b240 Huge FPS drop

Ghosthree3 · March 2013

Since there's no thread in the tech support forum for this yet. Here we go.

Like 238, this patch has SEVERELY messed up my fps. At first I wasn't sure it was related to the update, but now after testing it a bit I'm fairly certain.
The best example I can give is if I start up a server on summit, and look at the FC hive (close to it on the comp lab side) I now drop to about 40-45 fps, where before I was getting 65 easily, rarely ever dropping below 60 and if I did it wasn't for more than a second or so.

I know others have experienced (or think they have) fps drops since b240 as well. Anyone else here having drops?

EDIT:
CPU = 4.8ghz i7 2600k
GPU = Stock GTX570

Cico · March 2013

I have a place in tram readyroom i always check to see (big) fps changes between versions.
build 237 had ~139 fps
build 238 had ~75fps
build 239 had ~135 fps
build 240 have ~125 fps $:\$

BUT it seems a little better in later game and during the fights. i still played only once (and in decent, no previus data to compare.. ) so can't really tell.

RainyCaturday · March 2013

I was really looking forward to bumping up the graphics with some performance improvements but I can't even look at all the Gorgeous without dipping to 40s fps and late game is still a crap shoot at around 30s fps.

Performance has got to be the next few patches! You can give us Gorgeous graphics but if 90% of your players can't experience them while playing then what good are they?

YMICrazy · March 2013

Cico wrote: »

I have a place in tram readyroom i always check to see (big) fps changes between versions.
build 237 had ~139 fps
build 238 had ~75fps
build 239 had ~135 fps
build 240 have ~125 fps $:\$

BUT it seems a little better in later game and during the fights. i still played only once (and in decent, no previus data to compare.. ) so can't really tell.

Glad you guys are also tracking the changes.

If you ever tested build fps in the same spot from 235 you would have seen it had more frame rates than 236/237. Like around 10 more. But the rest of your fps losses are accurate. Especially how 239 saw a slight drop from 236 which saw a moderate drop from 235. In any case the only way to go now is forward so I really hope they have some performance solving secret weapon up their sleeve.

What also really needs fixing is that mid to late game. As more stuff gets added you can bet it has a high chance of affecting performance and I have seen countless posts wishing they could run the game or run the game better at least. If they want to aim for more player retention they need to address the elephant in the room and eventually make it more accessible so people will not just go off after finding the game difficult to run well.

But some devs have posted how difficult it is to improve the game at this point so I feel it will require a huge time sink for trying to get performance increases that might not even have a significant impact. Such is the nature of the game logic I guess but it is hurting the game atm.

Ghosthree3 · March 2013

Ok, well, this is embarrassing, FPS is now back to 110 when in FC, turns out that it was a coincidence with the patch. I had increased my CPU OC from 4.5 to 4.8 around the same time the patch was released and my stock fan wasn't able to cool it quite enough ingame, while it ran the overheating choked my cpu enough to drop the fps by half or so.

RainyCaturday · March 2013

YMICrazy502 wrote: »

What also really needs fixing is that mid to late game. As more stuff gets added you can bet it has a high chance of affecting performance and I have seen countless posts wishing they could run the game or run the game better at least. If they want to aim for more player retention they need to address the elephant in the room and eventually make it more accessible so people will not just go off after finding the game difficult to run well.

But some devs have posted how difficult it is to improve the game at this point so I feel it will require a huge time sink for trying to get performance increases that might not even have a significant impact. Such is the nature of the game logic I guess but it is hurting the game atm.

The time doesn't matter, if they want NS2 to to succeed and also be in the competitive scene than they absolutely must fix the performance. It's just completely unacceptable to have built your own engine and have it tailored to your game from ground up and still have very low performance compared to tons of other games.

I don't care if it takes them a year, the performance needs to be fixed for NS2 to survive. Especially since NS2 is MP only. They might have gotten away with 30-60fps on a SP game but for MP you can't really play effectively without 60fps and competitively with 100+ fps.

I just don't understand why this hasn't been TOP priority since the complaints started all the way back in alpha/beta.

No offense to Max or UWE, the engine looks spectacular but maybe you should have gone with Source. It's clearly very modifiable, just look at TF2. I know it's to late now but I bet their hindsight is 20/20.

Every time I switch maps, I'm painfully reminded of how good NS2 can look but I (and tons of others) am forced to run it at low settings. Which is fine for a big fan like myself and most of us here but any new players will probably just stop playing when they realize they need to lower everything just to enjoy the gameplay.

They go on about retention but pretty graphics are just going to get the players here, the performance will cost them that retention.

YMICrazy · March 2013

The spark engine is pretty great for the most part. It is not the cause of the dips most people have when their settings are on low unless your waiting for GPU render is more than 0 during those dips. When everything is on low and you still get those dips, the GPU is not the issue anymore. Unless it is ridiculously old.

It's the game logic for whatever reason that is tied to how good of a CPU you have. I could say it is lua since the entire game is written in it but I am no programmer so I am not entirely sure why the game dips that bad mid to late game.

shonan · March 2013

I hope they will invest more time to work on compatibility and performance issues now, instead of new graphical features.

Xarius · March 2013

I got worse fps too

alansmilealot · March 2013

My FPS increased alot, went from 40fps on avg to 60. My fps use to drop as low as 15, now the lowest i've seen was 40.

Intel Q6700 2.6 ghz
ATI Radeon 5550
8GB DDR3

Rellik_pt · March 2013

well it is reaching a point that i dont want to play it because is terrible now. i expect more performace and got worse instead

Misfire · March 2013

Performance has gotten worse here as well.

i7 930 @ 4.0GHZ
Nvidia GTX 560TI

ritualsacrifice · March 2013

Significant FPS drops late game, I'm assuming because of babblers and gorge tunnels using more CPU power than was previously needed. I go from 100 early game to 30 late game.

3.0ghz i5-2320
550ti

Exoskelett · March 2013

was expecting alot more performance also - for me the performance is just like it was in 238 no more stable early fps at all and it just takes several minutes next to the midgame to drop me below 40 and sometimes even lower as 30 - actually unplayable gota leave after 3-4 minutes round

b240 Huge FPS drop

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