Myth 2 1.7.1 vs Radeon HD series [bug report]

[Murphfix]

Hello ,
I have noticed some bugs in the newest version of Myth 2 (Build 356):
- when I Ioad saved game, finish a map or start any new mission, Myth comes back to Windows desktop for a 3 seconds and next comes back to the game, also many times saved games load unnaturally slow;
- I have low fps on some maps: "The Baron"(about 60% less than on other maps), "Landing at White Falls" (about 35%), "The Summoner" (about 25%) "The Forge" ( about 50%) in OpenGL mode with ON Vsync;
- Sometimes game fps drop in briefing screen and have little freeze after cinematics;
- dead bodies many times disappear for a moment and appear again
- On "The Forge" map below the cliff where Soulblighter stands the magma looks awful like copy from other place and paste there:P , it doesn't happend on NVIDIA cards - probably it's a graphic bug.
I don't have any of this inconveniences in 1.7.1 version on my old Gigabyte 8500GT card (everything runs well on Direct3D and OpenGL mode with all graphic options ON and attachment all of poweruser options), but now on my new PowerColor PCS+ HD 5770 card I have that problem. Myth_log etc. looks fine, so everything must be only ATI's card issue.

My specs:
Intel C2D E7400 2,8Ghz
ATI Radeon HD 5770 with the newest 10.9 version of CC drivers (I don't turn on any mulit-AA or something else which could slow any game)
2gb DDR2 ram
Windows 7 (up-to-date) [compatibility mode doesn't fix any of my problem]
I hope that 1.7.2/1.8 patch will fix it:D
PS. Great work man!

Myth_log:

2010-09-16 20:58:02
Myth II Build 356 running under Modern Windows 6.010000 ----------------------------------------------
Loading poweruser.txt... OK.
Scanning for software devices...
Found 1 to use
Scanning for Direct3D devices...
Found 1 to use
Scanning for 3Dfx devices...
Found 0 to use
Scanning for OpenGL devices...
Found 1 to use
Using GDI for Input
Mouse appears to have 3 buttons and 3 axes.
Initialized for DirectSound3D using COM
Loading Patch Files...
Patch 1.2
Patch MariusNet
Patch 1.3
Patch 1.4
Patch 1.4 Interface
Patch 1.5
Magma - Bungie Map Textures v1
Loading Patch Files Succeeded
Closing Myth.

Poweruser.txt: (delete this file or off this options doesn't fix game problems)

[Net.Hosting]
PortNumber=6112
[Renderer.OpenGL]
ErasePreviousFrame=True
Use32BitTextures=True
UseDepthTest=True
UpdateCMapChunked=True
ReuseContext=True
ClearColor=True

[Pyro]

Do you have Landscape Textures on in preferences? If so that might explain why the lava under Soulblighter in The Forge looks different. The lava is part of the model that makes up the cliff, while the rest of the lava is part of the map which has detail textures on them. Detail textures are only shown if Landscape Textures is enabled and you have an addon that adds the dtex which you do (Magma - Bungie Map Textures v1). Dtex don't work on models, which would explain why it looks off.

Instead of giving us percentages, can you give us some actual fps values? The Delete key will toggle the fps display above the overhead map under the status bar. Try with VSync off. The Page Up key will toggle dtex on/off if you have Landscape Textures enabled. You should notice your fps improve when dtex is toggled off.

I think most of those issues have been resolved for the 1.7.2 update. The dead bodies disappearing for a moment is not an issue I've heard before. Could be a driver issue, but the magma devs would be of more use on that topic.

[Melekor]

Hi Murphfix, thanks for registering and reporting, and welcome to the forums :)

Are you sure the only difference between these things happening and not happening was 8500GT -> Radeon HD 5770? (Same OS, all other hardware the same?)

Are you on Windows 7 64 bit or 32 bit?

There is a bug in the detail texture system which results in poor performance on "The Baron" - this is fixed in 1.7.2. The slowdown you see on other maps is probably because the detail textures there are more complicated. When 1.7.2 comes out you can try the new OpenGL 2.0 renderer, which is much more efficient when detail textures are enabled, so I think it should fix any FPS issues you have.

I'm not sure about the other things you noticed. Normally I would say update your drivers, but you are at the latest. If they are driver related, playing in windowed mode or disabling Aero glass, window animations and other fancy stuff may have an effect. Long shot but worth a try maybe?

About the issue on "The Forge", any chance you could post a screenshot of it? I'm curious what it looks like.

[Murphfix]

Hello again,
nice to see that authors replay for a post that fast
So let's start:
The Baron FPS: ~20 (Vsync ON, Detail Texturing ON); ~60 (Vsync ON, Detail Texturing OFF)
Landing at White Falls FPS: ~55 (Vsync ON, DT ON) but can drop to 33 for a 1-4 seconds where nothing special happend, probalby when game loads something but only when DT is ON; ~60 (Vsync ON, DT OFF)
The Summoner FPS: ~50 (Vsync ON, DT ON) but can drop to ~40 for a 2 sec; ~60 (Vsync ON, DT OFF)
The Forge FPS: ~50 (VSync ON, DT ON) but can drop to 35 for a 3-5 sec; ~60 (Vsync ON, DT OFF).
Game runs in 1600x900 but in lower res and windowed mode I can noticed the same drops. Everything looks that's a OpenGL DT issue, everybody knows that AMD has permanent problem with drivers to Radeon cards so it can also be important. Perhaps OpenGL 2.0 renderer will give it power again
I have usually enable landscape textures (with Magma - Bungie Map Textures v1), 3D fog, anisotropic filter and Vsync ON, Tex. Cache on lvl 512 mb.

I have Win 7 32bit version and many months ago disabled a lot of things in this Win which could slow down a system and applications, also it isn't any working antivirus, overfilled hard drive etc. issue.

I changed only graphic card, everything else is the same. In The Forge bug issue's on 8500GT (with 257.21 drivers) I didn't see that lines between "rectangles" of high detailed and standard Myth's texture and I never had a drop under good 55-60 fps.
Maybe in Myth 2 old NVIDIA card crash new AMD/ATI product
Ofc I isn't a huge bug, but I like Myth series, and admire your great job so I decided to report all of my observations. I know that yours 1.7.2 patch will repair everything what is possibility to correct.
Thx, have a nice day

[Myrd]

Check your video driver preferences to make sure you don't have something like 16x FSAA enabled, which could be contributing to the poor performance you're seeing.

[Murphfix]

I made some tests with different settings and results didn't help me to find an answer.
Unfortunately, I'm sure that it isn't a video driver preferences issue and that's certain that changes in Catalyst Control Center won't improve game FPS and correct bugs.

My AA and AF preferences is always set to "let application decide", Catalyst A.I. is set to "standard mode", level of detail mipmap is set to "quality" (default is set to "high quality"), also I enabled tripple buffering mode in OpenGL application to increase fps when Vsync is ON...without the improvement in Myth.

Games like Starcraft 2, Red Alert 3, Company of Heroes are running smoothly and without any drops at the highest graphic options, with AA x4/x8 at 1600x900 res (Vsync ON), but our dear Myth has breathlessness on my computer.
It must be something wrong in Myth's code with detail texturing ON that causes this game doesn't like Radeon HD 5XXX series with 1GB GDDR5 memory and likes other cards like my old GeForce with 512MB GDDR2 memory
Hmm...any ideas?
Best regards,
Murph

[Melekor]

I'm pretty sure those other games use Direct3D on windows, at least by default, so they wouldn't be directly comparable in that sense.

About the forge: Except for the black lines, the screenshot looks correct. The fact that there is no detail texture under the ledge is a limitation of the engine. The black lines are a caused by incorrect texture coordinate clamping which has been fixed in 1.7.2.

Would you be interested in beta testing 1.7.2 and the OpenGL 2.0 renderer?

[Murphfix]

Yes, you're right - I will test performance in some OpenGL applications, it will be helpful.
About the Forge: nice to hear it
Ofc, I will gladly join to beta test new version of Myth.
Thank you so much

[Road]

Excellent reports!