't that powerful. The only thing I can think of that differentiates between me and most users is that I use a laptop, and the program was compiled using this laptop. Could that have any effect on the performance of the compiled code?


Alienforce(Posted 2005) [#2]
Works fine for me..

/Alienforce


GfK(Posted 2005) [#3]
Works OK for me.

Have you tried running it fullscreen? In windowed mode, double-buffering is 'faked' and can cause problems on some graphics cards. Could be that.


Fry Crayola(Posted 2005) [#4]
I'll give that a try. Would impact the use of the editor for the game (it helps to have a net window open so you can get your info) but for the full game it's not an issue.


Fry Crayola(Posted 2005) [#5]
Could processors be an issue? On two of the "failed" tests that I have the data for, the processor is an Athlon. Mine's a Pentium 4. I'm hoping to have more information from other testers soon, maybe a pattern will emerge.


Derek(Posted 2005) [#6]
Works fine on my Athlon64 3000.


Bouncer(Posted 2005) [#7]
Runs over 1600fps here... if that's the fps counter in the lower left corner.

I have Athlon 1800xp with Radeon 9600pro and Win XP


Stevie G(Posted 2005) [#8]
Runs at 1800fps here .. doesn't seem right to me .. I know it's the flip false reading but you sure you're calculating this right - considering my shit specs?

Got Athlon 1.1ghz + Gfx2 card.


Fry Crayola(Posted 2005) [#9]
That's not FPS, it's the number of polys being rendered.


jfk EO-11110(Posted 2005) [#10]
Since you said you had the same problems in the plain 2D version too, I have no quick answer.
It surely has nothing to do with the 3D hardware.
Are you writing to imagebuffers, using writepixelfast?
It may have something to do with the processor cache.

Probably you should try to isolate the problem to a very small program. Of course, I know, this is almost impossible when it works ok on your machine.


Fry Crayola(Posted 2005) [#11]
Well, I isolated the problem in the old 2D code by making it write a log file of how long it took to carry out major functions, and the bottleneck was the DrawImage command. On some computers it took ages, on mine it was virtually instant.

I plan to do the same with this code to see if I can find the problem, although it'll likely just come down to the RenderWorld command (which doesn't really help). Still worth a try though.


Edit: I've made a little tweak to the code, removing the poly counter in the bottom left, which was using the Text command (everything else uses Vertices and Triangles). Which could be causing the issue.


Paolo(Posted 2005) [#12]
Just a thought,

In my pc, when I use any 2D command using
the VWait command, nothing run above than 30fps ...

I think if you are using the vwait you should make it
optional ...

Paolo.


Fry Crayola(Posted 2005) [#13]
Nah, I've not been using VWait.

Anyhow, I've since tweaked the code - basically, I removed a Text command that was hiding in there, mixing the 2D with 3D. After that was removed, the GUI's working fine on most computers - even on a 450Mhz P3.


Rook Zimbabwe(Posted 2005) [#14]
Runs a little pokey slow on my athlon 64 3000+ with 1024ram and ATi 9000... I do not see any FPS counter though and there is no way to maximize it otherwise.