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So CapnBill has set his sails, and tacked into the boiling seas
that is the Ultima
IX: Ascension fan-base. In a post to the Ultima IX: Ascension
General
Discussion board the Capn has revealed some progress as well
as some stumbling points related to the state of the current fixes
to U9. Issues raised range from Virtual Memory, to Memory Leaks,
to texture detail levels. Here's the whole of it:
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"Made some major changes to lifts;
they won't tend to get hung up as much now. Fixed the Install
to check for the amount of Virtual Memory you have; if you
have less than desired (about a total of 512MB), it'll give
you warning. We're considering changing the game to give
you a warning for anything less than about 384 MB...so,
if you're letting Windows manage your virtual memory with
a dynamic swap file, and you're running low on disk space,
you'll get a warning.
More info on the memory leak. Yes, memory
leak! I guess my theories about memory fragmentation are
wrong--so, I hope you enjoyed the purely theoretical thought
processes I've led you on for the past few days! So, our
in-game memory tests led to practically nothing; the game
uses about 70MB of RAM, and that doesn't really change no
matter how long you run. This number is computed by adding
up the memory allocation requests from within the code,
while it's running.
But what about outside the code? What if
something attached to the game process is using memory,
and due to a bug in our code, it's not freeing it? Well,
that looks like what's happening. We can measure the amount
of memory allocated by all processes in Windows as a whole,
not just ours; and the number climbs steadily while the
game is running. Running in D3D greatly accentuates the
problem; the leak is still there, but much smaller when
running in Glide. If you're in D3D with high-detail mip-maps
on, you'd run out of memory in 10-20 minutes (which is,
of course, what many of you are experiencing). We believe
the problem is related to textures; we're investigating,
and we're closer!
D3D as a whole is performing much better.
I get pretty good frame rates on my plain ol' TNT card;
my Matrox G400 runs really well. But, there's a caveat,
having to do with 16-bit textures; I have to run with medium
detail level to get good performance.
I've been running some tests on the "chugginess"
of the game; we've come a long way with our static frame
rate, but turning the camera still chugs in many cases.
If you run in 16-bit textures in Glide, you get a similar
chugginess as when you run in D3D. We've believed for a
long time that 16-bit textures simply overload the system
in terms of the huge quantity of data being loaded from
disk and sent to the card; seeing pauses like this in both
Glide & D3D reinforces that point of view. In fact, that's
why we put the "medium" and "low" mip-map detail feature
in, in the first place. We knew that 16-bit textures create
I/O problems, and thus speed problems; so, we provided a
way to still run with 16-bit textures (which D3D requires),
but to use less data.
Bottom line: If you're chugging, you really
should use the medium detail level. Medium-detail textures
are 1/3 the size of the full-detail texture! And, you can
rarely see the difference. (I admit, the places you can
see the difference are pretty visually unappealing, though).
Anyway, we're recommending that anyone running with 16-bit
textures use the medium detail level. Higher-end cards with
higher-end systems can probably get good performance with
high detail level; but (as I'll discuss below), don't count
on being able to crank up all your settings! (Also, don't
bother with low detail level; it looks like junk, and isn't
any faster.)
Compressed textures: One of the reasons
we put them in is that they don't suffer the I/O hit of
16-bit textures; they're smaller than the 8-bit textures,
in fact. But, it turned out that most D3D cards ran slower
with compressed textures, because they don't support decompression
in hardware. And then, DX7 broke the compressed texture
support; most drivers report that they don't even support
it. We'll try to fix that, to give us another texture option.
If your hardware accelerates S3TC, use it!
8-Bit: there is now no chance of incorporating
8-bit into our D3D code; the renderer is now too specific
to alpha transparency, and our 8-bit textures use chromakey
transparency (if this is Greek to you, skip it). Bummer!
Now, finally, for settings in general: We
DID put settings in the game to support hardware that doesn't
exist yet! If you push your clipping plane sliders all the
way to the right, you now have settings that the Dev Team
has never played with (we did QA those settings, though).
We never played with the sliders that far over. Same goes
for high detail level & 16-bit; we never got good frame
rates with that combination. We didn't have enough time
to refine our install to make all those recommendations,
though; it does a good job of setting up your sliders &
Performance vs Quality settings, for the type of machine
you have (actually, it sets them a tad too high, my fault
I admit); but the 16-bit texture setting slipped through.
So, on the re-release CD, we'll be fixing the Install to
give you better recommendations. Regarding why we put in
settings for super-high-end hardware: we know that computer
advances are made very quickly; in 6 months, those computers
will be pretty common. They're just now right now.
So, don't feel at all pressured to crank
your settings up to the max! I know you want to experience
the world's full detail; but, you'll be paying for it in
performance, in a big way. Don't feel cheated out of the
experience if you run without full detail, either; we don't,
and we love it! In fact, Richard Garriott plays with his
sliders all the way to the left, and he has a pretty beefy
machine!
I've droned on enough! Good night to all!"
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So it looks as if things *are* coming along, but
all of us D3D users may still have to trudge through it as we
have been. I don't really mind too much, but it sure would be
sweet if it ran as smooth as Quake III (pipe dream you say??).
Either way, be sure to stay tuned here for the latest from the
U9 trenches. Yes, they let us use trench shovels.. we're just
not allowed to touch the weaponry anymore. =(
And along those same Ultima-esque lines, GamePen
has posted up a lengthy
interview with Richard Garriott (aka Lord British). It's a
very in-depth piece, including text, and video clips. Topics include
discussions about the development of U9, the evolution of online
gaming, and some history on Garriott's game-making. If your a
fan of Garriotts, or his games, I urge you to take some time out,
and review the whole piece here.
GameFan has done up a small,
yet favorable review
of Planescape: Torment.
Again, yet another reviewer mirrors my thoughts of the game exactly.
Brilliant game. The game chalked up a 98 out of 100 (I'm guessing),
and touches briefly on many aspects of gameplay. It's a good little
read, and is dead on the mark when offering up praise like: "In
my opinion, Planescape Torment is the best RPG of the year..."
It just may be.. I guess we'll let the judges for the Codies
(*snicker*) decide for us. ;p
Speaking of Codies,
one of my favorite games, Asheron's
Call was just nominated for one. Of course, it's lumped into
a wide-spread category with contenders like Half-Life,
but oh well.. at least they made the list! In other Derethian
news, the game world of Asheron's call went bonkers yesterday,
as the long anticipated "Sudden Season" finally arrived. It brought
along some friends too, including SNOW (and more snow), snowmen,
snowballs, *snowangel*s, pretty decorative lights-a-plenty, some
new festive garb, and a slew of actual game-play fixes, and tunes.
I was lucky enough to log in last night, and make a trek around
the world to see all the sites, and I must say, I am staggeringly
impressed with how well this game is coming along. If they can
keep events going monthly like this.. I see a great future ahead
of this very talented team, and their wonderful game. You can
read more news here,
and here.
GA-RPG has posted a few new
screenshots
of the upcoming title Legend
of the BladeMasters, from Ronin
Entertainment. Also included is a short snippet from the development
team addressing the capability of their engine. Take a gander
over here.
Likewise, in the screenshot department, The
Adrenaline Vault has posted a new
screenshot of the upcoming RPG, Rune
from Humanhead Studios.
This game just keeps looking cooler and cooler.. I can't wait
to try it out (damn, I buy too many games).
Finally, the folks over at DiabloII.net
have put together a very extensive
analysis of the latest in-game movie from Blizzard
depicting the Necromancer in full-swing. In the tradition of DiabloII.net
goodness, the team there has broken down individual images, and
thoroughly dissected each one, to compile an excellent overview
of just exactly what the Hell (get it?) is going on in that itty-bitty
movie. I love the staff over at DiabloII.net.
They always get right to the guts of each piece of D2 news that
trickles outta Blizzard,
and I for one, an sincerely appreciative of the work they do for
the community. Keep up the good work guys and gals!
OK.. are you sick of me yet? Me too.. lets kick
my wordy arse. =P Until next time folks!
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