Mythruna

As usual, get it here:
http://mythruna.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Engine_Test_Build (http://mythruna.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Engine_Test_Build)

Full change log is here:
http://mythruna.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=20111217_Release_Notes (http://mythruna.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=20111217_Release_Notes)

This is primarily a bug fix and performance release for known issues before I do things that are not so easy to "put back in the can" should I need to do another bug fix release. :)

Highlights:
-In the previous version there was a bug that if you dragged an object for long distances then sometimes it would kill the thread that handles player movement resulting in not being able to move.  This was most commonly seen when dragging objects you were standing on so that you could fly.
-The game now uses multiple channels for communication to improve throughput and timeliness of updates.  For example, all terrain tiles are now sent on a separate socket so that they don't prevent other messages from coming through.  This should significantly improve lag in some cases.
-I added a temporary F8 "low quality" toggle.  This cuts out most of the work the shaders are doing to see if this improves performance on machines that seem to be shader limited.  On my machine it makes no difference... but if it improves performance on certain classes of hardware then it's a potential avenue of improvement for low-end machines.  (Personally, I think the issue is texture switching which will be the topic of another test in the future.)

Known "Issue": (Same as before)
-There is a "make mobile" menu item for objects that is non-functional.  This is for when the fuller physics system is in place and it's how you would make a physical object that can be bumped, thrown, etc. instead of being "static".

With the low quality toggle, I get about 12 - 24 fps. That's a big improvement.

+10fps for me. Good Job Paul.
And Congratulations ! Many french people love your game. A programmer contacted me for say "Trecool! Paul is very Clean! His script is so professional !"

What was your framerate before hitting F8?

Thanks! :)

About 5 fps or so, before hitting F8. http://mythruna.com/forum/index.php?topic=425.0

Thanks.  I don't always remember the various threads. :)

If you go to the bottom of a big ocean does the framerate also improve? (without F8 and then with F8)

Not from what I can tell, no. It does improve when I look straight up or down though.

Great job paul. :D at least you're still releasing more updates then minecraft now days ;)

Ok, that tells me something about your card.  I have a card here were I get 2 FPS unless I go to the bottom of an ocean... then it goes up to 12+ FPS and as high as 19 at times.

Similar to the performance characteristics you and moonkey see, changing the clip doesn't help much.  nor did shrinking the texture sizes.  At the bottom of the ocean, you can only see two types of materials.  I later experimented with replacing all of the material textures with dirt... I then achieved 18 FPS... and the whole world looked like it was carved from chocolate.  :)  Only a texture atlas would fix this particular problem.

The F8 low quality settings that improve your framerate are much easier to implement than a texture atlas.  So I always like to ask.  It would be nice if I can get away with just the easy way for a long time. :)

Paul u might also want to add f8 to the controls on the wiki page

When it's real, I'll add it to the help.  I really at some point might nuke the wiki page and just say "see the in game help'. :)

btw my fps doubled when i turned them it off lol went from 45fps to 9-100fps and when i look up it got to 230fps :]

I haven't tested the f8 thing yet, but the bottom of the ocean is faster for me. also if I dig to the bottom of the world, and look down, it speeds up, and looking up slows it down. vice versa with a tower to the top.

In the last two cases that's because there is hardly any geometry to render.

Faster at the bottom of the ocean indicates that it's texture switching slowing you down... at least somewhat.

Still, F8 might make things faster for you.  It appears to vary widely.