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[Alex]

What could really be happening is a texture loading issue, since I believe all Starsector textures are held in RAM even if the GPU loads it, to make sure loading times are short.

This isn't the case. The loading times are short because the game loads all the textures into video memory, and they stay there, so there's almost no loading after the initial load (Background textures are an exception, but these get re-loaded from disk, and aren't kept in RAM either.)

[DornoDiosMio]

I think I was right on the edge of being able to play with a solid 50fps frame rate prior to the update of shaderlib and just that little bit of extra CPU usage causes some drops down below 50fps.

I'm running @ 50fps because 60fps used to give occasional slowdowns using the old version of Shaderlib, so playing at 50 fps allowed me to reduce the workload a decent bit and maintain a smooth constant frame rate.

Playing with normal maps I get some pretty frequent drops down below 50 fps. Playing without normal maps I see fps drops on rare occasions, but, it is not frequent enough to be a concern.

Also my compy must be doing some sort of auto load balancing as Starsector uses all 4 cores while I'm playing the game.  At one particular point it was using 313% out of 400% across all 4 cores.  When I stop the game CPU use drops down to nothing.  I'm pretty obsessive about not running any background processes or services on my computer. I am using the 64-bit version of the Java runtime with 1024/2048 memory settings.

One last thing, physical memory usage is only about 2.5GB while playing the game so that seems OK.  Gfx card memory usage maxes out @ 600MB w/o Uomos Corvuz and about 800MB with.

So yeah, I think everything is fine and the new version was just enough to cause a noticeable difference. I turned on triple buffering so that should make the fps drops less noticeable.

Just in case you want to see it, here is a picture from Afterburner of my CPU cores during a SS mission.  This was only about 2-3 minutes of game play and I cleared the graph right before launching the game.



So let me know if anything seems out of place and thank you for your time.

[Dark.Revenant]

Well, lighting does require all the ship sprites to be redrawn, and using normal maps causes all the ship sprites to be redrawn twice in total (except with different textures, of course).  That could be the main CPU usage issue for you, since the ship drawing function is rather expensive.

[DornoDiosMio]

Well, lighting does require all the ship sprites to be redrawn, and using normal maps causes all the ship sprites to be redrawn twice in total (except with different textures, of course).  That could be the main CPU usage issue for you, since the ship drawing function is rather expensive.

Yes that makes sense as it appears I was on the edge performance wise anyway.  Everything is working well now though as long as I disable normal maps and run at 50hz monitor resolution I very rarely get FPS drops and on the rare occasion it does happen I barely notice.

It also only seems to happen when there are a lot of ships on the map and even then it is pretty rare. It is possible that it may have been the same with the older version of shaderlib as well, but, I just didn't notice it as I was not yet into the later parts of the game where you have tons of ships at once. So, thanks a lot for the help!

[Dark.Revenant]

See if this update helps your performance.  It should be significantly faster.

The way that materials and normals are defined is now totally different.  The method is similar to how lights are defined; you use a csv database, which points to textures you define in settings.json.  See data/lights/core_texture_data.csv for an example.

ShaderLib Alpha v1.5

Full Edition

Includes vanilla normal maps and high-resolution ripple distortion

Download Alpha v1.5

(MediaFire Mirror)

Basic Edition

Vanilla normal maps not included, low-memory ripple distortion, and performance-optimized default settings

Download Basic Alpha v1.5

(MediaFire Mirror)

Alpha v1.5 (June 9, 2014)
- Added texture loader tables; you will need to define your material and normal maps in a csv
- TextureEntry and TextureData added
- Fixed quality-5 bloom causing bloom to disappear
- Significant CPU performance increase with lighting and normal maps

[DornoDiosMio]

Thanks, I'll check it out and let you know how it goes asap!

[Dark.Revenant]

Small update, only really relevant for people who use ShaderLib Basic.

ShaderLib Alpha v1.51

Full Edition

Includes vanilla normal maps and high-resolution ripple distortion

Download Alpha v1.51

(MediaFire Mirror)

Basic Edition

Vanilla normal maps not included, low-memory ripple distortion, and performance-optimized default settings

Download Basic Alpha v1.51

(MediaFire Mirror)

Alpha v1.51 (June 11, 2014)
- Added missile material and normal map support, plus vanilla missile material and normal maps (these will not do anything until the next Starsector update)
- Fixed crash for ShaderLib Basic

[Rambobrill]

hi there. i tried to use ShaderLib with Exerelin but it didnt work. no distortion on shield or at explosions and no lightning effect after the white flash of the bigger ships. and improvement overall. so i wanted to ask if it is possible to get it to work with exerelin. at least the newer explosion effects?

[doodeeda]

Hello, I tried out the Vacuum mod, but I found it very hard to play as I experienced low fps whenever I tried to move my ship or fire my weapons due to the thrusters or beams, etc. The creator of the mod advised me to just disable shaders for now, and he also wanted me to explain the problem in this thread also.

My graphics card: ATI Radeon HD 4300/4500 Series

[Dark.Revenant]

hi there. i tried to use ShaderLib with Exerelin but it didnt work. no distortion on shield or at explosions and no lightning effect after the white flash of the bigger ships. and improvement overall. so i wanted to ask if it is possible to get it to work with exerelin. at least the newer explosion effects?

All of those things are Starsector+ features, for various reasons.  The only thing that ShaderLib does by default is the weapon lighting, which you should be noticing on at least the vanilla weapons in Exerelin.  If you want those things in Exerelin you should just ask Zaphide to port them over; he's welcome to use my code.

Hello, I tried out the Vacuum mod, but I found it very hard to play as I experienced low fps whenever I tried to move my ship or fire my weapons due to the thrusters or beams, etc. The creator of the mod advised me to just disable shaders for now, and he also wanted me to explain the problem in this thread also.

My graphics card: ATI Radeon HD 4300/4500 Series

Shaders don't actually get used when ships are thrusting, unless xenoargh added something that does that.  Have you tried lowering the settings options (in the settings.json in the root directory of Vacuum)?  Your graphics card is rather old and underpowered but should be enough to at least run the basic lighting.

[doodeeda]

The side thrusters were particularly hard on the system. Once I disabled shaders under 'Global Options', it fixed all my problems. I shall try enabling shaders under 'Global Options' but disabling some other effects under 'Light/Distortion Options' to find a good balance. Thanks for the help!

[xenoargh]

Shaders don't actually get used when ships are thrusting, unless xenoargh added something that does that.  Have you tried lowering the settings options (in the settings.json in the root directory of Vacuum)?  Your graphics card is rather old and underpowered but should be enough to at least run the basic lighting.

I have a "vernier thruster" system in Vacuum, where it looks like little jets that turn on when the ship's turning or strafing, and it now uses ShaderLib lights to accentuate the look, which looks great (I only have them on Frigate+ size hulls, so it is comparatively cheap).

[DornoDiosMio]

The 1.5 version made a significant difference in the performance of Starsector on my system.  Even with everything turned on I don't experience any loss of FPS.

So I'm having quite a bit of fun with it! Thanks!

[xenoargh]

Cool!  I'll upgrade to 1.5 internally for Vacuum for the next build, then.  Was holding off until I was pretty sure it was stable

[NCMagic]

Apparently this happens with shaderlib 1.51 (basic):
23862 [Thread-5] ERROR com.fs.starfarer.combat.O0OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  - java.lang.RuntimeException: Error loading [graphics/shaders/material/asteroids/asteroid2_material.png] resource, not found in [C:\Users\Nico\Desktop\Starsector\starsector-core\..\mods\ShaderLib Basic,../starfarer.res/res,CLASSPATH]
java.lang.RuntimeException: Error loading [graphics/shaders/material/asteroids/asteroid2_material.png] resource, not found in [C:\Users\Nico\Desktop\Starsector\starsector-core\..\mods\ShaderLib Basic,../starfarer.res/res,CLASSPATH]
   at com.fs.util.C.Ó00000(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.util.C.Ó00000(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.graphics.TextureLoader.Ò00000(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.graphics.TextureLoader.o00000(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.graphics.TextureLoader.o00000(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.graphics.TextureLoader.o00000(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.graphics.H.super(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.loading.OooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.o00000(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.oOOO.A.Ò00000(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.combat.O0OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.o00000(Unknown Source)
   at com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher$2.run(Unknown Source)
   at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

(This happens with every mod, and when just starting starsector with this mod.)