How To Improve Performance (All Video Cards) + (Driver links)

I mentioned this about the particle system (effects system) a while ago when i started the thread way back in october 2013...

I think in varrak's "Graphics updtae 1.1" thread he mentions something about re-writing the particle effect system to improve performance by rendering all the effect's to a single overlay quad instead of many quad's all being drawn in batches.

I'm hoping to poke him again later on if the new update this week still has similar drop's in rendering my end, if it does i will ask if it's still possible to cap/reduce the amount of particle effects being batched/rendered through a system setting.

I'm pretty sure that some kind of tune-able setting like this may make it's way into the game at some point, it all depends on how costly in time and effort it is to implement, many other things may still have higher priority in the development scheduled.

I will also update the OP in this thread with updated performance setting in game..

Shadows and headlights now have an "OFF" option, which my end greatly improves framerates in game when zoomed in close to units and buildings.

Also will add a WARNING that PIP almost cuts framerate in half at the moment as the game is drawing 2 instances of the game.

For me ..
playing @ 1280x768
Virtual texturing "Meduim"
Headlights "Off"
Shadows "Off"
HDR "ON"
Anti-Aliasing "Off"
Resolution scaling "-1 or -2"

Size 480 "Earth planet"
Water "32"
Temp "60"

Framerate at start game 45fps zoomed into commander 56fps zoomed out to celestial veiw, 28fps with PIP on.

Mid game with 150+ units 25fps zoomed into action 54 fps zoomed out at celestial, 19-22fps with PIP on.

End game , similar FPS to mid game with occasional FPS drop dependent on amount of fabbing and explosions on screen.

Hi just wondering, what can I do to fix major crashes in the game. I think it might have to do with graphics but the game worked flawlessly up until the gamma update just recently. Even the update before that where they first added teleport ers worked great.

Please attach a DxDiag.txt to a post here, it will help me fault find issues client side.
Many people have needed to update graphics drivers again to even newer ones made this year.
The game now requires the most upto date nVidia, ATI, and Intel drivers to function as the game has moved from using the mixed openGL 2.0 standards during the beta (for older osx compatibility) to the full openGL 3.0 only shaders...

There may also be other things too causing crashes but that is the most likely issue..
Outdated graphics driver is usually 99.99% of the cause for PA.exe crashes

Alright I think this is what you wanted although i'm not sure. Ive been able to play recently, but only on systems with 3 or less planets. Anything more causes my computer to freeze and the game to crash. My computer isnt the greatest when it comes to specs but I do know that it could run systems with 5-7 planets before the Gamma update.

Code:

Memory: 4096MB RAM

Not with that, I'm afraid. Your computer freezes because it runs out of memory and starts trashing the page file. I'm quite impressed you managed to get 5-7 planets before actually. Were those rather small planets maybe? That being said, some planet types do use more memory than other. I think currently the desert and the lava planets use more than other types. I'm not entirely sure about that last part though.
Anyway, the low amount of RAM is what's causing the trouble. You might want to look into upgrading that. 4 GiB is the absolute minimum requirement for PA. Bigger than default systems simply need more.

Thank you so much for this thread
I can now play comfortably, order moves as fast as I can and thus increase my game level
I literally trippled my framerate !
Thank you so much!

i have a lot of problem with preference due low bandwidth.
at the start the game's frame-rate is OK , then after i build a couple of building and units, the game start to slow down.
i also experience periodic freezes
Question: will future game optimizations make the game work better on low bandwidth?

I have scoured through the forum to look for a solution to my problem. In game my main planet that I start on will not render almost not at all, only the water looks like it does. I have downloaded and triple checked to make sure that my drivers are all up to date. Other than this graphical issue the game runs great for me though.

Here is my dxdiag hope it helps! I really would love to get this resolved so I can enjoy the game

Hi Jambiya - Your post would be better suited as its own post within Gamma Issues & Bugs - however, I can see that your graphics card driver is outdated. Please go to the manufacture's website to update: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx

Please try this driver
http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/73784/en-us

your dxdiag.txt says the driver you have installed is from 2012

Code:

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GT 520M
Driver Version: 8.17.12.6893
Driver Model: WDDM 1.1
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 2/27/2012 01:59:46, 12842600 bytes

PA doesn't show up in Nvidia GeForce Experience Control Panel. Anyone else have this?

I've been having problems updating my display drivers. I've uninstalled the ATI programs with CCleaner, then run Diver cleaner or something like it to make sure everything was gone. I restart and then run the install for the new driver and when my computer starts again it says that the drivers were not installed correctly and they don't work.

just one question - are there still problems with ATI cards or is it just me? - my PA still looks a little overbright .. already tested several drivers

cheers,
Moldez

So with the latest build update PA now displays at my native resolution which is 5960*1080. Not really the kind of resolution to play an rts like PA at. I originally figured out how to force it to play at 1920*1080, but have since forgotten how I did it. Is there really no other way to set the game resolution to 1920*1080 other than setting my desktop resolution in windows? I'd rather not have to switch from one to the other anytime i want to play PA.

Just got an nVidia driver update 337.88 today. Now I get this inverted line of site issue...


Everything in line of site is pitch black.! Arrrg! Now I gotta revert to the previous driver. :/

Update: Found out turning off Ambient Occlusion fixes the problem. Funny it wasn't a problem before the driver update.

I went to the site suggested for Intel Graphics, and mine doesn't seem to be listed. I can't find i3 with HD 3000, I only find HD 3000 on second generation intel processors.

This is correct. HD2000 and HD3000 it's 2nd generation of Intel HD graphics so it's drivers you need to install.
So if you have i3 CPU it's likely Sandy Bridge generation. E.g link to them:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=23764

PS: If you interested 1st generation of Intel graphics it's Nehalem CPUs and it's integrated graphics isn't compatible with PA because it's doesn't support OpenGL 3.

Oh, alright, I thought so. I actually just downloaded it anyway in the hopes it'd work, and the guess that if it were incompatible it'd give an error message as such. So it went through and I have finally updated drivers for the first time in like two years! Yay me!

Geforce experience isn't the control panel. In the control panel
Manage 3D settings(left column) > add(button) > PA.exe(in list)