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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

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Author Topic: [0.91][UTILITY] Starsector FX  (Read 84573 times)

xenoargh

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Re: [0.81a][UTILITY] Starsector FX 3a (and example mods!)
« Reply #15 on: June 22, 2017, 06:11:24 PM »

Quote
does this mod still help performance if one is heavily cpu bound?
Yes, with the caveat that if you're running a bunch of mods that aren't set up to take advantage of FX Mod, then you won't see a huge improvement.  Vanilla CPU load is considerably lighter, though; try firing up the FX Mod and example projects with just Vanilla and run, say, The Last Hurrah with 500 battlesize; you'll see a lot of improvement.

Why?  Because, frankly, this game is (largely) not GPU-bound, except under extraordinary conditions (potentially, fillrate).  So this mod addresses the root causes, which are that Vanilla uses too many generic particles where more-specific visual behaviors achieved with simple techniques can be more effective, yet perform better, and, in the case of Fighter engines, addresses that Engines are pretty CPU-hungry by design, but don't have optimizations for small-sized engines where most of the animated effects aren't really visible, etc., etc.
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sycspysycspy

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Re: [0.81a][UTILITY] Starsector FX 3a (and example mods!)
« Reply #16 on: June 22, 2017, 10:38:22 PM »

6.  The FX system comes with two example projects:
  A.  A system for dealing with muzzle flashes and explosions, reducing the particles running in the game engine while also looking better.
  B.  A system for dealing with Fighter and Missile Engines that substantially improves the performance of large battles by replacing Alex's EngineAPI graphical system with something simpler.

This may be a stupid question:
In most games lightning effects are gpu hungry and barely affect the cpu. I was under the impression that Starsector is rather cpu intensive. So what I want to ask is: does this mod still help performance if one is heavily cpu bound?




Why don't you try it and see how the performance really is before and after rather than making a guess?
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xenoargh

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Re: [0.81a][UTILITY] Starsector FX 3a (and example mods!)
« Reply #17 on: June 23, 2017, 11:10:24 AM »

Hey, it's cool. he's just asking.  But yeah, it's pretty obvious if you fire it up.  Need to make a video at some point to show off what it can do, but I'm working on some other things atm :)
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Re: [0.81a][UTILITY] Starsector FX 3a (and example mods!)
« Reply #18 on: June 23, 2017, 11:11:54 AM »

I'm assuming that with the recent Starsector update this is compatible with Lightshow now?
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faram45

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Re: [0.81a][UTILITY] Starsector FX 3a (and example mods!)
« Reply #19 on: June 25, 2017, 12:17:02 PM »

Crashes when firing beam weapons from Neutrino.
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xenoargh

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Re: [0.81a][UTILITY] Starsector FX 3a (and example mods!)
« Reply #20 on: June 25, 2017, 03:10:18 PM »

I'll take a look at the Neutrino crash tonight :)
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xenoargh

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Re: [0.81a][UTILITY] Starsector FX 3a (and example mods!)
« Reply #21 on: June 25, 2017, 04:02:39 PM »

Whatever the bug is, it's in Neutrino.  It doesn't even start over here.  Reporting the bug to the mod's maintainers.
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xenoargh

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Re: [0.81a][UTILITY] Starsector FX 3a (and example mods!)
« Reply #22 on: June 25, 2017, 04:37:54 PM »

OK, found a workaround to get Neutrino working and test the bug, fixed it.  Apparently some weird combos in Beams can cause issues when reading the JSON; fixed that.  

Uploading a new build here in a few minutes.
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faram45

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Re: [0.81a][UTILITY] Starsector FX 3a (and example mods!)
« Reply #23 on: June 25, 2017, 05:11:36 PM »

OK, found a workaround to get Neutrino working and test the bug, fixed it.  Apparently some weird combos in Beams can cause issues when reading the JSON; fixed that.  

Uploading a new build here in a few minutes.

That's some fast work!
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xenoargh

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Re: [0.81a][UTILITY] Starsector FX 3a (and example mods!)
« Reply #24 on: June 25, 2017, 05:29:35 PM »

Updated all the projects to Alpha 4; resolved a bug where certain types of Beams might cause a crash.

Verified with Neutrino, LazyLib and GraphicsLib installed here.
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xenoargh

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Re: [0.81a][UTILITY] Starsector FX 3a (and example mods!)
« Reply #25 on: June 25, 2017, 05:33:59 PM »

I'm assuming that with the recent Starsector update this is compatible with Lightshow now?
Yup, should work with it just fine now.
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faram45

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Re: [0.81a][UTILITY] Starsector FX 4a (and example mods!)
« Reply #26 on: June 25, 2017, 05:50:48 PM »

Is there a reason my missiles don't have trails? Or is that intentional?
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xenoargh

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Re: [0.81a][UTILITY] Starsector FX 4a (and example mods!)
« Reply #27 on: June 25, 2017, 06:23:26 PM »

That's intentional, if you're running the Fighter / Missile FX example mod.

Trails are, unfortunately, part of the EngineAPI specification; Alex doesn't allow us to define a trail without an Engine, with all of its associated CPU costs.  I'll be replacing them with something visually-similar later on, most likely.
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Re: [0.81a][UTILITY] Starsector FX 4a (and example mods!)
« Reply #28 on: June 26, 2017, 05:27:30 PM »

The file that affects vanilla weapons and explosions seems to break the terminator drone's ion pulser, it'll fire a full volley and then only fires single shots at regular intervals even when it has nothing to shoot at, as well as when its dead somehow. Dunno if its a mod conflict or anything, I didn't really do much testing other than seeing if it fixed when I disabled the mod.
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xenoargh

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Re: [0.81a][UTILITY] Starsector FX 4a (and example mods!)
« Reply #29 on: June 26, 2017, 06:07:28 PM »

That example mod doesn't touch any weapon core stats, nor does it effect weapon AIs or anything like that.

Your problem must be somewhere else.  The mod may be masking another issue.

I'd try eliminating all of the other mods, then add in the FX mods, then add things in one at a time to help me find out which mod's causing this problem, so that I can figure out why this odd behavior is happening.
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