Performance Questions ( and problems )

ericklima.comp · Post by **ericklima.comp** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 8:47 pm

Hello guys, I've searched throughout the forum
but I didn't find anything about this subject. So... I'm posting it now.

Maybe it's a noob question, but I'm getting a headache because
of it, so I decided to post it here and ask for help one more time.
I'm coding a game as part of my graduation project alongside two friends of mine.
I started all the coding stuff and when I sent them the first demos,
they said it was too slow on their PC's.
First I thought it was running slowly on their machines because of their processors.
So we tested the demo on college's computers and we became surprised when it runned
faster than on their machines, although it has a lesser powerful processor and an onboard video card.
I thought and tried lots of things, but we could not find the problem.
Do you guys have any clue?

Thanks in advance for your help, guys.

The Pc's specifications:

My machine:

Dell Inspiron 1525
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T6400
RAM: 3GB
Video Card: INTEL GMA X3100

My comrades's and college's machines:

#Comrade 1

HP HP Pavilion dv4 1120br
CPU: Intel Pentium Dual Core Mobile T3200
RAM: 2GB
Video Card: Intel Media Accelerator 4500MHD

#Comrade 2

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T6600
RAM: 3GB
Video Card: Onboard Video Card

#College

CPU: Intel Pentium IV
RAM: 1GB
Video Card: Onboard Video Card

nathanf534 · Post by **nathanf534** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 8:51 pm

What device type are you using? openGL, software renderer etc. and is that the same on all the comps you run it on?

greenya · Post by **greenya** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 9:13 pm

Reason can be that use using some complex material or other video card performance consuming stuff. When you running such on video card that supports it -- it renders all which is needed -- the result may be slow but renders good quality (materials and/or shaders). When you running such in video card without support of the stuff -- AFAIK Irrlicht (and video card too) will render all that is possibly skipping all unsupported stuff, so on older systems you may get only 1 layer diffuse map materials -- so the renders faster but you should see absence of your materials / shaders.

For example: i have GeForce 9600M GT and i have played a game called "Metro 2033", it provides settings menu with ability to choose renderer -- i getting better performance (maybe in 2 times better) when i use DX9 comparing to DX10.

ericklima.comp · Post by **ericklima.comp** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 10:43 pm

We tried OpenGL, D3D8 and D3D9 drivers.
And the graphics are not complex.
First we draw some 2D stuff. It's already slower on their pc's.
When we try to run the 3D level, the character barely moves on their
machines, but on mine the character looks pretty good.
I don't know if its possible, but I think a driver or something might be missing on their machines,
because my friend who has the HP notebook has a video card better than mine.

Anyway, thanks for replying!

B@z · Post by **B@z** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 11:19 pm

are u using NPOT textures?
that decreased the performance for me. and every video card treating it differently

ericklima.comp · Post by **ericklima.comp** » Sun Jul 25, 2010 1:58 pm

No man, I'm not using NPOT textures.
I had some problems using that in the past.
It screwed up my images!
All my images are now power of two images.

ericklima.comp · Post by **ericklima.comp** » Sun Jul 25, 2010 9:01 pm

I think I found the problem.
I think it is the OpenGL diver on their machines.
But we don't know how we can update this.

I'm gonna use the irrExtensions to re-compile my Engine,
so I can offer the directX driver option under Windows.

mager · Post by **mager** » Sun Jul 25, 2010 10:58 pm

In my testing

Ive noticed that Direct3D9 always run the best on windows computers.
And OpenGL was the best alternative to any other operating system. Though openGL still used alot of CPU compared to Direct3D9

Im still trying to figure out why they use 10k+ memory though