Jerky Graphics

Alex Petrov · Post by **Alex Petrov** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 1:46 pm

Hello everyone!
I have recently found Oolite - what a nice surprise!
I used to play Elite in 80's on ZX Spectum clone which I soldered myself from parts. I also played First Encounters.

I installed Oolite on FC6 and I have a year old PC (dual core Athlon).
I was really surprised that the game started stuttering and become unresponsive when I was attacked by about 5 boogies. It does not happend when I run the game under Windows, at least it did not happened so far.
Any ideas? Sorry if I missed the answer somewhere, I just registered on this board

davcefai · Post by **davcefai** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 5:21 pm

When the game starts stuttering press Shift-F.

This will display your frame rate, number of objects and collisions. Sometimes the number of objects reaches over 400 and this causes problems.

You can try the solution I proposed on the previous page. It may help.

Alex Petrov · Post by **Alex Petrov** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 2:03 pm

davcefai wrote:
When the game starts stuttering press Shift-F.

This will display your frame rate, number of objects and collisions. Sometimes the number of objects reaches over 400 and this causes problems.

You can try the solution I proposed on the previous page. It may help.

Thanks, davcefai.
Your trick worked.

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 12:29 pm

I tried Oolite out on my new system; Intel Core Duo and onboard VGA (Elitegroup 945GCT-M2). Runs fine in Windows, but in Ubuntu 7.10 the framerate is about 1 frame/sec. I think I have the right drivers installed - no problem playing vids etc.

Is there a way of getting the framerate up which doesn't involve splashing out on a graphics card?

davcefai · Post by **davcefai** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 4:39 pm

The ability to render videos is not connected to a card's 3D abilities.

Have you installed the correct driver? The standard Linux one may not be suitable for gaming. For example one needs Nvidia drivers for Nvidia cards. The xorg nv driver simply can't hack it.

Test your card by running glxgears This will report the frame rate (or possibly crash

).

I think you may need the Intel driver, possibly this one:

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/CS-020683.htm

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 8:59 am

I think that he right driver comes with my distribution; there's a driver for Intel 945 chipset in the preferences, which seems to work fine for the Compiz Fusion 3d effects. glxgears reports over 1300 fps.

I followed the link you posted and ended up here. Should I check it out? (I'm reluctant to poke around with graphics driver if I'm not 100% I know what I'm doing)

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 12:05 pm

Update:
When Oolite starts, the framerate is more like 100 fps. When I launch, it drops to 4. Witchspace to another system and it rises to 15/20.

TGHC · Post by **TGHC** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 12:31 pm

Then it is most likely an OXP problem........I think

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 12:44 pm

Can't be an OXP, I don't have any installed. nb I get the same whether it's 1.65 or 1.70.

davcefai · Post by **davcefai** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 3:46 pm

Should I check it out?

It shouldn't cause problems. You choose which driver to use by editing xorg.conf and changing the "driver = xxxxx" line.

However your symptoms are a trifle strange. It seems that the card starts out OK and runs out of steam.

Can you increase the memory allocated to the card?

TGHC · Post by **TGHC** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 4:07 pm

There must be something like norton running in the background then........(grasps another straw)

davcefai · Post by **davcefai** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 7:39 pm

Can you see any correlation between framerate and:

1. How "busy" the screen is?
2. The number of objects in the system (Press Shift-F)

(1) could indicate that the graphics system is not coping.
(2) would normally indicate a lack of available horsepower. Check what else is running and chewing up cycles.

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:56 pm

It seems to be related (1) rather than (2). I launch and it's slow, I jump into a new system and I'm OK-ish until ships start to show up, at which point it slows down again.

davcefai · Post by **davcefai** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 6:47 pm

Well, my considered opinion is that the problem lies in the graphics system.

If the game runs OK in Windows with the same hardware then one has to blame the driver. However do try to increase the RAM available to the video card.

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 9:57 pm

davcefai wrote:
do try to increase the RAM available to the video card.

Excuse my ignorance, but how do I do that?