Defcon 1.4 retail patch - first thoughts

[Chris]

I did some experiments today and was able to reproduce the effect I think everyone is experiencing. The movement of the screen and all units was very choppy - it didn't feel smooth at all. This happened in a 1v1 game, me versus cpu, during Defcon 1. Specifically I think it happened when the enemy cpu player was doing its nuke targetting thing. I can also confirm the problem only appeared when playing at 1x speed. I don't think the cpu or graphics card is related - its going to happen anyway, although the effect would get worse the slower cpu you had. But I have a beast of a cpu and I still saw the laggy effect.

Could everyone who is experiencing this problem please try and help us narrow it down - does it ever happen in games with human players only? Does it happen at any time, or only defcon 1? Does it happen just before the cpu goes into full attack?

[KudrigY]

Does it ever happen in games with human players only?

Yes. In 2 up to 6 ppl games... Spectators allowed or not. No matter whether someone is a host or not. I dont know whether that happens only if cross platforms are in same game. I will ask about ppl platforms now...

Does it happen at any time, or only defcon 1?

At any time, I experienced that at def4 up to def1. Not at def5, maybe couse I play with ppl waiting to have radar for placing units... It lasts for like 2 min (more or less), and ends just to appear at random. 95% of the time at realtime. I had it only once at higher speed. Sometimes switching it to some higher speed works and after just few seconds it is OK.

Does it happen just before the cpu goes into full attack?

No, much faster. See above.


HINT - If you want to notice that effect in normal gameplay, play some 6 ppl games, it appeared in like half of games I played...

[Montyphy]

I can also confirm the problem only appeared when playing at 1x speed.

Dropping to 1x speed and/or zooming all the way in during the busy part of games have sometimes caused a drop in performance for me, even since v1.0.

[Gen. Ripper]

Computer -

AMD Athlon 1.25 Ghz
1.0 GB of Ram
NVidia GeForce FX 5200

yeah, its slow, but the point is its slower in 1.4 :0


Also, having radar option turned on tends to slow me down a tad, worse with Allies, but that was before 1.4 as well, also for some reason seems to affect my ping/lag/square thingy (why dont we just have numbers, not a square?) although recovers when i un-select it

[shinygerbil]

(why dont we just have numbers, not a square?)

I believe if you go to Tools -> Network Data or something like that you can get a nice number to look at too.

[CptDarknuggets]

is 1.4 backward compatable?

[Montyphy]

is 1.4 backward compatable?

No, as mentioned where ever the patch is posted.

[CptDarknuggets]

Well I never saw it Mr WiseMan

[Mighty Santa]

Summary...

Win XP, sp2.
1 gig ram
2.6 ghz celeron
512mb video 6200 nvidia card

*Game 1.3 version works FLAWLESS.

version: 1.4 UNPLAYABLE

I'd love to hear what some of the beta testers said, how could they let this get past the 'it doesn't work !' scrutiny ?

[ynbniar]

Hosted 6 player default...first time hosting with 1.4, never had any probs with 1.3.

Seemed to go OK except during the victory timer the screen would freeze for a split second every 4 or 5 seconds.

This resulted in mouse clicks on unit orders getting missed etc.

Already posted specs on page 1 of this thread but here they are again:

P4 3.2GHz
2 gig ram
7800GTX 256MB
Windows XP Home
8MB broadband with BT (though it rarely goes faster than half this 'cuase I live in the sticks).
AVG free edition always running

[Sirthomasthegreat]

possible solution?

Havent tried it yet though.

[Church]

possible solution?

Havent tried it yet though.

I just tried that on my main set (uninstall Defcon/reinstall back to 1.0/patch directly to 1.4) and it seemed to work. I just tried a 1v1 test game against the CPU, which was giving me problems earlier, and 1.4 is running a LOT better for me (at least in that situation; haven't tried anything else that's been causing folks problems yet).

I can't say for sure if it'll work for everyone, but helped in my case.

Take Care

-Church

[bert_the_turtle]

I'd love to hear what some of the beta testers said, how could they let this get past the 'it doesn't work !' scrutiny ?

I mostly tested the Linux version, where the way you install it matches the one N.I.T gives: you start with a fresh 1.0 archive and install the 1.4 Linux binaries on top of it. There is no 1.3 for Linux, so if indeed the 1.0->1.3->1.4 upgrade path is what causes the problems, it would be natural that all Linux testers simply had no chance to see them. Oh, and there weren't really any 6 player spontaneous matches during the testing stage, at least I never saw one.

[Chris]

I believe there is a serious performance bug somewhere in the Fleet update code. Specifically fleets with orders to persue another fleet. You can test this yourself by starting a game against a cpu (or another player), and moving your fleets to within combat range. Everything should work fine and smooth, until you select one of your fleets and click on an enemy fleet. This tells your fleet to persue them, and causes major slowdown, especially at 1x speed. You can make the effect worse by selecting lots of fleets and giving them all persue orders. You can also reduce the problem by selecting your fleets and giving them movement orders away from the battle, since this cancels their persue orders.

We're very sorry for introducing this performance bug, and we're working on a fix as we speak. If other people could test and verify this theory, it would really help us.

[Jcbturbo]

Operating System: (Windows XP Home Edition, Service Pack 2
CPU Info: (1 CPU - AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3000+
Video Card: (nVidia GeForce 7600 GT)
Sound card: (Realtek AC97 Audio)
Ram 2gb DDR400

lots of lagg,
I loaded a game with just cpu's and found it was still laggy,
had no trouble b4 1.4