FPS drop caused by portraits

[NotScias]

Hi,
Since the CoR update I'm experiencing a strange FPS drop that only happens when I have someone (ally, enemy but not mobs) selected.

My FPS is most of the time capped at 60 (VSync) but once I select someone in the same situation I get immediately 10-15 less FPS at least. The FPS get back to normal immediately after deselection.

Here's some screenies taken at the same time to illustrate the issue :
--- Example 1
- No selection : http://wstaw.org/m/2012/12/28/fpsdrop00.jpg
- Selection : http://wstaw.org/m/2012/12/28/fpsdrop01.jpg
--- Example 2
- No selection : http://wstaw.org/m/2012/12/28/fpsdrop10.jpg
- Selection : http://wstaw.org/m/2012/12/28/fpsdrop11.jpg

I guess it has something to do with character portraits, since selecting mobs doesn't cause the FPS drop, also because sometimes the portraits flicker or are blank, causing the FPS to drop even more. It may be Linux/OpenGL specific since I asked some people running Windows to confirm the issue but they don't have this one. It happens regardless of the selected player, so no matter who is selected the drop will happen. It's more noticeable when the computer is more stressed (lot of people/fights), the drop is more consequent in such cases.
EDIT: It seems to happen after some minutes/hours of gaming. I don't have the issue right after logging in.
As for solutions I tried, checking/unchecking animated portraits doesn't help (I have them static all the time by default). I also tried to redownload all the ressources to be sure that it isn't texture corruption but it didn't help either. Drivers are up to date and I have absolutely no issues in other games.

So I would first like to know if other people are experiencing the same problem (especially on Linux), and if so I'd like NGD to look into this because it's really annoying and power wasting.

Thanks.

[NotScias]

BUMP

I still have the issue and I found a spanish topic about it too : http://www.championsofregnum.com/for...ad.php?t=96167

I also have it on WIndows when using Direct3D.

I still don't know what triggers this drop. It seems to happen after several minutes/hours of gameplay. I'll try to record a video showing how portraits flicker badly when selecting someone and the instant FPS drop that happens with it too.

If you can't fix this, please at least let us the ability to completely disable portraits rendering. The checkbox to disable portraits animation DOES NOT prevent them to still be rendered all the time. So actually it doesn't save anything, you could aswell remove it.

AMD FX-4100
NVIDIA GTX550Ti
Archlinux & Windows 7 64-bit

[_Kharbon_]

Character portraits are of no use at all. I do not understand, why they are there, and I would happily exchange them for few more fps. Removing them, or enabling the user to deactivate them, would be a nice step.

We might as well have a picture of unicorn in the lower right corner of the screen.

[Awrath]

Agree with Scias, really need the option to actually stop rendering them. For a lot of us, especially on low end hardware, it only gets worse!

If you don't want to remove it then really, a nice static image should suffice. I don't need to see my own head nor the heads of my enemies bobbling around when I can just look at them directly!

[Enitharmon]

Confirmed, FPS drops 10-15 when I select someone, and the portraits flicker / are blank. Only tried on linux/64.

I would like some option to disable them, too.

[Tamui]

Originally Posted by Awrath

Agree with Scias, really need the option to actually stop rendering them. For a lot of us, especially on low end hardware, it only gets worse!

If you don't want to remove it then really, a nice static image should suffice. I don't need to see my own head nor the heads of my enemies bobbling around when I can just look at them directly!

You can deactivate the animation and in OpenGL, Windows, you don't even see them. Idk if they decrease FPS too

[NotScias]

Originally Posted by Tamui

You can deactivate the animation and in OpenGL, Windows, you don't even see them. Idk if they decrease FPS too

The checkbox to disable portraits animation DOES NOT prevent them to still be rendered all the time

It's not the portrait animation that causes the FPS drop. I have it always disabled yet still experiencing these drops when selecting other characters, and anyways the animation only applies to the self portrait. It's a bug making the selected players' portraits flicker and partially rendered that absolutely kills the overall performance.
Even completely hidden (there's a trick to achieve this), they are still rendered offscreen causing useless overhead, and are still prone to the aforementioned bug.

I'm not against this kind of 'eyecandy' feature as long as they are properly made and don't ruin the gameplay, which is not the case here...

This kind of bug could've been avoided easily in the first with better decisions like it has been said.
Why the hell render (ugly and aliased) 3D portraits in real time while one frame rendered once and buffered/saved to a texture/ressource would have been much better and not requiring this permanent bug-prone overhead ? I really can't understand this either.

Anyways, here's a video to show a better idea of what's going on everytime I select a player or npc :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPRt4hj1Dqk
I hope NGD takes care of this because this is really a pain and quite a gameplay-ruiner just like the FPS drops due to stuck players.

[Frosk]

Hey everyone,

I'd like that all of you that are experimenting this problem write us down the following info:

- CPU
- GPU (video card model)
- RAM memory
- OS (Windows, Linux)
- Video Settings

Along with this, please don't forget to write down any detail you may consider important and that you think is related to this issue.

Thanks!

[NotScias]

Originally Posted by Frosk

Hey everyone,

I'd like that all of you that are experimenting this problem write us down the following info:

- CPU
- GPU (video card model)
- RAM memory
- OS (Windows, Linux)
- Video Settings

Along with this, please don't forget to write down any detail you may consider important and that you think is related to this issue.

Thanks!

CPU : AMD FX-4100 (6x3.6Ghz)
GPU : NVIDIA GTX550Ti 1GB
RAM : 8GB DDR3
OS : Archlinux 64-bit & Windows 7 64-bit
Video Settings : "Very High" preset minus trails, terrain details, bloom, weather. OpenGL on Linux, D3D on Windows.

Details :
- A 15-20 FPS drop always happens when selecting allies (no matter who), enemies or NPCs (excluding mobs) - It immediately comes back to normal after deselecting.
- It seems to happen after several minutes/hours of gameplay, or triggered by an unknown event yet, and from this point the problem is always here until relaunching the client.
- It seems to be related to portaits since they are very often totally broken and/or flickering very fast, thus wasting drawing cycles and decreasing performance. (See video)
- Disabling portraits animation doesn't help.
- Video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPRt4hj1Dqk

[Enitharmon]

Ok, just don't taunt me for my pitifully outdated computer :P

CPU: Intel Core2 Duo E8400 3.00Ghz
GPU: ATI Radeon HD 5700 1Gb
RAM: 4 Gb
OS: Ubuntu Linux 12.10 (64bit)
Driver: ATI proprietary 9.00.11-120920a-147436C-ATI
Video Settings: Mid, Fx / Post process all off except Particle Effects and FXAA
Texture quality, Animation quality, character detail on high