0.2.8.1: Release process and bugs

Website · Post by **Z-Man** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 12:02 pm

Ok, some info on the odd camera behavior.
It's three problems combined

The second problem is that although you got a stable framerate of 30 fps while it was happening, the timer measured large flucuations.
The third problem is that the camera code does not get along too well with fluctuating framerates.

The first problem, root of the second problem, MAY be that we set the frame swap mode to glFlush on nvidia cards because so far, no problems were reported, but fluctuating framerates are exactly the thing using glFlush instead of glFinish can cause.
You can do something against that: go to "System Setup"/"Display Settings"/"Performance Tweals" and change "Swap Mode" from Flush to Finsh.

These framerate flucuations have other bad consequences: your keypresses are handled with a tiny, fluctuating delay. So we're going to have to detect unusual framerate fluctuations automatically and change the swap mode.

Furthermore, fluctuating framerates should not mess up the camera.

Flush puts more strain on the CPU than Finish (The NVidia driver puts on 100% CPU load, no matter how much the game uses), that's why we're not always using Flush.

Self_Destructo · Post by **Self_Destructo** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 3:07 pm

z-man wrote:These framerate flucuations have other bad consequences: your keypresses are handled with a tiny, fluctuating delay.

Now I got an excuse for how bad I have been playing the last 2 days.

I set it to Finish but will do a more extensive test on it tonight. Could it also be that my nVidia card is PCI and not AGP is why you didn't have a problem?

joda.bot · Post by **joda.bot** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 1:34 am

I tested 0.2.8.1 on Windows 2000, either the camera did change earlier and I did not notice yet, or a break of two weeks makes the cam feel alien.

My impression is that the camera is lower than it was before (but I used rc3 or rc4 much before the 2 week break).

I also saw some wall inconsitencies which might be related to some kind of timer issue. If I can provide a recording of such an "wall error" I'll attach/upload it. Other players passed though walls or the walls moved which can also be a result of last mile packetloss (which was present then).
Happend less on CVS fortress but on Ghableska's fortress the effect was more visible. I tried to change the finish mode to OpenGL flush, but I can't tell if lag there was less lag or the flush mode really was better.
NVIDIA Geforce3 Ti AGP

Website · Post by **Z-Man** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 9:29 am

I get lots of packet loss on ghab's fortress, too, it really messes things up sometimes.

I'm really sure the camera did not change. The smart camera is configurable now in the expert section, you can raise it with CAMERA_SMART_HEIGHT.

SD: That may be something for you as well, I noticed you use the raise button quite often

Self_Destructo · Post by **Self_Destructo** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 2:25 pm

z-man wrote:I noticed you use the raise button quite often

It's funny that most people hardly ever use features like that, but I like it when I'm going fast.

I didn't get time to test it last night, but I'll probably go test it right now.

Self_Destructo · Post by **Self_Destructo** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 2:47 am

Ok, that didn't fix it.

I get it really bad during high speed double binds too. So, I'll just have to tolerate it I guess.

Website · Post by **Z-Man** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 8:47 am

For now, I'm afraid so. I'll try to fix it for the release after this one.

Download count is 148 now, seems to be quite OK. I'll rebuild the alpha as 0.2.8.1 today or tomorrow.

Website · Post by **Z-Man** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 12:44 pm

Ed just sent a title screen with adapted version number. I won't put it into CVS, so it's attached here.

The sources are tagged, The build has started. I'll do the full test program with it, so it will be a while before it's available.

Website · Post by **Z-Man** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 9:11 pm

Builds are up on aabeta. Upload to SF is complete, I'll do the file release in a minute.

Those who already got the alpha don't need to get 0.2.8.1 unless they want the new version to appear in the title and main menu, the code is 100% identical.

Self_Destructo · Post by **Self_Destructo** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 9:22 pm

So, nothing changed other than the title? Nothing?

Website · Post by **Z-Man** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 9:40 pm

Nothing. I'm not risking a build breaking for half our Windows users or messing with the camera and making everyone sick in a step from alpha to final. Not again, anyway

We'll get down on your camera problem and BSD compatibility soon enough.

Releases are now also available on SourceForge.

Website · Post by **Z-Man** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 12:45 am

All the changes up to 0.2.8.1 have been merged into the CVS branch b0_2_8 and the CVS trunk. CVS users will now also be safe from the security problems.

Branch b0_2_8_0 should now finally be considered closed, changes to it won't be merged anymore. We'll reopen it only if more problems with 0.2.8.1 emerge.

Luke-Jr · Post by **Luke-Jr** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 2:36 am

z-man wrote:All the changes up to 0.2.8.1 have been merged into the CVS branch b0_2_8 and the CVS trunk. CVS users will now also be safe from the security problems.

Branch b0_2_8_0 should now finally be considered closed, changes to it won't be merged anymore. We'll reopen it only if more problems with 0.2.8.1 emerge.

For future reference, 0.2.8.1 should probably have been 0.2.8.0.1 simply because it was based off 0.2.8.0's branch and the 0.2.8 branch already had stuff for 0.2.8.1... but oh well

Website · Post by **Z-Man** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 9:36 am

Yeah, I was briefly considering this, but our version numbers are long enough already. For our future, shortenend versions, that'll be the way.

Post by **dlh** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 7:44 pm

Mac OS X builds are on sf. They are now universal binaries. Those using an intel Mac should upgrade. I have not yet done the 10.2.8 build.