How to improve your client performance on Linux (with some hints useful also on Win)

[onemyndseye]

Good HOWTO...

2 notes from my end concerning renice:

1. Renice to +19 causes VERY poor performance on all 3 of my PC's

2. Renice to -X helps but note that this is known to cause sound lags if set to high. -15 works well (about +15fps over the default) on my laptop but -10 causes sound lag on another.

Also you may add that on any Linux PC I have ever run this game on (20+ including testing for the Debian Package)... setting MALLOC_CHECK_=1 helps GREATLY with overall stability.. as well as taking care that RO is launched from its own directory..

I use a small script to launch. (All of these "tweaks" are included in the Debian/Ubuntu package except for resetting the video mode)

rolauncher.sh

#!/bin/bash

## Set variables
## Set this to the full path of your regnum install
GAME_DIR=~/regnum
RO_PRIO="-15"

# Store Current video mode so it may be recalled later.  This is because RO does not
# always return my display to the correct mode.  This part is optional
OLD_VIDMODE="$(xrandr |grep "Screen 0" | awk '{print $8 $9 $10}' |sed '{s|,||}')"


wait_game() {
## Simple function to sleep until RO exits
##

RO_EXIT="0"
while [ $RO_EXIT = "0" ]
do
    TMP1=$(ps -U $USER |grep game |grep -v grep |awk '{print $1}')
    if [ -z "$TMP1" ]; then
      RO_EXIT=1
    fi
    # This is a very short sleep that probably should be increased to reduce CPU cycles
    sleep 0.5
done
}


## Attempt to make sure no other regnum process is running
#
killall -9 game
killall -9 rolauncher

### Setup the env and start laucher
# Change Current working directory to where RO is installed
cd "$GAME_DIR"

# Set MALLOC_CHECK and start RO
export MALLOC_CHECK_=1
./rolauncher

## Adjust Priority Level (Optional)
##
## Uncomment this section and give yourself NOPASSWD access to renice in /etc/sudoers
## if this feature is needed/wanted
#
# example:   myuser    ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/renice, /usr/sbin/rovclock
#
#PID="$(pidof game)"
#sudo renice "$RO_PRIO" $(pidof game)

## Wait for main process to exit. Use a loop to get this done
#
sleep 2
wait_game

## Clean up and reset video mode
xrandr -s "$OLD_VIDMOD"
export MALLOC_CHECK_=0

Thanks again!
-onemyndseye

[Zodar]

I've spent a lot of time playing with nice levels too and your settings are completely the opposite to mine Platyna:

The best frame rate I get is reniceing game with a negative value, or leaving it at normal priority. I've tried variations of giving game more favourable scheduling than X, X more than game, but If I nice + the game, its unplayable - I'm talking about 1 fps if I'm lucky. I'm running a fairly light config ( fvwm2 with all the shit turned off) and everything else killed, or running at around nice +10 (such as named, etc).

My resolution needs to be 800x600x16, not native (which would be 1280x1024).

Editing game.cfg and reducing vg_camera_far_plane helps a little, if you don't care about scenery in the distance. I've also started playing with the sound off, because if you renice the game, the sound can be a good few seconds behind, which is so confusing that there's no point having it on at all.

The problem I have is not with the overall frame rate, which I can more-or-less adjust to after a while, but for me its the constant lock ups. The whole game freezes for anything between 10 and 60 seconds. As of the new update, I froze for almost 2 minutes just before, with the occasional one or two frame jump in between.

My PC is shit (AMD Sempron(TM) 2800+, GeForce FX 5200, 4 gig RAM), but it used to be fine 2 updates ago.

[-Edge-]

Originally Posted by platyna

Autodetect is bullshit. ;-)

Regards.

Your posts are bullshit

Regards.

This is supposed to be a game, if I showed you video's I recorded from before 1.0.6 and now on the same ratio the results would be drastic. Why do you think NGD has started work on a new engine? Something is wrong, if I go to stores and professional personnel tell me the problem is with the game itself, surely it means something is wrong.

But nah, perhaps you are smarter.

[platyna]

You are pathetic. I tested those changes and they were good for me. I even stated my rationale behind those hints, however there are many systems and many configurtions. You don't like my hints - don't use them, instead of posting insults. Grow up.

Regards.

Originally Posted by Anpu

Load Regnum into RAM

Or cache resources :

Originally Posted by game.cfg

[resources]
res_cache_compressed = 0
res_cache_enabled = 1
res_cache_size = 768
res_database = live_rgn

Would be nice if NGD documented those options

[platyna]

Last time I experimented with them I experienced weird behaviour - eg game handing on loading. It seems I need to experiment with it again.

Regards.

[Myxir]

Two lines that might improve performance in game.cfg
dbg_disable_shaders [or shader, don't remember]
dbg_disable_fog

But I cannot remember if the value must be 0/1 or true/false. I used that back when I had a weak ATI card and it gave a little boost.

[Nikor]

Originally Posted by platyna

renice 19 `ps axu | grep game | head -n 1 | awk '{print $2}'`

What's wrong with

renice 19 `pidof game`

?

[_dracus_]

Originally Posted by Nikor

What's wrong with

renice 19 `pidof game`

?

It's not leet enought if you don't use awk!

Ok I was kidding. It's really common to write thoses kind of code for script since you don't really care if it's efficient or not, what matters is that it works (in a short time).

[-Drv-]

Originally Posted by platyna

6. Use safe mode, however turning it on has some bugs (eg likes to wear off between logins), plus turn off unnecessary eye candies (set your options exactly like on pictures below)

unfortunately if you play without particle effects some spell animation aren't shown (mobility, strategic position, stun effects, etc...)* this could be a problem.

Originally Posted by platyna

7. Few notes about sound: as several people pointed out - turning off the sound is also performance gain, however keeping the sound on (at least for me) improves game play, so I am leaving it up to your consideration.

if you play not only at forts sound is really useful to detect enemies buffing or levelling, without sound you'll be taken by surprise really a lot more.

*at least on my pc