New Phoenix SS Client - v.a82

[Vidiot_X]

Hi,

 

I have have posted a copy of the Phoenix SS client for testing. This is more or less a 'sanity check' to make sure all the driver improvements are working. There are a few little collision bugs I am working on as well lots of other stuff. Your welcome to comment, but remember I am mainly interested in performance at this point. Things like background debris, ship rocket exhaust and alike will be added later as well as other features. This release is testing the 'core' of the Phoenix SS engine.

 

I should have a new version out in a few days with better resolution setup choices and some bug fixes.

 

You will need a DX10 or DX11 video card to test the 'DX10/11 drivers' (it will crash otherwise).

 

 

http://redeyeware.zxq.net/phoenix_ss/phoenix_ss_client_a82b.zip

 

 

Commands

========

F1 - Help

F11 - Zero Flip Delay enable/disable.

F12 - Resolution change menu.

8 - Take screen shot.

 

Display View

============

Number pad "-" Zoom display in.

Number pad "+" Zoom display out.

Shift+Enter - Switch to windowed display.

Insert - Warp to starting position.

 

Display Rotation

================

F10 - Screen rotation enable/disable.

Number pad 8 - Switch view north.

Number pad 2 - Switch view south.

Number pad 4 - Switch view West.

Number pad 6 - Switch view east.

Shift+Number pad 4 - Manually rotate screen left.

Shift+Number pad 6 - Manually rotate screen Right.

 

Movement

========

Arrow UP - Forward movement.

Arrow Down - Backward movement.

Arrow Left - Turn left.

Arrow Left - Turn right.

Z - Fire

 

 

>>> Hit "Escape" to exit <<<

 

Thanks,

- Rich -

[Vidiot_X]

I am getting some reports that the DX10/11 driver is not zooming in/out (scaling images) as expected. If it does it on your system let me know.

 

Thanks

- Rich -

[NuB KiNG]

this is freaking awesome

[Cheese]

if you are going to set the window control colors, you had better set both the fg and bg, unlike now, where you have black text on a black bg at the dx select window

 

i had to change my system colors around just to view your black text, which is one of my minor annoyances, which is also brought on by some incompetent web developers setting their text entry colors

 

my desktop:

 

http://cz.sshq.net/stuff/cdt.png

Edited March 2, 2012 by Cheese

[Cheese]

ive got dx11 in dxdiag

 

using dx10/11:

• extremely low fps for me, says 20, feels like less
  
• zooming in causes the floor to break apart into pieces
  
• pieces snap together as it hits nearest zoom distance
  
• rendering defects near the corners
  
• zooming out past the initial distance causes everything but bg to disappear
  

Edited March 2, 2012 by Cheese

[Cheese]

dx7 works as well as dx9

 

fixes the low fps (40-50), until bullets are fired, in which fps drops to single digits

i can pretty much guarantee your fps meter is not correct, especially in periods of slow rendering, when it still reports 60fps, while rendering around 15

also fixes the floor breaking apart

• you currently do not have frame limiting, your fps can jump from high values to low values very quickly while rendering
  
• you need to have a delta time value between control frames, and calculate the required amount of speed/thrust/rotation based on the elapsed time,
  
• as the ship's controls are currently dependent on render time, which causes extreme slowness under low fps, and extremely squirrelly handling (in opengl) and high speed at high fps, which allowed me to see that your wall collision system needs fixing
  
• collisions: high speed collisions with walls cause the ship to become stuck in the border of the wall on the side they hit, and can still move parallel along the border of the wall
  

average reported fps in opengl was ~250, hit 500fps windowed

Edited March 2, 2012 by Cheese

[Cheese]

at zoom levels nearer than some level, under dx7, certain sections of wall do not render, and reappear when you zoom back out

[Cheese]

'flip hack' keeps fps high in dx7/9 but not 10/11

color depth doesnt seem to affect fps

 

also, i dont know your rotation math, but the top of the screen feels closer to me than the bottom half, so the whole plane feels tilted

 

also, your program ignores the user clicking the X to close the window, which means your application isnt handling the WM_QUIT message properly

 

and as a ss player i am very happy to fly next to diagonal walls

Edited March 2, 2012 by Cheese

[Vidiot_X]

@all - The DX10/11 driver did have a problem with (zooming) scaling and is now fixed and will be in the next client release.

 

Hi Cheese,

 

I have to head out right now, but I will more carefully look over your comments tonight.

 

For now I would suggest using OpenGL for better performance (FPS). For example on my system (which is low-end) Opengl works great and DX7/9 really are on the slow side. Right now I have the map set to display all those floor parts which hit performance especially with the 'alpha'ed" (blue semi-transparent) ones. I will in the next release include a way to limit detail (like floor parts) which will improve performance.

 

Also as you point out I am not limiting (tweening) and this will also be fixed in the next release. Right now it's running free at a potential 60 FPS where as the bullet collision/physics is tweened to 30FPS which is what I will try to make the rest of the game shoot for if it is smooth enough.

 

I'm off to play a little music, but I'll be back soon.

 

Thanks for testing and commenting.

- Rich -

[Vidiot_X]

@Cheese

 

"average reported fps in opengl was ~250, hit 500fps windowed"

Nice

 

"application isnt handling the WM_QUIT message properly"

Fixed in next release

 

"if you are going to set the window control colors, you had better set both the fg and bg, unlike now, where you have black text on a black bg at the dx select window"

I will look into it.

 

"at zoom levels nearer than some level, under dx7, certain sections of wall do not render, and reappear when you zoom back out"

Fixed in next release.

 

"also, i dont know your rotation math, but the top of the screen feels closer to me than the bottom half, so the whole plane feels tilted"

Mmmmm. I can not verify this on any other system so far.

 

I am looking into why there is a slower DX performance today. Hopefully I have something installed or implemented wrong that I can change. Some of my programming buddies are looking into it now. But, users can get great performance in OpenGL for now.

 

Thanks,

- Rich -

[Cheese]

window control colors

 

when i do it, its usually something like this

 

 case WM_CTLCOLORBTN:
 case WM_CTLCOLORLISTBOX:
 {
  //return brush to background color
  //SetBkColor() modifies bg color of text
  //SetTextColor() modifies fg color of text

  //hwnd==lParam
  HDC hdc=(HDC)wParam;
  SetBkColor(hdc,RGB(0,0,0));
  SetTextColor(hdc,RGB(0,255,0));
 
  return (LRESULT)BrushBlack;
 }
 break;

[Vidiot_X]

Thanks Cheese.

 

What video card do you use? Can I get your system specs?

 

Thanks

- Rich -

[Vidiot_X]

Hi,

 

I am pretty sure I have found the bug with DirectX performance. I had the view-port off by one pixel row and column. As soon as I changed it I now get great (better then OpenGL) performance in DX9. I expect this will carry through to DX11 as well.

 

At this point I am not sure I will keep DX7 as an option as it is just to slow I think, but we will see. I like to be as retro compatible as I can.

 

Look for a new release very soon in the next few days or so. Maybe sooner.

[Cheese]

64bit windows 7 with intel g45/g43 chipset

[»Axe Demento]

Running nicely on my system you'll smile i kept trying to shift while i flew inside your base

 

Keep up the great work

 

I look forward to killing something

 

...Axe

 

The system i ran it on was a pentium dule core 2.5ghz

4086 mb ram

directx 11

Windows Vista Home Premium 6.0 build 6002

I had to update direct x drivers but that was all.

[Vidiot_X]

http://redeyeware.uphero.com/phoenix_ss/phoenixss_setup_shot.png

 

Hi,

 

I have most of cheese's list fixed and implemented. DirectX 9,10 and 11 now really fly right along besting OpenGL's performance on my system. DX 10 and 11 now scale with no issues now. Collision seem pretty solid now and all of the parts are being displayed at different resolutions and zoom levels.

 

I have redesigned the setup window which now determines which graphics drivers and resolutions are available making them assessable via a combination box (drop down). Windowed gaming is supported as well as other options including a feature to load maps on startup. I also now the color of the window and text.

 

I am also including some map parts in the next version that will show how Phoenix SS can handle collision on round and oddly shaped parts.

 

I should add that I am looking into lighting and shadow effects for DX10 and 11.

 

I should have a new version up in a day or two.

 

*Edit - I forgot to mention that all of the physics and collision are now tweened (delta timing) to 30FPS. This should be adequate and yield a smoother feel.

 

The Zero Delay option will smooth out jerky windowed gaming but at a performance cost. Fast Render copies the backbuffer without waiting for a vertical blank to occur which can speed up FPS performance.

 

- Rich -

[»gallitin]

Site down? I can't get to the download. We should host it in the downloads section here.

[Vidiot_X]

Yup

 

Plolix has setup a space for me to host a web page. I will get something basic up tonight. I have a secondary site I will post it on here soon.

[Vidiot_X]

The client is here now:

 

http://redeyeware.zx...client_a82b.zip

 

My site is back up as well

[»gallitin]

Cool, let me know if need/want any help.