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Team: Traders League
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Main: Lazerus
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Joined: Thu Jul 01, 2010 10:58 pm
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Post Different Chipsets!
Original Lazerus here, and what follows is a general analysis of graphical issues i've noticed between Intel-GPU (Onboards/Lappy's etc) systems and NVIDIA/ATI (AGP/PCI etc).

---oo00OOO00oo---

1 - Radar Window : On an ATI there is no pip's for bases both player and ai, yet it (the window) resizes without crash, and the 'scope' of the window's data representations also resize to fit the new windows size properly. On Intel-Onboard, those base-pips are present, yet resizing the window does NOT resize the 'scope' of data in it, and if you try to resize to the smallest possible, it crashes ss.

It would seem to me that a more general set of 'universal' (thus Standard) GPU instructions should suffice for BOTH types of Chipsets, although attempting to Optimize for either is impressive, it seems the reality is more problematic than effective.

1A - NVIDIA/ATI Chipsets (Plugin's) obvoiusly handle the DOUBLE-SHADING that the radar window now has (unlike beta days when the new radar came along!) quite efficiently, with little detrement to general frame-rate, yet a faster machine with an onboard Intel gpu suffers greatly when displaying the radar window!

I'd sudjest a check-box option for the radar window to be either "see-through" or "dark", perhaps that will take the load off all those Lenovo-Laptops etc that use intel gpu's :-]

2 - Map Window : On NVIDIA/ATI resizing the map window results in proper Proportions (ASPECT RATIO!) of the data within it, yet with INTEL gpu's it results in a STRETCHED view of the map... it also appears not to scale the 'scope' of map represetnations properly with Intel's either.

Once again, standardising the function calls to those that both chipsets support as known equal resultants, may solve this issue!

-> Perhaps the point here is that SS2-Client needs to determine for itself, the Aspect Ratio the user is utializing (4:3 or 16:9 etc) so it can adjust the graphics in general.

3 - Destroyed Player Base graphics SIZE! : Both chipsets show an almost maximum size destroyed base graphic, regardless of the actual size of the base (eg t6 size is misrepresented - Much LARGER). This is a pitty, as it can be missleading when discovering a bombed base and wanting to rescue it.

That particular oversight is a tad embarasing, I'd guess that a simple check of the tacked-on changes to scripting may solve the issue, as obviously the core-structure of the game pre-disposes the client to showing the Appropriate size of the base's graphic when 'destroyed'.

4 - Moving Game Windows OFF of the Screen : Pitty that we can no longer do that, ie. move the 'Station' window off the bottom or the sides of the game-screen/window when we're docked! Especially when ai's are attacking your base, and you wanna see what's happening, as well as controll the bases extra defense capabilities.

SS-Client used to do this without trouble, and in SS2-Beta testing, so did that client; thus I see no real palatable reason why new client doesnt allow it. Just make sure to cater for 'zones' not being present (off the screen) etc, or rip away the overwhelming new logic, and have the core-game-logic prevail.

---oo00OOO00oo---

There Guys, Gals, and Devmins, hehe, that's all I can think of at the moment. Good luck with it.

;-}

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Tue Jan 15, 2013 10:07 am
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Post Re: Different Chipsets!
we do use a standardized set of calls for drawing. its called direct 3d :P.
Sadly, not all graphic cards handle some different parts of it the same way.

For your radar blip comment... i tested it on amd chipset (and on intel chipset for safe measure) and they both end up giving that
Image
see the orange squares ? those are bases, i will not deny that they arent that easy to see but they are definitely rendered the same way on all 3 :P.

the destroyed bases size have nothing to do with the graphic card and by all mean should already be the same size, although it would require some testing to confirm.


the moving popup offscreen part definitly never worked even in ss2 alpha :P, its not something we disabled or anything. Its just the way its made. I'm curious tho, why would you ever need that ? is it just to hide the station tab ? if so it would be much easier to implement some form of minimize for it, than to create a whole new window handle and detach it from the main one xD.

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Wed Jan 23, 2013 8:39 am
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Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2010 4:58 am
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Post Re: Different Chipsets!
Why everything on radar looks so semi transparent, they would be far more visible if they were solid colour.

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Wed Jan 23, 2013 8:52 am
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