Tank Universal2 tech test

Community Forums/Showcase/Tank Universal2 tech test

MadJack(Posted 2009) [#1]
Hi all

Would appreciate it if the blitzers could test out this small tech demo.


The demo consists of a test level + player tank and is written in Blitz3d + Xors. Files are Moleboxed. Download and unzip. Run the exe to start.

http://madjack.fileburst.com/TU2_TECHDEMO.zip

There's all sorts of things that need fixing; the sound's a bit crackly, a couple of the buildings are 'floating', etc.. but I'm more interested in how/if it'll run on others' systems.

WASD + mouselook to navigate.
Space toggles shadows
tilde key toggles FPS limit (btw. would be interested in knowing your FPS results)

Many thanks

<edit> if it crops up with an error 'd3dx9_36.dll not found', try downloading the dll from here;
http://madjack.fileburst.com/d3dx9_36.dll
and placing in the same directory.


Zeotrope(Posted 2009) [#2]
Wont run for me...I get "Fatal Error: D3DX9_36.dll could not be found"

Sorry dude!


Oddball(Posted 2009) [#3]
It ran at between 8 and 22 fps for me. I got it to between 18 and 25 fps by switching off all the visual effects.

WinXP, 1.6Ghz laptop, ATI M200 with shared memory.

Can I ask why your using Xors with Blitz3D? I would have thought if your using Xors then you might as well combine it with BlitzMax.


MadJack(Posted 2009) [#4]
ThermO

It's all good - these are the kinds of problems I want to shake out with the demo.

One favour though - if you could download D3DX9_36.dll from here, place in the demo folder and run again?

http://madjack.fileburst.com/d3dx9_36.dll

Cheers!


MadJack(Posted 2009) [#5]
OB

Thanks for the FPS specs - I'm not surprised it ran pretty slowly for your laptop. I want to optimise it still further though. There is the option in xors to use true instancing, but I've yet to get my head around it.

Regards converting to BlitzMax, I felt it would be too much time required to convert my large codebase to both a new engine, a new game (a sequel) and a new language.


*(Posted 2009) [#6]
Why not go Max/Minib3d the whole game is brilliant and would be a hit on other platforms like Mac and Linux pc's :).


Tab(Posted 2009) [#7]
300~311 FPS
Win 7 64Bit, Core2Duo E8500 3.80Ghz, GTS250


LineOf7s(Posted 2009) [#8]
Works a treat.

All tests done with all effects turned on (including Glow):
~30fps limited
~170fps unlimited

Very nice (if looking more like TU1.5 than TU2 at this early stage).


ZJP(Posted 2009) [#9]
~31fps
E6600@..., GF9600GT, XP pro SP2

JP


MadJack(Posted 2009) [#10]
Tab

300~311 FPS, Win 7 64Bit, Core2Duo E8500 3.80Ghz, GTS250


Wow!


MadJack(Posted 2009) [#11]
Lo7

Actually glow can't be enabled in this test - expect it'd look a bit better if it was ;-)

Regards 1.5, well, early days but I'm not expecting TU2 to be a giant leap forward in terms of graphics. More of the same really but with shadows, large tiled landscapes using vertex deformation and a strategic map level.


Naughty Alien(Posted 2009) [#12]
stable 31 FPS, Core2Duo E6750@..., nVidia 8600GT

..no issues of any kind (excluding sound you did mentioned)..


RifRaf(Posted 2009) [#13]
Nvidia 9600
Intel Core2 Duo 2.8ghz
WinXP Pro sp2

Got a steady 31fps .
Mav if I hit L, and a tick sound if I tap the accelerate key, let it idle and tap it again.(holy surfaces batman 400 + in some cases ) :)

Doesnt Xords have copyentity() ? If so, im guessing that doesnt create
an "instance" of an entity like Blitz3D does.

Looking good.


beanage(Posted 2009) [#14]
it just simply crashes, when the one of the first 3d frames is supposed to be rendered.. so I can operate main menu but not play :(


Gabriel(Posted 2009) [#15]
Doesnt Xords have copyentity() ? If so, im guessing that doesnt create
an "instance" of an entity like Blitz3D does.

Blitz3D creates an "instance" in the sense that it points to the same geometry. True instancing means that you draw multiple copies of that instance with one draw call. It involves using two vertex streams, one with the transform info and one with the geometry. Blitz3D can't do that.


slenkar(Posted 2009) [#16]
on my old intel gfx card it shows 'Indie games' logo and then crashes "memory access violation" even with the DLL


Gabriel(Posted 2009) [#17]
Works fine for me. Between 120 and 140 FPS on a GF8600 GTS.


Amon(Posted 2009) [#18]
Doesn't work for me. It stalls a bit then goes to a screen with green lines then I get "This program is not responding and must close" blah!.

I download the dll also and put it in the demo directory. I've also tried running it in compatibility mode in vista but no joy.


Proteus(Posted 2009) [#19]
Ok,
Just for the hell of it I tried to ran it on an viritual win XP pro with 768 MB mem and dual cpu. The game run but it seems to show all graphics at once. The only thing moving was the upper left radar thingie. I could see both text, config windows, mouse pointer, game graphics and much more. All (probably) in it's proper place but all at once.
If you pressed esc you could move the mouse pointer. Nothing else worked and if to many keys were pressed a memory access violation error poped up.
So no viritual windows on macs possible at this stage (if at all) ;-)


Zeotrope(Posted 2009) [#20]
MadJack. Thanx it worked.

Got 8 FPS at the start...after a min cleared to average out at 21FPS

1 GIG RAM P4 3.0 + GF FX5500 + Win XP

Ok...nice effort. Didnt read all comments but it does look like "Tron"....I like.

Thanks for the DLL...


MadJack(Posted 2009) [#21]
Thanks to all for testing.

Rifraf - known issue regarding hitting L (calling a lifter) = mav. Lifter code not included in demo.

Regards surfaces - yes, this is one thing I don't like about Xors. Using copyentity (in Xors) results in a doubling of surfaces/DIP calls. There are commands to access vertex buffers etc, but haven't looked at those too closely so far.

There is instancing in Xors (via shaders) but the Xors demo of this is not very easy to understand. The devs do mention they may incorporate instancing into the engine at a later date though, so I'm hopeful they'll make instancing easier/more streamlined than it appears to be at present.

BeAnAge
so I can operate main menu but not play :(

By main menu I assume you mean you see the starting logo and then it crashes.
No idea why that's happening - assume you're running on your desktop system?

Jeremy Paxman
Possibly lack of shaders causing it to spit the dummy.

Amon
To clarify - 'stalls a bit' - do you see a logo before this?
Also, there's a log file TU_LOG.txt in the prog dir. can you tell me what it says?

I note that another Vista user's system didn't like the demo being moleboxed - wonder if that's behind this.

Proteus
I think you mentioned once that TU1 worked ok under emulation? Obviously this new engine is a bit too tricky under the hood for that.

ThermO
Thanks for the test. How old is your system by the way?


Amon(Posted 2009) [#22]
Here is the TU_LOG.txt:



And I deffo know it's Molebox related because the vista crash report has an MBX line in it. Screenpic below.




MadJack(Posted 2009) [#23]
Right - thanks for that.


Gnu(Posted 2009) [#24]
I'm getting the exact same issue as Amon.

Gnu
XP sp3, AthlonX2 3800, Asus A8N deluxe, Nvidia 7900gs, 2 gig mem, Soundblaster Audigy


Chalky(Posted 2009) [#25]
It ran at a solid 31fps for me - WinXP SP3, P4 2.8Ghz, 768MB RAM, NVidia 6600GT.

I love this game - I remember being addicted to TU1 for weeks when I first purchased it (even though I was totally pants to start with and had to play in god-mode)...

@MadJack - what is the latest version of TU1 (I have 1.22 installed)?


degac(Posted 2009) [#26]
Same as Amon here, specs in sig

and this error.log



_33(Posted 2009) [#27]
so this is Xors on Blitz3D? Works fine here (Radeon 4890, core i7 920)


Grisu(Posted 2009) [#28]
Can't use the tilde key... is there another way to check my unlimited fps?


Naughty Alien(Posted 2009) [#29]
..MadJack, what version od Molebox you using?? Thats tool im using for packing my stuff, so Im wondering wich version is used in this tech demo?


FBEpyon(Posted 2009) [#30]
# Operating system:Windows 2.6.0.6001 (SP 1)
# CPU type:Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz
# CPU Speed (GHz):2.685
# System memory (GB):5.99
# Graphics card model:NVIDIA GeForce GTS 240
# Graphics card driver:nvd3dum.dll
# Desktop resolution:1920x1080
# Hard disk size (GB):581.484
# Hard disk free space (GB):526.15

I'm getting ~31fps and with my specs on this machine I know I should be getting more.

EDIT

Sorry forgot to unlock the vsync

I get 181 max with shadows

1 get 312 max with/o shadows


MGE(Posted 2009) [#31]
Why is everyone reporting less than monitor refresh with vsync turned on? Should be 60,75, etc, not 31. That seems like it's missing a frame when vsync is turned on.


MadJack(Posted 2009) [#32]
Chalky
@MadJack - what is the latest version of TU1 (I have 1.22 installed)?

Send me an email regarding when you purchased, etc..

33
so this is Xors on Blitz3D? Works fine here (Radeon 4890, core i7 920)
Yep.

NA
..MadJack, what version od Molebox you using??

You're right, I wan't using the latest version (Molebox)- duh. I've updated and will update the demo. Hopefully this'll stop the Molebox crash. Duh, again.

Grisu
Can't use the tilde key... is there another way to check my unlimited fps?
Not really - why can't you use your tilde key?

MGE
Why is everyone reporting less than monitor refresh with vsync turned on?

The game's locked to 30 fps - must be a rounding error to report 31fps.


Naughty Alien(Posted 2009) [#33]
..i have tested again on same configuration as one on previous post and i got this weird graphics..tank appear over 'empty' space, and some towers missing (first pic) .. then, when I press ESC key in order to reach menu many things disappear from screen, so result is like on second pic..





MadJack(Posted 2009) [#34]
NA

Crumbs! So this is on a Core2Duo E6750@..., nVidia 8600GT?
I guess it might still be Molebox related (I certainly hope so!).

I'll update shortly and if you've got the time, it'd be great if you could retest!


Naughty Alien(Posted 2009) [#35]
sure..just let me know when you update demo..its weird because last time i try, it was working as I described in my first post..


M2PLAY(Posted 2009) [#36]
Hi,
MacBook Pro into BootCamp Mode
XP SP3 Core2Duo T9550 2.66Ghz
NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
29.30 FPS


Zeotrope(Posted 2009) [#37]
Very Old Madjack...System is v. old! But worked a treat...Solid 21 FPS by Default!


Terry B.(Posted 2009) [#38]
I had this weird thing where it just gave me a black screen for about five minutes (I thought it froze cause I couldn't Ctrl alt delete or anything) then suddenly showed the little logo and worked. But after that I got a good ~91 Fps.
Edit: Nevermind about the loading screen thing. I think it was because I had some programs running in the background, when I quit some of them It worked great.


MadJack(Posted 2009) [#39]
Thanks for the testing all.

I haven't had time to update the tech demo (work getting in the way - screw work!) but its been very useful nonetheless.

I'm encouraged that the Xors engine appears to be working on most people's systems. If I update the demo to use the latest version of molebox and physx, then I expect at least half of the reported issues above would dissapear.


Matt McFarland(Posted 2009) [#40]
It doesn't work on my computer, immediately throws up a "Memory access Violation"

running on vista ultimate 64


MadJack(Posted 2009) [#41]
Matt

Possibly Vista not liking molebox.

If it includes 'MBX' in the error message, that might be the clue.


Naughty Alien(Posted 2009) [#42]
Madjack, what version of Molebox you are using?


nrasool(Posted 2009) [#43]
Hey Madjack, make sure you are using v2.3661 of Molebox, there was some fixes in Vista64 on version 2.3641, 2.3570 and 2.2686

If you are using anything less than 2.2686, you may find issue with Vista :-)

Good work BTW tech demo plays beautiful for me on XP, I have not tested on my vista laptop yet, but will do over the weekend


MadJack(Posted 2009) [#44]
nrasool

Yep - thanks for the info. Once work stops being an obstacle, I'll update.

(NA, don't know what version, away from my home system at the mo')


Blitzplotter(Posted 2009) [#45]
Tried it, but keep getting unknown runtime exception as soon as try to run, initially didn't have the d3dx file however that is now with the other unpacked files.