[Fixed]Fed up with this: [extreme!] Bad performance

I can give you six (I wasn't sure whether the program would react properly).

I'm uploading two (private) videos to youtube, its going to take a while before they're there (probably tomorrow, it's quite late here) and you can link the time of the uberprobes to the time in the video. I took the second because it was going surprisingly smooth, i turned off record then hell broke loose again.

I'll try the steam overlay thing soon. EDIT: Checked and i've already disabled it.

Performance logs now attached, took some figuring out how to get the uploader to accept it.

the Youtube upload is going slow as hell so i'll release it later this evening or tomorrow.

You know the funny thing, my PTE currently runs more smoothly than the live build.
About every other match on the live build (even with just 1 AI and 5 planets) ends up 'crashing' (read: freezes midway through the match).

While I can just have massive slugfests over 10 planets with 9 AI on the PTE build, and even with massive amounts of units/space stations, buildings, etc cluttering up the planets, it still runs smooth as a baby's buttocks.

Thanks. Will have them examined on Monday.

Weird...

6 gigs doesnt limp along that bad, it just dont like many planets

Thank you, i appreciate this a LOT. Hopefully it gives insight into more of these weird cases and help other people with this. Even if the answer's a simple "your computer is crap".

I think 2 or 3 planets is about right for any PC system. In the lobby I see games with ranks of planets I am not surprised they have performance problems (that was not directed at OP btw, I hope Uber can help you). The games must last forever or crash for being so big. Lots of planets might be more fun if they ever have 40 person games.
Perhaps an in-game system guide might be useful to let people know what sort of games their computer can support.

True. A better playability feedback may be good for the game. That is, size versus amount of players, and required performance for a kind of system.

I can tell you my machine is fairly beef and everything happens pretty instantly in this game. I'm not having the issues you are describing at all. The only lag I get is when there is sim lag from the server choking on a TON of units (usually dox).

I'm 99% sure your issue is ram. I have just updated to 8gb from 4 and the game is so much better rest of my specs are pretty weak (2.6 ghz tri core, oldish mid range gpu- gtx 560 1gb). I can play smoothly now with about 6 planets, all settings high except virtual texturing which I've set to minimum due to 1gb frame buffer on graphics card. Basically 4gb ram is enough to load the game and play on a single planet r600 ish. Maybe a couple of planets if you keep them under r400. Sxx has a tweak that reduces ram usage of the ui (at the expense of performance) that may help. Also try disabling as many background tasks as possible to free up ram. I found when on 4gb, closing web browser, drop box and stream client helped quite a bit- every mb helps!

You could also try a linux distro as they will use less memory than Windows, although upgrading to 8gb or more memory is your best option.

I really think uber should put a mechanism in place that looks at a map and states how much ram is needed before loading as joining something too big is miserable as your pc ends up locked whilst it disk caches the map.

any progress on this?

Some things you might want to try:

1: Get the latest beta drivers from AMD (the current stable driver is causing problems, the newer Beta driver appears to be better).

2: Use the Uber launcher, before launching the game go into the settings (accessible by clicking on your name top right) and add in the command "--nomods" under the version you intend to play and try the game.

3: Finally you may also want to try launching the game directly *bypassing the launcher altogether*. To do this browse to the game folder and run "pa.exe" - you'll need to log in once the game opens due to not using launcher. The launcher was killing the performance for another guy on the forum so this could be it.

Edit: One additional options if *none* of the above works... try the game under linux. A bit extreme I guess but on the other hand Linux is free, so all it will cost you is some time and a chunk of HDD space.... The linux version uses different drivers for AMD and since the release build is much more stable than it was.

The main stop-gap solution I have for you is to use the sandbox biome. It's the least taxing biome in the game, having no brushes and a simple grid pattern texture. It loads insanely fast compared to the rest of the biomes out there. Not ideal (it's not exactly pretty ), but at least you'll probably be able to play.

To use it, install PAMM (see my sig), and install this mod: http://www.pa-mods.com/mod-entry.php?mod=com.wondible.pa.hidden_biomes
Then you create a sandbox biome system in the system editor, and host your own game.

Inb4 PA is using integrated GPU in the laptop instead of turning on the real GPU.

EDIT: GREAT ODIN'S RAVEN! How old is this thread? Why take so long for sensible reply?

Good point, @Devak any chance you could post a dxdiag so we can take a look at your system config / specs? (I can't believe no one has requested that yet!)...

Old but still relevant. This poor guy still can't play and it seems @Varrak or @forrestthewoods never got back to him? I guess they are stumped as well.

Pretty sure a dxdiag won't say which of the two GPUs is being used while PA is running?

True, actually that is a thought... I have a laptop with a 'dual gpu' setup and you can force the GPU you want to use by right clicking on the '.exe' and then choosing 'run with graphics processor > High Performance' (this is Nvidia but I guess AMD provide something similar on laptops?)... @Devak might be worth a try...

You can see it in the Coherent Logs though. (which are located in "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Uber Entertainment\Planetary Annihilation\mods". On a typical install %LOCALAPPDATA% will be C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local)

@Devak any luck with any of the above?