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Poll

Which print_mode do you use?

2D
- 54 (21.4%)
STANDARD
- 110 (43.7%)
PARTIAL:0
- 18 (7.1%)
PARTIAL:N, N > 0
- 13 (5.2%)
ACCUM_BUFFER
- 4 (1.6%)
FRAME_BUFFER
- 8 (3.2%)
VBO
- 29 (11.5%)
TEXT
- 16 (6.3%)

Total Members Voted: 252


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Author Topic: PRINT_MODE poll  (Read 41466 times)

Baughn

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PRINT_MODE poll
« on: August 11, 2010, 06:09:16 pm »

While I'm reinventing SHADER-mode, I'm looking to remove some of the others to reduce the incredible profusion of print-modes we've got right now. This is mainly to simplify things for users; it's no big deal from my point of view.

Unfortunately, I have no idea which ones would be safe to remove, if any.

So.. tell me what you use. If it turns out one or more modes are unused - great! I can then remove them from the init.txt documentation.
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JoRo

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Re: PRINT_MODE poll
« Reply #1 on: August 11, 2010, 07:18:08 pm »

I use VBO though I don't really know what it does; I was trying all the modes to try and get some more speed on an aging fort and it seemed to run slightly faster than standard and didn't flicker.  I'm not particularly attached to it though, so if it got removed I'd probably do fine with a different one.
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mnjiman

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Re: PRINT_MODE poll
« Reply #2 on: August 11, 2010, 08:54:21 pm »

I simply dont know what to use, so I stick to standard.

I tried using some of the others, but they made my game worse then better.
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cameron

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Re: PRINT_MODE poll
« Reply #3 on: August 11, 2010, 09:02:18 pm »

im pretty much exactly in the same boat as JoRo

what would help though would be a short description of what we ought to expect/ what they do cause right now i just go with what seems faster and doesn't flicker
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Untelligent

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Re: PRINT_MODE poll
« Reply #4 on: August 11, 2010, 09:54:20 pm »

I don't know what to use, so I stick to PARTIAL:0 as I was under the assumption that was the fastest if it didn't cause flickering problems.
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Totaku

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Re: PRINT_MODE poll
« Reply #5 on: August 11, 2010, 11:05:33 pm »

I use Partial:0 I know others that use Standard. Overall those seem to give the best in terms of framerate to my view.
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Re: PRINT_MODE poll
« Reply #6 on: August 12, 2010, 02:14:38 am »

Now now, don't remove functionality.
Admittedly out of date, but
Partial:2, Standard when I need to do a mockup (for some reason advanced modes cause blur)
But...ACCUM_BUFFER.

And Text is nifty, I want to experience it once I run into a working version.
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Knight Otu

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Re: PRINT_MODE poll
« Reply #7 on: August 12, 2010, 03:53:49 am »

I'm using the 2d modes (usually leaving it on the standard 2D). I might use partial > 0 if it weren't for the persistent after-images. The rest are either too slow or crash since my laptop isn't exactly the newest.
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Africa

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Re: PRINT_MODE poll
« Reply #8 on: August 12, 2010, 04:24:06 am »

I think 2DASYNC. IIRC everything else makes the game crash
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Baughn

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Re: PRINT_MODE poll
« Reply #9 on: August 12, 2010, 05:01:14 am »

That's.. bizarre. 2D and 2DASYNC are essentially the exact same mode.

Oh well.
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ILikePie

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Re: PRINT_MODE poll
« Reply #10 on: August 12, 2010, 06:54:04 am »

Text, text, and only text. It's a bit buggy, but I love text mode.
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Africa

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Re: PRINT_MODE poll
« Reply #11 on: August 12, 2010, 06:54:47 am »

Maybe 2d does also work. I just remember MOST of the others made it crash. Everything without "2D" in it certainly did.
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rmunn

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Re: PRINT_MODE poll
« Reply #12 on: August 12, 2010, 09:50:12 am »

@Baughn - While we're on the subject, could you explain briefly the difference between the different modes? Since I don't have access to to DF source (for obvious reasons), I've never been able to look at it to find out. But if my memory is correct, you wrote quite a bit of the current display code, so you'd actually know what these various options do.

P.S. I'm a programmer, so you won't lose me if you use detailed technical jargon. But in case other non-programmers want to know what these do as well, we should probably avoid using too much. :)
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Re: PRINT_MODE poll
« Reply #13 on: August 12, 2010, 09:54:21 am »

Yeah I have no idea what any of the modes really do. I end up using whatever the default is for Mayday's pack.

I know you must have put a lot of effort into each mode and it sucks to hear that, but the mode documentation is pretty minimal. I tried each mode way back when and they all seemed about the same.
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Baughn

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Re: PRINT_MODE poll
« Reply #14 on: August 12, 2010, 10:14:25 am »

Hm, right.

Basic problem: Writing tiles to the screen is slow. However, since few tiles usually change between frames, we don't actually have to write all of them. However, due to double (and more)-buffering, that can cause flickering. So we have a couple ways to deal with this.

2D: Use 2D graphics (SDL) for everything. This works everywhere; SDL deals with any double-buffering that needs to be dealt with. Kinda slow, though. Otherwise works basically like partial:0.

STANDARD: Actually, rendering the entire screen every frame isn't that slow, if you do it via OpenGL and have reasonable code. That's what this mode does.

PARTIAL: On some setups, just rendering the tiles that changed worked. Partial does just that; PARTIAL:2 renders each changed tile three times, in consecutive frames, to cover triple-buffering. Unfortunately many newer GPUs discard and overwrite the frame-buffer between frames, and then this doesn't work.

ACCUM_BUFFER: Uses the ancient glAccum call to save and restore the contents of the window between frames, working around the driver's discarding its contents. Usually the slowest mode of all, but some people have had good results. Presumably the others are even slower for them.

FRAME_BUFFER: Basically the same thing, but using newer GL frame-buffer extensions to render to a texture instead, and blitting that texture to screen once a frame. It saves at least one copy vs. accum-buffer.

Both frame-buffer and accum-buffer use partial:0 under the covers, they just wrap that method appropriately in order to avoid flickering.

VBO: A variant of STANDARD that uses vertex buffer objects to explicitly tell the GPU what data doesn't change between frames, namely the location of the various tiles. This marginally improves performance vs. standard, if it works, which it should.

SHADER: Dumps the entire DF graphics array to GPU memory, and programs the GPU to interpret it on its own. Dramatically improves performance, but basically only works on geforce 8000-series and above, or the equivalent ATI. I think there's some 7000-series card (7950?) that also supports such shaders, though. Doesn't work yet.
« Last Edit: August 12, 2010, 10:16:50 am by Baughn »
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