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in the newest HWA version I've noticed some choppiness (visually what appears to be a decrease in FPS) but in the debugger it is at a stable 60. I can also run my application at 500 fps with ease, so it's not because my application is especially heavy.
It happens roughly half the time and goes on and off at seemingly random.
Anyone else noticed this issue? Any more detailed reports? Any words on a fix?
Thanks
I have noticed this too, its almost imperceptible.
All FPS counters, both hardcoded and timer based, report 50 FPS
but theres some choppiness in the display
Its probably nothing and I'm just imaginging it
Pixelthief... you shouldn't use anything below 60.
Never noticed anything like this, MechaBowser.
I dunno, I have concerns over how many machines can run my game at 50 FPS vs 60 FPS- it has to rotate a 512x512 imagine on every single frame, which is asking a bit much of older GPU's. I do like the way 60 FPS looks, but I *did* notice this sluggishness / choppiness effect much more pronounced.
About every 20 seconds or so it would have a spurt of 1 second or so of choppiness, without any drop in FPS.
If you want, you could be a dear and run my program and see if you notice anything like that. I'm going to officially put it out there next week, but anyone reading this can have a sneak preview:
(the menu stuff doesn't do anything, since thats what I'm working on right now!)
https://sites.google.com/site/claniraq/stuff/PlatformerHWA100.zip?attredirects=0&d=1
It runs perfectly smooth! Very nice by the way :)
Too bad your level editor uses that stupid Overly object, hehe.
^ nice plug for your new surface object ;)
(its really great btw!)
Thanks ;)
Also thanks for making me notice the embarrassing typo in Overlay. :blush:
+1 vote for Surface object being great :D
This reminds me of a request though about being able to use HWA effects and apply them to surface/layers then store that as new graphics. I remember you told me that you would need to have the HWA SDK to do this.
So now i am wondering what is happening with that, shouldn't the SDK be released? I know clickteam doesn't plan to do much with HWA now until MMF3, it would be good if they made a SDK though because then 3rd party devs could at least use the options it has and many people here use MMF HWA also.
I have some kind of choppiness in my game as well, especially when scrolling. 60FPS, 200FPS - choppiness stays. I think it only happens with some graphics cards.
The only noticeable choppiness I've seen usually occurs with bad programming. If you've got some massive fast-loops that occur intermediately, it's best to spread them out.
Eg. Instead of Every 1 second: - loop through 100 objects
Use: Every 0.1 seconds: - loop through 10 objects
That may solve choppiness but it can't fix slowdown and it will most likely cause glitches with objects.
Have you tried checking the V-sync option in the application runtime properties? It can make a big difference on certain machines.
I see the choppiness with scrolling without any events, so the case is not related to any loops etc. This "choppiness" happens in some other games than just MMF2- made, though.
This is not a CPU related issue. At least, not in terms of programming. This "choppiness" is observable regardless of code being executed- and it occurs with no slowdown to the game. For example, my game WILL continue at "60 frames per second" of gameplay rendered in terms of the tick timer. The player is moved the same distance and the same amount of events occur- my counter that fills up 400 events still clocks in at exactly 6.67 seconds.
The choppiness appears to be the HWA not rendering every frame for some reason- the game is simply skipping displaying the graphics for just about every other frame during the 'slowdown' time. My 60 FPS games still runs at 60 FPS, but only 30 frames are displayed in the given second or so. Its hard to measure.
It would be very nice to see this fixed :(
There is definitely no choppiness whatsoever at any point in your game. Most definitely. I am sure it's not noticeable on all hardware.
I'm guessing its a hardware compatibility issue.
I'm running an ATI Radeon Mobility 5650, which can switch to a cruddy "Intel Media Accelerator". Both experienced 'choppiness' on my setup, but its so ridiculously subtle that it took a while to notice the effects at all. I'm thinking I might through together an example with a single graphic switching positions- if its skipping every other frame at any point, it would appear 'constant'
But its reassuring to hear other people are having no issues at all. Its the kind of thing even on my computer you have to really sit and stare at the screen to notice it going on at all.
The ATI cards I used to have would produce less than solid screen updates (in MMF HWA and other 3D accelerated game tools I have used). Since I've been on GeForce cards I have never seen such problems since. MMF HWA at 60FPS is alway solid on my PC's. Perhaps you are suffering from a similar problem with your graphics card.
I'll explore ATI forums for posts about choppiness. I've seen everything from "Hyperthreading" to "Sound Drivers" as the sticky wicket.
I have a GeForce 9800 GTX 2+
Another obvious question is what refresh rate is your monitor set at?
My lcd is 60Hz, so my frame rate at 60 with vbl sync keeps the screen memory updates in perfect sync with the monitor display. (I actually have my fps set a little higher but the vbl sync will cap it at 60, the monitor refresh...note it is possible to forcibly disable the reporting of the vbl to applications in your gfx card settings)
However, if your monitor refresh is 75 or 80Hz for example, and you set your target fps to 60 then it will look choppy, even with vbl sync on.
even at 60/60 refresh / fps rates, it is still noticeably choppy. But I believe this to be an issue with video cards, especially ATI.